May 14th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 28 Chapter 250 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 250
Negima! Manga Vol 28 Ch 250 Review
Summary/Synopsis:
Negi and Kotaro return to their normal size and are greeted by Nodoka, Konoka, and Shiori-Asuna whereby Konoka gives some lovin’ to Negi. Then Akira, Yuuna, Ako, and Makie arrive and after seeing how Ako and Negi act around each other, Makie suddenly realizes that the Nagi Ako was in love with is in fact Negi. Chisame reports that the scout team is back and sure enough, Setsuna, Sayo, Kaede, Paru, Ku Fei, Asakura, and Chachamaru have returned. Konoka gives some lovin’ to Setsuna while the others have a meeting.
At the meeting, thanks to Asakura’s artifact and Sayo’s lack of a presence due to her being a ghost, a lot of information has been gathered including the location of the last gateport and two Ala Alba badges coming from what Sayo determined was Fate’s hideout after she scouted it out and seeing his girls there. Everyone assumes that the badges must be coming from Yue and Anya and Negi wonders if they were caught earlier and their target is actually Asuna. Negi decides that the group will avoid battle and go for a secret rescue mission to save Yue and Anya, get to the desert gateport, and return to Earth.
Haru praises Negi for his fight, which she and the scout team watched on video. Kaede, Setsuna, and Chachamaru all praise Negi as well.
Yue and Emily are walking and talking with Emily all happy about “Nagi-sama.” When Yue suggests that Nagi may have gotten married, Emily angrily rejects this. Yue agrees but thinks about how her Orbis Sensualium Pictus obtained information Megalosembria Secret Data Level and that revealed that Nagi did have a 10-year old son named Negi but no picture. The name on her artifact card says “Negi” and the most wanted has a “Negi” which could only mean one thing.
Negi, Shiori-Asuna, and Nodoka walk and talk about Anya and Yue when Nodoka sees Yue and Emily.
Back outside Paru’s ship, Haru begins her pactio pitch to Yuuna, Ako, Akira, Makie, Ku Fei, Chachamaru, Sayo, and Natsumi. She tells them how it will help protect them but also tells them that they have to perform a “deep kiss.” Paru and Chamo give Natsumi a pass on getting a pactio with Negi and laugh, leading Natsumi to ask what that’s about.
Thoughts/Review:
It is a small thing, but when the scout team returned, why was Chachamaru the only one still small?
Next, I had to laugh at Paru’s latest attempt to obtain more pactios. Chamo knows he scored big when Paru joined the battle harem. *lol* Question is, will they manage to pactio everyone to Negi? I note that Sayo and Chachamaru were in the meeting and despite what both said previously, I still think it is possible for them to form a pactio with Negi. The teasing of Natsumi aside, I think that she could score one as well. I’d bet on a sure-fire Ako and Makie pactio though. Why? Because Akamatsu-sensei LONG ago designed pactio cards for them and hasn’t been able to create them in the story. He showed long ago that he imagined that Makie would be a member of Negi’s battle harem (volume 3 I believe, but I’d have to go to my library and as I write this, I’m out of town) with a chapter-intro image showing Negi and his various weapons, including (non-detailed) pactio cards with names on them. It will be interesting to see if these pactiones happen sooner rather than later.
However, now I’d like to move right on down to what appears to be a rather nasty story problem. In chapter 229, Negi meets Yue and even lands on her broom, thus there is no way in the world that he should not know about Yue. Up until now, I attributed Negi’s lack of going after Yue as two-fold. First, Yue is in a safe place among the knights and is in a position to help Negi if needed by coughing up information or by providing cover for Ala Alba. This leads to the second item, whereby Negi can now focus on training to beat Jack and free the slaves while the scout team look for Anya.
In chapter 236, the scout team are shown on their mission. So for the scout team to be looking for Yue and Anya, that means that Negi did not tell them about meeting Yue. At the time, I didn’t think anything of this beyond Negi deciding to keep the information private to help protect Yue. Now I wonder.
So, what the smeg is going on? Why is Negi acting like the 2nd badge is surely from Yue and Anya when he KNOWS that Yue is not down there. Why isn’t he questioning this in his mind — why two badges?
I would say that Negi is keeping things close to his vest so as not to alert Shiori-Asuna that he knows she’s a fake. However, his thought bubbles suggest that he doesn’t know. After all, if he already knew that Asuna had been replaced, he wouldn’t think Asuna was a target. Likewise, if Negi thought Asuna was simply compromised somehow by Fate and not replaced, would he still be worried as much about her being a target?
