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Mahou Sensei Negima
alt title(s): Negima; Magi Magister Negi; Magister Negi Magi

"Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy..."
"Our Magic is not omnipotent... a little bit of courage is the real magic."

If you were wondering about that show that pops up in nearly every single article on this Wiki, here you go...

Ten-year-old Negi Springfield has just graduated from a magic academy in Wales, and finds that his assignment for earning his full magic license is a job as a teacher — in a private all-girls school in Japan. Worse than that, though, is that it's a junior high class — most of the girls are four or five years older than him, and almost all of them think he's the cutest thing since Hello Kitty.

Earning his license by getting through a semester or two of teaching his hyperactive and over-affectionate students is only one of Negi's goals, though. He's also looking for his long-absent father — Nagi Springfield, the mysterious "Thousand Master" who appeared once, gave Negi his staff, and then vanished again. The Thousand Master is said to be dead, but Negi isn't so sure. The fact that one of the girls in his class is secretly an old enemy of his father's and still holds a grudge doesn't help, either...

And life doesn't get any easier. Although he's supposed to keep his magic secret, he's having control problems, and blows his cover in front of some of the girls almost immediately. Also, he can't get properly licensed until he finds a partner. His style of magic requires a "defender" who handles physical threats while he casts his spells; the contract between mage and partner is sealed with a kiss and empowers the partner to near-superhuman levels. It soon becomes obvious that, by the sheerest coincidence, almost all of Negi's students are excellent candidates for partnership. And now that you mention it, the school itself isn't quite as "normal" as it appears at first glance...

Created by Ken Akamatsu, this series has been summed up (with hotly-contested accuracy) as "Harry Potter meets Love Hina and Dragon Ball". Rumor has it that when planning out Negima!, Akamatsu wanted to do a Shonen fighting manga. However, his publisher (wanting to cash in on the success of Love Hina, Akamatsu's previous work) insisted on another romantic harem comedy. So, Akamatsu created a fighting story that looked superficially like a harem comedy. The story has since changed into a action comedy/drama with a huge cast (30+ "regulars") and an expanding Back Story.

As of this writing (January 2010), the Mahou Sensei Negima manga has reached at least 276 installments and 28 published tankoubon volumes — and according to the author, the story is only just over halfway done, with apparent plans of ending around 400 chapters, give or take.

The first anime, Negima! (take note of the punctuation; it becomes important), concluded in late 2005 after only 26 episodes. Understandably, the plot was tremendously telescoped — the anime parallels the volumes one through six of the manga in its first 20 episodes or so, and then hurtles into a sudden and somewhat hasty Grand Finale arc, in the process skipping over a vast landscape of storyline and character development and abandoning several plot threads just set in motion. It would appear that the studio had planned for more than one season to tell the full manga story, and then were disabused of that notion with less than a third of season left to tie things up. The result is a conclusion that, while dramatic and fulfilling the promise of the show's premise, is abrupt and seems to come out of left field with no warning — especially the shocking event that sets the concluding action in motion. This adaptation was acquired by FU Nimation, and was dubbed with nearly all of the studio's most frequently-used voice actresses!

In Autumn of 2006, a new series was released: Negima!? It is a Reboot of the storyline, with a earlier time slot (leaving the Fan Service packed off to the OVAs until later in the story), a more obvious shounen bent, and a distinct flavor of humor courtesy of Studio Shaft, the production company that made Pani Poni Dash. A manga adaptation loosely based on this reboot, titled Negima!? Neo, began running in late 2006, taking plot points from both the original manga and the Negima!? anime and running through both in very different ways than its predecessors.

In October 2007, a Live Action Adaptation called Negima!! was aired. Like Negima!? before it, the plot is a Reboot of the basic storyline. And like most Live Action Adaptations of anime, it tries to pull off the same kind of manic visual humour (and Fanservice) that its animated counterparts have, which sometimes succeeds but often comes off as awkward.

Hopefully, the fourth time will be the charm: A three-episode OVA called Mahou Sensei Negima!: White Wing/Ala Alba, covering the brief breather arc between the Mahora Festival and the trip to the Magic World (chapters 176-183, specifically), was released alongside manga volumes 23-25 and stuck religiously to the storyline of the chapters it adapted. It will be followed up by a four-episode OVA titled Mahou Sensei Negima!: Another World, covering the beginning of the Magic World arc. The same studio that handled Negima!? is in charge of this adaptation, but this time it feels like the manga - only with added sound, color and movement. Things are looking up for Mahou Sensei Negima...

An anime movie has also been announced. Details are not yet available, but it is expected to continue from after the Another World OVA.

Manga Story Arcs, watch out for spoilers:
  • Evangeline arc (vol. 3) — Negi discovers that things won't be as easy as he thought when one of his students turns out to be a powerful dark mage... with an axe to grind against his father.
  • Kyoto arc (vol. 4-6) — Looking for more information on his father, Negi takes his class on a field trip to Kyoto. Unfortunately, another of his students happens to be the daughter of the Kyoto Magic Association, and finds herself targeted by renegades.
  • Demon arc (vol. 8) — Negi opens up to Asuna about his past, as two old enemies come to Mahora looking for him.
  • Festival Day 1 (vol. 9-10) — Mahora Academy is gearing up for its massive School Festival, an event famous around the world. Negi has his hands full with the activities of his students, plus having to deal with a secret involving The World Tree. Fortunately, one of his students has a means for him to easily take care of all his obligations...
  • Tournament Arc (vol. 11-13) — A Fighting Tournament in the School Festival? Mahora's just that kind of place. Negi wants to win this tournament, just like his father did years before. But some of the strongest fighters in the school also want in on the action, and somebody threatens to expose The Masquerade to the entire world.
  • Festival Day 2 (vol. 14-15) — Negi continues to see the sights of the festival, while taking care to help his students along the way. But the threat to his secret still remains, and the battle lines are drawn right through his class.
  • Battle of Mahora (vol. 16-18) — How does one stop a giant robot army? With the most hyperactive students on the planet! Mages battle mechanoids, while Negi finds himself facing one of his girls once again with the fate of the world in the balance.
  • Summer arc (vol. 18-20) — Negi plans to go back to Wales to continue searching for his father, but first, a much-needed rest. Too bad Negi's friend Anya has come all the way to Japan to come get him. (This is the source material for the Ala Alba OVA.)
  • Magic World arc (vol. 20-ongoing) — Negi and his Nakama go to Wales, and from there to the Magic World. Unfortunately, the sudden appearance of an old enemy leaves the group, as well as a few stowaways, scattered all over the planet. (The Mou Hitotsu no Sekai OVDs cover these.)

For tropes relating to the characters, head out to the characters' page. Warning: Your computer may implode from data overload.
A quick review: Mahou Sensei Negima is the original manga, Negima! is the first anime, Negima!? is the second anime, Negima!? Neo is a hybrid manga from the original manga and the second anime, and the newest OVAs start with Mahou Sensei Negima! in the title. When you get confused, just come back up here to check.
While this entry was originally written for Negima!, be aware that the trope listing below now includes many entries that are specific to one or more of the various adaptations. Over time, the franchise has become much more Trope Overdosed than aforementioned series.

