 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | TAKUYA FUKIMA / KEN AKAMATSU | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 208 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 12/29/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 01/12/2010 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
From the same mastermind behind Love Hina, this new ongoing series is written by Ken Akamatsu, but he has gotten Takuya Fujima to do the art this time around. It’s basically the same universe and characters that the original Negima! contained, but with added characters, elements, and story arcs to give the reader something new. Also, it must be said that the art in this manga is amazing, and totally new and different from Ken Akamatsu’s original work – that alone gives you a whole take on the Negima! experience, so it’s very much worth giving a shot. Everything you love about Negima! is here, but with a fine mix of differences and goodness not previously available in this way – it’s like your favorite music CD being mixed by another artist who is able to do amazing work with the original piece. And who doesn’t like a good remix?! Negi Springfield is ten years old… and a powerful wizard! This boy wizard is the greatest prodigy ever to graduate from his magic school in England. After graduation, however, Negi’s given an unusual assignment: teach English at an all-girl school in Japan. Now Negi has to find a way to deal with his thirty-one totally gorgeous–and completely over affectionate–students… without using magic! If you think there’s need to add anything else to that combo to make this series crazy, you’d likely be wrong – but just to tip it off the deep end, there’s a plethora of other magic users, robot girls, and whatever else your brain could fathom to make this manga the wildest read you’ll have experienced in a long time. Based on the Negima! anime, this is a fresh take on the beloved Negima! story that you’re sure to enjoy! In volume four, the story of Negi and his teaching job expands further! Negi Springfield is a true prodigy: not only is he a teacher at age ten, he's also a powerful magician! Negi's in charge of a bevy of beautiful girl students, which is a challenge even for a wizard. But Negi's job gets even harder when his childhood friend Anya joins his class. Anya's having a tough time fitting in with the other students—and an even tougher time accepting Negi as her teacher! Negima!? Neo continues to impress with all its funny business and high attention to detail. This is one busy manga, let me tell you – not an inch of space is wasted. As you probably well know already, Negima and anything to do with the series is generally highly detailed and chockfull of entertainment. It’s hard to put into words, but each one of these books has 3 times the content of any other normal manga – it just has a lot of bang for its buck, making it totally worth your time. This time around in volume 4 is no exception to these fine rules as Negi has a bunch of trouble fitting in and finding his place (with both heartfelt and hilarious results!). A series like this can be quite refreshing when you get tired of the drab look that many manga that just aren’t cutting it seem to have. The visuals in this manga are just fantastic – I feel foolish trying to come up with words to show the worth of visuals that are this detailed and entertaining – it’s just a great book. Furthermore, it has all the things the anime had, and all the things it didn't, while also having all the things that were great in the original manga (that sounds confusing, I know, but the point is that it is the best of many worlds all coming together to form this fantastic new series!). True Negima fans will appreciate what Neo brings to the table, and will likely look forward to each new book as I do! Again, being a Negima! book, you know it’s going to have a large amount of interesting extras to read at the end – so yes, this new incarnation of Negima! is no exception. Names and descriptions of characters, as well as a preview of the next volume are just some of the extras that are available here - Negima is always good for some entertaining extras. All in all, this is a great series that will appeal to many – especially for the great art. Negima!? Neo is a standard for all other manga artists to try to rise to – it’s that good of a series. Negima! is only Ken Akamatsu’s third manga, although he started working in the field in 1994 with Ai Ga Tomaranai (released in the United States with the title A.I. Love You). Like all of Akamatsu’s work to date, it was published in Kodansha’s Shonen Magazine. Ai Ga Tomaranai ran for five years before concluding in 1999. In 1998, however, Akamatsu began the work that would make him one of the most popular manga artists in Japan: Love Hina. Love Hina ran for four years, and before its conclusion in 2002, it would cause Akamatsu to be granted the prestigious Manga of the Year award from Kodansha, as well as going on to become one of the best-selling manga in the United States. Artist Takuya Fujima is the creator of Free Collars Kingdom, and now works on Negima!? Neo with Ken Akamatsu.
IN SUMMARY:
Negima!? Neo is an awesome mix of so many great things, it’s hard to say anything bad about it at all. Top-notch art, good story, and a plethora of fun characters all come together to bring us one very entertaining book series! |
