July 7th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 36 Chapter 331 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 331
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Secundum responds to Eva grabbing him by blasting her other arm off. He smirks at the damage he’s caused and she smirks back as she yanks him in front of her and power-kicks him away while regenerating her arm. The KE members immediately identify her which amuses her as she looks at Negi and asks if the journey he’s taken has been worth it.
At Asuna’s location, Primum and Nii prepare to attack Takane and company and petrify them with a massive number of petrification missiles. Takane does her best to have a barrier against the incoming energy and when the projectiles launch, Konoka screams for Asuna. To Primum’s surprise, all of the missiles are knocked down by the Headmaster Konoe and Eishun before they take a stand in front of the girls.
Back with Evangeline, Dunamis wonders why Eva is here, citing the fact that the Thousand Master had sealed her at Mahora and thus he had not expected her to fight with the humans. However, she doesn’t expect she can do anything solo. Eva smirks and points out how Mahora and the Magic World are now connected as Al appears behind Dunamis and at point-blank range, casts a Small Heavy Black Hole spell. The others ready attacks against what Secundum describes as a musty, antique book, but Al summons Kurt and Takahata, who attack. At the same time, Primum and Nii are driven away from Asuna’s platform down with the other members of KE.
Negi is conscious but cannot get up as Al praises him for coming this far. Eishun joins the praise and says Negi has done enough. Headmaster Konoe states that with Negi having come this far, he should become Konoka’s husband. Takahata tells Negi to leave the rest to them as Kurt says that he wants to hear all of Negi’s plan once they’ve dealt with KE.
The sight of these powerful reinforcements has Konoka and company very happy. Chisame is stunned when she hears Jack Rakan’s voice behind them as he’s reforming himself. She asks if that was him she saw fighting Fate moments earlier but he denies it, saying that was Negi’s image of Jack. When Chisame points out that Jack had been defeated Fate earlier and had vanished, Jack says he came back partially due to sheer willpower and partially due to Asuna. After giving a sort-of hug to Chisame, Jack tells the girls that they are the only ones to bring Asuna back to this side.
With that, Jack makes his entrance to the area below with his normal flair, surprising the others. He gives a thumbs up to Negi and tells Fate to pull himself together and not be defeated by something like this. He promises that Fate is finally going to find an answer worth betraying his lord to obtain. With that, Jack and the others head off to meet the waiting members of KE.
Thoughts/Review:
Although this is a short chapter, it was a good one.
Akamatsu-sensei continues his parallel from volume six with Eva, not only with her appearance, but also her chat with the beaten Negi and then having a construct get a good hit on her. Before, Fate’s “Stone Spike” spell (name borrowed from “Heroes of Might and Magic V” game) pierced her, but she simply removed herself from the stone spikes in a cloud of bats and reappeared behind Fate to make him go running. This time, Secundum blasts a part of her away and again she regenerates, this time apparently growing her hair back as well. I would have liked to have seen her do more than power kick Secundum, but it appears that she will be joining the surviving members of Ala Rubra for a nifty fight so I’m looking forward to that.
Now, question is, “where’s Chachazero?” In the Kyoto arc, Eva shadow-gated herself into Negi’s location to save him. However, she had already brought Chachamaru in to handle Ryoumen Sukuna no Kami but she had also brought in Chachazero. Chachazero, Eva’s true partner, didn’t need to be at Eva’s side because Eva was powerful enough to handle Fate back then. So, while Eva dealt with Fate solo before joining Chachamaru to handle Ryoumen Sukuna no Kami, Chachazero was apparently assigned to deal with Chigusa but since Setsuna rescued Konoka, all Chachazero had to do was keep Chigusa from escaping, which she did quite well.
Here, Chachazero is suspiciously missing from the main action and thus I wonder if she might be somewhere near Asuna’s location or sitting somewhere to handle any KE folks who might decide to make a run for it. Actually, as I look back, Chachazero’s last appearance was chapter 321. When Eva left with Ayaka and returned with Chao’s future-mech, Chachazero wasn’t around, nor was she around when Eva met up with Al, Konoe, and Eishun to learn the secret of whom is sealed under the World Tree and whom it was who turned Eva into a shinso vampire. I suppose that Eva might have Chachazero dispatched at the World Tree as she could summon Chachazero in a moment if required. Plus, Eva has her doll powers so she could have an army of Chachamaru-type androids ready to attack. However, I like the thought that Chachazero might be on the Magic World and placed somewhere strategically.
Speaking of summoning, Al’s summoning of Takahata and Kurt makes me wonder if he has pactiones with both of them. Certainly, the way they came in seemed the same as a pactio summons but Al might be able to summon others in on his own.
