October 1st, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 52
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Sayoko tells Santa that she’s going to disappear and take everyone who killed and ignored them with her. She asks him if he hates all of those people. As she does, undead human skeletons emerge and touch Santa, causing him to rage and want the people crushed. Sayoko smiles and says she has the power to make that happen. As she summons the crows and skeletons into a cape, she tells him goodbye and flies off.
Santa panics over what he said to Sayoko as Ikkuu, Touta, and Kuroumaru arrive. Touta assures Santa that they mean him no harm.
Meanwhile, in the city streets, zombies begin targeting people, biting them viciously in the neck, apparently killing them before they turn into zombies. Touta saves one of the punk bullies, just released from jail, from being killed and he’s joined by the others, including Santa. Santa is afraid by the zombie mayhem he believes he has caused as Ikkuu attacks with birdlime bullets while saving civilians. Kuroumaru also gets into the fight as Touta tries to get Santa to tell him what he knows.
Thoughts/Review:
Yeesh! Evil does indeed sometimes wear a pretty face. Up until now, I was wanting Sayoko to be saved, but I now see there’s no salvation for her. She skillfully manipulated Santa into a rage state so that she could then carry out her own plans for revenge.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel badly for Sayoko being the apparent victim of bullying. Bullies do need to be put in their place, but going out and performing mass slaughter isn’t the solution.
We still know very little about Sayoko. How did she come by this power of necromancy, something that hasn’t been discussed before in the Akamatsu-verse (that I’m aware of)? The closest would be Eva turning humans into vampires. Sayoko’s summoning of a cloak of crows and skulls evokes memories of Eva having a cloak of bats. Sayoko is like Eva, only much more evil than Eva ever was.
Because of Sayoko’s appearance as a young girl, combined with her dark powers of necromancy, I would love it if Eva shows up to fight as her normal self (not as Yukihime), and even does the bat-cloud move she did on Fate in Kyoto during Negima. I’d love to see Eva using a doll army vs. an army of zombies. I’m not sure that Akamatsu-sensei will go that route (a lot of Western fans didn’t like it that she showed up in the fight against Fate), but it would be cool for me.
Now, as to the zombies, again, Akamatsu-sensei goes as gory as he can for a shounen title. The way these zombies spread themselves reminded me of Dead Apostles from Fate/Zero. I’m not a fan of zombie anything, so I’m not versed in the genre. I suppose there are other franchise where zombies go around spreading like a disease via biting victims.
Anyway, we now have the Zombie Apocalypse running wild in Japan. I guess we will see Kirie do at least one reset on things before all is said and done.
As for Santa, I think it is pretty obvious that he’ll open up to Touta, further paving the way for him to join UQ Holder.
So, a rather gruesome, dark chapter in UQ Holder.
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I just wanted to make the obligatory Type-Moon (Tsukihime to be more precise) connection, but you already beat me to it. 😉 In Tsukihime, Dead Apostles create mindless zombie-like familiars called The Dead, if the victim dies in the bloodsucking process. If he/she survives, he/she becomes a Ghoul, then a Living Dead etc… Though the chance to become a Dead Apostle is something like 1/10000 and it takes years (unless your magical potential is exceptional).
Anyway, I hope Akamatsu doesn’t use Kirie too often to resolve problems. Her power is in my opinion too cheap.
I’m glad you chimed in as you’ve got such awesome Type-Moon knowledge. ^_^
If I had to guess, I’d say that Akamatsu-sensei will use her as his “get out of jail” card so that he can do a gruesome, dark chapter, but then have Kirie reset everything so that no one dies, thus staying just inside the boundaries of what is allowed in shounen manga. That way, he can slaughter at will and still claim no one died.
