Asuna discovers that Negi is a mage, and Negi is worried he will get kicked out for letting his secret out (after all, the first rule of Mage Club is that you do not talk about Mage Club). Negi drops down the standard flashback, explaining that he was sent here to teach as part of his training. Mages are apparently fairly common, and just keep it on the down low while helping people. Asuna agrees to keep the secret as long as Negi helps undo the damage to her reputation in front of Takahata-sensei. Negi reads Takahata’s mind and lets Asuna know that Takahata is thinking of her… underwear. Asuna is mad, and even more upset when she finds that Konoka has invited Negi to stay with them. She softens up a bit, however, when she finds that Negi has put in a lot of time and effort searching for 4-leaf clovers to make a love potion for her.
The next morning, Asuna is having quite the little dream, but wakes up to find that she is making out with Negi’s forehead, and not Takahata. To complete Asuna’s “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” Negi calls on her in class, pokes fun at her lack of scholarly skillz, and then blows off her clothes with a sneeze. While Negi is outside feeling sorry for himself, Nodoka’s friends try to get Negi interested in Nodoka by lifting her hair to show more of her face. Everyone agrees that Nodoka looks way cuter like that, but Nodoka gets optical sensory overload and runs away embarrassed. Negi decides to set things right by making that love potion, but Asuna refuses to drink it. Even though she just found out about Negi’s sad past (supposedly orphaned) from Takahata, she’s still sore, and so she stuffs the vial down Negi’s throat. Although it has no effect on her, it works very well on the rest of the class. Negi escapes his fangirls by sprinting to the library with the help of Nodoka, but when Nodoka tries to put the moves on him (that potion is more effective than heavy liquor!), he recoils and knocks down a bookshelf. Naturally he has to jump on top of Nodoka to save her (very sly, Negi), but before she can kiss him in a very mouth-says-no-but-eyes-say-yes kinda way, Asuna busts down the door and breaks the spell. Later when Yue asks Nodoka what happened, Nodoka is too embarrassed to say.
These two episodes were pretty standard harem fare. It was such a bummer seeing how badly butchered the art was, and I was seriously considering dropping this series from the blog list, even though I knew it had a good story. However, after watching what I’ll call (to avoid too much spoiling) the Negi-Evangeline-Angel’s-Act scene in episode 8, I realized that maybe I could make it until the Fafner crew came in like a cavalry to save the day. Something about the music, really. I’m going to blaze through the first 10 episodes, so I’d recommend you skim them and then read the manga to find out what really happened. OK, Xebec, I’m ready for some squiggly cheek lines and shaggy hair!
