August 7th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 33 Chapter 297 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 297
Negima! Manga Vol 33 Ch 297 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Nagi and Arika stop by the dorm room that Negi shares with Asuna and Konoka, who busily prepare snacks and beverages. Arika continues to act shy around Negi which sends Nagi off, leading Asuna and Konoka to remark on how strange Negi’s family is and how much Arika doesn’t act like a mother. Several of the other girls from the class arrive with Ayaka bowing to Arika and having provided lodging for Nagi and Arika.
After the party, Asuna and Konoka clean up and send Negi off to spend more time with Nagi and Arika. They make their way to the World Plaza where Nagi mentions Stan wanting to see Negi, leading Negi to remember the truth that Stan has been turned to stone. After spending one last moment with Arika and Nagi as his parents, Negi stops and addresses Zazie, who’s behind them. Negi asks if this is Cosmo Entelecheia. Zazie says it is an illusion created by “her” but close enough to be considered Cosmo Entelecheia.
Zazie explains that it isn’t just a dreamworld, but a reality that might have been. In Negi’s world, Ala Rubra defeated Fate and company completely 20-years before. Thus, Nagi never went missing, the attack on Negi’s village never happened, Eva never attacked Negi, Graf Herrman never attacked, and Chao’s work during the Mahora Festival would have been delayed. Zazie shows Negi some of the happy worlds some of his companions are in, but Negi says that none of this is real.
With that, Zazie tells Negi that the phrase to escape this world is “Audacia Paula,” which means “a little bit of courage.” She asks Negi if he is sure he wants to leave since he will never be able to achieve the results of this dream world. She even offers him an opportunity to stay with his parents for a night, but Negi refuses, citing his belief that if he stayed, he’d never leave. Determined to leave and meet with Fate, Zazie warns him about her powerful older sister. Zazie promises to be waiting for him with the others on Earth at Mahora. The conversation over, Negi utters “Audacia Paula.”
Thoughts/Review:
I liked the one final bit of fun with the standard actions of all these girls coming by Asuna’s, Konoka’s, and Negi’s room for a party. Even Ayaka’s actions of bowing to Arika were just like her, as was her formal manner of speaking.
Still, if this is a world that might have been, there’s a flaw in the program — Arika. Before the Magic World arc, there was no mention of Negi’s mother. The closest we got was a casual reference by the other girls early on when they learned Negi is an orphan. I have always thought it odd that Negi never once mentioned his mother, only his father. Until we learned about Arika, one could have just blown it off as her being just some ordinary woman who captured Nagi’s heart but was overshadowed by Nagi’s fame. However, Arika was never overshadowed by Nagi. Indeed, she was a leader in the fight against CE in addition to being a princess of Ostia. She was hugely famous and while she’s officially dead, the powers in charge at the Magic World knew she wasn’t dead. So it just seems odd that Negi would never talk about his powerful mother in addition to wanting to follow the father he never knew who happened to “die” as Negi was born.
That plays over into this chapter and indeed the previous chapter. Arika, as noted heavily in the chapter, is not acting like a real mother. So, if this is the ideal world, why would Arika act like some shy stranger, which is totally out of character for her? I know that some of you did a bit of speculating in the 296 review, and I agree that while the world Zazie’s sister created is based on a world where Ala Rubra wiped out CE, Negi added some of his own perceptions into the mix.
The other element at play here is Zazie’s remarks about this illusionary world. As already stated, it is based on the complete win 20-years ago. What is NOT mentioned is Arika. It is “Nagi is around and thus X, Y, and Z never happen.” What about Arika?
We know that after the war, Arika was put on trial and supposedly executed. Even with a total victory, it would appear to me that Arika likely had to go through the same trial and execution for Nagi to save her from. Akamatsu-sensei has been very cagey at not letting us know what happened to Arika afterward, but one suspects that she’s either dead or that she’s in hiding. Since Zazie mentioned that Chao’s antics were merely delayed in Negi’s CE world, this isn’t a perfect world. And while Negi never had a desire for a mother before he saw Jack’s movie featuring Arika, he has that desire now and thus I think that while the others were created and behaved as they would have normally behaved, Arika behaved only as Negi had seen her act (to some degree) when alone with Nagi.
Interesting that the mention of Stan was enough to alert Negi to reality. No doubt Negi would want him to be alive, but the horror of seeing Stan turned to stone before his very eyes and the guild Negi feels about it were too much. I can’t help if Zazie helped with that name drop.
