Shounen UQ Holder! by AKAMATSU Ken

[Demonspeed]

I get what you are saying Jammin but besides Kuroumaru and Eva I don't think relationships have been well built. I guess it helps because they were the first companions.

Karin's arcs were too fast and in the end it doesn't look like we'll learn much about her past. I find that Touta's characterization became worse later. Santa has been mostly irrelevant after his arc. Kirie did get a lot of screen time but mostly for repetitive stuff (I hate Kirie so I might be very biased here).

Akamatsu must be really tired.

Anyway, I am really hoping for an unambiguous happy ending.

 

[Jammin]

That's fair. A more fully expanded romance mini-arc would have been better. I thought Kirie's was about right but the other two could have been improved upon for sure.

That having been said a lot of times manga does this stuff off panel or not at all. So I'm admittedly pretty happy with anything I can get.

 

[kkck]

I'm noticing you have a very different read on the romance stuff than I do. My read on those sex scenes were that they did reflect a sort of commitment on thier and Tota's part. My take was that those scenes were settling into that idea that these characters do love each other and an expression of those feelings. All of them. That was what I took those scenes to mean. Tota X Karin got sort of finalized. So did Tota X Kuromaru and Tota X Kirie. Don't know what's coming next but I think that aspect of the harem is pretty set in stone unless something weird happens.

Regardless of all that, what I was asking wasn't so much about the pairing stuff but rather, in a broader sense, what resolution to the story in general would want to see? We got 2 chapters left, what form would those 2 chapters have to take for you to feel good about it? I'm just genuinely curious what you would want out of it.

On this I am coming from the perspective that immortals are not really exactly going to just go all in into committed relationships. Because they don't exactly need to, they have all the time in the world. On top of that the big one, yukihime, was left out. And now we have a sort of older tota that is more reliable than before. I feel like she is sort of in the way of a harem type scenario. If we go by the version of her that married nagi then she doesn't exactly appear to be into the harem stuff. Dunno how I'd feel about tota finally getting his way by evan throwing herself at him only for him to be worried about his harem. Then again negi might be around as well which would also be weird.

I suppose that primarily I want this whole thing with the mage of the beginning to be done with. We've had 2 whole mangas with her as the primary antagonist. Someone needs to put her out of her misery already. Supposedly this requires magic nullification though I can't recall tota specifically using that. I suppose that something we won't find out more of is vampire nobles. We saw a few of course but not that much in general (just ba'al, nikitis and dana). Something I am definitely looking forward to is what dana intends on doing with the peach thing she got from kirie. Dana doesn't get directly involved in stuff but I feel like she is about to throw the gang a bone. And maybe give kirie the option of becoming immortal yet again. Something I'd like to see is dana throwing tota a bone and giving him a chance to see his human friends that died one more time. The series shouldn't outright use time travel to cop out of their deaths but something to give tota some closure.

 

[Demonspeed]

Imagine if Ialda becomes a harem member .

 

[Jammin]

Imagine if Ialda becomes a harem member .

Now THAT would be swinging for the fences.

 

[kkck]

Chapter was fairly nice. Not sure of how everyone ended showing up though. I thought it was the thing negi mentioned earlier in the chapter but it doesn't seem like that was it. With this they have multiple magic nulification users along with multiple magia erebia users... That should be enough to seal the deal against ialda.

As for the time freeze... What am I missing here? Who could do that? Dana? I figured dana wouldn't show up for this battle at all.

 

[Demonspeed]

LOL Negi can solve anything.

No idea who it could be. Negi's mother? Or Zecht? Nagi's master whose story was never revealed? Maybe a new character entirely?

 

[Jammin]

Yeah, I don't know either. Dana is my guess.

Fingers crossed it's going to be "Is that.... Touta pulling off a Yukihime/Ialda threesome?". And Negi and Nagi are both like "I'M BLIND!!!"

 

[kkck]

LOL Negi can solve anything.

No idea who it could be. Negi's mother? Or Zecht? Nagi's master whose story was never revealed? Maybe a new character entirely?

Oh, I like both of those. Negi's mother is possible because time doesn't matter right now and whichever unknown power she had could be relevant.. And zecht (whom I had to google to remember) is probably some manner of immortal. Looking at the chapter at least fate was able to recognize this person...Though I don't think this narrows down the list of possible candidates.

 

[Demonspeed]

There we go, the happy ending. These last arcs have been really bad but this ending is satisfying enough even though there are a lot of questions which will probably never be answered by Akamatsu...

I really liked the series but Akamatsu started rushing things, with too much fanservice and sometimes too much Negima. Kinda sad to see what happened when it had so much potential. Would have probably been better if it had been weekly but he has his life.

Overall it's a 6 or 7/10 for me. Thanks God Eva/Yukihime got her happy ending.

 

[kkck]

So getting crapped out of plants is becoming sort of a thing now. Not sure of why there were two asunas...

I liked the ending. I would have thrown in a bit more romance between eva and tota though. If 12000 years have gone by then tota is finally age appropriate for eva. I am surprised that everyone's immortality lasted this long. For a second there I almost bought that the author could go for a future where humanity went extinct. I suppose it makes sense kirie would simply live out her life like that. Dana feels a tad absent at this point.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 9, 2022, Original Post Date: Feb 9, 2022 ---

Also, didn't even think of chao... even though it should have been one of the prime options lol.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 9, 2022 ---

Also, if ialda's ability for empathy was divided by every human... and eventually every human in the cosmos... doesn't that mean that humanity's collective empathy was increased? Feels like that should have been something that collectively improved humanity.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 9, 2022 ---

Also, why is shinobu fine? Did I miss something about her? I thought she died decades ago or something.

