UQ Holder

Santa was killed 8 years ago, which would put his birthdate somewhere in the 2060s. Any discrepancies can be chalked up to Sayoko mucking with his memories.

Thanks to that second part of his flashback, Santa's timeline is actually fine. That part not only put a clear point on when it happened (a brief point between Santa's death and his memory wipe), but also shows why he got memory-wiped (he freaked out over Sayoko getting revenge for him). Unlike Karin's backstory, which gives Eva a companion that randomly disappears, Santa's is self-contained and has neatly wrapped itself up by the end of the arc.

From what I've heard, it's break week for the whole magazine.

edited 16th Dec '14 2:05:24 PM by Watchtower

Is it a break week this week? Or is the chapter coming out as usual?

Lately, spoilers have been inexistent. Normally, we learn about the chapter the same day it comes out in Crunchyroll. And there was no break warning that I remember last week.

Edit: Oh, yeah, because of Christmas, right? I remember one like that right when the Fate Clones appeared, although I think it WAS stated in the chapter itself that time.

edited 16th Dec '14 2:07:21 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

"Santa's is self-contained and has neatly wrapped itself up by the end of the arc."

While that is better than what every other character in this series has gotten, that sort of tells me Santa will have a minimal presence for the rest of the series, since the major facets of his character have already been dealt with.

Better that than the alternative of becoming a stale one trick pony, or a Flanderized unintended parody of himself.

I don't know. Wouldn't having the major parts of his personal story being dealt with lead to the temptation of flanderizing parts of his personality for the sheer spectacle of it all?

edited 16th Dec '14 2:27:47 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

Well, you had spoken about him having a 'minimal presence' from now on, and a minimal screen time reduces the chances to be Flanderized. For instance, Setsuna had lots of panel time after her character peak (the Kyoto arc) and was Flanderized hard, while Ayaka, despite being mostly played for laughs at the start, had a very scarce presence later on and yet made the best out of it (her farewell to Asuna was one of the very few well done things in the Negima endgame).

Didn't Ayaka get Flanderized? IIRC, her obsession with Negi was at first a bit creepy (IMO) at the beginning, but was still relatively innocent, but latter on her obsession intensified (just look at her jet) and became more sexualized.

It went off the wall post-Mahora fest (she's excluded from the MM arc for obvious reasons), but the only time it got well and truly weird was during the pactio. Other then that, its mostly consistent with her behavior aside from the occasional nosebleed.

It more seemed like a climb of her shotaconess. Personally I think it should have stayed more like how it was at the beginning. It just became uncomfortable and creepy to read afterwards.

Other than the Negi-plane and the Pactio kiss, which WAS a huge deal for her in an understandable way (a Pactio is a major life-changing event; if anything I find her reaction to it more believable than those of the girls who took it much more lightly), there were no huge major peaks in her Shotaness from what she had in the first few volumes. It bears mentioning she apparently already had a Shotacon rep by the time Negi had first arrived.

I'd find that statement easier to believe if she wasn't the fifteenth (fourteenth?) girl he had a Pactio with.

Plus I find that her shotacon rep before the series is more of an Informed Attribute since we only ever saw how go like that for Negi and only Negi. It doesn't even elaborate, they could have mentioned something like she tried to help Chizuru at the daycare or something.

edited 16th Dec '14 5:22:52 PM by Archivist10

Well, you could read some of her animosity for Kotaro as Beligerant Sexual Tension. She seems quite willing to accept 'Natsumi's brother' in despite the spotty place in the school rules that should have (Negi at least has the excuse of being part of the official staff) and despite of how much she fights with him. I suspect the trio was intended to be Kotaro's Beta harem to Negi's Alpha, but that was one of the many things that were derailed on the march.

If we had a dime for each time Negima (or UQ Holder. Love Hina was mostly fair in that regard) had an Informed Attribute for a character...

