178 – Summer!
Beach! Confession!?
A fairly boring chapter, but it was funny how the others
apparently gave up and then said they might just apparently meet up with the
rest of the group later in Britain. It
was a standard story after that, and the pacing feels so slow now.
179 – She’s the One for Negi!?
Anya makes her full appearance here, and she gets pretty
much everyone (except Negi) on edge.
They view each other as enemies for Negi’s affection, it sure does go over
the top here, at least Anya is closer to Negi’s age than all of them. It was a pretty good chapter and I don't
think Negi likes Anya the way the others are thinking, since they are just
childhood friends and Negi doesn't act like it.
180 – Explosion! Negi Wars
A good chapter, although it’s another one of those where
everyone fights for Negi, it was done well here. Anya shows affection, but Negi is still quite
clueless about everything. What happened
at night was quite funny when they tried to get next to Negi (can't believe he
actually slept through the whole thing…).
181 – I Need to Tell You Something!
More mayhem as Anya is still here. It was an okay chapter not as great as the
previous one, but still pretty decent in and of itself. It was funny seeing how Anya was surprised at
everyone’s ability (and how powerful they have become).
182 – Negi Party, All Ready!
A chapter that doesn’t have much happening in it. So, it was a bit boring to read, at least by
the end of the chapter, the party is finally heading off to Wales (where
hopefully, more interesting things will occur).
183 – Full of Memories
If you had expected Negi had arrived in Wales already in
this chapter, you’re wrong. The whole
chapter is the ‘memories’ of what happened during the first half of the summer
vacation. It’s not that it’s bad, but it
feels like a waste of time when other things could be happening.
184 – Negi Party Departs to London!!
A better chapter than the last; Negi and pretty much the
whole class has arrived, and they meet up (of all things, they managed to spot
each other even though Wales is such a big place, I initially thought they’ll
never meet up). The ending was good too,
when it was revealed that all the villagers from Negi’s village during that
night were kept there…
185 – Starting Point for the Future!!
A shaky chapter; I liked the first part where Negi visits
all the villagers turned into stone. The
latter part where Ayaka and her group tries to follow Negi is a bit iffy and
typical, and feels waaaaay too overdone by now.
186 – Welcome to Another World!!
*sigh*, as much as I wanted it to not happen, the other
students that’s not in Negi’s party managed to sneak into the magic
country. It’s fairly annoying given that
they’re probably going to cause problems, and so much for the ‘strict
procedures’. The ending was good though
when Negi got stabbed in the heart…
Overall
I always get the feeling that Negima takes forever to get to
the next point. It’s like they reveal
what’s the next objective, but then the next five or so chapters it taken up by
a lot of preparation and other stuff that isn’t necessarily fun to read. It’s the case with this volume, with
everything before Chapter 185 being essentially irrelevant.
