魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 37 Chapter 339 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 339

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Sakurako, Misa, and Kugimiya go into Shibuya to blow some steam since Fate is such a strict teacher. Sakurako wants to karaoke and Misa wants to eat, so they get some ice cream and discuss how Nagi-san broke up with Ako. As they do, they run into the older version of Fate, sitting at a cafe and reading.  The three are amazed that this guy looks like Fate and wonder if all of the boys (Negi, Kotaro, and Fate) have hot older brothers. Sakurako comes right up and introduces herself, asking if this guy is related to Fate. When Fate confirms it, Sakurako asks if she can have a drink with him and discuss Fate.  The older-looking Fate agrees as Misa and Kugimiya come up.

Kotaro and Negi arrive as their older forms and they call out to “Fate,” but he addresses them as “Nagi-kun” and “Kojirou-kun,” calling himself “Faitas.”  Since it is a 3-on-3 outing, the cheerleaders are happy with this, though Misa demands to know why Nagi-san broke up with Ako.

The group go to a karaoke place and rent a room where Sakurako is up first, scoring an 85 since she’s a singer. “Feitas” gets an understanding of the karaoke process and sings an enka song perfectly, scoring 100. “Kojirou” scores a 25 and “Nagi” a 10, leading “Feitas” to give them a scornful look. This causes both “Kojirou” and “Nagi” to take that as a challenge and go for another round to the delight of the cheerleaders.

Kugimiya goes to the bathroom and ponders “Kojirou,” whom she met during the Mahora Festival, but when she emerges, she runs into twos guys who are on the prowl for girls and not going to take no for an answer.  “Kojiro” shows up and with almost no effort, sends both punks to the floor unconscious.  He remarks to Kugimiya that he figures she was about to slap them and states that her willpower is something he’s always liked about her. As he talks, she finds herself falling for him and tries to get a grip on herself by stopping in the hallway.

Ako accidentally bumps into her and reveals that she, Yuuna, Akira, and Makie are having a reality appreciation party.  Kugimiya reveals that her group is with Fate-kun’s older brother as well as Nagi-san and Kojirou-kun.  Ako sees that Kugimiya is getting really excited as she talks about “Kojirou.”  However, Ako is unable to tell Kugimiya the truth about why she was rejected by “Nagi-san” as Kugimiya is not listening.

Meanwhile, Misa puts the moves on “Nagi-san,” realizing she’s highly attracted to him but worries a bit about betraying Ako. However, when “Nagi-san” gives her an honest and innocent compliment, Misa decides that Ako doesn’t matter and she’s going for it.

At the same time, Sakurao, who hates Fate but REALLY likes “Feitas,” discusses Fate and asks if “Feitas” can talk to his little brother to not be such a devil.  “Feitas” compliments Sakurao as Kugimiya comes in with Ako.  All three cheerleaders confess to their favorite guy and right moments later, the age-changing magic for the three expires, revealing their true identities as Fate, Kotaro, and Negi.

Fate immediately hands out punishment to the girls for being in a recreational facility after 6pm.  The girls are horrified by this while Negi and Kotaro wonder if Fate set them up.  As the cheerleaders compile the information on the true identities of their hot guys, Ako states that this is the reason she was rejected by “Nagi-san.”  Kugimiya cannot believe what has happened while Misa ponders her former Reverse Hikaru Genji project. Sakurako simply hates Fate, leading Chamo to ask if the girls are just going to ignore the magic aspects of what just transpired.

Thoughts/Review:

Reading this chapter was like stepping back in time before the Kyoto arc, when Akamatsu-sensei gave the cheerleaders their first solo time. As happened back then, he puts them in fashionable clothing, has them go for food, followed by karaoke.  So in that regard, I couldn’t help but smile, more so because this time, the girls did get to go karaoke.  ^_^

Sakurako totally reminded me of Izumi from Hayate the Combat Butler with her (mostly) constant cheerful look.  I know Makie has a similar look, but Sakurako actually made me think of Izumi, which is not a bad thing. ^_^

The notion of the three cheerleaders hooking up with the older versions of Fate, Negi, and Kotaro worked nicely.  All three girls knew “Nagi-san” and “Kojirou” from the Mahora Festival (though Kotaro hadn’t revealed that alias to the girls) and since Ako played with their band, all three knew of Ako’s feelings for “Nagi-san.”  So, that history made things very interesting.  Fate’s inclusion was just the right amount of spice because one didn’t know exactly what he might do, but his agreeing to go along with the girls was believable since his reason for agreeing to teach at Mahora was to learn about humanity.  This experience further helps him learn.

The chapter also gave Akamatsu-sensei a chance to explore Kugimiya pairing up with Kotaro. Now that Kotaro has a pactio with Natsumi, it is possible that Kugimiya gets one with Kotaro as well.  We’ll see how Akamatsu-sensei has the girls deal with magic (more on that in a bit).

Anyway, I loved the cliched punks looking to pick up a lone girl getting “Three Stooged” by Kotaro.  *lol*  Well, that’s how it should be.

Misa’s going after “Nagi-san” and then switching over to Negi is pretty much in line with her earlier thoughts about Negi.  Assuming the cheerleaders don’t stay dumb, I’m guessing Misa will try to work in a pactio with Negi (with the aide of Chamo, of course).

For Sakurako’s crush on “Feitas,” I couldn’t help but wonder, “where is her luck now?”  She’s always been lucky at gambling and her luck allowed the girls to follow Negi and company to the transport site in Wales.  One could even say her luck kept her out of harm’s way so that she and the cheerleaders didn’t get taken like Akira, Ako, Makie, and Yuuna.  Well, I suppose that even the luckiest people have to have their bad luck days, eh?

I admit that I chuckled at Fate’s look and sigh at Negi’s and Kotaro’s poor singing. The reaction Negi and Kotaro had to it was priceless. *lol*

While I know it was done for the story told, there were two things that sorta bothered me (beyond Sakurako’s bad luck).  The first was that the cheerleaders never once gave thought to magic nor even gave a moment’s pause to consider WHY Fate, Negi, and Kotaro all had “hot” older brothers.  I mention this because all three girls were ON THE MAGIC WORLD, though granted, they weren’t there long. However, they were there long enough to see some incredible things, but apparently, they blew it all off as some show.  There is a history of that in the manga, and I’ve accepted it up until the end of the Magic World arc, where things were very much different and it no longer mattered if the girls knew that magic was real or not. In my mind, at that moment, they may not have understood completely, but the accepted and thus freed Asuna.  Apparently, I was much mistaken. *_*

The other thing that kinda bothered me (and some may see this as nitpicking) is the convenient timing for the age-changing spell to wear off. Now, I know it was done to be part of the overall gag and to cause the cheerleader’s minds to be blown.  However, my mind kept saying, “If Negi and Kotaro could stay in adult form for days on end, then why did they all suddenly return to normal form at the same time?”  Its one of those things that I’m sure Akamatsu-sensei would say, “don’t worry about it,” and it is a minor thing, but it did bother me even if I did enjoy the gag.

I know some of you are not too thrilled about these light, comedy chapters, but my minor problems with this chapter aside, I’m loving these chapters and hope they keep coming for a bit. They’ll be plenty of heavy stuff in the next arc and it will be here before you know it.