Vampires, robots, sorcery… And that’s all before Gym Class! Welcome to Mahora Academy, an all-girls school where the impossible and the enchanting are a part of the curriculum. It’s the start of the new school year and emotions run rampant as the girls of Class 2-A meet the newest staff addition – Negi Springfield. A ten-year-old Welsh born prodigy, Negi has more problems than he has students. As a wizard-in-training, this academic appointment is the final requirement in his quest to become a Magister Magorum. But if he messes things up and the girls find out, existence as an exotic ermine will be his fate! When you’re the only boy at an all girl’s school… magic’s the easy part.
The Negima Box Set contains all 26 episodes on 6 discs.
The fantasy-comedy Negima! (2003) is based on a manga by Ken Akamatsu, the creator of the popular Love, Hina series. Not surprisingly, Negima! is another harem comedy: The hero and object of the girls' affection is Welsh wizard-in-training Negi Springfield, a 10-year-old prodigy. To complete his training, he has to spend a term as a homeroom teacher at Mahora Academy, a posh girls' junior high school in Japan. The students refuse to believe the pint-sized Negi is their instructor, then they decide he's adorable. Initially, the plot centers on the vampire Evangeline and her robot Chachamaru: Eva vows to kill Negi because of the grudge she holds against his father. But that story soon falls by the wayside, and Evangeline ends up teaching Negi more powerful magic. Most of the episodes are variations on the familiar theme of the girls falling for Negi and trying to declare their affection in various awkward ways. When Negi and one girl go shopping for a present for another, the rest of the class assumes they're on a date and spies on them. That sort of misadventure played well in Love, Hina because those characters were college students, and the romantic contretemps felt credible. The hijinks in Negima! would be easier to accept if Negi were at least as old as his students, but the sight of dozens of well-endowed teen-aged girls fondling and kissing a prepubescent little boy is not for the squeamish. (Rated TV PG, suitable for ages 14 and older: nudity, risqué humor, cartoon violence, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon