June 24th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy Negima! Manga Omnibus Volume 01 Review (Double-Dip Purchase Recommended!)
魔法先生 ネギま！Omnibus Volume 01
Before I start my actual review of the book in question, allow me a moment to give you guys a back history and why purchasing this omnibus release of the first three volumes of Negima! is WELL worth a double-dip purchase if you bought the original manga from Del Rey.
When Del Rey first entered the manga market and announced they’d licensed Negima!, I admit that I had no confidence they would make a release that as “AstroNerdBoy approved.” After all, what did Del Rey know about manga? My fears seemed confirmed when Del Rey stated that they would probably be editing the art because of Akamatsu-sensei’s love of ecchi, Barbie Doll-style nudity. I was outraged and vowed not to buy this. I wasn’t alone. The part of the Internet dedicated to manga fans, especially fans of Akamatsu-sensei and Love Hina, echoed my sentiments. Maybe Del Rey was trying to be a teenager-friendly company and improve sales? (I’ll blog on this “teenager” thing later.)
Fortunately, Del Rey listened to the outcry of the adult fans with actual disposable incomes and backed down from the notion of self-censoring their Negima! releases, opting instead to release the manga in shrink-wrap like pornography would be. I decided that would be a small price to pay for unedited artwork. However, would Del Rey’s translations be ANB-approved? When I bought volume 1, I admit that my answer then was “yes.” That’s because Del Rey came right out in the first pages of the manga, stating their policy was to retain all of the main Japanese honorifics. Indeed, the adaptation used honorifics and I was happy, assuming that the translations were accurate and keeping it real.
Still, I couldn’t help but notice a few very vocal people on the Internet screaming about how Peter David was rewriting things. They were citing a few passages in volume 1 that were not apparently there in the Japanese text. The number of transgressions didn’t seem to be so great and so I let it slide, especially since at that time, I’d not purchased the Japanese tankoubon nor had I seen a scanlation of volume 1.
In April 2007, I decided to look into the extent of the rewrites. By that time, it was clear to me that things stated in the first volumes of Negima! were being contradicted by later volumes. So, I consulted the original Japanese texts from the tankoubons as well as a scanlation that I trusted. The results were quite shocking and lead to my writing this piece about Peter David’s adaptation. From that point forward, I refused to read volume 1 and 2 of Negima! from Del Rey and only reluctantly read volume 3 through 5. Volume 6 saw MASSIVE improvements in the adaptation (with some stupidity like the use of “WTF!”) with Peter David’s departure and from then on, the adaptations were OK with me until volume 20, but that’s another story. It was my dream that one day, Del Rey would retranslate those early volumes.
It wasn’t until Kodansha Comics booted Del Rey off the stage and took most of their manga licenses, Negima! included, that my wish came true — the first three volumes were to be given to the Nibley Twins to fix and they graciously retranslated all three volumes from scratch even though that’s not the job they were paid for. So, how’d they do? Well, you can compare a sample page yourself with an accurate, scanlated version, Del Rey’s version, and Kodansha Comic’s version from the Twins.
The scanlated (fan translated) version of chapter 1.
Del Rey’s official version.
Kodansha Comic’s official version.
You’ll notice from the Kodansha Comic’s page, it is very close to the scanlation page, which as I had noted in my 2007 article, was a pretty accurate translation. The differences between the two simply amount to style choices.
So, what’s the big picture here?
To put it simply, English speaking fans will FINALLY have an ACCURATE translation of the first three volumes of the manga. Trust me, if your only source of reading Negima! in English has been those Del Rey releases, you are going to be in for quite a surprise, more so when it comes to volume 3. The reason volume 3 gets the highlight over the first two volumes is that Akamatsu-sensei was simply laying the groundwork in the first two volumes by introducing characters and foreshadowing things such as Asuna’s not being an ordinary girl and the area under Mahora being unusual, apparently holding some magic power as well as protecting it (Al mostly). However, the removal of all the rewrites and added jokes are a welcome relief in the first two volumes, as are the putdowns on Negi’s abilities.