This show provides examples of:

  • Aborted Arc (The Nightmare Circus, which might have finally given Zazie some character development, was cut due to the Chao arc taking more time than Akamatsu expected.)
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade (Setsuna slices a ball of iron in half with her sword and doesn't even notice.)
  • Academy Of Adventure (Mahora. And how.)
  • Accidental Kiss (How Nodoka got her pactio card. Though it certainly wasn't accidental on the part of the person who tripped her.)
  • Adaptation Decay: The live-action. Opinions vary on the others, including but not limited to the fact Negima!? quickly jettisons both the storyline and the mechanics of magic in favor of parodies.
  • Adaptation Dye Job (Go ahead, try and find ONE member of class 3-A (besides Asuna) whose hair color has stayed consistent between the manga's occasional color illustrations, the first anime, and Negima!?. Go on. We're waiting.)
    • Even Asuna isn't spared; in Negima!?, she has two blue eyes instead of her Boat Lights.
  • Adaptation Overdosed: Negima!, Negima!?, Negima Neo, Negima!!, and assorted OVAs. Thanks to the constant Continuity Reboots, nothing but the OVAs have covered more than a small fraction of the manga.
  • Adjective Noun Fred: Mahou Sensei Negi(ma)
  • Age Inappropriate Dress: Happens on both sides of the spectrum, from the girls' frequently donning loli bodies and clothing to the Akemi-esque way Eva lounges around in a see-through teddy and almost-there panties.
  • Air Jousting (A frequent element of the series' often high-flying magical battles.)
  • Air Whales (The standard aircraft of the Mundus Magicus, probably because blimps were too mundane. They also come in various other fish-like shapes.)
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: In chapter 261, Ku Fei says she will never kiss anyone who can't actually beat her, but she also "jokes" about marrying him as well. Your Mileage May Vary on how serious her joking is.
  • All Part Of The Show (The Mahora festival, when several thousand of Muggles were roped into fighting an army of demon-powered robots and mechas under the pretence of a giant role-playing game. Of course, the weapons used were only harmful to modesty. Also, the fight at Cinema Village. The comment "Is this for a movie?" was commonly seen in the background.)
    • Sometimes used hilariously in the Magic Worlds as well, especially during the fight with Fate's minions in Ostia. The comment "Are they doing a movie?" is often seen in the background, said by various demons, anthropomorphic animals, and other magical creatures.
  • Alternate Character Reading (Spell names are written in kanji, while their Latin/Greek/whatever pronunciation is shown in furigana.)
  • Alternate Continuity (Negima!!, Negima!?, and the Negima?! Neo manga.)
  • Alternative Calendar: The Magical World has a separate calendar, probably because it's Mars. Which does have a different orbit around the sun, after all.
    • People in the magical world call Earth the 'old world'.
  • Amplifier Artifact (The Pactio artifacts, in addition to their individual capabilities.)
  • Amusing Injuries (This is the guy who wrote Love Hina, after all, although it's a bit less prevalent here due to the vastly increased likelihood of not-so-amusing injuries post-Genre Shift.)
  • Anime Anatomy (They call it "Akamatsu nipples" for a reason.)
  • Another Dimension (Mundus Magicus is technically an alternate plane of reality anchored to and templated on Mars.)
  • Anyone Can Die: This has apparently happened in abundance recently. It's too soon to know exactly where Akamatsu-sensei is going with this; it's just as likely to become Death Is Cheap.
  • Arc Number: Prime numbers seem to be very important to magic, especially when it comes to the "arrows of whatever." Those are always cast as prime numbers.
  • Arc Words: "I shall be your opponent," and "a little bit of courage" (referencing the page quote) to a lesser extent.
    • "You could... save the world" definitely takes on a new meaning between when it's first said and the end of the arc.
  • Arrow Cam (In an early episode of Negima!, we have an Arrow Cam without an arrow as Negi mentally homes in on his lost wizard's staff.)
  • Art Evolution (To some extent within the series itself, but especially when compared with Love Hina.)
  • Art Shift (Humorous — Makie in the infirmary after her "vampire attack".)
  • Asspull (Any new pactio formed has a good chance of being exactly what the gang needs at that very instant.)
    • This is averted and lampshaded in an episode of Negima!?. Haruna, who had just gotten her pactio, says "Hey, maybe my power will help!" Negi spends about a minute activating the pactio... and Haruna's power is that what she draws comes to life, which is not at all useful in the situation.
      • Later, Negi demonstrates a spell specifically designed to find the right partner for a given task.
  • Ass Shove (Chizuru's repeated attempts to test out a folk remedy involving shoving a spring onion up a sick person's rear.)
  • Author Appeal (Especially apparent lately. Why is Chisame still in loli form? Why do those fake cat ears now seem permanently grafted to Setsuna's head, even appearing on her new Pactio card? Because Akamatsu says so.)
    • In-story, Chisame admits (albeit begrudgingly) that she likes the "Chibi-Chiu" form. Why that is (again, in-story, since the real reason is obvious) has yet to be explained.
      • She is an avid cosplayer who would not normally be able to dress like like that, which she makes note of and decides she should enjoy it while she can.
    • Also, keep in mind for the pactio card that Asuna's has her with a good number of bandages. Clearly, its a self-image thing. Of course, Setsuna HAS that self-image because Akamatsu hasn't had her take off the cat ears for a hundred chapters or so... well, either Akamatsu or Konoka, take your pick.
  • Author Avatar (Briefly, in the first anime.)
  • Awesome But Impractical: The pactio cards allow telepathy between users — but in addition to a limited range, it can be blocked very easily. As Negi puts it, "Isn't a cell phone easier?"
  • Badass Crew: The Ala Rubra. It did contain the Worlds Strongest Man and his rival. The core members of Negi's Ala Alba are similar, if not so stratospherically powerful.
    • Not yet anyway. As seen in their fight against Rakan and Kagerou, Negi and Kotarou are pretty close, and keep in mind that they're still ten year olds.
    • What the Ala Alba lacks in raw power (which is very, very little), knowledge and experience, it makes up for in...pretty much everything else, from intelligence gathering, to healing, technological prowess, Mind Reading, a Book Of Shadows, an Art Initiates Life Green Lantern Ring, Anti Magic, information and technology from the future, a ghost and robot on tap, contacts with the Ala Rubra (which includes highly-placed members of every major magical government)... Of course, the Ala Rubra probably did much of the same stuff off-screen.
  • Badass Family: Negi, Nagi, Chao, Arika, and Asuna. Negi, Arika, and Asuna all benefit from Royal Blood magic.
  • Badass Normal: surprisingly enough Nagi could qualify. Saving your girl from a ravine full of giant ravenous monsters, where neither magic nor spiritual powers work? No problem. It seems that Nagi's title as Invincible is completely justified, seeing as he doesn't even need his magic to be unbelievably Badass.
    • The same can be said for Evangeline — even at her weakest, without her magic and using only the strength of a ten year old girl, she can still toss around full grown fighters using pure martial skill perfected over a century.
  • Bad Future: The Eight Days Later arc. Chao's future is likely another example — she claims that the tragedy she's trying so hard to set right is no worse than any of the little tragedies that happen every day, but there's reason to believe she's engaging in the self-effacing understatement common to Asia.
    • Confirmed with a bang recently: The tragedy she's trying to prevent could dwarf the Holocaust.
  • Bad News In A Good Way (Frequently in Negima!?, courtesy of Motsu.)
  • Balloon Belly (The result of Makie "helping" Negi prepare for Evangeline's training.)
  • Battle Aura (Have started appearing around various characters since the Genre Shift.)
  • Battle Couple (This is what most Mage-Partner relationships turn into after forming a permanent contract. Unless it's between two guys, in which case you get Bash Brothers.)
  • Battle In The Rain (Negi vs. Evangeline.)
