July 9th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 28 Chapter 257 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 257
Negima! Manga Vol 28 Ch 257 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Aisha and Lyn, Nodoka’s female treasure hunting companions, present a wardrobe of elaborate dresses for all of Negi’s female students to wear. Negi and Kotaro have tuxedos as well. Negi is troubled by the idea of the non-battle-harem girls coming to the ball with him but Paru won’t hear of them being left behind. Paru sees it as making connections and that excites her writer’s blood. Asakura points out that she might be able to learn more information about the Magic World in addition to Negi’s parents. Chisame tells Negi that it wouldn’t be fair to leave them out now. Negi bows to this.
Paru mentions how attending the ball could be the romantic event of a lifetime. This idea strikes Yuuna, Makie, Chachamaru, Natsumi, Ku, Ako, Sayo, and Akira.
Because they are leaving, Nodoka decides that she needs to say goodbye to her former treasure hunting companions Craig, Kris, Aisha and Lyn. After saying goodbye, Nodoka promises to return one day. Elsewhere, Yuuna and Makie pay a farewell visit to Johnny and Toragoro. Still elsewhere, Akira, Ako, and Natsumi say goodbye to “Mama Bear.”
Negi has final words with Tosaka, wondering if Tosaka resents Negi’s mother Arika. Tosaka remarks on Queen Arika and how she was believed to be the mastermind behind Kosmo Entelecheia and thus tried and executed 18-years ago. Even today, she’s known at the “Witch of Calamity” but Tosaka doesn’t resent her, remembering how she was before the war. He also remembers feeling sad when the announced her execution. However, if Negi is the son of Arika and Nagi, it would mean the government lied. Tosaka likes the idea of Nagi rescuing her and their going off for a happy ending.
With the girls getting ready for the ball, Natsumi decides to waste some time until she goes in to change last. She sees a large map of the Magic World and remarks out loud on how it looks like Mars. Negi hears this and encourages Natsumi to continue since her remark triggered a memory. Natsumi states that “Chizu-nee” has a globe of Mars and Earth as a member of the Astronomy Club, so Natsumi has looked at the Mars globe. This has Negi wondering if the Magic World and Mars are indeed the same place.
Thoughts/Review: So, Arika is officially dead, huh, and she was executed 18-years ago. BWAH!HA!HA!HA! Akamatsu-sensei cracks me up with Arika. If my theory ends up being right, he will have had his fun with everyone by sending them down the wrong rabbit hole.
Is she dead or isn’t she? It is possible that she’s still alive but in all the flashbacks we’ve been shown after the war, there is no Arika. Ala Rubra did a lot of stuff over the years after the war but during those eight years, there’s really no Arika. There is an Eva in those years though just how long and exactly when Eva hooked up with the group is a big mystery.
So, if Arika is still alive, what was she doing during all those years while Nagi is off going here and there? Of course, like almost everything concerning Arika, there is a massive amount of assuming going on, such as an ongoing relationship between the two (Nagi and Arika), to say nothing of the assumption that Arika is Negi’s mother. ^_~
To me, if Arika were alive, she would most certainly have to be disguised and well hidden in order to pass detection. I know people have mentioned that maybe Nekane is in fact Arika in disguise. That would certainly keep her hidden and also explain why Nagi apparently had an interest in Nekane. If Nekane is Arika in disguise, then it would also lay the groundwork for Nagi to become Negi in my own theory and thus hide in plain sight. It would also explain why the demons were summoned to take out the village if someone suspected the truth. Amazing that only two people survived that attack on Negi’s village — Negi and Nekane. Also amazing that Nagi comes to save the day. ^_~
Enough about Arika for now. I’m sure you guys may have more to say on the matter in the comments. *lol*
The Mars revelation isn’t that big a deal, though I understand that in Japan, it is quite a big deal. I guess that while we in the west fairly quickly sauced out that the Magic World and Mars were one and the same, I gather that many in Japan either did not link the two places or did not believe it. Regardless, I get the feeling that based on Negi’s reaction, Chao will get a name drop and possibly a flashback cameo image in chapter 258.
