PinkuBentoBox

Another week, another episode. To be honest this series has struck me as if the creators were caught flat-footed and forced to put it to air before they were ready to do so.

The way that the first two episodes have had poor animation, the overall low-budget feel of the OP… and now, they’ve completely replaced the OP tune with new version of the same song which has about twice the instrumentation, better singing, and is overall a big improvement. This all makes me think that they must have had some budget problems early on - a sponsor pulled out last minute, or didn’t come through with the goods, or something like that. They’ve obviously decided that since they’re expected to release an OP/ED single for this, they’d better re-do the extremely average one they originally screened.

Turns out my predictions for the next episodes were COMPLETELY off. Episode 5 had nothing to do with dodgeball. They seem to have skipped those two (crappy) chapters. What’s more surprising is that they also skipped nearly all of volume 2. They did incorporate a small part of volume 2, chapter 15 (the last on the volume) had its first half copied. This was the chapter that Konoka surprised Negi by wearing a Kimono (and looking incredibly hot in the process) but that was all skipped out. The rest of the episode was made up of events from chapter 18 and 19 of the manga, skipping out 16 and 17 (which were where Evangeline first revealed herself). The part they took involved Fuuka and Fumika overhearing a conversation about Negi finding a ‘partner’ and telling everyone, causing a rumor that he is a foreign prince looking for a bride to leak out.

Chapter 18 and 19 of course is the introduction of Chamo, the perverted ermine. They kept his introduction 100% intact, where he surprises the girls in the baths, divesting them of their swimsuits. Of course, the fanservice level was reduced. Ah well.

This episode is also the first to introduce the Pactio concept. In line with the manga, Chamo tries to convince Negi into getting Nodoka to become his first partner, but Asuna intervenes. It’s all pretty much exactly as it was in the manga. The small piece that they took from volume 2 was only done so to make the rest of the episode make sense.

I am a bit upset to see some of the material from volume 2 skipped. I was sort of looking forward to the Library Island episodes, and they completely skipped Chisame’s introduction, as well as the aforementioned skipping of Konoka in a Kimono. Though she wears one in more than one spot in the manga so that’s probably less of an issue.

At the same time, I understand exactly why they’ve done it. Despite the rumors that this series is 52 episodes long, I can’t see them possibly doing more than 26. Volume 3 of the manga, with the introduction of Evangeline and the bulk of her story Arc, is where Negima changes from being generic fanservice-laden Akamatsu fluff into something a lot more gripping and a hell of a lot more interesting. On top of that, Evangeline is an awesome character, but the fans probably wouldn’t have waited 12 episodes - an entire season - just to see her. When seen in this light, the decision is pretty sound. Looking forward to episode 6.

As usual, I watched this raw so there’s no fansub torrent link yet. Keep an eye on ishin’s page on scarywater.