March 7th, 2012 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 38 Chapter 354 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 354
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Several years after Asuna’s return, Makie’s younger brother, Kagehisa, escorts a girl named Makoto down the avenue that Eva had attacked Makie long ago. His reason for escorting Makoto with a bat is the monster attacks on girls for their underwear. While Kagehisa is confident, a monster emerges, removes his pants, then strips the panties from Makoto. This monster, is part of an increasing number of incursion of smugglers bringing magical beings and demons to Earth’s spirit world boundary. However, a group known as “Ministra Negi” have been working in secret to combat these events.
At school, Makoto discusses the event with her fellow, female classmates. They want her, as class rep, to do something about it since law enforcement and teachers aren’t helping. Exiting her classroom, she finds Kagehisa waiting for her, as he’s set up a meeting with a specialist in monster extermination. He takes her to Detective Yue’s Office, where they find an adult Yue sleeping at her desk.
Waking up, Yue states she had rejected all cases for the day, but when she realizes it is Makie’s brother, she reluctantly gets up and makes a potion she calls tea, which she offers to them. Taking a swig herself from a test tube, Yue gets the facts and takes the case, though she laments the fact that she hasn’t landed a job with the International Solar System Development Agency due to her education and experience on the Magic World being rejected on Earth.
They take Yue to the scene of the attack, where she collects evidence and sees the culprit may be more trouble than she thought. She has the two of them gather information for her, which they do in short order and return to her office. During this visit, Kagehisa notices photos in the wall, some with Makie in them and many having Negi in them. Yue is dismissive of the photos, but Makoto wonders if the boy was Yue’s boyfriend before realizing it was an unrequited love situation. She notices Yue’s great smile in one photo with Negi, to which Yue states that when she was Makoto’s age, everyone could smile like that. Thus, she advises them to treasure the time they have.
Going to the Mahora grounds, Yue sets wards to keep people out expect her clients. Yue summons a large, laboratory flask filled with a potion, which she consumes. She explains that she has brewed many spells into the potion, but she has to finish this business before she needs to go to the bathroom. Makoto reveals that all of the female victims were molested, making Yue think she’s heard of this before.
Yue senses the arrival of the thief and activates her pactio artifact. Paio II (Zi) emerges, along with several, large, magical monsters. Hearing that her opponent is only interested in breasts, Yue launches an immediate attack on the tiger dragon that had attacked Makoto, taking it out. She summons two skeletal (Dragon Tooth) warriors to protect her clients. Yue continues her attack, taking out the rest of Paio’s monsters, which impresses Paio. Yue has the best of Paio, forcing the latter to eject out of her suit.
Once freed, the naked Paio uses a technique from Jack Rakan to strip Yue before using six arms to molest a naked Yue. Yue is worried the spells within her will leak out when a bolt of lightning strikes Paio, knocking her out. Yue looks up to see whom her rescuer is.
Thoughts/Review:
This penultimate chapter of Negima! went places I completely didn’t expect — back to the future.
I find it interesting that the group of years later, Yue and others from Ala Alba would appear to still have pactiones with Negi. I wonder why Akamatsu-sensei felt like hiding the faces of all but Yue. It’s hard to tell whom all are there, but Setsuna’s silhouette is pretty obvious. I’d guess that’s Konoka near her, though it could be Mana. The girl with the broom is speculated to be Mei. That just leaves two other silhouettes I can’t ID.
Makie’s little brother was an interesting inclusion in this chapter. Despite Makie’s deep involvement with Ala Alba and magic, I guess Kagehisa was shielded from that element. Also, if the Magic World is a revealed thing now, I guess there’s still an element of disbelief among the people in general.
As to Makoto, Hata reports that others are saying this.
the [sic] girl Makoto with Makie’s brother is the Mahora teacher Nijuuin’s daughter, the “chibi” mage who puts a hurting on Asuna and friends in the church underground with her illusion.
Apparently, her character design is the same. That would be cool, of Makoto did turn out to be that girl, but if so, the problem is that she didn’t seem that magically inclined. However, there is an out for this — Yuuna. The one flashback that Yuuna had with her mother showed that Yuuna was learning magic, but after her mother died, it’s obvious that Yuuna’s father didn’t continue the magical education of his daughter. So, it’s possible that despite being a skilled illusionist as a very young child, Makoto’s father decided to not continue her magical education (though why would become the mystery there).
