Negima Magister Negi Magi / Tropes S to U

• 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.

• Sapient Cetaceans: Dolphin-men are one of the many denizens found in the Magic World. One of them works as a trucker who pilots an airship.
• "Save the World" Climax: The end of the Magic World arc results in Negi's party saving it, by coming up with a better idea to do so than Fate and his party.
• Say It with Hearts
  • While freaking out in the middle of the jungle, Chisame narrates the events with her cheerful Chiu attitude including taking a picture of herself holding up a massive insect, complete with a super happy face with a heart in her mouth.
  • Konoka's speech bubbles have hearts in them when she's in a particularly good mood.
  • Tsukuyomi's dialogue tends to have these... And it only serves to make her even creepier.
• Scenery Porn: Done with CG models of the environments, many of which are ridiculously detailed and have huge polygon counts.
• Schematized Prop
  • Logistifying Chiu's artifact.
  • Chachamaru's character design page.
• School Festival: Quite possibly the largest one in fiction. It runs for about a week and takes in several million dollars.
• Science Destroys Magic: Side material adds in the interesting fact that the ability to use magic is based on a certain way of thinking the world works, such as the four classical elements. As science advances and disproves these theories, the number of magic users dwindles.
• 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.
• Secret Test of Character: Subverted during Setsuna's tournament fight against Evangeline. The latter tries playing on her fears, feelings, duty and difficulty protecting Konoka. Setsuna figures out Evangeline's technique and rejects her choices. However, Setsuna doesn't realize that Evangeline had been fully intending to make her choose between duty and friendship and assumes it was this trope. Evangeline is baffled at this overly positive interpretation.
• Seiza Squirm: During the Claim Negi's Lips Tournament Asakura organizes in Kyoto, almost everyone gets caught and made to seiza by Nitta-sensei.
• Self-Sacrifice Scheme: After Quintum took back the Great Grandmaster Key from the group, Kaede enters a fight with him. While her offenses and speed would be enough to match him fairly well, she can't deal with his intangibility and simply steals the key from him and sends it back with a clone.
• Sensei-chan: Negi is a rare male version.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Negi is the Sensitive Guy to Kotaro's Manly Man.
• Serial Escalation: 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.
• 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. Or so it seems from the outside, but Negi is actually pissed for entirely different and much more sensible reasons. Negi prefers milk tea and refers to coffee as "muddy water". Fate drinks seven cups of black coffee every day, and occasionally lemon tea.
  • Later justified for Fate in his (extremely sad) backstory.
• Sex Magic: Never outright stated but it is highly implied that to form a Permanent Pactio, sex has to occur.
• Sex Slave: Averted in the Magical World. Slaves may not have many rights but they are protected from being used as sex slaves.
• Sexy Secretary: In Chapter 337, Evangeline tells Chachamaru to become this to Negi as he's working himself to death (apparently enough to literally kill a normal human), even mentioning that she is the only one of the girls who can really help him this way. After confronting him directly about it and telling him that she truly wants to be there to help him, it looks like Chachamaru is in fact going to be Negi's new secretary.
  • Naturally there is also a hilarious daydream before that where Chachamaru envisioned herself working in this role starting with simple help, moving into what might be several years in the future where they've gotten quite familiar, and ending with Negi insisting on winding up Chachamaru to show his thanks for her help...right before Asakura and Negi himself walk up to her. Cue Did I Just Say That Out Loud?.
• Shadow Pin: Kaede's Kage Nui, which she uses by piercing the shadow with her Fuuma Shuriken, though it doesn't work long on rampaging Demon Negi.
• Shadow Walker: Teleportation magic works by sending the user through their element in some way. Dark magic uses shadows (as Evangeline demonstrates at the end of the Kyoto Arc).
• Shark Fin of Doom: Played with when the class takes a trip to an island. Negi is put 'in danger' so Asuna will make up with him after a falling out. The 'sharks' turn out to be Ku Fei and Natsumi in disguise.
