Negima 19
さよちゃん可愛いよ、さよちゃん！！
Sayo's cute, Sayo!!
This time we're introduced to a member of class 2-A who's always been there, but not quite there. Sayo is a ghost. And no one can see her... She's been a ghost for 60 years, and she's confined to the school area just like Eva is so she can't go anywhere. She doesn't really remember how she became a ghost or anything... However, despite all that she still goes to class like everybody else, and goes to after-school activities and such.
Meanwhile... the headmaster hears a report from Takamichi about the current state of Kyoto. Seems the Kansai Magic Association is causing trouble there, so perhaps they should change the destination of the school trip. However, if Negi comes along he could protect the group since he's a magician.
Sayo comes up when Kazumi notices her name on the class roll. Written below her picture is "1940~" so Kazumi heads off to the library to do some research on that time. She can't find anything on Google Bagle so it's to the books. She finds a poem written by Sayo. In a poem a kind of flower is mentioned, the farfugium japonicum, the "leopard plant". Sayo remembers she had a little sister who planted those while they both waited for their mother to come back....
Kazumi remembers a place where those flowers bloom and runs off, with Sayo following. There, Sayo sees her sister's writing.. "Please let mother and onee-chan come back"... she cries, and while she cries Kazumi sees her. She starts to take out her camera, but stops... at school the next day, while Negi assigns groups for the school trip to Kyoto. Kazumi stands up and says he's left someone out, Sayo. In the back, Eva chants a spell and suddenly Sayo's visible to everyone. Kazumi explains the situation, that Sayo's a good ghost and all. Everybody comes to greet her and invite her to do various things. Looks like she's finally got some friends :)
One word: wow. Akamatsu-sensei was right, things did get that much better (If only it had been this way from the beginning!) I was extremely impressed by how Sayo's story was told this time (it is different than how it was told in the manga, fyi). It got to me a bit, it was done that well ;) And there was absolutely nothing to complain about as far as animation or art or anything. If things keep up like this 'til the end then I'll be quite satisfied :)
I love this revision of Sayo's tale. It is of a deeper depth than that of the manga. The cinematic effects in this episode is remarkable as well as the narration.
When Sayo, colored in high gamma and grayscale suddenly increased in contrast and vibrance during the first flashback (the one with the Japanese flags shown as the last image), and swiftly turns back to grayscale, the visual impact is instant and abrupt.
The scenes with the flower strucks an emotional chord for me. Alot of things flood back to me actually. This is a very poignant piece and I have to say one of the best moments in Negima. Its almost haunting for me personally. There's slight reminiscence to Grave of the Filefiles with the umbrella, Sayo's sister and the allusion to nature but not to the point of flat-out copying.
Leaving Sayo's cause of death unanswered as it is with manga is a good move. Can't wait to find out more about her life during the tumultuous days of 1930's - 40's.
Is Sayo related to the headmaster of Mahora Gakuen? Near the end of this ep, he is reciting Sayo's poem (?), and says something about a girl he liked long ago, and a farfugium japonicum flower pot is in his table.
Could it be that headmaster is related to the Aizaka family? That means a relation to Sayo and Konoka, which somehow makes sense because the 1940 Sayo looks oh too similar to Konoka.
Was it just me or was the music also appreciably better this episode? It really jumped out at me in a few scenes. And in other good news, finally on to Kyoto. :D
HAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-Ha you eye-candy addicts.
You know they'd save the best for last.
It's a shame that Zazie and Satsuki didn't get to speak throughout the episodes. I hope we get to focus on them in the coming episodes.
I'm also hoping ofr 26 more episodes of Negima.
Bluemist: The Headmaster is definitely related to Konoka, he's her grandfather (which is established very early on in the Manga and Anime both, although the Anime makes it less obvious than the Manga does.)
Sayo certainly looked a LOT like Konoka when she was living, I caught that too and also am wondering why. If it wasn't just an anime original plot element I'd say it's significant. So far it seems that none of the girls in the class are there without purpose, all seem to serve to help Negi grow as a mage in some way or another. :)
I just finished watching this episode. I'm not actually following Negima but I decided to watch this episode because I thought it was the only one worth watching (based on your review). I was right. I really liked this episode a lot.
It's true that they did not explicitly mention the cause of Sayo's death but I think that was implicitly mentioned during the episode. My guess is that her cause of death is one of two possibilities:
1) She was hit by lightning while trying to protect her sister's garden
2) She was killed during the allied bombing of Japan in WWII.
Finally watched this (as I can't pick up much Japanese, I'm not watching it raw) and wow...much more powerful than Sayo-chan's story in the manga, it was hard to watch that scene in the flower garden without choking up, when Sayo sees that her imouto added "onee-san" to her wish on the brick.
I really wish the whole series had been done this well. As it is, when this comes out in R1, I'll be tempted to buy just this volume, for Sayo-chan's story alone.
I think with the umbrella flying off as the camera panned away, it's most likely she was hit by lightning...1940 would be too early for US B-29s to have been responsible.
Well, to be fair, Sayoko hasn't really yet HAD a story in the manga - her chapter mostly consisted of her talking about her life as a ghost, especially since she doesn't (apparently) remember much of her past or how she died, to judge from what comments she made to Kazumi later on during the start of the Festival Arc. It was there, in the manga, mostly to get people interacting with her - Kazumi primarily - and maybe set up a crush for later use.
Here, in the anime, it was.. well, it told background story, which hinted at why she remained in this world (to take care of the flowers, and perhaps the rest of the grounds by extension)... and that the Headmaster's been at Mahora a long, long time. And, from what I saw on the AnCo translation, it looked like the girl he 'liked' was someone who he had a crush on, rather than someone who he was related to, at least to judge by the wistful way he was talking.
Yup, Johnny Come Lately, I am.