Akamatsuverse Negima Fic Peeves Rant

[TenguPhule]

1. Nonfic writers: Those who post challenges, poems , rants and other garbage where the fiction is supposed to be. I'd suggest throwing them all into a prison camp except I'm afraid their combined stupidity would cause a singularity of pure idiocy that would suck the entire planet into it.

2. 4 paragraph wonders: A fic is not a scene unless you're a writing god doing a spamfic. Hint, you are not a writing god.

3. 'Older' Negi stories that recycle the SAME lines and reactions from the manga. This goes triple negative for those who have seen the age pill arc and know what Negi looks like at 15-17. For starters, none of this 'Asuna bullying him' is gonna work, nor would the Principal be able to get away with the original room placement without causing a lot more fireworks. Then the girls reactions would be significantly altered, people seem to forget Nodoka's problems with older men and that Negi was able to get past that precisely because of his younger age and looks. Additionally Ayaka would be fighting any 'deviant' attraction to her teacher, not to mention Eva erupting like Krakatoa upon her first sight of 'Nagi'. Plus more of the girls would be hitting on him (count the cheerleader trio, the athletic group girls, Haruna, Setsuna, Mana and Ku Fei at least). If I want a manga recap I''ll read the manga people, thank you very much. You're trying to prove you can write, not that you can regurgitate Akamatsu.

4. SI's. Clean with fire. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Add napalm for the ones who kill Negi off to take his place.

5. Pure Setsuna/Konoka Dramatic Yuri: Like yaoi fangirls trying to fit a square peg in a circle. The dynamics of this are so complex in the emotional undertones that almost all of you are better off not trying. Especially since most of you suck at writing in general anyway.

6. God Complex: Author rants channelled through the speaking characters fail hard at life, the universe and everything else. You develop situations, present realizations at a pace, and don't have them spew out a torrent of pure 'holier then thou' speech with instant resolution. The best fics and stories I've read almost to a T leave a little ambiguity and let the readers figure it out for themselves. Especially when it comes to character motivations, implying intent reads better then flat statements.

7. OOC without a believable reason or explanation: The opposite of 3, if you're working within the main Negima timeline you need to work within the limitations of the characters. It is amazing how many would be authors keep forgetting something as simple as this.

8. Eva as Negi's Mom: Uh, no. Just...no. Don't even go here. Please.








----Sorry if this offends anyone, but after one Bad Negima fic too many on ff.net I had to get this out of my system.-Shade

 

[Fatuous One]

Heheheh... Nice to see someone else is (@*&$ing annoyed at the crapfics that are infesting the Negima fandom. Believe me, you're NOT alone. The only part of your rant I'd really disagree with is eight, since I'm in the firm belief that no idea is bad, it's just less likely to be good without sufficiently talented writing (which most talents wouldn't attempt, as they know better, since a lot of ideas are just that hard to pull off well enough).

Over all, nice rant. ^^

 

[TenguPhule]

At the moment 2 and 3 are my biggest piss off points with the current crop of Negima fiction.

I am just so tempted to do an 'older Negi' fic just to show them how it is done.

I count 8 as being pretty much impossible to pull off believably without rewriting the entire Negima universe as one giant alt from scratch. The situational dynamics just can not work even if you were to factor in magical amnesia or some other deus ex machina.
Loli bodies just don't do anything for Nagi. Heck, from the attitude he's displayed in the Manga so far, I'm suprised he even managed to father Negi. I figure the mother must have tied him down after drugging his drink with magical spanish fly.

Also, just the mental imagery of Eva=mom is enough to make me want to hurt someone. :lonegunman:

 

[Lord Raa]

I'd like to add:

9) Imperial measurements. They are in Japan and Japan is metric! Besides which, Negi would have been taught metric in school. I was when I was his age.

10) Negi is Welsh not English. I'm not saying he should end every other sentence with "Boyo" but perhaps people should look at some of the history of the British Isles?*








*And that is when you find out that as an Englishman, I'm quite clearly pure evil.

 

[Dark Knight Gafgar]

This is more a peeve I have with the Del Ray manga translation, but meh:

Why the FUCK are they using Japanese honorifics like -san and -chan in Wales in Negi's flashback in volume 8 anyway?

 

[Alzrius]

I agree with points number 2 and 3 the most. Those are the major pitfalls, I think, in writing Negima fiction (and perhaps all fanfiction). They're certainly the ones I struggle with the most.

