April 9th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy Negima! Manga Vol 27 (Ch 247) *SPOILERS*
魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 27 Chapter 247 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 247
Summary/Synopsis:
Kotaro has bought Negi the time he needed to complete the Duplex Complexio. Jack is impress and Negi calls this “Raiten Taiso 2.”
Meanwhile in the stands, Konoka and Faux-Asuna wonder if Negi can win. Takane explains that “Nagi” is using a lot of delayed spells and is quite good at it. Mei agrees that “Nagi-sama” has a chance of winning and Misora remarks on what he could have planned in the arena. There is great shock by Konoka, Nodoka, and Faux-Asuna over seeing their friends from Japan but the match is on so no time to talk further.
Negi uses the Kakuda Chouchuu combined with his now perpetual lightning form to land some major blows on Jack, which Chisame and Chamo discuss. There’s much excitement over Negi’s constant attacks but shadow-Eva knows it is not enough since Negi lacks sheer power. Jack compliments Negi on doing well but says that if that’s all Negi has, he’s lost. Negi pulls out his fourth trump card and informs Jack he’s walked into a trap laid out by Kotaro. Negi then readies his Raininsou Titanoktonon (Lightning God Lance: Titan Slayer) which impresses Jack because it is an original spell. However, since Negi is going for pur strength, Jack feels compelled to do the same.
In the stands, there is shock over Negi’s change in strategy with only shadow-Eva seemingly aware of where Negi is going. Both contestants charge up and Jack releases the energy at Negi. Negi does not throw his energy spear, but instead drops it and activates the Agite Extractio before activating a giant magic circle as well as the Negica Magia Erebea Curculi Absorptionis Extempore. Jack realizes that he’d been baited into a strength contest as part of Negi’s 5th trump card. Now armed with Jack’s power, Negi is about to unleash it back on Jack.
Thoughts/Review:
One of the things about a shounen manga with lots of battles in them where people get stronger and stronger is that if the hero gets strong enough, eventually he or the manga he’s in will be compared to Dragonball Z. It is not an unfair thing to do since DBZ is the standard bearer for people rising to insane levels of power and having fights that could destroy cities or maybe even worlds.
That said, despite DBZ’s popularity, many fans of Negima! have been fearing that the manga is taking that turn with Negi now becoming so incredibly powerful. It is understandable that they should fear this happening to Negima! but I don’t actually sense this as being the case.
Do we have Negi getting long (and electrical) hair for his power up? Yeah. Is he getting insanely powerful? Yeah. Despite this, we do have the reason Negi can win logicially — strategy and cheats.
The “cheats” we know — Negi made a pactio with Theo and it provided him with additional magical resources as well as an ultra-rare artifact whereby he can access all of his ministra’s artifacts (providing he has the master card). We also know that Negi is using the Magia Erebea to juice up.
Where the strategy comes into play is in how he and Kotaro planned things. That’s what set this apart from Dragonball Z IMO. Logically, Negi should lose the fight BUT Negi has always been shown to be crafty when it comes to coming up with plans on the fly. So even though Negi should have been beaten, whatever he used to overcome his injuries (sheer magical power I’d think, based on how he held himself together after Fate’s surprise attack at the gate port) gets him on his feet and then phase 2 of the plan comes together — Kotaro buys Negi 45 seconds of time to “store” some massive spells while at the same time taking Kagetarou out of contention. Then when Negi draws Jack in, Kotaro helps with a trap to lock Jack in place, then Negi uses Jack’s own ego against him to absorb his power and I think in the next chapter, we’ll see Negi win.
So it is strategy that wins the day and I think we see something of how Nagi may have beaten the “final boss” for those Cosmo (Kosmo) group Fate’s a part of — absorb your opponent’s power and turn it against them.
