Negima! Vol 20 (Ch 185) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 20 Chapter 185

Summary: As Magus and Nekane watch at the entrance of the room filled with the petrified people from Negi's former village, Negi speaks to the stony Stan and thanks him for his role in making Negi what he is. Magus wanted Negi to be able to move forward which is why he brought Negi to the room. Anya arrives with an insult for Negi, tailed by Asuna, Setsuna, Konoka, Nodoka, Yue, and Chisame. Magus is a little troubled by the others knowing about the room but Anya points out that these girls are working with Negi. Anya makes some crass remarks about the "statues," including telling Asuna that there's an older man one for her. Negi prevents Asuna from retorting as Anya arrives at the statue of a woman. This statue is Anya's mother and Anya takes a cloth to dust her mother.

Afterward, Asuna and Negi talk about things. Negi explains how Anya escaped the destruction and petrification. Asuna wants to know how Negi is taking things, but Negi assures her he's fine, especially after seeing how Anya handled the situation. Negi sees that room as his starting point and that he needs to do his best so that Stan doesn't laugh at him. The other girls who saw the room hear this as well. As such, Konoka decides that she's going to do her best to study and maybe find a way to cure them all. The others agree they will do their best for Negi.

As the girls and Negi come in, they are spotted by Ayaka's group, who hear the plan of Negi's group to take off early in the morning.

The following morning, all the members of Negima (Ala Alba) take off with Donette. Magus reminds Nekane that in addition to Donette, Nagi's friends are also waiting for Negi's group. As the group enters the fog, Donette tells them to stay close to her so that when they enter the magic gate, they won't be left behind. Further, they need to stay close so as not to get lost in the fog. Asuna says an apology back to Ayaka who's supposed to be back at the village but instead emerges from behind a large boulder. Ayaka has no intention of breaking her promise, but has a bad feeling about the trip Asuna and Negi are about to undertake. Asuna assures her that she'll protect Negi but further, the trip should be easier than they thought. With that, Asuna has to leave to keep up with the others.

Yuuna and the others of Ayaka's group observe what has transpired and wearing the same hooded cloaks as Negi's group, they figure they'll be OK to tail them. Yue asks about the possibility of normal humans stumbling onto the gate and going to the other world. As she works the magic to access the gate, she assures Yue that it is impossible but that ever 10 years or so, a normal person does get lost in the fog.

Meanwhile, the girl's with Yuuna are lost and so ask the lucky Sakurako to point them the way. She does and they are off again.

At the gate (which looks like Stonehenge) where there are others also waiting wearing hooded cloaks. Donette explains that the gate only opens once a month and since they have an hour before the gate opens, Asuna suggests breakfast. However, Ku Fei and Kotaro are already eating. Anya is not happy about Kotaro eating her sandwich and accidently bumps into another cloaked person. She apologizes and hurries off and we see the person is none other than Fate.

Thoughts: To be honest, I didn't expect Fate to show up here. So will he try to prevent Negi from reaching the Magic World or is his being there a coincidence, I can't say. Still, it does strongly suggest that the group will have to fight Fate at some point.

I'm not sure I'm going to like it if all the other girls somehow make it through to the magic world.

Negima! Vol 20 (Ch 186) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 20 Chapter 186

Summary: Yue gives a lengthy talk about the Celtics, the other world, and the magic world but sadly no one is listening. Donet gathers the group around as Negi thinks about this puts him a step closer to his father. His thoughts are interrupted by a strange (dangerous) feeling. He checks with Ku Fei and Setsuna but neither of them sense anything. Setsuna checks with Donet, who assures her and Negi that with all the security in place on the other side, there is no danger. All of this is observed by the girls from Ayaka's group. As the gate activates, a few of the girls (to include Ako, Makie, and Yuuna) approach. Yue provides more information and Konoka wants there to be angels or fairies in the Magic World.

The gate activates and before the extra girls can leave the area, everyone is sent to the Magic World. Their arrival point is like an airport, with all the stones there, but instead of being in a field, they are inside a facility. While one of the extra girls rushes to find what's going on, Yue, Para, and Nodoka head to a balcony to observe the capital with its buildings, rock formations, and flying creatures to include flying whales. Meanwhile, Negi and Setsuna check all of the group's weapons to include Negi's staff with the gate staff. They treat him as a celebrity because of his father, even calling him "Negi Springfield-sama."