That said, Raa, I disagree with your points. Imperial measurements are a fairly small change that helps with localization - if most of your readers don't understand the metric system, it's a small (and I think forgivable) change to alter it to the system they'll understand. If you can change the text to English but still keep Japanese suffixes, you can convert metric to imperial. By the way, DKG, that probably answers your question too. The manga is meant to be enjoyable, not to present itself in a strict, literal interpretation of whatever culture it's showing at any point. They use the suffixes in the flashback in Wales because that's almost certainly what they did in the original Japanese version of the manga. Likewise, every other anime/manga set elsewhere on Earth (or in another world) uses those as well.

Likewise, the Welsh/English thing is a valid point, but seems too small to get worked up over. Negi may be from Wales, but if his aspiration is to act like an English-style gentleman, then this doesn't seem large enough to throw stones at.

 

[Lord Raa]

I agree with points number 2 and 3 the most. Those are the major pitfalls, I think, in writing Negima fiction (and perhaps all fanfiction). They're certainly the ones I struggle with the most.

That said, Raa, I disagree with your points. Imperial measurements are a fairly small change that helps with localization - if most of your readers don't understand the metric system, it's a small (and I think forgivable) change to alter it to the system they'll understand. If you can change the text to English but still keep Japanese suffixes, you can convert metric to imperial. By the way, DKG, that probably answers your question too. The manga is meant to be enjoyable, not to present itself in a strict, literal interpretation of whatever culture it's showing at any point. They use the suffixes in the flashback in Wales because that's almost certainly what they did in the original Japanese version of the manga. Likewise, every other anime/manga set elsewhere on Earth (or in another world) uses those as well.

Likewise, the Welsh/English thing is a valid point, but seems too small to get worked up over. Negi may be from Wales, but if his aspiration is to act like an English-style gentleman, then this doesn't seem large enough to throw stones at.

No, Alzrius, I disagree with you, for I feel that localisation is a bad thing.

Imperial measurements in Japan aren't as bad as some of the abominations that Funimation 4Kids have commited, but localisations are technically edits/errors.

 

[Alzrius]

No, Alzrius, I disagree with you, for I feel that localisation is a bad thing.

Imperial measurements in Japan aren't as bad as some of the abominations that Funimation 4Kids have commited, but localisations are technically edits/errors.

I agree that localization is a bad thing (and of course they're edits, but they're not errors, because they're intentional). If I had my way, there wouldn't be dubs, for instance. That said, it's inevitable that foreign films will be localized to some degree; if they weren't, we wouldn't even have subtitles in them. If the purpose of localizing, therefore, is to get your audience to understand something better, converting the math to a system they understand seems like a change that gives greater comprehension than it does alter the original production.

 

[Lord Raa]

Errors can be intentional. The manufacturers of Meccano used to deliberately put mistakes in their instructions to test the ingenuity and skills of the children the sets were bought for.

 

[hawker_748]

Hmmm... :huh:

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that wading through the Negima section of FF.net is almost as painful as passing a kidney stone. :headbanger:

I love the manga, but there's so few good fanfics that I can't be bothered to look anymore...

 

[Antimatter]

Hmmm... :huh:

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that wading through the Negima section of FF.net is almost as painful as passing a kidney stone. :headbanger:

I love the manga, but there's so few good fanfics that I can't be bothered to look anymore...

I Don't even bother with the negima section at yet. Most stories are ether crap, or spolior (beyond US release that is) filled stories.

Negima has a huge cast, so even the slightiest change can really have a huge impact on how everyone treats him, and thats something thats really hard to capture for most authors.

 

[Lord Raa]

I have to agree with you on that one, it's something that's made me cautious, to say the least, about writing Negima stories.

That and I'd be tempted to write Negi as a more stereotypical Welshman

 

[SimmyC]

While I haven't read the Negima mangas yet... :unsure: I have traversed the Negima section from time to time. And yes, complete agreement with the majority here. Most of them... stink. Which sucks even more since the Negima section isn't that huge yet. <_<

 

[Wonderbee31]

One of the things I've read in the "older" Negi stories is Negi is the same age as his classmates, 15 or so. How about, when he recieved his diploma, and was wandering around the castle, came on a magic mirror, named the Veils of Chronitis(love those Doctor Who references ), and got thrown back to the past. His Grandfather works like a Trojan(love those classic Superman references too ) and gets Negi back a few hours after, but, this Negi is now 25, around Takahata and Shizuna's ages, and having lived all that time, growing as a mage on his own. Heh, but to graduate officially, he still has to do as the diploma orders, and go to Japan.

Could you imagine how that would affect things: Eva'd throw a fit when he walked in, Asuna given her view would find herself really torn between Takahata and Negi now, Misa, the cheerleader would vie for him, along with Mana; while Nodoka would be scared to death of him, and Ayaka would be more respectful than shota-con. Heh, imagine the headmaster the first day he showed up. Anyway, it'd take a major rewrite, but could be done.

