May 21st, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 28 Chapter 251 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 251
Negima! Manga Vol 28 Ch 251 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Nodoka embraces her friend Yue to the shock of Emily and Yue actually manages to say her name. However, Yue claims to not know Nodoka, leading Negi to wonder if this is their Yue or not. When Collet recognizes Negi, Nodoka, and Shiori-Asuna as wanted terrorist, the four Ariadne Knights spring into action to arrest them, encasing Nodoka in a barrier. Negi easily destroys the barrier with his hands and schools Collet and Bea when they try to get him. Emily reports in and gets told by President Seras not to arrest them and to be wary of the Governor of Ostia. Meanwhile, Negi casts an Exarmatio spell, which strips all the girls including Shiori-Asuna and Nodoka down to their panties.
After their clothing is put back on, the two groups head to a cafe to talk. Collet confesses to causing Yue’s memory loss and Nodoka is excited to have her friend back. Emily isn’t having any of this as Yue is an Ariadne Knight and an exceptional mage. As such, she has no intention of handing Yue over without proof to a group of criminals. Negi produces Yue’s master artifact card, which stuns Emily as they are rare. Combine that with the fact that they are connected to President Seras and Emily wants to know who they are, though she feels certain she’s seen Negi someplace else other than a wanted poster.
Negi uses his card to make telepathic contact with Yue, where he praises her on what she’s done so far. It is too much for Yue, who overloads to the shock of Collet and Emily. They tend to her while Bea tries to keep the accused terrorist Negi at bay. Negi getting close to Yue causes her to snap again but she doesn’t remember anything. She asks if she’s from the old world, which Negi confirms. She asks if he’s the son of the Thousand Master, Nagi Springfield, which Negi confirms. Emily is so shocked by this but as she looks at Negi, she wonders why she didn’t realize it sooner. In fact, she recons that Negi could easily be a younger version of “Nagi-sama.”
This is interrupted when the Governor-General of Ostia arrives with a boy carrying a sheathed katana and two Megalomesembrian soldiers.
Elsewhere, Setsuna is troubled about spending downtime with the carefree Konoka since she attributes this as being the reason she lost to Tsukuyomi.
Thoughts/Review:
The issue of the two badges and Yue being found really wasn’t touched, save for an ironic throw away line by Shiori-Asuna. It seems it might not get touched again for a bit with the arrival of the Governor-General of Ostia.
Early on when Shiori-Asuna joined the party and the fact that Asuna had been replaced had not been revealed to us, many folks suspected that Asuna might be a fake because she didn’t act quite right. However, in this chapter, Shiori-Asuna says and does things like the real Asuna. I noted this when Negi stripped all the girls accidentally. So her being “unmasked” isn’t going to happen anytime soon I wouldn’t think. I do think that this chapter sets the table (at least in part) for the future unmasking of Shiori.
I’m glad to see that President Seras stopped Emily’s team from arresting Negi, Nodoka, and Shiori-Asuna. In my mind, Seras had to know who Yue was and that’s the main reason for her being accepted into the school. Now the question is, why is she warning Emily about the Governor of Ostia?
Again, the concept of an artifact card being a rare item comes up. I know everyone, their brother, and their sister seems to have one with a mage connection but that’s because our view is skewed. Frankly, even though they are provisional contracts, the fact that Negi has so many artifact cards is simply astounding. I’ve touched on this before but while Negi was fighting in the tournament, he was also supplying his team with magic via those cards. We’ve gotten used to the idea of the battle harem being able to just use their cards on their own, but the power comes from Negi. When you think about it like that, its pretty amazing what Negi has done.
If I’m right about my Nagi=Negi theory, we had another clue marker dropped with Emily noticing that Negi could easily be the younger “Nagi-sama” himself. ^_~ We’ve had quite a few remarks like this over the life of the manga, including when Negi became “Nagi” for the tournament. ^_^
Negi — I gave him a ten on flipping Collet and Bea. They had a pretty good landing. *lol* Regarding the stripping, I had hoped the sneeze might return, but it makes more sense to have him cast Exarmatio. Actually, as I’ve had time to think about it, the sneeze, while being an excuse for Akamatsu-sensei to provide fanservice, was also an early indicator of just how powerful Negi truly is.
