Mahou Sensei Negima/Tropes A-L

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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.
    • Also, there was apparently supposed to be a story during Christmas following the Magical World arc, where Fuuka and Fumika would meet two animals who turned out to be magic princes in disguise that the two would eventually marry. Also, Fuuka and Fumika would have made their Pactios with Negi during this time. The events did happen and are still mentioned, but were never actually shown.
    • Also, saving Nagi from the Lifemaker. Nagi appears alive and well in the final chapter, and it is mentioned that he was saved from the Lifemaker through the effort of Negi and his 31 students, and healed by Konoka's magic. However, like with the Chrismas story about Fuuka and Fumika, it is mentioned but never shown.
    • Both of the above seem to be the result of Ken Akamatsu being in a rush to finish the manga for whatever reason.
  • Abridged Series: Look no further.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Setsuna slices a ball of iron in half with her sword and doesn't even notice.
  • Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: While this doesn't occur much (likely due to the fact that Negi is only ten), in one story arc where Negi gets aged up to 15, he suffers a few smacks in the face. Anya, his best friend from home, is also able to beat him up as much as she wants since they're the same age.
  • Academy of Adventure: Mahora.
  • Accidental Pervert: Happens often to Negi. A good example is chapter 251, where Negi accidentally destroys the clothes of all the girls in the area because he's too powerful.
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: Chachamaru in chapter 337, by way of Fantastic Arousal.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Has its own page.
  • 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) (Magical Teacher Negima). Although the protagonist's name is "Negi", not "Negima", the "ma" is there to make a pun regarding a dish involving green onions by the name of negimaki[1]...
  • 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 outfits that are not suitable for a (seemingly) ten-year-old girl.
  • Aggressive Negotiations: Negi and Fate almost invoke this, over whether or not tea or coffee is better. They end up fighting anyway.
  • 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.
  • Alchemy Is Magic: Alchemy has shown up in Negima—specifically, the back of volume 21 has about two pages of text describing the history of alchemy and its relationship to "ixir", as it's called in the Magical World.
  • All Part of the Show: The Mahora festival, when several thousand 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. This was used 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. The later anime replicate this by usually having the characters say the Japanese reading while the foreign pronunciation is said simultaneously in an echoey and quieter back track.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • And I Must Scream: The fate of nearly all the "puppets" of the old Cosmo Entelechia. Since they keep regenerating and protected by powerful barriers, Eva froze everything else around them, keeping them trapped but conscious for all eternity.
  • Anticlimax Boss: An Eldritch Abomination spends half a dozen chapters of the Cosmo Entelecheia Attack arc breaking warships, punching dragons into nonexistence, and presumably participating in various acts of terror while off-panel, all while shrugging off every magical attack thrown at it. Then, Chachamaru breaks out a Kill Sat for a One-Hit Kill.
    • Quartum, Quintum, and Sextum are all apparently as powerful as long-standing badass Fate... All three are taken out moments after waking up. Easily. Hell, Negi managed to defeat Sextum with just one finger.
      • The Lifemaker goes out quite quickly; as soon as Asuna is awoken from the ritual, she and Negi kick his ass in a matter of pages.
  • Another Dimension (Mundus Magicus is technically an alternate plane of reality anchored to and templated on Mars.)
    • Jack Rakan breaks out of an infinite trap dimension. When asked how, he replies he "just kinda went for it."
  • Arc Number: Prime numbers seem to be very important to magic, especially when it comes to the "arrows of whatever." Those are usually cast as prime numbers (or 1). In particular 67[2] and 31[3] tend to pop up regularly.
  • 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.
    • Variations on "Always keep moving forward" also tend to crop up in plot-important moments.
  • 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".
  • Ass Shove: A Running Gag is Chizuru's attempts to test out a folk remedy for fevers, which involves shoving a spring onion up the sick person's ass.[4] Kotaro and Natsumi are understandably terrified of her. She finally gets to do it in chapter 348. This doubles as a Stealth Pun since a spring onion in Japanese is "Negi"
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Rakan has a tendency to do this, but unlike some characters who use this trope, he generally tends to get away with it sheerly due to his power. This is also how Fate's minions usually operate, and it hasn't gone too well.
  • Author Appeal: Ken Akamatsu is really into Cosplay, and rarely passes up opportunities to dress the characters in various costumes.
  • 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?"
  • Babies Ever After: As of chapter 355, Fuuka and Fumika were one of the first from Class 3-A to marry, having married twin boys, and both had one daughter each. Chizuru, running a day care herself, seems to love spoiling them.
