August 28th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy UQ Holder Chapter 001 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
KONOE Touta is with five of his friends, all armed with bokken (wooden practice swords), waiting for Touta’s guardian, Yukihime-sensei, to arrive. As she walks down the path to school, they ambush her, but she easily defeats them since she has a barrier protecting her, allowing her to counter attack easily. Villagers and other students applaud Yukihime-sensei, who then puts all five guys under punishment during class, reminding them of the reason that the village chief decreed that if the boys wanted to go to the capital, they had to do so through Yukihime-sensei. Touta protests her barrier, which he believes to be magical in nature. She is not amused and expels them all from class with force, out into the fields.
In the teacher’s room, Tachibana-sensei asks Yukihime-sensei if she can use the rumored magic he’s heard about. Her reaction lets him know it is true, and he excitedly talks about the subject, including the fact that here are apps to allow normal people to use magic. He thinks she should teach the kids magic, but she refuses, saying that they might do evil with it.
At a hilltop graveyard overlooking a large body of water, Touta prays at three tombstones set apart from the rest. One contains his mom, one his dad, and one his “jiichan”, a certain Negi Springfield. His buddies come up, but since Nikumaru hadn’t heard what happened to Touta, one of the others tell him that Touta’s parents died in an auto accident two years ago, with only Yukihime-sensei and Touta surviving. Nikumaru asks if Touta’s constant challenging of Yukihime is due to resentment, but he says it is just the opposite, informing them that he has no memories from before the accident. With that, they once again resolve to make it to the capital and climb the tower to the sky, which they can see in the far distance.
That night when Yukihime comes home, Touta is waiting on the beam above the door and pounces down on her. She easily fends off his attack, then brings the pain to him, seriously damaging the floor as a result so that Touta is forced to fix it again. Touta makes dinner and asks Yukihime to teach him magic, which she won’t. As they eat, she recalls the real event that happened with Touta’s parents, who died protecting him from some vicious attack with spears. She grants their dying wish to save the boy, so she becomes his official guardian and spends the next two years with him.
After losing yet again to Yukihime-sensei, where she expels the boys to a nearby shrine, they encounter Tachibana-sensei on their walk back. He gives them practice wands and magic apps so that they can use magic, though Touta is the only one who can’t. Touta wonders why Tachibana-sensei is helping them in secret, to which he replies that though he supports Yukihime’s methods, he wants to help them. He gives Touta a bracelet, saying it is a guaranteed way to defeat Yukihime. When he gets home, Touta tosses the bracelet at Yukihime, saying it a gift, but trying to be casual about it.
The following day, Yukihime admires the gift from Touta coming home from the convenience store when two of Touta’s friends teleport in via magic and bind her. She praises them for this, but as she goes to activate her high level magic to bring the pain on him, she discovers the bracelet is actually an artifact to seal her magic. However, before the boys can get their victory, Tachibana-sensei knocks them out, revealing he is a bounty hunter trying to claim the ¥600,000,000 price on Yukihime’s head.
Meanwhile, the non-magic using Touta races on foot to the scene just in time to witness Tachibana-sensei use a multi-spear magic attack on Yukihime. He’s going for the killing blow when Touta comes in and attacks. As Touta runs off at the mouth, Tachibana-sensei is upon him, cutting off his sword arm. Before he can kill Touta, Yukihime uses arm to defend him, despite the magical bindings. Tachibana is stunned she can move as Yukihime praises Touta and his friends, saying she gives them a passing grade. She says his gift made her happy.
Tachibana mocks her for this, then proceeds to slice her up into pieces. Touta is horrified and screams in rage with the torso of Yukihime in his lap. Tachibana stabs Touta through the chest from the back. As he closes his eyes and collapses to the ground, he hears Yukihime in his head, who scolds him for giving up. Opening his eyes, he’s stunned that Yukihime is alive. She promises to explain but tells him that in 20 seconds, Tachibana will kill Touta’s friends. She makes him see that the only reason he can open his eyes is because he is an immortal monster, made so by her some two years earlier. He has two choices, give up and die, or become a permanent, immortal monster by drinking her blood. Though he doesn’t understand, he believes in her and does what she asks.