Volume 3 introduced us to Evangeline and gave us more information about the Thousand Master and his relationship to Eva. Granted, it wasn’t a great deal of information, but the original Del Rey release basically played down Eva’s power, made Negi jump from conclusion to conclusion about Eva, and played down Nagi’s awesome powers despite his title as “Thousand Master.” The original Del Rey release also pretty much removed everything regarding Eva’s feelings for Nagi. Indeed, when Nagi is shown to cast his curse on Eva in her memory-dream, the Del Rey release had Eva saying she was in hell. In the Kodansha Comic’s version, she says what she says in the Japanese version — she loves Nagi.
After years and years of re-reading these old and horribly inaccurate Del Rey volumes, I feel polluted. With the Nibley Twins retranslation, reading the first three volumes again has become quite a pleasure. I feel the corruption lifting as the rewrite crap is being purged from me. Indeed, the corrected Eva material shown in volume 3 match perfectly with stuff just revealed in current chapters of the manga regarding Eva’s being turned into a vampire. Now, before you say that the Twins read this stuff and that influenced their translation, remember that this omnibus volume was translated WELL before that revelation on Eva’s becoming a vampire was revealed. (Plus, they don’t keep current with the chapter releases in Japan and only read the story as they receive tankoubons.) As such, Negi’s comments on Eva being a shinso (pure blood vampire as the Twins translate it) in volume 3 are revealed to be foreshadowing. The Twins translator notes regarding shinso vampires adds to that understanding. Amazing.
Now you know how the story was, how was the rest? Well, I only have a couple of small complaints. First, Kodansha Comics did not include the cover materials from the original Japanese tankoubons. For those not aware, Japanese Negima! manga releases have a color dust cover and underneath, the front cover has Akamatsu-sensei’s ink sketch art of the cover artwork as well as some notes. The back cover contains an ink image of the character featured on the back dustcover side and some brief thoughts by Akamatsu-sensei about said character. Now, to be fair, Del Rey did not include this material until volume 6, when they made it an extra. So, I’ll wait for Kodansha Comic’s release of the 2nd omnibus to see if those extras are included there.
This leads me to my second, minor complaint. The back cover of the omnibus release does show cropped images of the cover art from the first three volumes. What I would have preferred was for Kodansha Comics to have included all three color cover art pages to either mark the start of their specific volume within the omnibus or as an extra. Having the color artwork without text interfering would have so rocked. How about it, Kodansha Comics?
It would have been nice for Kodansha Comics to have followed Dark Horse and reprinted the color manga pages too. I know that even the tankoubon release of volume 1 has the first four pages in color.
For those wondering, all of the various volume extras from the original Del Rey release are included at the end of this volume and as I mentioned, the Twins has their translator notes.
One more thing — the cover artwork used for this volume I believe was originally used in a NegiPa volume and was created to celebrate the 100th Negima! chapter being published (as I recall it…kinda in a rush so don’t have time to verify).
I cannot thank Alethea and Athena Nibley enough for their hard work on this first omnibus release from Kodansha Comics. If you are a fan of Negima! and had previously purchased the first three volumes from Del Rey, spending the money on this omnibus version is well worth it. Not only do you get the accurate translation, but it is kinda nice seeing the characters in their days of innocence before the dark times on the Magic World.
If you’ve never bought Negima! but have heard about it, now’s your time to get in on the ground floor and see what the rest of us fans rave about. ^_^
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Just discovered the middle Del Rey image lost its linker. ^_^;;; Fixed now.
You convinced me to buy the omnibus. Argh…and I just bought volumes 1 thru 22 from a thrift store.
Appreciate the review.
W-w-w-woooooooooT! So buying.
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Sounds good, but how do you know the translation is completely accurate now? If you’re comparing with scanlations, they often take liberties and make mistakes too.
Also the first two pages should have s1600 instead of s1600-h in the url. Without knowing the Blogger naming scheme I’d have been left with empty pages.
Saw this @ Border’s and I was definitely going to get it, but decided to wait until I’m collecting Negima again (basically after I get through the pile of manga that’s next to my bed, no sense in buying new manga when I have a backlog of 20+ volumes of other series).
For all that I was really suspicious of where Kodansha’s priorities would lie (i.e. Japan first, everyone else can suck wind), it sounds like they’re doing a stellar job so far. I’m overdue for my semiannual major manganime purchase from RightStuf, so this weekend seems like a good time to score #1 and pre-order 2 and 3.
