(L) UQ Holder (Ken Akamatsu's new series)

[Chris38]

Originally Posted by kazzuya13

Seems kind of easy because the only need is what eva implied 400,000 and that will be done.

It might sound easy, but I think that getting that amount of money, when you are a kid / young teenager is definitely going to take some time.

Not to mention, knowing Ken, he is definitely going to put some road blocks for Touta, to prolong this phase, and have Touta undergo some character / ability developments, before he achieves his current objective.

[kazzuya13]

Originally Posted by Chris38

It might sound easy, but I think that getting that amount of money, when you are a kid / young teenager is definitely going to take some time.

Not to mention, knowing Ken, he is definitely going to put some road blocks for Touta, to prolong this phase, and have Touta undergo some character / ability developments, before he achieves his current objective.

Just enter a tournament and problem solve like what Negi did.

[alquimio_125]

I saw the raw of chapter 2.
Touta's dream is to be a singer or something?
That would be very unusual for a shonen manga focused on the fight. I thought I wanted to be ''the strongest'' or something.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Chris38

It might sound easy, but I think that getting that amount of money, when you are a kid / young teenager is definitely going to take some time.

OTOH, it may not be such a big sum as it would be today, after decades of inflation...

[TnAdct1]

Spoiler:

Looks like the tweet I read on Friday turned out to be right, as it appears that nothing much really happens here (with this chapter being more like chapter 2 of Naruto, in which we get a storyline involving a character that, while she may show up again in the manga, isn't going to play a major factor in the "big picture")

It definitely feels is if Ken Akamatsu is basically painting by numbers and going the "generic Shounen Jump route" here (which could be a hindrance to the manga if done wrong). Luckily, if some of the major Shounen Jump titles are any indication, key characters do start showing up in chapter three in these types of stories. So hopefully, we'll finally see the first member of Touta and Evangeline's traveling party somewhere in the next chapter (and hopefully make the story interesting, as I'm not really sold on it yet).

[Homura7]

^Bullshit. This is Ken Akamatsu we are talking about.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by K. Shiruto

^Bullshit. This is Ken Akamatsu we are talking about.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that UQ Holder will start to pick once we get to the first major arc. However for now, it's just feels like Ken Akamatsu's going through the motions of a typical shounen manga in terms of the first few chapters (and honestly, Negima didn't really get interesting for some people until somewhere between the Evangeline Arc and Kyoto Arc).

Spoiler:

However,as I said in my previous post, if he's doing that, then we are likely going to be seeing another main character show up in the next chapter, so hopefully things will start to pick up there.

[chaosprophet]

Actually to me in chapter 2:

Spoiler for ch2:

Akamatsu went quite away from your usual battle shounen with Kouta saying he doesn't really care about getting stronger. Before he was doing it just because for his objective to go to the tower he needed to become stronger to beat Yukihime.

Kouta is still quite naive, although in a way that is because of his lack of memories. Negi for instance decided to become stronger because things like reaching his father level, seeing his impotence during this village raid, having an strong opponent he had to beat no matter what like Fate.

It doesn't seems like Eva told him yet that his parents were actually murdered, and even then he probably may not feel much as he doesn't remember them at all. Also he may think that enemies he may need to fight on the way to protect himself and Yukihime would be on that level of that bounty hunter.

My guess is that some event in the future, like recovering memories, some kinda of war, or just go through a life threatening situation with an really powerful opponent more near Eva level, will make him realize how weak he is and that if he wants to stay together with someone like Eva and prob just to live a life as a vampire he really needs to get stronger.

[AstroNerdBoy]

I'll have to wait until I see the translated version of chapter 2 before making any final judgements, but so far, I'm not having a problem with how UQ Holder is starting out. We got a MASSIVE first chapter to start setting the table, complete with gory action that seems almost shocking for a shounen series just starting out. Chapter two is very big in and of itself, but it seemed to me to just be continuing to develop Touta as a character. I've got no problem with that.

I look back at the first two volumes of Negima!, which were mostly fluff. Akamatsu-sensei laid out some clues to things to come (which Peter David did his best to destroy in the original English adaptation, something thankfully corrected by the Twins in the omnibus version), but it was mostly comedy stuff. It wasn't until volume 3 and the Eva arc that things started getting good from a story perspective.

At least with UQ Holder, the first chapter wasn't packed with fluff. ^_~

[myopius]

I'm also a fan of how UQ Holder is starting out. I like how Touta is friendly, idealistic, adventurous, and assertive without being dogmatic, opinionated, or obsessed. That's probably a large part of what I liked about Negi too.

And starting out with more episodic and lighthearted chapters helps provide a contrast for both the characters and setting. Whenever I read the first chapter of yet another cookie-cutter shounen action manga and find that it has super-destructive fights, a massive crisis, and a boy protagonist thrown into the middle of it all who makes some massive life-changing resolution simply to protect a cute girl he just met, I usually instantly lose interest.

I really like the exposition I've read so far. Villages seem to have early 21st century levels of technology with little to no magic, but I want to learn more about what non-magical and magical technology is commonly used in the city. And if we follow Touta's perspective, we should learn a lot about the city. I'd also like a bit of a refresher on what sort of magic is considered normal or abnormal. Years of Negima destroyed my sense of what "normal" magic is like, so I need to regain it (and Negima shouldn't be a prerequisite to enjoy the power levels in UQ Holder). Touta's condition is another thing we need more exposition about, and chapter 2 delivered that with great pacing--I don't expect much more info about immortality until we meet more immortals later on.

Spoiler for Chapter 2:

Oh, and although there was talk of the Olympics, I don't get the impression that the first big arc is going to be about the Olympics... At least that's my impression. Talk of the Olympics seemed like it was more to develop Shinobu's character.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by myopius

Spoiler for Chapter 2:

Oh, and although there was talk of the Olympics, I don't get the impression that the first big arc is going to be about the Olympics... At least that's my impression. Talk of the Olympics seemed like it was more to develop Shinobu's character.