As to Yue, well it was awesome seeing her in action again. This chapter also allowed Akamatsu-sensei to bring back the forgotten, potion element of Negima! back to the forefront. Back in volume 3, when Eva used potions, I don’t suppose it is unreasonable to assume that she too consumed some to aide her.
Regardless, Yue has clearly become a potion master, which helps her make up for any lack of magical reserves that Negi and Konoka have. Frankly, I find that awesome. Yue’s combat skills are amazing, and she’s even a kind of necromancer when summoning those skeletal warriors. Granted, planting dragon teeth to cause warriors to spring forth comes from Greek mythology, but that makes it no less impressive.
I have to say that I love the idea of Yue working as a detective. I laughed out loud when we are first shown her, sleeping at her desk with her feet up. There are lots of side-stories that could feature Magical Detective Yue for sure. ^_^
As to Paio, when did she get six arms? ^_^;
The whole molestation of Yue was really over the top, not erotic (which ecchi, fanservice is supposed to be) and not funny. Then again, I am reminded that somewhere, someone got off to it. *_*
As to whom it was that saved Yue, the obvious guess would be Negi, based on the lightning attack. I’m going to go out on a limb and say, “Nodoka.” Why? Because wouldn’t it be awesome if Nodoka had grown in power to some degree and rescued her old friend? I think so.
So, only one more chapter. Akamatsu-sensei tweeted that he’s done with the final chapter, and that he hasn’t retired. Based on the wording of his tweet, I’d say a Negima! sequel/spinoff is still very much an option.
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I can only recall 3 people using that particular lightning attack throughout the story and that’s Negi, Nagi, and Eva. Out of the 3 it would seem Negi is the obvious choice but it was a 7 year time skip so it’d be an interesting twist if it was Nagi that saved her. It could lead to Yue questioning how he arrived there and what he was doing leading to answers about what’s currently going on with Negi.
I’m rather hoping against logic that Negi WON’T be the one who shows up, but considering how the story flowed, combined with the lightning attack, Negi is the logical choice.
Mahou Meitantei Yuecchi!, I’d read it.
Paio was shown to have six arms in the bath house chapter.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v26/c235/7.html
*lol* And I’d taken that as just a joke image, especially since she’d been shown on the previous page as having two arms. It must be a special technique she has. ^_^;
Don’t really know why, but Yue reminded me of several other magi from different animes, mangas etc. And since I recently play/watch/read Type-Moon works again, I am especially reminded of Aozaki Touko(her detective office and her lazy attitude, as well as being a skilled magus) and well… the whole Type-Moon Nasuverse, including the Fate-franchise…
Anyway, Yue became my favorite character during the school festival and I was really happy to see her having matured. Howwever, I’m not sure how exactly Akamatsu intends to wrap things up with only 19+ pages. I guess, I won’t be too pleased to see the ending, which is a shame because I loved Negima’s story and seeing it ending so soon makes me somehow sad. 🙁
Btw, I support the idea of a spin-off. I haven’t given up hope, yet. ;D
Yue, with this particular witch’s hat, reminded me of Mahou Shoujotai Arusu. (It will always be “Alice” to me, not “Arusu.”)
Forgot to mention, the use of silhouettes could be caused by time constraints. That’s my explanation why we couldn’t see faces in the pictures from the time capsule.
Maybe, but only from a context of not coming up with a suitable, older look for the characters.
Nice chapter, It will be interesting to see how Akamatsu can wrap things up in 1 chapter :-D.
What do you think the odds are for a new negima manga series.
Something like: Negima Evolved!, or Negima All grown up :-p
It’s already wrapped up with 353. 354 & 355 are just icing on the cake.
You know, there’s a possibility that Akamatsu is just getting tired of writing stories about school age kids and want to go into the more “adult” realm. Negi’s nice and all but how much further do we want to follow him or in this case, how much longer does Akamatsu want to write about him in this world he created?
A new manga in the Negima world might work. At least he can write about different stuff other than “final exams” or “must finish this school work”. If Negima continuted the way everyone wants, he would still be stuck writing about exams and other school based plots. The Magic World seemed like the closest where Akamatsu could escape the school setting but he must have realized sooner or later, the school would come back.
Yue might be a good catalyst into this new world.
>You know, there’s a possibility that Akamatsu is just getting tired of writing stories about school age kids and want to go into the more “adult” realm.
There’s certainly that very real possibility.
