July 26th, 2012 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 35
Negima! Manga Volume 35
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–> Purchase Japanese Limited Edition tankoubon w/ DVD from YesAsia!
For detailed chapter summaries of Negima! Volume 35 with chapter reviews, look below.
- Chapter 315
- Chapter 316
- Chapter 317
- Chapter 318
- Chapter 319
- Chapter 320
- Chapter 321
- Chapter 322
- Chapter 323
- Chapter 324
Story highlights from this volume have Fate and Negi defeat other Averruncus types before squaring against each other. Asuna is recaptured, and Shirabe repels an attempt for the others to grab her. The Magic World and Earth become linked between the Gravekeeper’s Palace and the World Tree, allowing those on Earth to see, but also allowing creatures from the Magic World to descend to Earth. Eva observes the fight between Fate and Negi with Zazie before helping Ayaka with the defense of Mahora. Eva learns from Al the secret of the person that made her a shinso vampire and his location on the Mahora campus ground.
As usual for me these days when I get a new, English-version Negima! manga volume, I can’t help but feel a bit depressed, knowing that it will be over in the U.S. soon and that there still hasn’t been word from Akamatsu-sensei on bringing the series back to properly complete it.
Still, all that aside, this volume is nearly all action as both Negi and Fate battle others in order to face each other. While they fight and fight, there are fights to once again try to save Asuna as well as fights on the Mahora grounds, similar to the Mahora Festival battles. So those wanting a lot of action won’t be disappointed.
While the fights keep the pace of the volume moving quickly, the most interesting stuff for me was watching Eva’s reactions to Negi and Fate fighting, and her learning of Negi’s mastery of magia erebea. Again, we are teased with knowing that she traveled with Ala Rubra for a time without letting us really know anything. Learning that the Lifemaker is the one who made Eva a shinso vampire is very interesting, but sadly, that’s all we get. Frankly, I want to know more.
On the Kodansha front, after too many volumes where this had been cut as an extra, they FINALLY decided to include the cover line art and notes from Akamatsu-sensei. I was stunned when folks reported it to me, and naturally, I had to see it for myself. While it isn’t a problem, I did note that Kodansha removed all of the Japanese text from the art and simply replaced it with the English. Del Rey had always left the Japanese there, and just added the English translations. I think I prefer it that way, but as long as we get the line art and translated notes, I’m OK.
Question is, what about the volumes that were skipped? I can promise you that I will NOT be buying another volume of the omnibus editions since the Twins were taken off after the 4th omnibus. (Update: My understanding is that the original, Del Rey translations will be used for the remaining omnibus releases.) So if Kodansha thinks that including the missing line art for those future omnibus editions will get me to buy, they’ve got another thing coming. The only way I’d purchase another omnibus volume is if the Twins are brought back to clean up the mess just prior to their taking over the series for good.
Also back in this volume is the honorific glossary, which I was happy to see even though I already know the honorifics.
Other extras feature the Japanese fan art with Akamatsu-sensei making a few notes; a section featuring the limited edition volumes of the manga and more; and finally, there’s a lengthy preview. There are only two translator notes, so I guess the Twins didn’t have much to say.
I’ll never get this as an extra (and I still think it would be awesome to have), but I wish we could get the two, textless, color versions of the covers from Japan. Here they are, courtesy of カートゥン☆ワールド.
I’m glad to see that Kodansha Comics appears to have listened to their customers and brought back the cover line art with Akamatsu-sensei’s notes. It may be a small thing, but it matters a great deal and makes the volume worth purchasing for sure if you are a Negima! fan.
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I don’t see the problem if they re-include the cover and lineart from when they stopped (which is after the twins started translating) in the omnibus containing the correct volumes.
I agree that they should have kept the twins on until the 7th one, though, since that would have covered all translations by everyone else.
I agree that there isn’t a problem there, and to be honest, Kodansha SHOULD include the line art in the omnibus editions. However, that’s not going to get me to buy them.
Looks like you beat me to the punch in reviewing. Then again, I have yet to go buy the volume myself. Things do sound like they improved, since you got your line art and the honorific definitions are back. However, Kodansha seems to be inconsistent on the releases of all their titles. When Cage of Eden is done well, Negima and Bloody Monday have bad quality, Negima being worse than Bloody Monday. I just hope the TOC is not so poorly arranged in this volume, like the last one.
*lol* Surprising, considering how far behind I am on blogging purchased manga. ^_^;
Kodansha is inconsistent though. I read that Dallas Middaugh stated that things have stabilized, so maybe things will improve. I trust Dallas since he made Del Rey’s manga division what it was, but at the same time, I understand that Dallas’s masters are in Japan, and the Japanese have a very different mindset on how to do things. :-/
“Wait! Is Kodansha Listening to Fans?”
I’d like to think it’s thanks to blogs like yours.
They dropped the twins?? That sucks! At least it happened after they fixed all the trailing off sentences of volumes 9-11 or so. I swear the original ones are so painful to read now, every sentence just fades out before finishing. “But the insides’ not even close to being….” “A monster would be easier to face than….” “The whole last day will be….” It’s so annoying.
I really would like to buy the rest of the omnibuses. I just hope whoever is handling it now can do a decent enough job.
To be fair on those dropped off sentences, my memory of the Japanese tankoubon version have the characters speak that way in the original Japanese (I can’t say that on a case-by-case basis, but that is a common Japanese thing to have trailing off sentences in dialog).
As to the rest of the omnibus editions, I should have been clear about this — the translations are the same as the original Del Rey releases. No one is redoing the translations to my knowledge. That saves Kodansha money.
Well I just looked at the raws on the parts that I mentioned. Even though some of those are not 100% clear they definitely sound more complete than just ‘dot dot dot.’
“not even close to being…” to
“mada zenzen desu ga.”
“easier to face than…” to
“yuuki nante doutte koto nai yo…”
I blame every instance of this happening on whoever was handling the adaptation at the time. Even some of the fan scans did a better job in my opinion.
About the new omnibus volumes, I did not know that. Thank you so much for telling me. I don’t think I wanna buy them either now.
I did buy 1-4, and those were worth it, especially 1 & 2.
Its about time Kodansha listens to fans. I wonder why they stopped including the cover art.
That’s one of those things I wish would get asked at a convention, but it is something I don’t think we’ll ever know.
Putting the extra’s back is a plus, but not putting the extra’s from the previous skipped volumes is a minus. I just hope they end up adding them either in the next volume or in the last volumes as I’d be a little reluctant to get the omnibus editions besides volume 1-3 for having better translations. Though the other plus seems to be that the Eng version covers aren’t getting censored as you can tell from looking at Ayaka.
Though I hate to admit it, but Vol 35’s special edition cover, Ayaka really does have a cute butt *Bangs head on the table*
I refuse to buy anything after volume four on the omnibus editions as there’s no reason to double dip. Kodansha putting those missing extras into the omnibus versions as a cheap attempt to get people to continue to double dip won’t work with me.