So, are we in agreement then that
! Its makie, just so very vaugley so that its open to interpretation?
So, are we in agreement then that
! Its makie, just so very vaugley so that its open to interpretation?
I would say so Robby, but that was just my thought process.
! Wow I can't believe its really over.
! It was a really good final chapter, shame it ended too soon, but man. So may things happened offscreen that it kinda pisses me off.
! Setsuna and Konoka marrying in the same year? He could just said that they married eachother, its easy to guess.
! And wow Makie?!? That came out of nowhere. Didn't she just get like 1 chapter about her relationship with Negi? Man I wanted to Fate.
Well this was a great manga I will really miss seeing these characters I love in new wacky adventures(I hope we get some extra side chapters in the future, like the Eva stuff), but all good things must come to a end.
Now lets wait until Akamatsu's next work.
3-A Forever
! I'm a little unsure what to think of this, personally i loved it. It almost makes me even forget that it skipped so many stuff, wich is sadly enough the truth. If it had just properly developed and ended its ideas it had laid out it would've been better yeah, but that's a little useless to contemplate now i guess.
! Leaves me a little at a loss for words knowing this is actually the end and hoping that it may pick up on the "this shall be a story for another time" notion of maybe seeing (multiple) spinoff(s) of what stuff happened behind the scenes in the timeskip and such. Hoping for an actual fullblown sequel is a little silly at this point i think.
! I was actually incredibly bummed out at first by seeing the ending notice because i had just bought the series upto the Festival arc, i have to admit i still find it sad that it left many oppurtunities open just like that but it's still a very loving series to me wich i will continue getting.
! Only actual complains i have with the ending is the lack of Chamo, the Zazie sisters tease (if it actually ends up not getting followed up that is), and the lack of actual confirmation of who gets to be Negis wife (unsure on the slight Makie hints it gives).
! Quite shortly said, since i followed this for more or less a year. I enjoyed the ride while it lasted.
Now lets wait until Akamatsu's next work.
Or sequel: http://twitter.com/#!/KenAkamatsu/statuses/177359925922635776
"I've just finished drawing the final chapter of Negima (Chapter 355)! Thank you for all your support over these past nine years. =ʕ◕̀ᴥ◕́ʔ=… I certainly have no intention of retiring, so look forward to my next work or sequel(?)"
! Setsuna and Konoka marrying in the same year? He could just said that they married eachother, its easy to guess.
! He's clearly leaving it vauge so that people CAN guess and interpret as they will. Even where its totally obvious. Ever for all the obvious lezzie love obviousness throughout the series, maybe he didn't want to fully commit to that for fear of pissing people off? (not that, you know, the sudden abrupt ending…)
! As for Makie, it was never as obvious as some of the other choices, but... they DID sepnd a fair ammount of time together in the other world. And she WAS one of the four girls scribbled into the valentines problem.
! Really it could never be Yue or Nodoka since that would screw their friendship up but... then what the hell was the point of spending the last chapter just on Yue?
! Is anyone else even slightly dissapointed that it mentioned Negi defeating the Lifemaker with ALL 31!!! of his comrades and we didn't get to see any of it?
! Is anyone else even slightly dissapointed that it mentioned Negi defeating the Lifemaker with ALL 31!!! of his comrades and we didn't get to see any of it?
No. "Slightly dissapointed" doesn't cover it. I think we're all really annoyed about that, actually.
! There's "open ended, life goes on, there's adventure we don't see" ending… and then there's "and here's something that was crucial the the whole story and being constantly built up and fuck you all" ending.
! Guess which one that is.
@RobbyBevard:
No. "Slightly dissapointed" doesn't cover it. I think we're all really annoyed about that, actually.
Glad to know that it wasn't just me, this is probably my single biggest problem with it now.
Way to ignore the twit I posted.
interesting. hopefully he's not just teasing and we really will get one eventually.
Way to ignore the twit I posted.
I saw it, I'm just now sure how great the chances of a sequal to this are at all anymore. This may very well be all we see of it.
Okay, series is over now. Should or shouldn't I read it from Chapter 1?
