That's on the back burner for me to watch, potentially after my Supernatural season, good to hear you guys like it at least.
Finished Negima! last night after getting home as I only had one and a half episodes left.
Mixed feelings; the sudden shift to a darker tone at the end of the series was unexpected, but the shift itself seemed to be resolved too quickly, along with the 'reveal' at the end.
I kinda feel like they'd have done a better job if they'd not squashed this segment into the last 4 episodes, and instead paced it out over half the series, certainly the plotline they decided to use to finish off the series (as the manga was ongoing) could have worked IF it had been given more time to develop.
In this sense, I think pacing and development time were the real issues. Rather than having 22 episodes doing random stuff with some small plot arcs, followed by a more serious one at the end, they would have been better served dumping one or two of those arcs and spending more time on thier own ending, if it'd had say 8 episodes rather than 4, it could have actually been a relatively decent ending, although hindsight is a wonderful thing.
In terms of rating, I'd probably give it 6.5-7/10.
It was light, mildly amusing and the characters aren't unlikeable, but the pacing was off and one or two subplots really could have been nixed in terms of building in better overall plot development which the series didn't seem to be able to pace very well; and the shift to the darker subplot would have worked better with a longer run time to develop it better, as well as make the change in 'feel' less jarring.
The characters were somewhat stereotypical themselves, but they were good enough to do what needed to be done, although it must be said the Nodoka/Evangeline combo probably stole the show from most of other characters beyond Asuna/Negi.
Andi mentioned he sees Shaft's reinterpretation as darker overall, so perhaps they will deal with the flaw I see in the 'feel' of the series. Adding a slightly darker edge throughout would probably make similar ideas work fine, but it seems a little jarring to go from light, bubbly school humour, to errr bad things, in a short space of time.
Still I probably seem more critical than I actually feel. The first version of Negima! actually isn't terrible. It's an enjoyable, if forgettable, light supernatural series.
Moving onto W-H.Robin next, which seems to have a completely different art style and feel.