• Shattering the Illusion: Yue does this when Negi's party is trapped under Library Island en route to rescue him through the use of clever deduction.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Konoka is just Setsuna's principal as a bodyguard. Nothing else, honest.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Everyone ships Konoka and Setsuna.
  • Jack Rakan ships Chisame/Negi.
  • The ENTIRE Ala Rubra ships Nagi/Arika.
  • Evangeline sometimes ships Negi/Chachamaru and derives endless amusement from poor Chachamaru's plight, though deep down she really is quite supportive.
  • When Yue finally confesses her feelings to Negi, about half of the class is cheering her on.
• Ship Sinking: In chapter 353, Negi tells Asuna that he likes someone. The reaction makes it clear that it's not her. Two chapters later, it's stated Nodoka and Yue were both rejected so that means it wasn't any of them either. There's nothing in the epilogue that indicates any sort of romantic resolution for Negi, so all the other ships are up in the air.
• Ship Tease: So much that it is impossible to make any truly definitive declarations as to which girl will "win". At the end, none of them does, at least not on-screen.
• Shirtless Scene: In-universe, on the poster advertising Negi's and Rakan's fight, and in the fight itself.
• Shock Collar: Applied to the girls under slavery in the magical world.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: When Class 3-A subjects Negi to a maid cafe, his bill grows to about $230 for doing nothing but looking. Being the good guy he is, he still offers to pay it.
• Shoot the Medic First:
  • During the Gateport Incident, Fate uses the confusion caused by nailing Negi through the back with a stone spear to try to petrify Konoka.
  • A variation happens when Fate's subordinate Koyomi targets Ako over other low-tier fighters, although Ako is not a healer but a support-type.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page
• Shower of Angst: Setsuna takes a shower after her humiliating defeat by Tsukiyomi.
• Shower of Awkward:
  • Setsuna and Negi have a brief scuffle in the bath in Kyoto. It ends with Setsuna holding Negi's junk and threatening to crush it, not yet knowing who it is.
  • As a favor to Asuna, Negi tried enchanting her brushes in the shower. Didn't end well.
  • Chisame walks in on Jack bathing. He's unconcerned, she freaks.
• Showgirl Skirt: During the Festival of Ostia, many of these can be seen.
• Shown Their Work: Shown mainly in the compiled volume extras and magazines, which give descriptions on both in-universe physics and real world data, such as the use of surprisingly good Latin... And Greek. And Sanskrit. Other examples are the Hakkyokuken, Negi and Ku-Fei's martial arts style and the physics behind Negi's Raisoku Shundo. And the geography of Mundus Magicus, which appears to be Mars with oceans — which is finally pointed out by one of the characters in a July 2009 installment. And Chisame's battle against a TCP tuna swarm; she repels it setting up a bucket filter, even using the correct sentence to implement it in iptables!
• Show Within a Show: Mahou Shojou Biblion, a Magical Girl Warrior series.
• Shrines and Temples: Mana is ostensibly the Miko of Tatsumiya Shrine, near Mahora.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Dynamis starts going off again after being cut in half Ku Fei pokes his face with her stick.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Konoka does this to Setsuna for their Pactio when the latter was stammering like she usually does around the former.
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: Negi when he asks Asuna if she'd like to see his past before anyone else does on account of being "partners".
• Single-Stroke Battle: A number of these occur in the Tournament Arcs.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Most of the girls who have a crush on Negi fall under this. Negi himself is a very kind, caring, protective boy, and most of the time the girls initially fall for him because they see that kindness as they become friends with him or he helps them out.
• Skilled, but Naive:
  • Negi is an incredibly skilled mage, but he's still a ten-year-old.
  • In another light, Negi is an incredibly skilled (natural) Chick Magnet nicknamed the Thousand Pimpster by some of the fans, but he's still a ten-year-old.