One more thing about Negi — one of the reasons I feel that Negi is in fact Nagi is not only his sheer power, but his rapid rise in strength combined with a rapid rise in knowledge and abilities. I keep thinking of the phrase, “the mind may forget but the body remembers” (paraphrasing CLAMP) and it would seem to make perfect sense for how Negi can get so strong so quickly. Following Akamatsu-sensei’s wont of using logical means of progressing the story, that would provide such a logical vehicle to explain Negi in so many ways. But I digress…^_^
Once the tournament is over, Negi’s pactio with Theo is gone, so his artifact is gone and his major cheat is gone. I think this is Akamatsu-sensei’s way of allowing to story to continue beyond the tournament and possibly even the Magic World by having Negi fall back to a weaker state and still need to advance. Again, it is all done in a logical fashion.
I loved seeing Takane, Mei, Misora, and Cocone back. Do they know about “Nagi-sama” being in fact Negi? Both Takane and Mei refer to Negi as “Nagi” and “Nagi-sama” respectively, which may indicate their being careful or may indicate they are unaware that this is indeed Negi. If they do know, then the Japanese speculation about Takane possibly being a closet shoutacon makes me laugh even more.
While I’m not surprised to see them at the arena (and I expect to see Takahata and Mana too), did Jack hire them to guard Asuna? I would figure that Takahata and Mana would have been the ones Jack hired, but I have seen speculation on the girls being the ones hired.
I had to laugh at how Chisame is getting into the fight. Man has she come a long way. No longer is there this denial of reality. Instead, she’s totally taken in by the fight which Chamo and her having a discussion about it. It is a really nice moment for me.
As I said, I do sorta expect the fight to be over next week. We’ll see if I’m right or not. In the meantime, as always, I love to hear what you guys have to say on the matter. ^_^
Posted in 
Tags: 
I guess I wasn’t the only one who thinks Negi is Nagi. But isn’t Nagi incompetent in magic?
Not incompetent — you don’t get the name “Thousand Master” from being incompetent. The problem was that he never memorized any spells. Nagi’s sheer power backed by his comrades and his craftiness meant that he could hold his own quite well despite needing a spell book. I’ve speculated that one of the reasons Nagi would go into hiding as Negi would be to give himself a break from his enemies (because officially Nagi is dead and Negi would be just a harmless child). With that break and shielded even from mind readers, Nagi would then overcome his shortcomings in spell casting by actually learning spells.
the hair was just a playful reference to DBZ.
I LOVE MISORA!
I would have to make two points as to why Negi cannot be Nagi. The first is that Negi would have to see himself ath the “fateful snowy night” a bout 6 years ago. As well, Negi has an affinity for dark, and while being able to use lightning like his father, has a more darker side than Nagi. Even if Nagi is the “Thousand Master,” you can’t exactly change affinity. Nagi is light, Negi is dark. These are my points as to why Negi can’t be Nagi.
@Mastermack — I think you are right that Akamatsu-sensei is making a small tribute to DBZ.
@Anon — I think that if my theory is true, the youkai/demon attack on Negi’s village is another attempt to change history by killing Negi and that the Nagi we see also travels back to save himself, give himself the staff, keep the timeline intact by completing the circle.
As to the light/dark thing, just as Asuna has two different personalities (one “buried” for the moment at least), if Nagi became Negi with a new personality, there’s nothing to stop him from choosing a completely different path. The Japanese LOVE the concept of merging light and dark to overcome any obstacle — the “yin and yang” if you will. If I’m right, then the two personalities will merge with memories intact and guess what — you have the ultimate warrior to defeat the Kosmo people for good before Nagi retires to be a teacher. ^_^
Two things I couldn’t agree with more:
First, you’re so right about Negi’s cheats and strategies. I don’t see how people could be worried about the series ending at this point just cause Negi has gained some new powers. It seems like everyone just plain forgot that not everything he can do now is permanent. And it’s not like he had Rakan on his knees begging for mercy either. I’d say for the most part, Rakan pretty much had this fight in the bag until Negi tricked him with that absorbtion circle.
Second, I LOVE how far Chisame has immersed herself in the whole magic thing. No more super-deformed WTF expression during fights for her. Seeing her discussing the fight so seriously reminded me of way back in ch 97 when she was watching Negi and Takamichi’s match. That very first moment when it snapped in her mind “Those two are fighting seriously.”
