A new school uniform, but the socks are a bit loose.

Negima?! Re-imagined & Uncut has an entirely new look compared to the first Negima series. To go along with this re-make, the animation has been sharpened more in terms of style and interesting visual cues have been added, such as the narrator at the beginning and the interesting frame movement used to emphasize scenes. The character and scene designs have also been given a workover, so viewers will be seeing the girls of Mahora in a fresh new way. The overall packaging of the DVD set, however, remains fairly simple—a similarity to its predecessor. The cover of the slim box merely sports Negi, Asuna, Kodoka, Setsuna, and Nodoka. The back of the box sports a nice host of small screenshots and the series synopsis. The slim DVD cases are clear and the jackets have dual covers, all featuring class 3-A members and Negi in various street fashions. The DVD menus rehash the same artwork from the boxes and Negi’s quirky theme music plays while you make your selection from the vision friendly menu.

Baubles and crystal balls.

This DVD set has a fairly decent load of extras for being only two discs. All the extra content is found on the second disc. It comes standard with textless opening and ending songs and a pretty healthy assortment of trailers. The trailers include Burst Angel, Full Metal Panic, Ouran High School Host Club, as well as several others more commonly found on other Funimation DVDs. You also get a version of episode twelve with commentary by the English voice vast, which gan be generally amusing. The most interesting bit of extra content is the “Notes From Class.” This is a recap from certain Japanese pop-culture references littered all throughout the two discs, and it truly is helpful in clarifying some of the confusing uses of proverbs or television references that American viewers might not be familiar with.

The final grade.

What is most interesting about this series is that it is a complete re-telling of the original Negima using the same characters and setting. The blessing, for some, will be that a lot of Ken Akamatsu’s perverse implications have been stricken from the record for this series. It’s more visually engaging than the original, although the new artistic stylings and character designs do take a little getting use to. But overall, Negima?! Re-imagined & Uncut surpasses its predecessor in terms of a more cohesive story. You don’t spend half the series just being introduced to the class and everything moves along steadily and quickly. There’s also a good deal of action to be found, more so than before. This series will be as enjoyable for fans of the original series as it will be for viewers who’ve never heard of the pint-sized wizard-to-be (Harry Potter clone). It’s got a lot of comedy, a good amount of action, and, yes, a wealth of cute girls to look at. But sorry, as I said, fan service is next to nonexistent unless done unwittingly as part of a nonsexual joke. Still, Negima?! Re-imagined is totally worth the money and time to see.