The little comedy page at the end cracked me up. Oh, Konoka. *lol* And poor Setsuna fretting over spending fun time with “ojousama” and enjoying some candy/cookie/whatever. 😆
So a good chapter to be sure — plot advancement and yet Akamatsu-sensei gets to do what he so loves — strip underaged girls. ^_^;;;
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I think the casting of the over powered “Exclamico” may be a forshadow of Negi’s power going out of control. What scrool Eva said in 251 i think, may be finally showing some ground. A basic magic spell and his runes power them up without him telling him to. If Negi gets tired from casting alot of basic spells, then that’s one one link to prove Chao Rin went back in time to make sure Negi never learned Dark Magic. Also, thanks for the blogging Negima Mr.Astro.
I’ve been wondering about something that’s been bothering me for a while, while Shiori copied Asuna’s appearance and personality, was she able to copy her powers? Meaning can she use Magic-Cancel and can she use Asuna’s Pactio properly? If the answer is “no” for either one of these, and it probably is, then she should be discovered as soon as she is forced to fight.
guess Seras was a little late in telling Emily not to alert the Governor…
Just wanna make this clear:
It doesnt matter, whether the student is a criminal or not, Ariadne doesnt arrest so. whos willing to study.
@mega-dark
Yeah. I noticed that too. A little bit of M.E. manifesting from a simple exarmatio spell. I’m starting to wonder if sooner or later this manga will make a much darker turn. While Negima still has Akamatsu’s trademark humor, ecchiness, and harems of hotties, it is notably more serious than anything else he’s done. In just this arc alone, Negi’s been impaled, had an arm severed, and is now at risk of getting consumed by his strong affinity towards dark magic, not to mention Asuna seems to have a much darker past that what we’ve been teased with so far.
@ANB
You really need to do a post going into detail why you think Negi=Nagi. You mentioned the other day about “circumstantial evidence” (the existence of time travel and age-changing magic), but for me stuff like Emily’s comments do little more than reiterate the fact that Negi closely resembles his father, which is of course something quite ordinary (at least in manga, if not real life). I think I addressed the other stuff (gov’t records, people recognizing Negi as Nagi’s son rather than as Nagi himself, etc.) the other day. Of course, I might do my own counterpoint post on my blog about this topic to go over more specifics than can be discussed here.
Oh. I was having problems signing in, so that’s why my other posts were anonymous. I finally figured out the problem, though. Apparently, I had registered for some other Google service back in 2002 and it still had my email registered with them. All I had to do was reset my password. Anyway, is Blogger a good tool? I use WordPress, and it’s alright for what my purposes.
Lolol yup, Akamatsu-sensei does seem to enjoy his half-naked/naked adolescents XD
I don’t think we’ll ever see another Negi sneeze again. To me, it seems like one of those ideas that was just abandoned when the series started turning shounen. Along with Negi overpowering Eva, botched pactio cards,etc.
I belive the reason the Magia Erebea activated wasn’t because Negi lost control, but because he used the runes as an activation tool, instead of his staff or ring.
mega-dark said…”I think the casting of the over powered “Exclamico” may be a forshadow of Negi’s power going out of control. “
Yeah, I think you are right.
TrilingAnarchy said…”I’ve been wondering about something that’s been bothering me for a while, while Shiori copied Asuna’s appearance and personality, was she able to copy her powers? Meaning can she use Magic-Cancel and can she use Asuna’s Pactio properly? If the answer is “no” for either one of these, and it probably is, then she should be discovered as soon as she is forced to fight.”
I don’t know if Shiori copied Asuna’s magic-cancel ability. I wouldn’t think she’d be able to use the pactio properly either but would be able to fake it. However, there’s just not enough evidence to support any hard theorizing on this subject.