  • Badass Crew:
    • The Ala Rubra. It did contain the World's Strongest Man and his rival. Ala Alba also becomes one of these.
    • Ala Alba qualifies as well, as evidenced during the governor's ball, among many other occasions.
  • Badass Family: Negi, Nagi, Chao, Arika and Asuna. Some of them benefit from Royal Blood magic. If we really stretch, Chachamaru is also a part, given that she considers Chao to be her parent.
    • Also apparently Lifemaker. Which would make Fate also a member in a sense since the Lifemaker created him
  • Badass Normal: Surprisingly enough Nagi qualifies, saving Arika from a pit full of monsters without being able to use his magic.
    • 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, though Mana 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. Mana turns out to be totally wrong; the disaster is the complete collapse of the Magic World.
  • Baka: The Baka Rangers, although only one of them truly fits the criteria, and the rest are generally Book Dumb or Brilliant but Lazy.
  • Balloon Belly: The result of Makie "helping" Negi prepare for Evangeline's training.
  • Ballroom Blitz: When Cosmo Entelecheia crashes the Governor's Ball.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Nipples an other anatomical details are never shown. This is lampshaded in Volume 0.
  • 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 Harem: Over 20 women, practically all of whom have become Little Miss Badasses.
  • Battle in the Rain: Negi vs. Wilhelm.
  • Battle Royale With Cheese: After Negi and Asuna defeat the Lifemaker, Asuna uses the Code bring back everyone erased by Cosmo Entelecheia.
  • Beach Episode: The Spring OVA.
  • Beam-O-War: Negi vs. Eva; later Negi vs. Chao as well.
    • Played with in the Negi vs Chao battle. One would expect the battle to be won by overwhelming power and Heroic Resolve, but here it's decided by superior battle experience. While Chao's spell was more powerful than the one Negi used, Negi's spell had a shorter incantation and covered about two-thirds of the distance between him and Chao before she was able to launch her attack, immediately putting her on the defensive and critically over-straining her artificial magical abilities.)
    • Subverted in Negi vs. Rakan: Negi pours all of his magical energy into one gigantic attack and taunts his opponent into doing the same for a contest of strength. Instead of launching his attack, Negi absorbs both his own spell and his opponent's blast and uses the assimilated power to wale on Rakan.
  • Berserk Button: Do not hurt or even talk about hurting Konoka in front of Setsuna, don't threaten any of Negi's students while he's around, and if Evangeline is around, just let Negi beat you because if you hurt him she WILL kick your ass.
  • Beyond the Impossible:
    • After Rakan died, he came back to life through his fighting spirit. Then he did more or less the same thing again after he'd been killed a second time.
    • 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 Battleship Slicing Sword. No prizes for guessing what he uses it for.
    • Less-straight examples of the trope: Kaede's Fuuma 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.
    • Negi can throw Big Freakin Lightning Spears at people now.
  • Big Bra to Fill: The live action adaptation didn't quite get some of the girls' proportions 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.
    • Kotaro saving Negi's ass near the end of the Festival Arc.
    • Humorous variation: Negi getting saved by Nitta-sensei when the class is trying to get him to cosplay.
    • Chapter 331: Albireo Imma, Eishun Konoe, the Principal, Takahata, Kurt Godel, and JACK RAKAN all show up alongside Eva for a High Noon style showdown with the Big Bad's minions.
    • Chapter 334: Asuna herself, rescuing Negi from the Lifemaker.
    • Chapter 342: Negi fights Evangeline, both using Magia Erebea. Negi's about to receive the final blow that will knock him straight out. Problem is, Asuna's fan kinda screws up Evangeline's plans.
  • 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.
    • The one guy no one expected was Dynamis himself.
  • Biting the Handkerchief
  • Black Comedy Rape: 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.)
  • 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 obvious reasons.
    • When Negi accidentally overpowers it with black magic in the Magic World, it nudifies everyone in the vicinity.
  • Blatant Lies:
  • Bloodless Carnage: The series generally adhered to this until the beginning of the Magic World arc. Negi gets impaled by a stone spear, complete with enormous blood loss and the obligatory Blood From the Mouth.
  • Blood Oath: Implied[5] to be the preferred way of forming pactios when kissing would be...unpleasant.
  • Blue with Shock: Happens quite often.
  • Boarding School: Mahora.
