April 8th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 35 Chapter 323 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 323
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
A giant mana vortex opens up and threatens to suck away Anya, Ku Fei, Chisame, Konoka, and the others with them. Ako nearly gets taken away but is caught by Akira.
Fate takes advantage of Negi’s being distracted by this to attack him. Fate concedes that he hadn’t expected them to be connected to the other side’s gate but tells Negi that their fight will determine the fate of both worlds.
On the Great Paru-sama, Paru and Chachamaru are the only ones on board as the ship is caught in the vortex. Paru’s attempts to stop the ship fail and even deploying three anchors fails. Paru decides to go with the flow and she uses her artifact to help defend the ship from the giant boulders also caught up in the vortex. Chachamaru uses the ships weapons to blow away boulders in their path as the Great Paru-sama passes through the border between worlds.
On the ground at Mahora, the mage teachers race to help defend the students against the massive boulders falling from the sky. The Great Paru-sama comes crashing down and is seen by Fuuka and Sakurako, who notice Paru inside. They call Ayaka to let her know, which causes Fumika, Misa, and Madoka to race to where the ship comes to a stop. Paru emerges from the inside of the ship and seeing the trio, she descends to greet them, only to be kick-greeted by Fuuka. Ayaka and Sakurako join them as Paru tears up and embraces Madoka, happy to be back among normal people.
Hakase shows up, having received an emergency signal from Chachamaru. Paru points her to the cockpit where Hakase goes to find Chachamaru’s upper torso in a chair. Giving Chachamaru a quick exam, she sees that Chachamaru would have been terminated if her chest had been pierced 3cm off. Chachamaru isn’t worried since if her memories are saved, she will still be alive. Hakase tells her that that this might not be the case as her soul might be lost with a memory transfer. Hakase is proud of Chachamaru’s work and promises to make her body as beautiful as it was before. She then notices Chachamaru’s outfit and Chachamaru begins to tell her about her pactio with Negi.
Meanwhile, Ayaka wants Paru to tell her what is going on.
Thoughts/Review:
I realize that this chapter may not cut it for everyone, but personally, I liked it.
For starters, there’s the return to Mahora of the first of Ala Alba — Paru and Chachamaru, with the Great Paru-sama ending up crossing the threshold and crashing. I liked how Paru, who’s normally seemingly so above heavy emotion other than those emotions attached to causing mischief, broke down upon seeing her classmates. Now, how much does she tell Ayaka and thus the others about what really happened after they left Ayaka’s group in Wales?
I loved Hakase’s reaction to seeing the heavily damaged Chachamaru. It was so motherly and not at all like her reactions to Chachamaru’s developing emotions. I guess the experiences of the Mahora Festival combined with spending more time with Chachamaru developing her new bodies really made Hakase more like Chachamaru’s mother. I fully expect that before this arc is over, Hakase will have done something to repair Chachamaru and that Chachamaru will return to the fight. I’d like for Eva to find out about what happened with Chachamaru and react accordingly. (“No one messes with my Chachamaru but me!”)
OK, it was disappointing that Eva’s question didn’t get answered this chapter, but considering that Akamatsu-sensei is putting the manga on a 3-week hiatus while he works on the Negima! movie, combined with the likelihood that this is the final chapter for volume 35, I didn’t expect for Eva to get an answer. Hopefully, we’ll get one soon though.
Not much else to say on this chapter. See you guys on May 11 (or so) for chapter 324. ^_^
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theres not much left of the masquerade soon 🙂
WTH it isn’t even on mangafox. where did you get this
@ SetsunaAngel: This chapter haven’t been scanlated yet, so thats why you won’t find this chapter on Mangafox (unless someone make a LQ release of it before Naselare does his HQ release).
But since raws and the translation of this chapter is already out, ANB made the review of it (you don’t need a scanlated chapter to write a review, translation and raws are sufficient for it).
@ ANB: Won’t it be a better idea to mention about ch 324 being officially releasing on 11th May.
Some people might get confused with the 3 weeks break which you mentioned in your review (which is official break on Ken’s part and which does not count the break because of the Golden Week).