Tachibana is stunned when he sees the one armed Touta with a bokken in his remaining hand. Tachibana removes his other arm and incinerates him, but Touta’s arm reforms and his othe rarm regenerates, allowing him to knock out Tachibana in rage before passing out.
When he comes to, Touta finds his head on Yukihime’s lap. She praises him for saving his friends, but apologizes for what she did to him. She says her real name is Evangeline A.K. McDowell, a vampire of 700 years. She granted his parent’s wish and justified it with herself, but she apologizes for doing this to him. He rejects that, saying that she glad she’s immortal since seeing her alive after Tachibana’s attack made him happy. Besides, she’s the only one he can call family.
With Eva’s identity exposed, she and Touta hit the road. Touta and his friends promise to meet in front of the tower in the capital. Eva asks what he means by “tower”, figuring he must be talking about the Amanomi Hashira space elevator. He confirms it, so she lets him know that for ¥400,000, he can ride it immediately, which he rejects as being to expensive and not a dream.
Thoughts/Review:
An 82 page kick off. Wow! Massive.
First, while I loved this chapter, I absolutely HATED what happened with Chachazero. Seriously, that sucked on every level, both seen and unseen. Unfortunately, Akamatsu-sensei didn’t bother to say why Chachazero was abandoned, other that Eva saying that one grows tired of the things they once loved. Yeah, I know that Chachazero is a scene stealer, but she was just so freaking awesome and then some. You just can’t do that to Chachazero, though Sensei did just that…the bastard!
Still, Eva did have a Chachazero doll at her desk, so maybe Chachazero simply reached the end of her lifespan. She had been alive for a very long time. And of course, to have a new Eva, she had to be rid of everything from her past. I’m still depressed though.
Some folks are questioning the new Eva here. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it.
1) Eva is on the run again and is hiding from bounty hunters. As such, she would do things to disguise her appearance.
On one hand, I like the idea of her bounty coming back into play as it was an element that went nowhere in Negima! However, in the future, one would think that if she has her curse lifted (which she obviously does), then she’d have the bounty removed. Of course, this could be a NEW bounty for whatever reasons, which is what I tend to suspect.
2) Eva’s time with Negi and her classmates rubbed off on her more than she realized.
Until Negi came to Mahora, Eva pretty much kept to herself, forced to repeat the same middle school years over and over again. Negi showed up and suddenly, Eva started enjoying life again. She even started training Negi, then broke out her magical, pocket residences in a bottle for him to train. She took Kotaro on as a trainee. She then became part of Ala Alba, allowing all the girls to use her resorts whenever. Over time, she mellows out more and more, all thanks to Negi and company.
Eva-sensei!
3) Free from the curse, Eva’s bitterness, resentment, and anger leave her.
While she does appear to have been cold to Chachazero, it is clear that during her journeys, Eva mellowed out even more. Becoming Touta’s guardian furthered this mellowing, though she still has the killer instinct and the power to back it up. She gets to experience something she’s been denied all her life — caring for someone who needs her and raising a child.
OK, enough on that.
Touta is set up as part of the Konoe clan. He calls Negi his “jiichan” when at his and Touta’s parent’s grave site. It may well be that Touta’s descended from Negi, which would further explain why Eva saved his life. However, it may be that Negi was just the grandfather type to Touta. Too early to say, but clearly, Touta’s parents were working with Negi. At some point, they were killed.
I wonder how much Akamatsu-sensei is going to delve into Touta being a vampire. He’s not shinso like Eva, so he won’t be as powerful.
One of Touta’s friends looked like Fate, but I have a hard time putting too much into that since Akamatsu-sensei sometimes has unrelated characters look similar.
So, now Eva and Touta head to the capital. I have to say, despite the loss of Chachazero, I love how this massive chapter gets us right into the thick of things, whereas Negima mostly wasted the first two volumes on filler.
