October 15th, 2009 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 29 Chapter 267 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 267
Negima! Manga Vol 29 Ch 267 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
With Arika holding Nagi from behind, Nagi cracks some jokes and ends up being repeatedly punished by Arika, who is not amused. She further informs Nagi that she is no longer a princess, but is now a queen. Nagi makes an attempt to be serious, promising to take Arika anywhere she wishes but she can’t tell if he’s joking or not and unleashes on him again. Nagi realizes that something is troubling Arika but she won’t say. Arika counters that Nagi is also hiding something.
Twenty-three hours earlier, Arika is leading the forces when the ball of energy to destroy the world begins, thus she orders an attempt to seal it. In the middle of that, Nagi discovers that his 2600-year old master, Zect, is sacrificing his life to bring an end to humanity as they aren’t worth saving. However, the combined efforts of Arika and Nagi stopped the end of the world and the war was over.
Back in the present, Nagi proposes that they tell each other but seeing Nagi’s face makes her not trust him and she walks away after slapping him in the face.
Nagi is reunited with Jack, Al, and Eishun at a bar outside of the capital. Eishun and Jack are surprised that Zect died, causing Nagi to start to say something until he’s waved off by Al. Jack sees Nagi’s gloomy expression and figures this is about Arika. He offers to sell Nagi an Arika figure for a large sum of money. Nagi does talk about Arika to his comrades where Jack learns about Arika being queen, having taken the throne from her father after he was exposed as being a puppet of Cosmo Entelecheia. Nagi mentions wanting to take Arika and young Asuna to Eishun’s home town in Kyoto but now that she’s a queen, that likely won’t happen.
Elsewhere, Arika remembers Nagi’s words to take her anywhere and thinks back to where she experienced soft-serve ice cream for the first time with Nagi. Nagi promised to take Arika on a proper date to Kyoto along with young Asuna. Arika decides that Nagi’s words are enough when Gatou and young Gödel arrive with the news that the first stage of the collapse of Ostia is about to begin. Gatou reminds her that although they had moved the population to a isle away from the capital and controlled the information flow, it won’t be enough once the floating islands begin falling to the ground. At this, Arika takes charge of the situation.
Thoughts/Review: Up until this chapter, we’d not seen any evidence of Asuna being the “Princess-chan” that Nagi spoke of, though it seemed pretty obvious to be the case. Finally, Nagi addresses her as “Asuna” and though still only an image of an imagined event (the Kyoto date), the image imagined by Nagi does have Asuna in it. I can’t remember if Nodoka, Asakura, Sayo, or Chisame know that Asuna is a princess (I’m thinking not), but they do now. That makes me wonder if Akamatsu-sensei is getting close to bringing in the real Asuna or not.
I guess I see where this is going short-term, but it still leads to a bit of a problem. The fall of Ostia would seem to get blamed on Arika and thus as a wanted criminal, she would be executed. Asuna is snagged by Ala Rubra and she travels with them ultimately to Earth. Where is Arika during this time since she supposedly lived to give birth to Negi so many years later?
I figure for Eva and Asuna to miss each other (as Eva traveled with Ala Rubra for a time too), then Asuna could only start traveling with Ala Rubra some fifteen years plus ago at best. Since we see Eva following a solo Nagi for a time until he traps her and contains her within the Mahora campus grounds, that could cover several weeks or a few months. Then again, Nagi’s first encounter with Eva could have been years prior to his final encounter where Eva doesn’t reveal whom she is until that final encounter.
Now, does Eva know about Arika? It would seem she would know. After all, she knew about Nagi’s place in Kyoto (to which I’m reminded, “why no images of Nagi and Arika together?”) and if she traveled around with Ala Rubra for a while, one would think she would learn about Arika at some point or other.
No matter how you look at it, how was Arika able to hide for so many years after her execution? Not only that, how was Nagi able to be fruitful and multiply with her? I’m hoping for a few more answers in two weeks.
Jean Luc Ricardo. *lol* Nice one, Akamatsu-sensei. ^_^
Speaking of Ricardo, I wonder why he’s shown so sinister in the flashback image? Part of me wants to say “red herring” as this might be Gödel’s bias since this could be from his personal memories. Then again, maybe not.
