Negima manga peaks in popularity
Akamatsu Ken posted on his diary that the reader survey results for the recent Negima chapters is doing really good right now, rivaling the all time high in Negima’s popularity in late 2005.
And this is all because of the recent incredibly manly battle with Rakan that has almost zero girls appearing aside from a short flashback.
The guys in Akamatsu’s studio who belong in the faction that is pushing for more battles are having a “told you so” look on their face now and are saying that next issue, which is the final climax of the battle, will do even better in the reader surveys.
Just from the numbers alone, Akamatsu says that he’s definitely capturing many of the readers that weren’t already fans and would usually just skim Negima when they’re reading Shounen Magazine. But he also notes that there has been a rise in complaints from long time fans about the recent direction of the manga.
Akamatsu’s opinion is that the current direction of the manga is good as the battles have been pretty compact and it’s good to have an increase in readership even if just for a short period of time.
However he feels that it’ll be safe to return the manga to normal again, as the popularity would probably not drop sharply after having become so popular now. As an analogy he says it’s like how he doesn’t want to rapidly do shoryukens, he wants to use some hadoukens to zone too.
The editor in charge also says that he has no intention of forcing Akamatsu to go in the direction of having more battles just because the survey results show that battle stuff is more popular.
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I like reading about what Akamatsu has to say because of how his readership seems to keep changing. I thought it’s going to completely become a battle manga now, but he’s surprisingly going back again.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Good to hear that it won’t be going battle-crazy. You can’t make deliciouus pizza without the dough.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:53 am
That Street Fighter explanation is the best analogy I have ever heard.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:01 am
awesome fights from time to time and then continue the harem part
win-win for me
April 18th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Same here.
Who would’ve thought Negima would become a shounen series all of a sudden ? Still, it’d be fun to go back to the harem bits…
But I do like this new direction. or better yet, if Akamatsu can merge both directions well enough.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I’m with Blackadder in that I like the new direction. Though the harem elements are fine when they’re not just pure slapstick moments.
April 18th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
not having drawn out fights is one of the thing thats nice about negima
April 18th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I’m glad it’s returning to its roots and style of battles, with it being quick and to the point.
I didn’t mind the last 9 chapters (volume of 27) being mostly action. It was a change in degree concerning the level of action and power, and nothing else, so I wasn’t really bothered. It’s easy to notice such a shift, but I wasn’t worried…I sorta had a feeling Ken would return to the balance like it was before chapter 241.
It’s nice to hear the editors aren’t forcing Ken to do anything he doesn’t wish to do. Heh, I love Ken’s analogy. Oh, that reminds me… Nagi’s shoryukens vs that Mage of Beginning was definitely not a coincidence. That Valkyrie Profile too.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:25 am
If “Negima!” became a fighting manga rather than one with an overall good story, I wouldn’t like it very much. So I’m glad to see it do what it is doing.
April 19th, 2009 at 5:10 am
Peaking means popularity’ll go down soon… hm…
April 19th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Blackadder> apparently quite a few people saw it coming. IIRC what surfaced the first time a tournament appeared in the manga is that supposedly Akamatsu wanted to do a shounen but the publisher wanted another Love Hina, so he deliberately decided to make a series that’d look like LH at first yet be perfect for shounen action whenever he felt like it.
April 19th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Anon> It looks like Akamatsu definitely wanted to do shounen even back in Love Hina, with the fights between Kanako and Motoko, as well as Motoko’s Shinmeiryu sword style (which was carried over to Negima) But of course, Akamatsu seemed to have intended LH to be a harem story from the start, and only got slightly distracted.
IIRC, the first (and to some extent, the second) volumes of Negima were quite heavy in harem antics, until Evangeline started her business, and the whole pactio and ability exploration (typical of shounen) began in the Nara arc.
So I guess you’re right: the romance element in Negima is relatively small, and aside from the blatant aspect of the fanservice, I’m more interested in Negi forming a pactio with everyone in the class. It’s sad though, that he has to say ‘normal again’ when referring top the manga going back to non-combat or even ‘harem’ status. Guess the publisher still has some expectation of this series (or if anything, are primiarily motivated by money. Which is not unusual. Heh.)
April 20th, 2009 at 12:38 am
Akamatsu’s shunen tendencies even prodate Love Hina since IIRC A.I. Love You kinda devolved into fights near the end (though it’s been a looooong time since I read it so I’m a bit sketchy on the details)
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:48 am
yup it is a really nice manga i wish they make it quicker though.
where can you fid the manga spin off featuring nagi negi’s father manga pls send it on my email with subj negima!? email is derrickianchan@yahoo.com
June 11th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
which ever direction akamatsu sensei turns, i will always follow without question so keep up the harems and actions (eyes burning with passion)!
July 10th, 2009 at 11:46 am
love akamatsu analogy… the great thing about him is that he can make balance between harem and fighting genre.. banzai akamatsu.. support negima till the end