Shounen UQ Holder! by AKAMATSU Ken

[kkck]

In this case, I agree with you. I think it's totally out of character for Dana actually, But I still think that, or something similar too that is probably going to go down. There was this bit of throwaway dialogue during the explination of Ba'al's netbug in 179. Where it's explained that dying from that send the soul out into space. It's not quite the same as real death. Though coming back from it seemed unlikely. Which I take to mean it's totally going to happen.

Combine that with Dana grabbing this immortality fruit and those girls dying of the netbug thing... I think the odds are pretty high this is going to go that way. Somehow or other.

Ah, I don't recall those specific details about the netbug but in such a scenario it'd be more like... people bleeping back into existence if you will. If this is what happened to the people who died of the virus then I can actually picture dana taking steps to rescue those people. Specially if souls getting blasted into the void is something which inconveniences her.

 

[Jammin]

Ah, I don't recall those specific details about the netbug but in such a scenario it'd be more like... people bleeping back into existence if you will. If this is what happened to the people who died of the virus then I can actually picture dana taking steps to rescue those people. Specially if souls getting blasted into the void is something which inconveniences her.

That's pretty much exactly what is described in that chapter.

 

[Hermit]

 

[kkck]

Um, so kuromaru won? And his biology helped? I don't want to think about this.

Gengoro getting isekaid made me laugh. Shouldn't the big question here be who caused this? It sounds like it should take a fairly powerful mage to bring this about, much like how santa was made.

So... did pluto get moved above the earth's orbit? I am not sure I understood the last bit.

 

[rayanwatts]

It started off so great, tons of good action scenes, fairly smooth and quick story progression. Then he introduced 50 new characters, and made it more about fan service and harem drama than actual story and action. That's when I lost interest.
so reverse Negima?
Negima did have a lot of characters, but not all of them needed back stories, some just served the purpose of making the world look bigger than it already was. I did like Yuna's relationship to her dead mother, and I think that will never be touched in UQH.
I'm just upset because its like growing older and realizing that something you adored, might not be all that. I'm beginning to wonder if Negima was ever good.

 

[Jammin]

I can see where your coming from on that. UQ Holder always had a pacing problem more than anything else honestly. Which I honestly think part of that is just the slower release. As you may recall. Negima was a weekly comic that had 355 chapters. UQ Holder started that way and then switched to a monthly magazine. That transition I think is something Akamatsu has struggled with. Just managing it in general.

Whatever larger conflict he may have envisioned for this story. I don't think we're getting it. Or if we do it's going to be very abridged. Which I'm fine with because honestly I just don't think Ialda Baoth is very good. It's something for Touta and his friends to overcome. But it was definitely not enough to keep me engaged through month long breaks between chapters. I forgot UQ Holder existed multiple times in that last few years and the central conflict combined with the slower chapter releases really were the reasons for that. I love the characters and Akamatsu's style is always something I've enjoyed. But fighting the evil body hopping space ghost, not so much.

What I really am enjoying about how this manga is ending though are all riskier stuff it's doing. Like the sex parts, obviously. But even back to having Touta get timeskipped 43 years and exploring that aspect of immortality. That sort of thing I find really unique, cool, and wish had been explored earlier. All of those "smaller" things get more of a genuine reaction from me than the more standard "beat the bad thing in an epic action scene" stuff I'd been expecting.

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 8, 2021, Original Post Date: Jul 8, 2021 ---

Um, so kuromaru won? And his biology helped? I don't want to think about this.

Gengoro getting isekaid made me laugh. Shouldn't the big question here be who caused this? It sounds like it should take a fairly powerful mage to bring this about, much like how santa was made.

So... did pluto get moved above the earth's orbit? I am not sure I understood the last bit.

Yeah, the moon got send there somehow. As a result then ended up landing in a trap on the planet. I assume the moon is going to be used to attack the fleet they were supposed to be buying time for so it will all be up to Touta and company.

 

[kkck]

Welp.. so... that was a trip lol. Didn't expect gengoro to get logged out lol. They are getting isekai-ed wrong though, they should get hit by trucks.

 

[kkck]

Welp, new chapter out. Seems like getting isekai-ed wrong didn't have any negative consequences at least. Not sure of what the deal with genroro's parent is. I suppose he technically can go back home at any time?

And nodoka and yue got torn apart... brutal. And done very off handedly. I feel like I am missing something there.