I liked the goodbye moment with Nodoka and her former comrades. You know what would be nifty (well, if Akamatsu-sensei had the time)? A chapter showing a complete adventure of theirs. ^_^
Paru is still up to her usual tricks. I swear, before this chapter, I had no belief that Akamatsu-sensei would give us a pactio or anything. However, I do remember the Kyoto arc where Nodoka scored her pactio card. In the middle of some serious issues (protecting Konoka and delivering the message to her father, Eishun), we had a spot of fun and that may well happen here too. We’ll see.
Akamatsu-sensei is dropping the idea that the Magic World arc is coming to an end soon with the plan being to immediately leave after the ball. This bothered me because we have Anya missing and Yue with another team. Then I thought, “Negi is getting people like Makie, Ako, Akira, etc. off world before taking the battle harem and Kotaro to rescue Anya.” I would bet that would be the plan.
Negima! Chapter 258 won’t be out next week so no spoilers on Saturday. I’ll try to find a nice Negima! image to post though. ^_^
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You know, if Arika is Negi’s mother(which I think she is), my guess is that she disappeared with Nagi ten years ago. I’ve always thought how Nagi could be beaten, and possibly by Fate no less, and then I realised something. What if Fate attacked on the day of Negi’s birth, and took Arika hostage, distracting Nagi enough to teleport Nagi and Arika to somewhere secret, and then imprison them both. In that event, if Negi finds Nagi, he finds Arika. It explains where she is currently, and how Fate and his followers beat Nagi.
Back to the theory Mr.Astro? When you get a chance please type the theory so we can stop getting bits and peices. Onto other things, aw Choa how we missed you. five dollars says Negi is going to be beating himself up for his action against Choa in the Festival Arc. And Sayo is still in the her Gundam (woops) I mean Golum thing. I guess Paru can make her creation last a little longer. Is it just me or did Sayo steal cuteness spotlight for this chapter? As usual thank you for the chapter review Mr.Astro.
Well, on Akira, seeing as when Eva was hanging around AR some 15 years prior, there was no Asuna there either, maybe the 2 of them were off waiting for Nagi to ditch Eva, as both were supposed to be at least “missing”.
I had seen some of the similarities to Mars and the Magic World before, but I just thought it was more of an inspiration thing, just like the Stone Henge portal or something like that. I didn’t really think it’d be a big plot point like it is probably going to be. And the fact that they were acting like they were going to leave bothered me too. I honestly doubt Akamatsu-sensei would make the story end so abruptly like that. But the idea that he was going to drop off the magic-less girls and move in with the Battle Harem seems to be a much better plan. 🙂 So could you give us an example of the fan reaction in Japan? Since I saw some people react like it’s a big surprise and you said the Japanese fanbase seems to be reacting in a more surprised way, I figured it’d be interesting to see. All in all, I’m very excited to see how Akamatsu-sensei takes this Mars angle and ties it into the Chao arc, something he hasn’t really done before, at least not on a big scale like this. And ONE WEEK RRRGHH.
I am sort of considering the theory that Eva and Arika are the same: they look alot alike and Queen of Calamity seems like a good title for Eva. Well, I don’t believe it yet but I will be looking for clues about it.
As for the closing of Magic World, I guess Negi forgot about Anya (nah, my guess is that he believes Anya is near the gate port so they can just grab her and go). Did Yue get back her memories yet? It didn’t show her saying good bye either.
Eh, one of these days I’ll get her name right on the first try
To hughroe: You will only be able to get Arika’s name right on the first go in your dreams.
