UQ Holder

Implying Setsuna wouldn't slice her own throat and stuff herself into Konoka's grave as soon as they placed the coffin down.

Now I'm getting all depressed on Christmas Eve, c'mon.

Fine, she went to Konoka's grave on a cold winter night and froze to death in mourning. Misora, tending to her classmates graves as always, found her there the next day.

Now excuse me while I go find a cute Christmas fic to wash out the Setsuna angst.

edited 24th Dec '14 12:48:55 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

Welcome to my world.

Well, at least I'm still on an adrenaline high since I just marathoned Kill La Kill.

Kill La Kill is love.

I had seen lots of people crap on it online, but I just found it crazy and exhilarating like its predecessor, Gurren Lagann, which I don't see trashed nearly as much. I guess people couldn't handle all the fanservice.

edited 24th Dec '14 1:21:59 PM by DOmen

I don't know, I've seen people rag on Gurren before. Granted, they're the type who wouldn't like something like it and KLK in the first place.

Merry Christmas from the EST!

Merry Christmas, fellow long-suffering Akamatsu readers!

Belated Christmas to such a jolly-looking thread.

Late chapter response, but overall I'm still enjoying it pretty well. As D Omen put it, it's pretty amazing how strong Akamatsu still is when it comes to character dynamics. This group of 6 really feels like a group, and everyone brings something different to it. It feels much like a return to form, and I would actually enjoy a lot more chapters of these guys just hanging out with each other.

Kirie's magic ability is very nice to see. It shows she's not completely useless outside of her Reset Button, it gives UQ a freaking mage for once, and it's the smartest thing she's done all series, actively taking advantage of the time she gains when she resets. That doesn't exactly mean I'm expecting her to start stomping people, especially since, like Shinji, she's still using the beginner's incantation.

Speaking of, I will fully agree that Shinji getting reset sucks. While he didn't exactly go through any major character development, he did have his life thoroughly rocked. That's more than enough to change a man, so it's a shame it wasn't kept. It's not a major point (let's face it, we're never going to see this guy again), but it's something I'd definitely change if I could.

Finally, I can't really say much about Mana until we know her deal, but in regards to UQ continually "dipping in the Negima pool", while I agree it's a fair point of criticism, it's also a point I've conceded with since Fate showed up. As good as it is for UQ to be able to stand on its own, at this point I just want to see a decent story. Besides, another point of criticism was how "shafted" the members of 3-A have been, especially those that have some kind of "immortality" keeping them in their prime. Mana alone certainly doesn't absolve it, but it's a start.

Kirie was showing a higher level than a beginning apprentice should have, so I'm guessing the only reason why she uses the beginner activation is because Akamatsu lost his Latin expert (who apparently was the only Latin expert in Japan). Although given how many of those incantations were babbling nonsense anyway, I'm not too sure...

That would be true if Sayoko didn't have her own incantation. Even if he doesn't have the Latin on hand, he seems to at the very least understand the difference.

Still surprised at the relative lack of magic we've had in the series, withholding the last arc where it was finally touched on. Sort of. Zombies spoiled it. Loss of a language guy and Akamatsu not bothering with it is a big factor I reckon.

You'd expect Holder at the very least would have more Mages at any rate, or places like Mahora or the space Plot Tumor. Closest thing we got to any real magi-tech fighters were the soldiers Fate called in the slums. I dunno, I just figured it would have a larger impact in this setting given its nature.

edited 26th Dec '14 12:48:49 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

I suspect those catastrophes all over the world may have something to do with magical havoc being wrecked in a global scale, so maybe magic itself has been messed up to some degree as well.

Hm. MM residents seem to be able to cross over with no problem (that we know of) now, if Kuro and Fate's six armed friend are any indicator. Granted, there's a level of Fridge Horror there if the two are interconnected...

I doubt its the case though, unless Kuro and the other dude aren't using spare body things too. Not sure if magic was actually affected though. Aside from Eva seemingly weakened (Which could be from a whole host of reasons), most other mages we've encountered do appear to be of the standard fare all in all. I'd blame Akamatsu's lack luster handling of the setting until something else becomes explicit.

It seems like the last arc was parlty about setting up this main team of UQ Holder which seems like what Akamatsu is going to focusing on. Wonde if they'll give themselves a name to their team? Ala Umbra?

Team Seven.

Ugh.

edited 30th Dec '14 9:15:35 AM by SkormSnow-Strider

... why in the world they would give themselves a new name? Meta-wise, the series is named UQ Holder, and it makes sense Akamatsu would want to stress the name in-universe as much as possible. In-universe, it is in UQ Holder's (the organization's) best interests to make sure therir name is well known, and their agents would feel proud of using it. They are UQ Holder, and that's it. Giving themselves a sub-organization/unit name serves no narrative purpose beyond stroking their own egos.

UQ is already segmented well enough between the Numbers, the rest of the lot, and whatever the hell Vasago's supposed to be. We don't need any more, even if we do have something of a "main group" with these six.

I just thought that seeing as they are a specific group within an organization, it would be a use of Cast Herd.

Team Soon-To-Be-Cannon fodder...and Touta.

"How can they be cannon fodder when they're immortal?"

"We'll find a way."

"And isn't one of them literally a juggernaut?"

"We'll. Find. A. Way."

To be fair, as much as everyone's sure Touta's too much a chosen messiah to be put as cannon fodder, he did get shit-wrecked twice last arc.

Cast Herd would only be really needed if this was a bigger cast. While no doubt this story will use more characters later on, I doubt it'll do so as much as Negima did. I just can't see this story showcasing 31 UQ members, seeing how every chapter has less room to tell a story than Negima's, for starters, and the team is already overpowered as it is without needing to inflate the numbers.

UQ Holder in any other series would be the antagonists, what with their powers and general difficulty to kill would provide a sufficient challenge for any band of hero's.

Here, the plot necessitates ways to keep kicking them out of the action in the most convenient way possible to add to the illusion of tension.