UQ Holder

Wasn't Chisame like a hikikomori in the ending?

Also, Hata's logic seems pretty sketchy.

I guess a married person still can be a hikikomori, so that's not conclusive either, although...

Yeah, you know, the whole thing about all of this is nothing is ever conclusive, all Akamatsu does is keeping throwing teasing and vague hints that can be taken one or another way and contradicted or argued against other vague hints, and the fact there are multiple timelines by now doesn't help either. It's like he never wants to compromise on giving serious actual answers, or is saving them for the day the cows come home, and we know how well that ended up working for Negima.

If you're bothering to do a story spanning multiple years in and out of universe, the least you can do is actually showing the resolutions for it, not leaving them at the audience's discretion after jumping over several decades of continuity so you can excuse yourself from narrating the parts you found too complicated or uncomfortable. You made that bed, now you sleep on it.

Call me suspect. Either it happens way after Negima's epilogue, or it doesn't happen at all, because fucking Makie still thinks she has a shot with calling Nagi dad and all.

But basically this amounts to nothing. Either show that he ended up with someone, or just come out and say he's with no one, because teasing it is just pointless.

Apparently the cover for this month's magazine is out already and UQ is mentioned nowhere on it.

I'm not sure about this magazine's promotional habits, but is it normal for it not to give at least a tiny blurb on the cover to a series from a well known author, about to receive an anime, only in its third chapter published there? It's not like that's Shounen Jump, other than Titan how many other mega-hit series to hog cover space do they have?

Can't say to how likely it is, I feel like the Holder anime is going to basically be a total write off. It will boost viewership for the manga, but I feel like after its over (unless it somehow ends up being a longish runner), its not going to amount to much at all.

I see a big problem with this whole fight is that there's no emotional weight or pay-off to it. Touta isn't fighting a personal enemy, he's fighting against someone else's enemy.

I'd say I don't think Akamatsu is that great at emotional setup and payoff in his fights, not to say he can't do it, just as a general rule of thumb, his talent at seting up fights is mostly spectacle and on a story/emotional level he pales in comparison to others like the former Big 3 (yes even Bleach), or My Hero Academia or Hunter X Hunter

edited 5th Dec '16 2:23:04 PM by Archivist10

Naruto and Bleach? Yeah, emotional pay off and non-asspulled setups are something they did not exceed at. Naruto in particular does the same exact thing you just mentioned, but flipped around.

MHA, well, its still running and isn't bad like the other aforementioned series, but that could very well change. It doesn't quite fall into the same traps as though two did though, so there's that.

edited 5th Dec '16 6:05:53 PM by SkormSnow-Strider

Actually bith are very good in giving setups and payoff on an emotional level in many fights. Particularly by making them personal.

Shikamaru's conflict with Hidan works because oif how personal it is due to the later kiling the former's teacher and then the former defeats the later by igniting a bomb with a cigiarette lit by his teacher's lighter.

Or Bleach, Rukia's fight against As Nodt, not only is it her getting to fight the man who nearly killed her brother but Byakuya decides not to defeat As Nidt and entrusts it to Rukia showing how much their relationship has changed from the beginning of the series.

And to put it simply the rivalries tend to be much much better than anyt Akamtsu has done in either battle manga.

This video illustrates some of my points. Particularly regarding the anime and technical achievements.Though I disagree with some points.

Basically Akamtsu knows the basics of fighting shonen in setting up things like rivalries but doesn't have much meat to it. Hi entire schtick is to do it with a lot of meta. He's better at humour than at action shonen because as UQ show, he wants to make just an action shonen.

edited 5th Dec '16 6:31:07 PM by Archivist10

Naruto and Bleach have conflicts that resonate very well.. if you are twelve to sixteen. Which, you know, is the actual target audience for shounen manga. Otherwise, well, the raw primal emotion is there, but the conflicts depend on Idiot Ball, Idiot Heroes, Poor Communication Kills, contrivances, large Willing Suspension of Disbelief, asspulls and the like both to be set up and to be resolved, much like with Negima and UQ.

The thing with Akamatsu's conflicts is he's better at comedy than drama, and much like Mashima with Fairy Tail, he can pull character relationships and lighthearted moments well enough (at least when he's actually trying and not going through the motions Sports Festival-style) but he can't develop the dramatic stretches for long without stealing from Ye Olde Booke of Dumbe Shounene, and when he does that he gets the shapes of the proceedings but not really the heart.

