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

[Fwarlord]

I think it's fine if Touta don't want to fight or become stronger. A main character in a shonen story could just want to live a normal life and yet the fights still come to him, them eventually he will become stronger, just like Kusanagi Godou in Campione.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

He had "aliens editors made me do it!" as an excuse back then. What's his excuse now?

Misdirection? Many artists and storytellers do that all the time. See Madoka for instance - light and fluffy magical girl story that OMG WTF HAPPENED TO MAMI

It's not like mangaka need executive meddling to suddenly want to change the tone of a series, whether by planning or by circumstance.

[Shadow5YA]

Touta's lack of motivation on the second chapter of the series doesn't mean a thing. All it means is that he's goal oriented and needs a reason to get stronger. He can easily find one over the course of the series.

[chaosprophet]

Because of his lacks of memories, you can see Touta's goals are all somewhat borrowed from his friends, which was very important to him in those 2 years of life he remembers. Also while he became a vampire and fought a bounty hunter, he still don't really know what is to be strong in Negima verse, and so how weak he is in comparison. His mentality is mostly of a normal person who lives a life with only mundane troubles. But the fact he is a vampire means he will likely have to face that world sooner or later.

[Tenzen12]

I don't think he is just borowing dreams, if you remember what he said in first chapter he is doing his best in EVERYTHING (that was obviously hyperbole, but whatever). I wouldn't be suprised if unlike many shonen protagonist with crippling overspecialisation he will be displaying various general skills from now and not just these (but these as well) of his friends depending on situation.

Maybe he might actualy look for dream by trying everything (which why his current one is somehow vague)

...or maybe I just think too much about it.

[Ancient Death]

Originally Posted by Nvis

One of his student buddies look like a Fate clone/reincarnation to me, even has the emotionless face too.

That's what I pointed out early before...but let's say my question was ignored or overlooked.
Emotionless is a bit stronger word. His face tell me he was more on "relax mode" with what happening around him. Heck, he remind me of Nagi's "teacher"...

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by ChronoReverse

Why don't you just drop it now and spare us your gripes. You don't even need to tell us.

Ahahaha, oh I'm sorry your Highness, I thought this is a thread to discuss the manga whether it be good or bad instead of mindlessly praising it

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Misdirection? Many artists and storytellers do that all the time. See Madoka for instance - light and fluffy magical girl story that OMG WTF HAPPENED TO MAMI

It's not like mangaka need executive meddling to suddenly want to change the tone of a series, whether by planning or by circumstance.

Hmm, maybe. Though I somehow doubt it will have Madoka's kind of twist, but we'll see...

[AstroNerdBoy]

I wonder how long this old 1970's, Incredible Hulk, David Banner, hiking from place to place will go on for Eva and Touta? *lol* I've no idea why, but with two chapters in a row ending with Eva and Touta on the road, that thought just popped into my head. ^_^;

[kagato3]

Well lonely man would make a good theme for an imortal.

[ChronoReverse]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Ahahaha, oh I'm sorry your Highness, I thought this is a thread to discuss the manga whether it be good or bad instead of mindlessly praising it

there's a difference between discussing whether something is good and doing the typical routine (interesting that it's because you felt it was *typical* of UQ so far) of folks saying they're bored with only the shallow qualification that the MC "looks like dumbass" and "Eva isn't well-drawn".

Seriously? That makes you bored? Would a full-coloured version of Eva drawn with the sharp expression from Negima have meant it _wouldn't_ be boring?

It's been precisely two chapters, of course the new characters aren't fleshed out yet. You're clearly not impressed with the cliched "I wanna be strong/recognized" shonen goals. What sort of goals would you expect from characters in a shonen manga? For that matter, what would have impressed you without a sprawling info-dump? Strong character motivations are developed, not dumped on you within 2 chapters. You give a character beginning goals and then develop or change his goals from there.