Things don’t add up for me and with Nodoka seeing Yue (while with Shiori-Asuna and Negi) and vice versa, I would surmise that we’ll have some better understanding of what Akamatsu-sensei has in mind. I can’t say that what is going on is a retcon yet because it may not be at all. However, if Yue doesn’t recognize Negi and Negi doesn’t remember meeting Yue, then I will be sorely disappointed in Akamatsu-sensei because then we will have a retcon for sure.
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When Negi saw Yue he called her name and she didn’t recognize him. He just assumed that she just looked similar to Yue since she didn’t know who he was.
I’m thinking that Negi thinks that Yue’s just a lookalike, In fact, when he ran into her and landed on her broom, he was contemplating whether or not it was actually her or not. So maybe he just assumed that it’s not her, and just a lookalike.
Negi convinced himself in 229 that the Yue he saw was just a lookalike since 1. she didn’t recognize him, 2. there was no reaction from her Pactio Card and 3. he didn’t see how she could be a Mage Knight.
Well, when I get back home, I’ll have to for sure re-read that chapter. I remembered him wondering about Yue but I didn’t remember him coming to a conclusion on the subject. Since there are three of you with this information on Negi convincing himself that Yue was not the real one, then that would explain a great deal and leave me going, “Whew!”
As the others said, Negi did NOT know it was Yue.
At times though I womder about this so-called “genius”.
It’s like at times he’s never heard of magics that affect memory, even though he’s tried at least one such spell and is hanging around a girl who has an entire false history that he has been helping to perpetuate.
So of course he didn’t think to futher research the “look alike”, even though he had the leader of the Knights available.
And then there’s Yue talking about wanted posters, well the only ones we’ve seen happen to have Yue on them as well.
Yeah… Fei’s has it bad. I have a feeling that she really wants to fight Negi and it’s easier to do that than to confess. ^_^
In regard to Yue, there’s all those theories going on what will happen after Emily finds out who Yue really is…
In chapter 229 Negi just caught a glimpse of her face through the helmet, that’s why he had doubts. This time there should be no room for doubts since she’s not wearing her armor.
So, based on Paru’s last comment, can we expect a kiss/pactio between Natsumi and Kotarou? That’d be fun to see. ^_^
when is 251. ch going out?next week?
Just wanted to give you props my man. seems you were right about them doing the yue story line before the negi’s mom explanation.
and I really wanted to see how that would have worked weith your theory….
Yup, it’s true Astro. To quote the FrankyHouse translation:
Negi: Yue-san?! Is that you, Yue-san?!
Yue: Who exactly are…?
Negi: (to himself) So it really isn’t her…? Just a look-alike… But her voice…
Que interruption lol
It’s understandable that someone would miss it, they were pretty hectic chapters. My guess is in the next chapter Negi’s gonna say something like “So it WAS you back then!”
And about Chachamaru still being loli, maybe she really does have another body and they’re just stowing em magically somehow.
One thing I loved about this chapter is the reference to the real Eva again. Can’t wait to see her!
@luny85 — Kotaro isn’t a mage so I don’t see how he could make a pactio. He could be a minister of course but not a magister.
Anon said, “when is 251. ch going out?next week?”
Yes, as far as I know. Spoilers hopefully coming Saturday.
@Ultimaniac — Akamatsu-sensei said specifically that they didn’t bring a loli body so I think it is safe to say that she only has one and she’s using magic. I just found it curious that while everyone else became adult, she stayed loli.
Emily after finding out that Yue is a Ministra for Negi.
“How could you? Holding out on me. I won’t forgive you!”
Kotaro isn’t a conventional mage and probably can’t become a magister magi, but that doesn’t mean that he is unable to be the master in a pactio.
Well, Paru is certainly suggesting Natsumi to try it, although she could be just teasing her. And I think it would be fun if she actually tryed it, whatever the result may be. 😉
I wonder how Emily will react if she saw Negi’s other pactio cards….
The waits can somethings be such a drag huh? Well, at least the chapters are always fulfilling (some more then others)
When Haruna asked for Chamo to come with her for help with explaining the story, I knew she’d bring up the pactio with the other girls! (It was lol!) And Natsumi getting a free pass, yeh, it’s expected from the love detectors of the Ala Alba group (being Chamo and Haruna, but I’d also include Asakura) since they totally know her thing for Kotaro.
Anyways, lets talk possibilities>
“@luny85 — Kotaro isn’t a mage so I don’t see how he could make a pactio. He could be a minister of course but not a magister.”
