Negima Anime Final thoughts

SPOILERS.  Also no pictures.  Deal with it.

When Magic World wrapped up, Negima Anime Final was announced.  On the last page of the chapter, it said something along the lines of "The story splits here.  The manga will be Ending A, Negima Anime Final will be Ending B."  So right away I didn't know what to think, because the next bit of Negima we'd all be seeing animated wouldn't actually be following the manga.

Still, both endings deal with the same issues.  In the time immediately after Magic World, Negi still has to work to ensure that the Magic World won't collapse.  Meanwhile, his students are concerned because he has a looming choice: who will be his partner?  With a few exceptions, the people that aren't chosen will lose their memories of magic, and likely their memories of Negi as well.

The exceptions, to me, would be Asuna, Natsumi, and Konoka.  Asuna was born in the Magic World itself and, you know, the whole Princess thing.  Natsumi has a pactio with Kotarou, and Konoka likewise with Setsuna, and as long as there's a pactio active everything should be fine.

There were some scenes that I honestly expected, mainly the fights with Negi.  The whole "one last fight" thing is very befitting of Ku Fei, Nagase Kaede, and Tatsumiya Mana.

The scene immediately following the battle, with Yue and Nodoka, was nice.  Being best friends, Yue and Nodoka come to terms with the fact that they both love Negi and may very well lose their memories of him overnight.  Throw in some comedic relief at the end and we're all good.

I guess it's to be expected of me, but I quite enjoyed the pool scene with Konoka and Setsuna, which just like the scene with Yue and Nodoka, was a serious scene that ended with comedic relief.

Then, we get to the ending.  Apparently what Negi had set up starts happening 30 years too soon, and Mars starts careening towards Earth.  The class gathers under the World Tree where it's deduced that only by choosing a partner can the barrier surrounding Mars be destroyed and the worlds fused.  One thing I wondered, that might just be me not paying enough attention to the manga, is why Anya was still in the Magic World.

After much consideration Negi basically remains true to himself and chooses his parner: Everyone.  This is what I have issue with.  Akamatsu's spent the entire manga building up the Mage-Partner thing as one mage, one partner; then this happens.  It actually reminds me of the ending to the first season of the anime, where the only way they can defeat the demons trying to kill Asuna is by Negi making pactios with the entire class.

After they use Yue's artifact to find the barrier's weak point and shatter it, the spell to fuse the worlds fails and Negi needs to recast it.  Who should show up, but his descendant, Chao Lingshen.  Who says that because of his actions she's able to time travel again.  Which also confuses me.  When she went back to the future at the end of the Mahora School Festival arc, her time travel device was still functional.  Why did it suddenly not work until Negi made the entire class his partners?  Even though she wasn't a part of the pactio circle, she assists and with the help of all 31 of his students, the worlds finally get fused.

So... since the Magic World was technically an alternate dimension overlaid on Mars, what happened to Mars?  Did it just cease to exist?  Also, I'd think there'd be repercussions of Mars being as close to Earth as it was.  It shouldn't have been a surprise that it was heading towards Earth 30 years early.  Or rather, they should have had much more time to prepare.  It should be pretty noticeable from an astronomic point of view when a planetary body suddenly de-orbits.  And what of Mars' moons?  Okay, I'm getting sidetracked here.

Overall, this ending doesn't even clue us in as to who Chao's female ancestor is, and actually kind of puts her existence in jeopardy when you think about it.  Going purely off of her name I can infer that Negi might choose Ku Fei, but that's purely conjecture on my part and there's no telling who he actually chooses.  I know the movie was supposed to be an alternate ending, but even within the world of Negima it feels implausible.  At least we still have the real ending in Chapter 355, which will come out in a matter of days and the whole saga will finally be over.