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Personally, I don’t care what exactly Touta’s relation to Negi and/or Konoka is. The first chapter has just been released and everyone is speculating again who married who and whatever. It was annoying a year ago when the epilogue came out, and it starts to get annoying again.
I really do like the fact that Eva is in the house. I thought that if there were a spinoff without Negi (or at least him as a sidecharacter) – out of Class 3A – Yue, Eva or Chao had the most potential to become the main character. Eva has changed, but I kinda expected something like that, since the rest of her class slowly passed away (What about those in the second color page, that are missing in the second panel? Are they alive?) and she seemed to really care for them.
Btw, I was once interested in Setsuna’s backstory as an albino in the bird demon tribe, but Akamatsu didn’t bother explaining more than what Setsuna or Eva already said, so I quickly lost interest after the Mahora tournament and her new role as a side character, together with Konoka.
Anyway, I’m interested in the new characters, that already showed up in the color spread. There are noticeably much less girls (or less characters in general) and many of the characters seem to wield swords. Perhaps some of them are descendants of Negima’s cast. One of them looks kinda like Fate and another person like a Shinmeiryuu, for instance. Some of them are perhaps immortal too, as Eva’s monologue and the third color page suggest. Eva has left behind 3A and now, as Yukihime, meets new people that might bring back some life in her tired existence, like Touta. I really like this.
What I also found interesting is the theme of this story (as of right now): eternity and immortality.
The title itself already says enough, but there are also interesting conversations about the difference between invulnerability and immortality already and whether you should view it as a blessing or a curse (which was already discussed in Negima at the end).
It is therefore fitting that Eva is one of the main characters and I wonder who else from the old cast we’ll see again. I think Albireo could make an appearance and we might also see someone from 3A, like… Chao for example.
About Touta: We have only seen one chapter right now, but the main character who has no memory of his past life and the mystery behind his parents’ death sounds rather familiar to me. Also, during the whole chapter, I got some serious Tsukihime, Monogatari and Hellsing vibes, probably because of the whole vampire aspect and the relationship between Yukihime and Touta.
P.S. Some people from the AQS or the AS forums might have pointed some things already out, but CanonRap has also made some observations in this first chapter already:
http://vetus.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/uq-holder-001-observations/
Oh, and I’ve already said it before in one of the Spoiler Images comment sections, but I’ll mention it again:
If this manga gets really popular, which would probably lead to an anime adaptation, I want a studio that will succeed in terms of quality and faithfulness to the manga. I don’t want to see UQH get the same crappy treatment MSN got.
>Personally, I don’t care what exactly Touta’s relation to Negi and/or Konoka is.
From a simply curious standpoint, I am interested, but that wasn’t the big thing for me.
>Btw, I was once interested in Setsuna’s backstory as an albino in the bird demon tribe, but Akamatsu didn’t bother explaining more than what Setsuna or Eva already said, so I quickly lost interest after the Mahora tournament and her new role as a side character, together with Konoka.
I never did lose interest. I always wanted to read that story, much like I wanted to read Eva’s complete backstory. There’s actually a chance with Eva being a main character.
>I really do like the fact that Eva is in the house.
Yeah, so do I. The moment I learned that Eva was in this, my interest in UQ Holder went from “moderate” to “very high”. ^_^
> Perhaps some of them are descendants of Negima’s cast. One of them looks kinda like Fate and another person like a Shinmeiryuu, for instance. Some of them are perhaps immortal too, as Eva’s monologue and the third color page suggest. Eva has left behind 3A and now, as Yukihime, meets new people that might bring back some life in her tired existence, like Touta. I really like this.
Ditto.
>… I wonder who else from the old cast we’ll see again.
We could see Mana, which I wouldn’t mind.
I did see CanonRap’s thoughts. I’m hoping he’ll translate for Red Hawk again as I wasn’t impressed with MangaStream’s translation.
>If this manga gets really popular, which would probably lead to an anime adaptation, I want a studio that will succeed in terms of quality and faithfulness to the manga.
I agree.