I agree, but what about the other way around? How about Natsumi becomes a mage? And Kota becomes the ministralis? I’ve always been a fan of pactio’s, especially outside 3-A pactio’s. I’d really wish Kota was given a pactio with Negi (lets see if the dudes have to go through the kiss ordeal 😛 but preferably, is there a blood deal?) cause in the beggining you’d originally think he’d make a pactio with every girl in the class but considering the lenght of the manga and how the story is going something tells that may not be the case anymore.
I can see a possibility that everyone in class 3-A will get a ‘pactio’ just maybe not with Negi. Examples would be Misora and her pactio with Cocone (card shown in the Manga but to my knowledge, don’t think its out in print yet) and Mana’s dead pactio (though I wouldn’t be completely surprise if Akamatsu rebooted it with a Negi kiss :] ). Though the above would be hard to do since the only mage they truly know is Negi, there are others such as Eva, Theo and Albireo but most or none of the girls have any close connection to them.
“And then there’s Yue talking about wanted posters, well the only ones we’ve seen happen to have Yue on them as well.”
Yeh, I definately see a retcon there. The only explaination is Sera’s is aware of the whole Yue being with Negi thing and she had something to do with taking her off the list but you’d wonder why with all of whats going on. Well, Let’s see how it all works out.
“I would say that Negi is keeping things close to his vest so as not to alert Shiori-Asuna that he knows she’s a fake. However, his thought bubbles suggest that he doesn’t know.”
I was thinking this too, but then I looked back at chapter 234 and just noticed that Shiori’s artifact not only copied her personality and appearance, but her ‘full appearance’. What I mean is, she also copied her clothing, her bells, heck I’d like to bet that she copied Asuna’s badge (provided that Asuna had it with her, which is most likely). But if this were the case, then they’d be 4 badges now, so that gets otehr thrown off the theory list, or Negi knows something.
In fact, I’d like to think that it’s still possible that Negi is feinting his reaction to Shiori-Asuna cause he’s growing as a character, hell we know he’s change so much, this time, taking notes from Rakan’s book. I’d like to bet that Negi is somehow keeping everything inside, being ‘manipulative’ as Rakan, for reason one to figure out Shiori-ASuna AND the whole going back to Mahora Academy, he ‘may’ intent for everyone to go, but will ‘he’? :]
But yes, thats just my theory list XD This page will be a turning point if they decide to go back to the real world but somehow theres still some loose ends that I feel that going back to mahora isn’t gonna comepletely happen. Theres still Cosmos Entelecheia main goal, the many mysteries of Fate, Nagi and Akira and just about a whole lot more, I’d really hope they don’t leave too soon.
Finally, the pactio’s. Yes Ako and Makie are on the high list since the designs for them came out. I wonder if Yuuna and Akira are being drawn out right now….
ANB (astronerdboy), I remeber you theorising that with Misora’s group and Takamichi and Mana coming in, a huge battle is being planned, I’d like to see that. Negima is a great/one of the best manga imo, and its one of those stories where everytime a question is answered, another question pops up =D (And just to clarify rather then being pricky XD Negi landed on Yue’s jousting lance/sword, not her broom exactly XD)
Might we be a little closer to getting confirmation if Negi=Nagi? Iincho #2 is biased, of course, but it’s an interesting point that she doesn’t think Nagi was ever married. (Not that it’s a requirement, but…)
I kinda like the fact that Yue was the one who broached the subject – IMO she’s the sharpest thinker of all of them, Baka Ranger or no.
As others have said, in ch. 229 Negi shows that he has serious doubts about it being Yue he saw. Of course, now that he’s re-encountered her in public (and she’s sans armor), there won’t be much doubt now. I’d imagine it won’t take long for him to put two and two together and start wondering why Kazumi & Sayo detected two badges when they now have only Anya missing.
@ANB. The Negi=Nagi theory you and many others believe in is something I’ve always not accepted. This chapter shows that even classified info in a Megalomesenbrian database regards Negi as Nagi’s son, in keeping with other characters regarding Negi as Nagi’s son rather than his “reincarnation.” So, if Negi is Nagi reborn (and with no recollection of that past life), then Ala Rubra, the Megalomesenbrian gov’t, and everyone else that knew him or knew of him hasn’t got any clue that they’re the same person. Combine that with their different personalities and the fact that Nagi actually met 4-year-old Negi, and it seems a rather huge stretch to believe that they’re the same person. We’ve got the nails for the coffin. Now all we need is a corpse to put in it (Negi=Nagi hasn’t been officially disproven… yet).