At the gate, Donet summons Negi where a group of scared and stunned girls (Makie, Ako, Yuuna, & Akira) are being held by security mages. They apologize and Negi wonders what he will do about this. The Aru Aba members are also in a worried state but before things can get resolved, Negi senses something bad and since the extra girls made it through the gate, something worse can. He orders Setsuna to use her detection arts and requests a nearby guard summon support. Negi pulls out his small wand and begins getting Aru Alba in position for danger. If he's over reacting, the oh well.

Fate Averruncus is surprised that Negi noticed him and wondered if Negi's genetics led to it since Fate should not have been noticed. As such, he sends a large, stone shard which pierces Negi's left chest from the back and completely penetrates his body.

Thoughts: I honestly didn't think they'd be fighting Fate so soon and that's a pretty huge wound for Negi to take. I'd say it would be a fatal wound but lets face it, Negi isn't going to die so we'll see how this plays out. Then again, Ala Alba's weapons are all locked up and I guess we'll see how powerful the security forces at the gate are.

As for Fate, I guess his mission was not to fight since he was trying to go undetected and indeed he had since only Negi had sensed him.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 187) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 187

Summary: Negi realizes he's been fatally hit with a stone spear, he tries to warn away Asuna and Anya who are rushing to his aide. Setsuna orders Ku to bring Konoka there and Kaede has Kotaro go protect Makie and the other girls who weren't supposed to be there. Konoka arrives as Makie, Akira, Yuuna, and Ako have trouble processing what's going on. Setsuna tells Konoka she needs to use her power to heal Negi, but Konoka reminds Setsuna that all of their pactio cards were sealed within the box along with all the group's weapons. Since it impossible for them to release the seal, Negi is in real trouble as Konoka can only heal injuries that severe by her powers if they are less than 3-minutes old.

A guard tells them that support will be arriving shortly as will a healer. However, Negi gasps out that they need to run away. An attack hits and Kaede, Setsuna and Anya erect a barrier to protect Negi, Asuna, Ku, and Konoka while Kotaro does the same to protect Makie's group. The massive attack kills the guards though and Fate steps forwards with three others, tossing a remark at the injured Negi about having insufficient power. Setsuna, Kotaro, and Kaede attack with Negi tries to get them to run away. Kaede is attacked from behind by one of Fate's (Shadow?) companions (of which there are two), Kotaro is attacked by a sword girl similar to the Shinmei Ryuu girl, Tsukuyomi, and Setsuna has a stone spikes attack put on her by Fate. The battle continues with the three getting their butts handed to them. Kaede finds herself trapped in a black spherical prison, Kotaro gets knocked out buy the girl's special attack, and Setsuna gets a beating.

Asuna demands to know what Fate wants and why they are following them. Fate assures her that their being there at the same time is a coincidence since even he was unaware of their plans thanks to the school leaders keeping a tight lid on the information. Their only object is the gate area. Negi noticing Fate was unexpected but it forces them to immediately proceed with their objectives to prevent backup from arriving. As such, there will be no one to help Asuna and company.

Setsuna can still fight but is very troubled that Kotaro and Kaede are out of it. Asuna is worried about Negi and with their weapons sealed in a magical storage device, there appears nothing that can be done to retrieve them.

Fate tells the injured Negi that his comrades are garbage and that he'll use his Eternal Petrification spell to remove them, starting with Setsuna. As he starts the magic, the wounded Negi lands a blow on Fate, interrupting the spell. Negi, using his magic to stand and remove the stone spear, faces Fate, who tells him that Negi will die, which would be troubling. Without his staff or weapons, Fate wonders what Negi could possibly do. However, a flash of power catches his attention as Asuna has punched the magic box and with her magic nullification ability, she has released the seal. Thus, all of the group's weapons and the pactio cards now fly out of the box to be used.

Thoughts: Well, the guards were pretty useless. While Negi's getting up and landing a blow on Fate is a clichéd moment, it worked for me in that Negi has always been more powerful than expected and at times, does the impossible. I think back to his fight with the Graf where upon being goaded, he unleashed some mad power against that youkai (or whatever creature he is). Or there's Negi's first fight with Fate where he managed to hold off Fate (despite slowly being petrified by Fate's spell) along with Asuna until Eva arrived.

Asuna defeating the seal on the box puts a new twist on her power. Until now, that power was activated when force-emitting spells were cast directly at her. However, I speculated that her power may have also come into play when Eva encased her in magical ice and she broke out after a few minutes.

