(L) UQ Holder!

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by xrick

Wouldn't a Key Art, normally, only come up after it were decided until where an adaptation goes?
If it's so, then your point gets muted.

The point I'm making is that someone thought it was a good idea to include in an adaptation that only lasts one cour a story that doesn't happen until 10+ volumes into the manga, resulting in a lot of rushing and cut arcs just to get to this, which would likely upset the manga readers (especially given the treatment that Negima had in anime form in the past).

[RDNexus]

That's why I no longer put much expectations in new stories and adaptations.
Only when a story goes well and a sequel is announced, do I get a bit hyped.

[4th Dimension]

Originally Posted by TnAdct1

..would likely upset the manga readers (especially given the treatment that Negima had in anime form in the past).

I would rather think that we would be used by now to expect the adaptations, outside couple OVAs to be terrible.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Episode 11.

I won't spoil anything actually important yet, but it's hilarious to see how, when the stripping sneeze hits the whole stadium, after the very brief closeup of shock everyone remains completely still in their seats like mannequins. That's some unflappable audience.

Also, the manga details are followed even when the events around them have been changed around so those details don't make sense anymore. So when Negi sneezes, he strips everyone facing him (fair enough) but he also strips Cutlass, who is standing next to him. You could say the sneeze has side range somehow too... except because Nodoka and Yue are standing at his other side and their clothes suffer no damage whatsoever, which makes no sense at all, wow.

Edit: Rewatching the scene, I can see Rakan and Yue deploying barriers (which seem copypasted on the scene quite badly, but whatevs) and I assume Yue gave Nodoka a barrier as well (since I don't think Nodoka can do that on her own), but then why were they all dicks and didn't give one to Cutlass too?

[4th Dimension]

Also wasn't his sneezing supposed to disintegrate the clothes into naughty bits concealing petals? And not just somehow magically strip them away?

So yeah. It follows pretty well the events of the manga, but the problem is that the proper context for actions is missing. The most egregious bit is the Eva's love life bits, and especially her words to Touka, which make MUCH more sense in manga, but they kinda manage to catch even that. But it's still not great.

But yeah, event wise it fits. Except that poor Santa and Fate aren't there. RIP

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

Also wasn't his sneezing supposed to disintegrate the clothes into naughty bits concealing petals? And not just somehow magically strip them away?

Well, I didn't comment on this because this retcon on how the sneezing works comes from the manga. In Negima it used to be clothes were pulverized into petals, but in UQ Holder's manga for some random season the clothes just go flying away, that can be seen clearly in the flashback double spread where the Sports Girls were stripped. It doesn't make any real sense since in most cases it'd be extremely uncomfortable for clothes to fly away disentangling themselves from the bodies (and without ripping apart, WTH). It makes more in-universe sense if the clothes are just exploded off, and I have no idea what prompted such a pointless change. Someone should ask Akamatsu on this, maybe?

[Team Rocket Elite]

Episode 11

Spoiler for Manga chapters covered:

This episode cover chapters 127-131 with a little bit of chapter 126. The first half of chapter 129 was skipped but it had already been covered in episode 1 and 9. A lot of the fight scenes were shorted or removed to fit the content into the episode. Chapters 129 onward are monthly chapters so the listing of 5 chapters is more like 8 weekly chapters of content.

I sort of wonder if they should have actually cut more content from earlier episodes so they could dedicate another episode to this final arc. It might have been better to sacrifice a bit more and then do a really good job on these final episodes that they sacrificed so much to reach.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

The series pretty much needed twice as many episodes to work at all. Hell, Negima, a far less complex story at the time, barely made any sense adapting six volumes in 26 episodes.

[Stark700]

ED card for this week's episode:

[TnAdct1]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

The series pretty much needed twice as many episodes to work at all. Hell, Negima, a far less complex story at the time, barely made any sense adapting six volumes in 26 episodes.

Maybe if the Kyoto arc was properly adapted and treated as an arc to end the season, leaving the door open for Season 2 (instead of butchering it and ending the Xebec version with a story that would force any future Negima anime to be an alternate telling of the series).

[4th Dimension]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

Well, I didn't comment on this because this retcon on how the sneezing works comes from the manga. In Negima it used to be clothes were pulverized into petals, but in UQ Holder's manga for some random season the clothes just go flying away, that can be seen clearly in the flashback double spread where the Sports Girls were stripped. It doesn't make any real sense since in most cases it'd be extremely uncomfortable for clothes to fly away disentangling themselves from the bodies (and without ripping apart, WTH). It makes more in-universe sense if the clothes are just exploded off, and I have no idea what prompted such a pointless change. Someone should ask Akamatsu on this, maybe?

If I have to guess any reason for anything in this anime, it's probably has to do with budget, and this thing having none. So they probably judged it too expensive to animate thousands of petals swirling on screen.
Although I'm pretty sure the same could have been done with some computer effects and such... in a TERRIBLE way. But than this thing already showed us Unity asset level monsters back in Ep 3?

