January 15th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 18
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Young Meg flees to try to find Touta, only to be caught by the automatons from Powerful Hand.
Kuroumaru considers Karin’s words about becoming female since Karin feels Kuroumaru will never be Touta’s friend. Seeing Touta in the distance gathering scrap to sell with the young boy named Ruki, Kuroumaru joins them, asking Touta if they are friends. Touta finds this question to be stupid, calling Kuroumaru “Kitarou”, with a second name of Longege. He then assures Kuroumaru that they will be immortal friends.
Kuroumaru’s relief is short lived as they spot a fire from the slums. Kuroumaru realizes they are under attack as this is a tactic used by land sharks to clear an area. Kuroumaru can’t reach the UQ Holder minions, so Touta rushes in, allowing the Powerful Hand automatons to grab Ruki. Touta gets him back, thanks to Kuroumaru fighting them off, but the blind Nagumo and the werewolf Kaito arrive with reinforcements in front of them and to the rear of them.
Kaito recognizes Touta and is disappointed. He notices Touta’s fangs, figures him to be a vampire, the uses shundou to close the distance and use a special vampire sealing technique. With Touta out of the fight, Kaito attempts to ascertain what kind of immortal Kuroumaru is. Nagumo urges caution since even though he is blind, he can sense that Kuroumaru comes from the Shinmei School.
Thoughts/Review:
You know, with Akamatsu-sensei pushing the shounen boundaries to pseudo seinen territories with UQ Holder, I really, REALLY hope he doesn’t end up killing young Meg. Don’t say “he won’t do that,” ’cause I’m remembering very clearly how that little cat girl (or whatever she was) in Negima! got wasted by Secundum Averruncus. Despite the out that “death” had, in my mind, it shows that Akamatsu-sensei isn’t above killing moe-type characters to stir the rage within all of us.
Remember when Kuroumaru was all like, “I’m never going to be your friend ’cause I’m an immortal hunter and you are vampire scum!” In that light, Kuroumaru’s worries about being Touta’s friend kind of amuse me. I hope Kuroumaru becomes girl. ^_^
Still, Kuroumaru looks to be set up to shine in the upcoming chapter. I love it that Touta got punked by Kaito and immediately taken out of the fray. What I’d like to see happen is that Kuroumaru go nuts on Kaito and Nagumo, but come up just short of being able to defeat them completely. Then, I’d like to see Karin come in for the coup de grâce (I can use French ’cause even the Japanese haters are cool with French in English adaptations of Japanese works. ^_~), whereupon all three Powerful Hand members are held captive.
Then, I’d like to see them unseal Touta, who then discovers that Kaito is the werewolf who punked him so easily. At this point, I’d like to see Touta’s house of cards fantasy image shattered (or at least shaken) so that he stops being this complete and total smeg head (to use Red Dwarf slang). That would do this manga a world of good.
Completing my fantasy of how things should go, I’d love to see Eva arrive, then send are jolly three Powerful Hand members into a kind of personal hell that only she could deliver.
(Pardon me, I’ve got to wipe the drool away from my mouth.)
All that aside, I like how methodical Powerful Hand has turned out to be. They knew how to handle Karin and then Touta. (Why didn’t Kaito notice Touta’s fangs earlier?) I had wondered how immortals could face peril since they are undying, but Akamatsu-sensei is doing a good job of adding that dramatic element in how Powerful Hand is working. I like it.
So, a really good chapter here, made more so by Touta getting his punk-arse punked! ^_^
Posted in 
Tags: 
Yes, this chapter might have had Touta’s best role this far xD
Anyways, maybe I’m more pessimistic, but what’s happening with Karin feels more like what happened in Negima few times: Akamatsu writing some of his cast out of the battle.
Although as the size of cast is completely different from Negima, there’s not really point in doing that, so maybe we do have hope.
Heh! Boy, do I hear you loud and clear on your concern. ^_^;;;;;
That being said, considering that we only have three UQH people in the battle, I don’t believe Akamatsu-sensei will keep Karin out for long.
Hahahahaha! A good chapter indeed! Your fantasy is too far fetched, unfortunately, but I get your point: this fight will give a nice shock of reality for both (birdbrain) Touta and (hesitant) Kuroumaru. Can’t wait for more!
P.S. And, as usual, who did Negi end up with?!
“Well, if you’re going to have delusions, you might as well hold out for the really satisfying ones.” -Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
*lol*
The great mystery. ^_^;
Nice quote! X3
Heh!heh!heh! Thanks.
As an aside, it really is a shame that WB likely won’t ever pony up the money to give B5 an HD release on Blu-ray. 🙁 I know I’d buy it.
So Touta got sealed huh? If only someone nearby had some sort of skill to break the seal, say, a sword skill that can cut everything….
*lol* Has there been a Shinmei technique to break a seal? Not saying there couldn’t be, of course. Indeed, what you are suggesting is what will probably happen.
[…] the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 18, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop. (Those looking for my chapter review can find it […]
I remember the governor dude from Negima cutting through Negi’s magic barriers, so assuming a seal is kinda similar to a barrier, it should work.
I don’t recall specifically, but considering how many Shinmeiryuu techniques there are, having one to break barriers is very likely.
Man, sixteen pages is just too few for a shonen/battle manga. If Akamatsu is getting faster with the chapters he should see about increasing the page count to eighteen (the “industry standard”, I guess).
I think Hayate the Combat Butler also does 16 pages a week. Not sure what other weekly shounen titles do since I only read two currently. I should look to see what Fairy Tail does.
Mashima is not a good standard. His chapters have usually 20 pages or more. He once pulled a stunt and had three Fairy Tail chapters in the same issue. Mashima is a beast when it comes to drawing speed.
Heh! That explains how he always seems to have time for extra art, which he posts to Twitter.
Apropos:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-01-19/fairy-tail-hiro-mashima-to-start-new-manga-series
Har! You weren’t joking about him being a production beast. *lol* I bet that the new series ends up being a monthly title rather than a weekly title, but we’ll see.
[…] in chapter 18, I did make this […]
[…] thoughts as I read the chapters, those can be found by clicking the chapter numbers — 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and […]