May 28th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 28 Chapter 252 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 252
Negima! Manga Vol 28 Ch 252 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Konoka and Setsuna are about town when a couple of local guys try to pick up Konoka and she seems OK with it. Setsuna sends them packing but frets over spending such down time with Konoka. Setsuna thinks back to her last fight with Tsukuyomi as well as Eva’s words to her and wonders what she should do about the situation. Has she gotten weaker? Should she choose the sword or happiness? A couple of nearby guys are battling for fun when the one guy with a mace on a chain has the mace-ball break free and head for Setsuna. Instinctively, Setsuna uses a blade to slice the ball in half, not even conscious of what she’d done as she still frets over spending time with “ojousama” like this.
Konoka gives Setsuna a kiss on the cheek for her actions. Konoka then tells Setsuna that she knows what Setsuna’s thinking. Konoka believes that happiness can be a source of strength and she’s decided to be a Magister Magi like Negi’s father and mother. As such, Konoka wants Setsuna to be her partner, so the two head off to find Chamo, who figures this is long overdue. They kiss and Chamo retrieves the pactio card where he sees it is a completely new design.
Elsewhere, the Governor-General of New Ostia, Megalomesembrian Senator Kurt Gödel, has arrived to see Negi, Nodoka, Shiori-Asuna, and the four knights. He greets Emily and states that he was there with his guard after hearing reports of an incident. He produces pictures of the girls when their clothing had been blown off. They deny it was them. Despite Emily having signaled Bea to get Negi’s hood up, Gödel addresses Negi. Gödel first calls him the son of the hero who saved the world, then changed it to the son of the witch who destroyed Ostia — the Queen of Calamity, Arika Anarchia Entheophysia.
Thoughts/Review:
First, I’m going to address what many will see as the death nail in my Negi=Nagi theory. If you think that, you are sadly mistaken. After all, what good is a theory if it can’t handle a little stress? *lol*
This may very well indeed be the moment where Akamatsu-sensei decides to let everyone know that Negi is the son of Nagi and Arika, so I’ll concede that right now in case it becomes true. That said, one of the reasons I have long believed Negi to be Nagi in disguise is that (1) Nagi has been PERFECTLY hidden for about 10-years (almost everyone believes Nagi to be dead), (2) Negi is about 10-years old, and (3) the best place to hide is in plain sight. I remember as a teenager having a coworker tell me he decided he wanted a magazine without paying for it. I wanted nothing to do with this, but my coworker told me I was worrying for nothing. He simply rolled the magazine into his hand, then as he walked towards the exit, he made a point of saying goodbye to our store manager and waving the magazine in a “goodbye” fashion. Score coworker a free car magazine with the hot bikini babe on the cover. ^_^;
With that in mind, IF Negi is in fact Nagi in disguise and hiding, then it would be very reasonable that he planned this event. Such planning would include making sure everyone knew that he was about to have a son, that the mother of said son is Arika, and that this information was officially recorded in some fashion or other. Ten years ago, he also arranged for Al to give his son a message — interesting how Nagi knew his son would come to Mahora, don’t you think? Also interesting that Nagi knew that Al would never leave Mahora (the maps that he had pointing to Al’s location — remember?) in order for Al to deliver said message to Negi. Further interesting that Eva and Takahata didn’t even know Al was there despite the fact that he was there for 10-years (an interesting year 10-years ago was, don’t you think?).
So, having the Governor-General of New Ostia bait Negi into doing something stupid by insulting Arika, whom Negi now believes to be his mother, means nothing to me at this point. The Governor-General may know something, he may only know the official record, or he may know nothing. We’ll see how future chapters go, but my gut says that this is a red herring. My gut may be wrong, but as I just learned with Fate/stay night, my gut can be very right even though what I was seeing in that story didn’t seem possible. ^_^
Now to the chapter itself — there’s not much to say about Setsuna’s going through a bit of angst over what she should do. That said, is that her pactio which she just instinctively pulled to destroy that mace-ball? The fact that she acted so on instinct goes to show that like Negi, when she overthink things, she comes up short. When she just does what comes naturally, she really hasn’t lost a step.