I found it extremely interesting that Yue resembles Negi so much, and it’s not only the techniques, but also the eyes.
This could be being paranoid, but she said that in the past everyone was able to smile like in the photos….
I’m really hoping the last chapter will be 100 pages long….
But probably not.. -__-
>This could be being paranoid, but she said that in the past everyone was able to smile like in the photos…
Well, there are a couple of possibilities, both related to each other. First, back then, she still had a shot at Negi because he hadn’t decided. However, once he decided, then the smiles left.
Second, as we get older and have more responsibilities, the carefree smiles of the past (when a “major problem” was getting that girl or boy you were interested in to be interested in you) are not so easily come by. Notice how Yue was frustrated by the way her life was turning out. She had worked very hard, only to have reality slap her back. Now, to pay the bills, she has a detective agency, rather than working a job she wanted with the ISSDA.
>I’m really hoping the last chapter will be 100 pages long….
>But probably not.. -__-
Well, it will be one extra page (19 total instead of 18). ^_^;;;
> Notice how Yue was frustrated by the way her life was turning out.
Yue is a frustrated divorced wife type. 😉 Any affair happened with Nodoka? 🙂 And other 10-12 girls? XD
Well, Negi is too young to be husband, but it seemed to be a good shot at first. 😉
But no problem, adult Yue is DA BEST, and if Negi did not choose her, then Yue IS MY WAIFU. 😀
I think that there’s a lot of potential for a dozen or so canonical spin-offs. The “Yue, Magical Detective” one would work, and so would stories focusing on Evangeline’s back story, Paru’s interplanetary crime syndicate, or even just a proper sequel, post time-skip with an older, more mature Negi, confronting the Lifemaker and finding out the truth about his father. If you look at this as not ending “Negima,” but ending “Mahora Academy,” things look much brighter.
I agree. I think that Akamatsu-sensei could explore numerous “side-story” stuff, whether in the past (Ako’s scar; Eva’s past, including how she ended up with Ala Rubra and how she scored that bounty; how Asuna reconciled with her true self; etc.), the “present” (whenever that is), or even the future.
Negi is too powerful now to star in any action sequel. He’d just roll all over any enemy but Lifemaker, who would curbstomp him in turn, so unless you take the Dragon Ball route and start pulling stronger and stronger enemies out of nowhere with no rhyme or reason, which is a sign of bad writing, you can’t really take him anywhere anymore.
I dunno. Given the low quality of these last chapters, I’m very wary about this franchise’s continued existence, because I fear it’ll just keep on wasting characters and situations and bringing out new plot points without solving the already existing ones.
>Negi is too powerful now to star in any action sequel. He’d just roll all over any enemy but Lifemaker, who would curbstomp him in turn, so unless you take the Dragon Ball route and start pulling stronger and stronger enemies out of nowhere with no rhyme or reason, which is a sign of bad writing, you can’t really take him anywhere anymore.
True. He’s nearly on par with Eva in terms of power, so anything we’d see Negi do would be more routine, or possibly as a dues ex machina move, as we saw in the new spoilers.
>Given the low quality of these last chapters, I’m very wary about this franchise’s continued existence, because I fear it’ll just keep on wasting characters and situations and bringing out new plot points without solving the already existing ones.
Well, a lot of side-stories could cover many of the dangling plot threads now.
I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say her rescuer was Negi. If you think back to the final chapters of Love hina, Keitaro had sort of a similar scene ‘saving’ the new glasses girl when she arrived at the inn. We sort of got to know older Keitaro through her. Sensei could be doing something similar with Negi and the new kids in the next chapter.
>I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say her rescuer was Negi.
True, and I figured that because the chapter basically screams it, but how cool would it have been for her rescuer be Nodoka, with Negi showing up a bit later.
The problem with “finding out the truth about his father” is that by all rights, he should know at this point. Between being buddies with Fate, and theoretically the Gravekeeper, and having met the surviving members of Ala Rubra, and them all having no reason at this point to hide the truth from him, as well as Asuna having her full memory returned; he should know essentially the full story of how the Lifemaker ended up sealed, what happened to Nagi, Arika, and Gatou, and how he came to end up with relatives in England, while Takahata brought Asuna to Mahora.
>The problem with “finding out the truth about his father” is that by all rights, he should know at this point.
That presumes that Ala Rubra know. Unless Akamatsu-sensei retcons, Al told Takahata that he didn’t know where Nagi was, only that Nagi was alive.