Speaking of Zazie, how’d she get into her sister’s illusion? Are Zazie and her sister twins or is Zazie’s sister using a disguise? Does Zazie have a pactio of her own and if so, then by whom?
I did enjoy getting the glimpse into the perfect worlds of some of the others. Leaving Akamatsu-sensei’s naked apron fantasy aside, I smiled at how so many of the girls had Negi in their fantasies (and I didn’t know Akira loved cats so much). I know some have attempted to speculate on the male in Sayo’s fantasy where she presumably is alive again. The figure is not clear enough to say, “this is so-and-so in the past,” but I found it interesting that Negi wasn’t with her when it was Negi that helped give her courage and end up being a member of Ala Alba.
It is also interesting to see that in addition to Sayo not having Negi in her fantasy (as far as we know), Yue’s fantasy was to be younger and to talk with her philosopher grandfather. It made sense that Natsumi would dream of being with Kotaro in his older form, but it was a laugh that Kotaro still just wants to fight Negi. *lol*
Mana intrigued me the most. She’s tough as nails, as we’ve seen repeatedly starting from the Kyoto arc. Yet in her fantasy, she’s young and appears to possibly the same age she was when her former partner was alive. Indeed, one could speculate that the guy with her is her ex-partner. I found that rather touching as if true, it would show how deeply she loved her partner.
Finally, there are NO spoiler images for chapter 299 coming out this weekend. We’ll see if they come out early next week or not. Akamatsu-sensei isn’t on a break, but the magazine Negima! is published in is.
So a fun chapter with some interesting information and interesting possibilities.
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Zazie is a bitch!
I feel sorry for Mana when the illusion breaks. Reunited with her dead lover only to find out he wasn’t real? She is not going to be happy when she wakes up.
Camos was to great of a paradise… how id love to be there
Regarding Arika…
Key word – Zazie says that the world is based off of what might have been if Fate and his companions had been completely defeated. Those last two words are the key. Bear with me for a bit, because I need to pull together some disparate strands (and add just a bit of speculation…).
We know that Ala Rubra didn’t completely defeat CE because the third Fate is now on the scene. But even at the time – twenty years prior – Nagi still failed to completely stop CE. Nagi defeated the mage, but he failed to stop the ritual that destroyed the magic around Ostia. The Senate made Arika the scapegoat for the destruction of Ostia (among other things), and used that as an excuse to execute her. So if Nagi succeeded, then Ostia wasn’t destroyed, which means that the Senate didn’t have something big to blame Arika for (the rest is just icing on the cake and probably wouldn’t have shifted public opinion), which means that they probably didn’t attempt to execute her.
Additionally, while it’s difficult to run down, there are bits and pieces of information available about the Kingdom of Vespertatia (for instance, the world map in Chapter 230 along with other comments in that chapter). It appears that the kingdom was an independent city-state based around Ostia. It was located between Hellas and Megalosembrina, but wasn’t a part of either. The devastation of Ostia meant that no one was left in Vespertatia, which left Arika as a princess without a kingdom. As such, she was vulnerable to the Senate’s charges. If she’d had a kingdom under her control (i.e. if Ostia hadn’t been destroyed), then the Senate’s accusation would have meant war. Given the general war-weariness at the time, I don’t think that would have gone over very well with the world at large…
Finally, shortly before Arika was sent to her execution, she was visited by one of the senators. This senator dismissed the guard, indicating that he didn’t want to be overheard. He then asked a very curious question… Specifically, he asked how to reach the center of Old Ostia.
Now why would he ask something like that…?
We know that CE has replaced political officials in the past. It’s possible that even at that point – just a few years after CE’s defeat by Ala Rubra – that CE had already reinfiltrated the Senate. And the Senate’s actions since then may have actually been guided by CE. But of course if CE had been completely defeated, then it wouldn’t have been able to infiltrate the Senate…
Of course, that last paragraph is largely speculation.
So there are two – and possibly three – good reasons why the Senate wouldn’t have moved against Arika if CE had been completely defeated by Ala Rubra. Presumably the more solid political base, coupled with the fact that she didn’t need to worry about caring for refugees that had been her subjects, meant that she didn’t feel a need to keep Nagi at arm’s length and went ahead and married him. Though it’s not clear why Negi was apparently raised in Wales regardless. Possibly the marriage was secret due to the social class issues, which would mean that Negi’s conception and existance would have been secret as well; that might also explain why Arika is so shy, though I’m more inclined to stick with the “she’s shy because Negi thinks she should be” theory.
