ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 003 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta and Yukihime are walking down the road when Touta realizes the tower is still super far away. Yukihime reminds him that taking public transportation would be bad if a bounty hunter found them. Rolling with it, Touta sins again, then mentions that once they get settled in the capital, he can return to visit his friend Shinobu. Yukihime tells him to give up on making friends due to their undying condition, saying he’d regret it if he did. Touta rejects this.

At a rest area, Touta decides to take a swim, having seen a waterfall nearby. Yukihime warns him to be careful of bounty hunters. Getting into the water Touta is floating on his back, relaxing, when he bumps into another person butt with his head. The person takes offense and attacks with a sword. Touta is blasted out of the water and lads on a nearby rock, but as he goes to praise his opponent, that person challenges him. Touta thinks it is a girl, leading the person to take great offense, coming in to punch Touta for it.

Out of the water and fully dressed, Touta apologizes to the “guy” for thinking “him” a girl. Touta is told that anyone would be bothered by having been groped in the fashion Touta did. The two head to the rest area and discuss how the population of Japan has migrated to the capital, leaving ghost towns all over. The two finally introduce themselves, the newcomer stating their name as TOKISAKA Kuroumaru. After making amends, Touta lifts up Kuroumaru’s hair to uncover the face, believing this to really be a girl, leading to Kuroumaru’s anger.

When Touta hears that Kuroumaru comes from the tower, he really wants to be friend with this person from outer space. Since the two get along, Touta figures he has one over on Yukihime.  As they sit and chat, Kuroumaru reveals that in order to return, “his” mission must be accomplished, “he” must find Eva. Touta reveals that this is his traveling companion, shocking Kuroumaru. Then Kuroumaru notices Touta has no reflection in the glass and reveals that “his” clan hunt the undead and demons. As such, Kuroumaru has to put an end to Touta’s life. Using the Shinmeiryuu techniques, Kuroumaru starts an attack, but “his” blade is caught by Yukihime with her finger and thumb. Kuroumaru realizes this is the target, but before anything else can happen, Yukihime puts a hand through Kuroumaru’s chest.

Thoughts/Review:

There’s only eighteen pages, but yet there’s a ton to talk about her.

First, lets get to the least important item — it Kuroumaru a girl or a boy?  Because of the “who are you calling a girl” aspect of the chapter, and Kuroumaru’s usage of the masculine pronoun “boku” to refer to themself, I’ve used the masculine pronouns, though with quotes for now.

Do I think that Kuroumaru is a guy? I think “he” is actually a reverse-trap. Although there are some masculine aspects to Kuroumaru in the drawings (which could be the result of disguise techniques), certain things purposefully done by Akamatsu-sensei leave room for doubt. Kuroumaru’s first instinct upon having a boy’s face planted into “his” ass is to cover “his” chest and attack.Then, while holding a sword in a defensive stance, Kuroumaru makes sure to keep the towel up.  I ask you, what guy does that, especially a wiry guy who’s in shape?

Touta never actually saw Kuroumaru’s naughty bits, so when Touta looks closely at Kuroumaru’s face, he again sees a girl, not a guy. It is not uncommon for a girl to pass themselves off as a guy in anime or manga, especially in a story like this. We may find out pretty soon whether Kuroumaru is actually a dude or a chick.

Those who were worried about Eva having lost a step, I think this chapter proves that to be an unfounded fear. Granted, we haven’t seen Kuroumaru doing much beyond the attack and punch of Touta, but one would think “he” wouldn’t be sent on a mission to hunt Eva without being fairly highly skilled. Eva stopped Kuroumaru’s attack with a finger and thumb without even trying, then put her hand through Kuroumaru’s chest like it was paper.  She hasn’t lost a step.

Still, this chapter reminded me of when Eva gave a very brief racap of how she became a vampire and her life afterward to Setsuna and Asuna. Asuna kept wanting to forgive her, and Eva rejected that because she took lives willingly, even if it was forced on her.  As such, her going for an immediate kill of Kuroumaru makes sense to me. Here’s someone hunting her down, and the best way to remove a threat like this is to kill them.

While I’m always wondering about the bounty on Eva’s head, this chapter would explain why people have reason to fear her and to put a bounty on her. We haven’t seen Eva create thralls yet, but that could happen. We haven’t seen her use her doll abilities either, but that could still happen. Akamatsu-sensei has a tightrope to walk with Eva’s character, who’s been established to be a powerful, boss-type in a video game (though not the final boss). One can’t have her blowing away ever opponent, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with her.

Another thing that strikes me is how Eva is underestimated. She has what I assume is an impressive bounty for the current future date of this manga. The bounty hunter of the first chapter manages to get the drop on her, but doesn’t finish the job, allowing Eva to regenerate. (Whatever happened to him?)  Kuroumaru’s clan is underestimating Eva since Kuroumaru was sent out with a specific mission to hunt Eva. Unless they were ridding themselves of Kuroumaru.

I saw CanonRap mention this story setting up the Setsuna angst story, and I agree there. But I think we are going to get a bit more than that. I think we are going to get the Setsuna outcast story that Akamatsu-sensei never got to tell in Negima (beyond us knowing that Setsuna was cast out from her tribe because of her white wings). My sense of things is that Kuroumaru’s clan cast “him” out, but with an option to return should “he” do the impossible — kill Eva. We’ll see what Akamatsu-sensei does with all this.

Finally, it appears that Touta is about to lose his annoying happy-go-lucky attitude.  There’s being positive and such, but I’ve been rather bothered by how he so readily accepts the fact that he’s a vampire.  Yeah, you can point to the previous chapter where he whines about not physically maturing any, but it was all superficial stuff. There was no deep thought behind this massive change in Touta’s life. Eva putting a hand through Kuroumaru’s chest not only accomplishes what she wants to do in dealing with a threat, but she’s using it as an educational moment for Touta — “Get real, little puppy! The world is a dangerous place for us.” She may force Touta into a position of having to save Kuroumaru by cursing his new friend with immortality (assuming Kuroumaru isn’t some sort of youkai already).

Well, I thought that would be it, but then I remembered something else. Another element from Negima which seemed would play a more important role, but then got shoved to the side, is Eva’s vampirism.  Volume 3 of that manga was where the majority of the vampire stuff came out, with minor bits happening thereafter (such as Eva’s tuition “payments”).  Now that we discover that Touta has no reflection, I’m kinda hoping the vampire elements play a larger part.

Three chapters in, and I’m liking things quite a bit. UQ Holder is much darker than Negima! was, certainly at this point. I don’t have a problem with that.