I loved that Eishun and Headmaster Konoe arrived to save Konoka and the girls. Well, it only makes sense for her grandfather and father to come to her rescue, eh? ^_~ Still, it was a great scene even if Konoka didn’t get to hug either due to the dangerous circumstances.
Jack’s return was unexpected as was his remark that his return was partially aided by Asuna (not mentioned by name, but as “princess” from what I gather). So, its time for Negi’s girls, hopefully joined by Setsuna and Mana, to go rescue Asuna while Ala Rubra, Eva, and Konoe go kick some tail.
Finally, I couldn’t help but think of Seven Samurai when Jack lead the Eva, Eishun, Konoe, Al, Kurt, and Takahata to face the KE forces. It may be coincidence, but I kinda like to think that maybe Akamatsu-sensei is making a tribute to that movie.
Now, a two-week delay until chapter 332. ^_^;
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“Eva smirks and points out how Mahora and the Magic World are now connected”
this seems odd to me. the translation I read pretty much said the opposite. eva says something like “the connection between Mahora and the Magic World might have failed” if the magic for eva’s curse and whatever is making Albireo stay at mahora is coming from the magic world it would make sense that with the connection gone they’d be free to move around.
Truly a fantastic chapter so much to say here about how excited i got when everyone showed up Dean came off as just awesome cant wait to see what his magic affinity is
But what im curious about is Immas comment about him being the oldest one there meaning hes older than Eva? if so wonder what power he has yet to show and will Eva use ME finally Rakan is back. Man u know a manga is just great when it gets u so excited over just a single chapter stuff like this is what makes Negima so great
Just how old is Al? Did you notice he said he’s the oldest one one present even though the headmaster is there? That was one of the more interesting points of the chapter to me.
This chapter makes it look like the Jedi masters (Ala Rubra) are out to face the entire Sith order (KE)…
First things first, this was an awesome chapter. I like Eva’s expression after her arm was blown off, it doesn’t strike me as anger, more as boredom or indifference.
While we try to maintain our sanity during the wait for the next chapter let’s begin the mindless speculation.
What I expect to happen in the following chapters the girls will heal Negi and Fate, and try to rescue Asuna. The battle between KE and AR will go on, and in the end I see a showdown between Negi and Asuna against the Lifemaker.
Speaking of Asuna, Rakan says “bring her back to this side”. Maybe it means that Asuna’s soul is in KE. I’d like to see what Asuna’s perfect world would be.
Whatever happened to the Master of the Grave?
Moving on to Albireo, fist he states that he is the oldest present, I wonder if that includes the Lifemaker. He is called a book, a while back Eva called him “book-man”. My theory is that Al bound his soul to a book, he may even have been present when Mundus Magicus was created. It’s a stretch, but maybe he was the book the gang tried to retrieve in the first volumes.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Nekane stated that Nagi had saved, but did not say from what. This is a longshot, but maybe it was her body that the Lifemaker was inhabiting during the war. While we haven’t seen the LM’s body too much there is a similarity between them.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v35/c325/14.html
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v32/c288/1.html
Time for another 2 week’s worth of painful waiting while also getting to continuously read this chapter over and over again just because of shear fanboyism. JACK.IS.BACK! What I want to know is, if Jack said the one that fought Fate was really Negi’s ideal image of him, than that means that the Nagi that appeared is also Negi’s ideal image of his father. Besides now funny it is to see what he thinks of his dad, won’t that also somewhat prove that: a) It may be possible that Negi’s not Nagi and b) Nagi’s not in Kosmo Entelecheia? Btw, always great to be reading your blog!
Jack Rakan has officially broken all rules in the book…
Forget about doll armies, this one’s the real deal. I can hardly wait to see the members of the old Ala Rubra face off with KE.
And taking a quote out of Chisame about Rakan: “He’s so broken it’s not funny anymore.” That’s certainly what’s going in the minds of KE right now.
That was a cool chapter. Nice way to pull a “Here comes the cavalry!” moment without making the fans feel cheated. I’m looking forward to the next one, although I’m annoyed that we’ll have to wait an extra week.
>.<
Chapter summary in two words
OH YEAH!
“Eva smirks and points out how Mahora and the Magic World are now connected”
this seems odd to me. the translation I read pretty much said the opposite. eva says something like “the connection between Mahora and the Magic World might have failed” if the magic for eva’s curse and whatever is making Albireo stay at mahora is coming from the magic world it would make sense that with the connection gone they’d be free to move around.