I never did lose interest. I always wanted to read that story, much like I wanted to read Eva’s complete backstory. There’s actually a chance with Eva being a main character.
Yeah, Setsuna’s backstory was one of the reasons why I thought she still had main character potential, but she and Konoka later became side characters with lots of yuri innuendo and her whole character development came to a halt. A shame.
I was always interested in Chao and Eva’s backstories, that’s why I thought they have the potential to get a spinoff. As you’ve said, there is a chance for Eva, now.
We could see Mana, which I wouldn’t mind.
I second that. We still don’t know the timelines yet and perhaps Ken will experiment with timeskips now, so it is even possible to see Asuna again (not really my wish, but I’d take it).
>…her whole character development came to a halt. A shame.
Yes, I agree. I had hoped that once on the Magic World, we might rectify that, but she was pushed to the side with Asuna and was then pushed to the side again with Tsukuyomi. 🙁
>We still don’t know the timelines yet and perhaps Ken will experiment with timeskips now, so it is even possible to see Asuna again (not really my wish, but I’d take it).
I hope he doesn’t get too whacky with time jumping. That could cause some other issues. ^_^;
I hope he doesn’t get too whacky with time jumping. That could cause some other issues. ^_^;
I have faith in Ken not making everything too complicated. As long as he doesn’t bring in gazillion characters, like he kinda did in MSN, everything’s gonna be fine. 😛
Oh, and I also wish for CanonRap to translate for Red Hawk again. Though last time I checked, he was busy playing TERA Online and translating Fate/Apocrypha. ^_^
>Oh, and I also wish for CanonRap to translate for Red Hawk again.
Yeah, so do I. That “Mrs. Yukihime” was bad enough, but I’ve heard there were other issues as well.
Mhm regarding Touta’s parents. There is something very fishy with them.
I took a good long look at their tombstones and there are some problems with ages.
Touta’s mother was born in 2050, his father in 2040. Both of them died in 2064 as far as I can tell from the numbers (they are a bit blurry) Now that would make his parents 14 and 24 respectively at the time of their death.
This however doesn’t make any sense. His parents died 2 years before the beginning of the manga and Touta was 12 at the time. This would mean that his mother had him when she was 2!
That’s why I think that those two were not his Real parents OR for some reason their official ages do not match their real ones. It might be Eva’s Time-distorting training rooms or long time on Mundus Magicus when it was off-sync with Earth’s passage of time but there IS something wrong here.
Well, it is possible that those diorama spaces could have been used and such. Too early for me to speculate one way or the other.
Problem of the age of Touta’s mother: if magic is okay, then time-jump why not? She can born at 2050 and died 2064 and if she lived too much in Eva’s hidden bottle castle, she can be very old, too. :))))))))
True enough. ^_^
True enough, though this might be the same as Zazie not being human like in Negima. The proof was Hidden in Plain Sight in the very first chapter…
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phpn8huehpm_2497.jpg
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1377796821125_2831.jpg
Look very closely (Is Ken serious with the viology or was that just a typo?).
Hata already assumed it, but this story seems to play in the eighties. This means, the story takes place in 2086 and thus there are no problems with Touta’s parents’ ages.
That also means, it’s unlikely for most of 3A (excluding Ayaka and the non-humans) to live that long*, unless they were sealed for years, like Asuna (she was sealed at least two times), or made use of some new technology that prolongs their lives. Viology, huh? :p
*(Yes, there are many people who are almost 100 years old or older. I said it’s unlikely, not impossible.)
@ Unknown:
>True enough, though this might be the same as Zazie not being human like in Negima. The proof was Hidden in Plain Sight in the very first chapter…
That it was. ^_^
@Farray
>That also means, it’s unlikely for most of 3A (excluding Ayaka and the non-humans) to live that long…
Yeah, that’s my thought as well.
@Farray
Mhm so it was indeed blurry. The version I saw looked more like 6 but I guess it was 8 after all. Thanks for cleaning that up.
The viology likely means biology. Kinda how the Japanese sometimes confuse “r” with “l”, they also sometimes confuse “b” with “v”. For instance, Umineko’s Eva sound is “Eba”(えば) even thought it’s supposed to be Eva.