Good review of a great chapter. Now to start waiting for the next spoilers XD
Ricardo had been impressed by Negi’s Raisoku shundou a few chapters back, and had thought about somehow getting the kid on his R&D team…now I wonder if Negi’s performance this last chapter would make Ricardo actually consider asking Negi to stay in the MW after the deal with Fate is over.
Heck, here’s something crazy, what if the three countries end up fighting just cause they want a piece of “mage-artillery” Negi… 😛
If Negi is indeed Nagi then why do all Negi’s pactio cards say Negi and Rakan and Albirio’s say Nagi. If they were the same person wouldn’t the same name be written on the both cards regardless whether he had his memories or not.
I think the names on pactio cards have a lot to do with who the characters perceive themselves to be. Asuna’s card doesn’t have her named as Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia when she believes herself to be Kagurazaka Asuna, so why would Negi/Nagi’s partners’ cards have the name Nagi on them when Negi/Nagi believes himself to be Negi?
Negi’s cards would say “Negi” because that’s who made those pactios, much as Asuna’s pactio card does not say her true Magic World name, but her Earth name. The reason it does not is that when she made the pactio, she had no memory of her past, which makes sure she slips past mind readers and makes her pactio card display her current name.
I forgot to address this so I’ll do it here. ^_^;
As to Jack and Al’s cards having “Nagi” still on them, well that’s who made the pactio with them. Now IF Nagi and Negi are the same person, then the power conduits to the cards remain open even if the source of the power has a new identity (in the case of my theory, Nagi becoming Negi).
Kah! Merc got in a comment as I was writing mine. *lol*
One of the reasons I believe Nagi and Negi to be the same person is that Akamatsu-sensei has been laying out the groundwork to make this happen and be believable. Look at the pactio card name thing we are discussing here. By establishing a pactio with Asuna, we see that the name of the current personality is what shows up on the card.
Also, Asuna shows us that characters can have a fake personality to supplant their real one, effectively hiding them from mind readers and almost anyone else that might be looking for them. Therefor, Nagi could become Negi.
Also, we see that age modification (illusion) magic exists that is powerful enough to fool everyone. We see that time-travel exists so Nagi could visit his alter-ego and hand him the staff. The list goes on with pieces that would in fact pave the road for a Nagi is Negi revelation to come about AND be logical.
I really do need to focus and write this piece. The only element that Akamatsu-sensei has which could kill my theory is the “mother” stuff and he’s being very coy about that. ^_^; I do think I can explain the mother angle as well, but I’d rather not since that would be almost pure speculation at this point and everything else I theorize about can be based on established elements within the manga.
Negi = Nagi
age modification is possible; time travel is possible; scarily gifted genius; strange connection to Fate
Asuna Kagurazaka = Asuna Entheofushia; pactio card says Kagurazaka; mysteriously gifted idiot
Yue = Yue
pactio card was blank despite her being the same person sans memories
Chao
major time travel is possible; tried to change the past)
Theory: Nagi was voluntarily or involuntarily turned into a child with no memories; found/rescued by AR; AR agree to let Nagi grow up and watch over him; presented him as Nagi’s son
-Possible Inspirations-
Locke inspiration: son of a great hero; raised by grandfather / relatives; becomes hero; has strange connection to one of father’s archenemies; quests to defeat archenemy; finds greater enemy; discovers that he is his “father”; Locke’s “father” was trapped by archenemy in reverse-time trap (turned into baby); saved by companions; given to grandfather to raise; …
Harry Potter inspiration: Potter saved by ‘father’; Potter time travels; Potter turns out to have saved himself
John Connor inspiration: enemy time-travels to eliminate the hero that defeated him; John Connor sends Reese to protect him; turns out Reese is the father of Connor
I think Nagi did it himself. Further, I think that Nagi is the reason Al is trapped at Mahora. Before Nagi “died,” he made a request of Al for the as yet unborn son. That wish was carried out in the Mahora Budokai but to make sure it happened would require Al to stay in one spot — under the library. Since Nagi cursed Eva in a similar way, it is not out of the realm of possibilities. If my theory is correct, Nagi would have to make sure his new personality followed his footsteps and I think Al was one of those elements to put Negi on the path if he wasn’t already there. The amazing thing is that Nagi did this and apparently no one even knew Al was around (even Eva, who was able to sense Chamo’s arrival and Graf Herrman’s arrival didn’t know Al was on campus for the last 10 years).
