Negima! ~Another World~ OAD/OVA Ep. 01 Review
魔法先生ネギま！～もうひとつの世界～ Episode 01
Mahou Sensei Negima! ~Mou Hitotsu no Sekai~ OAD – 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ala Alba arrive in Great Britain and are soon found by Ayaka’s group. Donet says that everyone will be welcome at Negi’s village so off they go where Negi is reunited with his “oneechan,” Nekane. After a meal, Negi and Nekane meet the principle of Negi’s old school where Negi reveals he’s going to the Magic World. The elderly mage leads Nekane and Negi to the underground room where the petrified villagers from Negi’s old village are kept, including Stan. Negi has some words to Stan before leaving.

The next morning, Donet leads Ala Alba to a stone ring that is the gate to the magic world. Ayaka catches Asuna and makes Asuna promise to bring everyone back OK, especially Negi-sensei. Asuna promises and is off. Little do they know that also following them are Yuuna, Makie, Ako, Akira, and Natsumi. When the gate activates, those five girls are also transported to the Magic World. So while Setsuna and Negi take care of their sealed weapons at the gate port and some of the other girls go to have a look at the Magic World, the five girls are caught.

Negi and some of the others of Ala Alba are astonished to see Yuuna and company and those girls are in shock, not understanding what is happening. Negi senses something and has Setsuna begin sensing for something wrong while he directs the members of Ala Alba to take up defensive positions. Fate realizes he’s been discovered and sends a stone spear into Negi. Fate is joined by three others and soon Setsuna, Kotaro, and Kaede are defeated. Fate is about to petrify Setsuna but is stopped by Negi, who’s surviving on sheer magical might.

Asuna knows that they need to free up their weapons and pactio cards so that they can fight and Konoka can heal Negi. Using her magic cancel ability, the seal on the storage container is release and everyone gets what they need. Asuna and Konoka activate their cards and Asuna goes to attack but Fate passes her to take out Konoka. Setsuna shields Konoka from attack and counters but ends up not doing any damage as she hits his water form. Fate is about to attack Setsuna but is hit by Fu Fei’s attack. Asuna gets Negi to Konoka and protects them from attack, allowing Konoka to heal.

The rest of Ala Alba arrive as Kaede and Kotaro return to the fight. Fate changes his opinion of Ala Alba but as Negi challenges Fate, Fate slaps him down, revealing how weak Negi is. Fate is told that they are ready to leave so he orders that a forced transportation spell be used to send the members of Ala Alba to various corners of the world. As Fate and company leave, the spell activates and everyone is teleported away.

Thoughts/Review:

And so it begins…

As with the first OAD series, the first episode of Another World pretty much follows the manga faithfully, but has to drop some material. Considering this is an OAD, why should it matter if the episode is 30-minutes (with credit time) or 35-minutes?

The first loss is in the scene where Negi is shown the room where the petrified villagers, including Stan, are kept. In the manga, Negi, the “grandpa” mage, and Nekane are joined by Anya and several members of Ala Alba (Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, Yue, Nodoka, and Chisame). It is here that the girls see an important piece of Negi’s past and we learn that Anya’s mother is one of the one’s stoned. Adding this to the scene would have added about 2.5 minutes at best (maybe three).

The next important loss happened at the gate on Earth where Donet casually mentions stuff about security to include how unauthorized people should not be allowed through the gate. This is important because when Negi senses Fate, realizes that the security can’t be that good if it allowed Makie and company through. This episode makes mention of Negi’s thoughts about security, but Donet’s talk of security should be there to set up Negi’s thoughts. Of course, while Donet makes this little speech on Earth, Negi first senses Fate and has Setsuna on guard. That explains why Negi says what he says at the MW gate and why she is close by. Unfortunately, Negi’s first inkling of a problem is cut too.

The one loss that made sense to me was having the three cheerleaders dropped from the party of Akira, Ako, Yuuna, Natsumi, and Makie when following Ala Alba. Since they didn’t come to the Magic World, there was no sense in including them in the following party.

Asuna taking out one of Fate’s pillars was cut too and I wish that had been left in as well.

Enough with the complaints. Let us get to the good. ^_^

The budget for the episode is saved for the battle between Ala Alba and Fate’s group. So I am not going to complain about some cost-cutting non-animation scenes that are done because I thought the action sequences are pretty good. This is one aspect where the anime beats the manga hands-down. There’s only so much Akamatsu-sensei can do with action sequences in a manga and he does a darn good job of it. The anime format can go all out with the right budget and SHAFT does a decent job to be sure. I could have done without the lengthy henshin sequence for Asuna and Konoka though. ^_^;

Another element that came through very interestingly to me in the anime is Konoka’s healing incantation. Normally, spells are cast with a certain rhythm and flow for the incantations and Negima! has been no exception (though the Negima! OAD’s have had the coolness of a Latin/Japanese overdub for some of Negi’s, Eva’s, and Fate’s spells). So hearing Konoka’s incantation came across as a mantra or chant, which is appropriate due to the fact that Konoka’s pactio costume is that of a miko (as far as I can tell), was a bit surprising but cool.

Also cool is ISHIDA Akira (Xellos in the Slayers franchise and Nagi in the Mai-HiME/Mai-Otome franchise) as Fate Averruncus. I forgot he had voiced the role in the TV series (though to be honest, the time he appeared in the TV series, I was angry with the series and thus didn’t pay much attention) so hearing him speak as Fate was a cool moment for me.

So a lot of good here with a bit of missing stuff I wish weren’t missing. I’m afraid the amount of material that gets the axe will increase as the series goes on though.