Negima!? 23
ネギま!? Episode 23

SPOILER Summary:

After seeing how lonely Anya’s life had become in London, she enters the Melodiana Magic Academy and takes the Star Crystal so as not to lose to Negi. Back to the present, Anya-Eva turn Takahata-sensei and Nekane to stone. Asuna arrives and Negi manages to pull an Armor Card from her, but Anya-Eva kisses Asuna and she’s turned to darkness. Anya-Eva petrifies a couple more students before Setsuna and some other girls finally run away. Negi sends a message to all the girls that Eva is possessed and is trying to petrify them. Some of the girls hide in dumb places (like between vending machines) and get petrified all the same.

Things look bad for Negi as he confronts Anya-Eva, but the remaining girls cast a beginner’s spell to trap Anya-Eva, the force of their combined magic being enough to do the trick. After Chachamaru defends Negi from an attacking Asuna, Negi kisses Anya-Eva to perform a pactio on her, which releases her from the possession. Chachamaru wants in on the kissing and with her kiss, all of the class have a pactio. All of the personification are removed, but when Negi goes to take the Star Crystal, he’s pulled within the jewel.

Thoughts:

I love how no matter how dire the situation, there’s always time for a henshin sequence.

I’m sick of the Makie jokes about not being good enough and then again in the Baka Rangers segment, being cut off. Not funny.

However, the old joke with Motsu’s “いいみで” (In a good way) saying still amuses me for some reason, as it did when Anya-Eva turned him and Shichimi into stone.

Motsu: We’ve been petrified!

Shichimi: We’re hit!

Motsu: In a good way.

Beyond that, this episode doesn’t do much for me. It works to slowly wrap the weak little plot it has.