I’ll challenge you on the possibility of the Nagi=Negi theory.
There is much evidence that the Negi=Nagi theory can’t be true, the first, and simplest, being that in the character bios, Nagi has AB blood, and Negi has type O. Other than that, there is the question of the main idea the theory hinges on: time travel.
If Negi can travel back in time to be Nagi, the theory is plausible. However, this would mean that Negi would need to be around for time travel. Assuming the current technology in Negi-verse is parallel to our own, the human race would need to develop the technology for a ridiculously compact time machine (the BCTL) that can be mass-produced with ease, hundred foot high hologram projectors, not to mention the Gundam-scale machine constructs. In at most, 20 or so years.
Why 20ish years? Because the only opportunity for long-distance time-travel is when the world tree or other magical point reaches its apex of power, which won’t happen for another 21 years. Since Nagi/Negi’s appearance was, by no means, 53 or 74, his only time to make a time leap was/is/will be (proper tense becomes so confusing when you deal with time travel.) when he is 32.
Also, there is a question of Negi/Nagi’s morals. Since he is leaving at the age of 32, and Chao has said she is Negi/Nagi’s descendant, he must have a child by now, so his descendant can go on to eventually result in Chao being born. Since long-term memory suppression does exist in this theory, we are dealing with Negi’s personality here. Do you really think that he would abandon his child; the same his “father” did to him? He would truly have to be a cruel and uncaring person to do such a thing, which is completely out of Negi’s character.
These points are some main reasons why Negi=Nagi doesn’t work.
And, on your post concerning Al? The reason Eva sensed Chamo and Graf was because they intruded on the academy’s barrier. Al, on the other has been inside the campus, and the barrier, for quite some time. The only time Evangeline would have noticed him was when he initially entered 10 years ago, so it’s not so amazing. (And I believe the only reason Eva could sense the former two was because she was made the guard of Mahora, and so had a direct connection to the academy barrier, telling her if anyone is entering.)
Re: blood type
That was from the anime. Anime characters are given the blood-type of their seiyuu.
Re: time travel
Chao gave Negi a time-machine watch. Negi is a genius and a magical powerhouse (Chao couldn’t cast spells). 1 + 1 = 2
Re: children
You are making assumptions about the rate of time and dependency upon the Tree for a magical watch. Any sufficiently powerful magic source could do.
1-2-3
Simple answers.
Re: blood type
Fair enough. Not to mention having those blood types would make it impossible for Nagi to be his father, so it’s more like personality representative blood types.
Re: time travel
I’m not quite sure how Negi being a genius is relevant, for starters.
Also, it took Negi nearly all the power he had to make a one-WEEK travel backwards, and that was helped by the world tree.
Re: children
I’m not quite sure how your answer has anything to do with Negi’s morals, but okay.
It says in the manga that the World Tree only lights up once every 21 years, so your first point is moot. And also from the manga, the Cassiopoeia is fueled by the magic from the World Tree, which is why they had to rush to rscue Negi and travel back in time before the last bits of magic from the World Tree died off.
So yeah.
On the time-travel thing, Negi did something he shouldn’t have been able to do in theory — not only travel back a week (remember, the plan was to make short jumps and have the World Tree supply most of the power), but Negi also moved them through space AND still had power enough to get people to the ground safely.