I'd find that statement easier to believe if she wasn't the fifteenth (fourteenth?) girl he had a Pactio with.

Um... so? By that point, Negi's life had changed horribly from even a 'normal' child mage's, like the ones he graduated with. You can't deny all those Pactios DID change his life, and those of the girls, greatly.

edited 16th Dec '14 5:29:55 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

I never felt it was the Pactios that changed their lives but rather Negi's presence that changed them. The Pactio always felt like a separate matter. Plus I felt Ayaka was making abigger deal out of it then it was considering she wasn't even in the first ten.

Also I felt Kotaro was meant to be a plot point to key Ayaka in to magic, but got dropped (might kinda explain why Chizuru and Natsumi suddenly acted as if there was nothing strange about Kotaro). Seeing as her suddenly knowing about magic came off as an Ass Pull. Then again that was the Modus Operandi by that point.

edited 16th Dec '14 5:37:14 PM by Archivist10

It wasn't that suddenly (she was shown as ordering research to be made by her companies as Negi was in Mundus Magicus).

It seems a lot more was being set up with the Kotaro trio (like Chizuru being strong enough to hit the Count and make him bleed), but it got sadly dropped (like Natsumi's play being cut from Mahorafest).

And of course the Pactios were majorly game altering. For the first half of the series, Negi couldn't have gotten things done without them; they only drop in importance after Negi hits Mundus Magicus and the old boring standard Shonen Protagonist Training Route is taken instead.

I would like to note that the Pactios were also life-changing because every one of the girls gave Negi their Sacred First Kiss for them. Pretty big deal. Or at least I think it is. The trope page certainly thinks so.

edited 16th Dec '14 6:08:29 PM by Watchtower

Most of them didn't really care.

Eh, some did, some didn't. Don't have time to figure out the exact numbers right now.

Still, it's like a birthday: it's a big deal even if you don't give a shit.

The only one IIRC who made a big deal out of it being their first kiss was Asuna. For the most part the others either didn't care or were just shy about kissing at all.

Ku Fei and Ayaka made a fuss over it. Chachamaru's fuss was over a different issue entirely, even if she was all angsty for a chapter or two. Same with Yue and probably a few others I don't feel like remembering.

Chachamaru best character, acquires and abandons angst in a reasonable timeframe.

edited 16th Dec '14 6:48:37 PM by Arha

Chisame certainly treated it as a big event she was very reluctant to get into.

Really, out of all the ones we were shown, the only ones who really treated it actually lightly were Makie, Yuuna, Asakura and Haruna. Theodora as well, but her case is different.

If we're saying it's at Sacred First Kiss levels, Kaede said she was nervous, but nervous for Kaede means pretty much nothing. Yue was only worried about competing with Nodoka. Chachamaru only cared about whether or not she had a soul. I don't remember Setsuna caring that much. Ako certainly didn't make a fuss. Chizuru didn't do anything. Probably. I don't think Nodoka exactly flipped out, though I'm sure it meant a lot to her. Etc.

edited 16th Dec '14 7:07:49 PM by Arha

Setsuna clearly was anxious about it, and blushed and cringed like crazy. That being said, it also was a big deal at the time they were surrounded by demons from all sides and the love of Setsuna's life was being kept captive.

Which also reminds us of how much of a big deal was made of the Konosetsu Pactio, regardless of how narratively useless it ended up being in the meta big picture.

Was she? The Kyoto arc is really boring so despite rereading Negima a couple times I almost always skipped it.

Setsuna went all red and even went as far as apologizing to Negi for kissing him (I don't have the actual volume on hand, so I don't know if that's just a bad scanlation) . She also sorta kinda remarks that she has Konoka and did seem quite embarrassed when Chamo brought it up before the demonic mooks showed up.

Wasn't it kind of a big deal for Nodoka as well? My memory of that fiasco is pretty spotty.

edited 16th Dec '14 8:02:58 PM by SkormSnow-Strider