Negima!: Magister Negi Magi, Manga Vol. 23
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For detailed chapter summaries with review, those can be found here.
Story-wise, there are a lot of great things about this volume of the manga. For starters, Akamatsu-sensei took the time to look in on all the other girls, both in the Magic World and on
Earth. When reading the volumes as a whole, it doesn't seem like they were apart that long, but when you read a chapter a week and then Akamatsu-sensei takes a week off to catch up every four weeks (or so), it felt like we hadn't seen these other characters in ages.
Regardless, even if brief, it was excellent seeing how Kaede took on a dragon while blind folded. Of course the real winner was Konoka who may turn out to be a beast master before the series is over when she calmly touched the dragon and told it to behave. ^_^ Too bad that dragon had to die at the hands of Fate though. Of course, that was done to show that even though Kaede has become strong, she wasn't exaggerating when she said she needed more training.
Nodoka's teaming up with a group of treasure hunters was way to short for my tastes, but Akamatsu-sensei couldn't get too bogged down with that. Still, we got to learn that Nodoka has "leveled up" and with her new artifacts combined with her pactio artifact, she's a more useful member of Ala Alba. Maybe one day Akamatsu-sensei will do a side story to chronicle Nodoka's adventures but considering how the manga keeps him so busy, I don't think that's in the cards.
While I liked all the little side stories in this volume (loved Eva playing dress up at Mahora and the ever mysterious Zazie getting some face time), obviously Yue's story was the best and longest. When I read Yue's sub-arc, her stock went WAY up with me. I'd never had anything negative against the character before now, but here, she just kicked butt and took names. Further, Akamatsu-sensei did it in a way that was believable. Yue has always been gifted but on Earth, she was always not really interested in learning what was required of her (which is why she's a Baka Ranger). Now, her natural hunger to learn other things combined with her subconscious desire to be a mage like Negi (and remember, before the trip she'd mastered things faster than Negi expected), she has turned into a cool character for me. ^_^
The Negi training is not bad to me at all, especially now that we have a piece of Eva in the scroll. Of course, this is all table setting for what needs to be done in the tournament. ^_^ Slightly more of interest there is Chisame's dilemma when it came to Negi's safety.
Now to the Del Rey stuff. I like learning that the "Sword of Conviction" is actually called "Ensis Exsequens." I did not like that Alethea and Athena went with "Mistress" when it came to Chachamaru-type android on Earth addressing Eva. I guess I should ask them about this but considering the Japanese use the English term "Master" for Eva's servants to address her, in my mind, that's how she should be addressed in the English adaptation. They have Negi call her "Master" so why not the others.
Initially, I was bothered by seeing Sayo address Ku Fei as "Kufy-san." One of the nice things about owning all the tankoubons is that I can see how things were in the original Japanese. To denote her accent, Akamatsu-sensei has Sayo speak Ku's name as "Kuuhe-san" and written in Hiragana rather than Kanji or Katakana. So it appears that Alethea and Athena were trying to capture Sayo's accent a bit with the "Kufy-san" whereas fans simply have Sayo say, "Ku Fei-san." Personally, I would have preferred "Kuuhe-san" but oh well.
Beyond that, I saw no translation issues.
What I do see is a problem with the cover art -- it has been edited. *_*
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we need to see Eva's 10-year old body scantily clad on the cover like that. I understand the concern Del Rey would have about that. When they edited
volume 16's cover (corrected link) to give Ayaka's breast some cover, I approved of that because inside, we received a completely unedited and text-free color cover art (not that I needed to see a more
ecchi picture of Ayaka but it is the principality of the matter, Smoky). This time however, we do not get that cover art. So that you have an easier time of comparing, I have scanned my regular edition volume 23 cover.
Also disappointing is the fact that the limited edition (LE) cover art was not included. So, I have that scan as well (the entire cover, which was passed to me and forgive me for forgetting your name ^_^;) and am sharing it here.
As you can see, the LE edition is much, MUCH more
ecchi. ^_^;
Why didn't we get the two color images? One thought is costs, though considering
Negima! is a cash cow for Del Rey Manga, one would think they'd be more keen on treating it right. That said, it is also possible that Del Rey could not get the license for the LE cover. I've been thinking about the whole OAD scheme in Japan (where one gets an exclusive OVA DVD with the purchase of a limited edition manga tankoubon) and I've begun to suspect that not only might the Japanese not license out the OAD's, but they might not license the LE cover art either, much as they will not license the pactio cards. I'm guessing that as far as Kodansha is concerned, that cover is for those who sprang for the LE tankoubon only and everyone else can get stuffed. I hope I end up being proven wrong and that in some future volume, Del Rey published all three of the LE covers.
In the end, volume 23 is full of good character and story stuff as well as fun, fluffy stuff. Outside of the "Master/Mistress" issue, the translations are very good, which helps a lot. The cover issue is the most annoying thing here. However, don't let that dissuade you from picking up this manga if you've been collecting it to date.
Sohma family where Akito reveals the truth that she is a woman and not a man. I have to say that even though I don't like Takaya-sensei's current character designs, I do like that she made Akito look like a lovely woman. That helps for the start of the renewed romance between Akito and Shigure.
