This anime rant was written a while ago; I thought I would get it out of my “To Be Published” queue. Here goes:
A few weeks ago, I was looking for anime to watch. It’s currently the hiatus period between Fall 2009 and Winter 2010, so there’s not much new anime to watch. So I randomly picked up two series (just completely randomly).
The first one was Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, or SoraKake for short; I instantly fell in love with the randomest first episode ever, and watched the entire anime in one day. That’s 26 episodes, 13 hours of non-stop anime. One of the best days ever in my life.
The other one was the first Negima anime. It was kind of interesting, but not much; the animation was very poor, and the plot was sketchy at best. Wait, what plot? Taking a look at the final episode, you wouldn’t believe this anime was made by a division of Production I.G. The last episode was horrible; it was a disgrace to all of Japanese animation.
However, about halfway through winter break (after I got back from San Francisco, about), I randomly decided to start reading the Negima manga. Boy, was that a monumental decision.
The Negima manga is absolutely epic. The plot is on the level of Full Metal Panic, and the humor is Ranma-level. We do have maybe 50 or so characters, but each character is developed in unique detal. That’s not what got me hooked though… I think it’s the magic system and the clever battles. Gah, I can’t really describe these things well; if you have time, the manga for this is one of the best. It’s by Ken Akamatsu (god; I need to get these random japanese people’s names out of my head), the creator of Love Hina which, surprisingly, I haven’t watched/read.
Anyways, I then started watching the OVAs, Shiroki Tsubasa/Ala Alba (White Wing), and blahh. Actually, I watched one of the OVAs first, which prompted me to read the manga, I think. Either way, I finished those, and there was no more Negima canon material for me to watch/read.
Not that the first anime was canon by any means.
So I started watching Negima!?, which I shall refer to affectionately (not) as Negima2. It’s completely different from the manga and the first anime; it pretty much only reuses the characters and the setting. The plot… sucks. It’s like they took the Negima characters and pasted them straight into an episode of Pani Poni Dash. Of course, it’s SHAFT, so… well.
I actually enjoyed SHAFT’s antics in the Summer and Spring OVAs, but Pani Poni-ified Negima is not all that funny. Pani Poni was awesome because they concentrated entirely on humor, randomness, and gag plots. However, Negima2 tries to have a real plot on top of that, and the plot usually takes over the humor. This plot ruins the entire anime.
I must say, SHAFT’s animation is as epic as usual. The opening… with all the quotes by 3-A, I loved that. Unfortunately, the awesomeness only comprised about 5% of the anime; the other 95% sucked.
Gah, writing long paragraphs is very blah. Time to do something fun.
Best Male Characters
- Kotarou (‘cuz he’s so kawaii)
- Negi (now also a human atomic bomb)
- (oh… wait… there are only two male characters. cough. lawl.)
Best Female Character (god, this is going to be hard)
- Nodoka
- Tie… between Yue, Chisame, and Anya
- Um… tie… Evangeline, Chao, Sakura Mei (the randomest and most irrelevant character ever, yes)
I can’t choose >.<
Even more recently, I read the Negima!? Neo manga (the manga adaptation of the anime that was adapted from an anime that was adapted from a manga in the first place). It’s muuuch better than the Negima!? anime; is manga really generally that much better than anime?
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