Here is the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 21, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop. (My review of UQ Holder chapter 21 can be found HERE for those interested.)
UQ HOLDER CHAPTER 21 SPOILERS
The UQ Holder chapter 21 goodness begins.^_^
As I understand it, Nagumo is giving some information about events that happened between Negima! and UQ Holder. I really would like Akamatsu-sensei to continue to fill that gap as well as eventually go into Eva’s past.
Multiple languages spoken, eh? Interesting.
Ah, Ruki. Well, at least the villains here haven’t killed him since Ruki is kicking Kaito. Since this is a shounen manga, I doubt they will.
And now for the shounen moments I’ve been dreading.
*sigh* We all knew Touta would revive and start singing, “Here I come to save the day!” After all, smeg for brains is the lead character for UQ Holder. With him having what appears to be Magia Erebea abilities, that just makes it worse for me. Touta has no real obstacles to overcome. Everything just magically falls into his lap. With the addition of Magia Erebea to Touta’s repertoire, I’m more convinced than ever that Touta is substituting for Negi (only in a not very likable way) to explore Negi’s kind of immortality, the only difference being that Touta has a so-called vampire element as well.
Oh well. I would have loved for Karin to have come in and saved the day, but I did know that somehow, someway, Touta would have a massive “S” appear on his chest. Please, someone get the kryptonite! ^_~
Well, enough of my ranting. Thanks again to Southrop, who as always has spoiler translator notes up for those who wish to read them. ^_^
Well, we all knew Touta was gonna make a comeback – hHe’s UQ #7, after all (whatever THAT means).
The Magia Erebea development leaves the question how he got it in the first place. Surely he didn’t inherit it or Chao would’ve had it too. Was it something his parents did to him (in their research or otherwise)? Did Eva do it when she saved his life? Questions, questions.
On another note, the background worldbuilding Akamatsu did in the series so far doesn’t make much sense at all. I hope it will become clearer in the future.
Yeah, that ranking system needs definition for sure since Karin’s supposedly UQ #4.
As you said, “Questions, questions.” *lol* Ain’t that the truth.
Chao did have Magia Erebea, in fact she went back in time to kick Negi’s butt and keep him from cursing his entire bloodline with Magia Erebea and she even used it to do said butt kicking.
Where was it stated that Chao had Magia Erebea? She was using technology to get around her own lack of magical abilities, as I recall it.
What he’s saying that the markings Chao has/had were very similar in how it looked at worked.(Not to mention that i think she said that it was forced on her)
Similar, true, but not exactly Magia Erebea in that it was artificial in nature.
Well based on how Ken-Sensei answered my question (in volume 30). It did seem that there is some similarities between the markings on Chao and Negi’s ME, though he answered my question pretty vaguely.
Now as for the reason why Touta has ME abilities. Well there can be many reasons for that, but i don’t believe that it is because of Eva (maybe Touta was in a way infected by Negi’s ME, since it did have a corrupting nature).
And i believe that the present Touta personality is sort of a fake one (similar to Asuna), since it seemed that Eva had suppressed Touta’s original memory (and hence some part of his original personality).
Similarly, we don’t know what Touta’s original powers were (before the time of his original memory, which was suppressed by Eva). So, we have to keep our minds open and not get irritated with his sudden power-ups since he may have had those from the beginning (like Asuna’s Kankahou).
On another note, i believe that the reason why Eva said that Karin and Touta are a match, is not because of there type of immortality but rather their source of power (Karin having what seemed like a Holy/Light version of ME, hence the opposite of Touta’s power, and since MSN had sort of focused on this opposite natures mingling together aspect, the same can be done in UQH as well).
Also, is it just me or is UQH going to be a martial arts/physical combat based type of series rather than a magical/spell combat type (which was sort of main forte of MSN).
Yeah, I remember that now that you mention it. Of course, I know he wanted to give himself wiggle room, which is the reason for the vague answer. However, I don’t remember anything ever being said that Chao’s markings were in fact Magia Erebea, but as you said, just something similar.
You know, now that you mention Eva as possibly being the one to suppress Touta’s memories, certain things about his personality would make sense. Eva wanted Setsuna to choose between happiness and the sword. She marveled that Asuna would give up the dumb-happy route. So I can certainly see Eva putting Touta on a dumb-happy path to shield him from the horrors out there.
That’s a good point. Yin and yang. ^_^
Magic certainly has taken a back seat to the physical combat. I wondered about that when the first promo art came out, showing so many swordsmen.
At first I had compared this to the Kyoto arc in Negima, but this development with Touta reminds me of Negi’s freakout with Von Hermann.
Whether in the Kyoto arc or the subsequent fight with Herrman, Negi was always focused on becoming more powerful. It was laid out that he had deep magical reservoirs, and we’d seen how hard he’d studied as a kid to learn magics, including ones that would deal with Herrman. So in that case, I had no problem with Negi reaching in and pulling it out because he rose to the challenge. I found it interesting.
Here, it appears that Touta goes, “Oh, time to get up. Ooooo! I have new demonic arms. Now I go into god mode and take out my opponent!” *lol* To me, this isn’t that interesting.
Oh, my gods…
I feel your pain, Astro. Sorry for you…for us both.