I like that Konoka has taken a step forward on becoming a Magister Magi. In order to be one, I feel she should be able to take charge and be in command as it were. That’s what Konoka did here. Maybe we’ll see her get some sort of training to advance her mage skills before the Magic World arc concludes.
As to Setsuna’s new pactio card, I note that Chamo seems a little surprised that there is a new card produced and not one like Negi has. There’s not really enough information to go on, but I figure that normally, a pactio card remains the same — only the Magister changes who supplies the power to said card. We saw that with Al’s many dead pactio cards and his one living one. I also believe that based on what Emily has stated, artifact cards are rare and so for Negi to create an artifact card every time is amazing. So either Konoka and Setsuna’s pactio is a true provisional card (no artifact maybe?) and Negi has the different, true pactio cards or Setsuna has two artifact cards somehow.
As to Negi’s encounter with the Governor-General, it is interesting to see how Emily and company have shifted into a “protect Negi” mode. Obviously, the Governor-General was expecting such a thing and to be honest, I think he’s quite possibly behind Negi and company being on the wanted list. Some have speculated that this may be Fate in disguise, but I don’t think so. Governor Gödel may have simply sided with Fate’s people and is doing what needs to be done. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
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I think that the Megalomesembrian Senator Kurt Gödel is of those people http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima!/232/10/
This is just my hunch but still.
Hmmmm…he may well be, but if he were, could he rise to the level of Governor is what I wonder.
Totally unrelated, I completely forgot to mention the little Chachazero cameo of sorts. I wish I knew what they were looking at with her image on it.
Konoka tongued Setsuna. It was great.
As for everything else… It was a fun chapter.
Anything Emily and co. might do to protect Negi could make them new additions to the “Wanted” list.
I don’t think it’s a “full” paction they did. Do note that Chamo asks them if they want to make the full contract right there, for the record-long kiss 😉
Is it Entheofysia? Or Fushia? Or .. whatever.
Anyone else notice that assuming the governor is right and Arika is in fact Negi’s mother that Asuna and Negi are blood related. The last chapter showed that Arika has the same heterochromia Asuna has meaning Asuna and Arika are related by blood. (at least in some way whether their sisters or any other type of relative is left up to speculation) Man now all those ecchi moments between the two them just seem weird.
Awesome Chapter! All the KonoSetsu fans are gonna/have squeal/ed! XD
But now the good stuff, more pactio info is being dugged in. ANB seems to have covered the AL part, but I’ll go abit further. Apparently, all of Al’s cards are the same design, with one minor differences. The roman numeral numbers are different on his dead cards (theres one with 4 and another with an X/10 roman numeral).
I’d like to theorise that different magisters may affect how the card is designed. This is basically because making a pactio with Negi, the his “wall of seperation mind” (XD) he views all his student pactios as students, hence why the roman numerals are the specific class number (though Misora is still number nine, this may be due to being contracted with either Shakti or Cocone, school related mages).
And there is also the age of the card. Comparing the NegiPactio and the KonoPactio its obvious that Akamatsu’s art has updated beyond his previous pactio work, but it does characterise the current groth of the character. We can also see this in Mana’s dead pactio, as she seems to have been a ministra back when she was a kid.
And with a same sex pactio done, its more likely now that Al and Jack had to kiss Nagi for the card (Al = Lulz Jack =Bleh! the reactions I thought up XD) though since there friends, they wouldn’t have minded in the end.
Chamo also mentioned going for the Full Contract of the pactio, but it’s yet to be seen what the key difference between a Temporary and Permanent Contract is. Can’t wait for more pactios! XD
Finally, confirmed Arika to be the mother of Negi, as least in this context.
