魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 31
Negima! Manga Volume 31 Review

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For detailed chapter summaries of Negima! Volume 31 with chapter reviews, look below.

• Chapter 277
• Chapter 278
• Chapter 279
• Chapter 280
• Chapter 281
• Chapter 282
• Chapter 283
• Chapter 284
• Chapter 285

Highlights from the volume (*SPOILERS*):

• The “death” of several Magic World illusionary beings, including Jack Rakan.
• Nodoka being very brave in facing her fear and getting the information Ala Alba needed regarding getting the Magic World residents back.
• Chachamaru’s artifact getting used.
• The gathering of Ala Alba and other companions on the two air ships.
• The unmasking of Shiori-Asuna, complete with the discovery of her real name (Luna) and her making a pactio with Negi.
• The real Asuna surviving learning the truth of her past as well as seeing Anya.
• The faux-Eva being enlisted to help Negi get control over Magia Erabea.
• Yue and Nodoka finally getting to have a chat and catch up, though Yue still hasn’t recovered all her memories.

It was great the Nodoka got a moment to be a hero, more so because she’s a shy, timid person by nature. Yet throughout the manga, it has been said that Nodoka might be the bravest of any of them since she first faced her fears and became the first of Negi’s battle harem to confess her feelings for him.  This volume is the culmination of that bravery, now taken to a new and life-threatening level, but that’s what made it so great.

Yue, as a warrior-mage, is fine too.  I liked how Mana complimented her as a fighter but also had experienced advice for Yue regarding her anger.

When we finally got to see the real Asuna and have Shiori unmasked, “finally.”  Asuna had always been such a strong part of the manga until her kidnapping and then, it just wasn’t quite the same. Don’t get me wrong, removing Asuna from the equation allowed Chisame to shine as a character as well as other characters.

Regarding the faux-Eva playing an old video game within the confines of her scroll, I have to admit that I still find that pretty amusing (though it was disappointing that there were no translator notes on the game console she was playing, but oh well).  The very notion that Eva would put a piece of herself within a scroll and then give it a game, TV, and snacks to boot is just hilarious to me.

One thing readers of the weekly chapters may have noticed is the massive mistake that Akamatsu-sensei made regarding who was on which airship.  In the original drawing in chapter 282 when Paru brought out her diagram had Yuuna and Makie behind her.  Well, since neither were on Great Paru-sama, it would be rather hard for them to be standing behind Paru.  So, Akamatsu-sensei corrected that by removing them and giving Sayo that spot, which makes sense seeing as how Sayo provided cover fire to allow Great Paru-sama to escape in the first place.  I think there was another mistake or two that were corrected in the volume, but I didn’t bother trying to look and confirm.

On the Kodansha side, there are some issues.  While they did include the Q&A with Akamatsu-sensei, the normal page with the front-cover drawing and note was missing.  I don’t have the Japanese tankoubon for volume 31, but they’ve always had a note regarding the back cover too.  If Kodansha just scrapped those for the U.S. release, I’m not going to be a happy camper.

Then, there are quality control issues.  For some reason, there’s a moment where Yue’s name is being called out, but the name isn’t even in the bubble and is the wrong font size to boot for such a large bubble. There’s an instance of Yuuna’s name being spelled Yona for some reason, which I have a hard time believing would be a mistake on the part of the Twins.  I’m not sure why the number “56” shows up when a couple of pages later, Yue is remembering Nodoka.

I don’t know if this was some editor doing this or some weird, mid-stream switch for the Twins, but there’s a part where the translation had Ako refer to Tosaka as “Mr. Tosaka” and then “Tosaka-san.”  There was another part where Chisame is calling out in disbelief to Jack, “Mister,” twice.  While that is a proper translation, it just didn’t read well with me, but neither did “old guy” from the fan translation so what do I know? ^_^;

Now, the thing that REALLY had me confused was the use of “dragon’s tree” when referring to Vrkso Nagasya. Fan translations had this as “sacred dragon,” which made sense to me and so I never questioned that. I did get to ask about the use of the term “dragon’s tree” and was reminded that this was explained in volume 24’s lexicon. ^_^;  I do read the lexicons, but generally it is a one-time through thing.  There really needs to be a lexicon book, eh?  *lol*  Anyway, I looked and sure enough, there’s the explanation and “dragon’s tree” is a literal translation of the dragon’s name. I remembered it after rereading it, but I guess I forgot over time since when I reread manga, I don’t tend to reread translator notes, lexicons, or other stuff.

Still, in my mind, the passage (done in CAPS to reflect how it is done in the manga), HE’S TOTALLY WIPING OUT THE DRAGON’S TREE would read better as HE’S TOTALLY WIPING OUT THE “DRAGON’S TREE” since the first way has the focus on the tree and the second indicates a title or secondary name with the use of the quotation marks. As it was, and with me forgetting the lexicon entry, the wording about a dragon’s tree made no sense to me.  I’m guessing it did to the Twins since they’d translated the lexicon AND remembered its contents (unlike me). ^_^;;;

Well, its a small point in an otherwise finely translated volume.

So, a good volume story-wise with some QC issues on the Kodansha side and some questions on whether Kodansha gave us everything or chose to remove a couple of pages.