They might not know where Nagi is, but that’s not really a “truth”. What happened to Arika and Gatou, how the supposedly sealed Lifemaker possessed Nagi, etc, are truths. Between CE’s survivors, Asuna, and AR, they should know everything else leading up to him being possessed by the Lifemaker, and just not know his current whereabouts or extent of possession.
Nagi’s supposed possession by the Lifemaker, which may be the truth in the end, has not been established as fact yet within the manga. This is just a fan theory based on the available evidence. I saw the same evidence and saw something else entirely.
Its like when everyone insisted that Chachamaru was the one with a pactio with Eva, and thus now was her true partner. I argued that Chachazero was still the true partner, based on the fact that we never were shown Eva to activate a pactio contract with Chachamaru, nor did Chachamaru have a pactio artifact. Chachazero did, though while under the cursed/sealed conditions of Eva, could not use them, nor could the pactio be activated. However, since most fans were convinced that Chachamaru was the pactio partner now, and Chachazero was not, my arguments fell on deaf ears.
As such, when the members of Ala Rubra somehow know that Nagi was possessed, I think, “How’d they know that?” Takahata thought Nagi was dead. Al, who was trapped under Mahora, knew where the Lifemaker was sealed, but apparently, not where Nagi was at. That doesn’t reconcile to me.
So, until Akamatsu-sensei comes right out and clearly states that this fan theory of Nagi being possessed by the Lifemaker is the truth, then it is only a theory as far as I’m concerned, even if an interesting one.
It looks like the silhouette on the far right, in a line with Yue’s face and Konoka, is wearing Misora’s nun outfit. If it’s Misora, that would make four figures who have magic power without relying on a pactio with Negi, one unknown, and Yue.
What’s the chance that Negi chose Yue? They are similar – they both are creative/inventive in using magic, cosmo entelekheia put them both in worlds where they were reunited with a missing father figure, and they share some character qualities, such as determination, putting other’s happiness before themselves, etc.
Could be Misora. I would point out that Negi COULD make pactiones with girls who already had a pactio with someone else, so at this point, they may be his true Ministra.
As to Yue, well, I wouldn’t complain. ^_^
And Konoka and Setsuna could still have pactios with Negi, but that’s not necessary for them to use magic.
What I was trying to say was that showing only girls who either don’t have or don’t have to have a pactio with Negi to use magic, along with Yue who does have a pactio with Negi, implies that Yue could be the only one left with a pactio with Negi, and therefore his choice. I don’t think that Akamatsu would have chosen to show those specific girls by random chance.
Well, that’s possible, but we do know that Nagi apparently had multiple pactiones within Ala Rubra, all of which apparently are still active.
I have waited for eight years for Negima to end. I had almost became tired of the series due to the length of the Magic World Arc. As the series is about to end, Ken Akametsu seem to have rush the ending. He could have let someone to take over the rings of Negima. Now the series is coming to an end. The last chapters are like the epilouges of Love Hina.
>I had almost became tired of the series due to the length of the Magic World Arc.
I felt that way about the Mahora Festival arc. However, when I go back and read it now, without the weekly waits for chapters (and more with breaks), I realize it isn’t tedious, and in fact, seems to get cut a bit short just so Akamatsu-sensei could move it to the final phase.
I find the Magic World arc is much the same, as I re-read it in volume form. A ton of stuff happens, but it flows well, and Asuna isn’t gone that long in the story vs. the two-plus years she was gone from our time.
Oh…one more thing — as to Akamatsu-sensei turning Negima! over to someone else, that was never in the cards. Unlike American comics, which go on ad nauseum with stupid plot twists, depending on who’s currently writing it.
I hated this chapter! Hated it, hated it, hated it! I found the inclusion of two characters whom no one cares about very disappointing.
They didn’t bother me, because they were the vehicle to get us to a little Yue adventure.
i’m guessing that the sasaki boy is negi under cover probably trying to see how Yue is doing. As for how long he knows that other girl is and if there is any other reason for him to pretend to be a middle school student is unknown. However using sasaki’s name means that he most likely ended up with her. Also the shoe that you see looks like the one belonging to that middle school boy, I could be wrong.
A wild guess, to be sure.
Who’s Hato?
A typo’d name. ^_^;
Chapter 355 spoilers are out, Check the AQS forums for them.
Got ’em. Thanks. ^_^