• Skinship Grope: Chichigami-sama is a serial groper. See Psycho Lesbian above.
• Slave Collar: Slaver collars go "zap".
• Sleep Cute:
  • Happened to Ako & Makie, Konoka & Setsuna, and Negi & Asuna. Kazumi & Ayaka, and Haruna & Yue were close...
  • The credits of Negima! (Awww...)
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Chachamaru is an “Average Joe Android." Her grades are fairly low, but she's an excellent hacker.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Because Akamatsu wanted to make an action series and his publishers had other ideas, the first number of chapters are little more than introductions and harem hijinx. Readers familiar with the series will caution new readers that the series doesn't really start to strut its stuff until roughly volume 3, when Evangeline makes her debut.
• Smoke Shield: Happens to Negi as he faces off against Chao.
• The Smurfette Principle: Sextum, the Averruncus of water and the only female averrnucus.
• Sneezing: Negi used to be affected by frequent bouts of clothing shredding sneezes in the early volumes of the manga. The sneezing decreased when the story grew more serious, the Fanservice didn't: Notably, sneezing mostly occurs in the downtime between major, action-filled arcs.
• Sneeze of Doom: Anytime he sneezes, it will blow up several skirts, shred clothes, underwear or both. Later, sneezes accidentally cast the disarmament spell, meaning they can even strip you outright.
• Snot Bubble: Asuna tends to have these when she oversleeps in the two anime.
• Snow Means Death:
  • The destruction of Negi's village.
  • Nearly literal when Eva strands Asuna on a blizzard-wracked mountain as part of her training. Asuna freezes solid while sleeping, then wakes up dead. Ask any doctor. Being Asuna, however, this is not sufficient to keep her down. Evangeline later hits her with an insta-kill freeze spell; once again this is insufficient, although in this case her ability to cancel magic may have helped. She was still stuck in an ice crystal long enough to suffocate.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted, as Negi fights Fate, one of the most powerful ennemies of the series, very early-on in the Kyoto arc; but he doesn't reappear until the Magic World arc, 14 volumes later. The series follows the algorithm otherwise.
• Space Whale: The standard aircraft of the Mundus Magicus, probably because blimps were too mundane. They also come in various other fish-like shapes.
• Sparkling Stream of Tears: During some of the more serious crying moments.
• Spell Construction: As a series centered around magic, this is all over the place. Negi even designs a special spell designed to take down Rakan.
• Spell My Name With An S: Some scanlations use the name "Kamo", though "Chamo" is the more widely used version. The French version writes it "Camo" though.
• Spider Tank: Literally. Lampshaded to hell and back during Mahorafest, when Misora finds the Martian Army stashed in the sewers.
• Spit Take: Asuna tends to get these whenever someone questions her relationship with Negi.
• Spooky Photographs: Sayo shows up in both a photograph and Nodoka's mind reading book, unintentionally looking really scary, even though she just wants to talk to someone.
• Spotting the Thread: Yue figuring out that Takahata was an illusion in Chapter 143.
• Squeaky Eyes: An anime staple.
• Stable Time Loop: The three days of Mahorafest. Done inconsistently, though: Their week-long jump back does end up changing the past, but it ends up being stable due to it being consistent with Chao's timeline. Basically it's a sort of destiny thing, otherwise there would be like a huge paradox, and if they hadn't succeeded, Chao would never come back in time to do it.
• Stealth Pun: Sayo's 'title' of Ala Alba Ghost Member is a pun on her being a ghost and the ghost member of a club being someone who doesn't attend club activities and is only a member on paper.
• Story-Breaker Power: Negi's artifact with Theodora granted him access to all of his ministras artifacts, even Asuna's antimagic sword and Konoka's full recover spell. Naturally, this had to go even though the reasons given are pretty flimsy given the circumstances.