To me, Eva could not travel to the Magic World without the connection being there lest the curse prevent her from doing so. Somehow, the Palace is now within the Mahora barrier so if the connection has “failed,” then it would be that KE did not expect to be within Mahora’s barrier and thus allow Eva to enter the fight.
(Actually, I don’t think Eva was in their plans at all.)
But what im curious about is Immas comment about him being the oldest one there meaning hes older than Eva?
Its possible. He keeps been called an “old book” and we already knew that he’d been around for a long time. Plus, look at how many dead pactio cards he had. That suggests a long life.
Man u know a manga is just great when it gets u so excited over just a single chapter stuff like this is what makes Negima so great
Heh!heh! Yep. ^_^ As to you remark on Eva and ME, I rather doubt she’d use that since she’s so powerful on her own. She only developed it as a means to cover her own weakness early on in her vampire life.
Just how old is Al? Did you notice he said he’s the oldest one one present even though the headmaster is there? That was one of the more interesting points of the chapter to me.
I wonder if Al is a citizen going back to the founding of the Magic World.
This chapter makes it look like the Jedi masters (Ala Rubra) are out to face the entire Sith order (KE)…
Only now, the Jedi masters defeat the Sith but the Sith return to face the next generation in the final big arc.
First things first, this was an awesome chapter. I like Eva’s expression after her arm was blown off, it doesn’t strike me as anger, more as boredom or indifference.
Indifference would be my take on it. She’s showing that she’s unphased by having limbs blown off.
Speaking of Asuna, Rakan says “bring her back to this side”. Maybe it means that Asuna’s soul is in KE. I’d like to see what Asuna’s perfect world would be.
That would be interesting to see.
Whatever happened to the Master of the Grave?
Good question.
Moving on to Albireo, fist he states that he is the oldest present, I wonder if that includes the Lifemaker. He is called a book, a while back Eva called him “book-man”. My theory is that Al bound his soul to a book, he may even have been present when Mundus Magicus was created. It’s a stretch, but maybe he was the book the gang tried to retrieve in the first volumes.
Actually, I don’t think you are too far off the mark there. Al may be an illusionary being, but being bound to a book might be the same as in “Star Trek: Voyager” where they came up with a remote control to allow their holographic doctor to leave sick bay.
While we haven’t seen the LM’s body too much there is a similarity between them.
I think that can be attributed more to Akamatsu-sensei’s character designs, kinda like how Akira and Motoko look so much alike, especially back when Negima! began.
What I want to know is, if Jack said the one that fought Fate was really Negi’s ideal image of him, than that means that the Nagi that appeared is also Negi’s ideal image of his father.
Very possible, but if my theory is correct, it could be the real Nagi with Akamatsu-sensei muddying the waters. 😛
a) It may be possible that Negi’s not Nagi and b) Nagi’s not in Kosmo Entelecheia?
Both of those things are very possible IMO.
Btw, always great to be reading your blog!
Thanks. ^_^
Jack Rakan has officially broken all rules in the book…
“Breakin’ the law, breakin’ the law.” ^_~
Forget about doll armies, this one’s the real deal.
Well, doll armies could be used to defend Mahora and keep Eva abreast there. After all, I believe Eva can control 300 dolls from a fair distance.
I can hardly wait to see the members of the old Ala Rubra face off with KE.
That should prove most interesting. ^_^
And taking a quote out of Chisame about Rakan: “He’s so broken it’s not funny anymore.” That’s certainly what’s going in the minds of KE right now.
There is that, but Jack (and likely Al) are also the most vulnerable members of the attacking seven. Unless Asuna does something else, Jack could be re-written again and I think Al can be as well. Of the remaining five, its Eva that would be the toughest to bring down unless MotB has some control power over her because MotB turned her.
That was a cool chapter. Nice way to pull a “Here comes the cavalry!” moment without making the fans feel cheated. I’m looking forward to the next one, although I’m annoyed that we’ll have to wait an extra week.
Akamatsu-sensei loves to tease, eh? ^_^
You know…
Ultimately, the cavalry can’t completely win the day. After all, they’re not the protagonist(s). So Negi and his group have to do something.
Or in other words, we may yet see the newcomers get curb-stomped.
On the other hand, if Negi can get back up, then the newcomers are about to give Negi a *lot* of uninterrupted time. And as Jack found out in the arena, Negi with a lot of time to prepare is a very dangerous thing…
Ultimately, the cavalry can’t completely win the day. After all, they’re not the protagonist(s). So Negi and his group have to do something.
Well, Eva did win the day in the Kyoto arc. I could see something similar happening here to show that despite how far Negi has come, he still has a bit to go.
That said, I still wonder if Eva gets controlled somehow.