Kotaro is no more a mage than is Jack. Granted, Kotaro can use ofuda (those strips of paper with spells on them; charms) as can Setsuna, but neither are mages — they are warriors and cannot form pactios as I see it.
@DeltaResilience — It somehow Natsumi became a mage, then Kotaro would be the perfect minister for her and prime partner.
As to Cocone being the master of Misora, we don’t know that Misora’s pactio is with Cocone. Misora has called Cocone ‘master’ (at least in the English) and Cocone may well be despite looking like a grade school girl. However, for all we know, Sister Shakti is the magister of Misora and Cocone. The one image I saw of the two from from the cover showed both Misora and Cocone with cards IIRC (not the color image, but the drawing).
“ANB (astronerdboy), I remeber you theorising that with Misora’s group and Takamichi and Mana coming in, a huge battle is being planned, I’d like to see that.”
And I think will will in the next year (real time).
@Anon — I’ve never said Negi is the reincarnation of Nagi. I’ve said they are the same person and that’s very different. If you look at Arimareiji’s comment, you’ll see how others saw not a nail in my theory’s coffin, but another sign that maybe my theory is right.
Of course officially Negi would be listed as Nagi’s son — if my theory is true, that’s part of the cover story. If Nagi is hiding in the perfect disguise of Negi, he needs a cover story to explain this young boy who looks like Nagi. ^_~
Yeah, yeah — I need to get this theory written but I have so freaking much going on at the moment combined with being distracted by shiny objects…ooooh. How pretty. Man, I need something to drink. Oh look! I have some manga in the mail. Wooo! Hooo! Wait! Where was I? ^_^;
*lol*
Sorry to second-comment, but I noticed something I wanted to ask about. ANB, do you think Negi is aware of being Nagi? Or is he oblivious, a la Asuna?
And something else, speaking of Asuna… is it just me, or is anyone else getting nervous for her sake? Shiori!Asuna’s comment about Fate’s treatment has me even more worried, considering Fate’s previous comment about doing things to Asuna to make her remember. That, and storyline-wise, we don’t have enough reason to hate Fate yet…
“He showed long ago that he imagined that Makie would be a member of Negi’s battle harem (volume 3 I believe, but I’d have to go to my library and as I write this, I’m out of town) with a chapter-intro image showing Negi and his various weapons, including (non-detailed) pactio cards with names on them.”
That’s chapter 23 – there are cards for Asuna, Konoka, Nodoka, Makie, Fuma & Fumika, Chisame, Kaede and two people I can’t make out… Ayaka and Ku Fei, maybe? I like the way Asuna’s wearing her full pactio costume, bandages and all.
Anyway, Yue revelation and more potential pactios in the next chapter? Can’t wait! (Unless we do a shift of focus to Asuna, or Takahata, or the stay-at-homes…)
@arimareiji — Negi would have to be unaware of being Nagi ala Asuna. I think that the main reason Asuna’s memories were “plugged” and she was given a new identity was because she would be in danger. So she becomes a new person (though retaining her “Asuna” name, which had I been Takahata, I would have changed her given name as well) and has no memories of her former life. This is advantageous because even if Asuna never spoke of her old life, her thoughts would betray her. Now if a mind reader (ala Nodoka or other method) comes along, Asuna gives away nothing — she’s hidden in plain sight.
That’s what I think Nagi decided to do — hide in plain sight. By becoming “Negi” and having his memories suppressed, the only connection is “Negi is Nagi’s son.” To Fate’s group, that son really isn’t a threat and thus Nagi has the perfect hiding place.
This is assuming my theory is correct at all. ^_~
@Anon — well, I guess we can count out Fuma and Fumika on getting pactio cards any time soon. *lol* Thanks for the information. ^_^
Regarding the ideea that Nagi never got maried: if Negi’s mother realy is Princess Akira, then it would be true, after all, Rakan said that it would be a scandal if that hapened.
As for Kotaro being able to do a pactio with Natsumi, I think it’s still possible, after what he told Kagetarou during the match, about both of them being “spirit users” and what Negi said about Kagetarou’s abilities, that the’re tha same as Takane’s, and we know she has a pactio with her sister, Mey.
By the way, in the records, it sais that Nagi has a son(Negi). But what about a daughter? What about Nekane? Isn’t she Negi’s “onechan”? And regardig Nekane- doesn’t she age? In Negi’s memory from 6 years ago, she looks almost the same as now.
What I’m trying to say is: Couldn’t Nekane actualy be Princess Akira?