• Strip Poker: A variation: one of the girls in Negi's class asks if the students can play Baseball Janken, a quiz game to help review for the big test. Negi approves. Unfortunately, he's too innocent/uninformed to know that the game's primary rule appears to be "answer a question wrong, lose an article of clothing." The Baka Rangers get stripped to their underwear within four minutes.
• Suggestive Collision: After her feelings for Negi get found out, Yue tries to evade her friends only to run into the man in question and end up straddling him by accident.
• Summoning Ritual: Typically, these invoke Valkyries, Undines or Salamanders, or other types of spirits, for offensive spells.
• Summon Magic: Demons, charms, and even other people can be summoned.
• Super-Deformed: Infrequently, and usually only when characters are under stress. Except Misora. She does it more often.
• "Super Sentai" Stance: As an Affectionate Parody, the Baka Rangers do this. A group called the Mahora Rangers also do this during the School Festival.
• Super Special Move: "Sagitta Magica" is the first attack spell most mages learn to cast, launching one or more bolts of energy (always a prime number) composed of one of the caster's elements. Combat mages normally use it less and less as they become more skilled and learn more powerful magic. However, as Negi develops his unusual fighting style (with tricks like keeping a stock of delayed spells and discharging them through physical attacks) he finds Sagitta Magica useful for its granularity and quick casting time, so he keeps pushing it further; eventually, he can fire off 1001 arrows in a single casting, which compares favorably to war-grade attack magic.
• Super-Speed: Raiten Taisou. Koyomi's artifact ability. Also one of the effects of Ako's artifact.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: Get good enough at martial arts and you too can jump tall buildings, kill demons barehanded or make clones of yourself.
• Superpowered Evil Side: What happens when Negi's Black Magic gets out of his control.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Chachamaru serves tea. She also has a BFG, Kung Fu skills, and transforming blade arms.
• Superpower Lottery: Asuna's Magic Cancel negates any magic/ki attacks, expands an energy sphere that only negates hostile magic, breaks seals and goes through any magic barriers like they weren't there, destroying them in the process. Ensis Exorcizans also has anti-magic capabilities and allows her to send back and/or destroy things/beings summoned by magic by mere proximity. She's also a Kanka user which, call the "the ultimate art" of magic combat with a dozen enhancements, allowing her to fight without draining Negi. Given that a Ministra is to serve as support, it's practically impossible to find someone better suited for the job.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In a flashback, Tsuruko (Motoko's sister from Love Hina) says that contrary to all shonen logic, someone who follows swordsmanship with no thought other than causing chaos and bloodshed really will become incredibly strong. Tsukuyomi flattens Setsuna throughout their entire duel, leaving her beaten on the ground before she gets up and wins... somehow... in a single hit. No explanation is given for why she won.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Both Chisame and Yue express this frequently at the beginning of the series. As the series progresses, these thoughts wane in the latter's mind, but not the former's.
• Surveillance Drone: The Oculus Corvinus is a set of spy satellites. Magic spy satellites? Where do they get these things?
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Nodoka finally gets her courage and confesses to Negi.
  Negi: Nothing's wrong! No one confessed to me or anything!
• The Sweat Drop: Frequently used by characters whenever they're confused or irritated.
• Swirling Dust: There's a swirl of dust kicking up around Negi when he casts a spell in the Title Sequence.
• Synchronization: Haruna's golems have a slight version of this since when one is used to defend from an actual attack, it gives her a Psychic Nosebleed and knocks her out but doesn't pass on the full damage from the attack.
• Take a Third Option:
  • Setsuna is forced by Evangeline in a Secret Test of Character to either be a cold, limitless swordswoman to better serve her princess Konoka or take her happiness beside the girl and live her life in peace without protecting anything. She chooses to have both.
  • After the group realizes that the Asuna with the group might be a fake, Mana attempts to unmask the impostor using an anti-demon bullet reasoning that if Asuna is who she says she is she won't be hurt and if not they can just heal her. Negi, however, doesn't want to see her hurt, impostor or not. Faced with the option of either allowing a spy to run free or shooting her to break her disguise, he instead forms a Pactio with the impostor, with the added side-effect of stripping away the disguise.
