Negima! Manga Vol 38 Ch 352 Review

魔法先生 ネギま!Volume 38 Chapter 352 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 352

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Negima! Manga Vol 38 Ch 352A weary Asuna is naked on a beach when young Asuna kicks her to alertness to remind her of her promise to her friends. Asuna returns to Mahora, only to discover that the year is 2135, much later than the 100-years she was expected to be sealed for.  Asuna sees things like flying ships, the space elevator, and mages flying brooms, so she decides to head to Eva’s cabin, only to find it in ruins. She finds a public phone and learns that Negi is missing, but as she searches for someone she knows, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Ayaka shows up in a chauffeured car, and takes Asuna to a graveyard, where a tombstone shows Negi dies on June 12, 2065.

Asuna is shocked that Negi died, since he was supposed to be immortal. Ayaka’s great-great-great-granddaughter remarks that her grandmother had told her that Ayaka had died at the age of 115, and was a very energetic person who was determined to meet someone, and this someone would be in for a surprise.  The girl has to leave, and her car flies off.

Asuna is wondering what to do, when she remembers the time capsule. She goes to the tree where it is buried and digs it up with her hands. More pictures have been added, showing the time at Mahora after Negi arrived. Asuna then sees pictures where Konoka became a Magister Magi, with Setsuna at her side. She sees other pictures of others after high school and into college and beyond, including one of Yue and Nodoka in space, and an adult Anya along with a restored Stan, meaning Konoka was able to cure Negi’s former village people. She then sees a picture of an adult Negi, flanked by Ayaka and Chachamaru, and wonders if this is the work of age pills.

Negi’s voice comes from the photo, where he reveals it is now 2023 and that Ayaka insisted he do this recording. While things have been going well, he confesses that he’s getting back into bad habits and opines for Asuna’s presence. This provokes the voice of Chisame, who takes offense at Negi’s statement.

Asuna ponders why Negi died before her, when another photo speaks up.  It is an elderly Ayaka from the year 2090, who reveals that she’s a grandmother, but that most of their friends are now dead. She says she is living to see the surprise on Asuna’s face. Asuna then realizes that the year Ayaka died, 2104, is when Asuna was supposed to wake up.  The elderly Ayaka reveals that she’s on Mars, since the lower gravity is better for her back. Ayaka says she’d like to meet Asuna one last time on the terraformed Mars, as the scene in Ayaka’s photo shows that land, complete with kids running, who look like Setsuna, Konoka, and one other girl.

Because everyone she knew is gone, Asuna becomes very depressed, figuring she should have just disappeared since it turned out this way. As she cries, wanting to see her friends once more, she’s joined by Eva and Chao, the later congratulating her for her hard work, though they didn’t expect Asuna to oversleep by 30-years.

Thoughts/Review:

As expected, Asuna’s faux personality survived, though the real mystery is why she didn’t come out of it in 100-years.  In fact, where the smeg was she all this time?  One would think that after 100-years, someone on the Magic World side would have brought her out this “sleep” since her job would be over.  Instead, it seems that no one had any control over the process, thus Asuna did her thing, along with the Twilight Princess version of her, but took thirty more years to come out of it.  Hopefully, the next chapter will explain things on this delay, but I can only see this happening if we get a lot of extra pages in the manga.

Since Eva is apparently still alive (I’m going to assume that was Eva and not some descendant of hers), why was Eva’s cabin in ruins? One would think that Eva wouldn’t allow that to happen.

Also, assuming that is Eva, it would appear that her curse was never lifted, and she’s still stuck at Mahora.  That means that Nagi never returned to lift the curse and Negi never found a way to do so either.  Either that, or the curse IS lifted, but for whatever reason, Eva’s wearing a Mahora uniform. I say this, because if the curse is lifted, it could explain why Eva abandoned her home at Mahora.

It is interesting that Akaya’s great-great-great-granddaughter knew where to meet Asuna, and to take her to Negi’s grave. I suppose that there could have been some sort of monitoring in place so that Asuna’s emergence from wherever she “slept” and arrival on Mahora would be detected. No doubt, Ayaka instructed her descendants on what to do when Asuna returned.

It is also very interesting that officially, Negi is classified as missing, but there’s a gravestone showing he died in 2065.  So, is he dead, or is he sill alive? If I had to guess, I’d say he’s still alive and connected to that surprise that Ayaka referenced.

