February 3rd, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 31 Chapter 278 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 278
Negima! Manga Vol 31 Ch 278 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
As Negi and Ku talk, Negi notices Chisame reading Nodoka’s artifact diary. Chisame doesn’t like what she has read and passes he book to Negi, who’s shocked at what he reads.
Jack arrives unexpectedly, smoldering and with flakes coming off of him. Negi notes Jack’s presence feels weak as Fate arrives, wondering if their arrival at Negi’s location was Jack’s doing. All of Jack’s massive attacks have no effect on Fate as he holds the key-staff. Fate counters with an attack that hits Jack in the arm, dissolving it. Fate mentions that the difference in their power levels is like a deity to a mortal or an ant to an elephant. Fate wonders why Jack struggles against the truth, especially after Jack produces a weapon — Imperial Type-97 Battering Ram Form Magical Armour.
Fate goes to take Jack out but Jack gets behind Fate. Fate again moves to counter this but Jack stays behind Fate and lands an attack, nailing Fate to the ground. Despite being down, Fate says that this is meaningless as Jack is still a goner. Jack tells Fate he should enjoy things more and slams Fate again. However, Jack begins to dissolve into flakes and sees he’s nearly done. He apologizes to Negi for leaving him a mess. As the “planted” Fate observes, Jack completely dissolves as Nagi screams “Rakan-san.”
Thoughts/Review:
The Jack Rakan chapter finally comes.
As most of us expected, Jack has “died.” As I’ve said, I think he and all the other members of the Magic World will return by the time the arc ends. However, Jack did have to get a chapter to go out with a bang. Having established how great Jack’s powers were, Akamatsu-sensei does a good job of showing how futile that power is against Fate with the key-staff. It is interesting that Jack’s artifact power was useless against Fate, but the “Imperial Type-97 Battering Ram Form Magical Armour” worked along with Jack’s impressive skills. Why did this artifact work? Surely, it isn’t part of his artifact is it?
While Fate was put down, he wasn’t eliminated and likely will simply reset himself to an undamaged state. Now that Negi knows the final secret of the Magic World, I expect that Fate’s and Negi’s next conversation will be about that.
No doubt, the various key-staffs are being powered by Asuna’s magic cancel ability. So why is this Imperial Type-97 Battering Ram Form Magical Armour able to plant Fate and then blast him? Could it be a non-illusion item?
Fate implied that Jack has known the truth for twenty years. I’m guessing that was about the time Jack lost his arms.
With Chisame, again I was thinking about how far she has come as a character. Knowing now that the Magic World is nothing but a mere illusion laid over the surface of Mars and combining that with the current events, I couldn’t help but think of how Chisame used to rail against the mere concept of a “fantasy world.” Now, her words end up being even more true than she realized as the Magic World is truly a world of fantasy — pure illusion. Yet she too has formed a connection with this “fantasy world” and the truth of things has affected her as well. It is character moments like that which adds spice to this manga.
Not a whole lot else to say since much of the chapter is dedicated to the fight between Fate and Jack. I do look forward to seeing what Negi does next.
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if the MW really starts cracking at this point, there may not be much time to fight.
the battering ram is his artifact… probably with Nagi. Since Nagi is ‘real’, its not an illusion like everything else.
@Philip — true. Of course, that all depends on how much time Akamatsu-sensei wants to spend on fighting. ^_~
@mastermack0 — I thought the blades were his artifact but then again, he did produce armor with his artifact so what do I know?
@ANB: Although Rakan typically uses blades with his pactio, it’s been mentioned that he could make any type of weapon, such as the spear-things when he fought Kagetaro.
My pet theory – it was stored in his pactio card and made from Mundus Vetus materials.
I don’t know that I like where this is headed. I was really looking forward to everyone getting out of the magical world already. It feels like they’ve been here forever and a day already and I miss some of the characters left hanging back in Japan. For one, I want Negi to finally get a base-touching scene with Eva and Sanders. It’s about time everyone got together and did some info-sharing and rehashing.
@Orion — I hadn’t realized that (either that of I forgot it). Good to know.
@Al — That or it is as Orion says and the pactio card actually allows the creation of any weapon Jack needs.
@Henwy — I never could see a way for Ala Alba to leave the MW without resolving that entire situation, whether for good or bad. The characters left in Japan and in Wales are missed and I’m guessing that Akamatsu-sensei may do some one shots to bring them in during a break in the action of the current story arc. He’s done that before.