 

[Dark Knight Gafgar]

Now THAT'S an older Negi story I can throw my support to.

 

[Terdwilicker]

Dunno if you folks knew, but Mahou Sensei Negima 1-26 is available fansubbed on Youtube.com if you want to watch the whole anime. Its reasonably good and you don't have to wait for funimation to ruin it, you can hear it in Japanese and be happy.

Ai Yori Aoshi 1-26, AYA Enishi, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid 1-13, Strawberry Panic, Air 1-13, Kodocha, Ouran High School Host Club 1-26, and Bleach 1-120+ are all there too. Lotsa animes in Japanese with good subs, including notes of Cultural References.

 

[Dark Knight Gafgar]

wait for funimation to ruin it

Too late, they've already done that.

 

[Alzrius]

Too late, they've already done that.

And how. Hearing the English dub of the first two minutes of the first episode literally drove me from the room. To this day, the memory of that haunts my nightmares...

 

[Legacy|iB]

Is it that bad?

I was under the impression the Love Hina english dub was terrible. So many high pitched voices...don't get me started on the Spring Special - especially when it got to the part with Watashi no Uta (conveniently sung in English...*cringes*).

Really...that bad?

 

[armedlord]

Just listen to it on YouTube. I just lost my meal and nearly my will to watch anything else from listening to the friggin PREVIEW! I'm sure I'll be screaming like hell if I even DARE to try clicking on the ones that has the english dubs.

 

[Alzrius]

[quote="Legacy|]Is it that bad?

I was under the impression the Love Hina english dub was terrible. So many high pitched voices...don't get me started on the Spring Special - especially when it got to the part with Watashi no Uta (conveniently sung in English...*cringes*).

Really...that bad?[/quote]
Really, it's that bad.

Partially this is because the anime itself is bad. If you're a fan of the Negima manga, the first anime TV series WILL disappoint you, guaranteed. Now take that and add an English dubbing that's so poor it makes you wonder if they had to deliberately try and make it that awful...yeah, it's that bad.

 

[Wonderbee31]

It's funny, I've only had a chance to see screenshots of the anime, as well as reading the spoilers for it online, but it looks awful. The character designs of the girls just seem...off, for lack of a better word, and the story just seems like the producers of the show wanted to get it out the door as fast as possible, without taking any real care about the source material. I'll wait for the second show, maybe it'll be better.

 

[Terdwilicker]

Second show? I don't know that there will be. Like Ouran High School Host Club, they'd have to wait for the manga to catch up and produce enough material for a full season, and I expect they skipped quite a lot to make the first season anime. Considering I've watched the anime in Japanese with english subtitles I'm not sure why people are frothing at the mouth about it. Its aimed at a younger audience than Love Hina was (he's 10, you can't get away with much fanservice). Since I haven't read the manga and wouldn't know where to find it, I must content myself with the anime and I was reasonably pleased with it, though the ending really shocked me. Only the Japanese would even try that in a kids anime. If that had been a US anime, producers heads would roll, stations that broadcast it would lose their licenses, and incensed midwesterners would send out thousands of angry letters condemning them for playing it.

 

[Alzrius]

Second show? I don't know that there will be.

It's actually already been confirmed. It's going to be called "Negima!?"

There's actually a lot more Negima anime than most people know. Three OVAs, meant to introduce all the characters, were produced prior to the first TV series. Then the first TV series (the one we're all most familiar with) came out. Two more OVAs (the Spring and Summer OVAs) are coming out now, and the Negima?! TV series (which is separate and unrelated to the first series) is coming out in Japan in a month or so.

Considering I've watched the anime in Japanese with english subtitles I'm not sure why people are frothing at the mouth about it. Its aimed at a younger audience than Love Hina was (he's 10, you can't get away with much fanservice). Since I haven't read the manga

If you had read the manga, you wouldn't have said that. The fact is, Negima is a manga that is overflowing with fan service. Especially in the beginning of the series, you can't go three pages without a girl showing her panties, getting naked, and/or falling into a suggestive pose. It has far and away more fan service than Love Hina ever did. Likewise, the manga is absolutely not aimed for a younger audience. Young men remain the primary demographic that it's written for.

Given that, it's no surprise that people were upset that the TV series clipped most of the fan service. The new series is going to have less of that also, but this appears to be due to them trying to change the genre of the show (they're upping the amount of magical battles, from what I understand), than from them just making it badly.

 

[Dark Knight Gafgar]

The new series will have little to do with the manga or first anime beyond the same characters and place. From what I understand, Negima!? will be primarily a collection of side stories taking place during Negi's time at Mahora that wasn't chronicled in the manga. The series will, apparantly, focus more on action and humor (like Mana with a BFG).