魔法先生ネギま！～白い翼 ALA ALBA～ (OAD) 02
Negima! Ala Alba (White Wing) OVA/OAV 02

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With Asuna’s training complete, Negi and his “battle harem” along with Kotaro head to a Japanese beach for a much needed break. Ayaka arrives with her group, those who’d failed to take the Ala Alba badges, and they intend to hang out as well. Nodoka and Yue ponder their chances at a relationship with Negi when they see Asuna and Negi walking on a secluded section of the beach. They are joined by Anya, who’s not happy to see Negi with this other girl and she attacks. Negi and Asuna react defensively, but the fight is quickly over when Anya discovers she’s set her cloak on fire. After making nice with Asuna (the enemy), Anya plans to take Negi back to Great Britain immediately. Asuna and Negi talk her out of it with the temptation of delicious Japanese food.

While eating, Ayaka and a lot of the girls spy on Anya and Negi, who are bickering like siblings. Paru notes how informal Negi’s speech is with Anya, which he does not have with any of the girls in the class. Thus, Negi has a wall in his heart keeping him at distance from the girls. During the commotion that follows that revelation, the girls accidentally cause the door to the room where Anya and Negi are to fall. Anya sees she has lots of enemies but decides to play cool and polite. Later in the onsen, Anya decides that the flat-chested Yue and Nodoka are her friends, but the rest of the girls are enemies.

The next day, Anya agrees to stay again and it is more play time at the beach. First though, Yue and Nodoka decide to keep the others from revealing they have pactios with Negi, which is a bit difficult. That night, everyone is forced to sleep in a single, large room and once it is known that Negi likes to spoon, the game is on to somehow get Negi into some of the girl’s futon. Ayaka, Makie, Nodoka, and Yue get caught up in this as does Anya so that in the morning, they are beaten from the battles they fought and Negi feels exhausted, having been unconscious and tossed around all night.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, this episode made me forget that the whole training arc came before episode 1. This episode starts with a tiny scene showing Asuna training, then a statement on how their training is complete. I actually had to go back to volume 19 to see how it went, but that’s a minor issue. One day, I hope all that training stuff will make it back in with an accurate TV series. Then these comedy moments between the festival and the arrival in Wales can be referenced when the TV series skips them.

Despite knowing the story very well, I have to say that seeing this animated, complete with sound effects, made me laugh even though I already know the jokes. So when Anya set her butt on fire and started running around, I snickered. When Anya and Negi bickered over who was taller, I chuckled. When the big breasted girls arrived in the onsen, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. I never laughed at these moments when I read them in the manga — I only smiled. However, the “action” of the moments combined with those comedy sound effects shows why a faithful adaptation does not mean boring or stupid. ^_^

On the other hand, it does negate any real discussion of the story I suppose. ^_~ So I’ll say that I wish the character designs were a little more spot on with Akamatsu-sensei’s designs, but I’m not going to complain all that much.

One more episode to go. I do hope FUNimation can land this OAD/OVA because frankly, its the first Negima! series worth owning. Sadly, this will likely not happen due to the exclusive nature of the OAD in Japan.