That's for instance why Fate ends up feeling more like a hollow caricature of the average shounen villainous rival marking time to be befriended into an Anti-hero, except because the caricature conspicuously lacks humor. At least of any actual fun variety. I think the only time Fate has ever been actually funny instead of a grating self righteous ass was when he commented on Dana's nature.

Also, wow, the chapter's out two days from now, and still not a single spoiler. Two months in a row the Japanese don't even bother trying to get them, it seems. Is this losing steam or what?

It's out in two days? I kind of forgot.

Can't complain if it's dying out. Almost sad to see it just wither and die immediately after changing magazine. Almost.

Also, I read last month's chapter and don't remember anything about it. Quality work that engages the reader!

I'll feel bad if it dies, even if only because this was our last chance to ever see the Negima characters again at all.

It'd be sad if Akamatsu career ended up with a whimper. Whatever I say about him now, I loved his work back when he was on top of his game, so his slow downfall gives me no satisfaction.

So, the spoilers for Titan are already out, but UQ's are not.

Update #3: I've had no work on UQ Holder 131 spoilers. :-( I've looked, but seen nothing. No one has reported spoilers showing up.

As confirmed by Astronerdboy.

Oh hey there's this.

So its like the Omnibus, but not really. The pic of Nodoka is nice though. If I didn't already own some of those volumes I'd probably get it, but its probably not going to see a release outside Japan.

Not a single UQ volume broke into the Top 100 best sold manga in 2016.

So, the chapter's out at last. It's only in Crunchyroll so far, meaning I can't see it yet, but Hata's Animesuki spoilers seem to indicate... we end up right where we had been left six fucking months ago, so Akamatsu's basically just wasted half a year of his time and ours.

Also, the first few pages have been posted in 4-Chan and wow, someone there's a complete imbecile even for 4-Chan standards. To sum it up gracefully, he threw a hissy insulting fit at Skorm, presumably because he knows he couldn't pull that kind of shit here.

edited 8th Dec '16 8:58:04 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

So my lot in the fandom is "That one guy who likes Asuna"? I can live with that.

I'm more surprised no one has upped the chapter yet. Is interest in the series that low? I also find Akamatsu's priorities kinda weird. Yeah, I realize that its probably for the rerelease volumes, but you'd think he'd focus on promoting UQ Holder and its cast and the upcoming anime as opposed to dipping this far into the Negima well. I'm not going to complain about it, but I can't help but feel like this entire franchise is being mismanaged terribly.

Huh... I'm kinda surprised (but happy) to see D. Gray-Man at 500-600k. I didn't even know vol. 25 was out.

One Piece's numbers are just insane.

Don't be silly, I love Asuna.

edited 9th Dec '16 6:15:19 AM by Lyendith

https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/807029870920286208?s=09

That's some really nice Setsuna art.

Over at 4-chan, even the series' followers seem to be accepting it.

Nobody wants to rip it.

Monthly killed it, and so did the 2? month break. Weekly chapters were very discussion heavy, or Negima vs UQ original characters hate threads post-Santa arc. Santa's arc almost killed the manga too

There would be heavy discussion if the chapter was ripped. There is still nothing.

I just love this one:

I think the latest volume has been out for a few weeks and has sold about 60k. Negima's numbers would destroy it.

The fact that this thread has been up for over a day and the chapter still isn't posted should tell you how popular this series is.

I think these two anons basically nail it.

Man he just needs to end Shonen UQ Holder and go back to the romcoms, Hell just go back to everyone running the hotel with Harem Antics ™.

http://www.akamatsuken-exhibition.com/

This is beautiful, although the lack of Chisame and Mutsumi still kind of ruins it for me.

Chisame's absence is kinda egregious considering she was (supposedly) meant to be the girl Negi liked. Either she wasn't that popular in Japan, Akamatsu forgot about her or maybe he just didn't care.

I think it's mostly a matter of sticking to the most popular people of each series. Makie isn't there either, and she was super popular, it's just she still didn't compare to the Asuna-Evangeline-Konoka-Nodoka-Setsuna-Yue combo.

Still, for a career spanning thing I'd have prefered seeing something on the vein of Volume 38's cover. I guess it can't be easy to do, but the man leaves most of his work to assistants nowadays after all.