  • Boss Subtitles: Most of the characters get one in chapter 300, see trivia page
  • 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.
  • Brick Joke: Rakan creates the Eternal Negi Fever as a (ridiculously over-the-top) finishing move for Negi to use. Guess who ends up using it during their fight.
  • 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 Skill Magister (it's possible that it's actually a deformation of Negi's, even an unintentional one)
    • Collet Farandole: Anet Ti Net Garnet
    • Emily Sevensheep: Tarot Carrot Charlotte
    • Evangeline Athanasia Katherine "Kitty" McDowell: Lic Lac La Lac Lilac
    • Fate Averruncus: Vishtal Rishtal Vangeit
    • Mei Sakura: Maple Naple á la Mode
    • Megumi "Nutmeg" Natsume: Rap Tjap La Tjap Ragpur
    • Negi Springfield: Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister
    • Yue Ayase: Vor So Kratika Socratica
    • Nagi "Thousand Master" Springfield: Man Man Terro Terro
  • Cards of Power: The Pactio Cards provide the recipient with personality-based magical powers, which given the Magister's power, can actually be pretty powerful themselves. Anything from a Magical Computer to a giant weaponized paper fan to a mind-reading book are possible.
  • Cash Cow Franchise: With all the spin-offs and merchandise, this series is definitely heading this way.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Parodied by Rakan, including using an attack, named Eternal Negi Fever, on Negi. An attack which he originally developed as a finishing move for Negi and the "For the hell of it Right-Hand Punch".
    • 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.
    • There was also the fighter in the Mahora Tournament that specifically asked if this was okay.
    • Most recent one of note? STUPID DAD PUNCH!!!
  • Call on Me: Chisame's rescue from 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...
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Everyone to Negi's "Is this my mother?" question. Until Rakan just tosses the answer out there with very little build up.
  • Cassandra Truth: Chao's "joke". She even repeats it a few times.
    • Also, Negi's attempts to warn everyone of the impending Festival disaster.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: In chapter 337, Eva walks in on Chachamaru winding herself up while calling out Negi's name.
  • Censor Steam: Occasionally used instead of Barbie Doll Anatomy.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Intentionally, as a Writer Revolt.
  • Chain of Command: Slaver collars go "zap".
  • Character-Magnetic Team: At this point, more than half of the class is part of Negi's unofficial 'team'.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: The class roster. Both the the students' clubs (everything from News Club to Quantum Physics Research Society) and Takamichi's notes, such as the one that singles out Eva as a bigger problem than Negi may be able to handle on his own.
  • Cherry Blossoms: Even though it's not a cherry tree... similarly, rose blossom petals are used for a similar effect in an imaginary moment.
  • Chunky Updraft: Used regularly whenever a Battle Aura shows up.
  • Chunky Salsa Rule: Invoked by Konoka, who said that she can heal anything with her artifact so long as their heads doesn't get splattered "Like a tomato!"
  • Clark Kenting: Justified, as they use magic glasses.
  • Class Is in Room X-01: They're in class 2-A, then move to class 3-A early on.
  • 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 this trope. Negi casts it by accident whenever he sneezes, and a magical all-girls school that features later uses it in an athletic broom contest. It's technical use is to disarm opponents, but it seems to have a very vague idea of what constitutes a "weapon".
    • 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 when she moves.
    • Asuna eventually becomes so used to being a victim of this trope she's built up an immunity to Defeat by Modesty.
    • 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 due to the fact that only Yue's clothes disintegrate while Emily herself disappears.
  • Combat Tentacles: Kagetarou
  • Coming of Age Story: It follows Negi as he starts to make the transition from boy to man.
  • Compressed Adaptation: Pretty much any of the adaptations that aren't alternate continuities.
  • 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.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Both played straight and inverted.
  • Continuity Cameo: Chizuru's Apron in Natsu OVA.
  • Continuity Lock Out: The Ala Alba and Another World animated adaptations assume that viewers have read the first 23+ volumes of the manga, as they were released alongside them. Anyone watching just the anime would be quite confused.
  • Conveniently Coherent Thoughts: Averted with Nodoka - when she reads minds with her artifact she has to ask what she wants to know to cause them to think about it.
  • Conveniently Seated: Pretty much all the students in Negi's class.
  • Converting for Love: Given some recent developments involving Negi inadvertently romancing one of Fate's most trusted subordinates out of her disguise against her will and creating a pactio with her at the same time, you can bet we'll be seeing more of this. Add the fact that her perfect disguise seems to drop only during times of intense emotion felt on her part, such as love, and it's as good as done.