Before I get to the long part of this reply, I want to address the issue of this arc’s end. Personally, I think we have a lot more to go. I agree that Negi isn’t planning on leaving, but rather just sending the mundanes in his group (and perhaps some of his battle harem) back to Earth, and then commence to rescuing Anya, finishing things with Fate (for now…), and learning the truth about Asuna and Shiori-Asuna. Of course, even if the current arc gets concluded relatively soon, there’s still a whole bunch of unresolved plot, plus IIRC Akamatsu said something along the lines of Negima being only halfway done at the start of the current arc, which means that it’ll last until at least volume 40.
As to one of the other big plot-related revelations, I have a whole long post composed, but it looks like I might have to split it off into a second reply since Blogger isn’t letting me post the whole thing in one reply.
Well, it looks like it was a post length-related issue. Now, on with the rest of what I wrote.
So, Arika was executed 18 years ago for war crimes, at least according to official government propaganda. There are several explanations for this apparent contradiction between her execution in 1985 and Negi’s birth in 1993:
1) Tosaka is right that it’s a lie that she was executed and that she was rescued by Nagi — in which case she might still be alive today — and the two eloped and had Negi.
2) Negi is actually several years older than he appears, much like how Asuna is actually around 30 (give or take) rather than her apparent age of 14.
3) Arika is not Negi’s mother.
I happen to like #1. It’s romantic and cheerful and sounds like something Akamatsu would do. It’s also the simplest and most straightfoward explanation. Negi seems to accept it. As to her whereabouts after her supposed execution, I’d imagine that after Nagi rescued her she obviously had to go into hiding (she is considered, wrongly, to be a war criminal by many), though what she was up to — besides having a kid, of course — and where she is now isn’t known. Of course, there still isn’t a clear sequence of events established in all the flashbacks involving Negi & Ala Rubra.
#2 could exist alongside #1, though it’s unnecessary if #1 is true as Arika easily could have had Negi in 1993 as 1985 or any year inbetween. However, either #2 or #3 have to be true if she really was executed. If she was executed 18 years ago, Negi would have to be at least 18 if he is her son. Then again, she could very well not be Negi’s mother at all.
However, I doubt we’d have all this build-up about her being Negi’s mother just for all that to be a flat-out lie. Also, if she’s not his mother, then who is? I suppose some people would just assume that Negi=Nagi, which also entails that a lot of everything else we’ve been led to believe is a lie. A massive lie so vast in scope that not a single character knows about it, not even Nagi himself once everything is all said and done, since one of the conditions for Negi=Nagi to work is that he would have to wipe his memories (unrelated to his memories, he’d have to also change his personality and even his blood type). Given everything that’s happend to this point, having Negi=Nagi and all that would entail (Arika not being Negi’s mother, among a whole host of other things) would seem awfully Gainax-esque, particularly in regards to how it’d affect the cast (read: mind screw of epic proportions). I doubt Akamatsu will pull a Hideaki Anno on us. Negima isn’t Eva. It’s simply a shounen action/comedy, albeit a very well-writted and well-drawn one.
As to the idea some have about Nekane being Arika in disguise, I doubt that as much as I doubt Negi=Nagi. For one, Nekane refers to Nagi’s brother/Negi’s uncle as her father (unless he’s actually in on the façade, which is unlikely considering no one else is). Also, her sweet onee-sama personality is different from Arika’s tsundere disposition. To top things off, she hardly favors Arika (aside from the blonde hair), unlike Negi who’s the spitting image of Nagi.
Personally, I think everything is as it is stated, including Negi being the child of Nagi & Arika. Anything else is just wild mass guessing.
Well, I think that covers everything. It took forever to compose this, plus I took a break to eat dinner, so sorry if I missed anything extra posted between 8 PM and now.
@anon — If Arika disappeared, she disappeared 18-years ago.
@mega-dark — Well, maybe I could just lay out some stuff and skip doing a lot of research. We’ll see.