That brings me to Zect. Who here thought he’d be aligned with those wanting to destroy the Magic World? Certainly not me. I didn’t expect him to be 2600 years old either, though I did figure he was older than he looked simply because Nagi addressed him as “shishou” — “master.” I find it interesting that Jack referred to Zect as an old “youkai.” It may be a term of affection or it may be that Zect is a youkai considering he is 2600 years old.
It will be interesting to see how things play out, as usual. Since we’ve got two weeks to wait for the beginning of volume 30 (with chapter 268), I look forward to reading your thoughts as well. ^_^
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Zect’s words were definitely confusing. My guess was that he may have been possessed either by Fate or by the Mage of the Beginning himself, but it’s hard to tell right now.
Another chapter that gives a lot of information yet actually does little to clear things up, before I go into that I had a brief though about Asuna and why Negi didn’t include her in this.
Assuming that Negi doesn’t know or suspect that Asuna is fake then this scene explains another reason he did not want her present. The good chance that she would discover the truth about her past. This does bring to mind the question of just how accurate a duplication fake-Asuna is, would she also have access to the hidden/wiped memories. I do wonder though how Asuna had her memories wiped given her Magic Cancel ability, though it is possible she had better control of it when young and chose not to use it when the spell was cast
The chapter does explain (albeit indirectly) how Arika was framed for being part of CE. Firstly her father was part of CE so guilt by association or manipulate the evidence to point to Arika instead. Secondly she launched a coup d’etat to take the throne (evidence of her being power hungry). Thirdly her country collapses just after the victory in the war which could be used to say she was trying to destabalise the world and finally rather than order an evacuation despite knowing the collapse was coming she instead held a party in a safe location. All this taken together makes her quite easy to frame.
Regarding Eva I find her past or the hints about her past to probably be the least internally consistent part of Negima as initially we get the impression that Nagi rescues Eva (why she would need rescue is also an important question unless she initially attacked Nagi for some reason) then followed him around for a month before Nagi got fed up of it and cursed her. It later appears though that she knows all/most of Ala Rubra yet she is somehow ignorant of Asuna’s origin which seems to surprise Al. I am starting to wonder if Eva has had some memory manipulation performed on her as well at some point.
As for the Kurt and “Jean Luc” part, I just put that down to showing that he still had a suspicious nature when young rather than any dodginess on the part of Jean Luc.
As for Zect I am now more confused than ever about what his role in the story will be though his “death” does make it look like he is still alive. His chances of being the “final boss” have in my opinion also vastly increased.
His speech to Nagi can be taken in one of two ways. It can be taken as Zect taunting Nagi over his failure or Zect is speaking with regret that despite everything nothing has been changed and the world will still end.
As for the 2600 year figure I took that to be the age of the magic world or the length of time Zect has known it will be destroyed for rather than his age (though it could be).
Regardless I think we will be seing more of Zect in the future the only question is friend or foe?
Another incredible chapter. I like how Ken-sama incorporates backstory in the current story. I do agree with the notion that when it comes to Eva, things are shaky but I don’t mind since Negima is such a good story.
I had bad feelings about Zect when we were FIRST introduced with the life maker in volume 26. But I still am not sold that he is a bad guy.
I was very, very confused by this chapter. What the hell was going on? Do you mind pointing out where Zect is revealed to have sacrificed his life to destroy all humans? And why does Ricardo look evil? Did he set up the trap? But Godel said the Hellas empire is an enemy too…Does that mean that the 10 year old Theo had a part in the trap?
So is all of this from Godel’s memory? Seems most of you assumed Ricardo was shown with the SHADOWS OF EVIL (Y’know….covering his eyes and stuff) because of how Godel saw him. But how does he know what happened during Nagi and Arika’s personal talk? And all the other little details?
The story has been getting awfully confusing…nothing a slow run through can’t fix later, but I’m not used to such complex storyline in Negima >_< Especially the entire story surrounding Asuna.
Who knew that Akamatsu was a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. lol
I think Chisame already knew from Kamo, that Asuna is a Princess of Vespertatia.