  • Cooking Duel: The pillow fight during the Kyoto Arc.
  • 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, a mousy Shrinking Violet who keeps surprising everyone in the cast with her boldness, both as an adventurer and in romance. For example, at one point she discovers that she's stuck in a Love Triangle with her teacher and her best friend Yue. The first solution she comes up with? Have a threesome.
    • A more subtle example is Fate. Yes, THAT Fate. He will dress up his Amazon Brigade in Meido clothes whenever he can (and does the same to Anya at some point), and when he captures Asuna, he puts her in a really skimpy gown.
    • Oh, Setsuna Sakurazaki. Her "perfect world" as described by then Rainyday sisters's Lotus Eater Machine includes her crush and charge Konoka in a Naked Apron...
    • Also Kaede. Her pactio kiss involves a look that can best be described as predatory. Then she held that kiss for a few panels and giving Negi a rather deliberate Marshmallow Hell immediately afterward.
  • Coy Girlish Flirt Pose: Pops up all over the place.
  • Crack Pairing: The Where Are They Now? Epilogue very strongly implies that Hakase eventually marries Kurt Godel.
  • Cranial Eruption: Whenever someone gets a non-serious head injury.
  • Creepy Doll: Evangeline has quite a few stacked around in her house. And then there's Chachazero.
  • Crossdresser: Negi at two points. Setsuna and Kaede at another.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Rina Satou in the Japanese version.
  • Cross-Popping Veins: Asuna's Expressive Hair forms into this at one point.
  • Crossover: References to Love Hina and AI Love You.
  • Crystal Ball: Anya uses one.
  • 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. Unless you're Jack Rakan, in which case you can just conjure up metal replacement limbs when your own get erased. And write yourself back into existence through sheer force of will.
    • Kaede and Setsuna get curb stomped facing a Super-Powered Evil Side Negi. Of course, this is for Negi's training purposes but even without holding back, they still get demolished by him.
    • Kaede, Setsuna, and Mana all get their butts kicked by Poyo, of all people.
    • And this seems to be the norm for Fate's minions, who, along with the aforementioned incident with Rakan, suffer setback after setback during their battle with Negi's group -- Koyomi's streak of bad luck continued after Ako and Yuuna double-teamed her, Homura's powers were almost entirely sealed, and Tamaki transforming into a dragon didn't help her any.
    • Negi delivers an epic one to Quartum in Chapter 315, culminating in tearing Quartum in half.
    • Chapter 330: Revived Cosmo Entelechia (all 3 generations, minus Fate/Tertium) delivers one to Negi, Fate and Ala Alba.
    • Eva vs pretty much anyone. Unless she decided to go easy on you to let you stand a chance. Chapter 333 Eva oneshots the entire Cosmo Entelechia minus the Lifemaker
    • Colonel Sanders vs. Kotaro. Despite his best effort, Kotaro isn't able to inflict any damage to his opponent whatsoever. Although the reason Kotaro wasn't able to inflict any damage despite landing hits was because Colonel Sanders was cheating. He wasn't actually in the ring, he was using split body technique from outside the ring and replacing his double whenever it got injured. Which had the bonus of effectively working as a Teleport Spam, since the doubles could appear wherever in the ring and the one it was replacing vanished as it appeared. That said, with as much of a power difference as there was between Colonel Sanders and Kotaro, Colonel Sanders probably could have curb stomped him even if he hadn't been cheating.
  • Cute Kitten: Except when 1001 of them gang up on you.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Negi, to many, many people.
  • 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.)
  • Dangerously-Short Skirt: Plenty of the resident Action Girls wear one, or have worn one.
  • Dark Fic: Negimaru.
  • 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 murdering the wrong person for revenge.
  • Darkest Hour: Well, see above. Most of what happened/is now happening after the Governor's ball trumps their previous predicament in awfulness.
    • To see how bad it's gotten since then, see Total Party Kill. It doesn't get much darker an hour than that.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Varies, but the few right bastards have all been humans with no explicit connection to darkness.
    • Shadow magic is the manipulation of shadows, no relationship to alignment. The three prominent users shown so far have included an antagonist that quickly became the protagonist's best friend, a friendly character mostly known for ending up embarrassedly disrobed and a Punch Clock Villain bounty hunter who was simply doing his job.
