So, why am I suddenly reactivating this blog? The reasons are atypical and purely coincidental: I was told to "read Negima - I'm sure you'll like it!" so many times, that - after years of not wanting to have anything to do with the manga due to bad experiences with the author's previous works - I finally caved in and decided to see what all the fuss is about.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that I will not get very far with my reading without a proper outlet to desribe my impressions of the first few chapters. Thus this blog was dragged out from it's coffin, and reactivated, so I can ooze venom until the Manga gets better, or, more likely, I'll toss it in frustration.
Our story story starts with our hero, the young wizard Negi, succesfully completing part of his training and getting a new assignment - to become a teacher at an all-girl high school in Japan. How and why is a ten year old supposed to teach high schoolers and how will this help his magic studies? Because a wizard said so.
Yes, this is literally all the explanation we get - a wizard said so. Were only a few pages in and the writing is already reaching heights rarely seen.
Going on, Negi is on his way to his new workplace via a train filled with students, who mock him due to him being a little kid heading to a high school. This is also where we find out about Negi's magic powers: namely, him sneezing causes the clothes of nearby females to be violently torn off. Classy.
After arriving on the station and on his way to the school proper, he has a chance meeting with one Asuna Kagurazuka, who claims she "doesn't like kids". Which is a severe understatement, since she's acting towards Negi as if a 10-year old killed her parents. Nonetheless she follows him to the staff office, verbally abusing him all the way.
There, Negi gets sexually harrassed, while we learn that since both parties failed to provide propoer accomodations for our hero and apparently were too cheap to at least get him a hotel room, Negi will share the room with the aforementioned bitch Asuna. Aside from this being an example of AMAZING FUCKING ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS, how is that even legal? Then again, this is a comic about a 10 year old teaching in high school, so things such a civil rights and child labor laws are probably not a big deal in this world in the first place.
Negi then begins the class proper, which consists of Asuna pelting Negi witch chalk, while the other students watch on as the child they were previously fawning over is being physically abused. This includes the class president, who, despite giving Negi some support, does absolutely nothing to stop Asuna's bullying. This is the point where the story reaches the beloved style and humor of Love Hina: that is, the main character being a spineless doormat and everyone alse being an asshole. It also reminds me that I could be reading GTO instead of this. Or riding bareback on a hedgehog while not wearing any pants. At this point, either would be preferrable.
As the lesson ends, Takahata, a teacher Asuna has a crush on, comes to check how things went. Asuna then assuress him that it went perfectly and that she was watching over Negi the entire time, thus cementing my opinion of her as two-faced bitch. After the disaster that is Negis's first class finally ends, he sits in front of the school, brooding about all the crap he's being put through, when he notices a girl with her vision completely blocked by a giant stack of books she's carrying try to walk down some stairs. This naturally goes as well as can be expected, so Negi uses a wind spell to slow her fall, then catches her in his arms.
Will our new character be a bitch to him like everyone else, or will she actually turn out to be a decent person? We never find out, since before either of them even has a chance to say anything, Asuna swoops down like a hawk with permanent PMS and carries Negi off, to demand an explanation for the supernatural thingamajig he just did. Seeing that his cover is blown, Negi attempts to mind-wipe her...
...And instead disintegrates her clothes. In front of the teacher she has a crush on. While this isn't the "I must now kill you to keep up the Maskerade" I was quietly hoping for, I does serve a little bit of comeuppence, so it's fairly satisfying. Unfortunately, the satisfaction doesn't last long, as Negi goes back to being a doormat and spills information about his secret society. And, no, Negi you don't have to apologize to her - not after all the shit she put you through... Great, now that Negi mentioned that wizards are supposed to "help people", Asuna demands that he fix her non-existant relationship, especially since he was the one who humiliated her in front of her crush - no, fuck you Asuna, all you were getting was your just desserts. But he accepts, which will undoubtably lead to many wacky hijinks.
We then see a welcoming party for Negi, which would be a welcome relief after all the causal sociopathy which comprises most of this chapter, but it's only used as a vehicle for getting Negi to mind read Takahata-sensei on his feelings toward Asuna. In an admittably funny scene, it turns out that after the incidents with Negi's fabric-shredding magic, he now sees her a sex object.
Next, Asuna decides to practice confessing, which results in Negi utterly failing to get into the mindset of middle-aged teacher being hit on by one of his students, while Asuna is being a cocktease. The chapter ends with Negi proving himself to be a horrible judge of character, declares Asuna to be "nice after all".
To quote Linkara: "This comic sucks!" The only somewhat enjoyable thing about this chapter was the Asunabuse, but it was too little, too late to make up for the horribly contrived plot and the unlikable characters. While the manga is supposed to get much better over time, I'm nut sure if I want to plow through the sheer badness to get to these parts.
Nonetheless, I will meet you all in chapter two. Maybe.