And this sort of crap happens with EVERY manga/anime in the early chapters/episodes. People were saying this kind of crap 2 episodes into Madoka! "Oh the musket girl was pretty neat but if Madoka doesn't do something soon I'm probably going to drop this anyway. And lol Shaft-low-budget."
[/rant]



As for chapter 2, I liked that it made the whole "immortality sucks" thing just a joke. "Immortality Sucks" types of stories aren't rare and aren't bad in themselves but tend to straddle the line between annoying whining and genuinely moving. It'll be interesting if KA has the skill to actually complete a story without dipping into the wrong side (odds are low though from past history even if there's extenuating circumstances).

I also wonder if there'll be extreme... power inflation due to EVA seemingly being a main character.

[dragon1412]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Ahahaha, oh I'm sorry your Highness, I thought this is a thread to discuss the manga whether it be good or bad instead of mindlessly praising it



Hmm, maybe. Though I somehow doubt it will have Madoka's kind of twist, but we'll see...

No one here mindlessly praising it, and by the way, if you want to drop, it's your choice, no one need to know whether you are going to drop it or not.
Good or bad ?? seriously ?? you are questioning a 2 chapter to see whether it's bad or not or you wait to chapter 4 to drop ?? oh please, just drop now if you like, KA works all like that, he spends great deal in settings and normally took at least 10-20 chapters just for introduction and background settings. If you want some hot blooded action and main story in just 4 chapter, go read bleach, even naruto or onepiece aren't that quick to get into main story.
Fyi, the editors stuff is true to negima, as the time when negima release is after the success of Love Hina, with many Love Hina franchise going on, so rather than editor, it's more like the publisher don't want Ken to take risk to go for shounen but rather go for another romcom hit like Love Hina, if you don't know it, don't speak since this happened to many author, not just Ken .
Art wise, how long have it been since the last chapter of negima anyway, do you think he still can draw exacly the same as before, there is also matter of assistant to be considered , the art can be improved with time and i still consider his artwork is good. In fact, i can't even fathom how some people just watch 1 ep or read 3-4 chapter to say the anime or the manga is good. If you find it boring and want to drop, that's your choice, there are people still found it's interesting or expecting from it, that's their choice, not yours, i honestly can't see the point of posting that you want to drop on the thread. As you said, this is a discussion topic, not i'm dropping this so i'm gonna tell you guys topic, so what the point of i'm going to drop this one, it's make no discussion, there is facebook or blog for that if you need.

@chrono: seem hard, most of immortality related novel or work i have read didn't really leave an impression on me, there are a few exceptional one but it's hard to pull off.
we don't know for sure how much Eva is nerfed, or whether she even nerfed or not, i have a feeling that we will see an overpowered Negi in this series.

[Tenzen12]

Ok new chapter is out in japan and there was some spoilers

Spoiler for warning!:

By the way if informations I heard are right this Kuroumaru person is confirmed be guy (at least for now)

And Touta will fight him(?), in serious battle

Edit:

Spoiler for for Kuroumaru:

seeing more pages he is terrifying trap. I might actualy bet on reverse trap cause such cute person cannot not be girl!

"

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Ok new chapter is out in japan and there was some spoilers

Spoiler for warning!:

By the way if informations I heard are right this Kuroumaru person is confirmed be guy (at least for now)

And Touta will fight him(?), in serious battle

Edit:

Spoiler for for Kuroumaru:

seeing more pages he is terrifying trap. I might actualy bet on reverse trap cause such cute person cannot not be girl!

"

Spoiler for Chapter 3:

Like I said: another main character is usually saved until chapter 3.

Not sure how some people will react to Kuroumaru being a guy (especially given how Negima was its strongest when the action bits had something for the female cast to do).

[Sian]

Spoiler:

at least for the first picture, (s)he looks somewhat to sharp and 'musclely' in terms of how KA usually draw females

[chaosprophet]

It's incredible how Chinese scans are out even before we get Japanese raws...

Spoiler for ch3:

I can't read Chinese, so there isn't much I can take from the chapter. In the beginning Eva seems to point their current location, somewhere in japan, so the theory of they being in mars now seems to be wrong.
Kuroumaru is a big question. In some shots he looks male and in others female. Kouta seems to in the middle of the confusion see Kuroumaru down there and start going "oh you're a female?" but Kurou denies, so not really sure.
From an text spoiler in 2ch that seems to be true now looking at the raws, Kuroumaru came from the tower and his/her mission is to slay Evangeline (He/she is a Shinmeiryu warrior, and one of the things they specialize in is demon-hunting). And then he/she notices Touta have no shadow and realizes he is a vampire, and for that reason attack Touta.