(I’m a big believer in “If it’s worth sending a message, then it’s worth adding exclamation points.” ^_~)
Sounds good, but how do you know the translation is completely accurate now?
For the page in question, I have the Japanese tankoubon and what’s said there matches. As I said, the differences between the scanlation and the revised, official translation for this page can be pointed to style over substance.
Also the first two pages should have s1600 instead of s1600-h in the url. Without knowing the Blogger naming scheme I’d have been left with empty pages.
None of us have had any problems with the images loading. Those were copied from an old post I did so as to save space on the image server. Are you saying that they wouldn’t load for you?
To everyone else, I’ll write more later. I’m supposed to already be out the door. ^_^;;;
For the page in question, I have the Japanese tankoubon and what’s said there matches. As I said, the differences between the scanlation and the revised, official translation for this page can be pointed to style over substance.
If you know Japanese and can compare with that then that’s really cool and of course there’s no question then. You put a lot of emphasis on getting the bad translation out of your head so I got the impression you were reading in English not Japanese. In any case I wasn’t just talking about the one page but the whole book that you gave thumbs up to. I have no reason to suspect it isn’t accurately translated, I just wanted to know how you determined that.
None of us have had any problems with the images loading. Those were copied from an old post I did so as to save space on the image server. Are you saying that they wouldn’t load for you?
I thought that was obvious from what I said. Yes the larger MSN and Del Rey images don’t load for me without dropping the -h from the url. The smaller images and the third large image load fine. It’s not a cache issue on my side, I already checked that. Since I already saw the images it doesn’t matter to me if you do anything about this, I just wanted to let you know.
Thanks for the review on Kodansha Comic Negima Omnibus Ed. Vol. 1
By the way, I noticed that the scanlation had differences with the Nibley twins translation. Although minor, the text in the Nibley Twins Translation on one of the passages read “Excuse me for being all brawn” instead of the scanlated edition “excuse me for being fit”
since I have seen fast and slow runners, “all brawn/muscle” has no correlation with being fast, but being fit DOES.
But as it may be, the translation was MUCH better than that of the horrid misinterpreting from that defunct manga company “Del Rey”
Just pitching in my two cents…
@yakitatefreak: Literally yeah, but in a figurative sense brawn can and does get used to refer to general fitness.
erm question on amazon i noticed that theres now reference to a ‘love hina omnibus 1’ does that mean what i think it does?
I got it first week. Great to finally get a good translation. The Twins did a great job. You really miss out on the foreshadowing when a plot-heavy title like this gets rewritten like Negima was in those early volumes from Del Rey.
The only complaint I have about Kodansha USA’s handling of Negima is that they need to improve on their proofreading. I’ve noticed several typos in both vol. 29 and the omnibus (e.g., “your-you’re” confusion on ch. 4, pg. 15, 2nd panel). They weren’t common, but they’re there, and typos bug me.
You convinced me to buy the omnibus. Argh…and I just bought volumes 1 thru 22 from a thrift store.
Worth it. ^_^
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What did I miss? ^_^; I may have to consult the archives. ^_~
Saw this @ Border’s and I was definitely going to get it, but decided to wait until I’m collecting Negima again (basically after I get through the pile of manga that’s next to my bed, no sense in buying new manga when I have a backlog of 20+ volumes of other series).
Well, you may have one or two more books to buy by then. ^_~ (Volume 30 and Omnibus 02).
If you know Japanese and can compare with that then that’s really cool and of course there’s no question then. You put a lot of emphasis on getting the bad translation out of your head so I got the impression you were reading in English not Japanese.
My Japanese is only at the advanced beginner level, so I can read Negima! in Japanese, but need to consult a dictionary to completely understand it. As such, I just stay with the English versions for light reading. ^_^
That said, back when I wrote my original article, I did consult with one of my Japanese teachers on that specific page and they said the scanlated version was pretty accurate and had no idea where the official version came up with some of the stuff. I spot checked a few other pages at random and received the same assurance.
So, while you are correct that scanlators can be horrible, in this case, that was not the case.
I thought that was obvious from what I said. Yes the larger MSN and Del Rey images don’t load for me without dropping the -h from the url. The smaller images and the third large image load fine. It’s not a cache issue on my side, I already checked that. Since I already saw the images it doesn’t matter to me if you do anything about this, I just wanted to let you know.