Also, Negi is doing something else he shouldn’t be able to do — supply a harem with magical energy for their pactio cards. The fact that he can do that AND still have power to defeat most folks shows just how incredible he can be power-wise. If Negi is Nagi, that would mean even greater numbers of people are being supplied by his power. That would suggest to me that if anyone could travel back in time on their own (with a time travel device of course), it would be Negi/Nagi.
re: time-travel
The Mahora tech level is extremely advanced, particularly in the area of micronization, power systems, and robotics. Advanced energy research is entirely feasible. Moreover, there is a great deal of magical technology. Coupled together, you can get wonders like Chachamaru (Chao and Eva’s tech). If Negi tried, he could reverse-engineer Casseopeia and figure out a way to improve the it, particularly with magical tech.
re: children
The assumption you made was that Negi would have had to have children by the time he made the jump. It presumes that 21 years time had to have passed, based upon the World Tree’s cycles. Yet, it’s not the Tree that is important, but the energy.
There’s at least two AA people with huge reserves of magical energy… and I suspect that Negi’s is a lot larger than they think, based upon the number of pactios that he supports, particularly if he is also Nagi. I suspect that if people use their magical energy to a great degree, their reserve grows, somewhat like a muscle.
Re: pactio energy
From the way things are portrayed in the manga, Negi only uses magical energy when he gives the physical power boost to his ministrae, and of his 9 pactios, only 3 (2, really, because Kaede made hers after most of the battles were over. I think.) are fighters and need that power boost. The rest are really support and only need their artifact.
So he’s really just supplying magic power to 2 ministrae, and that is only if Setsuna has mastered how to use chi and magic power by now. So it’s impressive, but not something he shouldn’t be able to do.
Re: time travel misc.
The travelling through space thing was just an unexpected by-product of trying to jump large spaces of time wihout calculating the dimensional something-or-other, I remember reading you need specialized equipment to safely make big jumps. Also, I don’t think the spell he used was all that powerful. It looked like it just made a cusion of air to soften their impact.
Re: children
He needed to have kids by then beacuse Chao says so. She says that Negi had kids that led to her, not Nagi, or whom she thinks is Nagi. Therefore, Negi would have had to have kid(s?) before the time jump in which he becomes Nagi.
This is also the only way Chao’s thoughts of “I can’t let my ancestor die” make sense, because she probably wouldn’t have said that unless Negi was actually an ancestor that was in a direct timeline from Chao. (Yeah, I know I phrased that bit poorly.)
Also, about how I assume that 21 years have past; the Cassiopoeia mainly runs on the World Tree’s power, and couldn’t be activated without its magic. I just assume that Negi’s sheer magic reserves don’t meet that of something that has been here since the beginning of the world. (see below)
Re: magical energy growth
Evangeline states in volume 7 that the magical power that one has cannot be increased by any training. Since the Cassiopoeia runs on the sheer mass of magical energy, not the users skill, then do you say that Negi’s inherent magic power rivals the World Tree’s?
Re: tech level in Negima
That would be great if Negi could reverse engineer Chao’s time machine, except a) it would take quite a while for Negi to get to the level of temporal mechanics one would need to even understand how a time-machine would work, and b) All known copies of the Cassiopoeia have either exploded or returned to the future, so Negi has nothing to reverse-engineer.
Also, I’ll guess that the main reason the tech. level is so high in Negima is because Chao is involved with it, which would add to why the various sciency clubs don’t want her to go. Same with Chachamaru. Evangeline (or any other magic user) is only the battery for Chachamaru, by the way. I’m pretty sure she didn’t help build her.
On Negi being exhausted after traveling back a week: I think that it’s possible that there’s enough of a difference between a human being’s magic and a humongous tree’s that Chao could have designed the Cassiopeia to channel the World Tree’s specifically. If she did that, when Negi went back in time a week and used his own magic to help along the Tree’s, it’s possible that the Cassiopeia rejected it, resulting in his own magic reserves suffering some unpleasant backlash that exhausted him.
From the way things are portrayed in the manga, Negi only uses magical energy when he gives the physical power boost to his ministrae, and of his 9 pactios, only 3 (2, really, because Kaede made hers after most of the battles were over. I think.) are fighters and need that power boost. The rest are really support and only need their artifact.