  • Beach Episode (The Spring OVA.)
  • Beam O War (Negi vs. Eva; later Negi vs. Chao as well.)
  • Becoming The Mask: Fate's partner, the girl that replaced Asuna, combines this with Ship Tease. The spell that lets her imitate Asuna is so perfect that she herself has a hard time remembering that she's The Mole, and she states that Asuna's feelings for Negi will overwhelm her if she goes on for too long. However, she cannot imitate Asuna's rare Magic Cancel ability.
  • Beyond The Impossible (Negi vs. Rakan. Negi reveals that he isn't left-handed at least five times before the match is over, culminating in a spell that definitely deserves the name "Titan Slayer".)
    • And Rakan still stands up like nothing happened. The man is the embodient of Beyond The Impossible.
      • Negi's recent Pactio with Chachamaru, proving that flesh and blood are not requisites for a soul - possibly by sheer force of will.
  • BFS: Asuna and Setsuna, but Rakan takes the title with his Ship Slicing Sword. No prizes for guessing what he uses it for.
    • Less-straight examples of the trope: Kaede's shuriken, Chachazero's butcher knife (she's less than a foot tall, making the weapon-to-wielder ratio pretty high), and Ku Fei's pactio staff - which can grow to gigantic proportions. Also the bound swords used by Ariadne Valkyries, which are closer to spears.
  • Big Bra To Fill (The live action adaptation didn't quite get some of the girls' more... prominent... assets right.)
  • Big Creepy Crawlies (The Magic World's wildlife is unusual, to say the least.)
  • Big Damn Heroes (Happened once in the Kyoto arc. Has happened many times in the Magic World.)
  • Big Damn Villains (Evangeline saves the gang's collective ass in Kyoto, demonstrating her true power in the process by curb-stomping both a recently-summoned demon god and a later arc's Big Bad in quick succession.)
  • Big Fancy House: Ayaka/Iincho, befitting her status as the rich girl.
    • Examples of Big Houses that are symbols of power rather than wealth: Konoka's temple complex, Eva's resort and castle, and Albireo's "house".
  • Bishonen: Negi in his teenage form (used as a chapter title, even). Also a number of the members of Ala Rubra, including Nagi and Konoka's dad.
  • Black Magic (There's a Deadly Upgrade explicitly called "black magic" in the manga, mostly because it's fueled by dark emotions. It's perfect for mopey worry wart Negi.)
  • Bland Name Product (Starbooks Coffee, among many others.)
  • Blank White Eyes
  • Blasting It Out Of Their Hands (There is a spell specifically designed to do this, roughly equivalent to Harry Potter's "Expelliarmus". However, it also blasts clothing off of their bodies, for added fanservice!)
    • When Negi accidentally overpowers it with black magic in the Magic World, it nudifies everyone in the vicinity.
  • Blatant Lies (It's all CGI. Honest.)
  • Blessed With Suck (The pactio system in Negima!?, which has a decent chance of rendering the partner useless instead of powering them up.)
  • Bloodless Carnage (There have been small amounts of bloodshed in every battle... but the beginning of Volume 21 throws this out the window with Negi being impaled by a stone spear, complete with enormous blood loss and the obligatory Blood From The Mouth)
  • Blood Oath (Implied  * to be the preferred way of forming pactios when kissing would be...unpleasant.)
  • Blue With Shock
  • Boarding School (Mahora.)
  • Book Of Shadows (Yue's Pactio Artifact.)
  • Break The Haughty (Several times — Eva/Nagi, Kotaro/Negi (first meeting), Fate/Negi&Eva (the fight on the dock), etc)
  • Breast Expansion: A breast inflation spell has been used twice — the results are hilarious.
  • Breast Plate: Both played straight and interestingly subverted. While within the manga canon, Asuna is occasionally given armor that fits this trope, some of the side artwork includes her in very fetching, but still perfectly normal, armor.
  • Breather Episode: The infamous "Chichigami-sama" furo scene in the magic world. They even say so in the first panel.
  • Bucket Booby Trap (In the very first chapter of the manga).
  • By The Power Of Greyskull (The magic activation keys, as well as the artifact-summoning "adeat!")
    • Anya Cocolova: Fortis La Tius Lilith Lilioth
    • Chao Lingshen: Last Tale My Magic Scir Magister (it's possible that it's actually a deformation of Negi's, even an unintentional one)
    • Collet Farandole: Anétte Ti Net Garnet
    • Emily Sevensheep: Tarot Carrot Charlotte
    • Evangeline Athanasia Katherine "Kitty" McDowell: Lic Lac La Lac Lilac
    • Fate Averruncus: Visju Tal Li Sjutal Vangeit
    • Mei Sakura: Maple Naple à la Mode
    • Megumi "Nutmeg" Natsume: Rap Tjap La Tjap Ragpur
    • Negi Springfield: Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister
    • Yue Ayase: Vor So Kratika Socratica
  • Calling Your Attacks (Parodied by Rakan, including using an attack, named Negi Fever, on Negi)
    • Also of note in that many of the fighters use "silent incantations," so they aren't actually saying anything, but the name of the attack still appears so that the readers know what's going on.
  • Call On Me: Chisame's rescue from starring in a hentai the clothes-eating monster.
  • The Cameo (The Mahora Budokai Arc has quite a few fighting game characters show up in the crowd, such as Athena Asamiya, Terry Bogard, Akuma, Yashiro Nanase, Chris, Hugo, and M. Bison)
    • Also, take a look at this page. Top right panel, lower right corner, in front of the gorilla. Look familiar? Unfortunately the extreme right side of the page is cut off, so you'll have to check a print copy to see for yourself that the person next to Seta is actually Naru...
  • Can Not Spit It Out (Everyone to Negi's "Is this my mother?" question. It's finally revealed in a extremely off-hand comment)
  • Cannot Tell A Joke (Setsuna)
  • Cassandra Truth: Chao's "joke". She even repeats it a few times.
  • Censor Steam
  • Cerebus Syndrome (Intentionally, as a Writer Revolt. It works quite well.)
  • Chain Of Command (Slaver collars go "zap")
  • Charles Atlas Super Power: Jack Rakan, full stop. He was originally a normal-sized slave fighting in the gladiatorial matches. Now he is an 8-foot tall mountain of raw muscle who's Game Breaker powerful. He can shrug off city-levelling energy blasts by sheer willpower, predict and defeat attacks moving at the speed of lightning, and destroy mountains on a whim.
  • Chef Of Iron (Chao owns a restaurant, yet can still pummel people with Tech Fu.)
  • Cherry Blossoms (Even though it's not a cherry tree...; similarly, rose blossom petals are used for a similar effect in an imaginary moment)
  • Christmas Cake (Subverted (maybe) in a... rather surprising way by Asuna, of all people.)
  • Chunky Salsa Rule: Konoka tells the group she can't help people whose head has been splattered like a tomato.
  • Chunky Updraft
  • Chupacabra: A recurring joke in Negima!?, based off a brief blackboard cameo in the manga.
  • Clark Kenting (Justified, as they use magic glasses)
  • Class Trip (Kyoto Arc)
  • Clear My Name (Magical World Arc)
  • Clothing Damage (Happens quite often)
    • One of the only two weapons used by the robot army after the Tournament arc is a laser that only destroys clothing.
    • The accompanying unsealed demons are bound by "scientific devices" that restrict their powers to the same.
    • A clothing eating octopus appears briefly to sexually harass the poor Meta Girl.
    • A spell exists solely for the purpose of clothing destruction. Negi casts it by accident whenever he sneezes, and a magical all-girls school that features later uses it in an athletic broom contest. Technically its effect is to 'blow away weapons and turn light objects into flower petals'.
    • This editor's favorite totally-ridiculous-excuse-for-clothing-damage-that-is-actually-justified-somehow-by-the-plot is when Fate attempts to petrify Asuna during the Kyoto arc. Her magic cancel renders her immune to its effects. Her clothes, however, were not protected, and promptly shatter like a Gargoyle's skin when she moves.
      • It is easily the most plausible excuse Akamatsu's come up with...
      • The fact that Asuna's line as she breaks through her petrified clothes for the second time fits both the intended serious context and her predicament seems rather suspiciously coincidental...
        Asuna: Kids who are naughty... need to be punished!