Philip said…”guess Seras was a little late in telling Emily not to alert the Governor…”
Slightly. *lol*
ShadowOfTheVoid said…”You really need to do a post going into detail why you think Negi=Nagi.”
I really do need to. The problem is time and the other items on my plate, including work. A “Negi=Nagi” article will require a lot more work than you might think because I won’t be able to just free-form the writing as I’m doing right now. I’ll have to reread all the manga (and make use of the original Japanese tankoubons), take extensive citation notes, and even have prep images. Why so much work? Because I know that this theory is somewhat controversial and unlike other theorizing I’ve done for other series (some of which I’ve been proven right), this piece would get lots of scrutiny.
The bottom line is that I do plan to do it as I can find time. I will certainly welcome rebuttals. ^_^
Ultimaniac said…”I don’t think we’ll ever see another Negi sneeze again. To me, it seems like one of those ideas that was just abandoned when the series started turning shounen.”
Well, it has always been shounen and the fanservice is a part of that, but I’m guessing you mean shounen-action more so than shounen-comedy. ^_^ I think you are right that we won’t see the sneezes again, but I do think that they were an early clue on the part of Akamatsu-sensei to show how much sheer power Negi had. The sneezes, while a cheap way to fanservice, could also be Negi expelling excess energy when he’s excited (for whatever reason).
fg7dragon said…”I belive the reason the Magia Erebea activated wasn’t because Negi lost control, but because he used the runes as an activation tool, instead of his staff or ring.”
Hmmmm…there’s a thought. Interesting. That would make what he did in line with how Chao used magic IIRC.
“Anyway, is Blogger a good tool? I use WordPress, and it’s alright for what my purposes. “
I neglected to answer this — sorry. ^_^; I think Blogger is pretty good. I’ve never used any other blogging tool, so I can’t say if it is better or worse.
Theres something thats been bothering me lately. Looking back over whats happened, I’m going to toss something out and I’m curious to see what some of you would think of it as:
We know Fate has never had to train a day in his life. We also know that he transfered over from Istanbul to the Kansai Magic Users place. Nagi’s last whereabouts in the Old World was in Istanbul, as clarified by Iincho before they left for England.
Negi has also stated that if he’s going to learn anything about his Father, then it’s going to be through Fate himself. Then we also have Fate’s comment about “is it due to genetics?”.
My question is, what if Fate is made up from genetic material of Nagi? We have Evangelines comments that “the boy moves more like a construct than a human”. To me, this means Fate is more like a doll being controlled by a puppeteer.
We also have Negi’s purposeful comment of “I am not my father,I may look just like him but I will not become him.” To me, that was a direct telling that Negi is not Nagi. But, I’m going off.
I’m going to say that Fate is a construct made up of some of Nagi’s genetic material, and that Nagi himself is going to be the Final Boss. 😉
– Rhoan
fg7dragon said…”I belive the reason the Magia Erebea activated wasn’t because Negi lost control, but because he used the runes as an activation tool, instead of his staff or ring.”
Personally, I though Negi’s ME situation was similar to the one Sasuke had in Naruto (SPOILERS) how Orochimaru was able to assert control over Sasuke in his fight with Itachi because Sasuke had no power to restrain him with.
I think it was because Negi used all of his energy in his fight with Rakan that the ME started to assert some presence, and I’d guess that every time something like that happens, ME takes over a little more.
That would be why Rakan mentioned that he’d have to see Eva or something like that to deal with it.
Hey, I noticed some interesting evidence that Arika could be related to Asuna in some way.
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima%21/251/19-extra1/
I don’t know how many people know this, but apparently Arika has the same odd eye coloring as Asuna, just reversed. For comparison, Asuna’s is like so:
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima%21/251/20-extra2/
Interesting, hmmm? I also just realized how (more) strangely selective Flans Exarmatio is in blowing off “weapons”, as I realized it refused to blow off hair ribbons and accessories of the Knights and Asuna her cat-ears, and even glasses. Akamatsu gives us more subtle fan-service than I had realized.