! This ending would have been perfect if we got the rest of the manga:/
! Sigh, I mean each character getting a large text panel of where they are now? Fucking love that! Brilliant, totally in tune with the great characterization that I love about this series.
! But god, all the left out potential. Not even getting to see the final battle with all of them!?! Something that would have easily been a crowing glory for any series to have this huge shot of all these long built up characters against the final big bad?
! I think what pisses me off even more than all the dropped plot points especially the huge effin' one is…we didn't even get to see Arika in the finale!? We didn't even get to see Anya and Nekane (you know, Negi's sister who's every bit the child of Nagi as Negi is?).
! God, where's the rest of this manga, that final page was absolutely perfect, where is the rest>
@Pix:
go for it, it's very enjoyable.
after it first sets itself up as a harem comedy, it then begins to shift into "battle manga" mode and it gets pretty fun.
it's over the top in places, it's funny, it's got a good chunk of action, and very likable characters.
the art and the world building is worth a mention too.
I mean man, the more I think about it, the more things that were just unexplained and/or abandoned keep rushing to my head. What happened to Fate's girls, who was that hooded figure that intervened against water Fate, what was the other thing Ayaka's artifact could do, what was the point of giving Akira and Chizuru artifacts, what is the demon realm, where the hell is Arika…gah stop brain stop.
@Thousand:
I mean man, the more I think about it, the more things that were just unexplained and/or abandoned keep rushing to my head. What happened to Fate's girls, who was that hooded figure that intervened against water Fate, what was the other thing Ayaka's artifact could do, what was the point of giving Akira and Chizuru artifacts, what is the demon realm, where the hell is Arika…gah stop brain stop.
Yes, you should stop breaking your head and wait for what Akamatsu has prepared for us.
I liked Chisame's ending the best lol.
! Definitely it's Makie. Even when Negi's wobbling, a heart icon pops up next to her. Plus that "nice to meet you, father".
! Are you guys sure he ended up with Makie? The future thing simply says: "she is still focused on Negi" which could mean anything.
! As for calling Nagi "father," it could just be because he is Negi's father - similarily to how someone can be addressed as being called mother, brother, sister, etc. because of their relation to someone you know.
! If he did end up with her then it's just like Shaman King's ending with Ren and Iron Maiden…
Yes, you should stop breaking your head and wait for what Akamatsu has prepared for us.
Wait for what? I'm not holding my breath for a sequel based on one very vague tweet.
! Everyone says "must be Makie", but I honestly don't remember which one she was. Was she the gymnastics one? In any case, I obviously wasn't rooting for her.
I'll just take condolence in the idea that in the parallel universe that spawned Chao Lingshen, Ku Fei and Negi must have been an item.
Way to ignore the twit I posted.
Yes, you should stop breaking your head and wait for what Akamatsu has prepared for us.
Yes, we should hinge a great deal of faith in the fact that "I plan to do future projects or sequel~~". At BEST we might get a one shot focusing on a character at some point. He's clearly done with Negima, or he wouldn't have ended it now, the way he did.
Quit holding your breath or expecting more. I waited for the ending before passing judgement, to see how he handled the lingering stuff, but… yeah. He really just totally dropped the ball. And while there's sequel bait on a couple of those endings, there's... really not. I guess he was just tired of it. I don't blame him, 10 years is a loooong stretch, but still.
If there was going to be a proper sequel in the wings, he wouldn't announce "it's ending" or do it the way he did. He would have said "I'm taking a break to recoup, or switch to a monthly, here's a stopping point."
! Are you guys sure he ended up with Makie? The future thing simply says: "she is still focused on Negi" which could mean anything.
! Yeah. She was one of four valentines candidates, and the other three were explicitly ruled out. With her in mind I want to reread some of the last hundred chapters and pay more attention to her and Negi specifically.
! I wonder why she was the choice? Sometimes the characters decide, and not the author, I know that well. But… her? Its a little weird.
I honestly don't remember which one she was.
http://negima.wikia.com/wiki/Makie_Sasaki
Yeah, she's the rythmic gymnist. She was one of the "civilians' that got caught up in the magic world, but not one of the three that were slaves. She started learning some magic there, but she's definitely been one of the more background characters for most of the series.
