魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 36 Chapter 332 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 332

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Secundum is amused by Jack entering the fight since Secundum can simply erase him again with the Master Key staff. However, repeated attempts to hit Jack fail as Jack gets in behind Secundum, telling him that the staff is useless as long as he avoids it. The rest of KE attacks Al, Takahata, Eishun, Kurt, and Headmaster Koene, who counter. Eva finds herself enjoying the fray very much and asks her comrades to hold KE in place while she finishes them all in a single blow. With that, she begins casting a massive spell, which Dunamis and the others of KE immediately recognize as a serious threat to them. Three Averruncus immediately surround her, attacks in hand, but with a grin, Eva easily beats them all back, even punching through one of them before sending them flying away.  Without missing a beat, the grinning Eva continues casting her spell while Headmaster Konoe beats back some would-be attackers.

Dunamis uses his Master Key to summon and restore the Ancient Dragon, Vrixas Nagasha (Vrkso Nagasya in some Japanese places) to fight for them, something Kurt sees as a potential problem. Al asks Jack to do something about it since Jack and the dragon are supposed to be old friends, but Jack doesn’t want to.

While this is going on, Chisame asks Shiori to look over her work on a virtual laptop and agrees with Chamo that it is impossible to free Asuna from the outside. As such, Chisame asks the girls to reach out to Asuna as Shiori explains that Asuna’s personality is only a several years old while the personality of the Twilight Princess is a hundred years old. Thus, it will be difficult to reach Asuna, but Chisame doesn’t care about that because she believes that despite Asuna’s flaws, she’s an important person and thus they can call her back.

With her artifact connected to the Great Grand Master Key, Chisame has the others hold hands and call out to Asuna while Takane and Collet stand guard at the base of the stairs to the alter. Asuna is still unconscious and secured in the alter and despite their best efforts, Chisame sees that Asuna’s personality is only 30% awake. Misora wonders if this isn’t the result of the gathered people not being close friends with Asuna, which Chisame concedes, other than Konoka. However, Chisame believes Asuna’s personality is there and that Asuna funneled power to Negi in the earlier fight.

As she frets despite Konoka’s confidence, Kaede, Yue, Asakura, and Makie arrive to lend a hand. Also arriving are Setsuna and Mana. Chamo feels that with a best friend like Setsuna now there, they can do it, however, he would have preferred Ayaka be there as well. Chisame says that’s too much to ask for, but the arriving Zazie disagrees, teleporting in Ayaka, Fuka, Fumika, and Sakurako, who fall a short distance to the ground. As Ayaka wonders where they are, her companions are shocked to see the “monster” Vrixas.  Chisame demands to know why Zazie brought them to such a dangerous place, but Zazie assures Chisame that she will protect them and that Chisame needs their strength to reach Asuna.

Ayaka demands Chisame tell her where Negi is and starts to go woozy at the thought of Negi possibly being harmed. Hearing Asuna’s name, Ayaka comes back and demands to know what happened to her. Chisame says she doesn’t have time to explain, but the arriving Paru says that everyone pretty much knows they have to save Asuna. With Paru are Yotsuba, a repaired Chachamaru, and Hakase, wearing one of Chao’s battle outfits and wondering if they are in her timeline or not.

Nearby, Misa, Madoka, and Chizuru kneel beside the petrified body of Yuuna with the petrified Sayo-doll on top. Fate’s petrification spell lifts and Yuuna and Sayo are revived. Now with the entire 3-A class there, along with Anya, Shiori, Mei, and Cocone, they’ve achieved 180% power and Chisame starts the process to wake Asuna.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, with the entire class there, I found myself going, “what was her name?” ^_^;  Well, that could be a symptom of being very tired from working so many hours. ^_^;

Still, while the rumors on 2CH turned out to be true (that all of 3-A would arrive to revive Asuna), it wasn’t bad like some had feared, at least not to me.  For starters, since Akamatsu-sensei has apparently decided to delay ending Negima! for a while (I gather that the end of the Magic World arc had originally been set up to be the end of the manga, and indeed, I had felt this might be true about half-way through the arc), it gives him plenty of time to have the whole class make pactiones with Negi. After all, did anyone actually believe this wouldn’t happen?  I wouldn’t want to see a repeat of the anime series with most everyone getting a pactio at once and I think Akamatsu-sensei can now avoid that while at the same time, preparing the way for it to happen more gradually.  I could be wrong though.

