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

[novalysis]

I actually wonder, is Touta's idiocy a deliberate move? I think Akamatsu intends to base him on Asuna's idiocy, while most fans expected the second coming of Negi Springfield. His blandness is forgivable, if it's a result of Evangeline erasing his memories, and his original personality as a result, and the actual personality under those memories turns out to be different, more purposeful, and less... immature. The memory wipe is the first parallel I am seeing here, but the more of Touta I'm reading, the more obvious it is that Akamatsu has Asuna and Koutaru in mind, than Negi Springfield.

That being said, some of the things that Touta says almost makes it seem that Akamatsu's deliberately parodying the Shounen protagonist almost blind dedication to some kind of distant goal, by giving Touta none at all save a strange "climb the tower", and giving Touta bizarre arbitrary goals such as "become leader of the UQ Holders". In-fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to Touta's insistence of seeking to "climb the tower - just because he feels he must" than meets the eye.

If indeed, Touta's strange fixation has a very compelling and substantial reason that comes from his past, I think that would redeem Touta in my eyes. Akamatsu is fully capable of foreshadowing - I wouldn't be surprised if there's some foreshadowing going on in these early chapters that isn't that obvious.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Climb the tower and reach Mars/Mundus Magicus? What if he is a prince of a reformed kingdom Ostia.

Not the first time the corrupt Confederation senate attempted a regicide.

[galdr]

Originally Posted by novalysis

I actually wonder, is Touta's idiocy a deliberate move? I think Akamatsu intends to base him on Asuna's idiocy, while most fans expected the second coming of Negi Springfield. His blandness is forgivable, if it's a result of Evangeline erasing his memories, and his original personality as a result, and the actual personality under those memories turns out to be different, more purposeful, and less... immature. The memory wipe is the first parallel I am seeing here, but the more of Touta I'm reading, the more obvious it is that Akamatsu has Asuna and Koutaru in mind, than Negi Springfield.

That being said, some of the things that Touta says almost makes it seem that Akamatsu's deliberately parodying the Shounen protagonist almost blind dedication to some kind of distant goal, by giving Touta none at all save a strange "climb the tower", and giving Touta bizarre arbitrary goals such as "become leader of the UQ Holders". In-fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to Touta's insistence of seeking to "climb the tower - just because he feels he must" than meets the eye.

If indeed, Touta's strange fixation has a very compelling and substantial reason that comes from his past, I think that would redeem Touta in my eyes. Akamatsu is fully capable of foreshadowing - I wouldn't be surprised if there's some foreshadowing going on in these early chapters that isn't that obvious.

Asuna didn't change much after regaining her memory though.

I hope he get character development soon or anything. Negi become much more interesting after learning his tragic past and his desire for revenge beneath his cheerful facade.

[Fenrir_valindri]

Negima really didn't become that interesting until Evangline's arc, so I'm more then willing to give this a shot.

The foundation for a good story is already there, so I'm content to wait for it to develop.

[Dusk_]

Could be that Kuroumaru is a genderless homunculus, or something of that nature.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Originally Posted by Dusk_

Could be that Kuroumaru is a genderless homunculus, or something of that nature.

From Eva's comment Kuro is augmented to be an immortal. Change from a mortal to her current state.

[Dusk_]

Originally Posted by ReddyRedWolf

From Eva's comment Kuro is augmented to be an immortal. Change from a mortal to her current state.

Which doesn't really rule out the (physically) genderless option.

[AstroNerdBoy]

Originally Posted by Dusk_

Could be that Kuroumaru is a genderless homunculus, or something of that nature.

I was leaning that way for a while, but the latest chapter has me thinking that she may well be from a karasu-tengu (crow tengu) clan since tengu are almost always male. A lot of other things about tengu could easily fit, such as their superior martial arts skills which were taught to ninja, samurai, and the like; their (modern) protection of shrines and temples; their helping humans, etc. I speculate on this in great detail on the blog as I think that Kuroumaru's tribe being karasu-tengu explains a lot, including her clans attitude toward Kuroumaru and why she's desperate to be thought of as male.

