Mei Narusegawa, She doesn't appear in Negima

I just found a little book called Love Hina Mugendai. I looked through it and it has ALL KINDS OF INFORMATION ON THE LOVE HINA MANGA. However, there was only a scrap of information on Mei herself. I couldn't read the Japanese, but I was able to compare the names of Mei and Naru, and as it turns out, their last names are the same. In other words, Naru Narusegawa's sister is Mei Narusegawa, NOT Mei Sakura.

Here's a quick little history lesson. Mei Narusegawa was a character created by the anime. Her appearances are quite brief from what I've heard. I don't watch the Love Hina anime so I can't say too much (I only watched that Spring Special). However, Naru mentions having a half-sister in the manga (In Volume 14 for sure, I've also heard it mentioned in Volume 11).

In the last chapter of Love Hina, we actually get to see Mei in two frames (she gets no lines though), and in fact she has been reverse-imported from the anime (Most of the time anime tends to be based off manga, in this case, Mei came from the anime and Akamatsu used her...kinda like Harley Quinn).

Unfortunately this is the ONLY TIME Mei Narusegawa makes an appearance in the manga. Mei Sakura however is a different character. She's a foreign exchange student from Johnson's Magic School which is in America. Her current class is 2-D which suggests that she may be a year younger than the 3-A girls. She's also a mage who specializes in fire. She also has an artifact called Favor Purgandi, a broom which can help her fly and can literally sweep an opponent's defenses clean. Personality-wise she's kind but timid and easily flustered. Unfortunately she is also partnered with Takane D. Goodman who is one of Negi's rivals, but can never seem to win against Negi and his students.

Mei Sakura looks just like Mei Narusegawa, but that's where the similarities end.

If anyone else has something to add, let me know.

Despite this information you mentioned, none of it seems official and that is the start of the debate. Others I've talked to have seen publications that mention her name as Sakura, others that say nothing and some that say Narusegawa but none of them are official. So it is not certain what her last name is as it differs from publication to publication.

So a little more history about Mei, she does get mentioned numerous times in the manga and in fact in volumes 11 and 14 Naru mentions Mei is her "half-sister". That could easily mean Mei might have a different family name she prefers but uses the "official" one she almost is stuck with, again making it uncertain what her real family name might be.

Then in the anime Mei mentions how "My father married her mother" again indicating that the family names might have been different and for some reason her father chose to go with Narusegawa or Naru's mother decided to keep the Narusegawa family name to remind her of her previous husband, either way it again neither confirms nor denies Mei and Naru share the same family name only that they might or might not, and again without any official confirmation there is no way to tell what did happen and whose family name, Narusegawa, might be, Naru's mother's which she kept when remarried, or Mei's fathers which he didn't keep when remarried . . . also it is uncertain who is Naru's primary living relation in the manga it might be her mother or father that remarried.

There is also a theory I've read that mentions with all the magic seen in Love Hina, Su's transformations, Kanako's tricks, grandmother Hina being everyone but nowhere, Mutsumi's talking to turtles, and Motoko's sword abilities, the abandoned annex's powers, etc. that magic wasn’t uncommon in Love Hina either making it entirely plausible that even if Naru couldn't use magic, being a "half-sister" of Naru, it is possible Mei could and would be sent off to be trained as a magus.

The same theory states it is also possible Naru could use magic and the punches she gave to Keitaro themselves had some magic behind them, which some say is proof (along with the other signs of magic) that "the Force runs strong" in the Narusegawa/Sakura family, and even being a half-sister that would mean strong in Mei again making it possible for her to be trained as a witch.

The main trouble is there has never been any official confirmation either way about Mei's last name from Love Hina or who re-married who Naru's mother and Mei's father or Naru's father and Mei's mother (at least in the manga that was never confirmed) so it is entirely plausible until there is confirmation that either theory, Mei not being related, or her being the witch in Negima, is entirely correct and until there is official confirmation either one is only a theory.

