Negima 4 - my take
Dave Baranyi
We get introduced to the "Baka Rangers" - Asuna and four other girls who are
poor students. So what's the big deal? Why is this supposed to be "cute",
"funny", or "original"? (If you've read the manga, pretend that you
haven't.)
BTW - who was the "ghost girl" who was sitting at the front of the class,
but went unnoticed by everyone?
Negi isn't supposed to let anyone know that he is a mage, so he flies all
around the school chasing after hyper-speed Asuna while the rest of the
girls have cameos in which they don't notice the fuss.
The girls have a bust-size contest, but we don't get to see anyone's bust,
except for Asuna's, and she is wearing a bathing suit. Negi screws up his
magic again, Asuna's bust grows to monstrous proportions and then her bust
explodes. Afterwards Asuna's roommate puts ointment on Asuna's chest - a
topical pain reliever I presume?
This episode rivals some of the worst of the Warner Brothers or H&B cartoons
from 40 years ago in terms of having unfunny humour, pointless situations
and poor animation. Even the supposed "ecchiness" is pathetic - there's more
ecchiness in most episodes of Keroro Gunsou and that is broadcast at 10 AM
on Saturday mornings.
Let's get some honesty here - how many folks out there feel that the Negima
anime so far is:
- Well done?
- Ordinary?
- Should be put out of its misery?
Dave Baranyi
D B Malmquist
<<snip>>
> Let's get some honesty here - how many folks out there feel that the Negima
> anime so far is:
>
> - Well done?
>
> - Ordinary?
>
> - Should be put out of its misery?
After having watched the first three episodes, my reaction is that
it is very dull, quite tame, and has surprisingly poor animation
with a weird and ugly color palette. And there's not enough variety
in the character designs of the girls; especially in the OP they
look like a bunch of clones with wigs.
So I guess it's "put out of its misery" for me.
- dbm (who hasn't read the manga.)
Shez
pam@sym_nos_p_am_atico.ca> said:
>
>This episode rivals some of the worst of the Warner Brothers or H&B cartoons
>from 40 years ago in terms of having unfunny humour, pointless situations
>and poor animation. Even the supposed "ecchiness" is pathetic - there's more
>ecchiness in most episodes of Keroro Gunsou and that is broadcast at 10 AM
>on Saturday mornings.
I've only seen episode 1, but the ecchi scenes from the manga, which
were already heavily self-censored by Akamatsu, with hair or towels or
simple absences placed over nipples etc (similar to his Love Hina
manga), have been omitted altogether and vague nondescript stills of
basically nothing shown in their place. Negima does have a great story
to it, but it also needs plenty of saucy scenes to tide it over the long
periods of plotlessness. The story only starts to get going in chapter 8
(vol 2) and only *really* starts to get going in vol 3 (chapter 16
onwards) when the vampire arc starts.
To hold people's interest I think they ought to have got to chapter 8 by
now, especially as they're cutting all the ecchiness out. But from your
description of episode 4, it seems the anime is doing one episode per
chapter at best (the exploding boobs comes from the end of chapter 3,
and baka rangers from chapter 4), which is far too slow for this sort of
story (Love Hina for instance covers about 60 chapters in 24 episodes).
At this rate, the Negima series will be over before the really gripping
stuff happens (the trip to Kyoto, chapters 28-53).
>Let's get some honesty here - how many folks out there feel that the
>Negima
>anime so far is:
>
>- Well done?
>
>- Ordinary?
>
>- Should be put out of its misery?
If they're neither showing the ecchi stuff nor cutting those stories
entirely so as to concentrate on the underlying plot, I do wonder what
the point of making the series was. Either they should have wallowed in
endless parades of naked flesh or they should have gone straight for the
vampire and petrification story arcs. The only other option would have
been to make a really beautiful anime, building on the incredibly
detailed scenery and nice drawing style of the manga, but they've
already struck out on that too, with poor animation etc. All in all this
is not a series I'm going to bother downloading every episode of.
--
______________________________________________________
"The difference between a misfortune and a calamity? If Gladstone fell
into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him
out again, it would be a calamity." -- Benjamin Disraeli
______________________________________________________
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Rob Maxwell
"Dave Baranyi" <a_nospam.b_nospam@sym_nos_p_am_atico.ca> wrote in message
news:OCzKd.12525$mA5.8...@news20.bellglobal.com...
> Let's go over what happened in episode 4 of "Negima":
>
> We get introduced to the "Baka Rangers" - Asuna and four other girls who
> are poor students. So what's the big deal? Why is this supposed to be
> "cute", "funny", or "original"? (If you've read the manga, pretend that
> you haven't.)
>
> BTW - who was the "ghost girl" who was sitting at the front of the class,
> but went unnoticed by everyone?
The ghost girl is "new" as far as the manga is concerned. There is only a
note from the prior teacher telling Negi to not change the seat of the girl
in seat #01. Beyond that, I have not seen her do anything or be mentioned in
the manga.
>
>
> Let's get some honesty here - how many folks out there feel that the
> Negima anime so far is:
>
> - Well done?
>
> - Ordinary?
>
> - Should be put out of its misery?
Yes, definitely. They have utterly destroyed what could have been a
lucrative anime franchise like Inu Yasha, Hamtaro, et cetra.
