Title: Springfield, PhD: A Different Paradigm
Author: James Ray Edwards
Genre: Drama/Humor
Pairings: No Clue Whatsoever
Chapters: 25
Words: 226,308
Updated: March 8, 2011
Published: May 5, 2010
Status: Abandoned
Summery: AU - A different circumstance, a new life blessed by providence. Oh, delinquents, malcontents, and ancient megalomaniacs, beware! The Doctor is in the House.

Link: Here

Before I go into the story, let me give everyone a heads up. If you have no idea what Negima! Magister Negi Magi is, don't worry about it. Prior knowledge of the story is mostly unnecessary in order to enjoy the story. Although reading the Wikipedia summery of the series would not hurt.


Anyway, James is a reasonably skilled writer, although he tends to use a massive amount of text to say little.

The story itself seems to be a type of canon rehash, but his main character, in conjunction with the things he does change, make his tendency towards following canon bearable.

Also, if you look really closely, you might see something you recognize in how he oriented his magical system. Although it does not become really obvious until later in the story.

I, at least, enjoyed it quite a bit (and will continue to enjoy it if he ever updates...). Hopefully at least a few of you will find this an entertaining distraction!


Checked: June 17, 2012

 

I was at first hesitantly happy at this fic--awhile back I was looking for a Negima story where there was an older Negi in the same position, so I was glad to find this. I enjoy Gabriel's works (to a point), so unless James was even more wordy than him I would enjoy this, and since I haven't read a lot of Negima fics either meant that I could deal with a canon!rehash. Even the premise was somewhat promising--a boy nicknamed 'the Doctor' who had spent the last near-decade of his life fighting aliens and demons and Lovecraftian horrors from beyond the stars? Fuck yes.

Sadly though, it fell through. The chapters felt more like an overly-flowery summary rather than any real story. I managed to get about 2/3rds of a way through the manga, so I had some knowledge of the actual events, and that made the story even worse for me. Not in the sense of 'Oh my god, he changed the series of events, he must burn'. Rather, I had an idea of just how much was being left out. Negima is famous in part for its MASSIVE cast of characters that it manages to make relevant to the story in one way or another, in their hobbies, opinions and motivations. To have all that glossed over, not because they aren't part of the story's plot and therefore irrelevant, but because the story is set up to make Negi seem more of a, well, Marty Stue.

The fact that (to the point I got to, about halfway through chapter 10), there had been practically no real conversation beyond minor wordplay against the Headmaster in the beginning, then Negi teasing Anya and his students, with a little overly cultured philosophy here and there, with a heavy dash of--what? poorly written Welsh/Cockney accent?--throughout, really dragged the story down for me. Reading an entire story of 'here's me summing up twenty chapters of canon plot in four paragraphs, but how my Negi did it better' is something I can't stomach. Perhaps it gets better once we get to the part where Akamatsu manages to turn the harem comedy into an actual shonen fighting manga like he wanted, but to have to drag through to that part really drags the whole story down.

In short, 2.5/5 from me. Nothing spectacular.

 

I certainly can understand that, although my dislike of Negima as a series (I read the manga to the end, and honestly can't determine why I willing lost that many hours of my life) prevents me from maintaining a similar mindset.

One issue I do have with that list of concerns is the mention of character cast. Consider this, how many named characters are in that series? How much screen time is each given in the Manga? The answer, if I remember correctly, is that a certain few were given a massive amount of focus, with the others being included at various intervals to develop some level of character depth. The problem, at least to me, was that these scenes ultimately did little more than irritate me. Characters like the twins, the class rep., and so many others simply had little impact on me. The main plot was interesting enough, but the sheer size of the cast bogged the story down... a lot. I honestly forgot the names of half of them, and had to look them up to keep it straight.

Ray slims the characters focused on substantially, instead slowly introducing more (both from the source material and from other sources) as time progresses. I tend to prefer that method, as opposed to being introduced to 32 different characters and being expected to keep them all straight. Beyond that, his choice to move slowly through the massive character list allows for more individual development of those he does introduce, at least from my perspective.

Also, it is a shame you made it halfway through chapter ten. In eleven he meets Eva, and the really major deviations from the original plot begin to form. Plus, the actual fighting is reasonably entertaining.

Well, there is little point in trying to convince someone to like what one does not, so I'll stop here. Everyone has their own tastes, after all.

 

I gave this a shot, but I couldn't get more than a couple chapters in. The prose style was really irritating. 2/5

 

I love Negima. I've finished the manga. Following that, I've rummaged through the fanfiction section quite a few times, desperately looking for any good fics. I remember this fic, from one of my incursions like a year ago. It definitely left me with an impression.

Basically, what DrSarcasm said. It's really, really AU. Takes a dump on canon, really. I know the author is a relatively good writer, but this fic was just generally unenjoyable. I remember reading through it quite a bit, but when I had to start forcing myself, I just dropped it. Not good enough to end up on my favorites list, even when I was desperate for a decent Negima fic.

It's the style and flavor of the fic that really makes me dislike it. And it's nothing like Negima. The author makes Negi some kinda super sarcastic asshat "The Doctor" character with overly flowery language. Kinda reminds me of Methods of Rationality. Just... unpleasant.

Shame, but 2/5.