Second time posting; I apparently still haven’t got the hang of when the system has and hasn’t received comments:
For reference, I’m not a true believer in any theory wrt Negi’s origin. Personally, I actually prefer the Aunt Asuna theory – but I can see some really interesting possibilities coming out of Negi=Nagi.
One of the best things about fandom is that there are very few situations where one fan “loses” because another “wins.” These are stories, and don’t have real-world consequences.
Also, the older I get… the more I prefer being surprised to seeing what I expect, even if the surprise isn’t necessarily pleasant. One gets tired of seeing THE SAME OLD THING, you know. (^_^) Thus, even if I’m “wrong” about Negi’s origin being zygotic it’s still all good.
(ANB, if you have any theories about how Negi=Nagi by zygotic means… I think that would be more traumatizing than amusing, so I’ll take a pass. (^_~) Sib incest is bad enough, ‘ne? )
@fg7dragon — to me, if it is a scandal for Arika to marry Nagi, the scandal must be even greater for her to have a child out of wedlock.
Also, Takane is a mage “spirit user” which is different from Kotaro who is a fighter and a type of spirit user with his dog-tribe heritage.
Third, Mei’s addressing Takane as “oneesama” doesn’t mean Takane is Mei’s sister. ^_^ In the end, Akamatsu-sensei could make that so but I believe Mei is using the term in lue of “senpai.” I’ve seen this in other Japanese titles where a girl addresses a senpai girl she highly respects as “oneesama.”
As an aside, it is widely believed that Mei is the step-sister of Naru from “Love Hina.” I believe Mei was initially an anime creation but Akamatsu-sensei did add her to the manga for Naru and Keitaro’s wedding in the final volume. ^_^
Regarding Nekane and Princess Arika, that is something I hadn’t considered. I have talked with another fan who believes that Negi and Nagi are the same person (and this guy was spot-on when it came to “Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki” so I give his opinion a lot of weight) about my idea that maybe Nekane is the daughter of Nagi and Arika. Even Anya remarked that Asuna and Nekane looked similar and the manga has said that Negi always thought that Asuna smelled like Nekane.
Anyway, I think the manga has said that Nekane and Negi were cousins with Nekane acting as Negi’s older sister (hence why Negi addresses her as “oneechan”). I thought this to be a cover story with Nekane actually being Nagi’s daughter but IF Nagi changed himself to become Negi and IF Arika was still alive, she could have become Nekane in order to watch over her beloved. An interesting idea to be sure. ^_^
arimareiji said…
“Second time posting; I apparently still haven’t got the hang of when the system has and hasn’t received comments”
The comments do have their own feed which might help. As to when comments appear, it is when a moderator approves them. ^_^ This had to be done to keep out the spam and riffraff. ^_~
As to the story, theories, and surprises, if my theory is correct, I’ll be, “YES” because the writer in me picked up the trail of crumbs that Akamatsu-sensei laid out. If I’m wrong, that’s no problem and I’ll come right out and say, “I was totally wrong about that!” I’ve done it several times for anime series I’ve blogged.
There’s a difference in theorizing where the story might go based on foreshadowing or other perceived clues and having things telegraphed so that it is boring, cliched tripe. I can’t stand the later and were “Negima!” in that category, it wouldn’t be popular (at least, not with me). Since Akamatsu-sensei has proven himself to be a gifted writer (more so since he has so many characters to keep up with and all the dangling plot threads), whether I’m right or wrong in my theories, the ride will have been very fun. ^_^
And no, I don’t have any theories on Negi=Nagi by zygotic means. *LOL*
@ANB – I don’t think the comments I’ve lost have been because you didn’t allow them, but rather because the system asked for a second text verification and I didn’t realize it.
@Hugh Roe, belated – yeah, you do have to wonder about Negi after that one. “Let’s see, she looks just like Yue, sounds just like Yue, and one of the other girls just called her Yue… so obviously she must be someone else!” Whatta genius. (^_~)
And you brought up a really good point… no one in the Knights (i.e. the people who are acting as the peacekeepers/police) recognized that Yue looks just like the Yue on the poster? Sounds like we have a lot of geniuses running around.
But I have to forgive Yue herself, since she got her brains scrambled by one of the biggest geniuses. That, and it’s not exactly in her best interest to say “Hey guys, does anyone else think I look just like that wanted fugitive with the same name?”
I got another theory. Since Anya specializes in fire magic and Chao Rin Shen also specializes in fire magic, does Negi marry Anya in the future?
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