Wakaranai

As usual, it’s a good time to be a Negima fan. As most people are well aware of by now, a movie was recently confirmed, delivering on the promise made by Ken Akamatsu that a movie project would be made if the preorders for the new OVA series, Mahou Sensei Negima! Mouhitotsu no Sekai (lit. another world) reached the magic goal of 30, 000. Fans were up to the challenge, and as a result the production has now been confirmed. Details are unknown. It seems unlikely because diehard Japanese fans are notoriously unforgiving of inconsistent franchise (except for Gundam), but I’m personally hoping that the new film would be a new approach to a Negima anime adaptation, handled by a different studio, with new, more faithful designs, and a recasting of seiyuus.

Studio SHAFT have been reasonably successful at adapting the manga in their new OVA series (I guess they learned from the terrible mistake that was the Negima!? TV series), but it still remains well below the outstanding art qualities of the manga. And, I rarely make complaints of this nature, but the casting for it has been pretty disappointing resulting in some of the characters just not feeling “right”. Especially Negi. It’s not uncommon for female seiyuu to play the part of a young boy, but in this case, Rina Satou (Misaka from To Aru Majutsu no Index and Haruka from Minami-ke) doesn’t pull of the male voice at all convincingly, making Negi seem far too effeminate and wimpy for the tone of his occasionally-GAR character in the manga. So I hope we get a fresh start and we can finally see the perfect Negima anime version! It’s unlikely, but there is hope!

Either way, it’s great that Negima finally gets the big-budget, high-profile release it deserves, finally unleashing the charms of Ken Akamatsu’s flirtatious and adorable bishoujo characters on cinema-goers across Japan, as well as his addictive mix of fanservice with exciting magic battles. Recently, Ken Akamatsu made an oxymoronically ambiguous clarification on the recent movie announcement:

He says the word “movie” was not used in the announcement at all because they haven’t confirmed which cinemas will be running the movie or the period when the movie will be on cinemas or the length of the movie, but it’s definitely decided that they’re making a movie that will be going on cinemas in 2011.

source

So if anyone was confused at the use of the term a new “anime adaption” in the official announcement, I guess this explains why. Most people had assumed that it was referring to a film because of Ken Akamatsu’s own statements on his blog in which he said a movie would be made. Although 2011 is a long way off I’m actually getting pretty excited. I can’t imagine how a properly-funded anime rendition of Negima look. He goes on to say that he has no comment in regards to the highly ominous tagline that accompanied the announcement: Negima Final Saga. Final Saga? Does this mean it’s going to be the final anime adaptation; does it mean it covers the final arc? (in which case we should be very afraid because it has been confirmed by Ken himself that the film covers the end of the magic world arc); Or is it a meaningless tagline thrown in to generate a bit of anticipation and hype? This feels like an omen which, combined with the odd feeling I’m getting that he’s trying to rush to the end of the current arc, gives me the frightening thought that he’s planning on ending the manga relatively soon. And that would be a tragedy! There is so much potential in Negima, and the characters are so loveable I simply don’t want the journey to end! I need a manga like this to compete with the generic shounen titles that dominate the manga industry. Don’t leave me hanging, Ken! But don’t end things like you did with Love Hina either!

In the mean time, while we wait for the 2011 movie, Negima fans have the new OVAs to look forward to. If you’ve seen the ALA ALBA OVA series you’ll pretty much know what to expect from these upcoming episodes, which finally get the anime started on the magical world arc. It will be interesting to see how SHAFT can handle the more plot and action-heavy content of the magic world arc compared with the more filler-filled antics covered by ALA ALBA. Two PVs have been released for this OVA, which can be viewed below. Get them while they’re hot and still on youtube (someone let Kodansha loose with a copyright banhammer it seems).

The first PV gives a general peek at the new episodes, with a few glimpses of battle animation.

The second (and much better) PV is specifically for the first episode. At about 1.50 in length (+promotional gibberish at the end) it shows of a lot of new animation, and a lot of cuts from some of the battle scenes that will be featured in the episode. It looks pretty well done, with some fluid cel animation and good fight choreography. From this we can safely assume that the first episode will cover from where ALA ALBA left off to the shocking cliffhanger at the end of the gateway incident in which Fate surprises Negi & friends by totally flattening them. That was one of my favourite moments of the manga, and the following stories of the characters split up and disoriented in the magic world were lots of fun. I’d love to see the scene where Setsuna and Asuna are bathing and Setsuna has her wings out - it was such a nice moment between them. But naturally the ultimate goal is for the kiss between Setsuna and Konoka to be animated. They could devote a whole episode to it and I’d be more than happy.

Speaking of being more than happy, I almost had a nosebleed all over my screen when I saw this picture pop up on the official OVA website. Apparently they’re bookmarks handed out with purchases of limited edition something-or-others (copies of the OVA or manga I guess). Whatever their origin, I would kill a roomful of jedi younglings with my bare hands to grasp these bookmarks; two roomfuls for the Setsuna and Konoka ones! The combined levels of moe and sexiness in this image overwhelms the otaku senses. As a nekomimi fanatic, a school swimsuit fan and a Setsuna fanboy I can say that art doesn’t get much better than this. I can also say that this is the most evil thing watermarks have ever done. I love how Secchan is depicted in a traditional school swimsuit (as usual), mind you Konoka’s pink version is just as lovely ♡♡♡♡.