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

[Chaserjacksaw]

Originally Posted by SoloPanda

I'm still holding on to hope that Touta comes to the conclusion that saving the world means saving Ialda. I know she's bad and all but she's the one who's suffered the most in this manga. She doesn't have to join the harem but it'd be cool if he can save her and maybe send her into the after life. Or she goes off to find her own happiness at the end.

Well just a futile hope.

Oh wait now that I think about it maybe JUST MAYBE but perhaps Ialda might be actually saved everyones asses? The true enemy is the Worlds Malice this thing is unkillable cuz its a concept in a form of a curse not a living being. If we look at it didnt what Ialda current position is similar to a water dam preventing the World Malice to eat the current world, she actually give everyone a massive extented time period for the world and now she is super very near of her limits that we see her more in UQ compare to Negima were she only show up personally at the very end.

[SoloPanda]

Originally Posted by Chaserjacksaw

Oh wait now that I think about it maybe JUST MAYBE but perhaps Ialda might be actually saved everyones asses? The true enemy is the Worlds Malice this thing is unkillable cuz its a concept in a form of a curse not a living being. If we look at it didnt what Ialda current position is similar to a water dam preventing the World Malice to eat the current world, she actually give everyone a massive extented time period for the world and now she is super very near of her limits that we see her more in UQ compare to Negima were she only show up personally at the very end.

I guess it's something similar to that human prayer power we just witnessed. though i think it'd be better if it was translated as the power of human faith i guess there's some reason it's just called prayer power. but yes that's kinda where i'm going if they can find a way to exorcise the human malice which i think our resident wraith and holy woman could play a big role in doing, then in the end they will save Ialda, Negi, and the world in one go.

[Shippuu]

It would bother my quite a bit if Ialda is saved in this timeline but not in the golden ending even though Negi and Asuna of all people would save her if it was possible. I suppose they didn't have enough time to gather information in the happy end timeline, but it feels like Ken would be pushing his plan a bit too hard, ignoring reality in the process.
For instance in UQ Holder Negi finds out that Ialda feeds on humanity's suffering in the world (just Earth or the entire solar system?) and that Ialda's main body possesses an asteroid where her main base is located. This seems to be pretty obvious and standard information and should've been known by Fate (especially considering he has the memories of his predecessor) yet as the happy end final battle demonstrates they clearly had no idea about any of this and it somehow took them 21 years to find out this information.

The Resonance itself is also very vague. It seems to be an empathic ability which somehow lets Ialda convert the world's suffering into energy.
But when the Negimaker drops by during the loli race Touta seemingly identifies the billions of dead inside Ialda as not only her actual source of power, but also her true form (it doesn't help that every time her "true form" appears it looks different. A mass of dead, the small angel form, the big angel form and the main body is a mass of black mud. It seems odd for Ken to be so blatantly inconsistent in the span of only a few chapters.)
I'm even entertaining the thought that Ialda's true form actually is the army of dead, just like a Noble's true form is a mass of magical beasts. How that works? Who knows.
Is it empathy? Is it an army of dead? You'd think one of them would provide enough power. Maybe both of them are actually inextricably linked and ultimately amount to the same thing.
I think there is a clue somewhere in Sayoko's arc and it was arguably its main point rather than Santa's introduction. Sayoko had her own army and was also plagued by the suffering that floods the world, but her pain seemingly came from the spirits she had inside her derived through necromancy rather than an empathic ability. Touta interestingly calls the dead inside Ialda the same curse as Sayoko's and he's referring to the dead, not the Resonance itself even though he already knew about it at this point. How are they related? Although never shown it might've been possible that Sayoko had the Resonance as well, which is why Albireo was so interest in her.

I'm also wondering where all these dead come from. Did Sayoko and Ialda just pick them up in the material world because they couldn't move on to the afterlife due to having died with grudges or can they just summon them by the billions from the afterlife through necromancy? The afterlife must have shit security in this setting.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

So in this instance, I think that Akamatsu-sensei did break a pattern.

The pattern I meant is the Naru-type girl winning. Both Chisame and Asuna were parts of the same Naru archetype, but Chisame was the sulky Naru from when she wore glasses and Asuna was the outspoken Naru without them. And Kirie is the closest thing to Naru UQ Holder has.

