Manga author Ken Akamatsu has penned several popular comedy series as well as the fantasy adventure Mahou Sensei Negima!, a long-running tale encompassing a rich variety of genres and literary themes. Spanning 38 volumes, the story includes a harem, vampires, robots, isekai, wizards and even more.
Mahou Sensei Negima! follows protagonist Negi Springfield, a 10-year-old Welsh boy who happens to be a wizard and teaches English at a Japanese school. This series is a bit older but always remains open to new fans with its sprawling world of magic, romance and adventure to dive into. Here's everything Negima! has to offer and where newcomers can find the manga and anime.
The Plot Of Mahou Sensei Negima!
Young wizards like Negi Springfield are expected to travel the world and help others, and he's soon assigned to teach at a Japanese all-girls school called Mahora Academy. Negi hopes to keep magic and wizardry out of his life for now, but one by one, his junior high students learn his secret and join him in the world of magic all over campus. The whole time, however, Negi also searches for his long-lost father Nagi.
Negi eventually gets a lead on his father, embarking on an isekai adventure to the magic world to find him and eventually trying to save more than one world from certain doom. Robots, magical girls, dragons, time travel and more help to round out the narrative, allowing Mahou Sensei Negima! to work with an impressive variety of tropes, character types and genres.
How To Read The Mahou Sensei Negima! Manga
Mahou Sensei Negima! appears in both manga and anime format, but the full story can only be experienced in the manga -- all 38 volumes of it. Reading Negima! in full can also help fans prepare for the popular sequel, UQ Holder!, also written by Akamatsu. Fans can collect the single volumes of Negima! from beginning to end, but the series notably also features nine three-in-one omnibus editions that cover the first 27 volumes. Collectors can snag the nine omnibuses, then the single volumes from 28-38.
Barnes & Noble and Rightstufanime.com both offer all nine omnibus volumes along with the remaining single books. Amazon's online catalog features the nine omnibuses as well as most of the singles, though collectors may find it more convenient to buy the larger editions.
Fans who would prefer digital media can find Negima!'s manga at Barnes & Noble with their NOOK reader, and Amazon.com offers the digital version with Kindle & comiXology.
Where to Watch the Negima! Anime
The Mahou Sensei Negima! manga inspired two anime series, the first of which, Negima!, loosely follows the original story and aired for 26 episodes. The second series, Negima!?, is a parallel retelling of its predecessor with new elements added, and anime fans can find the Blu-ray for both. Barnes & Noble and Rightstufanime.com offer the same all-in-one Blu-ray package, which includes both series and maybe the most convenient way to enjoy the anime.
Very few streaming platforms offer either version of the Negima! anime, but Hulu does have the Negima!? series in its entirety, available with English subtitles.