I did change the image URL’s, but none of us could recreate the problem. No matter what PC or browser we all used, the images showed up in the article properly and when clicked, a full-sized image appeared. Those two images came from my 2007 post and those work too. Out of curiosity, what browser were you using?
since I have seen fast and slow runners, “all brawn/muscle” has no correlation with being fast, but being fit DOES.
I haven’t asked why they used “brawn” and I haven’t checked on the use of the terminology. However, I trust the Twins made what they felt was the right call.
@yakitatefreak: Literally yeah, but in a figurative sense brawn can and does get used to refer to general fitness.
Well, and considering how strong Asuna is, brawn would be a good choice. ^_^
erm question on amazon i noticed that theres now reference to a ‘love hina omnibus 1’ does that mean what i think it does?
Yes it does. However, I don’t know who’s doing it. If it were the Twins, I’d say, “cool.” However, Kodansha Comics appears keen on following the honorifics policy of Del Rey and so maybe we’ll get lucky and the Love Hina omnibus editions will be quite good as well.
The only complaint I have about Kodansha USA’s handling of Negima is that they need to improve on their proofreading. I’ve noticed several typos in both vol. 29 and the omnibus (e.g., “your-you’re” confusion on ch. 4, pg. 15, 2nd panel). They weren’t common, but they’re there, and typos bug me.
I didn’t notice it but that is not a good thing as you say. ^_^;;;
I think on the Brawn/fit issue it comes down to hinting/admitting that Asuna is a character with all Brawns, no brains
I’ve seen a few different references to Asuna being “stupidly strong”, the most memorable of which were 1) Kotaro telling Negi that’s what Asuna has and he doesn’t and 2) Shusseki Bangou no Uta (Seat Number Song), in which each of the girls gives a short description of themselves.
Part of Asuna’s verse is to ask “baka chikara sore de ii ja nai?”, which I’ve seen translated as “There’s nothing wrong with being stupidly strong, is there?” Given the fact that Shusseki Bangou no Uta often relies on some the very first impressions you get of the girls*, I half-wonder if that line was actually a quote of the wording she used on this page.
* F’rexample, Konoka’s verse includes “oji-chan omiai wa iya ya wa”, telling her grandfather she doesn’t want an omiai – a reference to chapter 15.
“I’ve noticed several typos in both vol. 29 and the omnibus (e.g., “your-you’re” confusion on ch. 4, pg. 15, 2nd panel). They weren’t common, but they’re there, and typos bug me.”
They’re pretty much minor annoyances.
When reading through the omnibus, I found one bigger error that bugged me a little bit more. On page 311’s third panel, we see Asuna and Konoka reacting to notes about the Narutaki twins on Negi’s class seating-chart, but the comments that they’re reading aren’t actually there in the page’s first two panels (turn to the full chart at back of the book to see them).
That was the only bit of the new translation/format that bothered me. Aside from that, I’m very happy with the new omnibus. I read the omnibus side-by-side with the first Del Rey book, and the omnibus read soooooo much better (only comparing the two books, since I don’t know Japanese or have any of the scanlations).
I think on the Brawn/fit issue it comes down to hinting/admitting that Asuna is a character with all Brawns, no brains
I wouldn’t be surprised if this were it.
I’ve seen a few different references to Asuna being “stupidly strong”…
Yeah, so have I and you cited some good ones.
I read the omnibus side-by-side with the first Del Rey book, and the omnibus read soooooo much better (only comparing the two books, since I don’t know Japanese or have any of the scanlations).
That’ll continue with the next omnibus.
fyi guys, there’s nothing stupid about bakajikara just as there’s nothing mentally wrong with someone who’s crazy strong, which is what it basically means. the people translating it as stupidly strong aren’t too bright themselves. phrases with baka have a variety of meanings and a lot of them are just emphatic and have little or nothing to do with stupidity.
oh well, i guess i was too late and everyone had already moved on from this post…
Well, I didn’t have anything else to add to what you said so I didn’t post anything else. Can’t speak for others, but if they didn’t have e-mail alerts or follow the comment feed, they may not know there were additional replies.
don’t worry about it astronerd, i was just a little disappoint when it seemed you guys didn’t get to see the explanation.
