True magic results from courage of the heart
Boys and girls be ambitious
One step can change the world

10-year-old wizard prodigy Negi Springfield has just graduated from the magic academy in Wales. Now he just has to pass his final assignment for him to achieve his full magic license: Teaching a class of Japanese junior high school girls. Hi-jinks ensue!

While working on achieving his license, however, Negi hopes to one day locate his father: Nagi Springfield, the “Thousand Master” and famous hero of the magical world. He is said to be dead, but Negi knows otherwise as his father mysteriously appeared before him years ago, gave him his staff, and just as suddenly disappeared. Drama ensues.

And things seem to kick into high gear as Negi and his students are dragged into a plot by a revived magical terrorist group that the Thousand Master once fought against in a long-ago war that will ultimately decide the fate of both our world and the magic world, which the young mage teacher and his class must confront with every single means they have. Action, romance, comedy, tragedy and tear-jerking ensues.

As you might have guessed from that plot summary, Mahou Sensei Negima (or Negima! Magister Negi Magi in other countries) is more than your typical harem manga series. It also happens to be my number one favorite series amongst both anime and manga. A little back-story:

Negima was written by Ken Akamatsu, whom also wrote Love Hina. Love Hina, as many otaku know, is often considered the definitive harem manga series and is still popular to this day. In many ways, being the author of the defining series of a highly-criticized genre like harem loomed over Akamatsu’s head. For one thing, any work he does after it would immediately be rejected by some for being written by “that Love Hina guy”; and his publishers wanted him to do another harem series when he wanted work on a shonen fighting series. Rumor has it that Akamatsu faked out his publishers by cleverly disguising Negima originally as such, and then slowly shifted its focus more and more into action, and finally becoming the action/comedy/drama/harem series it is today.

The manga has received several animated adaptations, an absolutely atrocious live-action series that fans fondly bash, a few spin-off manga, and a movie that served as an alternate ending for the original series. This review, however, will only be covering the original manga.

A small warning: This review will contain general ending spoilers. While I don’t go into any specific details, I will be vaguely mentioning how the ending plays out. This is unavoidable as it takes up the majority of my criticisms, I’m afraid. Just a heads-up.

Since July 17, 2003 writer Ken Akamatsu has held an audience of millions captivated with Mahou Sensei Negima! Unfortunately all good things must come to end, and Negima will end in just 3 more chapters.  As a loyal fan of the series I can only hope it gets the ending it deserves. However, considering Ken's previous track record, I'm not too worried.

It's not uncommon for multiple versions or cuts of a movie to be made, but for one to double the length of the original cinematic cut is nearly unheard of. Ken Akamatsu, the mind behind the Negima manga series, tweeted that the DVD version of the recent Mahou Sensei Negiama! Anime Final movie has been extended 84 minutes from it's original 44. The DVD is supposed to be bundled with the 37th volume of his manga, which is slated for a February 17, 2012 release. Akamatsu added that the re-cut film, Negima Movie: Supervisoer Ken Akamatsu's Cut, will be officially announced on Thursday.

While it's quite suspicious to add such a tremendous length to a movie (read as: Was the movie even complete when they released it?), Akamatsu said that the dialog was revised to make the character's sound a bit smarter. The film which already faced changes between the screenplay and the actual released product was originally part of a double-feature with the Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a Place on Earth movie. Perhaps due to this, time constraints forced a shorter and less complete version of the Negima film to be shown in theaters.

The Negima film is supposed to be an alternate official version of the manga series' final chapter in which Negi's class of 31 students graduates.

Source: [ANN]

Heaven really is a place on Earth! (A movie theater to be exact.) Bad puns aside, the official website for both the Negima Magister Negi Magi: Anime Final and Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a Place on Earth films has been updated to include a teaser.

The films are being shown as a double feature and as such both films share the same teaser and release date. IF you haven't marked it on your calendars yet, both films open August 27, 2011. Both films are based on manga series which ran in different magazines. However both anime adaptations ran on the same station which is the likely cause of the double feature.