Edit: and now there is already English trans for it too... can we share eng trans and chinese raws here?

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by chaosprophet

It's incredible how Chinese scans are out even before we get Japanese raws...

Spoiler for ch3:

I can't read Chinese, so there isn't much I can take from the chapter. In the beginning Eva seems to point their current location, somewhere in japan, so the theory of they being in mars now seems to be wrong.
Kuroumaru is a big question. In some shots he looks male and in others female. Kouta seems to in the middle of the confusion see Kuroumaru down there and start going "oh you're a female?" but Kurou denies, so not really sure.
From an text spoiler in 2ch that seems to be true now looking at the raws, Kuroumaru came from the tower and his/her mission is to slay Evangeline (He/she is a Shinmeiryu warrior, and one of the things they specialize in is demon-hunting). And then he/she notices Touta have no shadow and realizes he is a vampire, and for that reason attack Touta.

Edit: and now there is already English trans for it too... can we share eng trans and chinese raws here?

Based on that information,

Spoiler for Prediction:

I'm guessing that Kuroumaru is a character who at this point assumes that "all demons are evil" (despite the fact that there's a number of Negima characters who have demon's blood, yet are more good-natured), with him attacking Touta due to his connections with Yukihime being a result of her being quite the evil being before her time at Mahora. As such, by having Kuroumaru become an immortal via either Touta or Yukihime's hands, this could be a way for Kuro to "take a walk in their shoes" and realize that demons aren't 100% evil (although Kuro will likely now face the issue of betraying the demon exorcists that he/she works for).

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

Based on that information,

Spoiler for Prediction:

I'm guessing that Kuroumaru is a character who at this point assumes that "all demons are evil" (despite the fact that there's a number of Negima characters who have demon's blood, yet are more good-natured), with him attacking Touta due to his connections with Yukihime being a result of her being quite the evil being before her time at Mahora. As such, by having Kuroumaru become an immortal via either Touta or Yukihime's hands, this could be a way for Kuro to "take a walk in their shoes" and realize that demons aren't 100% evil (although Kuro will likely now face the issue of betraying the demon exorcists that he/she works for).

Well

Spoiler for ch3:

Isn't that the normal stance people have? Afterall Eva was hunted just because she was a vampire even long ago. We got used on Negima to the 3-A bunch, who don't care about demons, vampires, robots, but they're likely the exception.
I agree thought the situation will more likely make Kuroumaru see things differently.
And about his organization... I wonder if it will be connected to the Aoyama. One future arc could be something like a dispute between different groups of Shinmeiryuu and/or different branches of the Aoyama family.

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by chaosprophet

It's incredible how Chinese scans are out even before we get Japanese raws...

And this saddens me to no end! Why in Chinese, why! Something is wrong with this world, gaah!

Also, I agree with the fact that this new character is definitely a guy. A complete cool bishounen with a girly face, but still a guy.

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

And this saddens me to no end! Why in Chinese, why! Something is wrong with this world, gaah!

Also, I agree with the fact that this new character is definitely a guy. A complete cool bishounen with a girly face, but still a guy.

I wouldn't be that sure... some shots seems to look more like a guy, and some more like as girl. Kuroumaru identify itself as a male, but Touta got to see him/her naked at full frontal and thought it's a girl... Touta don''t seems to be interested in girls at his age but Yukihime would get out of the bath naked, so I do think he know enough about male and female anatomy to discern between the two.

All in all I would leave it as an unknown for now. I don't think Akamatsu would take too long to tell us what really is his/her gender.

[Tenzen12]

Ok after reading of translation

Spoiler for about Kuroumaru genre:

I do think he is male. On page 5 Touta got clear view on Kuro, so trying hide genre wouldn't have meaning. Yet "he" got angry for being called girl and Touta mentioned that he make his judgement according to face only, so he didn't look on that particular parts (though Kuro couldn't know that).