Know how to pander.

As viewers will come to find, the Negima Spring/Summer OVA is rife with shameless T&A. The box’s front cover of Asuna and Negi falling toward their spring break island is just an innocent prelude. On the back, if you take notice of the screenshots provided, you see a good deal of cleavage, implied solicitations, and concealed nudity amidst the story-related pictures. And don’t let the amusing tack-on to the Special Features listing there fool you—there was no information on Chupacabras on the disc. Once you actually start watching the anime, you find the art style has been bumped up from the tv series. It has sharper animation with bolder colors—presumably because the budget was a little better. The same voice cast returns for both Japanese and English dubs. The English cast is really hit and miss—some voices and actors are very appropriate to their characters, while others (such as Negi’s English voice) are woefully lacking. The DVD menu retains the tradition of simple side art and basic menus, with background music themed to them. It’s a simple package, yet so full of fan service.

Skin and bones.

The Negima Spring/Summer DVD is sadly lacking in the extra content.

You get textless opening and ending songs, as per the standard for anime DVDs these days. There’s also a version of the summer episode with actor commentary. The list of Funimation trailers, however, is refreshingly different in line up (for the most part) from their usual chunk of previews. You get previous for School Rumble, Sasami, Ouran High School Host Club, Rumbling Hearts, Suzuka, Peach Girl, Save Me! Lollipop, and Negima. I actually think the best extra content comes from within the spring episode. Eyecatches of student profiles are littered throughout the episode and give you the students’ names, a picture, and basic info. The only problem with this is that you’re hitting pause every couple of minutes to read. But they really are the best extra content of the disc.

Fan service or bust!

As I’ve already stated, this OVA of Negima has way more fan service than viewers saw in the tv series. It doesn’t have cohesive storyline attachments that can really give newcomers to the series a chance to feel for the characters and their odd relationships. It is, however, the perfect addition to anyone’s collection who already has, or has seen, the Negima TV series and wants that little bit of Akamatsu fan servicing matching that which gave his popular series Love Hina such acclaim. For me, it was amusing and provided fifty minutes of easy entertainment. I’m sure it will give other fans of the series the same feelings, and perhaps we can all hope for a second TV series to come.