I do wish we’d gotten farther with the resolution of Negi and Fate’s fight, but this is good storytelling. It breaks up the pacing, minimizes the Dragon BallZ effect (“For Pete’s sake, they’ve been in the same fight doing the same things for ten episodes”), and starts setting the stage for their return to reality.
Final score:
* Fate’s “Guess who just jumped off the edge of Crazy Cliff?” expression on page 3: Mild fail; we got the point a few chapters ago.
* Paru’s facefault and “Geh.” when the anchors simply tear through the stonework: Mild win.
* The girls watching Paru’s unseen conversation, punctuated by a (^_^); moment when one of her golems punches out the door: Moderate win.
* Fuuka’s greeting kick: Irritating fail, even though it does convey “Remember, to the ‘normal’ girls this is still everyday life”.
* Madoka’s reaction to the unexpected Paru pairing: Moderate win.
* The overall inverse culture shock that Akamatsu-sensei conveys through Paru: Major storytelling win.
* But Chachamaru’s :3 expression on the last page… pure win. (^_^)
Silly random thought, sorry for the doublepost: You know Hakase’s transitioned into feeling motherly when she has Paru’s ship in front of her to analyze… and all she cares about is finding Chachamaru and making sure she’s okay, even before she knows how badly Chachamaru got beaten up.
theres not much left of the masquerade soon 🙂
Nope.
WTH it isn’t even on mangafox. where did you get this
SL answered this but yeah, I don’t have to wait for scanlations. ^_^ Don’t forget to support the Kodansha product when it comes out. ^_^
Won’t it be a better idea to mention about ch 324 being officially releasing on 11th May.
Yeah, but at the time, I didn’t know the date and was in a hurry. I’ll mention it when I update this (assuming I don’t forget by the time I finish writing all this).
I do wish we’d gotten farther with the resolution of Negi and Fate’s fight, but this is good storytelling. It breaks up the pacing, minimizes the Dragon BallZ effect…
Yeah, I’ve long thought Akamatsu-sensei has done well to avoid this effect. Back when Negi and Kotaro were to do the tournament to free Ako and company, there were many who feared a DBZ endless fight thing. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen and it didn’t. The tournament basically took a back seat until the Negi vs. Jack battle.
Plus, while it may be frustrating that there’s no immediate resolution to their fight, when released in book form, it will work quite nicely, as happened with the Mahora Festival arc.
Fuuka’s greeting kick: Irritating fail, even though it does convey “Remember, to the ‘normal’ girls this is still everyday life”.
*lol* That didn’t bother me but for some reason, I was reminded more of Su and Sarah from Love Hina. ^_^;
* The overall inverse culture shock that Akamatsu-sensei conveys through Paru: Major storytelling win.
* But Chachamaru’s :3 expression on the last page… pure win. (^_^)
Yep and yep. ^_^
You know Hakase’s transitioned into feeling motherly when she has Paru’s ship in front of her to analyze… and all she cares about is finding Chachamaru and making sure she’s okay, even before she knows how badly Chachamaru got beaten up.
That’s true. I hadn’t thought of it quite that way since Hakase is used to future tech at the very least but it is a good point.
Oh boy… 44 days without negima… i’ll go nuts…
I read Love Hina by Ken Akamantsu…maybe i should also start reading this ^^
3 week wait? Nooooooooooo! But it’s for the movie, so Yessssssss! Still, I’m gonna be on withdrawal symptoms 🙁
Interesting chapter. It was good to see Hakase’s concern for Chachamaru (speaking of which, I wish we could see something similar between another mad scientist and her “designed” daughter, Ryoko…). Not seeing the fight between Negi and Fate wasn’t that big of a deal for me, largely because as far as I’m concerned the outcome of the battle has never really been in doubt. So far everything I’ve seen seems to indicate that Negi has the upper hand in this specific duel, meaning that everything important will happen around them and elsewhere while the two are fighting it out (though the speed with which Negi wins might be important).
The other two fights – Setsuna’s fight and Mana’s fight – are the ones that are actually somewhat in doubt.
Paru-san getting kicked was out of place, imo. While that sort of “greeting” was often used earlier on in the Mahora scenes, this is an entirely different – and much more serious – situation. A strange “thing” has fallen out of the sky, and an absent friend climbs out of it looking quite the worse for wear… The kick was very much out of place.
