12 Days of Christmas – Day 4 – Where the Hell is Arika?!

I still haven’t gotten used to the feeling of a manga I’ve been reading suddenly coming to an end. I know lots of popular series that have ended this year, like Bakuman, REBORN, Zetsubou Sensei or Air Gear, among many others. Of those I’m reading, only three came to an end in 2012, and I don’t think any of them felt like the traditional ending of a manga. I knew Bokura ga Ita would be ending long before I got caught up, and BARRAGE didn’t last long enough to have the proper impact. Of course the big finale that happened this year, and the one I wanted to briefly touch on one last time, is the ending of Mahou Sensei Negima.

Mahou Sensei Negima – Finale

This is one post I didn’t think I would have to write for a long time. Mahou Sensei Negima was one of the series that got me into manga to begin with, and I was sure it would be around for so much longer. Of course a part of that is because the ending felt so rushed and there was so much left unexplained. A lot has been said about this ending, most of it negative. I can see where all of that comes from, since I know I wanted so much more from the conclusion. How come we didn’t see Nagi come back? Why don’t we know who Negi liked? These are some of the building blocks of the whole series and they didn’t get the resolution they deserved. Clearly this series doesn’t know how to end things.

Mahou Sensei Negima – The Calm Before The End

Much better than a clip show.

Here I was thinking that Bokura ga Ita was the only series of mine to be ending. It’s an empty feeling when you suddenly learn a story you really like is about to end. I don’t even remember the first place I learned about it, but I do know I checked five different sites just to make absolutely sure it’s true. I mean, how the hell could you end a series like this in four chapters? There’s still too much that needs to be dealt with!

There are a few rumours I’ve heard that the series will have a sequel released after this one finishes. Considering the news that Ken Akamatsu’s contract with Kodansha is set to expire around when the final chapter gets released, this doesn’t surprise me. It wouldn’t be the first time a series concluded and started up in another magazine. If that’s what we get, though, I just hope it doesn’t take the To Love-Ru approach and slowly turn into softcore porn.

Mahou Sensei Negima – You Can’t Stay Young Forever (unless you’re Eva)

…and now Negi, I guess.

You would have gotten it faster if not for all those "research breaks".

I’ve mentioned a few times when I thought a series was concluding or moving toward some sort of ending. Even though the only series I read with a definite finale set is Bokura ga Ita, I’m also reading a lot of manga that feel like they’re reaching their climax. I’ve said a few times that Deadman Wonderland should be finished before the year is up, and I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Rosario + Vampire was in its final arc as well. For quite some time I’ve wondered if Negima was going to be finishing soon. It certainly feels like the story only has one arc left to tell, but considering how long the previous arcs have been and how much we still have to resolve, it’s still difficult to tell how far away the last chapter is. Even so, I can already see that steps are being taken toward that eventual end, and nowhere has this been more obvious then here.

Current Manga Rankings – 2011 – Part 2

15. Rosario + Vampire II

What a long, awkward trip it’s been. I remember back when I started this manga and it was just another boring harem series with various random monsters to fight. Since then it’s grown up into a surprisingly well done series about the relationships the previous series began, and it manages to provide a good amount of depth to what were previously uninteresting characters. It even manages to make the action more interesting, since it’s no longer just Inner Moka stomping on everyone. I’ve actually started looking forward to the newest chapters, which I would never have expected at first.