I was not expecting much out of this show when I originally saw it. I had no particular interest to watch it, but I happened to catch the entire series on the television. I had seen anime harem romantic comedies before, and I was not expecting an awe inspiring story or romance to be held within the series. Needless to say, the show did not surprise me or go past my expectations.The show is based on the ten year old Negima, who the show is named after, as he becomes the teacher of a group of Middle School students. He also happens to be a magician and his students also have their own peculiarities and mysteries. To an outsider, this plot might be so outrageous that it could possibly be alienating, but any person who has seen a show similar to this knows this is rather run of the mill. The plot of this show and many like it usually just exist to create a set piece for a male that is awkward around girls to be thrust into an everyday and closely lived life with them. Even so, the plot of this one show is so out there it has actually been made fun of by another anime (Oh! Edo Rocket). This will undoubtedly make for many awkward situations and jokes for the writers to create though, but the jokes in this show either fail are have been seen in other shows, just the situation has changed slightly.As for the characters, they can be described similarly to the plot, outrageous. If I can say anything about shows like this, at least most of them are rather tongue in cheek about how outrageous their plots and characters are. Any show that was not would almost definitely fail from the beginning. While the show has a varied and strange cast, they all still end up coming off as bland. The main character is your usual protagonist for a harem romantic comedy, awkward around girls, gets into precarious situations with them, and is gratingly annoying at times. Most of the other characters are also Japanese stereotypes for this kind of show. You have the shy girl with the crush, the tsundere who will not admit her affection, the smart but lazy girl, and the tough and usually reserved samurai/ninja girl are all here. Even aliens, ghosts, and robots as exist in this show are usually jokingly stereotypes (More so for Japanese dating simulation type games). It is fine if these characters exist in a show, but there needs to be work and character development done to set them apart from similar characters in other shows, and there happen to be so many characters that this job was impossible to completely accomplish by the show's end.On the technical side, the show is generally colorful and cutesy. The production value is nearly the same as all other shows of the genre, so it ends up having the same general downfalls. The animation is sub-par, but is far from being bad. The voice acting is rather standard, and is not going to wow anyone. All of the voices are their own and can show some emotion, but it never goes beyond that. Some may find the wheezy yet high pitched voice of Negima in the English dub grating, which can be an instant turn off considering he is the main character. The voice is understandable, however, as Negima is a young boy.One last complaint that can be made is the fan service that is present in the show. Many find the idea of seeing thirteen year old girls's panties, even animated, strange and uncomfortable. Fan service is expected out of shows of this genre, but the girls are generally older. Some may be uncomfortable watching the show due to this aspect.All in all, Negima is just another drop in the bucket of harem romantic comedies. It does little, aside from magical aspects, to put itself apart, but the interest in such aspects of the plot begin to wane over time. The characters are also nothing new, and parallels will be found between characters and many others from this genre. Many will find the humor falls flat at times, but it may elicit a chuckle every so often. Others may laugh non stop if this show's humor is their brand. If you like genre, then you will like this anime. I would suggest to stay away otherwise, as this show is not going to make anyone fans of the genre if other shows have failed in the past.

At first I expected something like "Azumanga Daioh" or "Love Hina", something lacking in dialogue but packing in fun. They introduce only mere crumbs of a serious plot but completely leave it in the dark and it's episode after episode of fluffy magic and being introduced to the large cast of characters, even those that don't really matter and lack roles bigger than being just background objects fill ins or single exclamatory lines.I'm someone who if there's a dialogue, I want to see it I am turned off to unnecessary chiss miss. It's an unreasonable tease. I dislike how they beat around the bush so badly, give you a few minutes or less of an actual dialogue to let you know that there is indeed one lurking about, then it's back to silly fun and games. It generally can't keep a straight face.I don't feel that I will ever want to run through this series twice like with most of the animes that I own, but will hang onto the DVDs I have purchased in case of a change of heart. I am currently on the dub release in Amerika, so I will most likely edit my comment in the future because the series is still being released (DVD 4 comes out in the coming month).

Well, I have to say, this is one of my favorite anime series. The plot balances absurd with serious very well. Also it is a very harrowing task to create a class of thirty-one girls, and manage to cover almost each one (well, mostly, but there are rumors of a season two, which could help with character development). Anyway, onto a plot summary. Negi Springfield is a genius child, to say the least. He is only ten years old, and yet he has become the teacher of a middle school class in a foreign country (he is from England, he teaches in Japan). Even more so, the teaching job is really just extra training for him. He graduated top of his class at magic school, and is now going through more training to become a Magister Magi (Latin for Master Mage). Negi is not the only oddity in 2-A though. There is also a robot, a ninja, a vampire, and a ghost (and the oddities only begin there). I really recommend this series for anyone who can appreciate some good comedy (though it is a little perverse, I must admit).

I describe Negi to my friends as a 10-year-old Welsh mage who's assigned to teach English to middle school students in an all-girls boarding school. This is one of the shows that the audience needs to be patient with, though. It seems like it's all fluff if you watch the beginning episodes (not that it's a bad thing, because the early episodes are funny, and Negi is just so incredibly glompable), but it does eventually develop a serious plot. I'm glad, though - twenty-six episodes is a long time to go just on fluff... Also, one of the things I'm really impressed with is that the writer managed to address every girl in the class. It's often difficult to balance such a large number of characters. Aside from that, the series has fun opening and ending themes. I highly recommend it!