The masquerade’s fine. It’s all CGI, remember?
😛
And Negi’s entire class was going to find out sooner or later. Otherwise he wouldn’t be able to Pactio with all of them.
^^;;
As for what is important…
There are so many questions right now. We need more information! The frustrating thing about this chapter isn’t the lack of fighting; it’s the fact that it creates even more questions without answering any.
What happens if the Lifemaker (i.e. the guy who created the Code) is revived? Fate mentioned that “he” (presumably Lifemaker) needed to be revived *after* the ceremony was completed.
What’s under the tree, besides what we’ve already seen?
How much did Ayaka know even before the Palace appeared above Mahora?
Where’s Shiori? She was last seen when the group arrived with her on the same level of the palace as the altar. Did she switch with Asuna? It doesn’t seem likely, but there may have been a very narrow window of opportunity. If she didn’t, then where is she and what’s she doing?
Do Nodoka and Natsumi have their Pactio cards back yet (Fate Tertius took them after defeating his “brother”)?
Did anything good actually happen as a result of Asuna’s temporary freedom? There was a panel or two focused exclusively on her, and I thought she might be coming back to consciousness. But it doesn’t appear to have happened.
What’s Dynamis doing? He promised not to lay a finger on anyone (and he was bound to that promise), but that doesn’t mean he can’t get up to other mischief. And he’s got his body back now…
What triggered the loss of mana in certain areas of the magical world? The collapse isn’t due to happen for a long time yet. Fate mentioned that if Asuna hadn’t been placed in the altar, then 66 million people would be killed. But something appears to have happened *before* Asuna was placed back into it.
How old is Asuna, and what’s her exact relationship with Arika?
Who else is on the Paru-sama beside Paru and Chachamaru? Presumably the petrified members and critically injured are there. Is there anyone aboard who’s still able to act?
And finally, when is Takane-san going to lose her clothes?
😛
Odd… I thought I posted something fairly long, but it never showed up. And now I’ve had a post I made afterwards show up in another section. Did my earlier post get lost? Feel free to delete this if it’s largely a duplicate.
IMO, the current chapter has both good and bad things in it. On the positive side, the scene between Hakase and Chachamaru is pretty neat (and I’d like to see a somewhat similar scene between a certain mad scientist in another series and *her* “constructed” daughter, Ryoko…). So points for that. The minimal exposure for the duel between Negi and Fate was also something that I didn’t mind. The manga has given me the impression that Fate simply isn’t quite up to Negi’s level right now, and Negi seems to have a definite upper hand at this point. Given that, the only reason that the duel itself should be of concern is if time suddenly becomes a constraint. And since Akamatsu-san hasn’t mentioned the passing of time ever since Asuna ended up on the altar, it doesn’t appear that’s the case right now. Which means that all of the important stuff is happening elsewhere. There’s an interest in the duel, but it’s not a big priority for me right now.
Though Setsuna’s duel with psycho nutjob and Mana’s duel with Poyo could be much more tense, particularly since last we saw it looked as if Setsuna was having trouble holding her own again.
So what is my complaint about this chapter? First, like others, I thought that the “kick hello” was out of place. It’s true that many times the kick would be appropriate. But here the girls are half in awe of the fact that Paru is stumbling out of this half-wrecked “thing” that’s crashed in front of them (i.e. ‘The Great Paru-sama’). The kick kind of goes against that.
Second, right now there are waaaaaay too many questions, and this chapter doesn’t help resolve any of them!
What’s under the tree?
What did Ayaka know before the palace showed up above Mahora?
Why is the palace above Mahora (even Fate seemed surprised by that)?
What happens if the Lifemaker is returned to life (there’s mention that “he” – presumably the Lifemaker – will be revived as part of a seperate ritual once the ritual with Asuna is completed)?
Where’s Shiori? She traveled up to the level with the altar along with the rest of the girls, but has been quietly absent ever since. She’s even missing from the panels that don’t show the girls fighting. It’s possible that she swapped places with Asuna, though I think the window for that to happen in would have had to have been extremely tight.
