Manga
In the US and Canada, the manga is licensed and published in English by Del Rey Manga. Publishers in other countries and languages include Tong Li in Hong Kong, Chuang Yi in Singapore, Play Press Publishing in Italy, Pika Édition in France, EMA in Germany, Glénat in Spain, Editora JBC in Brazil, and Tanoshimi in the UK.
English Version
Negima! was involved in a controversy surrounding the censorship of the English-translated manga in North America, typical of Akamatsu's penchant for fanservice and risqué humor. Fans fell upon initial rumors of potential edits by Del Rey, and upon receiving news of this, immediately began fighting against the changes. The compromise reached was to release the book uncensored but shrink-wrapped, which some collectors feel can cause damage to the books.
Del Rey's releases contain fully translated versions of the omakes found in the Japanese versions (which include character sketches, fan art, and information about spells and related concepts), as well as various notes about Japanese culture and other things of interest not found in the original omakes.
Translation Mistakes
There are a number of inconsistencies found in the Del Rey translation of Negima!. While Del Rey makes a strong attempt at communicating, as fully as possible, the cultural and lingual nuances of the manga - most notably in the inclusion and explanation of the various honorifics - the translation, and the explanatory notes in the back of each volume periodically demonstrate misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
Part of this can be attributed to Del Rey's adaptation process, where a translated script is adapted into colloquial English by a different author. The first four volumes of Negima! were adapted by Peter David and his wife Kathleen; later volumes were adapted by Trish Ledoux.
Thousand Master/Southern Master
In the first volume, the Del Rey translation refers to the Thousand Master as the Thousand Master, and mention that it is said he knows a thousand spells. In the third volume, they refer to a "Southern Master", who supposedly knew a thousand spells. Negi also identifies the "Southern Master" as his father. Del Rey has verified that they are in fact the same person, and it was improperly translated in volumes 3 and 4, since in Katakana, "Thousand" (サウザンド) and "Southern" (サザン) looked about the same to the translator. The translator in question has been replaced, and subsequent editions of volumes 3 and 4 have this correction.
Mistranslated Names
In the first two volumes of the Del Rey translation, Chachamaru's surname is given as "Rakuso". However, in Volume 3, her surname is listed as "Karakuri". This actually stems from the fact that with the kanji that make up her name, the most common pronunciation of each is as "Raku" and "Sō". This is common, as many kanji have multiple ways of pronouncing them. Making use of some of the audio CDs released in Japan, the proper pronunciation of Chachamaru's surname is "Karakuri".
Satomi's surname has been changed from Del Rey's "Nakase" to "Hakase" in the Del Rey translations. The proper spelling is Hakase, and the first character can never be pronounced as "Na", so the most likely conclusion is a simple typo: It is entirely possible that the editors of the first volume didn't notice that it was an N in the first volume.
Misa Kakizaki is actually listed as Kakizaki Misa. Knowing that in Japan, the surname does come first in speaking and in lists, this could be nothing to worry about. However, in several areas (volume 1/chapter 3 and some time in volume 4 on one of the chapter pages) Kakizaki's name is listed as Misa Kakizaki. It is unknown exactly why they have such different placements, but going by the Japanese version, Kakizaki is the surname, with Misa as the given name.
In the initial printing of volume 5, during chapter 43, the "Character Popularity Poll," and the "Botched Card" omake section, Ayaka's surname is mistakenly listed as "Hiroyuki," rather than the correct name, "Yukihiro." Also in the "Character Popularity Poll," Chizuru is listed as "Chitsuru," Sakurako's surname is listed as "Shina," Sayo's surname is listed as "Azaka," and Natsumi's surname is listed as "Muragami."
Mistranslated Latin
The second volume of Del Rey's translation of Negima! states that the Latin subtitle "Magister Negi Magi" means "Wizard Negi-Sensei." It also defines the "Magi" as "magical." "Magi" is a form of the Latin word "magus" ("magician" or "mage"), but the "Magi" in "Magister Negi Magi" does not grammatically agree with "Negi" or "Magister" if it is used as an adjective.
The original Japanese version of the second manga volume defines the "Magister" as "先生" ("teacher" or "master"), and "Magi" as "魔法使いの" ("of the mage"). It also defines "Magister Magi" as "魔法使いの達人" ("Master of the Mage" or "Mage Master"). Those translations are acceptable. "Magister Negi Magi" can mean "Mage Master Negi" (if "Magi" is interpreted as a Genitive of Quality with no adjective). This error is most likely due to a misunderstanding of the difference between linguistic idioms between Latin and Japanese. While Latin cases are, in many cases, parallel to Japanese particles, the translator had overlooked the fact that the genitive used as an appositive, which is acceptable and in fact required in Japanese, does not apply to Latin. (Incidentally, Negi's name is Latinized as "Negius" [Latin genitive, singular form: "Negii")], so "Magister Negius Magi" would have been a more consistent Latin title.)
For the most part, the Latin phrases used in Negima! are meaningful and correct. (One notable exception is the "MACINATRIX" on Satomi's "Charta Ministralis" or "Attendant Card." That should be "MACHINATRIX" ["mechanic"].) However, the interpretations of the Latin phrases in the Del Rey translation are mostly inaccurate. For instance, the second volume claims that "Magister Magi" means "magical people," but "magical people" is "homines magi" in Latin. One possible reason for the many inaccuracies is that the translators did not actually translate the Latin words directly, but rather they translated the Japanese translations of the Latin translations. If that is the case, then that can be a problem with Latin words such as "adeat," which is translated into Japanese as "kitare" (English: "come" used as an imperative form). "Adeat" is a subjunctive form, not an imperative form, of the Latin verb "adire" ("to approach," "to draw near"), so it can be translated as "Let him/her/it approach," but not simply "Approach."
Nita/Nitsuta/Nitta
In the Del Rey translation of the Negima! manga, Nitta-sensei's name was translated erroneous numerous times. Nita and Nitsuta were the two errors made before the actual name, Nitta, was discovered. The reasoning requires some knowledge of the Japanese language. Nitsuta and Nitta look very similar in hiragana or katakana because the only difference is the size of the tsu character. A smaller tsu character indicates doubles consonants, while a regular-sized tsu indicates "tsu"