  • Both Cosmo Entelecheia (the secret society/terrorist group) and Zazie's sister believe that the inhabitants of Mundus Magicus must either be sealed in Cosmo Entelecheia (the Lotus-Eater Machine) or die/end up in a desperate war with Earth when their home dimension inevitably collapses. Chao Lingshen tried (or claimed to be trying) to reveal magic to the inhabitants of Earth at large so as to make the latter option less disastrous, given that the former apparently didn't happen. Negi, on the other hand, has an idea to prevent the collapse.
• Taken for Granite: Adds to the horror feel of the series, without too much Squick.
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Several times, including a 'defendee-tossing-would-be-defender-out-of-the-way-to-take-the-hit' subversion.
  • Nodoka gets hit by a time displacement bullet that was targeted at Negi since she would be no use for the rest of the fight.
  • When Fate is tossing around petrification darts Sayo blocks one of the ones headed for Nodoka and Asakura, turning her doll body to stone. It apparently can't be exited in this state.
• Talking in Your Sleep: "No way, lady, I can't smoke that..."

• Teacher/Student Romance: Negi constantly worries about maintaining a normal student-teacher relationship with all the girls of his class while several of them keep developing crushes on him.
• The Team: The Kyoto Arc starts it off by combining the original Battle Couple-and-mentor trio of Negi (The Leader), Asuna (The Lancer) and Chamo (The Mentor) with Setsuna (The Big Gal) and Nodoka (Smart Gal). The group evolves over the Mahora Festival to include several others. By the time the Magic World Arc begins, the Team has reached over 10 people in membership.
• Tears from a Stone: When Chachamaru gets upset early on, her eyes begin leaking lens cleaning fluid since she doesn’t have tear ducts. Only that’s what tears ARE, so maybe she does have them?
• Tears of Joy: When The Paru-Sama briefly crashes in the Real World Haruna gets out and has a nice Pet the Dog where she cries happily and hugs Madoka, glad to see the rest of the Mahora girls again.
• Tele-Frag: When Negi's party travels back in time over a week, they end in the sky. They discuss later that it was fortunate they didn't return inside a rock.
• Telepathy: With direct physical contact Negi can read someone's mind and pactio cards allow for two way communication. Rakan also displays the same trick against Fate's ministras.
• Teleportation: Teleportation magic is used quite frequently, and Akira's artifact makes her one of these as long as water is present.
• Telescoping Staff: The Shintetsu Jizaikon. Like the Monkey King's staff, it can grow and shrink at will. Her first use of it is as artillery.
• Tell Me About My Father: What he demands of Rakan if he wins the tournament.
• Tempting Fate: Ayaka says that she has a bad feeling about going to the Magic World and Asuna claims that Ayaka's premonitions are usually wrong. Guess what happens to Ala Alba.
• Terraform: Negi's ultimate plan to save the Magic World as revealed in Chapter 338. His theory: Magic/Mana is fueled by life, and because Mars as it is is a dead world, it's the main reason for the ultimate collapse of the Magic World. By Terraforming Mars and making it Earth-like, the Magic World can eventually thrive there without problems. The immense size and cost of this project is also why Ayaka and Chizuru are now sponsoring it. Also, given how long it would take (Negi estimates between 30 and 100 years), it explains how busy Negi's become and how it could be a "lifetime" project.
• Thanks for the Mammary: All the frickin' time. Poor kid.
• That Didn't Happen: Twice. Both times involve Forceful Kisses from Negi.
• There Are No Therapists:
  • And Negi, from what Nodoka's diary showed us, needs one ''badly''.
  • Subverted early on, however, when Negi gets cheered up by Satsuki during Mahorafest.