“Ten years ago, he also arranged for Al to give his son a message — interesting how Nagi knew his son would come to Mahora, don’t you think?” – Negi’s diploma started the whole going to Japan thing, and Magus may be in on Nagi being alive. And lets not forget Al’s skills are on par with Eva, so he has the skills to cleverly hide himself, but the why’s still need to be cleared up. Then there’s the request, as far as we know, that Nagi asked off from Al
“If anything were to happen to me, I want to leave some words for the son I haven’t met yet”
“ANYTHING” is the key word I’m looking at. And I’m looking back to Fate vs Nagi (The tie match between them) one.
Jack also gave Ala Alba a video of what happened in the past, but, what if that was all Jack wanted to show? He’s been manipulative to the point and he even wants Negi to be stronger. Something tells me that Nagi might not be Negi, but rather the following:
1. Abiding with some of ANBs theories, rather Nagi=Negi, I thought of Nagi is “within” Negi
2. There is a force that even Nagi couldn’t defeat, and for some reason, like a define prophecy (don’t quote me, all speculations XD) that he needs Negi to be stronger then what Nagi ever was.
And teh “Queen of Calamity”, Godel sure looked like he was on estacy when he said that. Can’t wait for more!
I’m going to take everything at face value so far and assume that what the Governor said was true for the time being. It is the simplest and most obvious explanation and it has yet to be contradicted. Occam’s Razor leads one to believe that this explanation has the least attachments and what ifs, so is the most likely.
In other news, this chapter made the yuri fanboy in me so very happy. God I love this manga.
We’ll I guess we we’re both right. They rolled the yue and mom story lines into one!
instead of negi being nagi… i have the theory where negi is a clone of nagi.. i’m sure they have the cloning technlogy or magic..
also does any else feel that nagi winning the battle against the mage of the beginning during the war seem fishy.. i think he’s still alive.. it seemed like he beat him too easy for the true mastermind.. i think there was more to the it then they know
I agree with Garik. Also my brain is starting to hurt from speculating so much for so long on what-ifs (since way back in the 7th volume). I think I’ll just kinda “go with the flow” for the next couple chapters. Maybe start racking my brain again after the next break lol.
Also, about that kiss…Was the Enigma translation flawed or did Setsuna just say “It…It hurts, Ojou-sama…”
Did Konoka Get Bitey!? O_o
Several new topics I thought of.
Beast forms: Kotaro currently has two of these, Setsuna is a half demon like Kotaro so will we see a full crow demon form? if so what will it look like?
The Lifemaker: my opinion on how the Lifemaker “died” is this what if the Lifemaker noticed that the ritual was complete and decided to flee to the old world Ie our world, but left his cloak behind for Nagi to attack so that people would think he was dead. after all destroying the world would be a lot easier is people did not know you were trying to.
What do you think the artifacts will be for the comrades of Yue?
Finally, do you think that in the next major arc they will investigate Istanbul to find Nagi?
There’s also this (adding to what TCF said): It’s my hunch that the four non-ala alba members will join through pactios. I mean, look at their skill, proven in the Great Mahora War Bam.
Though conversely, it has effects on Negi’s Magic. What will happen after that huh?
Also, I don’t think the Ariadne Knights would let go of Yue so easily. They might transfer temporarily to Mahora and Anya too. It’s just too good to pass up.
My two cents.
I think the reason Emily and co. have jumped in to defend Negi is that Seras have been very clear that she don’t want Negi to get captured, and specially not by Kurt … at least thats their official version … they’re proberly just as dumbstruck by that he have pretty much proven himselves allready to have ties to Yue and Nagi which they’re (Emily and Collet at least) squeeing fangirls of 😛
whoops … forgot something … i think that Kurt, at least to some degree, have ties to Lifemaker (and in turn to Fate) and that Negi ‘merely’ have been tossed into the middle of a protential major political conflict which basicly is a continuation of the war 20 years ago … reason he’s on the list is that they discovered that he was around and wanted to put a hold onto him so he wouldn’t be able to act on their plot
Does no one else notice the hugeness of the lesbianism in this chapter at all?