Also, Sayo-chan is almost always a scene stealer in all her forms. She and Chachazero have a knack for that because of the way Akamatsu-sensei draws them. ^_^
@Hugh — That’s another blank in the timeline. We know that Asuna was with Ala Rubra for some time and traveled around with them. It has been implied that she was possibly with what was left of Ala Rubra when Nagi “died” (though Nagi may have just made himself scarce).
Eva has been seen with Nagi in a one-on-one basis (along with Chachazero). However, we’ve never seen Eva travel with the group and yet they all knew her. Heck, Rakan had one of her scrolls. Theo, Seras, and Ricardo appear to have known her. Al knew her and apparently loved to tease her. Takahata apparently learned with her.
So, that begs the question of when exactly did Nagi meet Eva? When Nagi captured Eva, it was implied that Nagi didn’t know Eva’s true form but looking back, that encounter may be Nagi simply being amused not at learning something new, but amused at what the reaction of others would be if they knew the truth.
That’s always had me wonder why Nagi snared Eva, cursed her, then placed her in the school. I’m guessing it would have to be for her own protection though clearly Eva did some sort of “evil” as Nagi saw it. Yet she was able to hang with Ala Rubra.
@RRS — My reports on Japanese reactions are from 3rd-party sources which is why I tried to couch my statements. I did note a considerable amount of chatter on 2ch but my own Japanese is not at a point to determine what they are saying.
@mastermack0 — You’re not the first to propose this theory. If it were true, Eva would have to have been using an alias “Arika.” There would be the problem of how she officially became part of the royal family and a queen but if Eva and Arika were the same, it could explain how all of Ala Rubra knew her. It would also explain how Arika survived her execution since Eva had been executed once before (burned at the stake). It might explain Eva’s love for Nagi.
We’ll see how things continue to play out though.
Arika, Akira — so close and so far. *lol*
If everyone thinks Arika died 18 years ago… why would Godel have called Negi her son, when he knows he’s only 10? IMO, the only explanation is that he really does know a lot more than he’s said so far.
From Tosaka’s comments, I think it’s now possible to speculate “who had the most to gain” by attacking the village – someone in the government trying to cover up the fact Arika=Nekane is still alive.
Random silliness remembered… in 181/10, Yue did say one of Eva’s titles is Apostle of Calamity. (According to AQS, that is – the Ikoi Hiroe version was Disciple of Catastrophic Noise.) But I still think there’s virtually no chance Eva=Arika.
You know… Arika backwards is Akira…. (of course, this only works for the romanticized alphabet version BUT this is Ken [he writes in latin after all] we are talking about so its not too far off).
ShadowOfTheVoid said, “Personally, I think everything is as it is stated, including Negi being the child of Nagi & Arika. Anything else is just wild mass guessing.”
Negi being the child of Nagi and Arika is just speculation too. ^_~ After Negi heard the story, he and the girls assumed she had to be his mother though Jack said nothing of the sort. Negi continues with this belief and Godel, who’s shown to be a mind reader, used this notion to bait Negi into an attack.
Akamatsu-sensei has proven that he doesn’t follow the simple solution. Instead, he lays out the groundwork to establish something complex. For example, when people began speculating that Asuna was in fact older than 14, the simple solution poo-poo’d that idea. Yet Akamatsu-sensei had laid out the idea that this could be done through Al, who is not a vampire yet apparently older than he appears. Even with Eva, he proved that appearance does not equate to actual age.
Then, Akamatsu-sensei revealed that Asuna is much older than she appeared and proved the theory correct and the simple solution void.
@arimareiji — “If everyone thinks Arika died 18 years ago… why would Godel have called Negi her son, when he knows he’s only 10? IMO, the only explanation is that he really does know a lot more than he’s said so far.”
Well, I’ve addressed some of this earlier. I think Godel was simply baiting Negi, even possibly using Negi’s own thoughts against him when it comes to Arika.
That said, Godel may know more than he’s said. In fact, I think that’s highly likely.
