Negima Manga Volume 20

Buy from Amazon.com! Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, Volume 20

For detailed chapter summaries with review, those can be found here.

• Chapter 178
• Chapter 179
• Chapter 180
• Chapter 181
• Chapter 182
• Chapter 183
• Chapter 184
• Chapter 185
• Chapter 186

Having read these chapters as they came out in Japan, I’d forgotten that this volume ends on a terrible cliff hanger. ^_^; Well, if you are only following the Del Rey release, then you’ve got some time to wait to get a resolution whereas I only had to wait a couple of weeks or so (and that was tough). ^_^;;; Still, you have to hand it to Akamatsu-sensei for knowing how to make people go, WHAAA! I certainly didn’t expect him to get right into the action like this.

OK, it is time to rant about the adaptation/translation.

I became aware of the name Ikoi Hiroe thanks to Pumpkin Scissors. Ikoi Hiroe decided that even though Del Rey’s official policy is to retain Japanese honorifics (as seen spelled out in Del Rey books), this is a stupid policy, more so for a title not set in Japan and thus the policy can be ignored. Del Rey let Ikoi Hiroe get away with this and indeed changed how they do Pumpkin Scissors. (From what I’ve learned talking with translators, their adaptation and translation choices are rarely questioned, and that’s proven by how different translators make changes to how things are done.) Now, Ikoi Hiroe is not only doing the adaptations of Negima!, Ikoi Hiroe is also the translator. That means, no second set of eyes to make sure things are OK.

So, does this mean the honorifics are gone from Negima!?

Thankfully no — mostly. Within the scope of the Japanese characters, everything remains the same. So there’s still “ojousama,” “sensei,” and other stuff we’ve come to expect. Eva still addresses Negi as “Boya,” which is proper since that’s her nickname for Negi and not the Japanese way of saying “Boy.” And to give Ikoi credit where credit is due, Chachazero and the Chachamaru-type servant both address Eva as “Master,” which is how it should have always been. This translation of the word “Master” to “Mistress” just because Eva is a girl has always driven me batty.

Now, where Ikoi changed things up a lot is when Negi and company get to Wales. When Negi addresses Nekane, his former principle, or other person, Ikoi changes the Japanese honorifics used to western ones. Because of this, it now reads as if Negi is Nekane’s sister because in the west, we don’t use the term “sister” to mean anything other than one’s real sister OR in religious terms, referring to a sister in Christ or it is the title for a nun. Now, because we’ve been reading the different sister honorifics throughout the previous Del Rey volumes of Negima!, English-speaking audiences realize that “oneechan” can mean one’s real sister OR someone one looks to like a sister. So why not continue to use this? This is exacerbated when Ayaka talks with Nekane. Ayaka addresses Nekane as “oneesama” not “Ms. Nekane.” The are speaking Japanese to each other from what it appears to me in the original Japanese, so why not leave it well enough alone?

The problems continue, aided by an adaptation mistake on Ikoi’s part. As such, it appears that Negi is addressing stand as “Grandpa Stan,” “Uncle Stan,” “Uncle,” and “Mr. Stan” when in fact that’s not the case.

When Negi first sees the petrified Stan, he says, “Stan…,” then he says, “Ojiichan….” It appears that Ikoi interpreted that to mean “Grandpa Stan” but the thing is, Negi refers to his former school principle as “Ojiichan” and that man is standing behind Negi (made clear at the start of the next chapter). So I think this is an adaptation mistake because Negi sees Stan, starts to say his name, then calls out the “Ojiichan” to refer to the principle who’d escorted Negi down to the cellar.

Negi then addresses Stan as “Stan-san” but seeing the other guy from his villiage, he calls that person “Ojisan” (“Uncle” or a polite term to address a man who is in his 30’s+). So Negi is talking to two people in the moment as I see it — Stan and the uncle-like man and that’s whom he says to look at how big he’s gotten.

As you see, Negi actually speaks to three people as I see it but it comes across in the English as if he’s speaking to a single person — Stan. I do think it is clearer in the Japanese because while these family-type honorifics can be interchangeable, in English it is a constancy issue since Negi has specific ways he addresses folks.

So the problem starts with Ikoi making the mistake of having Negi address Stan as “Grandpa Stan” which would be understandable had that been the end of the volume and one didn’t have access to the next chapter. However, the next chapter to me makes it pretty clear that Negi had been made almost speechless at seeing Stan, then called out for “Ojiichan” before gathering himself and speaking to “Stan-san” and “Ojisan,” both of whom he knew well for having saved him that fateful night.