Perhaps though Mei being Mei Sakura is more plausible at present given all the magic seen in Love Hina when taken with her continual absences in the manga despite being mentioned as early as volume 9 or 10. If so it is also plasuable given her age and the age estitmate from the manga and anime, that Mei being Mei Sakura would be at her Padiwan learner stage or whatever Akatamasu is calling the stage she is in which seems different then the "Negi stage" of training, as she is at least pretending to go to school while getting some real life one on one training with someone that seems her mentor while Negi is mostly on his own.

http://bin.4chan.org/a/res/772765.html

Go here...though since this is 4chan it won't last for very long. Then look at the names. Mei's last name is the same as Naru's.

The book I got this from was called Love Hina Mugendai.

P.S.: The only thing I've been able to conclude is that the last names are the same for both sisters.

Again with this debate??? I still think that Ken was just lazy and decided to recycle Mei... Probably reminded Ken of someone...

I still see no official announcement and as I said until it is officially said any one of the scenarios I mentioned, especially since they are "half-sisters" is possible. Same name means nothing if they are "half-sisters" which we know they are, and Mei decided to ditch the new name and go with the old name she perfers.

Again without official announcements all theories are valid.

Anyone care to take a shot at translating this picture? Particularly the part with Mei Narusegawa (File 3)? I think that knowing what it says will somehow answer some questions...

http://bin.4chan.org/a/src/1154194713301.jpg

Warning...it's a 4chan image so it won't be up forever.

Is this though from some official release such as Akamatsu himself? Again all the information in the world is wonderful but if it is not official the debate is valid and given the sites I've searched and the people I've talked to that can read Japanese there seems to be no official word out there hence the endless debate.

It's from Love Hina Mugendai so it's pretty official.

Debate still, "pretty official" is not official.

Sorry for the double post not sure how it happened.

You have to realize Ken Akamatsu is bloody tease.

examples:

Motoko and Tsuruko silhouettes

the Shinmeiryuu in the Kyoto arc

Haitani almost running over the cat and Negi

Tori Bowl

Touko's evil mode much like Tsuruko

From my talk with Sushi-Y Mei is a transfer student to Johnsons not from.
Meaning she's a tranfer student there and graduated an A grade trainee like Negi.

That sets up a lot of questions.

On the other hand AI Love You is pretty much confirmed to have existed in Negima.

Hakase mentioned in passing the Kobe siblings and their work with A.I.s

Nitta is a returning and much older character from AI Love You.
He used to be Hitoshi Kobe's math teacher.

my conclusion: ken just loves to *&#@ us over with cross-manga characters. let's face it, he nearly recycled all of naru in chisame save for the hairdo, he even recycled the shinmeiryuu-or-whatever sword girl character for negima, so it's no surprise that he would recycle mei from LH, since people were probably complaining that she didn't get enough air time and would like to see more of her.

there are several other characters he recycled, but i won't mention them. another reason he recycles characters is to spark interest in his new series. people are excited when they see characters from old mangas in a new one, or at least somewhat intrigued, which creates more popularity.

it doesn't matter whether or not mei is the mei from LH. in fact, ken probably isn't going to release any "official" information about her relation to Naru because that would destroy one of the mysteries that keeps his fans interested in negima and he would lose money in the long run.

in the end it's all about the $$

They're probably just easter eggs. I shouldn't think it's to make money or recycle characters; it's just a bit of fun.

maybe, but they bring in more dough none-the-less.

But the fans in a way created this mystery themselves.

The trouble is we the fans have no idea if Ken Akamatsu thought going in "Oh they will love this, Mei now has a starring role!" or if he thought "Geez Mei didn't I use that name with this character design before, oh well doesn't matter, they'll know it's a different character".

Not knowing makes the mystery since someone notices she is similar and perhaps it is with intention perhaps not, perhaps it will come out sometime later in the story when Mei says "Geez Naru-neesan was right, dreams take work!" Or perhaps we will never know and be left to ponder and debate this long after Negima ends it's run.

ken's just lazy.

Possibly, but isn't that more reason for him to point this debate and one side or the other as being true?

yes. but then, i doubt he really cares.

So why are we still discussing this?

Honestly I wouldn't be suprised he just put Mei at the of LH to please the anime fans than decided to use the name in Negima.

He probably finds this whole debate amuseing to a degree. If he reveal's any connection it more than likely will be at the end of the series.