@AstroNerdBoy
Same Anonymous, sorry if their was any confusion, I meant that she went into hiding 18 years ago, and disappeared with Nagi 10 years, which is why she hasnt been introduced, why Negi didnt grow up with her etc etc. To the general public she was executed 18 years ago, while to those in the government she disappeared 18 years ago, and to Ala Rubra she disappeared 10 years ago with Nagi. So she disappeared from the public eye 18 years ago, and from the private eye 10 years ago. Sorry if I’m hard to understand.
I understand where you are coming from, Anon, but the problem with this second disappearance by Arika is that Negi was not raised with any knowledge of his mother. Negi was raised only as the son of the Thousand Master and we had no mention of Negi’s mother until well into the Magic World arc. It would seem that Negi would have been told something about his mother too, no matter whom that woman is.
Still, got to love how Akamatsu-sensei weaves a story. ^_^
but who would decide if negi should know about his mom? who exactly is negi’s “legal guardian”
I’ve always assumed it was his cousin Nekane, and if thats the case maybe she decided not to tell negi anything about his mom. maybe Nekane resents Arika for something?
Hm… someone who’s been dead for 18 years having a ten year old child. I’m not really sure that works. I wonder if the ghost-powered Gundam can conceive? …And now I’ve stopped wondering. I think that works significantly worse than Arika escaping execution.
Though if the Negi=Nagi theory turns out to be correct, Arika really could have died. I doubt the Ala Rubra would’ve stood by and let that happen, but she could’ve been killed and Negi would still exist. I think that actually makes more sense than her being his mother, honestly. So many people knowing that the Thousand Master has a son, but not knowing that the woman who gave birth to him was supposed to be executed eight years before? I can’t quite picture Nagi’s fangirls not making every effort to discover the identity of his lover, and I’m pretty sure that if Arika was really Negi’s mother, a persistent rumor of some sort would’ve popped up at some point.
While I have some sort of reason to bring up the Negi=Nagi theory, I was reading chapter 117 over again today and wondered why, when Al was fine with taking Nekane and Anya’s forms, he didn’t bother with Negi’s. Making himself look exactly like the person he’s fighting seems like the type of screwy thing he’d appreciate. That led to me wondering if maybe he actually couldn’t take Negi’s form, since if he did that, the book containing Nagi’s sense of self would turn into Negi’s, and he’d never be able to deliver Nagi’s will. Also, he always had his hood up until after the festival. I’m kinda curious if he did that so Negi wouldn’t see his face and end up remembering things like Asuna, and if after the fight it was okay, since by then Negi was so sure in his thinking of Al as his *father’s* friend that his mind would ignore any hints suggesting a different connection between them.
…And I think I’m up just a little too late to check if that makes any sense whatsoever.
“So many people knowing that the Thousand Master has a son, but not knowing that the woman who gave birth to him was supposed to be executed eight years before? I can’t quite picture Nagi’s fangirls not making every effort to discover the identity of his lover, and I’m pretty sure that if Arika was really Negi’s mother, a persistent rumor of some sort would’ve popped up at some point.”
It is things like this that make me believe that Nagi is indeed Negi.
Horrible thought: If Arika was executed 18 years ago and Negi is 10, maybe that just means Nagi is into some extreme necrophilia? Technically, that’s what boinking Eva would be anyway…
@ANB (and a couple others):
It does happen that a child does not know who one parent is (Hunter x Hunter, for example). Mind you, Arika is an incredibly important person, so it makes it less likely (not that having important parents isn’t sometimes well-hidden from the child, e.g. Star Wars!). However, according to Theo, Ala Rubra did not want Negi to know select information about Mundus Magicus, so they (and their associates) might we responsible for Negi knowing nothing about her. I’m not against the theory, but I still try to point out that some assumptions might not end up holding; I was thrown for a couple loops when reading Love Hina and I think that guessing what the author will write is fun, so I won’t be condemning any ideas.
personally, i feel the only reason to HAVE massive build-up of anything is to have it be revealed as a lie, but that’s just me.
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