As to info-sharing, that would be nice, but as a writer, I don’t think Akamatsu-sensei will go that route. After all, he hasn’t established a means of communications with Al and Eva. Further, Akamatsu-sensei has been laying out information gradually over time and I expect that trend to continue until the resolution of the current story arc.
After reading this and Jack being gone, to me i have a feeling someone important is going to show (Chao possibly going to call Negi an idiot and help them) also i think Takamichi is going to explain to Kurt why he must help Negi right now and Kurt is going to help them also, also if we expect to see people comeing back after getting killed with these keys i expect Zect i think his name was will be back. Also after watching Jack get killed i dont think Negi has the power to fight right now thats why someone else will show up and the Negi vs Fate final showdown ill not happen untill near the end. Just for the fact that Negi is in no condition to fight and if they made them fight i think it would be kind of boring or more like to typical.
ARGH!!!! I haven’t been able to find this or last weeks chapter anywhere! Links anyone!?
RIP Badass manly man Jack Rakan You were up there with Kamina
I have some free time this weekend if, the Scans don’t come out by then ill go ahead and do them. don’t worry ill do a full clean and such no speed scan. ill try and do both 277 and 278 this weekend.
Offtopic:
@Astro, a GP EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION! from Hakubi-fansubs.com for everyone who enjoys ISM and TM!R. Wanna check it?
Regarding Rakan’s Big-O armor working, I think it’s simply that he was attacking Fate from behind. All his failed UBW attacks were from in front of Fate. Maybe Rakan figured out a weakness in Fate’s keystaff defenses and is using his remaining time to show it to Negi. He does make sure to tell Negi to watch the fight to its conclusion…
I’m just really excited as to how to Negi will react to Rakan’s ‘death’ (I, like some people on this blog, believe Rakan plus all MW residents who were ‘petalized’, will come back.) I hope ch 279 come out soon!!!! :):)
@veron good luck with the scans so for people that are hungry for MSN can finally get their fix!! 😛
Somewhat off topic, but Kodansha has posted an image of the cover of volume 29.
http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/kc_up/image/CDB/1234608242/1234608242_cl.jpg
Gah! I see I’m way behind on responses. ^_^;;;
@Nick — Someone important to show up….hmmmm. Could be. Not sure I buy a Chao appearance other than the flashback and thought moments we’ve seen.
@Ku-fei — Can’t help you there. I just have the RAW and a translation.
@Vernon — If no one else has done them, I’m sure there will be a lot of people loving you for your efforts. *lol*
@Evgenidb — Got it. Thanks. ^_^
@Quiqonkenny — I noticed that Jack kept to Fate’s six as well. You may be onto something as this seems to have seperated Fate enough from the key-staff to let Jack “plant” Fate in the ground.
@Kota-kun — I’m hoping that we get to see that last bit of information regarding MW as part of seeing Negi’s reaction.
@Anon — Thanks. ^_^
Poor Jack… getting de-flowered by Fate, what an awful way to go. (;_;)
Not petrification, which was my personal guess weeks ago, but it has the same potential for eventual revival.
I like mastermack’s guess that the battering ram worked specifically because it was from a pactio with an Old World mage. My own personal guess would be that it’s like the other times Jack pwned Fate earlier in the fight — it does have an effect, but all Fate has to do is reset it.
Could a possible Nagi appearance be happening?
guessing that ch279 is Yue and/or Nokoda snapping (Yue doing a good work at trying to steal Mana’s first place on the frag counter)
Both of them was pushed beyond their mental limits with the “deaths” of Emily, Craig and Aisha
how do you get the chapters so fast? where can i read this?
I think ANB is just using the translations from CNET and the raw scans that get posted in various places. I haven’t seen scanlations for the chapters actually appear yet.
I think Rakan’s melee attacks worked for the same reason that Negi’s Raiten Tousou 2 infighting attacks worked against Rakan: You can’t predict or counter attacks made at close range. It’s pretty clear that Fate has to concentrate for an instant to ‘rewrite’ away Rakan. When stuff is flying at him, Fate has plenty of time to disintegrate it away. When the attacks are coming from unexpected directions at close range, it’s a lot harder to aim properly. It’s also pretty clear that Rakan is a good enough fighter to read Fate like an open book and dodge all of Fate’s attempt to zap him. Note that on page 12, Rakan reacts *before* Fate uses Rewrite. Pretty hard to zap someone when they can predict your every attempt and preemptively dodge.
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