Negima’s Eva uses the “エヴァ” which more accurately represents the v sound.
Hey Astro,
It’s good to visit your blog again after a year’s hiatus. I was a big fan of Love Hina and Negima; I religiously visited your blog for all things Negima-related in the past but stopped when the series ended. In any case, I see UQ Holder as the final evolution of Akamatsu in his desired direction. Based upon what we saw in this first chapter, it pretty much carries on in the spirit of Negima without any of the baggage – we may veritably view the harem-ness as a type of baggage that Ken wanted to distance himself from. In a sense, Negima was the intermediary phase in Ken’s transition from love comedies to action/adventure. Nonetheless, he still preserves the ecchi element that we all love. What I personally love is that UQ is very a lean version of Negima – Negima provides the entire mythological backstory from which UQ emerges to capitalize purely on the action/adventure elements, discarding the harem. One can never prosper with two masters, and it appears that Ken has discarded the romcoms for action – and will continue on purely in this direction with an undercurrent of ecchi-ness. I believe there is much to be praised in this new direction since Ken has discarded all the unnecessary elements of the story, allowing him to continue in a focused direction (again, we should consider this from his perspective – it may not be what we all want but it is definitely the direction he has always wanted to pursue so we should respect his artistic integrity). I thoroughly enjoyed this first chapter and am looking forward to visiting your blog on a weekly basis for your thoughts on it.
Cheers,
IGK
Thanks for coming back. ^_^
>…we may veritably view the harem-ness as a type of baggage that Ken wanted to distance himself from.
*lol* Akamatsu-sensei loves his harems and loves his fanservice. I think we’ll still see that, only on a MUCH smaller scale. I think his biggest problem with Negima! was the sheer number of characters. In certain stories, he’d have to remove characters by one means or another to make things more manageable.
Even now, he still has a lot of characters, but having more male characters does certainly reduce the harem aspects. There are some other female characters, so I don’t discount the idea that a small harem may form with Eva in the mix.
>In a sense, Negima was the intermediary phase in Ken’s transition from love comedies to action/adventure.
That’s for sure. Look how slowly Negima! got started vs. how this is “GO!” right from the starting gate.
> I thoroughly enjoyed this first chapter and am looking forward to visiting your blog on a weekly basis for your thoughts on it.
Thanks and welcome back! ^_^
Wow, That sure was one action packed opening for a new manga. It indeed is very diffrent from the Negima opening chapters, but I’m already interessted for sure.
It seems that this manga is somewhat more adult, in the way that blood and choped of limbs are shown a lot more graphic than they were in Negima. But Rurouni Kenshin had it as well with humor in the mix so its not a bad thing 😀
I like the fact that the opening chapter already had a sort of cameo (aside from Eva of course 🙂 ). I’m hoping for more cameos in the future (mayby even Love Hina?). I’m a sucker for continuity :-p. Realisticlly there could be a lot of cameos if you take all the characters from Negima in to account.
But of course I’m more interessted in the build up of this new story.
Looking forward to the next chapter.
Actually, I felt like this was the same level of violence and blood as the Magic World Arc in Negima.
I know what you mean. I guess having this level of blood and violence out of the starting gate is what surprised me. Plus, bodies weren’t hacked to pieces in Negima. ^_~
Evangeline was hacked to bits once though.
It didn’t even slow her down. Negi lost limbs before as well, though it didn’t stick.
I don’t recall Eva getting hacked to bits. I know she had an arm blown off once and she was stabbed in the back clean through her gut when Fate used one of his Earth-spike spells, but that’s all I can remember. I think what happened in this chapter was pushing the line a bit further out, which I didn’t have a problem with.
It’s not that I have a hard time believing Eva’s change like some other people. I just don’t like that we didn’t get to see it happen. I’m all for filling in the blanks myself, but with such an important change in such an important character? To me it’s no different than the ending of Negima.