Fate swiped Nodoka’s and Natsumi’s Pactio cards. Does he still have them?
Did *anything* of consequence happen during the failed attempt to rescue Asuna? Asuna was taken off the altar, but quickly ended up back on it while still apparently unconscious (though a couple of close-up panels had me hoping that she’d wake up). Fates 4, 5, and 6, all showed up… and were curb-stomped almost instantly. Half a dozen of the Mahora group got taken out… but they’d pretty much already been rendered useless anyway since only Negi can go up against Fate Tertius. Dynamis got his body back, but he can’t lift a finger against the group (though that doesn’t mean that he’s not trying to do something else – is he?). And Chibi-mage is (Mage of the Beginning? She did refer to both Negi and Asuna has her descendents)… still staying on the side-lines. Only now she’s decided to make it her official policy. So I’m wondering whether anything of importance actually happened in that chapter.
And speaking of those taken out – are they onboard the Paru-sama? If so, can they be healed before the current mess is over?
Google is odd with their comments at times. Sometimes they get lost, delayed, or sent immediately to the trash without our intervention. I put both of your comments through Junior because they came in about the same time.
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Google is odd with their comments at times. Sometimes they get lost, delayed, or sent immediately to the trash without our intervention. I put both of your comments through Junior because they came in about the same time.
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Weird. I think there was about a 20 hour time difference between the two.
Thanks, though.
Oh boy… 44 days without negima… i’ll go nuts…
*lol* Well, there are other things to distract one during the time. ^_^
I read Love Hina by Ken Akamantsu…maybe i should also start reading this ^^
Wait until Kodansha Comics releases the first three volumes in omnibus form. Those will have corrected the rewrites of the original release. ^_^
3 week wait? Nooooooooooo! But it’s for the movie, so Yessssssss! Still, I’m gonna be on withdrawal symptoms 🙁
If you are on Facebook, you could play War Metal. ^_~
Interesting chapter. It was good to see Hakase’s concern for Chachamaru (speaking of which, I wish we could see something similar between another mad scientist and her “designed” daughter, Ryoko…).
I need to check my doujinshi, but I think that after Washu turned Ryoko into a kid, she did have a mother-daughter tender moment…but only after Washu had her fun (IIRC). ^_^;
The other two fights – Setsuna’s fight and Mana’s fight – are the ones that are actually somewhat in doubt.
Yeah and Setsuna appeared to be in bad shape last time we looked in on her. Mana appeared to be in better shape.
While that sort of “greeting” was often used earlier on in the Mahora scenes, this is an entirely different – and much more serious – situation. A strange “thing” has fallen out of the sky, and an absent friend climbs out of it looking quite the worse for wear… The kick was very much out of place.
Well, remember that Fuuka and Fumika are the youngest members of the class. Further, they aren’t seeing this as anything really serious but more fun-and-games ala the Mahora Festival ending “game.” As such, the kick-greeting didn’t bother me.
The masquerade’s fine. It’s all CGI, remember?
*LOL* Yeah. ^_~
There are so many questions right now. We need more information! The frustrating thing about this chapter isn’t the lack of fighting; it’s the fact that it creates even more questions without answering any.
Ah, but isn’t it the questions that makes one come back for more? ^_^ That said, you do have a lot of good questions.
Do Nodoka and Natsumi have their Pactio cards back yet (Fate Tertius took them after defeating his “brother”)?
Even if Fate destroyed them, Negi can give them new copy cards since he has the masters.
And finally, when is Takane-san going to lose her clothes?
*LOL* Sister Shakti got it instead. *lol*
Regarding your post, Frank pretty much covered it. Google likes deciding what should and should not be for the blog and they pride themselves on their algorithms to determine your site’s relevance, which comments are worthy of being seen, and what images should be used if you want to post a link to my blog on a place like Facebook. Its rather frustrating and I’ve lobbied to have Google give us the tools to chose but so far, Google would rather do it for us. *_*
Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to comment at all. ^_^
Since I brought Tenchi Up I might as well continue it.
I Ryoko/Washuu Lovey monment been done, Washu washing Zero back for one, and Washuu talking Ryoko into merging with Zero is another. Now it not like Washuu/Taro moments, but it more mother/daughter than most manga/anime shows.
