September 11th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 33 Chapter 301 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 301
Negima! Manga Vol 33 Ch 301 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
After Negi easily disposes of 2000 of Dynamis’s puppet demons, Dynamis is reminded of Ala Rubra and the Thousand Master. However, everything is in place and only to cooperation of the princess is needed and the rest is up to Fate. Dynamis regrets that Fate had not been able to remove Negi as a threat sooner, leading Fate to reply that even Dynamis didn’t see Negi as that big a threat at the time.
Fate departs, leaving Dynamis with Koyomi, Homura, and Tamaki. When Koyomi asks about the situation, Dynamis surprises the group by taking off his mask and being very frank with them. He calls himself a defeated general and puppet who doubts they’ll be OK at all. He blames Kurt and Takamichi for Cosmo Entelecheia being reduced from a mighty organization with hundreds of thousands of followers to a tiny group with a few girls in it. However, he is thankful that thanks to the girls, the plan they tried to launch so many years earlier is now about to come true. With that, he plans to meet Negi’s party and is met by Tsukuyomi, who wants in on the action.
Meanwhile, Negi, Setsuna, Ku Fei, and Kaede reach the top of the spiral staircase to an area much like the area under Mahora. Kaede has Shiori-Asuna come out of her cloak along with Chisame. Shiori-Asuna is worried about Negi being in his Raiden Taisou form for such a long period of time. Negi tells her not to worry as he’s more efficient with his power and that he had a full day of rest inside Cosmo Entelecheia. Kaede doesn’t believe Negi is telling the whole truth and neither does Ku Fei, who senses that Negi’s powers are increasing despite his continuous usage of magic. Setsuna surmises that Negi is using Magia Erebea and becoming more accustomed to it, meaning its corruption has to be getting worse. Negi concedes that this is true but that he feels he’ll be OK with his girls there. That is good enough for the battle harem.
With that, Negi asks Shiori-Asuna to accompany him on the next phase of the journey when Kaede senses the enemy approaching and not even bothering to mask their presence. Kaede suspects their opponents are looking for a straight-up fight and so Negi and company proceed through some giant double doors to the next huge chamber with more platforms. There, on the largest platform in the center are Dynamis, Tsukuyomi, Koyomi, Homura, and Tamaki. Once Negi’s group is close enough, Dynamis greets the “next generation.”
Elsewhere, Natsumi, Kotaro, Yue, Bea, Asakura, Sayo, and Chamo are walking hand-in-hand as a group of giant demons walks past them going the opposite direction. Kotaro is impressed with the artifact as Chamo explains that it works by completely suppressing the presence of the user and anyone linked to the user via hands, effectively making them invisible and undetectable. Kotaro continues to lavish praise for this cool artifact and even asks Natsumi to partner with him for the freelance work he does. Natsumi is excited by this and asks what Kotaro does but before he can answer, Asakura interrupts to tell Kotaro not to get ordinary folks involved, something Kotaro doesn’t think Natsumi is any longer.
Sayo wonders why Natsumi got such an artifact and Kotaro has an answer — because Natsumi doesn’t get noticed. Natsumi thinks Kotaro has said something bad about her breasts and decks him, causing the artifact’s “spell” to drop and the summoned demons to suddenly take notice of the group and give chase.
Thoughts/Review: There’s a lot of good stuff in this chapter so lets get started.
First, Dynamis unmasks himself and gives some exposition. The unmasking has caused quite a flurry of discussion and speculation. I’m not sure why Akamatsu-sensei decided to reveal the man behind the mask, but Dynamis did remind me of one of the bishounen warriors at the side of the Fate that fought Ala Rubra. Maybe that’s who this is but I don’t know. I’m having a harder time putting more emphasis on this event but knowing Akamatsu-sensei, if he has Kurt of Takamichi show up, I’m guessing they’d recognize the man and we have this chapter to potentially set that up.
His words were of more interest to me. Dynamis watching Negi fight and his power reminded him of the Thousand Master. Until recently, Negi and Nagi have only been compared in terms of looking identical (or almost identical) and that has come up a lot. I think that Anya was the first to mention that Negi may be on Nagi’s level in terms of power and abilities and now Dynamis implies this as well.
I smiled when Dynamis talked of Takahata. It has long been established that Takahata left Mahora to go on missions and even Mei (or at least I’m pretty sure it was Mei) had heard the rumor that he’d taken down a secret organization. Dynamis’s words on Kurt reminded me that Kurt had his own plans to “save the world” even if it wasn’t the same as CE’s plan.