@Mister_Random: My guess for why Eva was ignorant of Asuna’s origin is that Eva and Nagi met before the war, and thus when Nagi didn’t know Asuna, because it makes sense most of Ala Rubra formed before the war. The meeting in Eva’s dream (though I don’t trust any of the details of it) might have happened when Nagi was doing stuff for the AAA in MV after the war.
About Zect… I’d say his speech was basically that even though Nagi won, nothing really changed or will change, and that humanity is still heading toward destruction. My guess is that Zect was passively watching the final battle due to his lack of wounds on the last page he’s shown. Maybe he might be the mystery kid on Fate’s team? From here, the hairstyle’s definitely similar.
http://www.onemanga.com/Mahou_Sensei_Negima%21/209/15/
Yikes! I’m way behind. ^_^;
@5yewy5r — It *appears* that Zect sacrificed his life. If he is youkai, he may or may not be dead.
The story has been getting awfully confusing…nothing a slow run through can’t fix later, but I’m not used to such complex storyline in Negima >_< Especially the entire story surrounding Asuna.
Well, the story has been complex, it is just that this is building more so lately as we learn more backstory.
My guess is that Zect was passively watching the final battle due to his lack of wounds on the last page he’s shown.
That may be, but I think that when Zect went in there with Nagi, he turned on him and did what he did to bring about the end of the world. Hopefully we’ll learn more in a couple of weeks.
Zect’s words were definitely confusing.
Heh!heh!
Who knew that Akamatsu was a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. lol
*lol* Yeah, that was a nice reference for sure. It isn’t the first time I’ve seen TNG referenced in a manga though. Fujishima-sensei had TNG on TV early in the “Ah! My Goddess” manga.
Regarding Eva I find her past or the hints about her past to probably be the least internally consistent part of Negima…
Eva has been the biggest puzzler to me because she doesn’t seem to fit into the puzzle, yet somehow she does fit into the puzzle.
His speech to Nagi can be taken in one of two ways.
True. That said, it almost appears that Akamatsu-sensei is setting up for Negi to pretty much be fighting everybody in the MW. *lol*
I was very, very confused by this chapter. What the hell was going on?
A lot of stuff, though coming from Kurt, I’m taking some of it with a grain of salt in case he’s injected his own negative feelings into the record.
Another incredible chapter. I like how Ken-sama incorporates backstory in the current story. I do agree with the notion that when it comes to Eva, things are shaky but I don’t mind since Negima is such a good story.
I do think that “Negima!” is a well above-average shounen title for sure when it comes to the writing. Good art doesn’t hurt either.
I think Chisame already knew from Kamo, that Asuna is a Princess of Vespertatia.
I believe you are correct.
well … Chisame put together the pieces when Chamo’s mouth got a wee bit to big when Negi and Asuna danced, and he offhand noted that it the most prober that a prince would dance with a princess … i wouldn’t be surprised if Asakura found out on one of her ‘Gather Infomation’ Checks (or at least enough to put together that specific part of the puzzle), and there’s quite a few people who Nodoka could have picked it up from (the only one of the girls, which is certain to know is i guess Setsuna and Konoka, since Negi told them … somewhere between the movie and them getting ready for the festival)
just noticed … appears that Nodoka picked it up as well at the same instance as Chisame … at least she notes that they do look like prince/princess, with Paru commenting that if the past had looked different, then Negi would in fact be an accpeted prince
This is a theory that just now occurred to me, but the small mage that was with Fate when his group attacked the gateport in chapter 187, could that possibly have been Zect? He’s about the correct height and the face, though shrouded in shadow, resembles Zect a bit.
Just a guess, but would be interesting since we haven’t seen much of the two mages that accompanied Fate then.
Another great chapter and I am looking forward to seeing everything tie together.
There is a comment about Asuna being sealed. I wonder if this means that she was in suspended animation (or something similar) for about 10 years. This would really make her a 15 year old girl.
Also, about Zect, my first impression was that he figured that the end of the world was about to come about, so he decided to simply die there as opposed to waiting for the magical world to be destroyed. I like the theories of him being alive. In that case, I think that he thought Nagi would die because of the end of the world and he simply teleported to somewhere safe.