Negima and Translation Problems

Translating Japanese to English is an art. In the Anime and Manga scene, there are the Da Vincis and there are those who don't even come close. Ken Akamatsu gained immense popularity on both coasts over his most well-known work, Love Hina, and not without reason. The story of a man managing a girl's dorm sounds like a plot suited for Porky's, but Akamatsu made it work beyond the obvious joke material and got into something much more sweet and fun.

Such is also true with his latest work, "Mahou Sensei Negima," or just plain "Negima" in the states. The series tells the
story of ten-year-old Negi Springfield, a recent graduate of a magic school in Wales. Negi is told he must go to an all-girl
school in Japan and teach English to Junior High class 2-A (which becomes 3-A shortly after). The Headmaster sets him up in a room with two of Negi's students, Konoka Konoe (the headmaster's granddaughter) and Asuna Kagurazaka (an unassuming tomboy who hates kids). After the typical kid-teacher stories, the main plot kicks into gear, centering on the world of magic and Negi's search for his father. Helping him along the way are his thirty students; some know about magic, some don't. The dizzying array of supporting cast members is the high point of the series- some writers lose track of a cast of six or seven; Akamatsu works hard to individualize every last one of his thirty-plus characters by giving them a surprising amount of depth.

So Negima is really good... in Japanese. The English translation by Del Ray leaves something to be desired. It's never
doubted that the translation team has the skill to take something originally written in Japanese and transform it into
English. But what they don't have yet is the artistic grace the Love Hina team had. In Love hina, Akamatsu's characters
became beloved, due in part to the fabulous job the translation team had done. They seamlessly wove together the original
context with an english flair for language, making the manga easy to understand. The Negima team tries to follow in the
success of Love Hina, but they fail to grasp how important the English dialogue is in the English translation.