Because a boyish, child looking like Setsuna, and a girl looking like Konoka (as well as one other girl) are playing on Mars, some in Japan have speculated that Negi ends up with Konoka and Setsuna. Akaya’s statements do not reflect on whom she procreated with, nor did her great-great-great-granddaughter’s statements. So, I’m going to vote for the harem ending, at least partially.

Finally, I’m not sure if it was a hint or tribute, but I noticed that Ayaka’s great-great-great-granddaughter’s flying car had wheels that rotated in 90º, reminding me very much of Back to the Future.

Negima! Manga Vol 38 Ch 352

Well, we still have a wait before us, as chapter 353 won’t appear until the end of February. ^_^; I’ll keep an eye open for potential spoilers, and hopefully, the last three chapters are long ones.  We’ll see.

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23 Responses to “Negima! Manga Vol 38 Ch 352 Review”

  1. CoreyTurner says:

    this was actually the first chapter of the series to make me cry. After kind of skimming through it the first time, i went through it again and the emotional impact was a bit too much for me so i had a good long cry for about an hour and then read it again.
    Looking back at the entire series, I had a feeling that obviously there’d be a flash forward into the future to see what the girls were doing after graduation and from the pictures that Asuna found, it seems like they all did pretty well for themselves, even the twins. I’m still angry that the series is ending so soon but i accept it and know that there will always be fanfiction. Anyways, I was still quite angry. Why did Asuna over sleep? How could Negi die if he was immortal?
    Anyways when I saw Chao, I was like “wow! she really was telling the truth about being a time traveler from the future. But if she is Negi’s descendant that would logically mean that someone along the line was Chinese which made me wonder if Negi ended up with Ku Fei in the end, but I suppose the last chapters will reveal all of that.

  2. Anonymous says:

    “and an adult Anya along with a restored Stan, meaning Nodoka was able to cure Negi’s former village people.”

    It was Konoka, not Nodoka. Evil Japanese names, isn’t it? 😉

  3. Ultimaniac says:

    The way I see it, Asuna was probably between dimensions of the Magic World reality and our reality acting as the linchpin of the two, possibly a sort of Cosmo Entelecheia without the whole fantasy bit. They said the Magic World dimension was gonna collapse within ten or so years, so Asuna’s spirit might have been merged with whatever connected the two worlds to hold it together. That’s what I think.

    Nothing in the chapter related to Eva made sense -_- I’d like to believe it’s the real one at the end.

    I would love nothing more than a harem ending XD but I don’t think Akamatsu-sensei has the guts.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      >They said the Magic World dimension was gonna collapse within ten or so years, so Asuna’s spirit might have been merged with whatever connected the two worlds to hold it together. That’s what I think.

      Well, that’s a possibility, but I think of Asuna as more of a man in the machine, functioning as the core that held everything together.

  4. TvTropesNerd says:

    I was wondering, since chao is appearing could this mean we could be seeing the return of the school festival?
    I think negi maybe dissappeared when fighting the mage of the beginning,but couldn’t destroy him because he looks like/ is his father so got possessed himself. Also, and this is even less likely, maybe chao will spam time travel and all the girls will fight negi/mage of the beginning from the future.
    I think it’s safe to say though that time travel will feature in the last three chapters.

  5. Michaelf1993 says:

    I’m not gonna cry….

    I’m not gonna…cry…

    Yes I am! *Sobs*

  6. DeltaResilience says:

    Nice review, though some errors such as “Nodoka was able to cure Negi’s former village people.” I’m guessing you meant Konoka right?

    I’ve already written this, the best proof that can prove Negi isn’t gone is Asuna’s pactio card, she should still have it right. But then that brings the issue surrounding the rest of the mystery of the pactio’s.

    We know what happens to a pactio card when a ministra’s magister dies, but what about when the probationary pactio contract is fulfilled? I bring this up because it been mentioned by Akamatsu that Negi’s pactio contract with Theodora has ended since it was only meant to be for the Tornament finals against Rakan. So what happens to the card? One can presume it goes dead as well but its question like these that make the ending so nerve racking especially since this series is about to end.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      >Nice review, though some errors such as “Nodoka was able to cure Negi’s former village people.” I’m guessing you meant Konoka right?