Well, with the weapons and cards free, its time for Ala Alba to counterattack.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 188) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 188

Summary: With the Pactio Cards and weapons in the air, Asuna grabs Konoka's card and flings it to her. Both she and Asuna activate their respective cards with costume as Paru, Yue, Nodoka, Asakura (with the Sayo doll), Chiame, and Chachamaru check out the sounds and see Fate and a wounded Negi. Donet is working with the mages in the control center for the gate port, where they are unable to do anything for at least 15-minutes. Things are so bad and Fate got through so easily that Donet wonders if someone in the Magic World working with Fate.

Asuna goes to attack Fate with Ku providing backup to clear the way for Konoka to get to Negi. However, Fate instant-moves to Konoka's location and goes to put her out of commission (petrification spell?) but the spell is thwarted by Setsuna, who uses a fuda (charm; talisman) and her wings to protect Konoka. Setsuna is angry and using her artifact, she and attack on Fate. She manages to slice Fate in half, but the body is merely liquid and now Fate is behind her attacking. However, Ku is waiting for Fate and her attack takes out all of his stone spears that were intended for Setsuna, but of course he survives.

Asuna brings Negi to Konoka but before anything can happen, she receives a warning (telepathically?) telling her to look out above. One of Fate's companion's has launched the same attack that took out Kaede but Asuna's magic nullification protects them. The sword girl greets Asuna as "Princess," remarking on how she's grown and attacks, but Kotaro intercepts her (having been healed by Anya) and protects Asuna. A "charm" bomb rolls to Fates location and explodes while Kaede's giant Shuriken swoops in.

Konoka uses her abilities to completely heal Negi as Setsuna and Ku join Kaede, who managed to escape from the trap though still has some of the black substance on her. Asuna and Kotaro form up and Negi rises to face Fate. Seeing this, Fate retracts his remarks about Negi's companions being garbage. Since Fate found the encounter fun, he wonders if he'll seriously fight the next time they meet. Negi demands to know about Fate's group and what they are up to, but Fate says they are out of time and they have to leave. Negi says he will stop them, which leads to him receiving a punch in the face from Fate. Fate tells him that even with the recovery spell, he should take it easy. With that, Fate rises into the air and causes several dark, monstrous pillars to come down and completely destroy the gate area.

Thoughts: Wow. A rather nice fight there. I hope that my theory that Fate is actually Spider-Zero from Akamatsu-sensei's A.I. Love You (English title) because in addition to looking identical, they have other similarities. Besides, Nitta-sensei was also in that manga so why not Spider-Zero?

I wonder who it was who warned Asuna. Since they used the term "neechan," it wasn't Chamo and no one else in Negi's group refers to Asuna in that manner (this is why honorific usage is so important in Japanaese literary works), thus as I see it, someone else warned her. I wonder who.

Negima! Manga Volume 16

Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, Volume 16

SPOILER Summary: Negi's story of time travel is not believed by anyone but Takahata. Negi is told how Chao defeated all of the mages at the school and reveal the existence of magic to the world. Takahata provides a means for him to escape while the battle harem has to fight a series of battles against various mage groups determined to capture them as they move to rescue Negi. They finally break through with Takahata giving them his blessing. However, in order to travel back in time, they have to get to the roots of the World Tree where the remaining residue magic should be enough to take them back. The dragon that lives under the library is there waiting and gives them some issues, but in the end, they manage to escape the dragon and make it back to the 3rd day of the school festival, where Chao pulled off her plan. However, they emerge mid-air and Negi is forced to cast a spell to prevent them from crashing to the ground and dying.

Negi comes up with a plan to stop Chao's which will involve bringing in the students to fight Chao's robot army (an army not designed to kill or injure, but will simply cause the clothing of their victim to disappear). Using Yue's artifact, Chamo finds a source of weapons on the Magic World that they could safely use in the battle. Chamo, Konoka and Setsuna inform the Headmaster who ends up agreeing to the plan since it will be billed to the students as a game for prize money.

Chao sends her forces in an hour early but the students are ready and eager to win the game. Asuna, Setsuna, and others (such as the school mages) are classified as "hero units" in the game so they can use their abilities without raising too much suspicion. Chachamaru starts her attack on the computers of the school, so Chisame is forced to pactio with Negi in order to battle Chachamaru within the Internet. That done, Negi, having rested, is now ready to enter the fray.

Thoughts: First, lets address the controversy over this volume. Del Rey has been slipping lately, and I was afraid that we'd see more of that crap. But fortunately, all of the honorifics survive this issue and it remains fairly otaku-ish. The first controversy is the cover. On the left is the Japanese cover and on the right is the Del Rey cover.