      • In Chapter 277, Yue gets her clothes damaged by a beam that pierced through her and Emily. Rather than treated as fanservice, this is treated as a plot point and as a Tear Jerker due to the fact that Yue's clothes only disintegrate while Emily herself DISAPPEARS.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Nekane in Negima!?
  • Color Failure: Makie, several times in Negima!?
  • Combat Tentacles
  • Coming Of Age Story
  • Complaining About Shows You Dont Watch (The series has a lot of people who believe that the series is nothing more than a Shotacon Love Hina with magic. Although it takes a bit of time to do so, the series does get quite Shoneny for later chapters, though the Harem feel IS prevelant throughout the work.)
  • Complete Monster: Fate Averruncus,And most of Cosmo Entelecheia. Full stop!
  • Compressed Adaptation
  • Concept Art Gallery (A few pages at the end of each tankoubon)
  • Confessional (The girls and Negi spend two chapters going to a confessional, manned by a disguised Misora. They unload their anguish, from Genki Girl Makie's worry about having no worries to Negi's deep existential angst, in passing by Setsuna's questions about kissing girls (this is for her to have a pactio and not sexual in nature... probably.). None of it sounded like a true confessional session, of course)
    • Made deliciously ironic or a horrible case of Did Not Do The Research considering the historical relationship between the Church and witchcraft.
      • 1. There was period of differentiation between "good" and "bad" magic. 2. It's also competition for power thing. In result church patronized mages loyal to church seems plausible.
      • The 'magic' forbidden by the church specifically involves consorting with devils in order to have them do stuff for you. Simply having/using unusual powers isn't forbidden, so if it were possible to reliably do magic without devils being involved (and in Negima it apparently is), there'd be no reason to forbid it.
      • Necromancy is also prohibited. (Still not a problem for most of the mages.)
    • Could be Ken Akamatsu just didn't care at all and wanted to have a nun to fill out the chart of Fetish Fuel he probably had up on his wall when coming up with the series.
  • Continuity Cameo (Chizuru's Apron in Natsu OVA)
  • Conveniently Seated
  • Cooking Duel
  • Cool And Unusual Punishment (The typical punishment for mages who break the masquerade? They turn them into ermines and make them spend a few years in the ermine camp.)
  • Covert Pervert: Nodoka, the adorable bookworm. When she uses her artifact (a mind-reading picture diary) on herself during the "confessional arc", the result (and her expression) were a Crowning Moment Of Funny.
  • Cranial Eruption
  • Crazy Awesome (Once again, Jack Rakan. Look at the Charles Atlas Super Power entry and you'll get the idea.)
  • Creepy Doll (Chachazero, who doubles as a sort of evil peanut gallery.)
  • Crossdresser (Negi at one point. Setsuna at another.)
  • Cross Dressing Voices: Rina Satou in the Japanese version.
  • Cross Popping Veins: Asuna's Expressive Hair forms into one at one point.
  • Cross Over (references to Love Hina and AI Love You)
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome (has its own page)
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny (same as above)
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming (Easily Negi and Chachamaru when Negi refuses to take "no" for an answer regarding whether or not Chachamaru has a soul — and just might have made one for her by sheer force of will. YMMV; it's just as arguable that he simply refused to let her give up.)
    • Again in spades in the flashback when we see Nagi save Arika from execution by horde of monsters in a valley where magic doesn't work.
      You really aren't going to get it unless I spell it out for you, are you, you damn sheltered princess! Why am I doing this?! Dammit, I'm doing it because I love you! Why the hell else?!!
    • That one actually deserves special mention as a joint CMOH and CMOF; it's so heartwarming that even the villain is choked up.
    • The ending of episode 21, the sequence between Setsuna and Konoka (once they are back at Mahora Academy), has been known to make this troper cry Manly Tears like you wouldn't believe. (even if I am a girl...)
    • Asuna finds Negi, chapter 214: D'aawwww...
  • Crystal Ball
  • Cultural Cross Reference ("Ku:nel Sanders")
  • Curb Stomp Battle (Rakan vs. pretty much anyone. There was the gladiator match, where he took out two high-ranking fighters with a massive punch that left a giant indentation of his fist in the ground. And, most recently, when Fate's partners all came at him at once at full power... it was all over in one panel that started with the words "Five minutes later.")
    • Code of the Lifemaker. It's hard to fight someone who can turn you into scattered flower petals with a word.
  • Cyberspace (Chisame's Artifact, anyone?)
  • Cycle Of Revenge (The motivation for most of the villains in the series so far, and for Negi to a degree as well.)
  • Dance Of Romance (Chapter 260 has two of them actually: One by Negi and  *Asuna and the other one by Kotaro and Natsumi.
  • Darker And Edgier: Akamatsu-sensei appears to be rapidly accelerating his use of this trope. Chapters 277 and 278 feature Rakan and a boatload of Mauve Shirts being dissolved into flower petals, and the dozen-odd chapters before it feature an ominous secret that borders on Go Mad From The Revelation, the story of someone who saved the world being sentenced to a brutal death for it, and Negi nearly cold-bloodedly murdering the wrong person for revenge.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Varies, but the few right bastards have all been humans with no explicit connection to darkness.
  • Dawson Casting (most people in the Live Action Adaptation seem far from their supposed age)
  • Day In The Limelight (Almost every girl gets a chapter, or even an entire arc, devoted to her. Especially if she hasn't had much "screen time" yet.)
  • Death By A Thousand Cats (Used humorously to illustrate Negi's confusion over a Power Level chart.)
  • Death Of The Hypotenuse (Doesn't actually occur, but Haruna points out that this is how love triangles usually end, causing the two girls involved to freak out considerably.)
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Mostly subverted (in that the people fighting are already friends, and are in a tournament or whatnot), but played straight with Kotaro and Eva, to a lesser extent.
  • Demon Slaying (The Shinmeiryu's speciality)
  • Despair Event Horizon: When Asuna dies in Negima!, Negi splinters like a broken broomstick. His artificial cheerfulness masks it temporarily, but it quickly becomes ghastly.
    • In the original manga, Negi probably crosses this after Fate attacks his students at the Gateport and scatters them across Mundus Magicus. It isn't quite as bad as in the anime, but the fact that he was completely unable to protect them after he promised to do so really gives him issues later on.
  • Deus Ex Machina: During the Gecko Ending of the first anime, the Time Machine used to fix the Diabolus Ex Machina that kicked off the final arc. Fight fire with fire, they say...
    • In the manga, this artifact has a completely different purpose and gets explained in detail. But in the anime it's an Ass Pull that's immediately used to solve what had been an apparently unsolvable problem.
  • Did We Just Have Tea With Cthulhu: Fate seems fond of his tea parties.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: The first couple times Asuna attacks Eva (literally with a punch), before anyone understands her anti-magic abilities.
  • Dirty Business (Negi wonders if defeating Chao's plan to reveal The Masquerade was the right thing to do throughout the Festival Arc. He's reassured by Chao herself, no less that there are no hard feelings, though.)
  • Dirty Mind Reading: Nodoka gets a heavy dose of it from Paio: "Although one of them was just really screwed-up..."
  • Dirty Old Man: Chamo's perversion rivals even that of Happosai. He's not an old man, but gets about the same level of indulgence because he's "just an animal".
  • Ditto Fighter (Albireo Imma collects life stories. He can use this to tap the subject's appearance and abilities, but it only lasts a few minutes if the person is stronger than him. (He can also copy the memories and personality of a person at the time he records them, but this only lasts ten minutes and will only work once.)
  • Diving Save (Negi and cat)
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything (All over the place. A noteworthy example in the fifth panel of this page.)
