Review of Negima - Magic 401: Magical Enchantments

Introduction

Just what the doctor ordered, countless girls in swimsuits getting up to all sorts of harem hi-jinks at summertime. Yes, Volume 4 of Negima is upon us. It`s a habit of mine to begin this review with my usual disclaimer about harem anime. The harem genre is to anime fans, what Marmite is to the average grocery shopper. Its comedy formula of a protagonist surrounded by several members of the opposite sex, clamouring for his or her attention divides fans most vehemently. I`m strongly inclined to the genre and having enjoyed Love Hina, I`ve been looking forward to another Ken Akamatsu creation. With the previous volume, Negima quickly found a comfortable level of frivolous comedy, with none of the pressing concerns of an extensive plot or thoughtful character development. But sometimes all you want from an anime is simple fun.

Negi Springfield is the newest member of the faculty at the Mahora Academy. It`s a girls` school the size of a small city, and would be a daunting prospect for anyone, but Negi is actually a child prodigy, a college graduate at only ten years old. He can`t even reach the blackboard, yet he has to teach English to a class of fourteen-year-old girls. Hailing from Wales, Negi has a secret to protect, he`s actually a wizard, and his final challenge before gaining the rank of Magister Magi, is to teach at the Japanese school. However, under no circumstances must anyone find out who he really is, or he will be recalled back to Wales, stripped of his qualifications, and worse, turned into an ermine.

There are four episodes to savour on this disc.

15. A Reliable Friend is Perceived in an Uncertain Situation (Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur)
The summer vacation has begun, and Ayaka is thankful to have left the boisterous classroom for the peace and quiet of home. She thinks that her day can`t get any better when her butler announces the arrival of Negi. It`s just that the rest of Class 2-A has accompanied him to chaperone. Chaos ensues when the girls are unleashed on the mansion. But there is a hidden reason behind the visit, as Negi soon learns.

16. Love and a Cough are Not Kept Secret (Amor tussique non celantur)
It`s a long-standing tradition for students to have a fright night, an adventure in a haunted building or an eerie cemetery. Negi is introduced to the custom when the girls announce a courage test at the abandoned Elementary Academy. Negi gets to go first, and all he has to do is find the science room and tie a ribbon around a skeleton. But as soon as he enters, the truth is revealed. It`s the Great Negi Sensei Lovey-Dovey Kiss Mission. Five teams of two girls each will enter the building, armed only with a pillow to ward off their rivals. The first to steal a kiss from Negi wins. And it`s all broadcast live on the Internet.

17. Nothing is Difficult for a Lover (Nihil difficile amanti)
School is back in session, and to compensate for her own newly discovered feelings, Yue redoubles her efforts to set her friend Nodoka and Negi up. Getting the shy Nodoka to ask Negi on a date is hard enough, but getting her to confess her feelings will be impossible. Yue enlists Asuna to make sure things turn out right.

18. Love Does Not Recognise Rank (Amor ordinem nescit)
Seeing Nodoka take the initiative has inspired Asuna to do the same. She will confess her feelings to her former teacher Takahata, and she chooses his birthday to do so. Negi is out of sorts, unable to deal with Nodoka`s feelings, so in order to snap him out of his introspection, Asuna recruits Negi as official taste tester for Takahata`s birthday cake. The only trouble is that she doesn`t know how to cook.

Video

Negima gets a 4:3 transfer that is clear, sharp and full of strong, bright colours. The transfer quality is good, with little to complain about. The character designs are excellent, with a wide variety of designs for the various class members. That said, the animation is the weak point, and when the pace of the story, and the energy of the humour begin to flag, then the limitations of the animation become apparent. If anything, the jaded animation is even more pronounced in these episodes. Negima looks ten years older than it actually is, and compared to its contemporaries, the lustre certainly fades. It`s all pretty standard stuff, and it does the job.

Audio

You have a choice of DD 2.0 English and Japanese, with optional translated subtitles or a signs only track. As always my first choice is for the original language, and I found nothing to complain about. The dialogue is clear, the subtitles legible, and the music suits the show well, with a couple of toe-tapping tunes accompanying the credits. The arrangement of the opening theme changes every few episodes, and we get another, exceedingly poppy version on this disc. As with a fair number of series, the Japanese voice artists also sing the theme tune, and with a cast as extensive as Negima`s, it`s the only way to get them all involved.

