UQ Holder

So I'm guessing it took place sometime before the whole hotsprings thing. Not bad I guess, though I wager its something Akamatsu should have mentioned there in the first place. Ah well.

What do you think of the point raised by Touta here? Is Kuroumaru really currently stronger than him when he doesn't hold back? I guess he might be, when you don't factor Touta's Magia Erebea in at least.

Kuro (In theory) should be more skilled in Touta in combat, yes, and probably should be able to pancake him if it were to come down to it. The story will never allow that to happen, and there will be a point where Touta can beat Kuro in sheer specs (I do think Touta up him with that super shundo), but there you have it.

That said, I can't imagine Kuro doing any better then Touta did against Fate when it came down to it.

Where's the chapter out?

Crunchyroll.

"It's a new character! But that face... could it be?!"

It's as if Akamatsu couldn't decide if he's aiming for new readers or old ones.

"Maybe it's okay he's like that."

Oboy, talk about an Aesop that came out wrong. Okay, it's good he's alive, even dickweeds have a right to live, but shrugging jerkassery away just because YOU are alright now it's not good. Those creeps will continue being mean to OTHERS, yanno.

More Loli fanservice. Okay, once again, time to laugh at those who argued Negima was canned because of it.

Mana's eyes are oddly... I dunno, they look somewhat stray from each other. Maybe it's just me.

edited 23rd Dec '14 5:21:07 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Looks like the same old Mana to me.

Also, Akamatsu's got pretty amazing at drawing facial expressions. That bitter smile from Touta on the first panel of page 8 conveys a thousand words.

I can live without ever seeing him sprouting another Godel face, mind you.

Hm. I guess. I don't know, it being 100 percent CGI gives the drawings a certain quality to them I can't quite shrug off. Don't really know how to describe it.

Well yeah, the exaggerated ones I can do without. Some in the past couple chapters have been pretty understated and effective though, especially Kuro's.

I've gotta admit it's perhaps the best chapter since the first one, mainly because, for the first time, the cast feels somewhat like a group of actual characters who work together narratively, instead of being a bunch of cliche archetypes pulled together to move the fights and plot contrivances around.

If anything, the worst part is Mana's appearance, because when we finally get a glimpse this cast might work to some degree, we're saddled with a throwback to the old gone days. And those days should be revisited on themselves, not being imposed upon another story. Negima deserves better, and even UQ Holder would deserve being its own story, which it'll never achieve as long as the shadow of Negima begins flying above it as soon as it looks like it might drag itself from under it.

I'll be fine if she's there to dump some info and set up the next arc at most. It's only when Negima characters are shoehorned into main roles that UQ Holder really loses its identity (or rather its chance at establishing one). Yeah, it has already happened to an excessive degree with Fate as the big bad, but that doesn't mean it should give up trying to find its own footing.

What's crazy is that Akamatsu is apparently still good at establishing varied character dynamics quickly and fairly naturally, like Kirie not trusting Santa, Ikkuu being helpful with advice on life and Karin refusing to get dragged into the silly antics until she's insulted by a bunch of guys and Kirie starts throwing spells around, making the usual progression of the series so far feel like huge wasted potential character-wise.

edited 23rd Dec '14 6:16:25 PM by DOmen

That's why you should start with the fighting AFTER you have established the cast dynamics sufficiently.

Hum… I don't really mind Mana showing up, but it feels like she is… I don't know… parachuted in? Oh well, we'll see where this goes. It's true that she's the character most likely to fit in without the rest of 3-A.

Touta was fairly tolerable in this chapter. Kirie was, well, Kirie. —'.`— It's nice to see Karin act a bit less serious though.

By the way, how the hell does numbering works in UQ Holder? Like, as soon as they arrived Touta and Kuro became n°7 and 11, and Touta made Santa n°12 without thinking twice. It doesn't seem to be any kind of power ranking…

edited 24th Dec '14 2:05:51 AM by Lyendith

I assumed that Karin told Touta what ranking Santa would have if he joined before that scene in the graveyard.

Kirie was trying to reach new heights of obnoxiousness this chapter. Just shut up.

"Can't we agree they're both wonderful?" - Unfortunately not everyone is a filthy lolicon has such a broad range Akamatsu.

Now that his arc is over, Santa downgrading begins! Phasing goes from incredibly hax power to a trick that can be easily countered with a single spell. Well, that's probably for the better.

Blushing Karin seems... wrong.

At this point it'll take more than this to repair Kuromaru's rep, you know.

I'm 110% sure that Eva won't even read those reports. I think Karin is just making them do it out of spite... not that I disagree.

Those numbers are assigned with no rhyme or reason.

Well, the least this arc did was actually make the whole group interact for a change. That's an improvement.

Oh look, a new character... or is it?

Seriously tho, I don't know how much they paid Mana to show up to it couldn't be enough.

To be fair, this isn't a combat situation. Santa has no need to get serious.

So if he got serious he could get more intangible?

All I'm saying is that Akamatsu already introduced an convenient counter for his power he can bring back any time he wants Santa to get his ass kicked.

In fairness if we didn't have this spell introduced then we wouldn't be able to get any interesting fights from Santa.

To be fair intangibility was no that big of a dial in Negima either. Negi's lighting body allowing attacks to phase through him was counter in the very same chapter it was introduce. All you really need is some exorcism techniques, Touta (before M.E), and Ikkuu (all technology) were the only ones that couldn't do anything against intangibility.

edited 24th Dec '14 7:07:16 AM by Josef

It was stated that Kuromaro could defeat Santa. He just got caught by surprise. If he had known Santa was a ghost at first the fight would have probably ended differently.

No, but Santa wouldn't just take the spells head on, he'd try to dodge them or attack the caster. What if he phases underground and the caster can't direct the spell towards him anymore?

I think that the 3A members that will have any major impact on the plot are those who appeared in Nagumo's flashback.

So good news for Chachamaru and Zazie fans!

Though Asuna, Ayaka, Konoka and Sestuna still have a chance.

edited 24th Dec '14 10:06:56 AM by Archivist10

Setsuna and Konoka in all likelihood are gone (Mostly because it is said that they'll probably die from old age, meaning her lifespan is mostly like humans) but there's still a sealed Asuna regardless of the timeline. That still leaves most of the characters I liked in a lurch, and the more we introduce the more likely we'll have to deal with crap that should be contained to Negima itself.

Setsuna is so much of a goner. No way she'd have missed a chance to visit and stalk watch over OJOU-SAMAAAA's grandson and WANGTSING TO THE EXXTREEEEME over allowing OJOU-SAMAAA's son die if she still was around. Maybe Cyber Tsukuyomi killed her, then took over her seat on Ala Alba and crapped on it because fuck old Ala Alba, aren't you glad they're all dead (Mana was never Ala Alba, you, the smartass in the back. Close your mouth before you stick your foot in).

Now, the numbers themselves and how they're assigned, I don't mind, whatever. Odds are they are as hugely important as the seat numbers in Negima.

Thinking about it now, the group we saw in Nagumo's flashback aside from Negi and technically Evangeline (who was more adviser than ember) there's only one official AA member.

edited 24th Dec '14 12:13:48 PM by Archivist10

No, Setsuna is actually alive and even still young looking, only Konoka aged and died, leaving her alone and even angstier.