Baal got weirdly political here. He is a few steps away from going full thanos at this point. Considering baal is a 12000 year old venusian his ranting sounds like what you'd expect from some pseudo intellectual college freshman.

Fate feels weirdly useless at this point. You'd think that someone who was an actual rival to negi would be able to contribute more to the story than a guy in a chair.

Not sure of how ikyu's immortality would be complete via the destruction of mankind. Sounds like the cosmo enthelecia project should be a direct threat to him. Unless he gets absorbed into it as an admin?

Yeah, ikku definitely needs to pay for what he did to the internet, even if unintentionally! Go santa! Unleash the unyielding wrath of a billion weebs!

 

[Hermit]

 

[Demonspeed]

Catching up. I just read Chapter 186.

Akamatsu has great ideas but when everything is so rushed it's not very enjoyable...

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 1, 2021, Original Post Date: Nov 30, 2021 ---

Caught up. So we are getting Touta and Negi VS Ialda in the end.

How many chapters are left? Three?

 

[kkck]

Read up to chapter 190... Gotta say, I find the bits with ikku utterly confusing. Why is santa a counter to him? Was he or was he not controlled by ialda?

 

[Demonspeed]

Read up to chapter 190... Gotta say, I find the bits with ikku utterly confusing. Why is santa a counter to him? Was he or was he not controlled by ialda?

Santa can control computers and stuff IIRC. I think Ikku's case is like Majin Vegeta in Dragon Ball. He had that desire in him and Ialda made it easier for him.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 9, 2021, Original Post Date: Dec 9, 2021 ---

Final battle... But there are only two chapters left, right?

Can't imagine a satisfying ending.

 

[kkck]

Welp, two chapters of UQ holder equal roughly 3-4 chapters of a weekly manga. Though yeah, as of now it does feel like you'd need at least 3 chapters for a satisfying ending. I suppose that the next chapter the final battle is decided and then the prologue. Where tota presumably fucks anything in the vicinity with a hole. Um, again.

 

[Jammin]

Here once again enters the resident UQ Holder apologist.

I don't hate any of this. It's sort of a whirlwind but it's exciting and I'm enjoying it. Are the next two chapters going to be good? No idea. Is Tota going to get laid again? Might as well. Probably not the best use of time, I'd rather have a few more pages of epilogue than I would ecchi, but the series has gone this far down that road why stop now? Just go for it, that's what I say.

 

[kkck]

Yukihime: Hey tota, are you legal now?
Tota: legally? yes. Technically? sort of. Should you? I mean, I have about 7 years of consciousness by now.
Yukihime: Good enough for me. *strips*
Yukihime: *looks at negi and nagi*
Yukihime: *puts shirt back on, rolls up sleves* GONNA ROCK THAT FAMILY TREE!
Kirie: wait, what about me?
Yukihime: Fine, you can have tota until I'm done blinking.
Kirie: Wait what?
Yukihime: *blinks*
Kirie:*just bones standing there*

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 10, 2021, Original Post Date: Dec 10, 2021 ---

Also, can someone remind me, what happened to the UQ holder timeline asuna? Shouldn't she be awake by now?

 

[Jammin]

Yukihime: Hey tota, are you legal now?
Tota: legally? yes. Technically? sort of. Should you? I mean, I have about 7 years of consciousness by now.
Yukihime: Good enough for me. *strips*
Yukihime: *looks at negi and nagi*
Yukihime: *puts shirt back on, rolls up sleves* GONNA ROCK THAT FAMILY TREE!
Kirie: wait, what about me?
Yukihime: Fine, you can have tota until I'm done blinking.
Kirie: Wait what?
Yukihime: *blinks*
Kirie:*just bones standing there*

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 10, 2021, Original Post Date: Dec 10, 2021 ---

Also, can someone remind me, what happened to the UQ holder timeline asuna? Shouldn't she be awake by now?

Funny, but the previous scenes were all done in the context of "romance" not... whatever that is. So that's what we can expect. If things go that way. Practically speaking a kiss works just as well but as I've said before I enjoy the novelty of actual sex happening. That does not bother me in any way as long as it makes some sense.

My question for you, or anyone really, is what do you really want from the finale here? What would make you happy?