Interesting side note.
Her seiyuu, Yui Horie also voices Naru Narusegawa in Akamatsu's previous work Love Hina. Huh.~~
! I have no idea on how reliable the Negima wiki is, but according to that Makie was originally supposed Asuna's best friend originally and be called Kozue Migara. If she was supposed to have a bigger role maybe Makie was always supposed to be the one.
! Then again, and I'm relying on the Negima wiki, she was the winner of the first few popularity polls, so maybe that also played a part?
@ultimateclima:
! Then again, and I'm relying on the Negima wiki, she was the winner of the first few popularity polls, so maybe that also played a part?
"She's the most popular one in Japan popularity polls". Well, i guess that could do it, even if Ken wasn't doing much with her.
@RobbyBevard:
"She's the most popular one in Japan popularity polls". Well, i guess that could do it, even if Ken wasn't doing much with her.
I guess I find it a bit strange since I thought a lot of the other girls had more of a chance with Negi than she did. And I don't really understand her popularity either…
He went with the answer that would make the most people happy, rather than one of the five or six that had actual screentime, I guess. And that being the answer might also be why there wasn't a big deal made out of it, since there was… no buildup to it. It would be terrible payoff. As is its so ambiguous its up for debate ANYWAY... aside from those explicitly left out.
Mostly it just confuses me because now there's REALLY no reason or context to that Yue chapter last week. Hell, she even got that color spread in this last chapter, and htis series NEVER has color pages! What the hell?
But hey. Sometimes its the character's that make the choices. I know that well.
@ultimateclima:
! I have no idea on how reliable the Negima wiki is, but according to that Makie was originally supposed Asuna's best friend originally and be called Kozue Migara. If she was supposed to have a bigger role maybe Makie was always supposed to be the one.
! Then again, and I'm relying on the Negima wiki, she was the winner of the first few popularity polls, so maybe that also played a part?
No that's true. Ken stated it in one of the early volumes.
! Ahahaha, just snooped around the Negima Wikia and found out that the seiyu for Naru Narusegawa in Love Hina is the SAME seiyu for Makie! Another funny thing I forgot to mention a couple of chapters ago was that Negi's birthday on his tombstone is the same day of birth as Negi's seiyu.
@ultimateclima:
! It's Makie. There's multiple jokes to calling Nagi "father" and her bio has that "ambiguous but with Negi" detail.
! Wonder how many people called that?
I think it would have been easier if we could disassociate our fandom from the predictions. It's a logical choice considering Negi's already (?) had intimate contact with her (therefore, responsibility and all that rot) but there are so many more likable females nobody would have been able to admit it.
It's a safe choice anyway, unlike what Kobayashi Jin did with School Rumble.
This reminds me of the ending of The Sopranos in all the wrong ways.
You know what pisses me off the most about the ending? It's one thing to end a series without really resolving all the lingering plot threads, it's completely another when you just…stop. It really feels like the the author just gave up. You have all these subplots and characterisation and main plot planned and the author just said screw it, I'm sick of this and he stopped. And it's such a fucking shame. I don't wanna give the impression I have a sense of entitlement but I got invested in this world and these characters and seeing them so callously handled just feels...wrong to me.
I finished it. I definitely feel like I skipped like 2 years worth of manga reading it, but this is still an outstanding series. Akamatsu showed us with all the ideas he had planned that ending the manga wasn't for lack of creativity.
It was a good ending. With the proper chapters it would have been magnificent. Still a superior series, I don't really have much regrets except that it could have been far more complete.
I finished it. I definitely feel like I skipped like 2 years worth of manga reading it, but this is still an outstanding series. Akamatsu showed us with all the ideas he had planned that ending the manga wasn't for lack of creativity.
It was a good ending. With the proper chapters it would have been magnificent. Still a superior series, I don't really have much regrets except that it could have been far more complete.
My same thoughts. Now if he does a spinoff or something later, I'll gladly welcome it.
Its extra annoying because if he was that determined to end it in the near future, the reveal of Negi's father at the end of the magical world arc… could have been dealt with right then and there over the next couple chapters.
