UQ Holder

Spoiler for 125.

Negi appears as Cutlass prepares to attack Touta, Yukihime also appears, they meet again.

Well, that was fast.

With this manga, I'm appreciating rushing.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Raws are out.

You know, actually, by this point I'm all up for Touta to put these guys out of our collective misery. Cutlass here is the epitome of tryhard Edgelordism, and I really liked to see Touta punch her in the face. And Negi, wow, that face of pure Wangst embodies how much he's been derailed from the character he once was, dragged along by all of his magnified character flaws. I think it'd be like shooting Old Yeller by now.

Oh yeah, he's back. Poor guy.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Heheh, what face is he making? It sounds fun.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

FEEL MY PAAAAAAIIIIIIIN!◊

The public becoming blank cardboard figures is some extra Narm in such a 'dramatic' situation.

edited 31st May '16 6:44:17 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Hahaha- eh, huh. It looks more boring than funny now. Like he has this constipated look. Some serious dull surprise there.

Still funny though, heheh.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

He looks like a drugged Emo.

The ending spread is actually kinda cool. Its a different kind of angle shot that Akamatsu usually doesn't go for, so hey, points for that.

Yeah, I don't see why the focus is on the crowd when the liklihood of anything actually happening to them is about 0%.

edited 1st Jun '16 12:00:24 AM by SkormSnow-Strider

I'm starting to like Kirie's new outfit.

Like Asuna, she clearly realized what kind of series this is and just stopped caring.

Hey, at least Akamatsu didn't rehash Eva appearing through a shadow portal and grabbing the MC's opponent's leg for the fourth time.

So apparently after all that build up to tournament, Akamatsu threw his hands in the air, said "Fuck it!" and skipped right to confrontation with Cutlass and Negi. I guess he wants to get it over with quickly so he can go back to naked lolis.

Cutlass, at least looks cool. Her sheer, unbridled hate for Touta really speaks to me on spiritual level.

So all three clones were tangled and so could move all this time.... which is why they were hovering in the air until that very moment.

So I have to wonder, what was the point of giving Cutlass time stop powers if Kirie can apparently somehow nullification them - which makes no sense, but then again what does - or for that reason, giving Kirie time stop powers? You could cut all that from the plot and lose nothing.

Now Negi is there, and I have to wonder what contrived reason they'll come up with for him not stomping everyone into ground and using Touta for whatever mubo jumbo he needs him for.

Sigh.... this is better than the last several chapters, but that's not saying much.

You know, for a moment I was trying to give the manga the benefit of the doubt, because my first reaction was to call bullshit to the clones being active. I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch that they were all unaffected, they're all technically the same person...

But then I looked back at the end of last chapter, since I tend to forget small details in this series. "Tangled up" meant they had an arm around each other and then they didn't bother to get up during the walk and talk that Touta and Kirie had?

Also...since Kirie's power is a Game-Breaker and poorly defined—can't they just kill her right now, reset to some time before, and prepare for this? Cutlass thought of it, so why can't our fucking heroes? Has she been saving during the race? If so, why was she so surprised by the magic rules at the start of it?

Reset and do it over, stupid.

Her power should have had two weaknesses:

• A: Eliminating her with out killing her and triggering a reset. We know that's not a weakness since Fate petrified her and she AssPulled a curing magic app.
• B: Catching her without a save point. This isn't going to be a weakness since she can save between Cutlass' sword strokes and reset without even knowing she had the power when she was younger.

So...why can't she reset to the night before and tell the gang they don't have time to naked loli racing?

edited 1st Jun '16 9:34:54 AM by Rotpar

"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984

Because when you give a character a Story-Breaker Power you have to make them stupid as hell or they break the story.

Cutlass, at least looks cool

Sorry, but all the EXTREEEEEEME evil faces made me lost any respect I had left for her. I mean, at least Chao the Rapist was kind of a bad joke to begin with. We're expected to take this girl seriously.

