So I got the Negima bonus animes (the OADs for Ala Alba and Another World) and sure enough, Classic has disappointed himself again (for reasons that could best be described as insane).
Negima is a harem series that really wants to be a solid shonen series with a little more T&A than is really necessary. So an animated production that cuts out the boring crap (girly emotions) and focuses on the serious Shonen goodness should be awesome, right?
While the first episode of Another World focuses for half of its length on setting up the motivations for the central characters (neglecting about a dozen characters who, have lines, but ultimately linger on the periphery) and the other half on a reasonably exciting magic fight. However, this anime originally comes with a bound collection of the manga. So you're expected already to know the special powers of the various characters from other contexts. Without that background knowledge the logic of the combat is about as intelligible as a devout Sega player watching a SSB:Brawl battle.
The Ala Alba series focuses in equal parts on "wacky" love hina type slapstick
; Fights meant to illustrate how the characters have grown; and some mix of skits (some of which make me crack a smile) and training.
My insane complaint is basically that the animators don't know how to make kung fu look good. Maybe it's because I'm insane?
And on top of that