[…] Here is a bit of potential SPOILER rumor for the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 52, courtesy of ChaosProphet via 2CH. No images or greater details anywhere yet. I’ll keep my eyes open for such, and should ANY of you have information you can verify, especially with a spoiler image, I would appreciate sharing it here. ^_^ (My review of UQ Holder chapter 52 should come out Wednesday.) […]
Incredible chapter
The scene of the zombies and the skeletons lol
At the end happened as Evangeline told about a entire city into ghouls (in this case zombies) the city “Mahora” turned into zombies lol
I wonder where Karin is now, she is losing everything XD
About the chapter, Kirie was referring “I smell blood” with this XD
Maybe Kirie has come to change all this about the zombies, she can do a point save here or she has already made a point save in UQ Holder
“I’d love to see Eva using a doll army vs. an army of zombies.”
I also want that Evangeline appears here. I miss her XD
the doll army lool I never saw Evangeline fights with a doll army
It’s becoming each time more interesting!
The title I liked it! “Zombie Apocalypse!” It made me laugh
Regarding Kirie, I suspect she made a save point before this mess started.
Maybe this time we will see Kirie use her MBS. If I understood it correctly it would let the people who touch her to go back in time with their memories but without being teleported to where Kirie is. That way she could make Touta, Kuroumaru, Ikkuu and maybe Santa get their memories of what happened a bit before shit hits the fan. I could see Santa making a different choice when asked by Sayoko.
Man, I really need to be quicker on my responses. ^_^; The life of a VERY busy so-and-so. ^_^;
“I suppose there are other franchise where zombies go around spreading like a disease via biting victims.”
That’s actually been the norm for zombie fiction since Night of the Living Dead established the modern zombie sub-genre of horror. In the Living Dead series, anyone bit by a zombie contracts a contagion that eventually kills them and reanimates the corpse as a zombie. Even when a series deviates from the “classic” Romero-style zombies, the cause of zombie-ism is still typically some sort of contagion usually transmitted via bites. This is seen in The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, The Last of Us, Zombieland, and various other titles. Rare is the zombie film/TV series/book/comic/game that doesn’t feature zombie bite victims becoming zombies themselves.
I’m not a zombie fan, so I’ve not seen any of those titles. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw something zombie related.
Hahahahaha! Out with the ecchi, enters the GORE! LOL
You know, I am really enjoying this arc!
1- We get to see Karin’s weakness… since she can still feel pain, mind attacks working makes total sense! I only think she is, like someone said here, too weak indeed! Skillful as a warrior, some exorcism techs, but that’s it…
2- And speaking of techs…when Sayo… I mean Sayoko (lol) used an original spell (activation keyword and all), I was so glad! Refreshing, really! And she shows even more now! She actually tried to make a pact with Santa^^
2.1. On a side note, when Karin cuts the bathroom door, Sayoko hand is in a strange position the next page! Check it out lol
3- Now, Kirie really is SUPREME with damage control, huh?
Next chapter, plz come soon! XDDD
*lol*
There are so many zombie stories out there, to the point where zombies moving quickly is not so rare anymore. That kind of zombie also exists in Plant vs Zombies. lol. What this chapter reminds me the most of is High School of the Dead, maybe because the initial setting is similar.
A bit out of topic; I suddenly want to see them, Karin and Touta especially, make use of Eva’s old place as their temporary base or something like that. ^_^
Ah, you mean the european style house? According to Negima, unfortunately it lies in ruins…
Oh, and speaking of that… when Touta and Kuroumaru go to the dorms for the fist time, you can see a “Welcome to Mahora” sign to the right side!
I wonder why Eva let it go like that.
True, but we don’t know if UQH! is in the same timeline as when the ruins is shown. Besides, even if it’s the same timeline, there’s still more than 40 years until Asuna saw it. That’s why I’m hoping to see it in a better condition.
I hope you are right ’cause I’d like that.
Generally Zombies caused by a virus or similar tend to be slow as they’re just rotting corpses. Zombies animated by magic are generally quicker and more voracious.
Interesting to know.
Yeah, I’m just ignorant on the zombie genre.