I blame Tsukuyomi. Akamatsu saw it worked for her and decided to give every bad guy (but Nagumo and his pal, whom I'm really missing now) some variation of that. Even Fate does it now, when part of his mystic was how collected and cold he was. But villains like Tsukuyomi work when they're used sparsely. When every villain is using a variation of the Sword Art Online Rapist Face, it gets old fast. Well, at least Negi just has the Oh Woe Is Me Extreme Wangst Face instead. I don't know if that makes it worse or better.

Also, now I'm wondering, in all the decades since Negima, when they have magic apps, age changing pills, mind reading spells, spells to take your own magic away, magic to turn people into ermines, stripping spells, and everything in between, they STILL don't have spells to make new clothes for yourself? Or at least to create illusions that look like you're wearing clothes? Or are those something alleged genius Kirie couldn't learn?

Why Cutlass' opening move wasn't to just slice the paralyzed Lolis in mid-air she no doubt saw Touta being all buddy with? It's not like she didn't have time for it before he could react. If she's so edgy and willing to kill and hates him so much, why not to open with that to further throw him off balance and torture him?

If Eva back when she was at full power, along Fate, Negi and Ala Rubra, couldn't be a match at all for Lifemaker, how is she, now powered down, along a Fate who still,can at best stalemate her and a bunch of losers including Karin Can't Get Anything Done, hope to do like anything at all against Lifemaker Negi? How is this expected to end with anything but a Game Over or a bullcrap asspull? They don't even have a convenient Asuna at hand this time. I mean, maybe if Dana bothers to show up, but still...

edited 1st Jun '16 5:45:03 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

I dunno, I feel the extreme faces work for Cutlass, since she's really is like that. She really is boiling over with rage, hate and bloodlust and it shows.

...

Yeah, I have no idea how they are supposed to get out of this situation. Lifemaker is basically a god. He's so much more powerful than anyone else at this point it should be a Hopeless Boss Fight.

Maybe it's time for the other vampire lord to finally show up, if he's as powerful or more than Dana, but still, it's hardly the best way to introduce a new character.

edited 1st Jun '16 6:00:22 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Male privilege. Dynamis is the only character to actually clothe himself after stripping. Takane could do it too, but she only dons shadow armor before it happens.

If a vampire can punk out the guy that froze Eva and Rakan in place simultaneously, I'll eat my hat. Granted, the Negi Maker doesn't look like he's all there in the head.

edited 1st Jun '16 6:18:21 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

Well, Evangeline was one of the most absurdly powerful characters in Negima!, but we found out here that she's a weakling psuedo-vampire...so I imagine a proper Dracula/Vampire Lord Whatever to basically be Vegeta from the early Dragon Ball Z filler: able to explode planets by pointing at them.

Oh, and !TOUTA! is here with Plot Armor, Superpowered Evil Side, and Anti-Magic; so there's nothing he can't do. I bet he'll just punch the Lifemaker out of Negi.

edited 1st Jun '16 10:03:56 PM by Rotpar

"But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you." - O'Brien, 1984

Personally, I like to think Eva in her prime would have trounced Dana, since we haven't really seen Dana do anything spectacular in any way, shape, or form.

Except manipulate time which Chao needed the power of the World Tree to accomplish.

…Until Akamatsu said "screw that" at the end, of course.

Now that's what I call a squad.◊

I would totally love this group make up if it weren't for the fact that they're supposed to be the antagonists. Oh Al, you deserved so much better.

There's a part of me that hopes that UQ Holder is later to be revealed to be a boarderline monstrous organization, or at least morally ambigious enough to paint the Lifemaker's goals in a more sympathetic light. Fat chance that.

Who is the loli with Asuna's sword? The Master of The Graves?

Rakan isn't even grinning. What a ripoff, who do they think they're fooling? If these guys are the real deal I'll cut my feet and eat them raw.

edited 4th Jun '16 7:12:15 PM by NapoleonDeCheese