For me, I've said this before but I don't feel like anything they he could do with Ialda Baoth would get there for me and that's been true for a while. Even if they had had 10 chapters to devote to that I'm not sure it could ever be improved above where it's at right now. They could have built to it better but bringing Negi and everybody back in a couple chapters for a big final fight scene is entertaining and I am enjoying it. But truth be told I'm more interested in where all the characters end up after the story than the resolution of the story itself at this point. As long as I end up with a resolution for the characters I feel like I'm going to walk away pretty satisfied. But that's me. I like harem romcom stuff. I like ecchi stuff (in moderation). I am not a "battles are the best part of battle manga" guy.

 

[Demonspeed]

With two chapters left. I want clean unambiguous happy ending.

 

[Jammin]

With two chapters left. I want clean unambiguous happy ending.

That is exactly what I want.

Just don't Negima me again. That's all that I ask of them.

 

[kkck]

Funny, but the previous scenes were all done in the context of "romance" not... whatever that is. So that's what we can expect. If things go that way. Practically speaking a kiss works just as well but as I've said before I enjoy the novelty of actual sex happening. That does not bother me in any way as long as it makes some sense.

My question for you, or anyone really, is what do you really want from the finale here? What would make you happy?

For me, I've said this before but I don't feel like anything they he could do with Ialda Baoth would get there for me and that's been true for a while. Even if they had had 10 chapters to devote to that I'm not sure it could ever be improved above where it's at right now. They could have built to it better but bringing Negi and everybody back in a couple chapters for a big final fight scene is entertaining and I am enjoying it. But truth be told I'm more interested in where all the characters end up after the story than the resolution of the story itself at this point. As long as I end up with a resolution for the characters I feel like I'm going to walk away pretty satisfied. But that's me. I like harem romcom stuff. I like ecchi stuff (in moderation). I am not a "battles are the best part of battle manga" guy.

To me it's a hard sell that the previous scenes were done within the context of romance. Ok, there is some of that but for the most part the lot of it was casual sex between people who are thirsty for one another. In general the series sort of shies away from actual commitment in relationships because, welp, the characters don't exactly need it. And to a great extent it might simply not be viable for immortals as it's far more likely that they simply outlive their relationships.

resolution wise... TBH on that end the only pairing that makes sense to me beyond the casual sex part is totahime. Mostly because the series has actually spent a decent amount of time building up tota for it. Specially with the bit regarding tota time traveling to meet a young eva. On top of that a decent part of his growth seems directed at making him a suitable, though still immature, mate to her. Even personality wise tota is closer to nagi than negi...

From then... the characters are immortal. Even low level immortals can live for hundreds of years. And most of their story arcs have been carried out to completion. As in, most of them don't really need further resolution and the story can end with them as is. I really can't think of anything else the story can squeeze out of kuromaru, karim or santa at least. We sort of know how kirie's story ends. She lives her life, dies in a flash and remains absent from the vast majority of the main cast's existence (specially karim's). Unless she gets her immortality back. Realistically speaking the only characters that need resolution at this point are tota and yukihime. And maybe finally finding out what species albireo is supposed to be (though maybe I forgot his deal).

 

[Jammin]

To me it's a hard sell that the previous scenes were done within the context of romance. Ok, there is some of that but for the most part the lot of it was casual sex between people who are thirsty for one another. In general the series sort of shies away from actual commitment in relationships because, welp, the characters don't exactly need it. And to a great extent it might simply not be viable for immortals as it's far more likely that they simply outlive their relationships.

resolution wise... TBH on that end the only pairing that makes sense to me beyond the casual sex part is totahime. Mostly because the series has actually spent a decent amount of time building up tota for it. Specially with the bit regarding tota time traveling to meet a young eva. On top of that a decent part of his growth seems directed at making him a suitable, though still immature, mate to her. Even personality wise tota is closer to nagi than negi...

From then... the characters are immortal. Even low level immortals can live for hundreds of years. And most of their story arcs have been carried out to completion. As in, most of them don't really need further resolution and the story can end with them as is. I really can't think of anything else the story can squeeze out of kuromaru, karim or santa at least. We sort of know how kirie's story ends. She lives her life, dies in a flash and remains absent from the vast majority of the main cast's existence (specially karim's). Unless she gets her immortality back. Realistically speaking the only characters that need resolution at this point are tota and yukihime. And maybe finally finding out what species albireo is supposed to be (though maybe I forgot his deal).

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.