 

[Demonspeed]

Shinobu died too. She just lived longer than Mizore who died at 34. Are you confusing her with Karin?

 

[kkck]

Shinobu died too. She just lived longer than Mizore who died at 34. Are you confusing her with Karin?

No, I meant shinobu. When did they leave earth? Was this during the 42 years tota slept? And how did they meet again? Relativity?

 

[Jammin]

I am... ok with this, I guess? I think that's how I'd phrase my reaction.

For my tastes the last few chapters sort of messed up the flow that I was enjoying. In the sense that it spend a lot of time on the big Ialda confrontation battle-wise and really rushed the epilogue too much. It was fine. The huge spans of time were pretty cool. But outside of that it felt pretty standard battle manga stuff. So I was only "half into it" if that makes sense? So rushing the fight stuff I didn't care about. Rushing the character stuff...

I'm also pretty unclear on how Shinobu was alive. And Mizore dying at 34?! Dafaq?! Why would you put that in your epilogue?

I guess we'll never know why Dana wanted with Kirie's immortality. What was up with that? I thought for sure it was something we'd come back to but nope.

Ultimately, I thought it was fine. To be honest, the interesting part of UQ Holder's final stretch for me were the romance/harem stuff and what it did with that along with the long stretches of time it covered. The battle stuff and main plotline felt battle manga bog standard to me for the most part. Better than Negima's ending but fairly average for the kind of series it was.

Regrets for the series as a whole. I think it should have brought the time stuff in much earlier. Should have done it's romance and harem stuff earlier and spaced it all out a lot more. And generally just less focus on a single big bad. Instead spacing it out and embracing the idea of "missions only an immortal can do" while generally keeping more of a character focus. It did some of that but it should have done quite a bit more IMO. Just kind of defaulted to the standard big bad in the end.

Rating for me is a 6 out of 10. Better than average but very very flawed.

 

[kkck]

I am... ok with this, I guess? I think that's how I'd phrase my reaction.

For my tastes the last few chapters sort of messed up the flow that I was enjoying. In the sense that it spend a lot of time on the bit Ialda confrontation battle-wise and really rushed epilogue too much. It was fine. The huge spans of time were pretty cool. But outside of that it felt pretty standard battle manga stuff. So I was only "half into it" if that makes sense? So rushing the fight stuff I didn't care about. Rushing the character stuff...

I'm also pretty unclear on how Shinobu was alive. And Mizore dying at 34?! Dafaq?! Why would you put that in your epilogue?

I guess we'll never know why Dana wanted with Kirie's immortality. What was up with that? I thought for sure it was something we'd come back to but nope.

Ultimately, I thought it was fine. To be honest, the interesting part of UQ Holder's final stretch for me were the romance/harem stuff and what it did with that along with the long stretches of time it covered. The battle stuff and main plotline felt battle manga bog standard to me for the most part. Better than Negima's ending but fairly average for the kind of series it was.

Regrets for the series as a whole. I think it should have brought the time stuff in much earlier. Should have done it's romance and harem stuff earlier and spaced it all out a lot more. And generally just less focus on a single big bad. Instead spacing it out and embracing the idea of "missions only an immortal can do" while generally keeping more of a character focus. It did some of that but it should have done quite a bit more IMO. Just kind of defaulted to the standard big bad in the end.

Rating for me is a 6 out of 10. Better than average but very very flawed.

I suppose there will be a continuation manga at some point? WIth humanity meeting a galactic empire (star wars) it feels like there's some high sci fi concepts in there.

TBH I thought both mizore and shinobu died pretty early on. With the thanos virus.

Yeah, I thought we'd see more dana... As I read the chapter it felt like we were missing a council of danas. Regarding kirie's immortality, I suppose we might see this in the hypothetical new manga?

 

[Demonspeed]

No, I meant shinobu. When did they leave earth? Was this during the 42 years tota slept? And how did they meet again? Relativity?

TBH I am kinda confused about timelines and stuff. I'd have to reread.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 9, 2022, Original Post Date: Feb 9, 2022 ---

I think Akamatsu said it's his last manga but you never know. Maybe we'll get special chapters or something.

 

[Jammin]

TBH I am kinda confused about timelines and stuff. I'd have to reread.

We all are pretty confused, I think. But my understanding was like @kkcks that they died due to the virus.

I don't think we'll get another Negimaverse manga after this. Wouldn't mind if we did. But this felt fairly final. Filled with unresolved plot threads... but final.

 

[kkck]

Even negimaverse didn't start out as negimaverse... Negima was set in the same world as love hina, just a further point in time... WIth a different cast, setting and context. Even UQ holder is an alternate timeline from negima where asuna didn't return after her sleep. So technically a different future from negima... To me this definitely felt like an ending to all things ialda but I could easily see this a continuation of this universe's story. Or maybe a return to the original negima timeline... That said, the combat system at this point feels rather played out.

 

[Jammin]

He could do it for sure. I just don't think he plans on it.

He's clearly working on other things than manga, which might even be why the series ended as it did. So maybe he'll change his mind. But for now it seems like that isn't in the cards.

 

[kkck]

He could do it for sure. I just don't think he plans on it.

He's clearly working on other things than manga, which might even be why the series ended as it did. So maybe he'll change his mind. But for now it seems like that isn't in the cards.

Ohhhh, lol, wtf? Those are weird questions that he was asked there... Why even bother with that considering japan is one of the most homogenous countries in the world? Translating what he says feels a bit like he went "I want to refrain from opinions on this thing I don't know much about but this is ungodly stupid". Good luck on protecting his freedom of speech from private individuals though.