@ANB: Personally, I thought it was a statuette / action figure that was juggling knives, rather than a picture. Another possibility is that we may have a backwards perspective on it. It could be that Eva heavily modded one of these dolls to make Chachazero.
@Ultimaniac, re nip-lipping: That was how I took it, since it lends support to my “Konoka’s been fully aware of Setsu-chan’s feelings the whole time and accepted them, but loves teasing her by pretending to be innocently oblivious” theory. Also it would seem to confirm that Konoka’s the seme, even though by all the stereotypes it should be the other way around. Tatakae Yuri Rangers! (^_^)
Umm I got a question. Isn’t Asuna over 20+ years old??? I mean you see her with Nagi before, and you see here only as 15 years old at the present time. (btw I read this somewhere, and forgot who said it, so don’t spaz if i took your idea =X)
my guess for pactios might be that people with a lot magical power that make a pactio will get an artifact they kept the artifact when they make a pactio with someone else since it would just suck to lose it after someone dies
the reason Setsuna’s for the new one could be that since Konoka’s raw magical power is supposed have even more than Nagi which could mean Negi too and you probably get a different one if the person you make a pactio is stronger than the previous but if they aren’t you get the same one you already have and since Negi is not dead Setsuna will have two
P.S.
how could negi and nagi be the same person if the pactio card say the name of the people who made it or could it be that the pactio card put down the name both people know each other as
I knew you were going to mention the Negi=Nagi theory. And I was going to rag on you about how there was yet another nail for the theory’s coffin with Godel’s statement regarding Negi’s parentage. Buzzkiller. :p
It is interesting that Konoka says that she wants to be a magister magi just like “Negi’s fater and mother.” Did Konoka come to the conclusion that Arika is Negi’s mother on her own, or did Rakan tell her?
Anywho, the hologram in front of the Chachazero figurine says “Antique Evangeline’s Automaton” and gives a price of 530,000 drachmas. I wonder if Chachazero is raking in some mad cash from her likeness rights.
And of course there’s the chapter highlight: the KonoSetsu pactio! Akamatsu’s been teasing us with these two since back in volume 4. What is that, like five years? I guess it’s finally safe to say they’re a canon couple now, as if it weren’t implied a long time ago.
As to the pactio kiss itself, it’s obvious they were both really into it. Kono-chan slipping Secchan the tongue, and was it me or was Setsuna groping Konoka’s right breast? Kinda reminds me of my now second-favorite pactio kiss: Kaede and Negi. They seemed really into it, too, and it looked like Negi was groping Kaede.
Also, I LOLed at Chamo when he was holding a stopwatch and saying that the KonoSetsu kiss was a new record. Setsuna even had her breath taken away. “Fwah! It hurts, ojou-sama!” God, this is like one of my top 10 Negima chapters ever.
arimareiji said…”Personally, I thought it was a statuette / action figure that was juggling knives, rather than a picture.”
Looking at the cleaned up image, you are likely right. The text above the statuette is likely just saying the artifact is for sale.
Anonymous said…”Umm I got a question. Isn’t Asuna over 20+ years old???”
Yeah, and that was long a point of contention too as people rejected the notion of Asuna being MUCH older than she looked.
Garik said…”Occam’s Razor leads one to believe that this explanation has the least attachments and what ifs, so is the most likely.”
Normally I’d say “yes,” but if I’m right, Akamatsu-sensei has been throwing out clues that this is the case for a long time. To keep things interesting, he’d muddy the waters some. I think that’s why we won’t know for sure the whole story of Nagi and Arika until the manga is almost over. In my mind, there’s no reason for everyone to not tell Negi straight up about his mother and father.
Also, Occam’s Razor lead most folks to assume that Chachamaru had a pactio with Eva. Initially, I accepted that premise as well until more information about the pactio system came out, combined with Eva’s own curse and Chachamaru never producing an artifact (unlike Chachazero) lead me to change my mind on the subject. People poo-poo’d the notion, but my gut said otherwise and I’ve since been proven right — Chachamaru has no pactio with Eva. She is a “partner” in a non-pactio sense of protecting Eva since Chachazero is worthless when Eva has limited powers.
