So, due to lack of manga to read I am forcing my self to read the popular negima sensei manga.
I feel like stabbing myself. How is this so popular?
[snip]
You forgot about the genre shift halfway in the manga. It becomes a (mostly) shonen piece of work. I'm not a fan of it, though, and probably never will be, due to the sheer amount of chapters I'll have to trudge through in order to get to the latest chapter while not being a total idiot to the plot.
There is a definite genre shift. The beginning has some fanservice, nothing absolutely terrible though, and the plot is mostly about just his school position. Then the fact that he's a mage becomes more of a focus gradually, and the magic world begins to interact with the plot.
Then you get to Evangeline. This is the first sign of the genre shift from being a fanservice-y harem slice of life middle school with a dash of magic to a fanservice-y harem magic fighting shounen manga. From there, things get progressively more awesome.
One of it's biggest strengths, in my opinion, is that there's a ridiculously large cast of characters that are seen on a constant basis and all of them are identifiable. Later in the series this becomes a bit of a problem because the focus shifts away from somewhere around half of the class of girls, but it also introduces quite a few new recurring characters. That the author actually maintains personalities and character development for so many characters is impressive.
That, and I'm a total sucker for harem series. Ken Akamatsu's earlier work Love Hina was also a favorite of mine.