November 29th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 34 Chapter 310 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 310
Negima! Manga Vol 34 Ch 310 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
With thirty minutes until the activation of the ritual, Fate and Shirabe wait as Fate ponders where Ala Alba is or if they’ve been defeated. Thinking that it would be boring if it ended this way, Fate gets his wish for something to happen when Shirabe detects an energy spike. It is Chachamaru’s orbital cannon which blasts Fate. Fate easily fends off the massive attack and suspects it must be a diversion when suddenly Kotaro is there. Fate is stunned that Kotaro got so close without him noticing it but then he notices some of the others and Natsume. Fate realizes that Natsume’s artifact is the cause and that her artifact hasn’t been around for 280 years.
Yuuna takes out Shirabe just as Shirabe activates her artifact while Makie uses her artifact to snare the Great Grand Master Key. Kaede springs to Asuna and frees her. Fate quickly recovers from Kotaro’s attack and activates a ton of spears to launch when Kotaro switches to pure beast mode and attacks again. However, Fate’s spears launch, forcing Yue and Bea to raise a special barrier against the projectiles. They successfully take out the spears but Fate has a special surprise in the form of petrification darts. Bea takes several to shield Yue and asks Yue to take care of Ojousama (Emily) before turning to stone.
Yuuna, still under the effects of Ako’s artifact boost, sees everything in slow motion and realizes she has to take out the darts since they are targeting everyone with a high number aimed at Nodoka. Yuuna drains her gun artifact and takes out most of the darts. She takes one in the hand to protect Makie, who’s just had her ribbon bring back the Great Grand Master Key. Sayo-doll takes one aimed at Nodoka. Sayo and Yuuna turn into stone. Asakura takes the stoned doll as Kaede returns with Asuna. Kaede says that Bea, Sayo, and Yuuna can be kept in her cloak as they need to hurry since Kotaro won’t last long against Fate. With that, the Great Grand Master Key is given Nodoka.
Thoughts/Review:
Wow. A lot of interesting things to discuss. ^_^
To get things started, I know some people asked when the spoiler images came out about how Chachamaru could have targeted Fate with her orbital cannon. Chachamaru could have flown in I suppose but with a laser target device, she would be some distance away so as not to be caught in the blast zone. As long as she can point to the area needed, it should be fine. Besides, we don’t know all of the artifacts abilities so for all I know, it only took a quick “splash” of the target designator to allow the satellite to acquire the target. However she did it (and I kinda doubt we learn her exact location), it accomplished its purpose. ^_^
I wonder why it has been 280-years since Natsume’s artifact was last seen. For Akamatsu-sensei to make a big point of mentioning such a specific number, one suspects that there is something important behind Natsume getting the artifact AND something important that happened 280 years ago.
I loved Yue and Bea working as a team to block all of Fate’s spears. Yue is so much fun as a mage. ^_^
I also liked how Fate apparently suspected his spears would be deflected and had those darts dispatched as well. It is interesting how Fate targeted Nodoka with the highest number of darts, meaning he considers her the most dangerous member of the Ala Alba group attacking them. I couldn’t help but think back to the Kyoto arc when Fate quickly stoned Nodoka because he understood how dangerous she is. Fate has targeted Nodoka every time she has come near him. Now, Nodoka has been spared and has the Great Grand Master Key. I don’t see Auris Recitans but then it is easily hidden by Nodoka’s hair. As I see it, now that she has the key, she should be able to start reading Fate’s mind and learning how to undo things.
I’m not surprised that Yuuna, Sayo, and Bea were petrified. Akamatsu-sensei often takes out extra characters to make things easier on him. However, he gives all three hero moments before they are packed neatly into Kaede’s cloak. Still, I’m thinking that Sayo should be OK. After all, Sayo is a ghost and thus cannot “die” (though she can be exorcised and sent to the afterlife). She was only possessing the doll to make it move and thus she should be able to escape the stoned form and be with Asakura again like she used to be. I don’t think Akamatsu-sensei will have her do this since he’s trying to remove characters from the field.
Asuna is still unconscious though Kaede seems to think she’s fine. But is she? I’m not so sure but it would be cool if Asuna could wake up and take part in making sure everything goes OK. Question is, where’s Asuna’s pactio card?
So, what’s next? Bring on Chibi Mage! ^_~ (ANYA! ANYA! ANYA! ANYA! *lol* It would be a hoot if it were Anya though I don’t believe it will be.)
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um… in the last paragraph, you said somewhere Sayo and Nodoka turned to stone… Nodoka is actually unscathed….
I also think those spears and darts that Fate threw at AA are the same things…
>So, what’s next?
Tertium dies.
Avencurus spam.
Shit keeps hitting the fan.
@Philip — corrected. Thanks.
