Mahou Sensei Negima! Movie: Anime Final

So out of 31 middle school students ranging from a 10 year old looking vampire, a robot, a ninja, a silent book girl, to a rowdy questionable pedophile, who would you choose as your magical partner? Of course there's always the easy answer...

*This review is a potenial spoiler of the manga series, cause the movie itself expects you to have knowledge of the manga series latest chapters.*

STORY: Mahou Sensei Negima Anime Final is the next long awaited, yet honestly unwanted, adaption of the original negima manga, yet as the title speaks for itself, this will be the final anime. Does it botch itself up? In ... a way yes, but there's a silver lining at least: This movie is actually just an alternate ending for the series, where it ends the manga from the 330th chapter mark (The manga ends at 355 chapters), and sets itself up for an ending where nothing more can continue forth with some problems of course.

The movie starts off with a huge recap spoiler for chapters 308 to 332 (If I got the chapter numbers wrong, please someone correct me), showing various chapters fly by with brief moments from each chapter sequence, from Kotaro's attack against Fate, the ending of Negi's fight with Fate, to the end of the fight against the mage of beginning (And his true idenity). So right from the get go, if you have yet to read the manga up to that point, checked out the manga, or have no knowledge of the manga, then you're wasting your time has this has nothing for the latter two while for the former, it offers nothing but spoilers.

Now right away a good percentage of potential viewers are reduced, but how does the beginning affect the overall movie? After very exciting spoiler-rific opening, featuring potential new enemies, and several fallen allies and a major antagionst, what can one but expect an exciting conclusion... Of who will Negi Springfield choose as his permament partner...

I'm not going to say I'm completely disappointed, this direction the movie takes is just as gripping as an all-out magical final battle with the world at stake...... Who am I kidding? This just gives you an empty promise, a shameless bait and switch that many shonen series movies do (Bleach Jigoku-Hen! What was the point of Ulquiorra in the beginning?). But anywho, the plot is centered around, after the magical world arc, Negi Springfield having to choose one of his 30 (31) students right before their graduation day no less, to become his true partner while the majority of them will lose not only their pactio card (Their proof of as a temperary partner with Negi and their source of magic powers via magical artifacts), but all of their memories of anything magic related as well, with Negi having to make that choice before the next day.
As you would expect, the movie spends the majority of it's time focusing on the 30 (31) students, from wondering one will get chosen, to making attempts to convince Negi to chose so and so, to simply giving up and excepting their fate and decide and have another meaningful moment with their teacher (By moment I mean big flashy battles) while the ones who will most likely not lose their memories ponder at the fact of how lonely that would make them become.

Most of these scenes are borderline depressing, and shows deep character maturity between the series most noteworthy friends like Ayaka and Asuna, Kotaro (Yay! He's in the movie!) and Natsumi, and Setsuna and Konoka (Which they continue to come across as so much more than just friends as any reader of the manga series can tell you) with Nodoka and Yue's being the best of the friendship development as they show how happy they are to be in love with the same person and will accept it if the other gets chosen instead over the other. And as the movie gradually moves on the promised day, the tension is sky high when Negi tries furiously to decide on a permanent partner, a world threatening situation arrives as Negi and his chosen partner are the only ones can stop it.

And the review will end here... Why? Because it's impossible to not spoil it, but let's just say Negi's decision is so cliched, so safe, and just ruins the build up from thirty-fourty minutes prior. Two promises, left broken by rather good build up that only ends up in disappointment, I just can't go further than there without giving major spoilers.

ANIMATION: Arguably a step down from the ovas Shaft released a few years ago, with even the big battles looking kinda sloppy. Character designs are very true to the source material, something any Negima fan can appreciate after watching the first two Negima anime adaptations. Though my major gripe is the random panty flashes... I know Negima is an ecchi series (It's one of the more creeper ones in fact), but even in the manga it irks me, and movie changes nothing (Especially the bath scene with many of the classmates washing two of own in a rush to see their teacher, though it isn't Negima without the obligatory inappropriate fan service so what can I do?).