Second is Negi and Magia Erebea. This issue had been sorta resolved on the way in and then basically forgotten about for a little while until this chapter. So, one wonders if Negi will get dark again before all is said and done. I did chuckle when the battle harem with Negi got all gooey when he said he’d be alright as long as they were with him. *lol*
Third is Natsumi’s artifact. We finally get to see it in action and it takes Natsumi’s love of plays and combines it with her “I’m nobody” aspect of her personality. Akamatsu-sensei reminds us here that Kotaro was once a mercenary before he befriended Negi and got involved there. The implication is that Kotaro may still do this kind of work for money (much like Mana or even Setsuna) and Natsumi would be a good partner for him. Of course, Kotaro talks too much and well, “Houston, we have a problem.” ^_^;
I don’t expect that Group 2 will end up having that much trouble with the giant demons (whatever type they are) but they appear to be running into massive trouble. More there in a bit.
The forth item of interest is Shiori/Luna and the Asuna personality. Quite literally, Shiori is quite literally has two personalities now when she has the Asuna guise activated. It is interesting how the Asuna personality and Shiori’s personality work together now.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I wonder if Shiori and Chisame went back into Kaede’s cloak when the group knew a battle was about to be started. I would guess so.
The final item of interest was Fate’s apparently going to get Asuna’s cooperation in completing their task. The implication is that Fate is going to see Asuna but how does he gain her cooperation? Is it by convincing her willingly or is it to do so by force (say, threaten Anya’s life)? The thing is, Fate basically appears to have turned down a chance to fight Negi and left that to Dynamis. That means that assuming Group 2 escapes the giant demons, they are going to run smack into Fate, baring some other unforeseen event happening.
On the humor front, it is humorous to have a ghost that is afraid, especially since most everyone else is afraid of ghosts. Actually, that could be a humorous element as well — have Sayo end up scaring some opponent whom she’s afraid of. *lol*
Also on the humor front were Yue’s and Chamo’s words on how this moment should be serious and not some moment from a romantic comedy as their group is chased by giant demons. *lol*
So, another good chapter for me. Its a shame that we haven’t had spoilers yet but oh well.
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Dynamis did fight alongside Fate, a version of Fate anyway.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v26/c232/9.html
He’s right there. And from the dialog Dynamis is a construct like Fate, I don’t see what the deal is with reveling his face.
What I am interested in is how the 3 members of KE will react to Negi’s plan to save the world, and what that plan is exactly.
I loved Yue’s deadpan snarking about the romantic comedy.
huh, thats odd. in the last chapter wasnt Kotaro with the negi party? right after negi kills all those demons he says something like “you didnt leave a single one for us.” but now he’s with the other group. continuity error?
Wasn’t expecting this to show up so quickly…
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Until recently, Negi and Nagi have only been compared in terms of looking identical (or almost identical) and that has come up a lot. I think that Anya was the first to mention that Negi may be on Nagi’s level in terms of power and abilities and now Dynamis implies this as well.
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I think the first is actually Jack Rakan. During the final fist fight at the end of their arena match, Jack flashes back to when he used to do the same with Nagi. His comment to himself is that it’s exactly the same as back then.
Seeing that it’s Shiori’s group that ran into Fate’s girls, I’m curious regarding what sort of reaction we’re going to see among the girls regarding Shiori’s presence with Negi.
@SaCul
Kotaro is assigned on Team 2 – the team that is tasked to rescue Anya. Initially, he’s with Negi’s team as they make an entrance and Negi clearing the way by obliterating the demons. During that time, his teammates- Kazumi, Sayo, Bea, Chamo, and Natsumi are inside Kaede’s magic cloak , along with the sports girls, Asuna, and Chisame.
And i believe it’s quite obvious that the team separated along the way to fulfill their designated task.
@Rhonin — Ah yes, I’d forgotten he was in that image. Thanks for the reminder. ^_^
@Anon — Yeah, me too. I have to believe that because Akamatsu-sensei did his Love Hina omake for the previous chapter, that played a roll in the remark. ^_^
@SaCul — Lee answered to…^_^
@Junior — you are right — Jack was the first to indicate that fighting Negi was like fighting Nagi.
Also, good point on Fate’s girls and Shiori. They’d have to see her as a traitor now and I think that’s partly why I think bad things are going to happen to Shiori, even if the big, red, cosmic reset button is pressed in the end.
@Lee — As one of the “big dogs,” Kotaro’s fighting skills would be helpful in clearing the area…normally. ^_~
@Astronerdboy:
clearly, it didn’t become the case since Negi destroy the demons… all by himself hehe!
i forgot to mention on my previous post that Nodoka and Konoka is on the magic cloak as well, as they are part of the steal-the-COTL- team!