As to the spear/dart thing, I think they are different in size. The spears seemed to be a straight-on attack with Yue and Bea knocking them down with their barrier. The darts were more like guided missiles as they changed course and were small. Of course, I could be seeing this wrong, but that’s how it looked to me. ^_^;;;
@Anon — it does indeed.
on the subject of fate targeting nodoka, it could simply be that she has the rather powerful item, but could it not also be a reference to his (past self’s) experience. Maybe he finds negi’s affection for nodoka dangerous, thinking back to the Jack Rakan recollection of ala rubra’s encounters with Cosmo Entelecheia, nagi went to such dangerous lengths to save arika… just a thought ^^;
…oh and a shot in the dark of a possible twist. i wonder if per chance we may be graced with the appearance of nagi? It seems the subject that he IS IN FACT ALIVE SOMEWHERE is being downplayed for the sake of saving the magical world (outrageous right!? ^^ ). But i believe we may be being diverted for the purposes of the set up of a “oh man i totally forgot about that!” kind of situation. just wild speculation though ^^
My apologies if you already said this somewhere in the body and I missed it (I did an every-fifth-word scan trying to find out, but didn’t want to spoil it by reading it in full)… but where did you find a copy of 310? I usually go to mangafox, but they still don’t have it up.
Cannon Rap releases a translation on Mondays. Animum Mutare did a scanlation. Maybe that’s what ANB used.
A million thanks, Anonymous. (^_^)
I was going kinda crazy waiting for this one, and I suspect I’ll be that way for a while. The way Sensei is presently writing suggests he’s planning on a lot of things happening very quickly – but that still means at least a few chapters, considering how many dominoes he’s set up to be knocked down.
It’s unusual for him to be this apparently messy. He only tends to do this when 1) the explanation will be soon forthcoming, or 2) the reader will be so distracted by everything else going on that they’ll quickly forget. For example, Honya joining the attack-Fate party last chapter might have confused readers who (like me) weren’t thinking of her ability to use the keys. (It had been 28 chapters since she schooled Dynamis with his own key.) But regardless of whether it confused people, it was explained almost immediately by having Makie throw the GGM Key to her in the next chapter (this one).
There are actually several details that don’t quite add up right now – why Chachamaru can remotely target Neko-xandria on Fate, why two Ariadnes could deflect an attack from Fate instead of being blown away like tissue paper, why the extremely specific “280”, why Asuna’s unconscious, etc. I’m sure most of them have explanations that will be handed out in short order – i.e. Yue was feeding data to Chachamaru, someone recognizes Bea as being from an ancient mage family (on top of Yue’s power), Chibi Mage used to have a Pactio partner with that artifact, they needed Asuna unresisting to make it work and drugged her, etc. But the fact that there’s been a storm of “Wuh?”s makes me think a lot’s about to happen.
~
For the record, put me down for Chibi Mage being Zect, despite the gender being apparently wrong. I still trust cnet’s surmise that the speech patterns match. But you know what would be really funny… make it the one 3A girl who’s never gotten any spotlight time at all: Yotsuba Satsuki, the cook. They say it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for, you know. (^_~)
A million thanks, Anonymous. (^_^)
I was going kinda crazy waiting for this one, and I suspect I’ll be that way for a while. The way Sensei is presently writing suggests he’s planning on a lot of things happening very quickly – but that still means at least a few chapters, considering how many dominoes he’s set up to be knocked down.
It’s unusual for him to be this apparently messy. He only tends to do this when 1) the explanation will be soon forthcoming, or 2) the reader will be so distracted by everything else going on that they’ll quickly forget. For example, Honya joining the attack-Fate party last chapter might have confused readers who (like me) weren’t thinking of her ability to use the keys. (It had been 28 chapters since she schooled Dynamis with his own key.) But regardless of whether it confused people, it was explained almost immediately by having Makie throw the GGM Key to her in the next chapter (this one).
There are actually several details that don’t quite add up right now – why Chachamaru can remotely target Neko-xandria on Fate, why two Ariadnes could deflect an attack from Fate instead of being blown away like tissue paper, why the extremely specific “280”, why Asuna’s unconscious, etc. I’m sure most of them have explanations that will be handed out in short order – i.e. Yue was feeding data to Chachamaru, someone recognizes Bea as being from an ancient mage family (on top of Yue’s power), Chibi Mage used to have a Pactio partner with that artifact, they needed Asuna unresisting to make it work and drugged her, etc. But the fact that there’s been a storm of “Wuh?”s makes me think a lot’s about to happen.
Had to split comments because I got too spammy:
For the record, put me down for Chibi Mage being Zect, maybe Eva. But you know what would be really funny… make it the one 3A girl who’s never gotten any spotlight time at all: Yotsuba Satsuki, the cook. They say it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for, you know. (^_~)
“Take this! Final Attack: Dashi of Elemental Fury and Everlasting Doom! (And it makes an excellent base for most soup recipes, too.)”
Yue and Bea could deflect fates attack because they’re both human and their magic isn’t affected by the Code.
Mana even called Bea “human girl” once.
If you guys wouldn’t mind, could you delete this post and the 8th post? I tried to post, it told me the post was too long and it couldn’t do it. So I reposted, not knowing it actually had posted the first time.
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