“Flashforward! Negi’s dad isn’t possessed by the Mage of the Beginning anymore! What a crazy battle it was! You don’t get to see it though!”
“Flashforward! Eva is now playing the role of doting mother! So much happened to her after the last series ended! You don’t get to see it though!” >_>
This doesn’t fill me with much confidence in the rest of the series. It seems like that’s the the only kind of writing strategy someone who mainly wrote static harem comedies is capable of when trying to write a big change.
The BIGGEST gripe I have with this new series though….This whole dealing with immortality plot that looks to be setting up REALLY seems to me like it was supposed to be Negi’s story.
During Negi, Asuna and Eva’s last battle, Setsuna and the others were all talking about Negi’s supposed immortality. All the points were being made; not growing up normally, whether or not he can have kids, etc. Suddenly Negi dies and all those plot points are dumped onto this new kid. Just continue Negi’s story Akamatsu!!
The thing that annoyed me the most though? Touta got to be the one who delivered the “Eternity won’t be so bad if I can spend it with you” line to Eva…………
I’ll keep reading with an emotional distance just to see if any old faces show up (Chachamaru where!?)
Last thing I gotta say, if Touta starts grabbing people by the throat then I’m punching my monitor….
>It’s not that I have a hard time believing Eva’s change like some other people. I just don’t like that we didn’t get to see it happen. I’m all for filling in the blanks myself, but with such an important change in such an important character? To me it’s no different than the ending of Negima.
Well, there’s a valid issue there. However, Akamatsu-sensei is approaching this from a standpoint of (1) acknowledging the Negima fans while at the same time (2) not saddling new readers with no Negima knowledge with a ton of back history to try to digest first.
>The BIGGEST gripe I have with this new series though….This whole dealing with immortality plot that looks to be setting up REALLY seems to me like it was supposed to be Negi’s story.
I suspect you are correct here and that this WILL be that story, only told from a different character and one without the end-boss powers. I’m not sure how Akamatsu-sensei is going to handle Eva, but I’m guessing that Akamatsu-sensei found himself unable to tell that story with Negi as the lead while having to also deal with all of the girls from the class. So, he just brings out a new whiteboard and goes from there.
To be honest, that doesn’t bother me. The theme can be explored without having other baggage to deal with and I’m fine with that. I do hope that some things are addressed, like Eva’s past.
>The thing that annoyed me the most though? Touta got to be the one who delivered the “Eternity won’t be so bad if I can spend it with you” line to Eva…………
And I can understand why you’d feel that way.
>I’ll keep reading with an emotional distance just to see if any old faces show up (Chachamaru where!?)
If Negi is dead, who knows what happened to her. If he faked it, maybe she’s still with him somewhere. I would like to know that, but I really want to know what specifically happened with Chachazero.
>Last thing I gotta say, if Touta starts grabbing people by the throat then I’m punching my monitor….
*LOL* I heard that.
>I’m guessing that Akamatsu-sensei found himself unable to tell that story with Negi as the lead while having to also deal with all of the girls from the class. So, he just brings out a new whiteboard and goes from there.
Yeah, we all saw it happening for years. Akamatsu-sensei was writing himself into that corner for a good while, but it’s still disappointing when I imagine a story of the continuing adventures of Negi.
btw, thanks for taking time to answer and discuss. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the rest of the series.
>btw, thanks for taking time to answer and discuss. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the rest of the series.
Oh, you are most certainly welcome and thanks for leaving comments. ^_^
still say setsuna atactted as a surrgote with negi, so her konoka could have a child, touta’s mom had white hair and that’s all the proof needed.
Well, that’s pretty shaky evidence. ^_^;
mhmm I myself have some doubt about this Eva.
Even though a long time passed from the Eternal Garden war, she has weakened considerably. We can liken her to a level 20 sub-mid-boss, not a level 999 ultimate-boss of old. We are talking about the loss of unmagical skills like Iron fan, Aikido, and string control, as well as considerably loss of martial art (she doesnt notice the two strikes on her shield). Also, her shield? Shield is something of use among dolls, not of Eva.
