February 19th, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 23
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Kaito and Touta exchange blows, leading Kaito to be surprised that Touta’s able to keep up with what Kaito considers to be bizarre battle instincts. Even when Kaito does a midair shundo move to get behind Touta, Touta still manages to to punch Kaito in the face. Kaito laughs as the two exchange furious blows, causing Kuroumaru to marvel at Touta’s abilities. Touta isn’t happy about the laughing, whereupon Kaito knocks Touta some distance, between Ruki-kun and Kuroumaru, where he slams into the ground hard, digging up some of the street as a result.
Nagumo wonders about Touta’s battle instinct, but says the power is Magia Erebea. Karin sends Kuroumaru to take care of the town with Ruki as Karin stops Nagumo from pursuing them, addressing him now only as a member of Powerful Hand, but as Shion Nagumo of Fushi-Gari.
Ruki tells Kuroumaru the problem with getting a message out to help with the fires, so Kuroumaru uses the Noboriginryu, Senringiku, Kuro move to send up a lot of fireworks to draw attention. Nagumo and Kaito see this, meaning their time here is over, though they have accomplished half of their mission.
Kaito is so impressed with Touta, he offers him a job with Powerful Hand, where Kaito could train him further. Touta refuses, so Kaito decides it is time to school a punk and uses his own special shundo technique he calls Rocket Drill. Kaito moves faster than Touta can see, piercing Touta’s chest and grabbing his beating heart. He’s about to use his highest level spell to seal Touta forever, but Nagumo cries out a warning to Kaito as Touta’s Magia Erebea grows in strength.
Thoughts/Review:
The fight between Touta and Kaito is pretty much typical shounen fare. With Touta able to instantly learn and adapt, to say nothing of having Magia Erebea, the fact that he keeps up with Kaito, even countering a midair shundo, is not surprising at all.
Even the end, when Touta gets his heart ripped out, Touta having Magia Erebea rage up is not surprising because at this point, the template is, “No matter how bad it looks, Touta can easily overcome any challenge, with or without a heart.” As such, I expect Touta’s Magia Erebea to go out of control, but then he’s able to get control of it.
Now, the question is, will Akamatsu-sensei finally give us more information about Touta? Nagumo’s words, expressing interest in Touta’s past, would seem to be an indicator that Akamatsu-sensei is ready to go down that path, at least a little. After all, he has to know that more of Touta’s history being revealed can only make him a better character.
So, why would Powerful Hand bug out just because Kuroumaru sent up a distress signal? Assuming they know Chao is down and out for the count, do Nagumo and Kaito think that other members of UQ Holder will arrive? I keep thinking Eva will show up, not in time to fight, but in time to have her presence known.
The one item of interest was that Karin knew Nagumo. I wonder what the Fushi-Gari are.
Well, we’ll see if Touta does the expected next week, and if Akamatsu-sensei gives him some additional background fleshing out. Until then.
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Incredible chapter , Akamatsu-sensei seriously improved since Negima , Just look at those scenes and that Heart-Take Fatality at the end.
But going back to the main topic , I`m kinda disappointed that Akamatsu-sensei is trying to rush Touta`s magia erebea , Don`t you think it`s too early ? I mean what`s left for Touta to learn after this lol ? When he`s already turned into a monster at such an early stage.
Sensei certainly pushes the boundaries between shounen and seinen content.
Well, that is the root of my problem with Touta as a character. In 23 chapters, he goes from nothing to demi-human abilities. ^_^;
The story is interesting, the fights are great, and the characters seem interesting. The only element that requires improving is Touta. If he becomes a better main character, this manga would be significantly better.
Well hopefully, we got a hint that Akamatsu-sensei is ready to explore Touta’s past, which could turn things around for the character.
Et bien comme je le répètes depuis plusieurs commentaires, personne n’a jamais dit que la magia-erebea était le pouvoir ultime de Negima. Au passage on a beau appeler ça magia-erebea pour moi ça y ressemble pas trop. S’est une armure ok mais ça n’a rien avoir avec la technique pratiqué par Negi ou Eva (au passage Nagumo lui-même n’est pas CERTAIN à 100% que ce soit cette technique). Par contre il est évident que c’est une technique qui lui est apparentée mais ce n’est pas LA magia-Erebea (De même que la Magia-Erebea découle d’une technique du Life-maker, sans être pour autant parfaitement identique.^^)…
Bref Tota peut parfaitement être confrontés plus-tard aux faiblesses de la magia-erebea (que nous n’avons pas observé dans Negima) et apprendre d’autre techniques.^^
J’aimerais bien voire Tôta passer en “mode berserk” comme Negi, puis voire Eva arriver et lui enseigner (violemment bien-sur, on parle de notre dark-lady, Eva-sama après-tout^^) comment reprendre le contrôle. (Mais je ne me pleindrais pas si ce n’est pas le cas hein ?^^)
Overmaster : même si désormais je sais que tu es un troll (et que donc tes (prétendus) arguments ne m’atteigne plus) je suis quand-même curieux de savoir quel manga pour toi et “profond et équilibré” pour toi ? Parce que j’espère que tu as conscience que les critères que tu pourrais énumérer sont TOTALEMENT subjectifs, car correspondants à tes goûts. Il n’y a pas d’objectivités dans la création artistique. Mes critères sont d’ailleurs tout aussi subjectifs que les tiens. Par exemple pour toi Death-Nothe est-il un bon manga ? Parce que pour certains s’est un manga “prétentieux creux et faussement philosophique”.
