December 5th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 14 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta is impressed with how Karin dispatched Wrecking Ball, then frets about her cutting him in half. She assures Touta the man isn’t dead, and sure enough, Wrecking Ball reveals he’s a cyborg, firing a laser beam from his eye. Karin is unharmed, so Wrecking Ball assumes she’s using magic apps, specifically a barrier app. He uses a barrier nullifying kick app as his bottom and top halves attack. Wrecking Ball then uses a weapon storage app, where he has nine High Frequency Green Dragon Crescent Blades summoned from, which launch at her.
Karin appears to be pierced and Wrecking Ball is starting to gloat, but he’s shocked when he discovers that all he did was destroy Karin’s clothing. Showing no shame, Karin moves in slowly, then quickly takes out the cyborg’s bottom half before dropping a foot down on the back of his head, taking out Wrecking Ball’s top half.
Touta is impressed again as Kuroumaru gives Karin her jacket to cover up with. The kids begin to emerge from the church, as do people from the slums, all clapping for the trio. Karin is given a hat, which she gives to an impressed little girl. Karin explains to Touta and Kuroumaru that her immortality is different from theirs, in that she she cannot be harmed, much less die. The little girl, seeing Karin’s face, tells her to not be sad since everyone is happy. Karin smiles, which Touta notices and remarks on, leading to his punishment.
In the city, a werewolf (?) and a man are getting a briefing on the situation from a worried person on a monitor. The two aren’t worried about immortals defending the church since the two of them hunt immortals.
Thoughts/Review:
Another good chapter with Karin getting the spotlight. Oh, no spotlight on Touta. Well, no wonder it was good. ^_~
At this point, Karin is like Setsuna at the start of the Kyoto arc. She’s pretty much all business. She doesn’t waste time, nor does she worry if she gets stripped. If she has an opponent that needs to be dispatched, then nothing is going to stop her from dispatching said opponent.
Karin’s immortality is rather interesting. Assuming she went through the UQ Holder initiation rites, then her time underground wouldn’t have been much of a problem, other than killing the monsters. After all, there’s apparently no way any of them can harm her.
That does beg the question though — if Karin’s immortality is that she can’t be harmed nor killed, then why did she bother with a barrier?
Other unanswered questions — why would Eva get angry if Karin literally shredded Wrecking Ball? Why would an apparent government organization want to move in on the slums (PMSC)?
Wrecking Ball’s sword summoning looked a lot like something Archer would do from Fate/Zero as well as Fate/stay night. Just saying. ^_~
Thinking about Karin again, she’s got a sword, and for some reason, what I jokingly refer to as a croquet mallet. I keep wondering about the mallet. When I saw all of the swords from Wrecking Ball, I couldn’t help but have a flash thought about the pactio system from Negima! and how that would probably carry over into UQ Holder. With Karin being as attached to Eva as she is, I wonder if Eva has made a pactio with Karin. That would be something interesting.
So far, this “slum arc” (for lack of a better name) is turning out to be pretty interesting, mainly because Karin is getting more face time while Touta takes a back seat. I really hope Akamatsu-sensei can work on improving his character.
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Touta feels like such a very cliched dumb, impulsive shonen protagonist but Negi wasn’t deep and complex from the beginning, that side didn’t really start to emerge until Kyoto and then set in when we saw his backstory(the demon attack on his village)
We might see a change in character if/when he gets his memories back, he appears to have a traumatic backstory like Negi, it’s just that Evangeline has made him forget it, remembering it should give him some character development.
>…Negi wasn’t deep and complex from the beginning…
Very true, but Negi never annoyed me. If anything, the first two volumes of Negima! were just not that spectacular or interesting to me. There were minor interesting elements, but until volume 3 hit, things didn’t become interesting to me, Negi as well (starting with the flashback of his father’s connection to Eva).
>…remembering it should give him some character development.
I hope you are right. In the short term, I hope that he starts learning lessons to become less irritating.
@NLN: Seeing as how Asuna’s memory issues were brushed aside in the span of a single chapter, I doubt Touta regaining his memory will have any long lasting effects on him. Truth be told, I think we’re well past the point where we’d see some more insights or hobbies to his character, and introducing them at this point would be a obvious way of trying to change him up.
Beyond that, not much to talk about in this chapter. The mercenary’s design atypical as far as Akamatsu is concerned, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of him.
>The mercenary’s design atypical as far as Akamatsu is concerned, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of him.
Ditto
Hmm…. it could be that the barrier is to make sure that Karin’s clothing doesn’t end up with ‘battle damage’ (a la Ikkitousen) with every fight. ^_^
*LOL* OK, I’ll take that as the explanation. ^_^ (I’d give you a prize for that if I had one.)
I guess we should all be grateful for the fact that we haven’t had any sneezing gags so far in this series.
*lol* Yes, there is that element. ^_^
I loved the little mythology gag when Demolition Man used “Asuna’s Eva-Busting Manoeuvre” aka Flying Barrier Buster Kick. I wonder if Asuna could demand cash for infringing on her copyright…
*lol* Yeah, I noticed that too.
I thought about saying something, but I got sidetracked and forgot to write it when I hastily wrote this review. ^_^;;;
Possibly worth noting that PMSCS was the given reading for some kanji that translates to Private Military and Security Company. And PMCs are not associated with any government. They are typically the modern equivalent to mercenaries.
Possibly worth noting that PMSCS was the given reading for some kanji that translates to Private Military and Security Company. And PMCs are not associated with any government. They are typically the modern equivalent to mercenaries.
Possibly worth noting that PMSCS was the given reading for some kanji that translates to Private Military and Security Company. And PMCs are not associated with any government. They are typically the modern equivalent to mercenaries.
Why was I thinking they were part of the UN? ^_^;;;