Her personality has undergone great change. Well, centuries of age is the catchall answer though I have my suspicion.
She use a different kind of combat other than the Aikido style.
All in all, I put money into her being a clone of Eva. Her personality seems younger than the ol Eva, her skill is weaker, etc…
>Even though a long time passed from the Eternal Garden war, she has weakened considerably.
I don’t see evidence of her being weakened as such per se. You are correct that she initially didn’t count the two strikes, but then she’s not taking Touta that seriously because he’s not a threat to her. When he corrects her, she then takes a moment to go, “Oh yeah, you are right. You did get two additional strikes.”
>Also, her shield? Shield is something of use among dolls, not of Eva.
That would be incorrect. Eva has ALWAYS had a barrier. In volume 3 of Negima, Asuna twice broke through her barrier because of her magic-cancel ability. The first instance of that stunned Eva because it shouldn’t have happened, but it made her start looking at Asuna differently. Eva’s barrier protected her quite well against Negi’s attacks.
Eva’s barrier/shield just didn’t come into play much since Akamatsu-sensei mostly kept her on the sidelines.
I don’t think she’s lost any of her other skills either. She has her barrier, which is one level of defense. She doesn’t need to do much to dispatch five boys ganging up on her. Indeed, when she quite literally sends them flying, they travel quite some distance away. In one instance, they were sent from the school all the way to the shrine. Don’t know the distance, but it was a small walk back at the very least.
>Her personality seems younger than the ol Eva, her skill is weaker, etc…
I saw it just the opposite. She seemed more mature now. Her anger and resentment are gone. She still has a sadistic side, but whereas before, she shirked responsibilities, for whatever reasons, she’s taken on the role of being a mother and a teacher. I say that’s due to Negi’s influence on her, combined with the fact that the curse is lifted from her.
You may end up being right and this Eva isn’t the same as the original Eva, but at the moment, I think this is the original Eva, and I don’t think she’s lost a step other than to be a bit to lax regarding her bounty.
Yeah, she’s always been like this, and as an additional note, she didn’t seem too personally concerned about the bounty hunter, but rather what he would do to the other kids before she could recover.
Notice that she’s managed to pull herself back together before anyone else got there. The main problem was she wouldn’t be able to attack without magic while dismembered, and it takes more than 20 seconds to pull herself together enough to counterattack.
You are right – she was very concerned about what happened to the boys and the best way to save them was to have Touta save them since he wasn’t as injured as she.
I was surprised that Touta’s parents were buried together but Negi wasn’t buried beside his wife/lover. I suppose this means Touta’s grandmother may be still alive.
Personally I believe that Evangeline is Touta’s grandmother(if he’s really Negi’s grandchild) but it’ll be years before we find that out.
Right now I’m really excited to meet and get to know some main characters in the next few chapters.
Now I’m getting a strong desire to reread Negima again.
>I was surprised that Touta’s parents were buried together but Negi wasn’t buried beside his wife/lover. I suppose this means Touta’s grandmother may be still alive.
Possibly, but that’s what made me think he’s not related to them at all, at least, by blood.
>Right now I’m really excited to meet and get to know some main characters in the next few chapters.
Ditto. ^_^
>Now I’m getting a strong desire to reread Negima again.
I hear ya. ^_^
The bit with the magic-binding bracelet makes me a little curious… was it just not strong enough/designed to cancel Eva’s age change illusion, or is her appearance not an illusion?
I wondered about that as well. I think the bracelet was designed to seal her powers, not cancel any spells she currently had going (and for all we know, she could have been using a catalyst, like the candies).
I do think she is using the pills rather than her direct illusion. Her illusion would break when she gets upset / loses concentration for instance. While from Negi uses of her pill in the Magic World Arc the effect would stay even after he losing one arm to shadow guy, getting unconscious and going through arm reattaching surgery. And in the case of the pills, it does seems to me like an effect inside the body that the bracelet may not affect.
Yeah, I agree. Plus, it was “magic medicine” that did whatever to thwart Fate when Asuna took the pill to control her memories from coming back. Asuna is pure “magic cancel”, but pills/candies have been proven to not be affected by that.