Just like Love Hina, the script has gone through a significant alteration for the English dub. The saucy and ribald humour has been toned down, the character interactions altered slightly, and minor plot points and jokes changed completely. The English and Japanese versions offer completely different experiences, although I prefer my humour on the raw side. Unlike Love Hina however, this dub is actually a good one, with the character voices working well for the most part. That`s with the exception of Negi and his family. He`s Welsh, so he gets a generic Dick Van Dyke English accent. Aimed at the American audience it doesn`t matter of course, but to UK ears it`s Daphne`s brother all over again.

Features

Jacket picture, animated menus and multi-angle credit sequences, as per the norm for anime discs. You get the textless credit sequences, and five pages of text offering an insight into Japanese values. There are trailers for Tenchi Muyo Ryo Ohki and Peach Girl.

More substantial is the schoolgirl commentary. English voice actors Laura Bailey (Ayaka, Evangeline) and Brina Palencia (Yue) contribute to a fairly light-hearted but informative yak track. As well as talking about Negima, there is also some information about ADR, and the anime industry in general, as well as a little girly gossip. It`s a lot more useful than the usual gigglefests that anime commentaries are prone to become.

Conclusion

Negima is rapidly becoming a guilty pleasure. Intellectually, I realise that the series is not the be all and end all of the anime industry. What little promise there was to the story was rapidly squandered in a succession of trivial stand alone comedy episodes. The standards in the animation are hardly groundbreaking either. Yet there is something about the show that is just so pleasing at a very basic level. It`s fun, it`s colourful and it`s energetic. The characters are likeable and the stories are heart-warming enough to grab and keep the attention. It really helps to just switch the higher brain functions off for the duration. Any deep thought about a classroom full of teenaged girls going all dewy eyed about a ten year old boy teacher could begin to sour the taste. It`s all well and good when it`s the `ahh he`s so cute` factor, but in one of these episodes Negi finds himself face first in some teen cleavage. Then again, I still don`t understand how Goodnight Sweetheart, a comedy about a time travelling bigamist became so popular.

A swimsuit episode is obligatory in harem anime, and we begin with summertime pool action, as class 2-A visit head-girl Ayaka`s mansion for some sun time. The fan service is surprisingly subdued in this episode, with greater emphasis on the crazy mayhem rather than the usual romantic comedy clichés. But there is an emotional hook to the episode, with it being an auspicious date for Ayaka. We learn the story behind her loud and continuous feud with Asuna, and surprisingly there is a sentimental reason behind it. It also tempers her rather obvious longing for Negi when we learn of her past. There`s nothing sentimental about the next episode, as we join the girls for a hi-tech version of Kiss Chase, with Negi as the target. This one is played purely for laughs, especially when one of Negi`s spells backfires (I almost forgot Negi was a wizard) and the girls become the hunted instead of the hunters.

That episode does have a useful purpose in reminding us of Nodoka`s faltering obsession for Negi. The terminally shy girl just couldn`t stomach being around boys, but there was something innocent and safe about Negi that allowed her to overcome her phobia. It`s natural that she would see him as her first crush. The final two episodes build on this, first with a sweet story where Nodoka plucks up the courage to tell Negi about how she feels, and then the aftermath of that, where Negi has to figure out how to deal with it. The stories are wrapped up in the usual harem mayhem, with the other girls getting involved, missed opportunities, and squandered chances. But the stammering Nodoka is just so likeable that these episodes are very easy to watch, and turn out to be the best on the disc.

As long as you want it to be, Negima is sweet, charming and innocent fun. It`s not particularly deep or thought provoking, it isn`t the best story out there, and it seems to make an effort to tick all the harem anime clichés off the list. But an anime that can keep me grinning for its runtime is doing something right. Its gentle slapstick comedy may not appeal to all, but there is something warm and embracing about Negima. It`s comfortable entertainment, a quality that can make up for a multitude of sins.