Regarding Ialda, eh, she's had so little character development it's very hard to develop any empathy for her and care whether she dies or not. She's always been a generic cardboard figure who spends too long out of frame, and whenever she does acts in the most cliched detached way, with no interesting character quirks, and always only does what is strictly necessary to move the plot along a certain way or another and taking convenient falls (often off panel) even when she should be at clear advantage. Even when the story tells us she has suffered and such it's still hard to give a crap since she remains the same badly sketched stiff figure.

It's as if Akamatsu really didn't want to deal with her, but knew he wouldn't have a Big Villain otherwise, so he has to pull her in and have her do whatever to move the story ahead and then shuffle her back just as soon, while putting as little actual character effort into it as possible.

[RDNexus]

Honestly, what's the problem with the author having a specific kind of potential end-girl?
It's his story, he has all the right to do it the way he deems better.
Do people really feel like they're entitled to know what's better to a story?

[Chaserjacksaw]

Originally Posted by Shippuu

It would bother my quite a bit if Ialda is saved in this timeline but not in the golden ending even though Negi and Asuna of all people would save her if it was possible. I suppose they didn't have enough time to gather information in the happy end timeline, but it feels like Ken would be pushing his plan a bit too hard, ignoring reality in the process.
For instance in UQ Holder Negi finds out that Ialda feeds on humanity's suffering in the world (just Earth or the entire solar system?) and that Ialda's main body possesses an asteroid where her main base is located. This seems to be pretty obvious and standard information and should've been known by Fate (especially considering he has the memories of his predecessor) yet as the happy end final battle demonstrates they clearly had no idea about any of this and it somehow took them 21 years to find out this information.

The Resonance itself is also very vague. It seems to be an empathic ability which somehow lets Ialda convert the world's suffering into energy.
But when the Negimaker drops by during the loli race Touta seemingly identifies the billions of dead inside Ialda as not only her actual source of power, but also her true form (it doesn't help that every time her "true form" appears it looks different. A mass of dead, the small angel form, the big angel form and the main body is a mass of black mud. It seems odd for Ken to be so blatantly inconsistent in the span of only a few chapters.)
I'm even entertaining the thought that Ialda's true form actually is the army of dead, just like a Noble's true form is a mass of magical beasts. How that works? Who knows.
Is it empathy? Is it an army of dead? You'd think one of them would provide enough power. Maybe both of them are actually inextricably linked and ultimately amount to the same thing.
I think there is a clue somewhere in Sayoko's arc and it was arguably its main point rather than Santa's introduction. Sayoko had her own army and was also plagued by the suffering that floods the world, but her pain seemingly came from the spirits she had inside her derived through necromancy rather than an empathic ability. Touta interestingly calls the dead inside Ialda the same curse as Sayoko's and he's referring to the dead, not the Resonance itself even though he already knew about it at this point. How are they related? Although never shown it might've been possible that Sayoko had the Resonance as well, which is why Albireo was so interest in her.

I'm also wondering where all these dead come from. Did Sayoko and Ialda just pick them up in the material world because they couldn't move on to the afterlife due to having died with grudges or can they just summon them by the billions from the afterlife through necromancy? The afterlife must have shit security in this setting.

I think(well maybe im wrong if I am well sorry)

The World Malice(In a short name) is a collective negative emotions, desire, and wish of all living being that exist in the current universe. It represent all tragedy, suffering, lost, grief, despair, unfairness, malice, hopelessness, and all kinds of pain in the world. In short its a concept like time & its not a living being or maybe the world malice is closer to a energy from humanity bitterness dated even before the beginning of history.

From Sayoko & Santa's Existancewe came to know that there is really a Afterlife in UQ even thought its unknown if its heaven or hell but all those who die must go there unless your soul is being chained by something or you have a strong soul that you resist it or you have unfinish business.

From Karen's Being we all knew that a mere collectiv hope, wish, love, desire for salvation, and prayer is capable more than enough to create a power that even a Godlike Noble Vampire cannot break or destroy at all in short a power so pure it over power their might....and it actually exist karen is the absolute proof.

from Kirei Powers we came to knew that going back in time(like she always did) is capable of actually changing a predetermined fate/conclusion in short prevent a tragedy thus it can actually weaken the Worlds Malice that feed of from tragedy....(like go back save them but for sure its a hassel)

Over all conclusionthat I knew of for now)
The World Malice true form is not collective evil spirit.