• There Is Only One Bed: Weirdly inverted — the girls understand and accept that no matter how many beds are present, Negi is likely to crawl into one a girl is already occupying. (Especially Asuna.) They even turn it into a game of Keep Away on one occasion, fighting over who gets him. The one girl who doesn't want him there, of course. Of course, it's debatable whether she still doesn't...
• 30-Second Blackout: Mahora Academy has these scheduled. Evangeline takes advantage of this to regain her full power briefly.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: As of Chapter 285, this seems to be Fake Eva-chin's preferred method of dealing with Negi's Superpowered Evil Side.
• Throw the Book at Them: Nodoka smacks Haruna with a book when the latter keeps making perverse clones.
• Thundering Herd: A daily occurrence at Mahora as students stampede to their classes. It's a wonder students don't get hurt.
• Tickle Torture: Happens several times (especially to Asuna) to the point of veering into Running Gag territory.
• Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: Depends on the time jump. A short one will put you in that exact spot. A longer one might put you off course, and hopefully not into a rock.
• Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: Chao's "ultimate weapon."
• Time Machine: The Cassiopeia is one, though it can only send its user back a week in time at most. Chao's on the other hand returns her to the future at the conclusion of the Mahorafest arc.
• Time Skip:
  • In chapter 350, five months have passed from the "Get Negi to confess" to "Asuna's 'graduation'" seeing as she's going to be sealed again at Mars.
  • And then again in chapter 352, 130 years have passed, as Asuna wakes up late in a future world to find all of the plans succeeded... and to find that Negi has apparently somehow died, in addition to all of her old classmates with the exceptions of Chao and Eva, who bring Asuna back to the original timeline next chapter.
  • And once again in chapter 354, this time 7 years after the original timeline, by which all the girls of Class 3A have long graduated, as shown by Yue who now works as a private investigator involving magical cases. This also introduces a few new characters, such as Maki's younger brother Kagehisa, who by this time is in high school.
• Time Stands Still: The Casseopeia is capable of doing this if used in a certain way. Koyomi's artifact also has this function.
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: After the Kyoto arc, Negi realizes he isn't improving quickly enough and asks both Ku Fei and Evangeline to begin teaching him. Ku Fei teaches him martial arts and Evangeline gives him a hellish training regimen inside a time distorting alternate dimension, both of which lead to rapid growth. Later, he goes to Jack Rakan for more training and picks up the basics of Magia Erebea, though he's left to work out the details for himself.
• Time Travel: Stable Time Loop as Negi starts running into earlier versions of himself...
• Time-Travel Romance: Defied. While Negima has Time Travel and tries to hit every romance trope possible, Chao becomes rather annoyed when Negi asks her to stay, because it sounds like a romantic proposal, and being his descendant, she would prefer not to engage in such.
• Timey-Wimey Ball:
  • ...until the part where he has to change the future after being sent ahead.
  • And the book Chao left which states Negi's wife is now blank.
  • It was fake.
• Title Drop: The White Wing initially call themselves the Negima Club until the better name is suggested.
• Theme Pairing: In-Universe and a case of Interspecies Romance as well. Fuka and Fumika Narutaki (twin sisters) both marry Hellas princes. Twin princes.
• To Be a Master: Negi wants to be a world-class mage like his father.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Negi gets this from time to time, having to choose when to break laws and when to let things slide, often while under threat. He's fairly flexible, coming down on both sides depending on the severity of the issue.
• Took a Level in Badass: Pretty much automatic if someone gets an artifact. This includes Negi, though overshadowed by the fact that he had just gained about eight others. Maybe, his artifact could be a Game-Breaker because he has so many attendants, he can use all their powers, granted, one at a time, but still it gives him a lot more options than almost anyone. Has been Put on a Bus for a while now.