Enfin, un conseil, si tu n’aiment vraiment pas le combats avec des débordements de puissances et un héro qui devient toujours plus puissant et biens… ARRÊTES DE LIRE DES SHONENS ! UQ-Holder reprends les codes que presque TOUS les shonenes reprennent également, il n’est pas le seul. Car oui, Holder est un shonen je le rappelle. Tu n’aimes pas ça ? C’est ton droit le plus stricte. Mais alors pourquoi continuer à en lire si ça te révulse autant ? Lis plutôt des Seinens alors ! Quand je vais chez un poissonnier, je ne me plains pas en demandant un Beaf-steak ! De toute façon comment veux-tu être crédible alors que, comme je l’ai déjà dit tu juges de la qualités GLOBALE du manga uniquement sur les 20 ou 30 premiers chapitres ? Alors qu’un manga (surtout un shonen) en contient souvent plus de 400 ! Encore une fois je répète le conseil de notre cher ami Astronerd : “Patience !”.
Alors il y a deux solutions :
-soit tu es (si je puis me permettre de le dire ainsi) un masochiste
-soit tu es, comme me l’on signaler des amis d’un forum français, un troll anti-akamatsu qui n’a toujours pas digérer que la fin de Negima ne soit pas comme TU le souhaitais et qui tape sur tous ce qui a un rapport avec Akamatsu en guise de “représailles” et surtout de défouloirs. Et je penses plutôt que c’est la deuxième option. Dans ce cas je te demanderai bien humblement (même si je sais que ça ne servira à rien) de calmer tes ardeurs. Moi quand je n’aime pas un manga (eh oui, ça m’arrive ! Tu es surpris ?) je ne vais pas sur les forums consacrés à ce manga (ou aux prequels et aux sequels) pour dire aux fans : “AAAAAH ! Mais s’est nul ce que vous lisez ! Si vous saviez à quel point !”. Je sais que mon opinion n’est QUE mon opinion. A la rigueur, je peux l’exprimer COURTOISEMENT en une ou deux occasions, puis je passe à autres choses. Une autre série ou manga qui m’intéresse. Mais JAMAIS je ne harcèlerait constamment les fans en me peignant des œuvres qu’ils aiment !
A bon entendeur.
Blah blah blah going for cheap thrills, good only if you like that, blah blah blah, betcha most mysteries stay unanswered or half-answered at best after tons of teasing much like they did for Negima, blah blah blah, the usual suspects will still like it anyway and be amazed by the flashs that hide the lack of true substance, balance or heart. Same old, same old by now.
[…] SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 23, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop. (My review of chapter 23 should come out […]
Wait, where is Touta’s hearth ? In one panel Kaito was holding it and in the next all the blood and his heart is gone. Could it be that Kaito droped it on the ground hahaha.
*lol* I totally missed that. It could be one of those mistakes that gets corrected in the tankoubon. ^_^; Or, as you say, Kaito may have dropped it.
Really intense chapter, lots of shonen battle… But as per usual xD… Touta magia erebea…
Thankfully no one flipping out on your blog again… But yeah things are advance to fast… He reaching negima berserker mode literally 2-3 chapters after getting magia erebia -.-
I don’t think I said anything too negative in the review. *lol*
True, also it is fact that things are advancing way to fast, just some people can’t accept that and have to complain and then later wonder y such a fast pace action pack joy ride ended so quickly.
I don’t know that this will end quickly. I’ve been suspecting that Akamatsu-sensei is having Touta be a clone of Negi (with generous amounts of Kotaro and Asuna on the side) so he could explore that kind of immortality. When Touta got Magia Erebea, that feeling became stronger. As such, unless sales stink, I don’t think Akamatsu-sensei will end it soon.
Obviously it will not end soon! Akamatsu-sensei will very probably a manga as long or longer than Negima. But fans are too used to see Negima by magia-erebea as the ultimate power-up, without even imagine that there is no-doubt many techniques that surpasses. By exrmple, Nimbus, the sacred light of Karin would probably able (has a “holy” version of the magia-Erbea I think)
“As such, unless sales stink…”
Over-master, the big akamatsu hater and the pedantic troll must surely hope that priyer and for this purpose, as I begin to know the guy lol.
I haven’t followed up on sales for UQH, so I don’t know how well it is or is not doing.
“Fushi-gari” (不死狩り) means “to hunt immortals”. In other words, Immortal Hunters. No idea why CR suddenly swapped to using “Fushi-gari”.
Yeah, I wonder too. I haven’t asked the Twins about this.
Depends if akatmatsu sensei can keep generating ideas for uq… He already rinsing out the magic world climax scenario on uq holder with touta about to go into demon mode.
And yeah karin ability is essentially a light version of magia erebea from the looks of things.
The guy touta is facing seems more of a kotaro clone touta though I get what you mean by touta having elements of negi, asuna and touta not to mention elements of rakan brokenness… It worked for rakan because broken was the very definition of his character
IF Akamatsu-sensei wants to fill in the massive gaps left by Negima!, and wants to take the time to explore characters like Eva, Touta, Kuroumaru, etc., then there are plenty of stories to tell in my opinion. I think Akamatsu-sensei does have ideas, but hasn’t executed them so well at present. I’m hoping this chapter turns everything around. ^_^