I'm leaving for San Diego this weekend, so I don't plan to work on 'scribbles much. Maybe I'll take some photos and post some moblogs, but nothing in terms of reviews.

Since I'm going to the Final Fantasy concert Monday night, I probably won't get around to reading/watching anything until Tuesday.

Title: 魔法先生ネギま！　魔帆良学園中等ぶ２−A:１学期 (Magic Teacher Negima! Mahora School Class 2-1: 1st Semester)
Original Creator: 赤松健 (Ken Akamatsu)
Release Date: 4/28/04
Catalog No.: KICA-639
Rating: 3/4

The dramas on this CD seem to occur before Negi comes to the school and becomes their teacher. The voices for each of the character seems to fit. I still don't like Konoka's though and am not so convinced with Negi's voice. Since he's only 10 or so years old, he still has a high voice, so they casted a woman to be his voice. Unfortunately, he still sounds like a girl (unlike seiyuu like Megumi Ogata who can be a convincing male). With the other girls in the cast and no visuals, it's hard to tell Negi apart.

The songs are okay, I don't think they're as good as the individual singles. There's a total of 4 songs. The first is the Mahora school anthem, followed by two songs sung by a group of girls, and last song is sung by Negi's seiyuu. I love the music to Negi's song, but it sounds like a BGM with words attached rather than a song that was written originally to be sung.

The bonus DVD contains footage from the Negima event in December. It's quite long, at around 50 minutes. Most of the girls and their seiyuu are introduced, they're given a pop quiz where they have to talk for 30 seconds. Asuna and Konoka's voice actresses perform their respective character songs (they're both pretty terrible at singing live). There's also an on-stage interview with Ken Akamatsu and the director of Negima.

2. １時間目　ラブレター大作戦 (First Hour, Great Love Letter Plan): The girls try to get Nodoka to reveal who she has a crush on and who she wants to write a love letter to. Turns out that it's a the hero in one of her books.

3. ２時間目　チェイス　イン　サンライズ (Second Hour, Chase in Sunrise): The cheerleading girls find out about Asuna's early morning paper route and that her parent's aren't around anymore. And so, they decide to support Asuna by doing a cheerleading routine when Asuna wakes up. However, Asuna is too fast and the 3 girls try to chase after her, but they never catch up and get attacked by a dog. They arrive at school all beat and tired.

5. ３時間目　宝物 (Third Hour, Treasure): Konoka, Asuna, and a few other girls are leaving the mountain where they've been having a school trip. They arrive at stairway down that has a sign that while they're going down, they shouldn't look back or they'll get cursed with bad luck. As they're walking down, Konoka remembers that she forgot her "treasure" so Asuna backpedals (doesn't turn around) to get it. Konoka reveals that her treasure are pictures of her friends, one of which is an embarrassing picture of Asuna.

7. ４時間目　ウェールズは遠く彼方に (Fourth Hour, Wales is Far Away): Negi is practicing magic, but teleports him to somewhere outside of Wales. While Yue and Asuna are studying after failing a test, the other girls are at the beach playing. The dog from Second Hour attacks the girls playing there and takes Konoka's treasure. They chase it around, but can't catch it. When Asuna joins them, they ask Asuna to catch it. Asuna gets attacked and gives the dog an Asuna Kick which sends him all the way to where Negi is. Negi takes an airplane back to Wales and thinks about the strange day he had with the dog falling from the sky.

Title: 藍より青し〜縁〜 (Ai yori Aoshi~Enishi~) Vol. 5
Original Creator: 文月晃 (Kou Fumizuki)
Volume: 5/6
Catalog No.: GNBA-1015
Release Date: 4/23/04
Rating: 2/4

The stories in this disc seem very familiar. Maybe they've taken aspects from the manga? Anyhow, I was disappointed. The only thing interesting was Tina's not so surprising revelation that she's going back to the states. Everything else is trite.

First pressing has a Miyabi postcard. The DVD has no other bonuses except for a few trailers.

9. 白妙 (White Cloth): Kaoru received a one night stay at a nice hotel. He invites Aoi out and then spends the night with her. They talk about each other's happiness for the 10 billionth time. Tell us something we don't know. The ending features an alternate song, this song is included in the single CD.

10. 湯帷子 (Bathing Clothes): The gang goes to a spa resort and they enjoy the day. Later at night through a mixup, Kaoru, Tina, and Aoi end up in the same outdoor hot springs. Kaoru overhears Tina telling Aoi about how appreciative she is about her friendships with everyone. As they're leaving, Mayu overhears that Tina is going back to the states.