I wonder if Asuna will appear.
If she is sealed like we think, then I wouldn’t count on it, other than maybe a flashback or something (which we’ve already seen).
On Evangeline’s bounty, she never actually had it lifted. Her bounty was always on the Dark Evangel…who never showed up other than in her adult form. While at Mahora, whoever did know of her identity had no interest in collecting on it(not to mention that she could cream them, curse or not).
So if she was fine with going around as a little girl she could avoid the bounty practically indefinitely.
Well here’s the thing with the bounty. What had Eva done to warrant such a bounty? What justifies keeping said bounty up all these years despite it all? Is the bounty a privately issued bounty or public (government)?
There are so many questions that need to be answered about Eva. It is as if Nagi and the headmaster, as well as all of the other magic teachers at Mahora, were protecting Eva as much as punishing her. To me, it seems that Eva has “done her time” and her other works earned her a pardon, hence the curse on her is lifted.
It was implied that she didn’t have much control over her vampiric instincts at first, which was the start of infamy, an absolutely unkillable vampire on a rampage. So at least part of it was simply being a type of undead which prey on humans. People put bounties on monsters. She’s a powerful monster.
Secondly, her preferred type of magic, puppeteering. Nevermind the inanimate dolls, at the peak of her infamy she could quite easily take over small countries. Where others use ministra, she has enslaved minions to keep the opposition occupied while she blasts their entire town off the map. No end of grudges there. At least a few countries would hold enough of a grudge to fund such a bounty.
Thirdly, the reputation she prides herself on. Evangeline goes to quite an extent to build up her legend as an evil and cruel witch. People use her name to scare children and she likes it that way. Where she’s concerned, she doesn’t seem to want her kinder side and deeds to be known to the public. Better feared than pitied.
Her contribution to the battle royale for Mundus Magicus can easily be obscured, given the limited group of people present. And she constantly tries to pass off training the others as something to kill time.
My thought is that she just wasn’t that dangerous to begin with. Deadly, yes, dangerous, no. She’s lonely and prideful, an excellent combination for getting easily offended. Barring whatever she did while in her earlier years, the rest is largely excessive self defense, which is why Nagi locked her in a school instead of doing anything more permanent. He just wanted her off his back. And maybe, just maybe, give her a chance to make some friends.
This is all true. However, I’d like to see the specifics as to where the bounty originates and why. I’d be willing to bet it is a new bounty and due to the hostilities on the Magic World that are to come (and what kept Asuna asleep longer than expected).
Heh, I told you it was a direct sequel and not just part of the “Akamatsu-verse”. That said, what with time-travel and dimension-hopping being a confirmed mechanic, it really feels like anyone and their descendants could cameo in this series. I could totally see someone with the last name Urashima or Aoyama having a role in the cast.
At the very least, I hope at some point we’re going to get a flashback to Negi’s fight with the Mage of the Beginning.
It is a sequel, but it is still a spinoff since a pure sequel would have picked up where Negima! left off. ^_~
Hey Astro good to be back. You have seen the color page with all the new characters. The one at the end of the left side looks like Fate and the other character on the right look like Negi.
Do you think it could be possible for Negi to be actually alive, because in the future when Asuna woke up Negi had died in 2065.
Thanks for returning. ^_^
>You have seen the color page with all the new characters. The one at the end of the left side looks like Fate and the other character on the right look like Negi.
Yeah, I saw a Fate and possibly the one (who’s name eludes me at present) who stopped the female Fate because “she” (I think it was a she) wanted to see what Negi had in store.
>Do you think it could be possible for Negi to be actually alive, because in the future when Asuna woke up Negi had died in 2065.
Anything is possible, but I tend to suspect he really did die, which is why Asuna went back in the first place to change history and prevent his death (if possible) as well as being with her comrades again.
[…] Holder volume 1 covers chapters 1 through 6 (original reviews for chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). For those who don’t know, UQ Holder is the spinoff from […]