The World Malice is a concept of collective tragedy.

The World Malice is not a living being but a desire.

The World Malice might look like a army of dead but actually it just a malicious emotion chaining & preventing them from going to the afterlife to attain true salvation those spirit is actually imprison by their own bitterness in life.

The World Malice must possess a being to actually directly intervine in the living world(Just like Karen is to her power of prayer)

The World Malice is much much more stronger than a mere Vamp Noble

The World Malice is indestructible due to being a continuing concept....as long there is tragedy

The World Malice can actually be effected by the concept of time and changes done in Causality.



And yup that what I think it is well perhaps Im wrong ita just a noob theory!

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Originally Posted by xrick

Honestly, what's the problem with the author having a specific kind of potential end-girl?
It's his story, he has all the right to do it the way he deems better.
Do people really feel like they're entitled to know what's better to a story?

I don't have anything against Kirie, and Chisame always was my favorite Negima girl. I'm not too fond of Naru, but Love Hina played fair in that she always was the logical outcome from the way the plot was unfolding consistently through the story.

Pointing out a pattern is not the same as denouncing said pattern as wrong. Akamatsu's writing has a lot of other patterns that are harmful to writing in my opinion (his supporting characters tend to come from backgrounds that are either sketchy or not depicted at all, taking away from the depth they could have had, his antagonists end up falling flat more often than not, when he's writing in a grand scale beyond interpersonal relationships and comedy his resolutions collapse under their own weight, the 'timed mission before this happens' action pieces are getting repetitive by now), but this is a relatively harmless one.

[Ultragunner]

Cover for Bessatsu Shonen Magazine March Issue 2019

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

oh boy, look at Eva

[AstroNerdBoy]

Kuroumaru looks quite lovely as a battle babe.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

The upper half of Kuromaru's head looks too big compared to its bottom, but otherwise the picture is okay.

Evangeline always looks better when she's in a cheerful mood (as in this case) or angry than when she's all moody and sulky.

[SoloPanda]

I like how the girls are all cute while front and center while Touta and Santa are barely noticeable in the background. I hope kuromaru does her blond hair dress appearance again. eva looks like an angel bride of some sort....

[NapoleonDeCheese]

This time Santa is even more visible than Touta.

I have the suspicion this manga ended up much more girl-focused than it was originally intended to be.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

This time Santa is even more visible than Touta.

I have the suspicion this manga ended up much more girl-focused than it was originally intended to be.

Yeah, I think you are right. There were no harem elements to speak of until Mizore came to UQ Holder. Then the series adopted the harem genre.

[SoloPanda]

Originally Posted by AstroNerdBoy

Yeah, I think you are right. There were no harem elements to speak of until Mizore came to UQ Holder. Then the series adopted the harem genre.

I think back then, there was an almost entirely a male cast besides eva and Karin.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Well, Kirie already was an important presence even back then, but yeah.

Even Fate looked like he was going to be a main antagonist for a while, before Ialda just took over the role altogether (even if we always knew MOTB would be the endgame.)

[SoloPanda]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

Well, Kirie already was an important presence even back then, but yeah.

Even Fate looked like he was going to be a main antagonist for a while, before Ialda just took over the role altogether (even if we always knew MOTB would be the endgame.)

I still don't expect him to let Toutas plan go smoothly. I mean Touta is apparently the key to saving the world. If he runs off and gets himself turned into space dust or sealed for a thousand years, then Fates plans are lost. So i have a feeling he'll have to defeat Fate to move forward.... yea i did that on purpose...

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Spoiler for On the subject of Fate...:

Early spoilers are out, looks like he STILL has Chao the Rapist, whose only credentials through the whole manga have been having his ass kicked and trying to molest others before murdering them, on his payroll. But noooooo, let's still pretend Albino Boy has some higher moral ground to stand up over anyone.

[amtro]

I noticed that Touta sprouted 2 demon arms to stop the swords before blasting his own brains out.
Since when does he have that much control over his transformations?

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Because Reasons.

[Ultragunner]

Wow, who the heck is that at the end? A pure blood (? Vampire) who joined UQ Holder??