December 12th, 2013 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 15 Review
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
In a jumping contest, Touta jumps far higher than Kuroumaru. Touta is shown to be strong enough to easily lift a large tow truck. In a running contest, Touta is shown to be faster than Kuroumaru. Karin acknowledges Touta is unusually proficient in ki (chi), but she orders Touta to arm wrestle Kuroumaru, in which Touta loses easily. Karin smugly tells him she’s next, and she smokes Touta in arm wrestling, meaning Touta is stuck cooking the meals, which the kids appreciate since he’s a good cook.
During the meal, Karin concedes that his cooking is quite good, so she suggests he do this for the rest of eternity. Kuroumaru and Karin decide that they should use arm wrestling from now on to determine who will cook. Even though Touta doesn’t want to learn shundo, he hates losing, so he decides to take Karin’s suggestion to become better at it if he wants to win at arm wrestling.
Touta goes off and practices what he’s observed others do, feeling pretty good. However, he’s watched by another guy who’s irritated by what he observes. He punches Touta, telling him he’s got shundo wrong, then tries to explain the basics to Touta. The man points to the dust clouds as proof that Touta is no good at shundo.
After giving a demo, Touta is impressed and decides he has been underestimating shundo. He wants to know what shundo has to do with arm wrestling. After Touta mentions that he’s only been doing shundo for a few days after having first seen it a month earlier, the man decides Touta is actually a genius. The man tries to explain how the shundo technique works in regards to arm wresting, but Touta thinks it is a load of crap. The man punishes him for this, then proceeds to show off more uses for shundo, including midair shundo.
With that, the “martial artist Kaito” tells Touta that he’ll teach him one of the two shundo tricks for him to master.
Thoughts/Review:
Karin pretty much steals the show when she’s doing stuff on panel. Her smug look when she told Touta that she was next for an arm wrestling challenge was pretty awesome. Her laying the smack down on him added to that. Then the way she acknowledged his cooking abilities just dripped of snark while being sincere in her compliment. That level of awesomeness doesn’t come about every day.
As for Touta, Akamatsu-sensei had already established that Touta pretty much sees something and can instantly do it. With this chapter, Akamatsu-sensei takes the time to spell it out in black and white — Touta has an abnormal proficiency with ki (chi) usage as well as his abnormal ability to learn things by watching others rather than go through formal training.
Akamatsu-sensei does appear to be shifting Touta’s attitude though. Until now, he’d been opposed to learning combat skills. He has trained in some things, like sword usage, but when he was given a chance to learn shundo, he declined.
Bring in Kaito, who may be a random so-and-so or may be something specific, who happens to be an expert in shundo, sees Touta doing shundo moves in a poor fashion, then takes it upon himself to educate the mindless moron. I’m too tired to speculate on Kaito’s motivation, but as far as Touta’s concerned, seeing him actually moved to want to learn proper use of shundo is a new development. Hopefully, Akamatsu-sensei will continue to cause Touta to grow as a character.
Finally, I did notice (and thanks to Hata for alerting me it would show up) that Kuroumaru’s compliment of Touta’s cooking was the equivalent of a marriage proposal in Japan. Karin agreed with the remark, but though Touta is too thick to get such references, it is part of Akamatsu-sensei’s setting up a harem of sorts for Touta.
If I’m not mistaken, the manga will have a break next week due to Weekly Shounen Magazine being off, then a chapter around Christmas before another break because of the manga magazine. So, until the spoilers come out… ^_^
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I don’t know if you have ever played the old computer game Planescape: Torment but in that the main character is an immortal who used to lose all his memory every time he dies but when he comes to learn things again, he does so abnormally quickly because he has done it before. I think Touta may be something similar, he knew all these skills before he lost his memories two years prior to the start of the series an now he is learning them again he is quick to pick them up for the same reason.
That… makes a lot of sense. It could be supported by Negima’s Asuna being the same. She too learnt at an abnormally fast way as pointed out by Setsuna and Albi… I mean Kunel Sanders.
One of the reasons I used to think that Negi was Nagi back in Negima was Negi’s unusual rate of learning things, and the comments people made about this. Part of my theory was, “even if the mind forgets, the body remembers,” which is something CLAMP said in some of their works.
So yeah, I don’t have a problem if Touta’s rapid learning is due to that.
I really want a solid multi chapter story arc to come in.
There are so many characters at the moment and no real developments with them or lack of villains. i dunno i find the whole series so… boring at the moment.
If that villian that was teased at the last chapter could come in and like kill a bunch of UQ holder or talk them hostage that would at least be dramatic.
“Dramatic” — that’s the key word. When someone is immortal, there is a major drama factor lost due to the fact that they don’t or can’t die. It can be “badarse”, but without a risk to the protagonist, then there’s no drama.
We’ll see what Akamatsu-sensei does to deal with this issue.
I would like the current chapters more if Karin weren’t so abysmally boring. Her current character is so flat, it equals the thickness of a monofilament wire. I hope we’re gonna get some development in that direction soon.
Concerning Touta, I wonder if his quick learning applies only to combat skills. He seems to have perfected his cooking skills by observing one of his village friends.
It could be true that he’s relearning skills he knew once before, but I wonder if that’s all it is.
As for the breaks, I don’t mind very much. UQH is currently not high enough in my manga rating for me to despair over only having one chapter in three weeks – that one month break of One Piece some years ago on the other hand almost killed me, lol.
>As for the breaks, I don’t mind very much. UQH is currently not high enough in my manga rating for me to despair over only having one chapter in three weeks – that one month break of One Piece some years ago on the other hand almost killed me, lol.
I hear ya. ^_^
That said, this time around, Akamatsu-sensei’s normal breaks are every 10 weeks, not three like they were with Negima. Of course, he’s doing fewer pages and has simplified some of his art.
But, this is the time of year when all weekly manga goes on a couple of breaks.
Shouldn’t there be some spoilers or a new chapter out today?
The magazine that publishes UQ Holder is on a break this week. Ditto Hayate the Combat Butler and a ton of other manga.
Touta needs to know how imporant practice can be. His special ability to lean by watching enables Touta to learn faster. Kaito needs to teach Touta a valuable lesson of the impotance of practice to improve from what he leans from watching others.
>Touta needs to know how imporant practice can be.
I think at some level, he understands practice. After all, he did do a lot of training when he and his buds were trying to beat Eva to escape to the city. And the manga certainly indicates he did some kind of practice to master the Gravity Blade.
To me, what he needs is a painful lesson that teaches him to just stop leaping without looking all the time.