Instead, that, (and apparently a dozen more pactios) were all just... offscreened. Hell, how would he even pactio with the ghost girl? I really tried to reserve judgement until the end, and said "Yeah, its okay that he didn't get around to stuff we were expecting because he never planned that all along"... bu then at the end its just sort of nonchalantly "Actually, I did plan on that, but I don't have the energy to work towards it anymore."
But then, if reports of him barely meeting his deadlines and falling constantly way behind, even with his monthly breaks, are true... then yes, I can understand that he was clearly burned out and getting tired. And Nagima was 3 times longer than either of his other series, and still had 2 or 3 more years in it (and that's without goofy character building filler chapters takign six months!) I get that. Especially when filling every page with sooo many characters. But yeah, while the ending was pretty much perfect, it was also really, really offputting without the remaining volumes in there to back it up.
Couldn't he have pulled a Togashi and just taken a couple months break if needed to? Started building a buffer on a less stressed timetable? Switched to monthly publication? Something?
Bet his next series has a smaller more intimate cast.
One thing that pisses me off is that its almost like he is making fun of us "Wow you sure beat the Lifemaker, when when all of you combined to beat me it was pretty awesome!!!!"
As far as final chapters go, this one was just about right.
But no final chapter exists in vacuum. And so, at the same time, the reunion of Ala Alba and Ala Rubra felt both as a happy ending and as a cruel tease of things that should have come. But, as things stand, the whole Mage of the Beginning and Nagi story came to its climax and got resolved off screen. to off screen a good 10 volumes of manga? Perhaps, Akamatsu felt that this scale doesn't fit the story of Negi. But why would he introduce all this then? Oh well.
I'm happy Kotarou didn't end up as full time Yamcha. And speaking of Makie, she is the one in front of the volume 37 cover.
And she is also the one in the middle when the girls meet with Negi and Yue. I'm not saying that means something, though.
Alright, it's been a month, you guys had your fun. The cease-fire is over and now it's my turn to rip this terrible ending a new one. And boy am I itching to. You won't believe how much it took me to hold it in for so long. I've had my fair share of bad endings, endings that were boring or were rushed or that were just confusing and disturbing or were just plain awful or even all of the above. But I really can't recollect an ending that has pissed me off so much by its forced melodrama and shallow characterization to the point that I felt it smacking me in the face with its pretentious, condescending, unrealistic, harlequin romance. Well now it's my turn to smack it in the face so here I go.
deep breath
No, on second thought, I have a better idea. This ending has forced me to do something I never thought I'd do. I'm gonna make a tumblr account. And I'm gonna write my scathing report there for all those of you who are brave enough and confident enough in this ending to see. That way, I also won't get into trouble for being too overboard because oh boy, do I have some choice words for this ending. Now excuse me while I go figure out how to make that account.
Have at it Robby…I'm sure I'll agree with everything you say
Actually I liked the Negima ending just fine, aside from the par for the course gratuitous nudity and the 10 volume skip.
But you should see my tumblr account! Oh man. Is it scathing.
Oh I loved it too, but that's what the front of my brain says.
The back? Wooo, he plans on killing the front for thinking that…
I may need surgery soon, know a good neurologist?
Could I get a link?
@RobbyBevard:
Actually I liked the Negima ending just fine, aside from the par for the course gratuitous nudity and the 10 volume skip.
But you should see my tumblr account! Oh man. Is it scathing.
I agree with the sentiment with the difference that I hate or more accurately am depressed by the ending because of it. So no I'm not being hypocritical in the least since I hate the Negima ending even more than you if that's what you're getting at.
And the scathing review is coming along nicely for your information, been writing for 30 minutes and I probably have another 20 to go but I'm getting there.
Dammit I saw this thread and was hoping for something good.
After an ending like that? No, nothing good will come from this thread…
I hope you're going to link us to it when it's done, if it's done. Cuz this I gotta see.
Ahh, now I see it was a joke on TLS's post from the Bakuman thread.
Thanks Robby, Im still trying to finish the series…I almost spoiled myself... :/
Well grate thanks for getting my hopes up
bedfart
:I
If I was in stitches, I'd be dead from open wounds right now.