  • Yue is arguably the queen of this trope, having done this no less than three times. See her character entry for details.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The class actually attacks Negi near the end of the manga in order to find out who he likes including using their pactios against him, removing his allies from the area and attempted to mind control him via Chizuru. Why? Because he was busy saving billions of lives instead of responding to their romantic interest. Notably, a few of the girls like Chisame do have better intentions, but most do not while only Chachamaru, Asuna, Akira and Satsuki are actually decent enough to stand by him.
• Too Much Information: Asuna gets an earful from Makie during the shower scene: "Negi-kun's you-know-what is touching my you-know-where! ... His you-know-what's getting you-know-what-er!"
• Too Slow: When Negi isn't focusing on his fight with Setsuna during the tournament, she gets annoyed and smacks some sense into him after delivering one of these.
• Total Party Kill: Discussed a few times after they entered the magical world arc as with so many other game tropes, especially when they were separated.
• To the Pain: Not only does Haruna tell Nodoka, Yue, and Konoka how she's going to torture them for not sharing about Negi, she has sketches!
• Touch Telepathy: Negi Springfield is shown to have this ability via placing his hand on the forehead in the first chapter, though he can only catch a few thoughts at the most.
  • Jack Rakan later gets to see a Flash Back from a defeated enemy he's holding.
  • This is one of the abilities of Shiori's race, which is why she ended up the Last of Her Kind.
• To Unmasque the World: This is Chao's goal during the Mahorafest arc, and she succeeds in one timeline. Negi does the same thing at the end of the manga, but under slower and more controlled circumstances.
• Tournament Arc: One during the Mahorafest arc and another during the Magic World arc. The former is more extensive than the latter.
• Training from Hell:
  • Lampshaded with Ku Fei's martial arts training, as her trying to create a "quick-powerup" training regimen for Negi based on old manga and kung fu movies fails miserably. She then tries training him conventionally, which works, and teaches him so quickly that she gets depressed about it.
  • Played straight, however, with Evangeline's training methods, which actually seem to work.
• Transformation Trinket: The pactio cards.
• Translation Convention: Scenes that take place in Britain are spoken in Japanese. The girls, even the ordinary ones, also have no trouble in the magical world — averted though, in that it was colonized from Earth (Mundus Vetus, "the Old World"), and two of its major languages are "Anglicum" and "Japonense." Interestingly, though, the writing dotted around the Mundus Magicus suggest that the lingua franca is actually Latin.
• Translation Style Choices: Most fan translations fall into Category 2 or Category 3, while the former official translation was a solid Category 2.
• Trapped in Another World: The entire plot of the Magic World arc.
• Troperiffic: Akamatsu seems to be on a quest to use every trope ever. He is disturbingly close to succeeding.
• Trope Trigger: Just be a girl in front of Negi and tickle his nose by accident...accidental nakedness will soon follow.
• Truce Zone: Megalomesembria's public baths.
• True Companions: Ala Rubra and Ala Alba naturally. By the time the story ends, all of Class 3-A are this with each other. Yes, even Evangeline.
• Truer to the Text: An interesting case. The recent OVA releases have been faithful to the manga, but they're so deep into a story that none of its multiple previous adaptations properly covered, that they won't make much sense to anyone who hasn't read the manga.
• Two Roads Before You: Father's or the Master's?
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Variation: just as Fate finishes explaining the secret of the Magical World to the captive Asuna and Anya, the next chapter begins with Shiori/Luna confirming the same explanation for Negi and company.
  • Negi has just bounced back from being comatose, and punched out Quartum's Entei Shoukan. Fate, still heavily beat up from his earlier fight against the Negi team, beans Quintum in the face with a rock. Both shout out the exact same line on one page after doing so.
  Fate:Those are his comrades. My prey... You have all just woken up...
  Negi:These are my comrades...
  Negi&Fate:I won't allow you to lay a finger on them!