The Japanese cover is more ecchi with Ayaka's breast mostly exposed. Clearly that's a no-go in U.S. markets and so Del Rey cleverly covers Ayaka up to make it less ecchi and more acceptable to U.S. bookstores. As compensation to fans, Del Rey has the unedited, color, clean (text-less) artwork inside the manga. However, some fans have thrown a major wobbler over this, claiming that Del Rey is engaged in censorship. Censorship is when a government forces you to change text or artwork and clearly that didn't happen here. So while Del Rey did edit the art, it cannot be called censorship.

That said, I approve this edit. The one troubling thing about Negima! for me has always been its ecchi content. However, the ecchi stuff is mostly within the pages of the manga and so not out to display to everyone, and thus potentially offend someone. This cover is the most ecchi cover to date and Del Rey has to play it carefully. Plus, I don't like buying a manga that looks worse than it really is. So with Del Rey having the clean, unedited artwork inside, that should be good enough. Heck, I wish that kind of art was included with all Del Rey manga titles. It would be a sweet extra.

Now, had Del Rey started editing stuff within the manga, then I would have had a problem with them. What's within the covers shouldn't be edited. However, a cover done the way Del Rey did it is not a problem with me. Besides, we don't get all of the cover art from the Japanese anyway and Del Rey choses others to be on the spine at times that the Japanese tankoubon has.

The other controversy (which I didn't bother trying to get a capture of) that people are talking about is the game screen page. This page is a parody of what you'd get when you play a dating-sim game (or other visual novel game) and your choices lead you to a bad ending. The Japanese version of the screen is labeled "Bad End" which Del Rey has as "Bad Ending." OK, I don't have a real problem with that because it is an aesthetic thing. However, where people have a more valid point is the "Continue/End" options on the Japanese page (with the pointer on"End"), which Del Rey has change the single option of "Try Again." Since the other girls talked about not being done yet, it makes sense that the pointer would be on "End." Here, I think fans have a point and Del Rey should not have changed that because what they have doesn't make as much sense to me.

Otherwise, it is nice to add to the collection. There's still volume 17 and 18 to go before the festival arc completely finishes.

Negima! Vol 21 (Ch 189) *SPOILERS*

魔法先生 ネギま！Volume 21 Chapter 189

Summary: As Fate destroys the gate port facility with the giant pillars, Makie, Ako, Yuuna, and Akira find a large amount of debris falling to them. Negi moves over and erects a shield to protect the, telling Makie he's sorry they got involved. Yuuna warns of another giant piece coming for them, which Asuna moves in and using her artifact sword, not only removing the pillar, but making it vanish (which as it does, begins to look a lot like shadow stuff used earlier against Kaede earlier), which Yuuna finds awesome. With the facility and link destroyed and the separation gate secured, Fate's group prepares to leave. However he orders that Negi's group undergo a forced transmission to all parts of the planet, which he tells Negi is his gift to him. The spell is cast and everyone that came with Negi (sans Donet) are gone.

Negi is in a dream state and discovers all of his companions have been petrified. Fate tells him it is because he is still not strong enough. Fate is astounded that Negi would involve all these people just to learn more about his father. Fate tells Negi he should have stayed at school and just enjoyed his life and with that, he shatters Asuna's statue.

Negi awakens to find himself in a jungle laying on a futon and a towel on his head. He sees a naked Chachamaru (with her new, realistic skin covering) bathing in the river nearby and she comes rushing back when she realizes he's alive. Chachamaru briefs him on the current situation and how the other members of Ala Alba and the stowaways have been scattered by the forced transmission spell. Chachamaru gets dressed while Negi uses the pactio cards to attempt to summon or contact any of the battle harem he's pactio'd with, but has no success. Further, the card only has a limited range with a max of 10 kilometers.

Negi heads to some high ground to get a better look at the land and Chachamaru informs him they'd been sent 1000 kilometers from the gate port. Chachamaru pulls out a Ala Alba badge, which was created with a fusion of magic and science with the ability to detect other badges within a 900 kilometer range. She detects a person at 50 kilometers, one at 90, one at 270, and a few further than that, but she can't account for all members. Plus, there are the four girls that wouldn't have a badge. In order to return to Earth and the school, the two of them will need to recover their comrades.

Thoughts: Very interesting. So now the quest is to find all of the other members of Ala Alba, a task that will be very difficult and made more difficult as they have Makie, Akira, Yuuna, and Ako to find. This forced transmission spell provides a unique method for exploring the Magic World while at the same time dumping other characters, at least for a little while. Interesting that Chachamaru should be his companion to start, but it makes sense seeing as how she'll have information Negi can use.