2) Am I mistaken or did Paru just pull a Mihoshi and crash land her ship? (Ok it not all wet, but still a crash)
3) Now that Paru is in Mahora with complete info, will they release Eva? After all said, she is the most powerful magi we know of on earth.
4) Any body want to guess what below the World Tree? I sure it is not Ryoko.
>> Do Nodoka and Natsumi have their Pactio cards back yet (Fate Tertius took them after defeating his “brother”)?
> Even if Fate destroyed them, Negi can give them new copy cards since he has the masters.
I’m pretty sure neither of them would mind making a new one, though Natsumi would have a harder time ‘fessing up to that fact than Nodoka. (^_~)
“Negi-sensei, I’m sorry but I seem to have lost my card. Could I get a replacement?”
“Again, Nodoka-san? That’s the third time this week…”
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3) Now that Paru is in Mahora with complete info, will they release Eva? After all said, she is the most powerful magi we know of on earth.
——————–
Nagi’s the only one who can “release” Eva. While it’s true that she was able to leave the campus back in volume 6, that was a short-term stunt that only worked because Negi had arranged a field trip for the class. Without that, even the headmaster stamping innumberable forms wouldn’t have worked.
In any case, she doesn’t need to leave the campus to help out because the fight’s come to Mahora instead. But I doubt she’ll get involved. She’s generally happier sitting on the sidelines unless there’s some sort of dramatic pay-off (and in volume 6, that was the opportunity to leave the campus). She’ll be horribly disappointed in her “Boya” if she ends up having to get her hands dirty.
Negima movie? theirs a movie? ???
@Astronerdboy
*lol* Well, there are other things to distract one during the time. ^_^
Man, i study for about 6 hours a day, plus 4 hours of lessons everyday… like a said, without negima, i’ll go nuts x,x
Am I mistaken or did Paru just pull a Mihoshi and crash land her ship? (Ok it not all wet, but still a crash)
Yeah but in Paru’s case, at least she wasn’t reading a book and expecting a non-existent docking system to activate. *lol*
Now that Paru is in Mahora with complete info, will they release Eva? After all said, she is the most powerful magi we know of on earth.
Well, Eva is still trapped on Mahora no matter what. I do think that unlike the Festival, this time Eva would fight, if for no other reason than to not have to live in rubble. *lol*
Any body want to guess what below the World Tree? I sure it is not Ryoko.
Its the missing Naja. ^_~
In all seriousness, I think the Mage of the Beginning is down there and that’s where Nagi ended up stashing this person after defeating them.
I’m pretty sure neither of them would mind making a new one, though Natsumi would have a harder time ‘fessing up to that fact than Nodoka. (^_~)
Heh!heh! Well, the only new one they could make with Negi would be a permanent contract as far as I can tell.
Nagi’s the only one who can “release” Eva.
Well, technically Negi could but he’d have to give up blood and a great deal of it. That said, it does seem that Akamatsu-sensei hasn’t dealt with that at all since volume 3’s end. Eva seems almost content to wait for Negi to either find Nagi or come up with his own solution.
But I doubt she’ll get involved. She’s generally happier sitting on the sidelines unless there’s some sort of dramatic pay-off (and in volume 6, that was the opportunity to leave the campus).
As I mentioned earlier, I think she would fight in order to not live in a ruin. She’s already done more here than she did during the festival simply by being with Ayaka to get Chao’s equipment. If Nagi is under the World Tree, that would get Eva active (that’s a theory out there but not one I subscribe to). If the MotB is under the World Tree and there’s a threat to Eva personally, she’d get involved. I get the feeling Akamatsu-sensei will get her involved at some level because I think he’d like to get her into the fight.
Hit “publish” by mistake. ^_^;
Man, i study for about 6 hours a day, plus 4 hours of lessons everyday… like a said, without negima, i’ll go nuts x,x
*lol* Well, there’s the earlier volumes. I reread from time to time.
Sorry for the ambiguity… when I went back and reread, I had a hard time telling as well even though I’m the one who typed it. “New one” was actually “new card” rather than “new contract”.
Understood. ^_^