July 23rd, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 28 Chapter 258 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 258
Negima! Manga Vol 28 Ch 258 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
The news that the Magic World is in fact Mars has everyone in shock and even disbelieving. Nodoka tells the what is commonly known on the Magic World about it being on an alternate plane of existence. She sites some examples of this and then states how she and Yue had wondered where such a large alternate plane could exist since it needs a physical body to exist. Mars is the answer to their question.
Hearing this, Negi realizes that the Magic World being Mars explains a great deal, though he’s still missing some pieces. He asks Setsuna if “Mars” reminds her of anything and she remembers Chao. Negi feels that everything about this world is related to his father, Ala Rubra, and even Chao.
That night, Negi and company arrive outside the ball with Shiori-Asuna and Negi reminding Jack of Arika and Nagi. Chisame, still in her “loli” body, says that she has a bad feeling about things and that the results of his choice to continue down this path may well result in him not returning to Mahora. Negi thanks her but says that this path he’s on is so they can return home. Further, he has an opportunity to learn of his mother and father’s fight on this world and if he managed to leave the Magic World without taking advantage of that opportunity, he’d regret it.
Jack attacks Negi, but Negi avoids the attack with little problem. Jack congratulates him and notes how much Negi has grown in power. He figures Negi is OK for another three or so good fights but tells Negi to see Eva as soon as he returns to Earth. With this, Jack Rakan has nothing else to teach Negi and leaves Negi with some words for a real man — protect his women and save the world.
Jack excuses himself to go to the bathroom but as he leaves, he tells Negi that Arika is his mother, no doubt. Jack admits to falling for Arika himself. Jack tells Negi that the Governor-General knows way more than he does and with that, he says he has to take a crap and leaves.
A short distance away, an older-looking Fate drops down and is met by Jack. Fate didn’t expect to see him, especially since Jack had always acted like he didn’t care what happened to the world. Jack acknowledges this, but says that a girl caused him to see that we all have to wipe our own butts.
Thoughts/Review: Jack’s dead. However, I can’t help but wonder if his death will be something that delays Negi and Fate confronting each other again in the Magic World. We’ll see. (We’ll also see if Jack really dies or not.)
The explanation about Mars being the Magic World makes sense and I believe had mostly been figured out by those of us in the west. How many Japanese fans had figured this out, I couldn’t say. However, this did allow Akamatsu-sensei to bring back Chao as a flashback and show that way back when, he was laying down markers to establish this revelation. It is things like this that make me a fan of Akamatsu-sensei’s writing style. He has a well-planned scheme of things and even manages to put in clues in what might be dismissed as a bit of comedy (Chao’s claims of being from Mars).
Arika. Jack’s sudden, “Yep, she’s your mother and don’t doubt it” remark struck me as odd. On the surface, it would seem to end all doubt as to who is Negi’s mother. However, she’s been officially dead for 18-years. So, for eight years, she stayed out of sight while Nagi continued to be an active member of Ala Rubra and did all sorts of things, including travel around with Eva for a time until 15-years ago, he put the kabash on her. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Nagi may have been the one to trap Al on Mahora to make sure he delivered a message to a son who’s not born. Then Nagi goes to Istanbul and “dies,” only to not show up again for a few years until he saves a young, parentless Negi who’s apparently living alone.
So, what we have here is either Akamatsu-sensei saying, “Arika is Negi’s mother” (the simple explanation), or there’s more going on here, which is what I suspect. I haven’t 100% given up on the Negi=Nagi theory of mine, but I do admit that the waters have been muddied there. ^_~
Interesting that Akamatsu-sensei would make a point of comparing the relationship between Negi and Asuna to Nagi and Arika. One wonders if there is meaning behind this, knowing Akamatsu-sensei’s love to drop markers and set the table well in advance of some revelation.
Well, there’s no doubt that Akamatsu-sensei knows how to weave a tale. Big fun does seem to be on the horizon. ^_^
Posted in 
Tags: 
Yeah, Rakan is doomed. But I can’t seem him losing to Fate.
I didn’t see it until just now, reading your recap of what Jack said… but even before reading that you reached the same conclusion, I found myself thinking “Oh, crap. He’s dead, isn’t he?”
There’s just too much finality in making sure Negi knows the truth about Arika, the out-of-nowhere confession about falling for her, and especially in the bit about being a man and taking care of his harem.
But even if that’s not the case (and to be fair, that would be a giant departure from Akamatsu-sensei’s customary tone), I’m much more convinced now that Godel is being set up as Negi’s future ally. It’s almost as if Jack’s telling him who his next teacher should be, and it would mesh interestingly with Setsuna’s goals.
And I still think that if you match what Jack said on pages 18 and 15, he was calling Fate a monstrous turd that he needed to go drop. (Puns intended.) ^_~
@Mastermack — Fate has yet to go “full power.” Were this another shounen manga, we’d have the bad guy say something silly like, “Well, I guess I better start taking you a bit more serious and start using 10% of my power instead of 5%.” *lol* Fate’s interest in Negi goes beyond the Nagi connection but to Negi managing to land two blows, something no one else has done (though it sure looks like Asuna gets a hit on him during the Kyoto arc).