Spoiler:

That's what I'm kinda leaning towards, too, as something tells me that Shinobu is going to be someone who's more in line with either Konohamaru from Naruto or Coby from One Piece (as in she has her own goal in life, and we'll be seeing bits and pieces of how she progresses as the manga continues and she meets up with Touta again). While we may hear references about the Olympics later in the manga, it may not be part of the main storyline at all.

[Dargor]

Originally Posted by myopius

I'm also a fan of how UQ Holder is starting out. I like how Touta is friendly, idealistic, adventurous, and assertive without being dogmatic, opinionated, or obsessed. That's probably a large part of what I liked about Negi too.

Touta hasn't really done anything yet, so that could change. I hope not, since he seems like a cool kid, but I'd rather not make any calls. And let's not forget, Negi was very obsessed himself, even when people called him out on it. What made him marginally interesting for awhile is that he displayed these tendencies in a more believable fashion then his heroic counterparts, but it got pretty old pretty fast for me.

[kazzuya13]

Originally Posted by Dargor

Touta hasn't really done anything yet, so that could change. I hope not, since he seems like a cool kid, but I'd rather not make any calls. And let's not forget, Negi was very obsessed himself, even when people called him out on it. What made him marginally interesting for awhile is that he displayed these tendencies in a more believable fashion then his heroic counterparts, but it got pretty old pretty fast for me.

The only reason I stayed with Negima till the end is not because of Negi but because of his interactions with the girls (my favorite is Chisame anyway).

[Hiss13]

I saw the raw and have no clue what's going on. I love how

Spoiler:

Loli Eva just snuck in there. Good to see her again. We need more of Loli Eva.

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by kazzuya13

The only reason I stayed with Negima till the end is not because of Negi but because of his interactions with the girls (my favorite is Chisame anyway).

Quite honestly, I think that this was the thing that really made Negima great in the first place: the female characters that were involved in the "shounen" portion of the title (be it fighters like Asuna and Setsuna or support character like Nodoka and Yue). When Negima was showing the females fighting either fighting alongside towards Negi or having their own adventures, it was entertaining. However, when it was just Negi (and any other strong fighter) being involved, it does lose some of its "magic" (especially when the enemies became too powerful for the girls to actually battle against).

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

However, when it was just Negi (and any other strong fighter) being involved, it does lose some of its "magic" (especially when the enemies became too powerful for the girls to actually battle against).

At least Asuna could keep up, though unfortunately she was out of commission for a majority of the Fate arc.

I was quite disappointed that Negi's first and closest ally got less action the more important she became to the story.

[Used Can]

To be honest, I'm yet to be impressed with this manga.
I don't think it's fair to compare it to how Negima started out, because Negima started a story that was completely unrelated to the author's previous work - Love Hina. And whilst it wouldn't be a stretch to say the first two volumes were "Love Hina with a shota MC and magic," the story started building its own setting quickly since the beginning of volume 3.

On the other hand, UQ Holder started with a setting that had already been laid out by the author's previous work, yet in these two introductory chapters, it has yet to do anything interesting with it. There was hardly any indication of how this story is going to handle itself in the setting, or much to hook me into the story other than its relation to Negima. In fact, in the first chapter I couldn't care about Touta, but my sole interest was in Eva's role. The little interest I had in him is that he's Eva's protégé and Negi's grandson. However, Touta as a character did little to make me interested in him. Of course, there have been only 2 chapters so far and his character is yet to be developed, but for a series that is taking place in an already established setting, I expected a bit more.

Anyhow, this is just my impression after two chapters, which don't mean much because after two chapters the story is yet to develop, but I do hope to be able to have a general idea on where this story plans to head after 4 more chapters or so. I really don't want much SoL when there are a ton of things to answer. So, I'm really hoping the pacing in this manga will be considerably fast.

[Terizent]

Well, I can't say that I'm impressed by what's been going on in the first two chapters either. I suppose it's unfair to Touta, but I can't help comparing him to Negi and thinking, "Wow, Touta has no goal at all, and doesn't seem to have inherited a smidgen of his alleged grandfather's intelligence." He just isn't a very compelling MC. Then again, Negima wasn't that great in the first few volumes, so I'm hopeful that UQ Holder will improve significantly.

I also fear that UQ Holder is going to suffer from too many sword fights. Looking at the color page, it looks like around half of the characters use swords. To be honest, Setsuna's fights were the most boring to read, and even if they were "magic" sword fights, it still amounted to slicing at people with said magic sword. I much preferred the magic martial arts, Mana's gun fights, and artillery/archery spells.

And, most importantly, do we have a confirmation of what the current date is? We know that it's two years after Touta's parents have died, for sure.

To me, Touta's parent's gravestones look like they died on 2064, but apparently to some people it looks like 2086? And TvTropes seems to be quite sure that it's 2086, although I don't know where they are getting their source from.

[Voceane]

If he is a Kokonoe, do you think he will learn ninjutsu? Or will go to the Chiba family to learn kenjutsu? Or maybe he will encounter Tatsuya and Miyuki to learn magic? I think you got it wrong it's Konoe, Kokonoe is from an LN.

Is there someone who know what the meaning of UQ in the title?

[Terizent]

Originally Posted by Voceane

Is there someone who know what the meaning of UQ in the title?

Yes, UQ sounds like Yūkyū, and if you look closely the kanji "悠久" are actually written in the title. It means "eternity." So as CanonRap put it, the title UQ Holder can be read as "Holders of Eternity."

Makes sense, based on what we've been told about the premise, no?