June 12th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy 魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 32 Chapter 291 (manga)
Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga Chapter 291
Negima! Manga Vol 32 Ch 291 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
With six more hours to go, Negi continues his training with scroll-Eva while Makie, Yuuna, and Ako try out their pactio cards. Eva praises Negi for his new technique but tells him it is worthless if he can’t control the power. Time is almost up and Negi ponders what he needs to overcome the Magia Erebea. He thinks of Fate’s goals and then begins cycling through bits of advice given to him by the various girls in his life. This causes him to speed up and grow in power, enough to were he’s able to get into Eva’s blind spots to land blows.
As Negi considers his father’s words to him, he and Eva go at each other one last time with Ensis Exsequens extended. The clash causes a big explosion with Negi taking the ice-based spell blade to the hand but scoring a hit to Eva’s midsection. Scroll-Eva praises Negi for the victory even though she is several times weaker than the real Eva. Eva points out that he hasn’t completely controlled the darkness and that it could go out of control again. Negi acknowledges this and says that should this happen, the members of Ala Alba will be able to handle things. Further, Negi finds that should the darkness consume him, he’d be like Eva and he doesn’t find that to be a terrible thing since he likes her. Scroll-Eva blushes at Negi’s romantic words and after attacking Negi as punishment, she forbids him to ever say that to the real Eva.
Eva declares the training over and asks what the answer was that Negi found to overcome the darkness. Negi says it is to be friends with him (presumed to be Fate).
Thoughts/Review: As expected, this volume is winding down to be a lighter tome which is what I expected before Akamatsu-sensei gears up for volume 33 and the final sub-arc to end the Magic World arc.
So, Negi moves forward as it were and decides to finally completely trust his battle harem. If this is true, then I hope that means no more stupid blubbering apologies about getting the girls into these messes.
Still, it was nice seeing Eva and Negi battle again, even if it was only a copy of the original Eva. I suspect that Akamatsu-sensei will have the real Eva and Negi battle again just before the end of the manga to show how far he’s come before he faces the final boss.
As to the pactiones, I give Akamatsu-sensei kudos for being able to poke fun at himself. After all, Ako’s card was developed ages ago and we STILL don’t know what the heck it does. Having Ako puzzle over this herself made me smile a lot because it was clear to me that Akamatsu-sensei was having fun with what looks to be a terrible artifact. Why would Ako get that anyway? *lol*
There’d been some speculation that Akamatsu-sensei might scrap the original pactio card and go for something new. While I saw a small chance of that happening for merchandising purposes, I didn’t believe it would happen. I also believe that Akamatsu-sensei had some notion of Ako’s pactio way back when and will hopefully tell us in the new chapter.
With Makie’s card, I tend to suspect that Akamatsu-sensei had Makie use that ability without a card starting way back when Makie was shown using her ribbon for grabbing things and then further in volume three when she did her Spider-man impression by delivering Eva’s message and then swinging away. So Makie simply gets an artifact that allows her to do even more unbelievable things with a ribbon, only now it is a pactio artifact.
As to Yuuna’s artifact, she has magical guns but Mei and Takane’s brief conversation combines with Yuuna’s feeling that the guns feel perfect make me think that maybe Yuuna inherited her mother’s weapons (or artifact). We’ll see.
As to Akira, I’d love for her to score a pactio in the new chapter but I wonder if that will be held over or not.
Finally, I’d just like to say that if Negi comes out with this whole, “I want to be your friend, Fate” thing, I hope Fate rejects it. I’m starting to see that Negi might be able to take Fate down completely with the help of the battle harem but give rise to a version 4. As with all things, we’ll see what happens.
So, another fun chapter with more Dragonball Z tributes (I suppose). ^_~
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Can’t wait till another Fate vs Negi battle!!!
This chapter was great im glad he wants to be Fates friend, seems like Fate and Negis battle might have more meaning to it now who knows they might end up as friends after
I only have one thing to say about Negi’s decission: The White Devil would be proud.
It could also be both her mom’s and dad. Since both gun doesn’t look alike, even a bit.
And for fate. Imho we still dunno if he is being used by someone or if his plan good or bad.. I’ll tell u more about it later..
For anyone who’s seen Law of Ueki, Ako’s artifact reminds me somewhat of Ai’s power. Not just because it appears to be a bad case of Blessed with Suck, but also because it feels like Sensei is going to play it self-deprecatingly. Every other power seems to always be useful somehow, even computer sprites in the middle of a jungle (at least until their power runs out), and that may be something else he’s poking fun at himself for.
Law of Ueki minor SPOILER:
Like Ai’s power, I get the feeling this one will stay close to useless except in the one or two cases where it’s tremendously useful, then pretty much never be heard from again.
@Nick — If that happens, it will be as Fate 3.0 “dies” IMO.
@ivanov — I hadn’t considered that but I like the sound of it.
@arimareiji — I sorta tend to think that Ako’s artifact will end up being a useful item, but that’s just me.
@ivanov: I wouldn’t be surprised if Yuna inhereted her mother’s artifact, but I’m fairly sure the other gun is the one she kept from the festival.
astro you never bothered to point out that it said Artifact #1
this means makies has 4 more weapons
(her card implies 5 artifacts)
Glad you got comments back up and running, ANB.
Some very cute Negi/Eva interaction in this chapter, even if it was just scroll-Eva. Her blush was priceless. ^_^
Yuuna’s got herself a badass longcoat now, which combined with her guns kinda makes her like Mana. Her guns look like Alucard’s .454 Cassul and the Caster from Outlaw Star. The Caster-like gun seems like a common magical gun, as Yuuna used one in the Festival arc and Negi owns one as well.
And poor Ako. I hope her artifact actually turns out to be really useful. I also hope Akamatsu-sensei will finally explain her scar. I guess it won’t be until the Magic World arc ends.
@orion: i recheck her pactio card. both of that gun are there.. i don’t think it’s something she brought with her (she never plan to go here in the first place).. her artifact is a double gun (kind of like mana’s pactio). but her guns are not a twin gun (not like mana). both are different. as if each of them has their own purpose of use. plus the magical sisters said guns (with an “s”… or the translator got it wrong) which mean there’s something significant about both of that guns.
@ivanov: I stand corrected about the pactio. However, it’s possible it might be ‘decoration’ with no extraordinary use, like Yue’s broomstick and hat?
Also, the White Wings translation uses singular “Sister, that magical gun is perhaps…” so it’s most likely only that gun was her mother’s artifact.
This is kind of an out there question, but is there any mention of complete contracts outside of the 2 or so times Chamo says it? I read somewhere that making a full contract voids your artifact, but I can’t remember if that was just speculation or not.