@Arimareiji — Godel becoming the new Eva as it were (Eva being the villain of volume 3 but an ally ever since), eh? I can buy that to be sure but at the same time, I can also see Godel being allied with Fate.
I do agree with you that Jack’s whole remarks on needing to take a crap were 100% a referral to him knowing Fate was arriving. Interesting that Jack sensed him and Negi has not.
Anyone wanna guess who those three fights will be up against. One will obviously be Fate. The second I’m gonna guess will be up against the governor general. The third is anybody’s guess but it would be interesting if it turned out Fate managed to turn the real Asuna against Negi although I doubt that will actually happen.
I’m not 100% sure if they fight, maybe they just talk.
IF they fight Jack will most lose but I don’t think he will die. More likely he will get turned into stone.
This chapter support my theory that Mage of the beginning is both Negi ancestor and didn’t “really” want to destroy MW but more likely restart is somehow it since it’s probably due to collapsing.
Also the compression of Negi and Asuna relationship to that of Nagi and Arika seems pretty damn important especially considering it had little to do with the rest of the chapter. Akamatsu-sensei is probably dropping hints about their relationship so in future when they get “closer” so to speak we wont be able to say he didn’t give us any
The whole “she’s your mother” don’t doubt it line makes me think maybe she’s not his biological mother but that Negi should still think of her as his mother since she was like his godmother (if you’re familiar with the term). This would lend more credence to the whole nekane=arika theory since Nekane has been the one watching over Negi all these years and really acting like his mother figure.
One Pineapple Salad for Mr. Rakan at Table 4, please!
;___;
I lol’d hard at the end there with Rakan. Saying “I gotta take a big ol’ #2” then basically saying “Time to finish whipping” XD
Sooo, I have a new theory!
Nagi’s hiding/trapped in an alternate plane. All that talk about alternate planes could be one of Akamatsu-sensei’s little moments of foreshadowing. Negi mentions that he wants to know what his father was trying to achieve, maybe what Nagi was trying to achieve called for him to go to an alternate plane and he suspected it might have been a one way ticket. Which is why he asked Al to pass on a message to his son.
Or maybe it had something to do with that crazy strong mage Nagi supposedly defeated. Seeing Negi thinking so seriously and bringing him up, “The Life Maker,” “The Mage of the Beginning,” the possibility that that mage could be able to actually create an alternate plane is pretty high. And if my theory is correct, and he somehow survived his fight with Nagi, then it was he who could’ve trapped Nagi somewhere.
I hope that made sense. I could just be thinking too much here 😛
Jack has to be the LEAST genre savvy character in MSN; you DO NOT congradulate your hero apprentice, tell him that you have nothing else to teach him, and secretly leave to confront the big bad alone while sounding like a big hero. He is so dead/petrified.
you guys simply assume Rakkan is going to go down and literally die in the process. To me, Rakan is way too interesting of a character to get killed off, ESPECIALLY due to that cool thing he said at the end of the chapter. Sure, that IS usually how characters die off, as they make say cool stuff at the beginning to make sure they go out with a bang and all… but I still can’t see him dieing. I CAN see being beat to the point where he can’t fight for a while, but I just don’t see him dieing.
I need to wipe my ass. So, it’d be really interesting to see if Jack dies. I’d like to see how Akamatsu-sensei takes that. Maybe it’ll lead to him being consumed by hatred and having the dark magic continue to take control of him…? I’m interested to see the side effects, especially since it seemed that, until recently, the fact that it “takes a toll on the user’s body” seemed to have been just blown over. Also, the explanation solves all the problems people had with the whole Mars-being-the-Magic-World thing. The explanation works, people. No more crap about the gravity, lol.
Hmm.. Rakan comparing Negi and Asuna to Nagi and Arika kind of erked me.
I do NOT want negi x Asuna, just because I don’t want the main male character to fall in love with the main female character. That’s why they are main characters, but still. I’m sick of it >_>
Anyways, I hope Rakan doesn’t die, although it looks like he will… He’s kind of a fun chracter.
Honestly, I have to say that Negi=/=Nagi. I mean, every songle character claims Arika is Negi’s Mother, which practically destroys the theory. Great cliffhanger for this chapter, by the way.
And also, Nagi didn’t trap Al at Mahora, he went there to recuperate from his wounds or something along those lines.
@Pong – Good point; I think you’re exactly right about Jack. 1) That is Fate’s specialty, and 2) it would fit much better with the tone of the story. I’m just used to the type of story where such declarations are practically a suicide note. ^_~
Yeah, Jack’s gonna wind up stoned.
“And also, Nagi didn’t trap Al at Mahora, he went there to recuperate from his wounds or something along those lines.”