@ Anon
Hmm. That would be an interesting twist, Nagi being turned evil somehow. It would also explain why he went missing. Of course, it’d have to end with Negi bringing his father back to the good side. But still, that’d be interesting.
I got weird feeling there might be a Tenchi Universe moment here….
If Emily and co. did something to defend Negi and his friends (now that she knows who they are) from the Governor and those he brought with him, the Ariadne girls might risk being added to the “Wanted” list…
orion said…
Hey, I noticed some interesting evidence that Arika could be related to Asuna in some way.
isn`t she her sis.?
orion, the side-efect of the ME, called Encroachment, doesn’t take over Negi’s mind.
It atempts to consume him, both body and soul, by “sucking him in”, as Rakan said before Negi rescued Nodoka.
The runes of the ME on Negi’s hands probably create a fisure in his soul through witch the magical energy can be absorbed and then merged with his soul.
But repeatetly using this technique create’s a hole in the caster’s soul, a void, where the energy is stored.
That “void” is the actual Encrochment of the Magia Erebea.
That “void” is probably the base of Asuna’s Magic Cancel as well- the wide range magic disaperence 20 years ago meang it went out of control.
But Negi should be able to easely seal the ME, just like Chao did with her whole-body Spell Patern.
@fg7dragon:
Oh yeah, you’re right about that, I hadn’t paid much attention to the details of ME. But, there is one thing you have wrong: Eva pretty much flat out states that Negi won’t be able to handle the encroachment if he’s consumed.
In period 249, Eva says “We will eventually be forced to take action, but… my real body should be able to handle that.” So Negi won’t be able to handle the encroachment, if/when it get worse.
oh, and @anon:
I don’t remember anything saying Arika was Asuna’s sister, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Orion, check Rakan’s story. It say’s there clearly that Arika is Asuna’s Older sister.
anon: … the most popular theory seems to be that Asuna is Arikas (and Theodoras) kid sister … and i’d wager that Negi is Arikas son (cue Yue’s book from earlier where she knew that Nagi had a son but it was kept very secret)
i noticed a certain other thing about the strip that could point Negi to the point that Shiroi-Asuna aren’t real … The stripping affecting her (review back to ‘failed future’ where Asuna battled with Mei and Co. completely threw a strip ray off target so it didn’t touch her, noting that such tricks doesn’t work on her)
Well, it’s not that I consider Nagi to be the “Evil Final Boss”, more or less I think that Nagi has figured out what the Cosmos Enteleceia were after and the ideals of it matched his.
Both Cosmo Enteleceia and Nagi’s group were out to “Save the World”. We’ve already had several situations where Negi was forced to do what he -FELT- was right rather than what he -THOUGHT- was right. Then we also have Negi’s teachings of Evangeline in the Scroll during his trial for Magica Ereba.
We also have Takimichi’s opinion back the Mahora Festival arc. Nagi doesn’t think thhings through, and he doesn’t care about the details. He only cares about doing what feels right to him, thats why Takamichi hesitated.
Both sides are trying to “save the world”, remember. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out though.
– Rhoan
lol, read somewhere that Kamo is actualy Nagi Sprinfield. Well, that would be a major plot twist, don’t you agree? hehehe
@TrillingAnarchy – *applaud* Nice deduction. It would be a well-planned plotline thread, because it lets Akamatsu-sensei reveal it whenever he wants.
There are no imminent events that you’d expect to reveal this weakness – Fate & Co. are the only ones the Negimites would expect to fight, and they’re not going to give the secret away. But as soon as Akamatsu-sensei feels like revealing it, he just has to stage a fight with Ostia trying to arrest her or someone trying to capture her for the bounty.
@ANB: This isn’t a court or a classroom – there’s no deadline. (^_^) We’ll look forward to reading it when you have the time to write it, but RL takes precedence.