      • Also, Kagetarou, who looks like a villain at first but turns out to be Jack Rakan's buddy. Of course, now we have a shadow-user named Dynamis in Fate's group, and this new guy is quite evil, erasing people from existence and making it quite clear that he intends to kill Nodoka, even using her as a shield and coming close to snapping her neck before Setsuna saves her by hacking off his right hand.[6] Then there's the whole summoning shadow demons thing he does, including a huge one.
    • The demons showcased so far have all been perfectly amicable, at worst neutral characters who just happened to be hired by the enemy team and don't seem very pleased at having to cause serious damage. Justified in that the "Demons" are a race of the Magical World. The more demonic looking ones are a different kind of demons. The demons summoned in the Kyoto arc are oni. Setsuna and Kotarou are half-Youkai (Han'you). Demons like Mana and Poyo are a different kind as well.
    • Magia Erebea is... pushing it. It is not explicitly evil, but not the kind of power expected from a paragon of virtue either.
  • 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.
    • Lampshaded when Negi (in his bishonen form) tells Ako that `everyone's the main character in their own life'.
  • Death Of A Thousand And One 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 by Modesty: Rakan's favourite method of dealing with cute female enemies.
  • 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.
    • Recently Negi declared he wants to become Fate's friend. Given the characters you can guess how this "befriending" is going to happen.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: Slavery is a state-sanctioned practice and completely normal in Mundus Magicus. Seeing how they use Latin as (one of) their main language and that the political powers date back to Middle Ages if not Ancient Rome, this is to be expected. The current slave system was created by Queen Arika to deal with the thousands of Ostia's homeless after the destruction of their country. Slaves can buy their freedom and are protected against "excessive mistreatment", which the Slave Collar reports automatically, but the electrifying feature of the Slave Collar doesn't seem to fall under "excessive mistreatment" until the heroes beat the the crap beat out of a guy who did it and told him that he was going too far. There might have also been other, off-screen punishments, it was explicitly stated that it's only supposed to be used if a slave revolts or a similar extreme scenario scenario.
  • Demon Slaying: The Shinmei-ryu's speciality
  • Departure Means Death: Magic World natives cannot survive on Earth, so when the magic world goes they'll go with it. Albireo may be an exception, but he might just be a book instead.
  • Designated Girl Fight: Odd gender inversion: despite the series having far more women than men, the majority of Negi's opponents have been male. At this point, the only named male characters he hasn't fought are Eishun, Johnny, Filius Zect and some of the magic teachers.
  • 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.
    • Played for laughs after Rakan's hilarious first failed attempt to teach Negi Magia Erebea. "I'M GONNA DIE."
    • Rakan MADE this happen, purposely depressing the crap out of negi after his "Make a bad face and punch!" initial plan doesn't work. Also those were meant to be strong punches, Rakan told him to do 1000, which even for normal people would be quite tiring.
  • 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 coffee 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..."
    • Heck, Nodoka gets this from herself.
  • 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.
    • The most blatant occurence of this is any time between Negi and Chachamaru wherein Negi...turns her crank. Akamatsu couldn't have been more obvious if he'd included a subtitle saying, "OMGSEXLOL!"
  • Doing It for the Art: The tankobon extras reveal just how much effort Akamatsu-sensei and his team put into this manga.
  • Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: Every song to date.
  • Doomed Hometown: Negi's petrified hometown.
  • Double Entendre: The word "Partner" being the biggest one.
  • Dramatic Wind
  • Drool Hello: Twice, with the same occidental dragon in the underground beneath Mahora.
  • Drop the Washtub: Characters can make a washtub fall on others' heads by casting it as a spell.
  • Drum Bathing: Kaede and Negi share a barrel in an early chapter.
  • Dude, She's 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. All also have...)
  • 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".
  • Elaborate University High: Taken Up to Eleven, Mahora Academy encompasses a fair sized city.
  • 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.
    • Appropriately, this one also gets curb-stomped, this one by Chachamaru's Kill Sat Artifact.
  • Elemental Baggage: Subverted in the literal sense, but invoked by Evangeline and Chao's high-level elemental spells. The supplementary materials at the back of the tankobon explain that Kosmic Katastrophe breaks the Laws of Thermodynamics, and that freeze spells are considered higher-level than fire spells because they break more laws.
  • Elemental Shapeshifter: Negi has Raiten Taisou and Raiten Sousou, and Homura can transform into a fire spirit. Recently revealed Quintum, the Averruncus of Wind has an ability similar to Negi's transformation.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: Poor Negi...