Or maybe I’m just overthinking things…
Negi not thinking about his mom for so long was probably more the fault of everyone around him when he was a kid as they mentioned his father often stating his heroic exploits as the thousand master but as his mom more known as the “queen of calamity” who brought down Ostia, aided CE in the war, conspired against her father, she is even blamed for the existence of slavery in the magic world..
so I think it’s understandable that no one ever mentioned Negi’s mother in front him..
“I have always thought it odd that Negi never once mentioned his mother, only his father. Until we learned about Arika, one could have just blown it off as her being just some ordinary woman who captured Nagi’s heart but was overshadowed by Nagi’s fame. However, Arika was never overshadowed by Nagi. Indeed, she was a leader in the fight against CE in addition to being a princess of Ostia. She was hugely famous and while she’s officially dead, the powers in charge at the Magic World knew she wasn’t dead. So it just seems odd that Negi would never talk about his powerful mother in addition to wanting to follow the father he never knew who happened to “die” as Negi was born.”
The response to this is fairly obvious from the various movies the characters get shown, and related reactions.
Negi’s first thought upon seeing a possible love interest for Nagi was “Is that my mother?”
Negi didn’t talk about his mother because he had no idea who she was, and the few people around him that might have known wouldn’t breathe a word about it.
That Nagi was married was not common knowledge, even Eva didn’t know until Al told her. That Nagi fathered a kid even seems to be nearly a rumor in the magic world.
Whatever happened to Arika ~10 years ago, be it death, petrification, sealed away, or sucked into CE; Ala Rubra swore themselves to secrecy regarding everything about Negi’s mother until he was older.
So with no way to learn anything about his mother, and his head filled with vague tales about his father, Negi probably assumed that no one knew, that she wasn’t anyone famous, and stopped asking.
Just a thought.
Just like Fate/Tertium, Zazie and her “sister” can possibly be constructs… which would explain their normally quiet disposition. A “doll” with no feelings, only with a mission objective, if you will.
Then, it may be possible if Zazie and her sister can share the same pactio if they’re made of the same mold.
Long story short, think Misaka Imouto and the Sisters Network (of To Aru Majutsu no Index). Yes, I know I’m pulling stuff from fat air, but it just came to me just now.
this story needs more setsuna!!
I think what “junior” posted is right, though how correct his speculation is a bit uncertain.
“Chao’s work during the Mahora Festival would have been delayed
As for the reason why Chao was still going to use her plan in that possible future might be because even if AR was able to destroy KE completely, they still hadn’t found the answer to how to stop the eventual collapse of the Magic World.
Like ANB said, it is a bit odd that how the real Zazie was still able to keep her original personality in a world which is made by Negi’s thoughts & possible future.
To me for some reason Zazie & her older sister seems like some sort of cosmic beings than higher level demons. The reason i say they might be some sort of cosmic beings is because even in a fake created world, Zazie had her original personality with herself, its like whether it be a dream or reality, all the Zazie’s that would exists in those realms would always be the same one or are connected to the original one.
But i do have to say that “Ken” is a real master at written the story. First he said a few months back that the truth about Zazie would be revealed in the last Arc of the series, then he suddenly brings in Zazie in the present story arc which confused the hell out of the whole Negima community, and made people speculate that the series is about to end. Then he keeps the whole situation like that for around a month & at last what we find is that the one that appeared is not the real Zazie but her older sister.
This means that the thing Ken said about revealing Zazie’s truth in the last arc still holds true since we still don’t know a single thing about her.
On another note, does any think that “Graf Herrman” might not have been sent after Negi & Asuna by Fate or members of KE, but rather sent by Zazie’s older sister & the research institute she was talking about.
I find it really clever from Akamatsu-sensei to use this fake CE to show us more character development for every girls.
To break the illusion, you need to say the keyword “a little of courage” but in latin.
Not all the girls could say that, even less in latin.
Maybe Zazie has infiltrated each dream, or turned the dreamed characters a little so they will ask to “their” girl if she’s ok with that situation, and then reveal her the keyword.
Or Negi could even go himself into some girls’ dream to help them get free.
Then, each freed girl will go into another dream to free her still-trapped friend. And so on, until everyone is out.
