March 12th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 26
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Karin is impressed that Touta beat Kaito without Magia Erebea, but Touta isn’t happy since he didn’t feel like he won on his own. Kaito still wants to die, but Touta isn’t going to fulfill his request. Nagumo comes to his fallen comrade to help him up. They are going to leave since they did what they came to do, and Karin is ready to let them do so, when Nagumo gets a call from his client, who’s been watching the battle via a drone. His client apparently wants Touta taken care of at any price, so setting Kaito back down, Nagumo apologizes to Karin and Touta, then is at Touta in an instant, though not through the shundou technique.
Karin pushes Touta aside to face Nagumo’s rapid blade draw. Nagumo cuts Karin with no damage, causing him to understand why CHAO Xinzi was so interested in Karin. Karin informs Nagumo that he cannot match her with his fighting style. Nagumo gets behind Karin, but her mallet follows him, causing him to defend with his katana, damaging it heavily. Karin charges as Nagumo gives her praise for what she did. She gets behind him, thinking she has him, but he just sighs, opens his eyes, and tells her that thinking such things foreshadows their defeat.
With that, Nagumo dodges her combined sword-mallet attack, pulls a wakizashi, then pumps the blade in rapid fashion, causing Karin and part of a power poll behind him to vanish. Touta is shocked as Nagumo comments on how immortals get careless because they can’t die.
Meanwhile, Karin finds herself in the vacuum of space just before she smacks into the surface of the moon. Karin is concerned because Touta can’t face Nagumo on his own.
Thoughts/Review:
How many moon jokes can I make with this post? Quite a lot I’m sure. The song “Fly Me to the Moon” is going through my head even now. ^_~
Karin’s fight with Nagumo was pretty nifty. There’s no doubt she’s wicked-bad when it comes to that sword and mallet of hers. Now we know why she keeps a mallet as well as her sword. ^_^
Still, it is pretty amazing that Nagumo sent Karin to the moon. We saw her thinking that she couldn’t breathe, but then there’s a thought bubble with a couple of coughs. So, how does an immortal like her “live” on the moon anyway?
I like her as a character, but I couldn’t help but think that Nagumo’s words regarding her thinking she had him was a comment as if to say, “all immortals are arrogant to a degree, so you’ll just have to deal with Touta’s arrogance.” Then again, this may be the start of Touta’s education on why one should not get arrogant and underestimate an opponent.
Which brings me to Touta. Now he gets to face Nagumo. So, what magical trick does he pull out of his hat? More Magia Erebea? Something we haven’t seen before to remind us of his awesomeness? ^_~
Speaking of Nagumo, what is that walking movement technique? Does he step out of time like Chao could do? After all, when he suddenly appeared before Touta, there were rings in the water to show where he’d walked even if no one saw him.
Also, is he a mind reader? He sighed just as she made her move on him, and he knew what she was thinking. It is possible he guessed, but they way he said it makes me think that it is possible he’s a telepath, or an empath.
So, there are questions about Nagumo for sure, as well as how Karin gets back from the moon. I look forward to seeing those answers. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean Karin is written out of the story for a while.
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Huh. I actually liked this chapter. Not much more to say than that.
I don’t it will be Touta who fits Nagumo, at least not for very long. Expect a “new challenger” arriving at the end of the next chapter.
Exactly! Those fireworks weren’t for nothing! I expect the cyborg (or maybe the glasses guy?) to come out next!
I’m still hoping for Eva. ^_~
For me, it was getting seconds on Karin’s awesomeness, then Nagumo showing off. ^_^
If you are right, I want Eva, mainly because Nagumo encountered her and knows her well.
Nagumo really kicked some ass right there and His eyes ! Scary ! Reminds me of Tsukuyomi when she was possessed by the Hina Blade.
Yeah, those eyes are freaky. I was actually thinking of the Red Priest in The Slayers. Not quite the same, but I was reminded of that. (Probably because I’m lending my Slayers DVD sets out to a friend.)
I think in chapter 6 we saw some immortals in space so I assume they’ll be rescuing Karin.
Nothing to do with this chapter but I’m wondering where Chao Lingshen fits into all this.
I wonder if she’s going to be off stage for a while, especially if some new character comes in.
Hopefully, we’ll get that answer.
Yea. I really want Touta and Kuroumaru to get to know some of the other members of UQ Holder, maybe go to Mahora since Karin is a student there.
I want Karin to get fleshed out more for sure.
I suspect that Akamatsu-sensei is going to try to keep the number of characters involved in a story to as few as possible. Every manga-ka I’ve read comments from regarding a story with lots of characters pretty much say it sucks to have a lot of characters to deal with. If I’m right, then moving Kuroumaru and Karin out of the way would allow for someone else from UQ Holder to show up.
I hope Touta gets fleshed out more soon, he’s a bit too sterotypical shonen protagonist, hopefully getting his memories back will help.
Ditto.
The two astronauts in space , Wasn`t one of them Jinbei ? They had same hair and had a cigarette on his mouth , lol.
I need to go back and look when I get home (assuming I remember).
Man, my spelling really left me there in the last sentence. Well, whatever.
*lol* No worries. Mine is terrible and then some. ^_^;;;
Is Nagumo’s last name “Kramden”? He’s definitely channeling some Jackie Gleason here. He definitely an interesting antagonist.
*LOL* It is my whacky mind for sure, but when I saw Karin had been sent to the moon, I though, “You know, Ralph would have loved Nagumo, even if Nagumo’s method for sending someone to the moon didn’t involve a punch in the kisser.”
Well in my eyes touta is the successor to jack rakan, the ultimate broken character who was so broken it not funny anymore.
Probably more close to Nagi than Jack Rakan.
You may well be right. I wish we knew a bit more about Nagi, but oh well.
Man , Not just Nagi.
I wanna know about Gateu ( His death ) , Zecht , Arika , Albiero , Gravemaster and Lifemaker , These interesting characters that Akamatsu didn`t have time to explore their pasts.
Ditto!
True nagi was 13 when he fought rakan to a draw… Negi was 10 but he was the type to boost and power up rather than having natural strength.
I think Nagi was about 10 when he won the Mahora Budokai, which was the linchpin to get Negi into that same tournament.
Haha yeah ! For 13 Hours of Fighting is Insane ! Changed the landscape and barely injured , Just a few blood here and there.
Actually Touta is more like Nagi than Rakan. A born winner with all the cool stuff from the start. Nagi was ridiculously powerful from young age while Rakan worked his way up to his Brokeness thanks to years of fighting, training and enormous amount of experience he has earned.
Nagi still trained. He didn’t bother to memorize spells though.
I can understand that comparison for sure.
The way I understood it he guessed what Karin was thinking. He is a pretty old guy and an immortal hunter to boot so he has decades of experience when it comes to fighting Immortals. He got to know their mentality and how they regard normal humans as seen in his comment about arrogance.
I feel that way too. He pretty much anticipated that Karin will immediately come in all-out for the finishing blow after breaking his weapon. There is a no more accessible and obvious blind-spot for a human than from behind, and since Karin is coming in full-offense, she doesn’t care about taking a hit or two especially because she’s immortal and can’t be damaged.
Though in her defense, she probably doesn’t expect that a simple one hit from a weapon could have that kind of an effect.
Well, that’s two folks who saw it differently from me. I guess you guys are right. For whatever reason, I wondered if he were actually seeing her thoughts somehow.
*lol* And sadly, it wasn’t even a hit, just a pump of the blade in the sheath. ^_^;
I suppose that could be how it went. For whatever reason, it looked like he might be a mind reader of some sort.