[…] Peter David rewrites, it was “oneechan” whom Negi called out for while clutching Asuna (fixed in the omnibus version). Its always been “oneechan” as far as I can […]
I don’t know Japanese, but I’ve always been suspicious of “stupid” as a transliteration of “baka”. For us Americanskis stupid strictly means IQ handicapped. None of the Baka Rangers in “Negima!” Is. Yue is obviously not. Kaede is a ninja and can’t be bothered with such non-mystical stuff like school work, and Ku is just learning the language. Makie only thinks about her gymnastics. That leaves Asuna. Now, (I forget in which period) Setsuna displays for the reader a chart titled “Great Secrets of Asuna Kagarasaka” which includes “able to learn and retain information quickly”. That’s anomolous with her bad grades, which she improves dramatically when she thinks Negi will be banished if the Baka Rangers don’t raise their grades for a final exam. Also, she had been highly motivated to stay after school for Takamichi’s help with her school work. Finally, her fast, powerful interdictions to save Negi always solve a tough dilemma without making it worse. Etc.
In Japan, I can see 14-year-old school kids pointing the finger of scorn at someone with bad grades and whispering, “baka” derisively. It might include our “stupid,” but I think it’s much broader. Probably, it includes “ignorant and wrong”. Maybe also “shameful”.
And “stupid strong” should probably be “too ignorant to be afraid, but strong”. I prefer “brave and powerful”. Definitely our Asuna.
Baka’s translation various depending on the translator and situation, but I understand your point. But, at least when it came to “Baka Rangers”, the term remained untranslated.
So where’d the “stupid strong” come from?
Is this from the actual volume 1 of the manga, or one of the first three volumes? Actually, what chapter did “stupid strong” come up? That way, I can go dig up my tankoubon and see what the original Japanese said.
Damnit. I can’t find it in “Negima Neo,” where I know I saw it. I just looked very fast, and there’s more than one panel in which the girls directly imply Asuna is stupid. As we know, NN scrambles the story but retains the themes. It’s translated by the Nibley twins, and it’s not too bad, although Asuna is portrayed definitely as our “stupid,” unlike in “Negima!” I don’t think Asuna as our “stupid” appears in the original manga Omnibuses. That disconnect lead to my suspicions about “baka.”. I know this is a shaky argument, but I don’t think it’s bogus, just unsupported. However, I’ll stand by it.
I haven’t read NN so I can’t say anything about that. ^_^;
Oops. In Negima! Asuna is definitely said to be stupid by Kotaro when he tells Negi he should be more stupid like Asuna as he and Negi are training together. The surrounding story suggests that K. Means “don’t overthink things, just act,” or “be fearless.”. Probably. Anyway, Asuna is not stupid elsewhere in Negima! An example in is the crew escaping the basement of Library Island the first time. Asuna is the one who thinks to throw away the magic book, thereby unlocking the overload setting on the elevator and rescuing everybody.
Asuna may not have been good in academics, but she was good in other areas for sure. ^_^
Thanks again for your patience. :o)
No problem. ^_^
I’ve always thought Asuna was bad at school work only because that would force her to stay after school for extra help from Takamichi, her passionate crush.
She was still bad at her grades with Negi, and that after she apparently tried to do better, she got worse.
Yes, I remember that incident when Negi had holographed Akane to that effect, and I was disappointed with the author then. He was continuing to tag Asuna as a bad student. Even when she tried to study, she really didn’t know how because she had spent the prior years neglecting it in order to be with Takamichi after school, and had been so flustered to be with him she never could do anything with his one-on-one help. Even when it was subsequently with Negi. Never mind the memory-erasure spell Takamichi had had to set on her, that slightly reduces smarts. Negi didn’t know all that, so he asked her questions in class that Takamichi probably wouldn’t have. [This never stated explicitly, but I assume. Dangerous, but I’m going to exercise my audience participation perogative in manga here, and in this case I don’t any inconsistencies.]
However, in the 11th period after that final exam, for which the Baka Rangers went to Library Island to get the magic book, she gets a 71. Her usual is <40. Yue earns a 63, Makie 66, Ku 67 and Kaede 63. Among the Baka Rangers Asuna goes from worst to first to save Negi. And their class rank does too because of it by a verry slim margin. Just before the exam, Negi had used a flower spell to dissapate the girls' fatigue, but that was not an IQ boost.
