Forum - View topicNegima Thoughts
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18167 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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The digital cable service Anime Selects has posted the first two (English dub) episodes of Negima in its Anime Premieres section, in what seems to be a trend towards using that section to preview not-yet-released titles.
Having never seen the fansubs, I wasn't sure about this series based solely on descriptions, but I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it's as gimmicky as all get-up (is it just me, or is every single common anime schoolgirl cliche deliberately represented in that class?) and highly predictable, but something about the energy and combination of personalities just really worked for me. A lot of the credit for making it appealing, I think, goes to the great English dub. Haven't heard it in Japanese so I can't compare, but evaluated as a stand-alone it's one of the best dubs I've heard so far this year. Greg Ayres gives a kind of pseudo-Welsh accent to Negi but makes it work, and Luci Christian approaches Asuna in much the same way as she did Kaname Chidori (from Full Metal Panic!). Everyone else also seemed like an excellent fit for their roles. I'm guessing the dialogue is Americanized a bit in terms of the insults being thrown around, but it was smooth and dynamic. Two questions for those who have seen more of the series than I have: 1) Are the first two episodes typical of the rest of the series? 2) Do Asuna's mismatched eyes have any special meaning, or are they just intended to make her look distinctive? |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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Heh heh, Luci Christian really is good at these "Angry girl" types of roles -- I heard just a bit of the dub at a convention panel, but not really enough to judge. (The Japanese dub is about as good as most, with lots of cute young-girl roles that the VAs over there have developed talent for.) But from what you're saying, it looks like the English dub will be another reason to look forward to the DVDs
 IIRC there are some insults in Japanese about monkeys and "old-man-complexes," so maybe those were tweaked in the dub. I kind of like the "cliché compendium" of class 2-A; it's so over-the-top that it's hard to hate.
1) Well, yes and no. Many episodes are stand-alone comedy/magical hijinks stories focusing on one or a few girls, like the twins walking with Negi around campus, the computer genius having an "interesting" homepage, or a vicious dodgeball grudge match. The Asuna-Takahashi "relationship" gets put on the back burner for awhile, too. There are a few more serious and connected story arcs in the middle and end of the series, and a couple of episodes in the mid to late teens went beyond the level of "loli/magical/harem" anime to achieve unexpected dramatic heights. (Imho as a sentimental sap, anyway.) 2) Maybe a little bit, but I don't remember anything earth-shattering about them. Certainly not as much distinctive meaning as Spike's eyes in Cowboy Bebop. |
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Fui
 Posts: 339 |
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I believe the word you're looking for is tsundere (ツンデレ). I personally don't like the NA dub for those roles almost all of the time, and was somewhat disappointed when I caught some of Negima playing at the Funi booth @ AX, although I liked the VA for Konoka. I admit I did see Negima fansubbed because it's really one of those animes without much depth, moderate fanservice, and cute girls in a harem setting. The tried and true formula but never really that good. Actually, I almost bought a bootleg because I didn't know much about bootlegs at the time. Yes, I was quite terrible about this one. The series is decent. Animation is bright and it has many fun characters, which are really the high points about it. Later on there will be more magic, but the harem-ness will remain. I mean what do you expect from the creator of Love Hina? If I were to re-experience this series again, I'd probably go for the manga. I mean honestly now...the whole point is a bunch of cute girls running around doing things that will make otakus smile. Don't get me wrong though, it's fun to watch but just lacks a deep story line (unless you consider the random events in the last few episodes the primary storyline). |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I assume they aired the edited version on DVD? The original TV anime was notorious and heavily criticized for its deteriorating key animation skills and color settings. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18167 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Two eps probably isn't enough to tell on that, dormcat, but for what I did see, the artistic quality looked pretty consistent. (Good but not top-rate.)
Lack of depth and substantial plot is fine as long as they keep the fun factor high enough, and the first two eps certainly do a good job of that. Think I'll have to pick this one up when it comes out on August 1st and do a full review on it. |
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Fui
Posts: 339 |
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Yes the animation itself isn't very good but isn't that noticeably poor. The action scenes are particularly weak since animation quality really stands out during those type of scenes. I thought the colors were done well and the artwork was very clean, but that's just my opinion. I might pick up the box anyway to see the edited version. |
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Pleroma
 Posts: 443 Location: Eromanga island |
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Its gotta be the newer version, the original was so atrocious at some points that some episodes had to be completely re-animated before they were allowed to be released on DVD.
As far as the first episodes being representative of the series, it is unfortunately so. With the exception of the completely bizzare and made up ending the series never really gets beyond its initial hijinks. While its fun to get to know the enormous cast, the excellent action/mystery side of Negima is almost completely lost. They also drastically cut down the fanservice. See, the manga is a sort of trojan horse, it starts out as fairly plain fanservice/light adventure stuff and uses it a vehicle to develop an excellent story and deliver action worthy of the best shonen manga (around volume 10 there is even a grand martial-magical arts tournament.) In other words the anime really misrepresents the manga, there is however another series and OVA in production by an entirely different studio (the ones behind Pani Poni Dash) which will hopefully fix this. Either way, anyone with even a passing interest in Negima really should check out the awsome manga. |
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Niceguy9418
 Posts: 82 |
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I just finished watching the series (Japanes with Enlish Sibtitles) and I really enjoy it. It's light, even chidlish at times, but still enjoyable.