Does that make sense?

Then, there’s the Magic World where some people are hero-worshiping Negi as “Mr. Springfield” rather than “Springfield-sama” as it is in the Japanese. However, the one that really caused me to get really annoyed is Negi barking out orders in Japanese to people. Since McGuinness can speak Japanese and since Negi is speaking Japanese there, he simply calls her “McGuinness-san” but of course, that can’t be allowed. Nope, she’s not Japanese and must be addressed as “Ms. McGuinness” by Negi.

“But AstroNerdBoy, they are in Great Britain and the British people don’t use Japanese honorifics.”

I understand this argument but who’s to say that the people of the Magic World don’t use Japanese honorifics, and thus these English mages in a secluded village also use them? Considering the Magic World culture has a lot of things based on Japanese culture (which will be revealed to those of you who are only reading the Del Rey releases soon enough), that’s not any more unreasonable than forcing western honorifics into the mix. Remember, every mage you’ve seen in the series has a connection of some sort to the Magic World (whether they’ve been there or not). Also, there’s Chamo, who’s not Japanese but who’s a magical creature and he uses all the Japanese brother-sister honorific terms on top of regular honorifics.

I wonder how Ikoi will handle Fate addressing Negi as “Negi-kun?” Will that will be dropped because why would Fate, who’s worked in Japan and knows Japanese, use Japanese honorifics? Ugh.

Moving to topics that will matter to more people, lets start with the Shundo technique that Negi used. There’s nothing magical about it as it is one of those martial arts special techniques. However, Ikoi has apparently decided that a 10-year old wizard doesn’t use special techniques, even if previous volumes have correctly stated that they do. Apparently using the same justification for dropping honorifics in some cases, Ikoi has changed the Shundo to a spell and even has made up a name for this new spell — Space Fissure Movement spell.

What the….?!

Hey Ikoi Hiroe! This isn’t a spell, OK? It is a martial arts technique. Seriously, have you even read the manga? Do you even have a clue as to what’s going on? Or maybe you think Akamatsu-sensei made a mistake and have decided to correct him so that Negi is casting a spell and NOT using a martial art technique. Criminy! Even if you don’t want to use the “Shundo” term (which I think you should, especially since it WAS used in by Del Rey in the past), I’m told the actual translation of the technique Negi uses is “Empty Air Instant Movement.” There’s no way you can get that this is a spell if you’ve read the previous volumes of the manga. Besides, making it a spell now means that Kotaro and Kaede can now use magic since they use the same technique. *_*

Oh, but it gets better because apparently Ikoi Hiroe had cherries on the brain. Negi’s “Oukahouken” attack which I’m told means “Blooming Petal Crushing Fist” is now “Graceful Cherry Fist.” Setsuna’s “Ourougekka” which supposedly means “Gazing Moon Petal” is now “Cherry Tower Moon Flower.” Oooo! It rhymes! Somebody get me a brandy! My legs are shaking from the sheer excitement of it all!

Ikoi Hiroe doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Anya, who’s apparently Russian since her name is spelled out in Russian as (Аня) Анна Юрьевна Коколова, is listed in English as “Anya Yuriena Cocolova.” Аня is “Anya” but “Анна” is “Anna.” I swear, it seems as if Ikoi said, “Screw that! It’s ‘Anya’ all the way through. Besides, she grew up in Great Britain so I say her name didn’t retain any Russian aspects at all, no matter that Mr. Akamatsu spelled it out in Russian.” Further, Коколова should be Kokolova, which is the correct transliteration. This is so easy to get right, so why wasn’t it done correctly?

I know I’m going off left and right and I could do more of that. However, if there is a positive side to this, it is that there doesn’t appear to be any story rewriting. Had I detected this, I would have REALLY gone off. *lol*

In the Japanese tankoubon release of this volume, there is a nifty post card showing Negi and Anya from their cover poses, though now Anya is to the right of Negi and a bit in front of him. I wish Del Rey could have included that with their release.

In the end, we have the end of the training, some light shorts, and then the start of the action in the Magic World. It is a good volume and I wish that Ikoi Hiroe hadn’t done what they did (I don’t know if this is a man or woman) when it came to some translation and adaptation choices. I would advice Ikoi to not try to be clever and make things up because you think things would be better served that way. Just leave the honorifics as is, no matter who’s using them (and that includes creatures) and don’t turn martial arts techniques into spells. Thank you.