“Yes, Nagi was flippant in the flashback but I think that eventually he came to see that Gatou was right and thus set in motion a plan which Negi is now following (even if unconsciously). Remember, Negi’s gift is not only in sheer power like Nagi, but in his ingenuity and coming up with solutions to problems. Nagi did a great deal on sheer power alone but because he still relied on a spell book and was rather flippant about a great many things, someone else was going to have to take up the mantle and carry on his work without those flaws. Thus, Nagi “dies,” Negi is born, and Nagi’s prediction of someone else showing up comes true. ^_^”
I believe these were your words in your review of chapter 300? They seem to indicate that you believe Nagi did something to become Negi so he could fix the worlds problems. If your wondering how I got that, I always look at the subtext and try to figure out the reason, or in the words of Kakashi “look underneath the underneath”. You seem to be putting words in my mouth :P.
I like Negima but I think Shugo Chara and Kitchen Princess are more interesting. I posted about them on my blog http://mangamollie.blogspot.com
As the saying goes, “everything is possible with magic.” But I feel that it’s stretching too much to imply that Nagi is actually Negi. Maybe there’s another reason why Nagi is missing, Arika is nowhere to be found, and other things. Maybe Fate can provide the connection. Remember he came to Kyoto via Turkey? Nagi was last seen in Turkey. There’s something to it.
Unless Nagi is held prisoner somehow, then where the smeg is he and why is he letting his son do all this work while he sits on the sidelines and watches? ^_~
@AstroNerdBoy
Godel once mentioned “the unknown entity who took your father from you”. From what he says it can be implied that it is not the Senate or KE.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v28/c255/
It’s not a shame that I was thinking of other things the day this review was posted.
It’s a shame I had at least one more important thing to think about than reading this manga the day it was posted.
For all those people out there who don’t get the last two sentences, the review was posted nine years after September 11, 2001. I didn’t make that connection until maybe a minute after I woke up the morning of the ninth anniversary.
Solid chapter. Negi owning all those mooks and the others complaining about not getting to beat any themselves was funny. Also, Natsumi’s artifact is actually pretty nifty. Great for stealth & infiltration.
@Anonymous (8:24) and MJ Mata — The whole “Negi=Nagi” thing is an Epileptic Tree that’s circulated around the web. ANB is partial towards it. He and I have debated it on several occasions since I first started visiting this blog.
I really enjoyed this chapter. It is already at the point were the build up is over and we get to see the fight between these two groups. I personally love how Negi brought Ku, Kaede and Setsuna as the core fighters.
*Shrugs* To hell if I know, for all we know he could be trapped in Cosmo whateverthehellitscalled.
He might also be somewhere else fighting a different enemy 24-7, be imprisoned like you said, be in a coma or something.
Actually, since Nagi appeared when a lot of demons where summoned to kill Negi, perhaps he’s trapped in the place they came from and hitched a ride on the summoning spell and had to leave when they where unsummoned? Would make sense of why he had to leave and how he got there.
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Unless Nagi is held prisoner somehow, then where the smeg is he and why is he letting his son do all this work while he sits on the sidelines and watches? ^_~
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iirc, someone (I think Fate Tertius, though I could be mistaken) has strongly implied that Fate Secundus had something to do with Nagi’s disappearence. It’s also worth noting that as things currently stand we know pretty much nothing about Secundus.
Also, one character was quite notable in his absence in this chapter – there was no sign of Chibi-mage.
“iirc, someone (I think Fate Tertius, though I could be mistaken) has strongly implied that Fate Secundus had something to do with Nagi’s disappearence. It’s also worth noting that as things currently stand we know pretty much nothing about Secundus.”
Hrm…i think that might be true somewhat. I remember that when Nodoka read Fate’s mind in her picture diary it said “we struck each other down ten years ago” or something like that..
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v25/c229/15.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v25/c229/16.html
Whoa! Spoiler for Negima 302 is already uploaded on Mangahead. You might as well check it out hehe!
The last page is kinda hilarious! 😀
for the fate-asuna problem..
i think u missed on your review that the mysterious hooded person on this chapter is now gone (the one whom rather smallish, and destroyed the gate). i’m very sure that he will be the key on how fate gonna gain asuna’s cooperation.. i don’t think that he will threaten anya to get it (he just not that type of villain..)
my bet right now is that the mysterious character is either negi from an alternate future or…. (this one might be a long shot)…. negi-asuna’s child, again from an alternate future (the future that both negi and chao trying to evade)
either way, or not, imho he will be the last piece of puzzle of this arc
Based on the raw, I see four chicks getting naked very soon.
Major crowning moments of awesomeness next chapter
and that’s all i got to say about that