      Yeah, those kinds of errors are notorious with me. *_*

  7. Tim says:

    When I saw this chapter, I could help but get flashbacks to the ending of El-Hazard: The Magnificent World. I’ll be satisfied if this ends just as well. ^_^

  8. Anonymous says:

    I agree, if Negi really is dead then Asuna can’t use her artifact.

  9. Max says:

    (oh and I comment as the manga is about to end, too bad…and due to some bug I hope I’m not making a double post).

    some things bothers me in this chapter :

    -Negi’s death : I will keep being suspicious on that. As Negi is now immortal (well, not aging anymore), he can have the same problems as Evangeline and we can’t deny the possibility of a fake death in order to not make people suspicious or begin to fear demon-Negi.

    -Those who are not here : this time capsule bothers me for the missing characters. As I can understand why Ako isn’t here, as she’s nor really a close friend and a side character, well, where are Kaede, Kotaro (well, we can admit that as he’s not from 3-a and more related to Negi but still…) and Ku-chan ? My guess ( influenced by my desire to see Ku Fei more in the spotlight, I admit) is that there is a reason to it. I mean, hell even Kakizaki, Sayo, the Rainyday twins and Satsuki are mentionned !

  10. Anonymous says:

    “and hopefully, the last three chapters are long ones. We’ll see.”

    Every volumes contain about 180..200 pages, 9 or 10 chapters. (The first volume has got six chapters, but the first chapter 70 pages long.)

    I try to calculate, but…

    Vol.37 begans from chap.336 and can end with 344 or 345.
    Vol.38 can began from 346 and can end with 355, but then no way for long last chapters. You can get 15 pages chaps!

    Or…

    Vol.38 will end with chap.252 and a half-length volume will be the last with 353,354,355. If all of them have about 70 pages then the last volume has normal length, about 200 pages.

    But this is too nice to be true.

  11. Anonymous says:

    My guess to why Eva is still in that outfit is that Negi DID find a way to release her from the curse.

    The only catch is that she would have had to give up her immortal vampire status to finally be free.

  12. Anonymous says:

    “So, I’m going to vote for the harem ending, at least partially. “

    Course you do. Having girl/girl is evil, after all, so we must pretend that it clearly not happened despite no evidence for harem. A guy must get them! Magic cannot have done it (after all, artificial insemination doesn’t exist, science cannot do it, and magic clearly can’t, either)!
    Also, Konoka never specifically mentioned not wanting Setsuna for Negi, or anything (and the time she did doesn’t count, damnit)!

    Seems Negima fandom really didn’t grow up from the days where any mention of Konoka/Setsuna was swiftly eradicated from any wiki.

    Yeah, sorry, but seein that reasoning here really disappointed me. So much wishful thinking. Is girl/girl that scary for you people? 🙁

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      I have no idea where you get this girl/girl rant on, other than the fact that there’s a young girl looking like Konoka and a young child (male or female) looking like Setsuna. Since it impossible for F/F to reproduce naturally (or M/M), then if they had children, and they didn’t (1) clone themselves or (2) magically reproduce somehow or (3) have illusion versions of themselves created, then they had to hook up with a male at some level. Considering both have expressed a willingness to be with Negi, that led to the Japanese speculating that Negi may have been the father of their children.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Negi may be still alive in the future. There is a clue of Negi may have disappeared like his father Nagi Springfield. As a way for closure, Negi’s family had decided to declare him offically dead. If Negi is really missing, he may have been involved in a major aciident.

    This accident had cause Negi to lose his memories. Sometime after Negi’s family offically declared him dead, Negi regains his memories. Learning about being declared offically dead, Negi contact Evangeline. Eva decides to contact his family about him still being alive. Negi informs his family to continue to say that he is dead. Negi is likely living a second life. With Eva’s help, Negi is able to keep track of Asuna’s whereabouts.

    I do like the ideal of Negi still being alive. It will be unfair for Negi to dead before Asuna has awaken.

    About Evangeline, she is about to leave Mahora Academy after Negi found to break the spell whcih kept her the against her will. Eva decides to stay on at Mahora in order to be a teacher, to continue to be Negi’s contact, etc. She did left her previous home after the spell was broken. It seems taht Evangeline had left her old home because of the bad memories attached to it.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Are there any spoilers for chapter 353 available up to date? Actually they are mostly being released on Friday or Saturday, aren´t they? :3

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