So he’s really just supplying magic power to 2 ministrae, and that is only if Setsuna has mastered how to use chi and magic power by now. So it’s impressive, but not something he shouldn’t be able to do.
re: ministrae
They receive power from Negi in the form of protection and magical energy boost (when using artifacts, fighting, etc). When Negi is concentrating on them, they receive a bigger boost. The stronger the feelings, the more power they receive.
Re: time travel
The earth is constantly rotating and changing space-time coordinates. In short jumps, the difference is negligible. The longer the jump, the greater the error. Negi used summoned creatures to make the adjustments on the fly.
Re: children
I think you’re confused about the Negi=Nagi theory. First there was Nagi. Nagi gets turned into a baby and becomes Negi. (ala Locke) Negi gets rescued by “Nagi” when the town is attacked. (ala Terminator) Negi grows older, goes to Mahora, etc. Sometime in the future, Negi travels back in time for whatever reason and saves himself. (ala Harry Potter) “Nagi” probably then returns to the future.
Lingshen is a descendant (probably through Ku Fei), but Negi need not have children before making the jump to save himself. Even if he does, if he is not planning on being away for a while (relatively speaking, due to time travel) then it’s hardly a moral crisis.
The inference by Lingshen is that the power required for time-travel is proportional to the temporal displacement. She needed the Tree because Negi is a great ancestor–great grandfather at least. That means a 42+ year jump. Considering the age-disguise factor, different rates of time due to magical world issues, magical devices, and so forth, we don’t even know how old Negi would have been if he made a time-jump and saved himself.
Re: magical energy growth
See my above statements. Negi doesn’t need to make nearly as large a jump as Lingshen did. Moreover, she went back after the peak, so she didn’t even need that much comparative power.
Re: tech level in Negima
Hakase and Chao worked on the Cassiopeia and Cassiopeia 2. I suspect that Chao brought blueprints from the future rather than design everything (the mecha had markings indicating that they belonged to the U.N.). Of course, it may very well turn out that there is some sort of magical artifact somewhere that can send someone back in time and nothing will need to be made. That would be the easiest solution for Akamatsu. It might even turn out to be the inspiration for the Cassiopeia.
Chachamaru’s core (like a soul) is a magical device by Eva, the same thing that was used to make Chachazero.
T think Nagi’s gone for good. Maybe he’s Negi or maybe Akamatsu is playing it straight with us and he isn’t. Still, I think that the Nagi that saved Negi six years ago is actually Negi himself.
re: Negi’s potential
There’s no way that the limit of his accessible power right now is not greater than when he first came to Mahora. Therefore, Akamatsu had to have been referring to some absolute limit that he has yet to reach. The muscle analogy is correct. There is a limit to how strong you can get, but most people never reach it.
@Merc: That would be an interesting idea, considering how the world tree is absurdly powerful. Chao could have specialized the Cass. to run on the tree’s magic solely to make it more efficient.
Re: ministrae
I don’t think Negi has to lend out magic except for the energy boost that he can give, otherwise his ministrae wouldn’t be able to use their artifacts if he wasn’t giving power to them.
Like one of the lexicons for Negima said, “The card’s inherent magical properties must be considered.” For that matter, I don’t think having a pactio gives the ministra an inherent magical boost, only when the magister casts that spell.
Re: time travel
Yup, I was just saying the travelling through space on the week-long jump was an accident, not intentional.
Re: children
Yeah, I misunderstood that theory quite a bit. So let me see if I understand ths
So Nagi starts out, and then turns into Negi. So then Negi eventually realizes who he is, and goes back in time, saves himself and gives him the staff, and comes back to the present. And then, he either goes back to being Nagi, or stays as Negi. Is this how it is?
I guess like that, I can’t think of any reason why it shouldn’t be possible for that to happen, but I might get some fridge logic later.