  • Elevator School: Mahora Academy.
  • Ending Theme
  • Environmental Symbolism
  • Even the Guys Want Him: At this point, Negi's harem consists of a whole lot of girls...and Fate. (If that's what he meant by 'he already belongs to me,' anyway...)
  • Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs: A lot of examples here. Asakura has a hair clip, and whatever holds her hair up in that pineapple shape. Asuna has her trademark hair-bells. Yue has baubles at the ends of her braids. Ku Fei has those things giving her hair those... spike...things. A form of cloth binding is used in the hair of Chao, Hakase, the Narutaki twins, and Mana. Even Negi has his hair bound back into a ponytail.
    • Something this troper found funny happens at the climax of Negi versus Fate, after Negi has truly accepted the darkness of Magia Erebra. Negi goes up to where Fate is and deactivates his Raiten Taisou. What's funny is that amongst the seriousness of the situation, his hairband comes out of nowhere and magically ties up his hair as he walks towards Fate (as his hair in lightning form is long and flowing).
  • Everybody Remembers the Stripper: In-Universe example, 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.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave: Asuna experiences this in chapter 352. Though to be fair she is 130 years in the future.
  • Everyone Is a Super: At least, in the magic world, magic is, understandably, very common, and nobody bats an eye at its use.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Especially sharks that know Kenpo.
  • Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Only the fake, robotic ones, though. To his dismay, Negi's time machine won't take him back that far.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses
  • Lava Adds Awesome: The Ultimate Spell of Earth element wouldn't be awesome enough without it.
  • Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Chisame learns the hard way just how squishy things get.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears: On the contrary; Chief Mama one of the nicest people in Mundus Magicus... so long as you're on her good side.
  • Everything's 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: Almost a beneficial 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.
    • Also the reason for the abrupt ending of the manga. The publishing company of Negima were attempting to steal the copyright to Negima from Ken Akamatsu. Full story can be read here.
  • Exploding Calendar
  • Expy: A few of the girls are based off of the characters from Love Hina: Asuna, Chisame, Nodoka, Ku Fei, Setsuna, Asakura, Akira, Chizuru, and possibly Madoka.
  • Exposition of Immortality: Evangeline reminisces about having known Negis' father and about her own, lengthy existence.
  • 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
  • Extremely Short Timespan: The Festival arc spanned only 3 days June 20–22, 2003 but took up half the manga up to that point—9 volumes.
  • Eyecatch
  • Face Fault
  • False Camera Effects: Fish Eye Lens
  • Fan Service: Any excuse to get the characters naked, up to clothes-destroying sneezes, lasers, and octopodes.
  • Fantastic Arousal: Setsuna's wings seem to be very sensitive, and poor Chachamaru can't seem to impress on Negi to wind her up slowly and gently.
    • Her own damn fault in that she keeps telling him that it feels good, Negi, being only ten, thinks Good Feels Good, so more is naturally better. Chachamaru ends up talking in a wingdings-like font.
  • Fantastic Nuke
  • Fantastic Racism: Against woodnymphs and other demihumans by humans, who also had no problem cutting horns off them(a bit like real life, the horns, not hunting humans) and selling young girls into slavery.
  • Fantastic Time Management - Negi uses Time Travel and Year Outside, Hour Inside techniques to get more things done during the Mahora Festival and also to have more time to train as well as do his job as a teacher.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Ninjas, robots, ghosts, vampires, nuns, priestesses, aliens, half-demons, mad scientists, hackers, Time Travelers...
    • And that's just some of the girls in Negi's class.
      • Mana even lampshades it at one point, having figured that Zazie Rainyday couldn't be normal, simply because hardly anybody in the class was.
      • Let's put it this way: Even the normal kids Makie end up either with supernatural powers, or are so normal Makie they're immune to reality warping effects because they have no worries, Makie again.
  • Fighting a Shadow
  • Finger-Snap Lighter
  • First Kiss: A few of them, though not the entire class, nor all fifteen of the girls Negi pactioed with
  • First-Name Basis: In a similar vein, Konoka spends most of her time trying to get Setsuna to call her 'Kono-chan' rather than 'Ojou-sama'. It doesn't work.
  • 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.
    • The most hilarious take on this trope is when Rakan watches Homura's Flash Back.
  • 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.
  • Foe Yay: Fate and Negi, dear god. Especially after chapter 336.