(The english subs were god-awful in terms of translation quality, but I've spent enough time in Japan and working for a Japanese company to be able to understand "jinglish" mis-interpreations, so after a while I barely noticed - except when something got translated into a word that's not even a word!  )
I'm a huge "Harry Potter" fan (flame, flame) so I'm kind of a sucker for "kid wizard" stroies, when they're done right, and this one was done pretty well. The characters for the most part (even the annoyingly cute ones) were all pretty well developed and you "get to know" just over half of the 31 member class pretty well. There are a few later episodes that get a lot more action-based and even a couple (more than one anyway) that are quite moving. The art/animation isn't great, but it's not terrible - just not one of it's strengths. The story IS good - and it seems that everyone that didn't like it was a huge fan of the manga. Not have read the manga, I didn't have the "book was better" problem. (Which seems to be true for just about every book ever turned into a movie/anime/TV show/etc...) But it's really charecter driven - if you like charecter development and are patient enough to wait for all the various back-stories to be told, the series gets better as it goes on. The story (any story really) is much better if you actually care about the charecters. There are 31 + Negi to get to know whith this one, however, so it comes out pretty slowly. Personally I can't wait for the next installment. I also hope they don't "start over" but rather pick up where this one left off, and just address some of the criticisms that many fans had. No sense trying to "re-tell" a lot of the same story - leave the past in the past and move forward, just in the right direction: |
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Pleroma
Posts: 443 Location: Eromanga island |
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Speaking of Harry Potter, here is another anime just starting out (based on novels) which seems like a cross between Shakugan no Shana, Fate/Stay night and the life and times of Hermione. Very interesting ^^
I agree that this is often an unfair view, but in this case the manag truly is far superior in every aspect, not to mention very different in its feel. |
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IchigoK90
 Posts: 1634 Location: Scarborough, Ontario |
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I haven't read that far into the manga but from what I remember from finishing the series. The different coloured eyes are explained in the last few episodes I think. Given that it has been quite a while since I finished the series. As for my thoughts on the series adaptation of the manga I found the first half of the series to be quite entertaining mainly because it stuck close to the source material. However in the 2nd half of the series it started to rush many events especially the Arc in Kyoto. The 2nd half ended up having too many events being rushed without having a chance to stop and catch a break. The voice acting and music (which featured many different versions of the opening song) were quite enjoyable but due to payment of all the voice actors for all the students, teachers and etc the animation budget suffered. Being a fan of both it's manga Counterpart and the creator Ken Akamatsu I had to see this series and loved it for the most part. Just thought it could have been better. I'm eagerly anticipating the next Negima. Question is the next Negima a continuation or a remake? "Believe it!" - IchigoK90 |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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hehe, time to trot out my comparisons again. As ever, later volumes obviously contain spoilers so be careful what you click on.
I've never heard an 'explanation' for Asuna's heterochromia, without any other evidence we can assume it's just something she was born with (maybe she's half al bhed:P). I once knew a girl with odd eyes, it's strangely enchanting in real life. |
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omnistry
 Posts: 1015 |
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Afterr the first 15 minutes I really enjoyed the dub. Granted it bothered me that Negi spoke too softly the first time you heard him speak; but the more you heard him the more you realize it fitted his nationality. Almost everyone else so far has be great, too. It's how I pictured it in my head while reading the manga. Although I think Nodoka sounds a bit too confident.
Oh; and Asuna in a fish outfit = 
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DKL
 Posts: 1938 Location: California, USA |
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Oh man, Luci Christian and Laura Bailey's zinger exchanges were dope as hell (genius-ass scripting)...
The show seems to just be about people fighting eachother a lot only to become nicer to eachother later... but dang, I had fun On the topic of FUNi, it seems like they're on a role now as far as dub production is concerned... I listened to Tsukiyomi too, and it was hot (I am buying Tsukiyomi though as opposed to Negima, which I'm not... but I will watch if they air more, for sure) |
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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(Sorry for a light necropost, but it seemed appropriate)
Just got the first disc in tonight, and watched the first two episodes in English...the dub was pretty good production-wise, I liked Greg Ayres' Welsh accent* on the role; at first I thought, "Hey, this doesn't match," but then I remembered that it's closer to how the character is really supposed to be I really enjoyed Luci Christian as uhSOOna, as she's the kind of tsundere girl that Luci was born to play (see also Naru from Love Hina, Himeno from Pretear, and Kaname from FMP). Laura Bailey as Eyaka was also good, though I didn't quite get the haughty ojou-sama vibe that I got from the Japanese VA.
Writing-wise, the dialogues are quite funny--it was almost like watching a brand-new show. The downside is that the terms "fast and loose" definitely apply to the handling of the dub dialogue. The banter between uhSOOna and Eyaka was funny, but they cut out all the references to Ayaka as a pedophile and Asuna as an old-man lover, which I considered as significant "deviant" content from the original, and is a running gag for the series. If you're familiar with Negima from fansubs or watching the Japanese audio first (I watched in English with subtitles on), you'll notice numerous alterations. Now, don't anybody overreact to this, but I noticed some distinct "Ghost Storiezing" in some lines, like Asuna saying that the Drama Club had needed the fish outfit for JAWS: The Musical, which I can assure you was -not- in the original. As might be gathered from my intentional misspellings above, my other gripe with the dub was name pronunciations. Japanese "a" is "ah," not "uh" or "eh" 
Still, despite the ill reactions of the purist in me, the dub was fun and not painful to watch (all those cute-girl voices in the class could have been much worse), and the DVD, with its lovely box and all its internal and external extras, is a product I'm proud to own. * Wel sheesh, at least they tried... Last edited by Zalis116 on Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:43 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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FYI, that is not a Welsh accent.
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