  • Doing It For The Art
  • Do It Yourself Theme Tune (every song to date)
  • Doomed Hometown (Negi's petrified hometown)
  • Dramatic Wind
  • Dude Shes Like In A Coma (Played straight mostly, normally on poor Negi, but inverted every once in a while with the sleeper doing the kissing.)
  • Dungeon Crawling (Library Island at first, then Nodoka's adventuring party).
  • Dynamic Entry (Everyone, and not just in combat either. Sometimes it seems that a kick to the face is just how the ladies of Mahora say "hello".)
  • Ear Worm ("Happy Material".)
  • Elaborate University High (and how!)
  • Eldritch Abomination (Two so far: the demon that Evangeline curb-stomped in the Kyoto Arc, and the huge black shadow-demon summoned by Fate Averruncus' shadow-using minion in the Ch. 270's.)
  • Elemental Baggage
  • Elephant In The Living Room (Poor Negi...)
  • Elevator School (Mahora Academy)
  • Ending Theme
  • Environmental Symbolism
  • Everybody Remembers The Stripper: It's developed into an action series to rival One Piece or Naruto, yet try explaining that to a new reader when almost every other page features one or more of the girls in their underwear (or less).
    • Played absolutely literally in the first chapter, which features Asuna getting stripped twice in front of Takahata. Despite the fact he's known her since she was a little child, this is the result when Asuna gets Negi to read his mind to see what he thinks about her.
    • Also, Takane's constant Clothing Damage has become a running joke. Everyone just says "Ohh...the stripper" when she introduces herself, and even she's started thinking of herself this way (bottom left panel).
  • Everyone Is A Super (At least, in the magic world, magic is, understandably, very common, and nobody bats an eye at its use.)
  • Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks
  • Everythings Better With Dinosaurs
  • Everythings Better With Princesses
  • Everythings Cuter With Kittens
  • Everythings Squishier With Cephalopods
  • Everythings Worse With Bears
  • Everythings Better With Monkeys for this page of the manga
  • The Evil Army
  • Evil Chancellor (A group of them has been manipulating the Megalomesembria Senate and is responsible for every major event that has happened in the story so far, starting with the war. Even the events of the Festival Arc may have been a result of their actions.)
  • Evil Counterparts
  • Executive Meddling (Perhaps almost a good example. The executives wanted another Harem Comedy, while Akamatsu wanted to make a shounen manga. Thus, the end result is Love Hina meets Harry Potter meets Dragonball Z, and perhaps one of the most awesome works ever.)
  • Exploding Calendar
  • Extra Strength Masquerade (After a while, characters' attempts to maintain the Masquerade start to seem kinda half-assed, but everyone still falls for it anyway)
  • Eye Catch
  • Facefault
  • False Camera Effects (Fish Eye Lens)
  • Fanservice (Any excuse to get the characters naked, up to clothes-destroying sneezes, lasers, and octopodes.)
  • Fantastic Nuke
  • Fantastic Racism
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink (ninjas, robots, ghosts, vampires, nuns, priestesses, aliens, half-demons, mad scientists, hackers...)
  • Fetish Fuel: The girls are fourteen, although they're drawn more like petite seventeen year-olds. (Has its own page, by the way.)
    • Who are we kidding? This is a case of Taste The Rainbow at work. The girls' looks run the gamut from loli-style (Eva, the twins) to Gag Boobs (Chizuru) and girls who look old enough to be in college (Kaede, Mana). And everything in between. The entire series is crammed with just about every type of Fetish Fuel imaginable.
    • Note also that with all the time-manipulation going on, along with certain individuals who are or might be Really Seven Hundred Years Old, and god knows what else, many of the girls might well actually be physically seventeen. Or older. (Or, in the case of Chachamaru, much younger.)
  • Fighting A Shadow
  • First Girl Wins (Exactly who was first is definitely a problem though)
  • First Kiss (A few of them, though not the entire class, nor all eleven of the girls Negi pactioed with)
  • First Name Basis
  • Fission Mailed: The first failure to stop Chao Lingshen, parodied in Haruna's fanart.
  • Flash Back (Sayo's memories in episode 19, Konoka's in episode 21. In the manga, Asuna also gets many flashbacks related to her mysterious past with Ala Rubra)
  • Flash Step (Including in thin air, somehow)
  • Flexible Tourney Rules (averted, with Asuna disqualified instantly when she broke a rule)
  • Flight
  • Floating Continent (Ostia, though most of it has crashed)
  • Fluffy Tamer (Konoka)
  • Foe Yay: Anything involving Asuna and Ayaka. They seem to be more of friends and rivals.
  • Fountain Of Youth (The Age Changing Pills)
  • Freudian Excuse: Played with in Eva's case: After recounting the tale of her life, including how she became a vampire and killed her way through the centuries, Asuna's response is immediately "So...it's not your fault, right? Because you didn't choose to be bad?" Eva takes this as more evidence that Asuna is an idiot.
  • Friend Or Idol Decision: The end of "The Great Baka Rangers and the Secret Library Island Final Exam Operation" arc.
  • Frogs And Toads
  • Funbag Airbag
  • Functional Magic
  • Furo Scene: Quite a few, starting with a furo the size of a swimming pool.
  • Gag Series: Negima!?
  • Gecko Ending: Negima!
  • Genre Shift (The current chapters barely even resemble the first few. The series essentially started as Love Hina WITH MAGIC, but eventually developed into an action series rivaling the likes of Naruto and Bleach.)
    • Naruto and One Piece, rather. Bleach has pretty much been neutered for the last hundred or so chapters.
  • Geometric Magic (Required for pactio)
  • Getting Crap Past The Radar: Loads, and from a certain point of view the first two volumes could be seen as a grand scheme to get the rest of the series past the executives. But, on a more traditional note, a good example is an early chapter where the girls are giving Negi a bath to cheer him up (everyone's wearing swimsuits) and someone shouts "Negi is so small and cute! Let's watch him grow!" "He's only ten, I don't think there will be much "growing..."
  • Getting Too Old For This: In the American dub of Negima?!, Kamo states that he's "Getting too old for this sh[beep]!".
  • Giant Enemy Crab
  • Giant Spider
  • Gladiator Games
  • The Glomp
  • Godiva Hair
  • Goldfish Scooping Game (Negi and Asuna play it during their Chapter 77 date. Asuna isn't too good at this so Negi tries to help her... but this being Negima, he grabs her where he shouldn't and they end up in a position strangely resembling a certain infamous two-digit number.)
  • Grand Finale: The Gecko Ending of Negima!, that is. According to Akamatsu-sensei, he's only about halfway through the manga storyline.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language (Not just English, but Latin... and Greek... and Sanskrit...)
  • Gravity Is A Harsh Mistress
  • Grays Sports Almanac: Chao's "ultimate weapon".
  • Green Lantern Ring (three examples)
  • Growing The Beard
  • Gun Fu (Do not mess with Mana.)
    • Let's not forget one of her best crowning moments of awesome: Ku-Fei spends half a duel dodging coins being flicked at her like bullets, and when she finally manages to get within melee range, Mana just says "I don't have any weak distances" and gets her right on the chin.
  • Hammer Space: Used constantly, especially because the pactios allow the partners to summon "artifacts" out of nowhere. Also used for Hyperspace Arsenals such as Mana's, and Setsuna's wings.
  • Hand Behind Head
  • Harmful To Minors: Several cases, but Negi's destroyed hometown is the first we hear of. Whether his or Asuna's is worse is up for debate.
  • Healing Hands
  • Hermetic Magic (and traditional Japanese magic, too — an almost unheard-of combination at the time the series first appeared)
  • Hero Insurance
  • Hero Unit: Lampshaded in the Battle of Mahora with Chao's robots. Referenced by name, even.
  • Hikaru Genji Plan (The rationale of at least one of Negi's "admirers")
  • High Altitude Battle
  • Honorifics (Many of the girls call Negi "Negi-bozu", which in addition to its literal meaning is a pun on "negibozu", a variety of onion and a slang term for an inexperienced youth; also, Negi uses yobisute with Takamichi and Kotarou, as well as Anya, indicating their close friendship)