    • As far as Fate's concerned, Negi "belongs to" him and he even rebuffs the potential love interests' plans to confess with that very excuse. Said love interests hilariously decide Fate to be one of their biggest rivals for Negi's attention. They're right.
  • Foreshadowing
  • Forgotten Phlebotinum: The Pactio cards ability to summon the partner to the master, no matter where they are. You'd think that would ruin the current kidnapping plot quite nicely.
  • For Science!: Hakase's justification for peeking into Chachamaru's 'treasured images' folder. Never mind that this effectively meant probing Chachamaru's mind against her will, on the subject of her crush, no less.
  • 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: Motsu is a frog.
  • Full-Frontal Assault
  • Fun Size: Both Sayo and Setsuna have an absolutely adorable smaller form. Then there's Chachazero, who despite being psychotic can be quite cute.
  • Funbag Airbag
  • Functional Magic
  • Furo Scene: Quite a few, starting with a furo the size of a swimming pool.
  • Gadget Watches: Cassiopeia and Athena.
  • Gambit Pileup: We still don't see it yet but from the looks of things, there's a ton of key players that are in here. Ala Alba (Negi's group) may turn out to be Unwitting Pawns or the Spanner in the Works.
    • They turn out to be neither, and go about their own agenda, despite attempts by multiple groups.
  • Gainax Ending: Sort of in the manga.
  • Gecko Ending: In addition to the sudden and Mood Whiplash-laden ending to the original anime, the manga itself concluded with rushed sequence that felt more like a Where Are They Now? Epilogue than an ending. Many dangling threads were indeed tied up, but far from satisfactorily, and the central driver for much of the action—Negi's search for his father—is resolved off-screen, between chapters and never explained.
  • Genre Savvy:
    • Chisame and Haruna both fit this trope, though Chisame expresses it more, predicting the paths of various other characters in regards to love with Negi.
    • A lot of characters dabble in this on occasion whenever there's talk of their roles as main and side characters.
  • Genre Shift: Trope picture. 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.
    • After the Magical World arc, it seems to have gotten back to the old hijinks, but these are probably just a few Breather Episodes before the intensity comes back..
  • Geometric Magic: Required for pactio.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Asuna to Setsuna, Nodoka to Yue, Yue to Negi, Asuna to Negi, Chisame to Negi, Nagi to Arika twice, and Jack to Negi.
  • 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..."
    • In the very first episode of the English dub, in the commotion of a fight between Asuna and Ayaka you can hear one of them call the other a twat.
  • Giant Enemy Crab
  • Giant Spider
  • Giving Up the Ghost: When Negi is training with Rakan, Rakan tells him to use his strongest attack on him so he can estimate how tough he is. When Negi does and it hurts more than he expected, Rakan hits him back so hard that this ends up happening.
  • Gladiator Games: Negi and Kotaro enter several gladiator tournaments in the Magic World.
  • The Glomp: More examples than you could possibly list.
  • Godiva Hair: Most of the female characters, Akamatsu-sensei being who he is.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Negi's pince-nez glasses, too small to work, sometimes absent, never commented on ever.
    • They may actually be useful if he's farsighted. Not everyone is Mr. Magoo, after all.
  • Going Commando: During the Kyoto arc, Asuna has to find new clothes after the ones she wore were turned to stone and shattered (she herself was immune to the effect). She is midway through a fight with a massive army of demons when one of them remark on her boldness, and she realizes in panic that she forgot one particular article.
  • 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 was only about halfway through the manga storyline then.
    • The manga will end with chapter 355, which is scheduled to be published in the middle of March, 2012.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: Not just English, but Latin... and Greek... and Sanskrit...
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
  • Great Big Book of Everything: Yue's Pactio Artifact.
  • Green Lantern Ring: Four examples:
    • Haruna's artifact, which can basically generate anything she can draw;
    • The time travelling pocketwatch, Cassiopeia, which Negi eventually learns to use to dodge the One-Hit Kill Time Travel bullets after having been stricken with them. Chao even notes his ability to learn at such a quick pace.
    • Albireo's artifact, which can transform him into anyone he's met.
    • Jack Rakan's artifact, which can take the form of any weapon imaginable.
  • Gun Fu: Do not mess with Mana.
  • Hadaka Apron: Setsuna's yuritastic 'Cosmo Entelechia' dreamworld features Konoka in this.
  • Hammerspace: 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.
  • Hammerspace Hideaway: Kaede's Artefact is a cloak (essentially a flat piece of tattered cloth) that can hide several people inside... it does have a fully furnished house in there after all.