Then we got some twists.
Yue for example, has currently no memory about her grandfather, but she’s still dream of him, despite her feelings to Negi. This means she will certainly revive his death. Her position is quite like Negi’s one, except she is in her younger age. Will she be able to choose the right path alone, without Nodoka or Negi around to remind her what she has irl?
It would be nice also if Yue goes next to Nodoka’s dream, and confront their love triangle (which is still hanging around since their dialogue was interrupted by Haruna’s kick during the mahora festival).
It would be interesting too, if it is Natusmi who goes to Kotaro’s dream to make him snap out of his battle fantasies.
There’s lots of possibilities in this situation, with lots of “pairs” leading to new interactions.
Props to Akamatsu for pulling such a cunning narrative move.
@ Anonymous:
“Yue for example, has currently no memory about her grandfather, but she’s still dream of him, despite her feelings to Negi.
Actually you are wrong here. Yue has gained back her memories up-to the time Negi joined the Mahora Academy. She doesn’t remember anything relating to the things that happened after Negi arrived.
So, she would surely remember about her grandfather.
As for her feelings for Negi, as she doesn’t remember the things that happened after Negi arrived, she doesn’t remember that she & Nodoka had decide to become love rivals.
In short, Yue’s emotions about Negi are presently in conflict (like it was before the Library Island incident during the Festival) and her remembering about her grandfather in the KE world might be related to this conflicting feelings she has (remember when she learned about her feelings to Negi, she asked her grandfather to help her).
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Like ANB said, it is a bit odd that how the real Zazie was still able to keep her original personality in a world which is made by Negi’s thoughts & possible future.
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It might be tied to the fact that this CE is an illusion. What little we know of Zazie suggests that her powers might be tied to illusion as well (iirc, her aborted arc was supposed to have been called “Phantom Circus”, or something like that, which suggests an illusory circus). Zazie’s sister created the fake Mahora before she activated her artifact, and it’s possible that this is what caused Zazie to become linked in as well.
——————–
Yue for example, has currently no memory about her grandfather,
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iirc, Yue currently remembers everything right up until just before Negi arrived at Mahora. Unfortunately for her, everything after that is still a blank – which means that she still doesn’t remember Negi.
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Then, each freed girl will go into another dream to free her still-trapped friend. And so on, until everyone is out.
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So… uh… who’s going to go pull Setsuna out of her imaginary world?
*^.^*
Personally, I’m guessing that it’ll be more of a “Negi wins, the illusions fade” sort of a thing.
———————-
“Chao’s work during the Mahora Festival would have been delayed
As for the reason why Chao was still going to use her plan in that possible future might be because even if AR was able to destroy KE completely, they still hadn’t found the answer to how to stop the eventual collapse of the Magic World.
———————-
I’m guessing that the reason why Chao hasn’t implemented her plan yet is because the Mahora Tree didn’t light up a year early this time around. That begs the question – what exactly is the connection between the Mahora Tree and the Magical World (in addition to the abandoned gate, obviously).
One more item that I don’t think anyone has pointed out yet…
Zazie states that the individual who “attacked” Negi’s group is her older sister. Presumably they both come from the same place. Which suggests that they would probably have similar goals.
And yet Zazie is helping Negi.
Why?
Note that I’m not saying her help is a bad thing (obviously – because clearly it isn’t). But I’m curious why Zazie would apparently help Negi to defeat her own sister in what is a very serious matter.
Zazie has no doubt observed “Negi-sensei” since his arrival on campus. Look at what she’s seen him do.
1) Negi defeated the High Daylight Walker, the notorious shinso vampire Evangeline (even if she wasn’t going all out, a win is a win).
2) He defeated the high-level demon, Graf Herrman.
3) He came in 2nd at the Mahora Festival tournament, defeating some powerful opponents.
4) He defeated Chao’s attempt to send him into the future, then defeated Chao in combat.
5) He befriended the ghost Sayo and as a result, Sayo is no longer bound to the school.
I’d say that Zazie respects Negi on several levels and so helped him. That’s just a guess on my part though.
Wait! hold on! In Negima chapter 297, I had someone chatted with me in deviantart and that person speculated that the “apron-naked” dream did not say it was Setsuna. If you read it through word to word, it did not say it was Setsuna. Why?
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v33/c297/15.html
the link up there shows that Negi can’t tell who owns that and Zazie did not tell him who owns it..