  • Hot Springs Episode: Mostly sento episodes, though Negi and Kotaro did create one for Asuna once. Unfortunately for her, this was during her training with Eva. Eva was so furious she threw her back out into the polar blizzard she'd just escaped, wet and naked.
  • Holy Shit Quotient: Rising steadily as of late, taking giant leaps in Chapters 265 and 277.
  • Humongous Mecha
  • Hundred Percent Completion: Negi making contracts with everyone in his class in both Negima! and Negima!?, sometimes called the "Mass Pactio" by fans.
  • Hybrid Monster
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Referenced almost by name in chapter 276, when Mana uses an unincanted spell to reload her Desert Eagles.
  • I Am Not Left Handed: Used by Chao in the Battle of Mahora arc, when Negi negates her power, she reveals she actually can use magic. Also, in the final tournament battle in the Magic World arc, done by Negi no less than five times. And every one of them is awesome
    • Jack Rakan has recently become right-handed again. Again. This time with a Pactio card.
  • I Am Not Shazam (why the "Ma"?)
    • May be a reference to a Japanese spring onion dish.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming ("By Asuna")
  • Idiot Crows
  • ILLKILLYOU
  • Imageboards (During the Tournament arc, magical and scientific spam/rumor-bots compete with each other on 2ch(an?) over masquerade-breaking combat footage.)
  • Image Song (every song to date)
  • The Immodest Orgasm (Every time Negi winds Chachamaru, and during their Pactio.)
  • Indirect Kiss
  • Inertia Is A Cruel Mistress
  • Innocent Innuendo ("Whip it out, boy!")
  • Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons
  • Instant Awesome Just Add Mecha
  • Instant Bandages
  • Instant Cosplay Surprise
  • Instant Runes
  • Instant Web Hit: The class page the girls create.
  • Insufferable Genius: Nagi definitely counts, if "possibly the strongest man in existence" counts as genius. After all, he once told his son: "I can understand your feelings of admiration for this young, accomplished, yet super cool genius and undefeatable father who was also a hero..."
  • In The Hood (Akamatsu loves this one)
  • Introdump (A very necessary one, in the form of Negi's class roster, which is reused in the tankôbon as a sort of Dramatis Personae)
  • Invisible To Normals (There exist spells that act like a powerful Weirdness Censor, stopping the muggles from noticing, say, the young English teacher flying around on his staff)
  • Invoked Trope
  • I See London
  • Kabuki Sounds
  • Ki Attacks
  • Kimodameshi
  • Kissing Cousins: May happen between Negi and Asuna; both have adamantly denied it but the other students keep wondering.
  • Knight Of Cerebus (When Fate shows up, you know things are going to get serious.)
  • Language Of Magic
  • Laser Guided Amnesia (Some memory altering spells help protect the Masquerade)
  • Late For School (noted by Setsuna on one of the few days they weren't late and "Yet they run")
  • Lawyer Friendly Cameo (Ku:nel Sanders)
  • Leaning On The Fourth Wall
  • Left Hanging: The Kansai mages' plot is never really resolved, and a number of threads get cut short by the Gecko Ending in Negima! for lack of time.
  • Legal Jailbait (Evangeline AK Macdowell, Queen of this trope.)
  • Les Yay (When Konoka finally makes a pactio with Setsuna; she holds the kiss longer than any other seen previously — Chamo timed it. It's still damn cute.)
  • Lethal Chef: Takamichi's ramen.
  • The Library Of Babel: The school library; both lampshaded and played straight.
  • Lightning Glare
  • Live Action Adaptation
  • Living Shadow: Zazie's friends.
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters (The series started off with thirty-one students, one teacher, one principal, and two advisors. It has since expanded with new characters coming in from the magical community.)
  • Lolicon: Does this one really need explanation?
  • Lost In Translation (The Del Rey English adaptation of the original manga is distressingly bad. In particular, the first volume (and to a lesser extent the next three) seems to have been somewhere between "Let's just make it up and no one will know the difference" and a misguided attempt at a Gag Dub. Volume 5 reads like too much effort was spent on making it sound colloquial and not enough on making sure the translation made sense, and volumes 20 and 21 are just lazy — even the Latin got ruined. Things are looking up, though, with the Nibley sisters translating from volume 22 onwards...)
  • Love Chart: Lampshaded twice by Chamo.
  • Love Dodecahedron (Chamo describes it as something of a web)
  • Love Is In The Air: When Asuna force-feeds Negi his own love potion; particularly notable in Negima!
  • Love Potion: See above.
  • Love Triangle: Lampshaded when Nodoka looks in her artifact for clues to resolve the situation.
  • Macross Missile Massacre (a common spell, with Roboteching for good measure)
  • Magic A Is Magic A
  • Magical Incantation: Typically in unfamiliar languages, such as Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and archaic Japanese.
  • Magically Binding Contract: Pactio is the most obvious, but least straight, example. A more straight invocation occurs when Fate and Gödel each try to make Negi sign one which would have the power of a geas.
  • Magic Land: This would be the near-literal translation of Mundus Magicus.
  • Magic Missile
  • Magic Wand
  • Magitek (Chao's Deadly Upgrade and Powered Armor, as well as Chachamaru's very existence. Oh, and a magic gun. And then there's the Paru-sama  Specification)
  • The Magocracy
  • Male Gaze
  • Mana
  • Marilyn Maneuver (Every single eligible female on panel, every single time Negi sneezes.)
  • Marshmallow Hell (trope namer)
  • Masquerade (Mages are not supposed to reveal themselves to Muggles. Doing so puts them in danger of severe punishment, and Laser Guided Amnesia for all involved if discovered.)
  • Mass Teleportation: The portal to Mundus Magicus bears a strong resemblance to an airport.
  • Measuring Day
  • Medium Awareness (The characters comment several times on the images that appear in the back of the panel to illustrate one of their thoughts or a flashback)
    • Konoka hastily readies the Relax O Vision card used some chapters back when Rakan's taunting of the Amazon Brigade that's trapped them edges too close to Hentai for comfort.
  • Meido
  • Min Maxing (Nodoka's magic item combo)
  • Mobile Shrubbery
  • Modesty Towel (sometimes...)
  • Moe Moe
  • The Mole: Fate's partner, currently on really deep cover, disguised as Asuna.
  • Monster Mash: Negi's associates include a ghost, a vampire, a half-bird demon, and a dog demon. On the other side, the REALLY monstrous-looking bounty hunters are later seen casually relaxing in the same baths as Negi and company.
  • Mood Whiplash: Negima!'s left-field ending; the gateport incident in Vol. 21.
  • More Magic Dakka (Sayo's got a gun... Sayo's got a gun...)
  • Moral Event Horizon: Fate pretty much flies over it when he tries to KILL Negi with a stone spear through the back. And Tsukuyomi does the same thing when she tries to rape Setsuna.
  • Multiple Endings: See Adaptation Overdosed, a few screens above.
  • Mundane Utility: Noticeable in Negima! and early in the manga. As the focus shifts to combat, these uses become less frequent and tend to be implied rather than shown.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless
  • Mutually Exclusive Magic: Ki and magic are incompatible for the vast majority of people.
  • My Death Is Just The Beginning: Averted for now, but "It would have suited my purposes if you had killed me here..."
  • My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Not only do the major characters spend almost all their time off-screen either training or sleeping (and have been doing so for years), the training itself is a frequent plot point on-screen - especially if it's Training From Hell.
  • Mysterious Parent
  • Mysterious Protector: The manga shows Negi thinking of his father this way, even putting himself in danger hoping to get him to appear. Negima!? introduces a Tuxedo Kamen clone known as the Black Rose Baron. At first, Negi believes that the Baron is his father, but he later finds out from Konoka that the Baron is really his big sister/cousin, Nekane Springfield.
  • Myth Arc
  • Mythology Gag: Negima!? and the closely-related Negima?! Neo like to play with these. The former spends oodles of time on a one-off chupacabra joke from the original manga, and frequently lampshade Konoka/Setsuna Ship Teases. In the latter, chapter 29 is basically one long Mythology Gag about Konoka and Setsuna's trip to Movie Town during the original manga's Kyoto arc.
