UQ Holder

That's sort of uncanny.

I was originally thinking it had more to do with his psi powers controlling Kuro, but that's something to consider. Still think rolling with Ikkuu would've been the more logical choice given the whole tech thing he had going on.

It wouldn't make sense for an arc to go by where Kuro isn't a Butt-Monkey.

I would expect "possession" to just be santa phasing into them and moving their body telekineticly rather than actual possession .

Chapter out. Isn't hitting intangible stuff supposed to be Kuromaru's specialty? And I see Touta effortlessly mastered something new.

Ugh. Goddamn mad Mary Sue fantasy.

When was that said again? —'.`— I rather thought that someone like Santa would be Kuro's nemesis (although he's kind of everyone's nemesis with that power set)…

Anyway, I suppose that he can be hit when he physically grabs someone.

Also, Tōta learns wall-run instantly but remember Sakura did it too, so that means nothing.

edited 27th Aug '14 10:36:40 AM by Lyendith

Shinmeiryu swordsman specialize in exorcisms because their attacks can move through solid objects without damaging them as well as hit non physical entities.

Akamatsu must have gotten a new consultant for this manga, and I think I know who it is.

All I know about that series is it comes from Kyo Ani, so the joke's lost on me.

edited 27th Aug '14 10:57:47 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

So UQ Holder has made it a thing where it tries to be tolerable for a couple chapters, followed with an info-dump or two (And if not, said dump happened a chapter before), and then one ups itself in the shit department.

And there are people who take this series seriously.

edited 27th Aug '14 1:23:36 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

It's related to Akamatsu going "full-on chunnibyou", I think.

Anyway, I have to seriously wonder just how bad people are with this shundo thing if it takes three months to work out the "use it to climb" thing, seeing as how it was never seen as this big a deal in Negima. Kaede must be a goddamn prodigy for being able to come up with her own variant of it.

On the plus side, with this skirmish being long enough to count as a skirmish we're looking at Touta's first official loss. About damn time, I say.

Some little things I liked: Touta and Kuromaru had a nice bit of teamwork with grabbing each other's swords, something I'd like to see more (provided Kuromaru stops getting trumped in fights). Santa's got a nice powerset, though as mentioned it should be totally within Kuromaru's abilities to handle him. Ikkuu keeps pulling weapons out the wazoo, which should be problematic, but frankly I'm digging the whole "jetpack HALO sniper" bit a lot. And that last panel....Akamatsu, you tease.

Overall the chapter is.....okay. Minor Touta wanking aside, it does establish Santa as a threat. Nothing bad in itself....but there's little enough that's really good to push it beyond just being decent.

edited 27th Aug '14 1:52:54 PM by Watchtower

Well I just bought the first two volumes of UQ and I know notice that when Tachibana is acting as Mr. Exposition while talking to Yukihime, there are many bits of information shown in the background.

Amongst which there's mention of increased magical crime as well as magical terrorism. There's also a mention of an increasing division between classes.

PS: If we didn't know already, Touta's mom is called Haruka.

edited 27th Aug '14 2:49:41 PM by Archivist10

Lets see how long it takes them to realize Santa's real powerset.

Has Kuro ever done any Shinmeiryu moves? I can't remember any. Actually do we even know Kuro has Shinmeiryu other than it being the only sword style Akamatsu can think of? I wonder if Akamatsu even forgot about it.

edited 27th Aug '14 2:54:55 PM by kiukiuclk

Apparently he used the Zanmaken Ni No Tachi earlier.

Oh yeah. Was that in his first fight with Touta? Actually, it seems like he's forgotten how to do it since then. I can't think of anything else.

He used a Shinmei party trick once, which was probably the most successful thing he's ever done in the series.

So, can we start calling him the Akamatsu equivalent to Yamcha here soon or what? Its starting to get a little pathetic.

edited 27th Aug '14 2:57:39 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

And the only time it looked like he was going to have an even fight, it was interrupted as soon as it started.

Oh, hey, Kodansha is going to release a Love Hina oneshot drawn by someone named Hiroyuki.◊

Negima special chapter when?

I heard about that elsewhere, but that was my first reaction.

I'm guessing "never."

EDIT: Kinda funny seeing them in Akamatsu's current style though.

EDIT 2.0: Apparently UQ is going to get another colored page in the next chapter and being one extra page longer then usual.

edited 27th Aug '14 6:30:35 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

Wow! ONE extra page! Don't spoil us so much, Hackamatsu.

Love Hina Update: Okay, I looked at the whole Chinese scans now. It lacks Mutsumi, so it's automatic fail, but still, I'm so desperate for more Negima I'd even take more material by this guy as long as it features 3-A.

It kinda looks like one of those cheap H-doujin back from LH's heyday.◊

Not sure I like...◊

Motoko looks more like Kotegawa Yui than like Motoko proper.◊

Is it me, or this Naru is kind of in the chubby side?◊

Thats the Magna-san/Assistant-San guy right? That's what the art style reminds me of at least.

Looks like extremely typical Love Hina. Don't forget we already had an extra Love Hina chapter towards the end of Negima's run drawn by Akamatsu himself that had the characters in his current style, though it also evolved since then.

Motoko does look off, but to give Akamatsu credit, the rest of the girls are very much recognizable, if a tad more rounded out. I've seen more drastic changes from people recreating older stuff after their art has evolved.

For example, I've often mentioned my love for Rumiko Takahashi work, but I want her to never touch Urusei Yatsura ever again. It just looks awful with her current style.

If you're referring to the LH images posted by NDC, those aren't drawn by Akamatsu but by one of his assistants. As for Urusei Yatsura, are there any recent illustrations of it done by Takahashi in her current style or is it conjecture on your part? I'd love to see them if there were any.

Ah, misread it at Akamatsu still drawing. My bad.

Regarding Takahashi's style, you can mainly see it here◊, where she drew all of her big-name works in her current style. Biggest gripes: Ataru's been hit with Only Six Faces and now looks like Ranma/Inuyasha/Rinne (albeit shorter) and Rei's tiger form looks even more derp-de-derp silly than it used to.

edited 28th Aug '14 8:34:07 AM by Watchtower