Originally Posted by Team Rocket Elite

Episode 11

Spoiler for Manga chapters covered:

This episode cover chapters 127-131 with a little bit of chapter 126. The first half of chapter 129 was skipped but it had already been covered in episode 1 and 9. A lot of the fight scenes were shorted or removed to fit the content into the episode. Chapters 129 onward are monthly chapters so the listing of 5 chapters is more like 8 weekly chapters of content.

I sort of wonder if they should have actually cut more content from earlier episodes so they could dedicate another episode to this final arc. It might have been better to sacrifice a bit more and then do a really good job on these final episodes that they sacrificed so much to reach.

Well if your eventual goal is to do the final fight I guess you absolutelly need to do the following:

1. Introduce the combatants and their powers
2. Introduce the stakes
3. If you want to include the mind screw fight, than you need to do the bits that tie to it

Point 1 was done kinda okay for Touta and Kuromaru. Problem is that Touta never really got the required upgrades to his knowledge of his powers so the jump to suddenly fighting Negi, especially for those that know Negima (which is certainly gonna be more than the people who know UQ). Then again the fight vs Fate I guess is supposed to be there to serve as a reminder that he could step up, but that's not really convincing. Especially since the anime version has no knowledge of what his actual power is, Magia Ereba and Martian princess shenanigans.
Kirie and Eva were left out here. I suppose they expect the viewers to be familiar with Eva from Negima, but Kirie really gets the short end of the stick. This is especially true in absence of the training arc, her previous encounter with Cutlass and such where she got to show off that she is not really just a support character.
For me IMO, Danna's shenanigans should have been necessary. But eh, it's hard to really figure how to compress the 100 issues of escalating stakes into couple of episodes.
Point 2: The stakes are also not really there? Then again even in the manga, only now, 100+ issues in are we starting to get the inkling what the crisis is actually about. But here it's all kinds of not there. Why, who, what is Ialda, Negi etc? What do they want etc? Because as it is, they look just like some random bad guys that have history with Eva and are doing bad things because.
Point 3: With the cutting of the training the tie to Eva's backstory is gone, which is why this cut back to her backstory in Anime without any context is jarring. Especially since they have her speaking her manga lines in a COMPLETELY different context. So the mind fight doesn't really work here.

And all this is exacerbated by the fact that they tried to shoehorn in the romance subplot, with both the normies which don't really figure in the last fight.
To be fair they had to do some such shenanigans since they are kinda the hearth of the show. Just having fighting on the other hand would make it bland, ESPECIALLY since the production values on the fights aren't really all that great. Which has been my complaint the whole time.

So yeah, I don't really know how would I try to go from Ch 1 to Ch 100 in 12ish episodes.
Maybe a start In Media Res from a later point? So we don't spend like 3 episodes doing first like 20 issues?

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

The series pretty much needed twice as many episodes to work at all. Hell, Negima, a far less complex story at the time, barely made any sense adapting six volumes in 26 episodes.

Although I'm preeety sure they could have cut quite a bit rom-com shenanigans that weren't really necessary and focus on the crazy shit. Like I'm pretty sure the Anime does the mostly inconsequential tag match pretty much in detail. Which is why as others say the Kyoto Arc, the true hook for the rest, is REALLY weak.

PS: Despite it all I still think given the apparent lack of budget AND the insanity of the said goal, they didn't do too badly. In fact I don't think they could have done much better given the constraint of going from Ch 1 to the fight in Ch 100+ and budget and having to introduce potential waifu-s.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Preview for Episode 12 out now.

Nice to see both

Spoiler for guess who:

Fate

and the budget could make a comeback for the finale, even if it's too late to save the series by now.

[4th Dimension]

So they upgraded the animators from pay in peanuts to pay in japanese Hamburger equivalent.
I expected that most of the budget went to the finale.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

I thought Rakan actually sounded more in character in this episode than in the UQ manga, and I liked the animation boost even if it's too little, too late.

Spoiler for Surprise appearance!:

So, um, when Touta gets Chizuru's artifact shoved in his butt, he smiles and says it feels good, while in the Negima manga Negi was downright crying about it, heh heh. I mean, I know the circumstances were very different, but it's still kind of funny. I see meme fodder here?

[4th Dimension]

Is it me or was the entire 3A bit made up whole cloth. Especially since to me it stank of that stupid movie version of the Negima end.
But in any case it's kinda the worst part of thist episode despite me being Negima fan more than UQ fan because of how lackluster the entire bit was. Just like the last Negima flashback it's SERIOUSLY lacking any momentum and speed. 3A is a chaotic thing. You can't do them and NOT do it with quick cuts and fast flowing, rapid fire events. Especially since NOONE in 3A is likely to just WAIT while the other girl does her thing.

The improved production quality was good, but still the fight was lackluster. In particular, the sense of speed these two lighting powered superhumans should have was almost completely gone. This was ESPECIALLY noticeable in the far away shots of the tower, where they zipped about REAL slow.