While I like the idea of “Nagi” being “Negi”, there does seem to be one flaw that stands out in the Manga to me. When Negi allows Asuna to see his memories of six years ago, when the Thousand Master saves him from the demons, you see “Nagi’s” face close up more than once. Someone above said that Negi went back in time to save himself. That, I can say with relative assurance, could not have happened. When Nagi saves Negi, there is no cut mark on his face. Logic dictates that a Negi from the Future would have a slim cut-mark on his face as he does now (And still retains when using Age-Changing Magic). Refrences are:
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/65/18-19/
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/66/01/
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/66/11/
Coupled with the fact that the shape Al takes during the Mahora Festival, http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/117/18/, we also see no scar there. So, it’s relatively safe to assume that the current theory of Negi going back in time to save himself and pose as “Nagi” is fairly slim of being true. You could state that Akamatsu made a mistake, and an error, but rarely does he oversight something that important.
I’m fairly skeptical to the idea that Nagi is Negi, simply due to a lot of inconsistancy between the two characters. If this turns out to be true, then I’ll be slightly irked, but it’s nothing to rage about. 😛 We’ll see, the major hole in everyones theory is the business about Negi’s mother. Once that information is out, then people will be able to make a solid theory on who is who.
Ah — but what is missing from every flashback image of Negi’s rescue by Nagi? Eyes. Why are those eyes missing for those sequence but not for other flashbacks of Nagi? Akamatsu-sensei hides details of people for a reason. Most of the time, it is to hide who a character is — Chao and Hakase fleeing from the mages during the Mahora Festival for example or Misora attending the meeting of magic users to plan the prevention of confessions during the Mahora Festival or Tsukuyomi at the gate as part of Fate’s group. So what’s Akamatsu-sensei hiding? ^_~
Regarding Al’s Nagi disguise, did Nagi have a scar 10-years ago? Al’s copy of Nagi is from 10-years ago as Al has not seen Nagi since (though that raises a whole other can of worms on how Al had copies of Anya and Nekane).
As to Nagi and Negi being different, that’s the point of taking on a new personality, much as Asuna was given a new personality — you are a new person completely divorced from your original life.
The only flaw in the theory is Negi’s mother. Akamatsu-sensei is being very coy about that. It has only been very recently that Negi has even talked about her. Prior to the Magic World, Negi didn’t give a rat’s rear about his mother — it was always his father. I still hold that this is a clue. My guess to explain Negi’s mother is only 100% speculation on my part since to date, there’s nothing in the manga to suggest what I’m thinking could happen.
When I thought about it, I saw a rather big flaw in the Negi=Nagi theory: Nagi’s ego. You say it’s originally Nagi that turns to Negi, and he does it to learn how to use a spellbook.
Based on the various flashbacks (especially Rakan’s movie) I would conclude that Nagi is one of the most arrogant, pompous good guys I’ve ever seen. He says he’s “the most powerful mage in the world” and then defeats another who claims that title. (I think it was the life mage or something.)
I would find it hard to believe that Nagi would actually youthen himself to a baby in order to learn to memorize spells. It would seem incredibly out of character for him to admit he needs to get that much stronger.
Also, since he believes to be (and probably was) the most powerful mage in the world, wtf could have been that powerful to make him think he needed to do that? (and don’t tell me it was Fate, because Nagi already drawed with him and still wasn’t hurt badly enough to beat the life mage.)
Incorrect! Nagi’s eyes ARE shown in the flashback, in his final panel.
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/66/12/
You can see them clearly, though they’re a little muddled. Those do not look like Negi’s eyes going on his Magic-changed appearance.
In fact, I’d say they’re comparable to Nagi’s eyes from the Mahora Festival.
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/118/01/ [Bottom, middle panel.]
Another thing, if you don’t buy the coincidence of eyes. Theres a detail that is shared between Al’s version of Nagi from 10 years ago [Prior to Negi’s birth] and the Nagi who saved Negi: The pendant/necklace.
As shown in the Mahora Tournament:
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/119/09/
You can see it multiple times throughout the fight, but that shows it rather clearly in it’s panels.
During Negi’s flashback, the necklace is shown only a few times. The best view of it is here:
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/66/03/
You can see it around his neck, kinda floating from the movement of his punch.
So.. Explain that one?