And yet as powerful as he is, he can no more travel outside of Mahora (actually, he can’t even travel out from under the library) and can only “see” outside when the World Tree powers up. That’s also when Eva can regain enough power to fly and the like. Even then, Eva cannot leave Mahora and Al cannot leave Mahora. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Al is trapped there.
Why would Al be trapped there and who did it?
We know that Al has been trapped for 10 years. Further, Nagi left a map to show where Al was and those were turned over to Negi by another of Nagi’s companions — Eishun. Also, Nagi had Al use his artifact to record a message to play to this son whom Nagi only knew was to be born but had not been born yet. The best way to insure Negi gets that message is to keep Al in one place (and thus safe) and that Negi gets to Mahora. That happened to the shock of a lot of folks. ^_^
If Rakan gets killed off like everyone seems to be thinking… that would mean Negi still has a ways to go in his training to match Fate. This seems like Akamatsu-sensei is trying to set it up where he extends to Magic World arc even further maybe using Godel as a new trainer. Either way if Rakan dies then Negi will probably end up fighting Fate which will lead to his defeat, capture, and inprisonment in the same place as….? Right Asuna and Anya… hmmmm….
New spoiler images up on Mangahelpers
5yewy5r:
I should like to think that Negi and Asuna hooking up would have nothing to do with being the main characters and everything to do with them liking each other. 😛
I feel like a character death here would be a fantastic way to turn the story towards a more intense, darker path. There’s been a lot of action and a lot of dire trouble so far, but none of it has really felt “real” because everyone has managed to heal via magic and turned out okay in the end, even if they suffered a lot. If something irreparable like the real loss of a friend were to happen, then I think that would bring the story firmly down into reality and give it a good ground to work its action off of. In short: die, Rakan, die!
Well, Jack is 95% dead now, and we’ll lose a very fun ( or retard ) character. But at the veeery least, i think fate wouldn’t show up at the ball ( i hope ).
About the Godel-Eva… i don’t really remember Eva triyng to conquer/destroy the world, you see? but… oh well, i don’t have a good memory.
WoW, they are in Mars ! Cool ! What now? i don’t really see anything useful there ( only the ” created world ” part)… they could even be in Moon! Hell, they could even be in Sun!
I’m thinking for some time now: after this MM arc end, what will Akamatsu do? I don’t really see much story ahead… and if i remember correctly, Akamatsu said something about the Zazie arc be the last one…
Oh well, i hope i’m wrong.
I really hope Jack comes out of this alive. Having a main character die would be rather jarring. While Negima is full of serious violence that wasn’t present in any of Akamatsu-sensei’s previous works (Negi alone has been slashed, impaled, and partially dismembered, though he got better), there really haven’t been any character deaths outside of flashbacks or passing mentions, and even those are either mostly implied or not conclusive.
Of course, if Rakan does die, then it could prove to be one of the most poignant moments of the whole series. Negi loses his mentor and most powerful ally in the magic world, as well as someone who was very close to his parents.
Speaking of which, Akamatsu seems like he really wants to drive home the notion of Arika being Negi’s mother. At first, it was just insinuated, and Negi & his students just assuming she was. Then Godel say she is. Now we have Jack saying so. If Jack does die, then having that be the last thing of importance that he ever says to Negi (the actual last thing being dismissing himself to go take a dump >_<) would really reinforce that notion. After all, when Negi asked Theo if Arika was his mother, she said not until he proved his manhood, which he did so by fighting Jack to a draw at the tournament. That obligation has now been fulfilled. At this point, it's a big stretch to say that Arika is not Negi's mother. Of course, there’s still the question as to how Asuna is related to Arika and Negi. Jack did note that Negi and Asuna reminded him of Nagi and Arika. Of course, if Negi and Asuna do end up being romantically involved (I’m partial to Negi/Eva myself, sooo yeah…), that lends itself to a certain degree of squick, depending on how close Asuna and Negi are related. It’s clear that Asuna and Arika are blood relatives, since they both have the same heterochromic eyes. However, it hasn’t been stated whether they are sisters, cousins, or some other kind of relation. So, Asuna could be as close as an aunt (major squick for most), or merely second or even third cousins (minor to negligible squick). Finally, I like how Akamatsu took the time to have the exact nature of the magical world explained. The whole next-door dimension thing does explain the obvious disconnect between the desolate red Mars and the Earth-like Magic Mars. For anyone who’s interested and hasn’t compared Mars & MW before, here’s a topographical map of Mars: LINK. Just take any map of Mundus Magicus, flip it upside down, and compare the two. Akamatsu’s eye for detail is amazing.
The whole, “We decided not to tell you what happened to your mother” element has never set well with me. It makes absolutely no sense for anyone to not tell Negi, “Your mother is Arika.” Heck, no one, including Negi himself, ever mentioned his mother and I have always found that strange. Now there’s this push to say, “Arika is your mother.” OK, let’s say that is how it is — that still doesn’t explain why not tell him anything.