The fact that Chisame’s artifact linked with the Great Grand Master Key tells me that there has to be some sort of computer system running the Magic World. Otherwise, how would her artifact, which is tied to things computer, be able to link in and provide Chisame with the information on Asuna’s status?

Speaking of Chisame, I love how she’s the one in charge of this phase of the operation. Its only fitting, considering how she’d taken the role that Asuna had long held as Negi’s closest adviser and Chamo even stays close at hand. *lol*  She sure has come a long way from her recluse days at Mahora, eh?  In the aftermath of this arc, I’d love to see how she handles things.

Zazie bringing down (literally) the rest of the class was pretty nifty, and funny based on how Ayaka’s group arrived through a teleportation disc in the air, fall, then immediately see an Ancient Dragon. *lol*  I tend to think that Zazie won’t have to test her promise since I kinda doubt they get attacked, but one never knows how Akamatsu-sensei plays things.

Despite being blasted, Mei turned out to be OK since she was with the initial group of girls. Its a shame that Akamatsu-sensei didn’t get to address her getting back on her feet after taking such a massive hit. Good thing Takane’s battle armor seems to have worked, eh? ^_^;

Yuuna and Sayo had their petrification spells removed (by Fate) but what about Bea?  She should have been there too, though with the focus on the 3-A girls, I guess that was a bit too much to ask.  Hopefully, we see her unpetrified in chapter 333.

I do have to ask about Chachamaru though. It doesn’t seem like there would have been enough time to repair her and there’s no established time for how long it would take to transfer her entire memory core to another body (which has happened when Akamatsu-sensei introduced the various body-types for Chachamaru).  Her appearance, while cool, seemed more like bonk. ^_^;

I did like Hakase asking the question about Chao’s timeline.  Clearly, this is something Akamatsu-sensei has thought about and I want to know too.  Maybe we’ll get some answers.

Now, save for Eva, all of the 3-A girls and some extras are calling out to Asuna.  Is this where we get some sort of flashback to show Asuna and her former self?  We have seen one before but Akamatsu-sensei might have another one in store for us.

On the other side of things, Jack is just stupid by basically taunting Secundum.  One false move and Jack is a gonner, though Asuna could bring him back.

Of course, the awesome part is Eva, hands down.  I know Akamatsu-sensei knows that we wanted some Eva love and he gave us some.  No wonder Eva doesn’t need a partner at her side.  She’s casting a massive spell while easily fending off three, very powerful, Averruncus beings and loving every minute of it. Totally awesome!

I still think Chachazero is on the Magic World. With the summoning of the Ancient Dragon, there may be a need for Chachazero to enter the fray.  After all, this dragon is supposed to be as powerful as Eva, if I recall correctly.  Thus, we might get to see Chachazero unleashed in order for Eva to finish her spell.

As I see it, Akamatsu-sensei can end the Magic World arc rather quickly here with Eva ending things as she did in the Kyoto arc, or we can get some flashbacks and further delays. As I mentioned, Asuna seems a prime candidate for a flashback.  That said, Akamatsu-sensei might take the time to give Eva one as well, thus filling in gaps about her life’s story, including her time with Ala Rubra.  Its just really hard to say with Akamatsu-sensei on where he might go.  Part of me thinks that with Eva’s entry being nearly identical to her entry in Kyoto and her taking care of all opponents back then, including Ryoumen Sukuna no Kami, she could do the same thing here and save her defeat for the actual end of the manga when Negi passes his master in power and abilities.

So, a really enjoyable chapter here. I’m glad we don’t have a break after this chapter! ^_^