I will TOTALLY LAUGH if that dream was owned by Konoka. Proof? Okay..
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v33/c296/3.html
The link above shows that Negi woke up after the activation of Zazie2’s Card (to make him realize that he is on the real world.)
In the “apron-naked” dream, Setsuna just woke up from her sleep and Konoka was “half” asleep. During the time when Negi realizes that he was on a dream and Zazie appeared, that’s the time “that” dream was shown. Meaning, all girl’s dream has already been played. Konoka must have woke up and saw Setsuna sleeping, so she makes breakfast early in the morning for her ..after that, Negi saw that dream.. Just a theory though…
(Sorry! Not good in explaining…)
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v02/c015/2.html
What’s with Ken+(Konoka=Naked)+Apron? XD
LoneWolfx03 -]===-
Hmmm… Among other things, I think that the fact that it’s a dream world, I also think that Negi was helped by the fact that his desires were not completely fulfilled. He wanted to be friends with Fate right? Not likely in that illusion world. If Fate isn’t negative, it wouldn’t feel authentic if there isn’t a really good explanation. Also, I would think that Negi would want to continue his training, concerning that technique using darkness, or at least that’s my theory.
I’m sticking with the theory that while Zazie WAS an enemy, however unlike her sister, Zazie believes that Negi can change the future.
And I believe this is a changed future with only Negi’s POV.
Asuna is the proof for me, she originally was broken out sometime before Fate 2. (The flashback in chapter 100 was set in Istanbul)
If Fate 2 never showed up, then why is Asuna still the same? Gatou wouldn’t have died, and Nagi would have never vanished.
Thing is Negi doesn’t know about Gatou’s death and Asuna’s past truly. He knows she’s the Twilight Imperial princess, but everything after that… He still has no clue.
So Zazie is partly lying. It isn’t “What if” it’s a “What you want”
I’m surprised you don’t like Arika’s personality. I know she’s been shown to be the businesses like queen and general of ala rubra, but I can still see her acting like this with Negi because it’s so similar to how Negi acts when the shit isn’t hitting the fan. of course, when the world needs him Negi kicks some badass with style, but when he does introduction for example with his class he’s super awkward and overly formal (i.e. it was mentioned at the beach before this arc started that the only person he doesn’t speak to formally is Anya). All in all, I like the similarity between Negi and Arika.
I think the dream’s Setsuna’s. Here’s my theory. If it was Konoka’s it would be ecchi but also mature. The dream looks ecchi but also in a naive manner that looks like Setsuna’s mind crafted it.
Good points about Fate and Asuna in regards to Negi’s ideal world.
As to Arika, her reactions don’t feel natural between a mother an son. There’s a gulf between them rather than the normal closeness of a mother and son. But I think that’s another element to revealing that this is Negi’s fantasy rather than reality (Stan being what breaks Negi loose).
Regarding the Setsuna/Konoka thing, I realize that Akamatsu-sensei has left room for doubt. That said, I think it is safe to say that the naked apron dream was Setsuna’s. While the image if pure ecchi fanservice for the guys, in the dream itself, Konoka is half asleep and not coming onto Setsuna sexually. So in that regard, it is innocent.
Now, we know that Setsuna has strong feelings for her ojousama. While Setsuna cares for Negi, Konoka is top. Konoka, on the other hand, cares for Setsuna but IIRC, she had a high love rating for Negi and is an innocent sort in an airhead kind of way. Considering her lonely childhood and that Sa-chan was her only friend back then, it makes sense to me that Konoka’s dream would be that happy time when she and Setsuna were kids and playing.
Further, remember when Konoka did the age-changing pills and got Setsuna to change with her? Konoka changed to a kid and then had an excuse to act like one whereas Setsuna was embarrassed.
Haha…You got a point there…and I say it again..it’s just a theory.. Because I always think that Konoka always do the “bold” moves while Setsuna is the shy one… You know, the Seme/Uke relationship thingy. Because in my prediction, IF Setsuna owns the “childhood dream”, she would have realized about the river incident and realizes that this world is just a fake and she can break out of the illusion..
But overall, I’d say Setsuna because she NEVER breaks the habit of calling Konoka “Ojousama”. If Konoka owns the “ecchi” dream, Setsuna would have call her “Kono-chan”. NOW THAT’S THE REAL PROOF.
LoneWolfx03 -]===-