Don't let this disaster keep you from buying the superior Del Rey Manga
edition with far better art and ecchi-ness.
-Rob
>
> Dave Baranyi
>
>
Dave Baranyi
"Rob Maxwell" <robu...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:360ohcF...@individual.net...
Thanks for the recommendation. I've seen the Del Rey mangas available in
Chapters Bookstores - I'll pick up the first one and see what it's like.
Dave
> -Rob
>
>>
>> Dave Baranyi
>>
>>
>
>
AstroNerdBoy
right, translator notes, cultural notes, etc. That's why I'm buying
"Negima!", "xxxHolic", and "Tsubasa". *nods* And "Negima!" gets
better as a manga with volume 3.
Captain Nerd
"AstroNerdBoy" <sp...@astronerdboy.com> wrote:
I'm worried about Negima, since Peter David was involved with the
first 4 volumes, but not afterward. He's one writer I admire, and
he apparently did clean-up work on the dialog after translation.
I do feel good about how DelRey is doing in general with their
manga line, and I hope they expand it soon.
Cap.
--
Since 1989, recycling old jokes, cliches, and bad puns, one Usenet
post at a time!
Operation: Nerdwatch http://www.nerdwatch.com
Only email with "TO_CAP" somewhere in the subject has a chance of being read
AstroNerdBoy
knew. I've seen countless anime titles with the parodies of "Power
Rangers" in them, so it isn't new or original, but a tribute to
something huge in Japanese society. ^_^
Yaniv Tempelman
They don't parody "Power Rangers" to be excactly, but simply the
countless japanese sentai shows. Power Rangers itself is already a
american version of the sentai format.
--
Yaniv Tempelman
Manga Takarajima http://www.manga-takarajima.mangafan.net/ (german)
Abraham Evangelista (afedaken)
wrote:
>Del Rey manga titles rock when it comes to getting the translations
>right, translator notes, cultural notes, etc.
Umm... They're great with the translation notes and cultural notes,
granted. But southern/thousand master? They've got issues.
--
So what did Abe see this week?
http://www.limitofx.com/snaplog
Now with Comments!
Bill Martin
<a_nospam.b_nospam@sym_nos_p_am_atico.ca> wrote:
> Let's go over what happened in episode 4 of "Negima":
>
> We get introduced to the "Baka Rangers" - Asuna and four other girls who are
> poor students. So what's the big deal? Why is this supposed to be "cute",
> "funny", or "original"? (If you've read the manga, pretend that you
> haven't.)
It's a reference back to another Ken Akamatsu work, Love Hina, where
Kaolla Su, Shinobu Maehara, and Sarah McDougal teamed up for studying,
however, in this case, with 5 girls, the reference is also updated to
the "Power Ranger" reference of five characters.
> BTW - who was the "ghost girl" who was sitting at the front of the class,
> but went unnoticed by everyone?
Haven't seen the anime, but looking at the Manga roster, the only
ghost-like girl is Nodoka Miyazaki, since her hair droops down and
covers her eyes.
> Negi isn't supposed to let anyone know that he is a mage, so he flies all
> around the school chasing after hyper-speed Asuna while the rest of the
> girls have cameos in which they don't notice the fuss.
Well, with the principal being in the Magician's Guild, and later the
info on Evangeline, I think there's some sort of "Everything is Normal"
spell that's on the school, where unless things get out of control,
they won't notice the occasional fly-by. However, when confronted with
direct evidence, the proverbial veil is lifted from their eyes.
> The girls have a bust-size contest, but we don't get to see anyone's bust,
> except for Asuna's, and she is wearing a bathing suit. Negi screws up his
> magic again, Asuna's bust grows to monstrous proportions and then her bust
> explodes. Afterwards Asuna's roommate puts ointment on Asuna's chest - a
> topical pain reliever I presume?
In the manga, you see more bosom outlines, however the nipples are
hidden by towels, steam, or hair. As to the ointment, that's something
from the animé only, so no idea there.
> This episode rivals some of the worst of the Warner Brothers or H&B cartoons
> from 40 years ago in terms of having unfunny humour, pointless situations
> and poor animation. Even the supposed "ecchiness" is pathetic - there's more
> ecchiness in most episodes of Keroro Gunsou and that is broadcast at 10 AM
> on Saturday mornings.
Well, the "ecchiness" seems to be in the typical Akamatsu style.
> Let's get some honesty here - how many folks out there feel that the Negima
> anime so far is:
>
> - Well done?
>
> - Ordinary?
>
> - Should be put out of its misery?
Needs to be put on my to-see list, so that I can form an opinion on it.
--
Am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man, or am I a bowling ball dreaming I'm a
plate of sashimi. Never assume what you see and feel is real. - Doreen.
(Chrono Trigger)
Chris Mattern
>> BTW - who was the "ghost girl" who was sitting at the front of the class,
>> but went unnoticed by everyone?
>
> Haven't seen the anime, but looking at the Manga roster, the only
> ghost-like girl is Nodoka Miyazaki, since her hair droops down and
> covers her eyes.
>
You didn't look too closely at the roster, then. Seat number 1, Sayo
Aizaka, is dressed in a old-fashioned uniform different from the ones
the other girls wear, and has the note, "1940~ / Don't change her seating"
--
Christopher Mattern
"Which one you figure tracked us?"
"The ugly one, sir."
"...Could you be more specific?"