[TnAdct1]

For those expecting some Negima connections in the church that Touta and crew are assigned to protect,

Spoiler for Chapter 13:

A spoiler image from the next chapter reveals that one of the nuns is named Mikan Kasuga. Anyone expect her to be related to Misora in some way (and that the Kasuga females have a tradition of being "ninja nuns")?

[AstroNerdBoy]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

For those expecting some Negima connections in the church that Touta and crew are assigned to protect,

Spoiler for Chapter 13:

A spoiler image from the next chapter reveals that one of the nuns is named Mikan Kasuga. Anyone expect her to be related to Misora in some way (and that the Kasuga females have a tradition of being "ninja nuns")?

I'd love for that to be the case.

[Requiem-x]

Haven't been here for a while, mainly to not stain this thread with overall dislike, but chapter 13 was actually pretty enjoyable.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

That nun is identical to Misora, dear god

Other than that, it was mostly about Karin showing how cool she is (Touta didn't even need, or rather, had time, to hijack the episode), with typical high-quality Akamatsu action. Good stuff. Also, the grunts being self aware was pretty funny.

We also got more of Akamatsu's great world building, but...

Spoiler for What he fought for:

So far it seems all Negi accomplished was to deepen socio-economic segregation, give psychos and criminals access to magic, and turn most of Japan into one giant ghost town.

I kinda hope he's actually dead now... just so he doesn't see this.

[OverMaster]

Yeah, it does feel like Akamatsu is spitting on the face of what Ala Alba struggled to do, which irks me a lot.

Overall, this chapter keeps giving me the same 'going through the Shonen motions' vibes. It lacks the spark, the extra thing that sets the best Shonen from the run-of-the-mill material. You've seen all of this already, and better, like everywhere else.

[kagato3]

The dark skinned nun was noticeably absent durring the nun roll call but the presence of a Kasuga raise the likelihood she is Misora's old partner. Well these seem to be some of the first signs of Chao's future so many of these events would have happend without Negi in fact Chao makes it sound worse. UQ Holder also seems to have been formed to help those slipped through the cracks and help restore order . It's also likely that other members of the class or thier descendents are doing what they can to help. It's not like they really had that massive amount of political power. Realistically the mars teraforming project doesn't do much for the earth side other then drain resources and magic world trade would be limited as there isn't much that is worth exporting at this time other then some magic items and it seems that that is only something that has started recently.

[whitecloud]

Well....kuroumaru most likely a half tengu? Since karasu tengu is all male, but it doesnt include half tengu...

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by OverMaster

Yeah, it does feel like Akamatsu is spitting on the face of what Ala Alba struggled to do, which irks me a lot.

Overall, this chapter keeps giving me the same 'going through the Shonen motions' vibes. It lacks the spark, the extra thing that sets the best Shonen from the run-of-the-mill material. You've seen all of this already, and better, like everywhere else.

On the other hand, Chisame and Yue's long rants in Negima themselves suggest that quite a few members of the Ala Alba might have had sufficient foresight to have seen where things were going to end up. One could have only guessed how dismayed they were at these developments, even though they might have seen their inevitability.

Here's the interesting thing: it makes Chao Lingshen's backstory, as well as the Mars-Earth War in Asuna's Bad End timeline quite believable. I wouldn't be surprised if UQ Holder represents the mid-point of the chain of socio-economic developments that created enough contradictions, inequalities and instabilities to produce a general war.

But I agree. This chapter feels as if Akamatsu's going through the motions. I wonder though: is he trying to set up an expectation of a normal Shounen manga, only to drop twists that tries to subvert the genre, much like Early Negima was full of harem cliches, which were then subverted into a Shouenen action.

The question I think, is which time-line UQ Holder is set in. Is it set in on the Asuna Bad-end time-line, or the Asuna returns time-line? It certainly isn't set in Chao Lingshen's time-line, unless the elevator has a different origin from UQ Holder, than in Negima.