SOUND: It's okay, nothing more, nothing less. The loud graduation song sung by the whole class towards the end of the movie does have a great emotional impact, telling you that it is indeed the end, but other than that nothing really sticks out as well as this. The ending theme that plays during the end so pretty decent too, it kinda sounds like another remix of Happy Material from the first Negima anime.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Decent music, the song at the end before the credits is pretty emotional towards long time fans of series.

The Mixed:
+/- Great build up, showing good character development and almost saddening conflicts / The pay off is only disappointment.
+/- Good animation / Sort of a step down from the ovas.

The Bad:
- Only readers of the manga can really get something out of this movie besides spoilers.
- The conclusion of Negi's decision, it down rights brings the whole movie down.

Sure there's a lot of material that will saddly never see the screens of TV sets (Like my personal favorite: the Rakan vs Negi fight, it is the single greatest fight of any shonen series, without a doubt), and the movie only raises your expectations to only drop them on the floor like an egg, but it isn't worst Negima adaptation at least, and plenty of the long time fans can still get something out of it. Though there is a something that bugs the shit out of me: Is Rakan Nagi's true partner? It's a pretty jarring issue if you take what the movie offers, by that I mean if you accept the movie's inconsistencies.

What the hell?
That was probably the first impression that most people got when they watched this movie, especially with all the hypes it had before it went out.

There will be spoiler in this review and I beleive that with the pathetic story and directing it had this shouldn't affect your enjoyment.

The movie start with near ending scene from the Mahou Sensei Negima's mahou sekai arc manga.
To start with, there were already some modification to the original plot before the alternate ending switch had been turned up such as Fate dying.
Not that bad I guess I could still buy it but here's the catch.

We ... are then thrown a few day before the graduation ceremony. What happened to the magical world? We have no clues yet but everything seem to hold for now.
Still fine? Yeah I thought so too.

We then learn that Negi must chose one girl which he will do an official pactio with and that the rest of the class will forget every memory linked to magic as well as the fact that Negi is a mage. Mage can only have one partner afterall-- wait what?
Where the flying fuck did this came from?

Of course we were introduced the concept of a magister magi having one more official and potent pactio with the partner he/she chose to live his/her life (basically his/her lover) with but it was never said anywhere that magister magi are limited to one pactio.
Let's not forget the following point which further emphasis the stupidity of that statement:
-The hero of the world Nagi, had more than one pactio
-Most of the girl are directly linked to the magical world even without Negi's help.
So seriously, where the flying fuck did this come from and how would it takes effect anyway? It sound like a desesperate attemps at creating drama but at the same time it sound so forced and impossible that you just know it's bullshit.

Oh well at that point I already stopped carring about matter like that and was ready to accept everything that would be thrown at me without thinking much about it.
Oh god, was I courageous at that time.

After the revelation the girls try to get Negi's attention for becoming 'the chosen one' and Mars decide to come hug the Earth.
Yep you heard well, the producer hadn't forgotten our beloved magical world and at that moment you'll know that you are in for something big.
If only.
We are then revealed that it was Negi's plan to merge the two world (random use of magic is convenient) but that it started 30 years too early (for no reason again). Everyone wonder what will happen and are desesperate, then Asuna talk about Negi becomming a magister magi to solve the problem.
Why? Did they wrote the script when they were drunk?

The flashback scene with Negi and Asuna suggest that at the moment they fought the mage of the beginning their link was as strong as a magister magi and her partner but this does not make any sense.
Let's say it straight.
The reason why there was a "power increase" (Because in reality it was just Asuna cancelling all of the mage of the beginning's magic while Negi's magic goes for the offensive) against the mage of the beginning was because of Asuna's power as the imperial princess and was not linked to the pactio.

Which mean in this case that Negi wouldn't be able to do something similar with anyone but Asuna which render the whole argument about who to chose very obvious.

After that we have scumbag Negi fucking logic in the ass by making an official pactio with his whole class.
Yes you heard me well; His whole class.
I can already hear you 'Wasn't that suposed to be impossible hence why Negi had to chose one?' and to that I'll answer that's why logic won't be able to sit down for a while.

Then when the power (of love) of his whole class combined Negi managed to break the barrier around Mars but this is not enough to stop Mars's wrath.
Chao then come back from the future (sure is convenient) to add her power to the already too much rainbow beam of love that finally manage to fused both world together.

End.