Heh! Well, we knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time. ^_^;;;
Tch, I didn’t want this to happen to you Touta…
I guess our last hope is that Touta’s an elaborate parody on annoying, happy-go-lucky protagonists that get random power-ups when needed, and thus will get schooled into something better later.
In fact, getting a broken sword and some super arms within about 10 chapters might actually point at him being a parody, since that’s damn fast. Thinking this makes me feel a bit better ^^;
For some reason, your words made me think, “No, there is another.” *lol* (A little Star Wars humor there.)
But yeah, it would be nice for Touta to actually learn a lesson. To make him a better character, explanations of his abilities would be nice. ^_^;
Sadly, I don’t think Touta is meant to be a parody, but we’ll find out soon enough. ^_^
Well we never really know if negi was taken down or if he done the whole m.i.a like his dad nagi did in negima. (I for one believe in the wiki page article shown in chapter 352 page 6 that states his current where abouts is unknown and since he been missing for most likely decades he was assumed as dead… Heck he might have become Cosmo entelecheiaboss due to fate comment he suited to be a final boss of a evil organisation…)
Other than that the gauntlet that touta is wearing reminds me of negi demon form arms… It possible these are magia erebea app and could be a hint as to how negi apparently died… He became a Demi demon through magia erebia and a being of darkness and magia erebea does render most magic useless through the great birth channel.
I don’t think those are gauntlets. I think those are Touta’s actual arms. ^_^;;;
As to a magical app, Touta supposedly had no magic and couldn’t use magic apps, which is why in chapter 1, he was late to the party when Eva was attacked.
Read the chapter just now, really am curious about those gauntlet looking arms touta got, like how did they just appear on his arm.
As for what you mention, I totally forgot he is completely incapable of magic… So it can’t be an app… It is a weapon though but it can’t be the original magia erebea… Since that true magic
Um negi was the first human to use magia erebea, turn demon and die and revive though it.. We know chao his descendant can’t generate mana unless it through artificial means to force it out… Touta is likely the same as chao but on a lesser degree.
Unless prior to the incident that left him an orphan, he could use magic or had his magic sealed up. ^_^;
Maybe we’ll find out more next chapter about these arms.
Possibility this was installed into him by negi or Eva… I personally hope this isn’t the real thing but is some form of app or artificial magia erebea weapon
It will be interesting to learn the truth. ^_^
I rather suspect that eventually it’ll turn out that much like Asuna, Touta will have had training before his amnesia in things like instant movement, and his Magia Erebea nature.
Personally, I don’t particularly mind this. “X gets defeated and realizes he needs to train hard and get stronger” is one of the oldest replacements for genuine character development shounen has. It seldom goes anywhere actually interesting. The “obstacles” of training are pretty transient and weak. That’s why training montages, and time skips for training are common.
The most interesting fights are between mostly equal characters as well, so I see little reason to demand that Touta spend a ton of time learning basics before he’s allowed to do anything.
That’s what I suspect as well. I often said during Negima‘s run that “even if the mind forgets, the body remembers” (which may be more of a Japanese thing than I realized at the time). Of course, I was thinking about that being the reason Negi grew so fast in power with my way off Negi is Nagi theory. ^_^;;;
When I started reading Negima!, I hadn’t read too many shounen titles with supernatural fighting in them. I think Inuyahsa was the only one. Since then, I really haven’t read any others as I don’t really count Hayate the Combat Butler in that category of shounen manga.
That being said, when Negima! started, I could relate to Negi being a child, scared out of his wits when the youkai/mazoku attacked his village and hurt Stan and Nekane. Negi could do nothing, but was saved by his missing, supposedly dead father, given his father’s staff, and left an orphan again. I could believe that such an incident would drive a child to study magic like crazy to the point of obsession.
From that baseline, Negi’s subsequent battles and such didn’t bother me. Of course, I wrongly started thinking that Negi might actually be Nagi in disguise, as it would have explained everything about Negi from his affectation glasses to his ability to learn fighting techniques and magic spells rather quickly. Maybe that is why things were interesting to me.
I agree that this would be boring. Had Akamatsu-sensei done some kind of scene where Eva cryptically tells Karin or someone some bit of interesting thing about Touta’s past (more than the tiny bit we know now) that hinted at Touta being more than he seemed, I’d probably be more tolerant of Touta. Of course Touta’s irritating personality would still have to be dealt with, but that’s another story. ^_^;;;
I agree
this may be quite controversial; but what if Touta is actually Negi? perhaps a clone of sorts, a reborn Negi, or even Negi sealed into Touta. Not simply a decedent. Him not remembering anything could be due to a spell he, or someone else placed on him. (be completely messed up though if he actually knew the entire time and only played dumb)
*lol* Having been wrong on my Negi is Nagi in disguise theory for Negima!, I’m not going down that road. ^_~
Having said that, I’d laugh out loud if Akamatsu-sensei actually went down this path. ^_^
I’m having a hunch negi is a boss of a evil organisation now xD
*lol* That would be funny. ^_^
Mangastream just released it. Quite good overall. Touta makes a GREAT face because they dared to hurt his friends – that was quite entertaining to see.
I look forward to reading it. ^_^
Reminds me of rakan