UQ Holder: The unintended consequences of Negi Springfield's Success? Or the inevitable outcome of forces beyond Negi's control, and actually not necessarily one of the worst of possible time-lines?

I'm waiting for the punchline, where Akamatsu turns the whole cliche shounen scenario upside down. I suspect it's going to be a long wait, if ever.

[whitecloud]

Since magic is revealed to the whole world, it is definitely not in chao timeline...but it is more likely in the bad end timeline...the one that asuna overslept, i guess evangeline in this timeline is just bidding her time waiting for asuna to awaken, for chao to send asuna into the past and also to fix whatever problem preventing asuna from awaken, such as lifemaker, (with uq holder) plus maybe searching for negi on the sideline?

[Requiem-x]

Originally Posted by novalysis

UQ Holder: The unintended consequences of Negi Springfield's Success? Or the inevitable outcome of forces beyond Negi's control, and actually not necessarily one of the worst of possible time-lines?

And once again, the connections with Negima are the main reason why people is following this. Or at the very least, the main topic of discussion. Not a good sign.

About the waiting issue, I've heard that is unfair to judge the series, and Touta in particular, so early, since Negima also took its sweet time to change things from regular harem, and while I do agree it might be a bit soon to trash our protagonist (even though he IS the embodiment of every over-used shounen cliche ever), the series as a whole needs help. The things is, Negima had a truckload of girls from the get go, and while it wasn't the most original of concepts, it did keep things interesting, it gave the chance for everyone to have their favorite, and after the pactios were introduced, it helped with the discussions and speculation. UQ Holder doesn't have that kind of hook yet, at least not one it can call its own, as in, one that has nothing to do with Negima. Maybe that will change, but it hasn't had the most riveting start.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Requiem-x

And once again, the connections with Negima are the main reason why people is following this. Or at the very least, the main topic of discussion. Not a good sign.

About the waiting issue, I've heard that is unfair to judge the series, and Touta in particular, so early, since Negima also took its sweet time to change things from regular harem, and while I do agree it might be a bit soon to trash our protagonist (even though he IS the embodiment of every over-used shounen cliche ever), the series as a whole needs help. The things is, Negima had a truckload of girls from the get go, and while it wasn't the most original of concepts, it did keep things interesting, it gave the chance for everyone to have their favorite, and after the pactios were introduced, it helped with the discussions and speculation. UQ Holder doesn't have that kind of hook yet, at least not one it can call its own, as in, one that has nothing to do with Negima. Maybe that will change, but it hasn't had the most riveting start.

But the whole story is revolving around the outcome of events put into motion at the end of Negima. Starting from the Space Elevator which is Touta's obsession.

I agree that the early chapters of Negima had a truckload of Harem Cliches. But having time to reconsider it, I think there's some reasons to be optimistic here. For one, consider how fast Akamatsu blew through the Training Arc, or the initial Journey for that matter for UQ Holders - those two are staple Shounen progressions, which sometimes could consume entire volumes. I wouldn't be surprised if a tournament arc is coming up soon, and once all those Shounen Cliches are consumed, that's where the meat of UQ Holder would emerge.

Because right now, those signposts are being consumed at a rapid rate. It's almost as if Akamatsu is rushing - this arc would either take a huge twist, or would be over in two more chapters by the looks of it.

[OverMaster]

So, how is the series doing in Japan? At this point, we already should have some numbers on how it's doing in the magazine, even if the first tankoubon isn't out yet.

Also, out of the initial tiny burst in related images around Chapter 3 or so, there's been nearly no Japanese fanart on the series that I know of, and that seems to be a more or less reliable indicator on a series' popularity.

[Hiss13]

Originally Posted by OverMaster

So, how is the series doing in Japan? At this point, we already should have some numbers on how it's doing in the magazine, even if the first tankoubon isn't out yet.

Also, out of the initial tiny burst in related images around Chapter 3 or so, there's been nearly no Japanese fanart on the series that I know of, and that seems to be a more or less reliable indicator on a series' popularity.

That's not really a reliable indicator. Fairy Tail, for example, had little to no fan art from Japan until its anime got released.