Was that movie suposed to be a joke? Like seriously? There were so many plothole, it was so pathetic, character were out of character, so full of random convenience and the movie was contradicting itself.
I'll take that as a major elevated to the fan.
Ken definitively doesn't give a shit about the serie.

Shaft did a good job as usual when it comes to the animation but the visual is the only thing someone sane would ever watch this movie for.

To the negima fan that considered watching this movie: Act like it never existed and move on, this was horrible.

Spoilers ahead.

The two previous OVA series may have had their flaws, but all the way through, you could tell they were building up to something great. They had to cut some material in favor of the larger story, and if you knew the manga, then you knew exactly what they were building up to... The climactic fight between Negi and his archenemy, Fate Averuncus. This long, epic, high stakes battle would not only justify any miss-step the OVAs might have made, but it would make the OVA collection stand out as the best Negima series since the manga. And if that’s ... what you want to see, get ready...

To see the finale of the Magical World story haphazardly condensed into one five minute sequence. I wish I was exaggerating. The film begins with Natsume using her artifact to sneak up on Fate with Kotarou and a few others in tow(WTF?!) and then blazes through the rest of the story at break neck speed, offering up no explanation for what happened since the last OVA OR what's happening presently on screen. Not only does it skip entire chapters, but it actually has the balls to list off the chapters it IS pulling material from... Needless to say, it goes from chapter 311 to chapter 330 in just over a minute.

Once this is done, we go straight back to Mahora Academy, and spend the rest of the movie there, and this is the point where the OVA’s strict adherence to the manga is thrown right out the window. The plot of this movie is that once Negi’s students graduate, his trial period will end, and he’ll be forced to pick one permanent partner out of them. Everyone else, barring a few exceptions, will instantly forget everything they know about magic.

And here’s the thing: The movie, itself, inadvertently points out just how absurd this premise is. Natsume, Setsuna and Konoka talk about being exempt from the rule because they’re all in contracts that don’t involve Negi, which is great... But what about Misora and Mana? They’re each involved in third party contracts too! And what about the eleven students who knew about magic before they met Negi? What about the ghost, or the robot who works for a magical vampire? Oh, and here’s a good one... What about the fact that Nagi Springfield, as an adult, has over a half-dozen contracts that are still active? Didn’t really think this through, did you?

The entire story from that point is of people moping around and contemplating their fate, or going through transformation scenes for no reason at all, or engaging in entirely stakes-free battles. Oh, but it’s okay, because at least we get to see Negi pick a partner, right? This would be the second entry in the franchise to do so, and it can’t do it any worse than the Neo manga did, can it? Well, I would normally avoid spoiling something like this, but I don’t want you to make the mistake of getting involved with the plot or getting your hopes up, so I’m just going to spill it: He picks his entire class, effectively rendering the entire conflict pointless.

They stand in a circle, they all get pactio cards, and... WHY DOES EVERY ANIMATED NEGIMA SERIES HAVE TO GIVE EVERYONE A PACTIO CARD?! In the manga, only seventeen of his students made contracts with him, and aside from the final one(Akira), none of them ever felt forced or meaningless, but don’t tell the animated incarnations about that! Hell, at least Negima?! found a way to do it that made sense to the plot! We then get a big dramatic magic catastrophe sequence that craps all over the original manga’s ending. Yeah, I’m not going to pretend the manga’s ending wasn’t disappointing, but it was better than this.

Oh, and Negi’s going to keep being a teacher, AND he’s going to follow his girls into high school, so where the hell did that deadline come from?

This isn’t just one of the worst entries in the Negima franchise. It’s also one of the worst anime movies I’ve ever seen. The plot makes absolutely no sense, half the material is some sort of fanservice filler, the ending is as fanficky as they come, and it tries to complete the story and wrap it up with a pretty bow, despite the fact that these OVAs have NEVER worried about telling a complete story before, so why break that trend just to put out the worst possible ending?

Would I recommend it? No. I would not. In fact, this movie’s very existence makes me want to reconsider recommending the previous OVAs. The entire movie should have been the finale to the magical world story, with Asuna’s time-traveling arc(Which was the only genuinely good part of the manga’s ending) occupying the film’s last ten minutes. As it is, this movie’s a piece of crap.