New chapter is out. It focuses on Hasegawa, the e-idol who hates anything that isn't normal.
It's somewhat interesting, though I'm not liking it as much as I did the other chapters. Apparently she has some serious self-image issues (which does make sense, what with the whole "building a beautiful alter-ego" thing), which can lead to colossal emotional failure. There's a part here where she goes
way past casual blushing in embarrassment. I won't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it.
I'm not a fan, though, about how much of it was resolved by the end of the chapter. While it was nice to see Negi cheer her up, the overwhelming positive influx of confidence it brought her boarders on unrealistic. That's the kind of thing that can be drawn out over many chapters as the character struggles to resolve it or overcome it, and he had her mostly overcome it in a single scenario.
I'm not a fan of that, and I think it would have been better to draw it out more and use it to develop Hasegawa's character.*
On the plus side, Hasegawa is more well-rounded than she is in Negima. She's a gaming junkie in addition to being a hacker and an e-idol, and could probably easily hold court with some of the characters from Lucky Star.
And I'm dying to know what the hell's up with these fairies and crystals.
* In fact, that seems to be an issue with Neo as a whole. Characters are reaching resolutions in one or two chapters that should have been extrapolated out to a much longer timeline. I could buy, for instance, Evangeline eventually having a change of heart like that. In fact, she's well on her way to it in canon, though I seriously doubt she'd admit it to herself. However, what's taking a long time to happen in Negima is happening extremely quickly in Neo, which is robbing the storyline of some of it's potential.
That's just my opinion, though.