And then at the end they do the setup for the training arc (which will not be adapted) and the entire Touta's confession thing.

So this was kinda MEH.

And unfortunately the finale did not wow me sufficiently to warrant all the problems brought about by the decision to gun this far into the manga.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Is it me or was the entire 3A bit made up whole cloth. Especially since to me it stank of that stupid movie version of the Negima end.

The whole 'all of 3-A shows up to do each a little useless bit until the situation magically fixes itself, despite the fact all of their efforts achieved nothing until then' resolution was actually done first in the XEBEC anime, then in SHAFT's, then in the Negima Neo manga spinoff, and then in the movie. Now here, too.

Since they were throwing everyone in already, why not Kotaro too? It's not like him being there would have made things even more ridiculous by that point, so why not? Why do anime crews seem to hate Kotaro so much? Natsumi is even giving Negi lovey dovey eyes, to boot, heh heh.

Also, I have to wonder if the Sports Festival happened in this universe, because the strategy to deal with Negi was pretty much the same, with Natsumi and Ako and then Chachamaru and Chisame and... wait, why to alter the beam to strip mode in THIS case? In the manga it made sense given the context, but what was the point here? The blast didn't even hit Negi, just themselves, so was the point convincing Negi through giving him a boner? You could've achieved the same effect by just stripping yourselves the normal way.

Anyway, didn't the Sports Festival happen here, or was Negi idiotic enough to fall for the same 'in the butt' trick twice?

And what's with the two Yues and Nodokas? Here they're with the Mage of the Beginning, and then here they are against him. I get they're different 'incarnations' of the duo, but in both cases it's the spirit of the girls showing up, right? Touta!Yue seems to call her other self a fake, but then the other Nodoka and Yue, at the end, seem to be genuinely moved and convinced by Negi's words, implying they aren't just MOTB created puppets.

The girls Touta had inside of himself had to be part of the actual girls and not just manifestations of Touta's own heritage since that's like having your genes having memories of your grandparents' lives and speaking of them even though you have no idea whatsoever, they are obviously moved by actual feelings towards Negi, so we've gotta buy they're the real article to some degree, but... how does that work with Ayaka, Mana and Sayo (and Zazie should count as well, even if she was adapted out of meeting Touta in the real world for some reason) who also still exist out of Touta? Shouldn't they at least be shown at the end giving a wink they've just lived through that too in their own way? How is any of this supposed to work at all?

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

And what's with the two Yues and Nodokas? Here they're with the Mage of the Beginning, and then here they are against him. I get they're different 'incarnations' of the duo, but in both cases it's the spirit of the girls showing up, right? Touta!Yue seems to call her other self a fake, but then the other Nodoka and Yue, at the end, seem to be genuinely moved and convinced by Negi's words, implying they aren't just MOTB created puppets.

The 3-A girls are memories, not spirits. Not sure what Ialda girls are.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

But they can't be memories because they belong to Touta, and Touta was not there in the first place to have those memories. My understanding is they are a part of the original girls given life through Touta (since he's apparently cloned from them all in this version... have to wonder if it's the same in the manga. It's been said he's a clone of Negi and Asuna there, but not that he's EXCLUSIVELY cloned from them), some of their life essence and personalities, which is pretty much the same thing as being part of their spirits. Calling them memories may make poetic sense, but from a narrative viewpoint makes no actual sense with what's being actually shown in the screen.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by NapoleonDeCheese

But they can't be memories because they belong to Touta, and Touta was not there in the first place to have those memories. My understanding is they are a part of the original girls given life through Touta (since he's apparently cloned from them all in this version... have to wonder if it's the same in the manga. It's been said he's a clone of Negi and Asuna there, but not that he's EXCLUSIVELY cloned from them), some of their life essence and personalities, which is pretty much the same thing as being part of their spirits. Calling them memories may make poetic sense, but from a narrative viewpoint makes no actual sense with what's being actually shown in the screen.

They're memories inherited from his progenitors Negi and Asuna. It may not make a lot of sense, but it's not the kind of story that requires it. Genetic memory is a common enough trope.

And if you want to talk about "making sense", Chao, for one, would have been long gone by the time they even thought of creating Touta. It's likely a few others would be dead.

[NapoleonDeCheese]

Jesus, by this point it'd have been easier just to summon the ghosts of 3-A and have them stand next to Mana, Sayo, Eva, Ayaka and Asuna (and Zazie, I guess) maybe talking Yue and Nodoka into joining them too (which would have been another callback to the Sports Festival since they already were doing that anyway). It'd certainly have been narratively smoother, except because Akamatsu seems simply deadly afraid of outright saying this-and-that-character are dead even if it's blatantly implied (see also- Arika).

Also, I've noticed Chao must have a damn good anti-nudity clause in her contract. This time we see even Satsuki naked, but once again Chao escapes the fanservice patrol. Good for you, girl.