Anon said, “how could negi and nagi be the same person if the pactio card say the name of the people who made it”
The same way that Negi and Asuna made a pactio and Asuna’s NEW name showed up rather than her original name. Since Asuna had no memory of that life, she has a new personality and a new identity and that’s what the pactio card picked up. If I’m right, it would be the same thing for Negi, who wouldn’t know he’s Nagi and so the pactio card displays the name he currently has not his former identity.
ShadowOfTheVoid said…”I knew you were going to mention the Negi=Nagi theory. And I was going to rag on you about how there was yet another nail for the theory’s coffin with Godel’s statement regarding Negi’s parentage. Buzzkiller. :p”
Well, I knew I was going to get ragged. *lol* I’m sure that if I’m ultimately proven wrong, you guys will have a field day with me and that will be fine too. ^_^ Of course if I’m right, I’ll be doing the Cabbage Patch for sure. ^_~
Gah! Accidentally submitted before I was ready. ^_^;;;
I would guess that like almost everyone who’s a fan of the series, Konoka’s assumption is that Arika is Negi’s mother based on Jack’s film. Even Negi assumes this to be true though no one has told him this until the governor came along and said something.
“Anywho, the hologram in front of the Chachazero figurine says “Antique Evangeline’s Automaton” and gives a price of 530,000 drachmas. I wonder if Chachazero is raking in some mad cash from her likeness rights.”
Oooo! Coolio. I think it would be a hoot if somehow Chamo was involved in selling this piece of artwork. ^_^
Eva is likely about as famous as Nagi is in the MW, only she has a huge bounty on her head. However, I’m guessing that she still has fans and Chachazero — the most evil yet lovable doll ever created.
I wonder what Eva did to obtain such a bounty now. When Eva was introduced in volume 3, the bounty was established to help with the notion that Eva is pure evil. However, while she may be evil, she’s not a villain any longer.
ANB:”I wonder what Eva did to obtain such a bounty”
Well, she lived and killed for hundreds of years, being the ultimate Kind. Isn’t that enough?
My impression is that much of that wasn’t done on the Magic World. So I’d like to know how she found out about the Magic World and what she did there to earn a bounty. Yeah, in the end Nagi did snare her and curse her, but even then, Ala Rubra don’t regard Eva as evil or a villain. Indeed, Takahata instructed Negi to seek Eva out. The Headmaster trusts her enough to go through a terrible ritual in order to get her to Kyoto along with Chachamaru and Chachazero.
I just think there’s a specific, interesting story that could be told there. Whether Akamatsu-sensei decides to tell it or not is another issue.
ANB, that story of Eva’s you speak of probably has something to do with Rakan having the Magia Erebea scroll, that’s certanly unique and of unestimable value, since it contains a fragment of Eva’s soul.
Actualy, if my gut is right, the reason Negi can now use the Magia Erebea is because Eva sealed her’s in that scroll to get rid of the Encroachment. Basicly, she got rid of the part of her soul that was begining to be consumed.
for the people who are talking about pactios, there are other ways to do pactios because chamo even said that there are other ways but they are annoying. So kissing isn’t the only way to do pactios.
fg7dragon — so that discarded piece of her soul is the copy-Eva who helped train Negi?
@Anonymous#29: I was wondering when someone would bring up what Chamo said in ch19/p14. It’s theoretically possible that Chamo was fudging the truth about pactios because he’s an ero-ermine, and the other methods aren’t particularly difficult. But I think it’s a lot more likely that Akamatsu-sensei will go the other direction and say they’re practically impossible, just because the kissing part is so entrenched now. (If the subject even comes up, that is.)
Just wondering, does anyone remember when Kaede pactioed?
@arimareiji: kaede’s pactio was in ch 234.
yes that was her artifact she pulled out