It took a long time for me to give up the foolish expectation that manga authers should be 100% consistent with their characters for n chapters.
I think Asuna being “dumb” was part of the “empty child” thing Akamatsu-sensei was creating her to be (which is why she could do that technique that a young Takahata couldn’t do). He just never explained it all, and he may not have had a full explanation.
My take on that is roughly the same. She was sad and quiet and empty because of her treatment by those priests when she was being used as a very powerful magic-canceling weapon. Also, since she’s a magical princess, her kankaho, that young Takamichi couldn’t do as they were sitting on the dock of the bay in Istanbul, was hereditary. And there could have been all kinds of reasons for her emptiness. I can think of several, including those dastardly priests swiping her memories in an attempt to eliminate her conscience so she would cancel any magic they wanted with no hesitation. That’s another fruitless conjecture since the story jumps immediately to Mahora Academy when she first meets Negi, without any fill-ins by sensei. I don’t object to such skips. For one thing, it gives me carte blanche for these assumptions.
From Period 1, when Negi tries, unsuccessfully, to cancel Asuna’s memory of seeing him making Nodaka float and catching her, he says, “This may dumb you down a little, but please forgive me,” I extrapolate from that to all of her “dumb” school problems because of Takamichi’s cancellation of her memories of Mundus Magicus, and those priests there that used her as a weapon after doing something to her to make her docile.
Fortunately, Takamichi’s parenting helps Asuna become a “bright and lively young lady”. She’s more than that. Mr. Akamatsu’s creation is a magnificent young lady.
I figured that the way Akamatsu-sensei was setting things up, Asuna was born to be the counter-balance to the Magic World. I’ve seen that trope happen a few times in fantasy, where things get so out of balance, a person is born who ends up becoming the counterbalance to put the scales right. Asuna was said person for the Magic World.
Ooh. Good idea. Hadn’t thought of that. Asuna as a mankind-savior figure, fulfilling her destiny. Isn’t Touma in “Railgun” sorta like that? I like her best, though, when she’s not a “turn the other cheek” — when she’s taking out the garbage. One of my favorite scenes is in Vol. 36 where she and Negi together swing the ala alba sword, slashing the big bad boy.
Mundus Magicus festered as a classic top-heavy tyranny, of which Japan has had plenty. Could that be why their artists create them so well?
Yeah, I pretty much view Touma as a creation to counterbalance the mages and psychics.
Probably, but it isn’t just Japan. In America, we have the same thing. That’s why the areas around Washington D.C. are the richest places in the U.S., thanks to so many getting rich because of their various ties to government.
“Nekane,” not “Akane”is Negi’s older sister(?) that he’s holographing in the text from 4-24-14 at 12:58 above. I hate doing that. Reduces my already shaky credibility. Jeeez.
*lol* I do that kind of thing all the time. I know what I mean, but what I type comes out differently for some reason. ^_^;
Richer that NY or LA or silicon valley? You aint gonna convince me that our tyranny of lobbyists and pork beneficiaries is the same thing as the absolute power of the daimyos and rogue samurai of the feudal period in Japan. Especially not the same as the absolute tyranny of the militarists from about 1935 to August 1945 in Japan. The Japanese Secret Police (the Keitai?) made the Gestapo look second-rate. You and I would long ago have had our heads separated from our necks in either of those periods.
Not quite the same, but while heads may not be literally cut off today, they can be figuratively cut off. ^_^;
For us two-hundred-year democrats it’s almost impossible to experience, first hand, life under such regimes. ANY intellectual, artist or journalist poses a big threat to the despot, so they’re immediately arrested by the Thought Police and summarily executed. It’s also impossible for us to worship a monarch. Such a concept as “led by a great, divine man” is so foreign as to be nonsensical. For example, the English’ worship of their queen has always seemed more than a little ridiculous, even though it is now only symbolic. The concept of pure virtue embodied in a leader is so totally wrong it can only succeed temporarily. Even the coaches of our athletic teams struggle constantly with “democracy.”. The difference between the culture of baseball in Japan and the US tells us a lot.
Kempai Tai
[…] TOKYOPOP’s pricing by selling manga for $7.95 and $8.95. Del Rey launch title Negima! had altered dialogue and several errors, but Del Rey later hired a new team to make it more faithful to the original Japanese version and […]