• Two-Teacher School: In the entire Elaborate University High, few teachers are shown other than Negi, Takamichi, Gandolfini, Nitta, Seruhiko, and Shizuna. Justified in that the manga focuses explicitly on the teachers who are also mages.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • The girls are frequently subject to this, but Nodoka gets it more than anyone else. Behind that shy guise beats the fearless heart of a determined girl. There's a reason why Fate considers her such a big threat.
  • This is actually subverted by the first contestant Evangeline faces during the first Tournament Arc. He knows that she looks harmless but he also knows that she made it that far and shouldn't be underestimated. Unfortunately for him it didn't matter.
• Underwater Fart Gag: Kaede does this in one scene in the Natsu OVA where she jokes about being able to do anything in a jacuzzi and takes the opportunity to rip one, much to the disgust of twins Fuka and Fumika who end up running away from the hot tub screaming, believing that she farted. Although it is shortly revealed afterwards that she was having a laugh at their expense.
• Undressing the Unconscious: Graf Wilhelm Josef von Herrmann kidnaps Asuna and puts her to sleep. When she wakes up, she finds herself wearing nothing but erotic lingerie. Graf did this to help create the "mood" of a Damsel in Distress scenario, to Asuna's dismay.
• Unfinished Business: Parodied during her introduction. After learning that all Sayo wanted was to make friends, Negi and Asakura approach her and tell her that she can be friends with them, and she immediately fades from their sight. While Negi tearfully looks up in the sky assuming that she's finally left in peace, Mana, who has a stronger ghost sense than Negi, points out that she's still right there, on the same spot.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: When the girls are not attending class, and wearing the Mahora uniform, they each have fair amount of unique casual clothes. It's obvious reading the manga, that Akamatsu and company spent a lot of time coming up with fun looks for all of the girls.
• The Unmasqued World: Negi and friends pay a brief visit to a "bad" future in which the current antagonist has recently succeeded in revealing the existence of magic, but aside from the excited attentions of some local girls and talk of all mages being recalled to the Magic World, we don't see much of the effects. Magic is revealed for good off-screen during the final timeskip, and more integration between the worlds (including black market trade) is discussed.
• Unnaturally Looping Location: Negi and Asuna find themselves stuck in one of these in the Kyoto arc.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Setsuna and Konoka have a lot of buildup which doesn't really go anywhere even after a pactio kiss until the last few chapters, where it's resolved offscreen. In a fairly ambiguous manner.
• The Unreveal: 355 chapters and we never learn who Negi actually likes or ends up with. He does tell Asuna at one point, but the audience doesn't get to hear it, and her reaction doesn't make it clear who it is- except it doesn't seem to be her. The sequel however does address this plot point.
• Unsound Effect: "Pettan" for Yue and Nodoka.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Both ends of the spectrum are shown in this series. Negi's Magic World saving plan is never discussed in great detail but ultimately succeeds, whereas an entire chapter is dedicated to explaining a plan of attack before it all shortly goes to hell.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Chachamaru uses her booster jets to fetch a little girl's balloon at one point, and nobody comments on it except Asuna and Negi.
  • In the post-action chapter, "Take a Break," nobody points out that Setsuna is carrying a bundle of dragon-murdering spears. Her equipment diminishes with distance to the threat.
• The Unwanted Harem: Double Subversion: the professor surrounded by 31 female students sure looks like a set up for one of these, but, while the students may find Negi cute, they don't want to go out with him. Except, of course, that several of them do develop romantic feelings for Negi, though nowhere near as much as the premise would lead you to believe.
  • Justified in that they develop romantic feelings for him after he shows how mature, badass or awesome he is, and most of them look at him and realize that the ten year old kid will turn into the epitome of sexy and badass in five years tops.
• Upgrade Artifact: Turns out Nodoka is a munchkin. While with a party of adventurers, she picks up a couple pieces of magical gear that allow her to know anyone's name and hear the thoughts written on her mind reading book rather than having to read it.
• Urban Fantasy: Though it's shifted to a more Final Fantasy feel as of the Entry to the Magic World arc.