  • Narm Charm: The official English translation of the Manga, specifically Ku Fei's semi-Hulk Speak dialect. It's a spotty means of translating her tendency to stick '-aru' where it shouldn't be, but it grows on you after a while. YMMV.
  • Naughty Tentacles (upon landing in Magicus Mundus, Chisame is attacked by a clothes-eating-octopus that seems to exist solely for putting in tentacle-rape-esque scenes)
    • The above scene is actually made even worse (better?) by the animated version in episode two of the Mou Hitotsu No Sekai OVA (start around 19:12). NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
    • Not to mention Paio (of "Boobies!" fame), with sandworm familiars that used their tentacles to strip and almost sexually assault Nodoka.
    • Back in the Kyoto arc, Fate subdues Asuna by turning a bath into a bunch of watery hands that tickle her until she can't move. And this is after he accidentally destroys all her clothes.
      • Actually, tickling her was improvisation on his part- the hands were supposed to restrain her, but Asuna was immune. Her Magic Cancel ability seems awfully useful for Fanservice.
    • Don't forget the cyberspace jellyfish in the Battle of Mahora.
  • Near Misses (stronger character vs. anyone using the time-warping bullets)
  • Newspaper Dating (a short-term version)
  • Nice Job Breaking It Herod (The attack on Negi's hometown was done by the Megalomesembrian Senate in a specific attempt to kill Toddler!Negi. It, obviously, failed, and now Negi knows, and boy is he pissed.)
  • Nigh Invulnerable: Rakan. There is a reason that prize fighters are about two steps away from worshipping him as a living god.
  • Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: Would fit right in besides the Welsh ten-year-old kung-fu wizard school teacher who's also in theory a prince that is the protagonist. Never mind Chao Lingshen the time-traveling magitek-wielding Martian mad-scientist restaurant owner who is fittingly the protagionist's decendant and totally wasn't B Sing about that Mars thing either. And that's just to start.
  • Nipple And Dimed
  • No Dialogue Chapter (Number 166, if you want to know)
  • Non Fatal Explosions
  • Non Lethal Warfare
  • Noodle Incident (There're actually quite a few. One including "Chizuru and a large number of spring onions", and another about Chisame's "First time on the net")
    • Chizuru believes that many ailments can be cured by shoving onions up the afflicted person's butt. Kotarou is terrified of her for a very good reason.
      • When asked about how he feels about Chizuru Naba, Kotarou comes up with an interesting list. Artifact: Dual Negi. Powers: Butt Piercing. Benefits: May cure colds, may not. Power Level: 400. (For comparison, Kaede ranks 120 points.)
  • Nosebleed
  • Not The Fall That Kills You
  • Not What It Looks Like
  • The Nudifier (Negi essentially is The Nudifier. Also, just go read the Clothing Damage entry.)
  • Obake
  • Ocular Gushers
  • Odango
  • Oddly Visible Eyebrows
  • Of Corsets Sexy
  • Offhand Backhand (Setsuna, without even knowing that she was doing it... while worrying about getting weaker, no less.)
    • Evangeline while contemplating new information about Negi's father. The poor guy never saw it coming.
  • Off Model (fixed in DVD release)
  • Oh Crap (regular occurrence)
  • Ominous Multiple Screens (used often during important scenes in Negima!?)
  • One Hit Kill: Time-displacement bullets. (Interesting in that it's not a "kill" in the traditional sense, but tactically there's little difference.) Also, Code of the Lifemaker has this effect on natives of the Magical World.
  • One Winged Angel: Played straight with Inugami Kotarou-kun. Big Badass Wolf indeed.
    • Subverted later on; after Negi single-handedly wipes out a gang of bounty hunters, the leader starts muttering about revealing his true form. Negi gives him a mean look, and he goes back to cowering on the ground.
    • Used again when four of Fate's minions all revealed more powerful forms to fight Jack Rakan. Not that it helped any.
    • Later it turns out that Negi can pull this off if he cranks Magia Erebea up high enough.
  • Only Six Faces
  • Only Smart People May Pass
  • On The Money (Buying out slaves = one martial arts tournament)
    • Actually an inversion: It makes perfect sense for a martial arts tournament to have a round million as a reward, but not so much for that to be the exact price of the slaves' debt.
      • It's unlikely that there's any sort of fixed price on slaves; the determining factor was probably the cost of the medicine; everybody else was just trying to avoid losing money in the process. Still, a convenient coincidence.
  • On The Next
  • The Ojou (Ayaka)
  • Our Demons Are Different
  • Our Time Travel Is Different
  • Out Of Clothes Experience (everyone when they use magic to wander into the mind of another character)
  • Over And Under The Top
  • Overdrawn At The Blood Bank
  • Overly Preprepared Gag
  • Overtook The Manga
  • Panty Fighter (Lampshaded when Setsuna and Asuna are required to wear short Fetish Fuel outfits with showy underwear underneath during the Mahora Tournament Arc as their penance for getting in despite being unknown. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.)
  • Panty Shot (Hoo boy...)
  • Papa Wolf (Don't attack Negi's students. Just don't.)
  • Paper Fan Of Doom: The weaker form of Asuna's pactio artifact.
  • Parental Abandonment (Beside the obvious examples of Negi and Asuna, both orphaned, nearly all the characters live alone in a boarding school with no parents in sight. The two dads that showed up were extremely plot relevant)
    • And then there's Kotarou — apparently any half-youkai where he's from will be abandoned at birth.
  • Parental Incest (No actual incest occurs, but Yuuna really loves her dad. She even says that she wouldn't mind giving a "deep, passionate kiss" to her dad, which elicits a squicked "No Just No" from Ako.)
  • Pec Flex (Most absurdly muscled strongmen settle for flexing their way out of their shirts. Jack Rakan does it out of a suit of armor. Because he's Jack Rakan, bitch!)
    • Oh, please, that's it? When, he first fought Fate's minions, he PecFlexed out of a fricking barrier dimension!!!
  • Peek A Boo: In an attack and subsequent Big Damn Heroes moment, Nodoka gets stripped to the waist. Negi gets a full-frontal eyeful when she forgets (!) and clasps his hand in gratitude for the save.
  • Pensieve Flashback (Negi and Asuna use a spell to get an Out Of Clothes Experience inside Negi's memories of the destruction of his Doomed Hometown.)
  • Person Of Mass Destruction (If you hear someone starting an incantation with "To Sumbolaion Diakoneto Moi", RUN.)
    • ...YOU DIED. Unless you just used a teleportation spell, in which case you were just singed.
      • Actually, all three of the top-level High Ancient elemental spells start that way — Ουρανια Φλόγωσις, Κοσμικη Καταστροφή, and Κιλιπλ Άστραπή (or in other words Firaga, Blizzaga, and Thundaga), as demonstrated by Chao, Evangeline, and Negi respectively. Unless you're the Thousand Master, who doesn't need to bother with the first four-fifths of the incantation...
  • Petal Power
  • Pillar Of Light
  • Pillow Fight (During their Kyoto vacation/school field trip, several of the girls of 3-A had an epic pillow fight with their boy teacher's kiss as the prize. Despite what you may assume from the previous sentence, very little of it was used as Fetish Fuel. Also take note that the girls will indulge in the occasional pillow fight given the opportunity◊.)
  • Pinball Projectile
  • Pink Bishoujo Ghetto
  • Pixellation
  • Place Of Power (twelve of them, including Mahora itself)
  • Please Put Some Clothes On (right after Ala Alba gets spread out across the Magic World, Negi comes to and finds a bathing Chachamaru. Interestingly enough, she's still wearing long Fingerless Gloves and thigh-high socks. Wait, is it still Zettai Ryouiki if the "skirt" component is completely absent?)
    • I'm assuming that the socks and gloves were actually built into Chachamaru when she underwent her upgrade.
    • To answer the original: yes.
  • Plot Relevant Age Up (The pills everyone's favourite Ermine orders in. The author of the manga has a lot of fun playing with these)
    • It's been noted that these are extremely advanced forms of transformation magic, so Chamo must have some really good connections.