  • Hand Behind Head
  • Harem Hero: Negi,who knows how many girls would end up having a Pactio with Negi.
  • 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.
  • Harsh Word Impact
  • Healing Hands
  • Heaven: According to the Cosmo Entelecheia wielders of the Code of the Lifemaker, those dissolved by it go to a garden where they meet all their loved ones. Also, humans (or those not born of the Magic World) leave a body behind. For some reason, this reassurance makes him all the more creepier.
  • Hermetic Magic: and traditional Japanese magic, too—an almost unheard-of combination at the time the series first appeared
  • Heroic Albino: Setsuna. Kinda.
  • Heroic BSOD: Negi, after he almost killed Shiori.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Evangeline at her best. At her worst she is a bloodsucker or Sociopathic Hero.
  • Heroic Sacrifice
  • Heroic Willpower: Although Negi certainly qualifies, Rakan takes the cake. The man willed himself into existing. TWICE!
    • This seems to be the secret behind Rakan's power: Every once in a while (such as when he takes Negi's point-blank Thunder Tempest and Nagi's Thousand Bolts) he uses the silent incantation "Willpower Defense" to survive things he really should not be able to survive. The reason Negi's Titan Slayer attack is able to stun him even briefly is that it was delivered at the end of a brutal series of attacks, so he didn't have time to muster his Willpower Defense. At least some of his endurance is due to decades of combat experience.
  • Hero Insurance
  • Hero Unit: Lampshaded in the Battle of Mahora with Chao's robots; referenced by name, even.
  • He's Back: At one point in the Eva arc, he flys away believing the others, especially Asuna, are in danger because of his presence. He comes back after meeting Kaede, however.
  • 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.
  • Hope Spot: Chapter 311. The team's plan goes off with barely any trouble and they were able to get Asuna and the Grand Master Key away from Fate in the middle of his ritual, only to find out Fate isn't the only averruncus Dynamis revived. Shit quickly hits the fan.
  • 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.
    • There's also one for the Ala Rubra Drama CD. It also involves Eishun's glasses.
  • Humongous Mecha
  • 100% Completion: Negi making contracts with everyone in his class in both Negima! and Negima!?, sometimes called the "Mass Pactio" by fans.
  • Hunter Of Her Own Kind: Setsuna is a half-demon who specializes in anti-demonic arts.
    • Also Mana, who occasionally does exterminations with her, is also a half-demon.
  • 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.
      • Let's just say the Fridge Brilliance section answered the question right on our faces.
  • I Am Your Opponent: Invoked nearly word for word on numerous occasions.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: "By Asuna".
  • Idiot Crows: With Ayaka, of course.
    • Rakan also gets them.
  • Idiot Hero: Invoked and subverted all to hell. Negi is notably not an idiot by any stretch of the word (well, except for his chastity, but he's ten), and it is made perfectly clear throughout the series that he is a bona-fide genius. However, by thinking too much, he has time to worry and despair. The Rival, Kotaro, is very much an Idiot Hero, explaining that Negi needs to learn how to act without thinking. In other words, he needs "that little bit of courage."
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Haruna Saotome.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: During Mahorafest, when Negi becomes the Kissing Terminator; played deadly straight in Ch. 285, when it's really more of a We're Going To Beat The Crap Out Of You While Evangeline Helps You Seal Your Evil Side Fight.
  • I Like Those Odds: As part of the big flashback, The Redheaded Hero is saving the princess; meanwhile, the rest of Ala Rubra has to hold off the forces overseeing the execution, leading to this exchange:

Head Mook: Do I have the necessary forces? You Fool!. The guards for this event are more numerous than those you see here. There are two entire fleets stationed over a surrounding area of tens of kilometers, not to mention elite troops numbering around 3,000. You may be powerful, but even you cannot...
Jack Rakan: Like I said. Are you seriously telling me you think that's gonna be enough?!


Back to Mahou Sensei Negima
  1. And yes, we know that the dish's name is suspiciously similar to a hypothetical Portmanteau Couple Name of the protagonist and a particular member of his harem.
  2. how many million mages there are on earth
  3. the number of students in Negi's class
  4. as if having a fever wasn't bad enough already
  5. Directly stated in Del Rey's English translation, but it's unknown if this is canon
  6. Of course, he seems to believe that he's doing them a favor by killing them, so even he isn't a Complete Monster