    • Eva's version of the pills is even better, as it also evades detection.
  • Pool Scene
  • Porn Stash (subverted; it's merely used as a distraction)
  • Post Episode Trailer
  • Post Kiss Catatonia: After Chachamaru gets her artifact in a ravishing Pactio kiss that goes on for four pages, and after Negi goes into Kiss Terminator mode on Asuna.
  • Power Levels: In the manga's Magic World arc, Jack Rakan, with his own personal ranking chart, puts a major villain's power in context with an oddball list that includes: a cat (0.5), a normal human teen girl (1), a tank (200), a magic teacher (300), Negi (500), a dragon (650), an Aegis Battleship (1500), and the villain (3000). Meta Girl Chisame doesn't even know where to begin in pointing out all the problems with such an arbitrary list (which probably shouldn't be taken very seriously).
    • Spoofed shortly after with Negi sinking into despair after getting nowhere in Rakan's "crash course" in darkness lesson, which made him experience delusions that his low ranking means he could be defeated by the blitz rush of a thousand and one cats (0.5 x 1001).
      • We later discover that Rakan places himself at 12,000 on this list.
      • Which is interesting when considering he put himself as being roughly on par with Fate earlier.
      • Never trust Rakan.
      • There's also the matter that Rakan later remarked he could have been wrong about Fate, replacing his score with a question mark. Above 8000.
  • The Power Of Blood
  • Power Perversion Potential
    • Isn't it only "potential" if they're not all already making use of it in exactly that fashion?
    • They're not. At least, not fully; not on panel at least... Case in point: Haruna. Sure, she's done some pretty crazy things, but it could be much worse.
  • Product Placement
  • Psychic Link
  • Psychic Nosebleed: Haruna experiences a form of this when she summons her ultimate defense golem to stop a massive attack, the amount of damage the golem defends is so great that the fraction of damage it transfers to Haruna gives her a head injury and knocks her out.
  • Public Domain Artifact
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: Usually Negi.
  • Quivering Eyes
  • Rain Aura
  • Rain of (Magical) Arrows (there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many Magic Arrows you can shoot off, as long as it's a prime number)
  • Rape As Comedy
    • Typically subverted, i.e. when Setsuna and Negi are talking about avenging Asuna's honor when they find her naked and trembling. (She was actually tickled into submission after Fate's Petrification only worked on her clothing).
    • Actual rapists are close to nonexistent in this series. One example would be Tsukuyomi's insinuations about what she wants to do to Setsuna, followed by stripping and pinning her before she escaped. That particular incident is not played for comedy. Another would be when Paio does this to Nodoka; YMMV on whether it was meant as comedy. If it was meant as comedy, it was a massive Dude Not Funny.
  • Razor Wind
  • Reality Warper (Fate seems to have access to the Lifemaker's power to rewrite the reality of the Magical World.
  • The Red Planet (Went from what at first seemed like a joke from Chao to being the real location of Mundus Magicus. Sort of.)
  • The Red Sonja (Ku Fei has imposed this policy on herself)
  • Red String Of Fate: Lampshaded in one of the first two OVAs: Nodoka and Yue find a spell in Yue's Artifact that seems to indicate who the caster's tied to. Instead, it just ties things together with magical, glowing red string that can't be cut. Since Nodoka was thinking of Negi when she cast it... Hilarity Ensues.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Justified by the Masquerade. We hear several times in the beginning that mages try to help the world through NGOs, but 99% of what we see magic being used for is destroying the landscape during fights.
  • Relationship Voice Actor
  • The Remnant (Fate Averruncus in the manga)
  • Rescue Arc: The school trip to Kyoto evolves into a Rescue Arc when Konoka is kidnapped.
  • Ridiculously Fast Construction: 3-A's festival project is remarkably detailed for the amount of time they spent on it.
  • Robe And Wizard Hat: Most noticeable in Yue's Pactio outfit, which is practically the essence of this trope.
  • Robo Ship (Negi/Chachamaru)
  • Robot Maid: Evangeline's resorts are staffed by older (but younger-looking) versions of Chachamaru, usually referred to as Dash-Chachas or Chacha<number>s.
  • Roof Hopping: Chao, in the chase that sets up the plot of the Mahorafest mega-arc.
  • Rousseau Was Right: All over the place, at least for the first few arcs. Once the Ala Alba head to the Mundus Magicus, however...
  • RPG Episode: The climax of Mahorafest, AKA Mahora vs. Mars.
  • Rubber Face: Asuna does this a LOT to Negi.
  • Rule Of Cool (A good chunk of the manga runs on this and...)
  • Rule Of Funny (Anything that isn't totally logical or awesome is going to be this.)
  • Running Gag: Many, including Setsuna's Cannot Spit It Out-ness and how Jack Rakan tends to ignore the laws of magic that don't suit him.
    • The (oddly cute) blood-sucking monster, first appearing in tentative descriptions of the "Mahora Vampire", then here for the second time.
  • Saintly Church: Played with in Misora's focus chapter after Mahorafest. She pretends to be a kindly old priest in the confessional, but she is actually very mischievious and sometimes downright sneaky.
  • Say It With Hearts: Almost always used ironically; sometimes Konoka will fall into it, though.
  • Scenery Porn: Done with CG models of the environments, many of which are ridiculously detailed and have huge polygon counts.
  • Scooby Dooby Doors
  • Schedule Slip ("Negima will be taking a break next week" "Negima will be taking a break next week" "Shonen Magazine [which Negima is in] will not be sold next week" "Negima will be taking a break next week" Repeat ad infinitum)
    • The scanlations can be even worse given that the translators are unpaid, and tend to be students with exams and suchlike.
  • Schematized Prop (Logistifying Chiu's artifact)
  • School Festival (Quite possibly the largest one in fiction. It runs for about a week and takes in several million dollars)
  • Sealed Evil In A Can (Waking up a legendary demon was the motivation for the villains during the Kansai arc. Also, Eva technically qualifies; although she was sealed less for her evil (which was, if you believe her, considerable) and more because Nagi couldn't get her to leave him alone. Ironically, the protagonists defeat the first abovementioned Sealed Evil by temporarily breaking the seal on the other one. )
  • Sentai: The Negima! Neo Baka Ranger shorts. Poor Makie...
  • Serious Business (A tense meeting between Fate and Negi derails for one page into a heated argument over coffee and tea — Negi is British, after all. Negi prefers milk tea and refers to coffee as "muddy water". Fate drinks seven cups of black coffee every day, and occasionally lemon tea.)
  • Seiza Squirm: During the Claim Negi's Lips Tournament Asakura organizes in Kyoto, almost everyone gets caught and made to seiza by Nitta-sensei.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: Chachamaru's new arms and, presumably, legs.
  • Shipper On Deck (Everyone Ships Konoka and Setsuna.)
  • Shipping: Far too many to list; more of a Love Buckyball◊ than a Love Dodecahedron.
  • Ship Tease (So much that it is impossible make any truly definitive declarations as to which girl will "win" until one of them actually does.)
  • Shirtless Scene (In-universe, on the poster advertising Negi's and Rakan's fight,and in the fight itself.)
  • Shoot The Medic First
  • Shotacon (Poor Negi is such a Chick Magnet that half of his fourteen-year-old class is outright discussing how to confess their love for him within days of his arrival. It's made somewhat less squicky by the fact that at least a few of them are more concerned with how badass he's going to be in a few years, but at least one girl is very happy to have herself a yummy little ten year old — although to be fair it's less about sex and more about replacing a baby brother who died at birth.)
  • Shout Out
    Open folder to see Shout Out list. 

MazinkaiserRule Of FunnySeto No Hanayome
BleachTrope OverdosedAvatar: The Last Airbender
Love HinaShonenMai-HiME
MahoromaticNoteworthy AnimeMahou Tsukai Ni Taisetsu Na Koto
Magical Girl Lyrical NanohaMangaMahoujin Guru Guru
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