March 24th, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 74
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
As Afro is in the mall to make purchases, Hoodie’s message to Touta plays with a warning about her holding the town hostage, instructing Touta to look outside. When he looks to the city in the distance, Hoodie causes the mall to explode. Touta is angry and returns to the holographic message where Hoodie is waiting. She tells him that if he doesn’t show up to face her in a year, she’ll destroy the entire city. She further warns that trying to stop her via other means is a waste of time.
Kuroumaru and Touta are surprised with Kirei and Santa arrive with a singed Afro in tow. To Touta’s relief, Kirie states that no one was killed and recounts how she and Santa got Afro to help them evacuate the mall before the explosion hit, thanks to her save point skill. Touta gratefully hugs Kirie, who does not appreciate this. Her reasoning for helping in this was how Touta was the first time through the loop.
Touta changes focus to Hoodie, leading Kuroumaru to tell him that Hoodie’s call had been traced. Touta thanks Kuroumaru for making the trace, but when he learns that the call originated from the top of the space elevator, he decides that he has to accept her challenge. Kuroumaru states they need to notify Yukihime and the authorities.
Thoughts/Review:
While Hoodie is a somewhat interesting and powerful adversary, her deciding to wait a year to face Touta and hold the city hostage so that he MUST enter the tournament to face her comes off as contrived. I still don’t see a reason for her to delay killing Touta when that was clearly her purpose. Yeah, there’s the cliched, “Oh, I’m ever so bored Touta-chan, so won’t you get stronger and face me in a year so that I’m marginally entertained for our next encounter? If you don’t, I’ll kill everyone, tee hee!”
Hoodie does appear to have another mission beyond Touta. If she’s mined the entire city, and using that to threaten Touta is just a bonus, then what is her purpose? Why does she despise the world? Why would she be in a place where children died all around her all the time (and apparently not by her hand)?
Hoodie doesn’t appear to know about Kirie’s reset ability. I was amused at Kirie bragging about herself and fishing for compliments, only to have her be all flustered when a grateful Touta hugs her.
Touta’s body bandages were gone, came back, then left again. So, we either have a massive mistake that was carried over from last week, or there’s a purpose at work here. I’m having a hard time believing Akamatsu-sensei could continue making a massive error like this, more so since long time Negima fan Hata hadn’t reported Akamatsu speaking of any errors.
The second possibility, which I initially thought was a long shot, but now think it more likely, the bandages being there, then being gone, then being back again, then being gone again represents Kirie resetting time. She’s creating new timelines every time she does this. What would be interesting is if Kirie’s resets were causing unintended consequences. I don’t think that’s going to be the case, after considering things for a while.
What I suspect is that Kirie’s save point was done before Kirie and Santa came into the room with Touta after he awoke the first time. (That would give her and Santa enough time to get to the mall and save people just in the nick of time.) During one of her time reset trips, she had Touta’s bandages removed. During another trip, she did not have them removed, but in her final trip through, the bandages were removed. Why is another question, assuming this is what happened.
Is Hoodie’s transmission coming from the top of the tower mean she’s an associate of Fate’s? Possibly, but I doubt Fate’s the only thing at the top of the space elevator. She could easily work for someone else, or be working solo.
Well, we’ll have a couple of weeks to wonder about this as there’s no chapter next week. As for this chapter, it was interesting, even if I feel the plot setup is contrived.
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[…] Here is some SPOILER info for the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 74, courtesy of 2ch. (My review of UQ Holder chapter 74 should come out Wednesday.) […]
Well, if she was the result of a project to reproduce the power and talent of Negi through artificial means, it was likely unethical. Failed “clones” might have been unstable, killed for not being good enough, or forced to do stuff like fight to the death.
You know, the standard “unethical supersoldier project” stuff.
Yeah, that’s certainly possible. Hoodie could be pissed because Touta was rescued by the Konoe’s and she was left on her own.
I think that Hoodie was used as a weapon, she calls Tota “nii-san” so I think she’s another clone of Negi, and the whole point of cloning Negi was to replicate his power.
I think she’s angry at Tota, she found how that he’s a clone too and has been going to school and making friends and she’s incredibly angry but when/if Tota beats her she’ll reveal that she just wants a family, or something like that.
I wonder what they’re using to clone Negi…maybe his missing eye :p
And she could be a later developed clone, thus the reason she calls Touta “Nii-san.”
You are probably right, knowing how these things go.
*lol* That’s it. 😉
Apparently we’ll know Hoodie Girl’s real reason after Touta gets to the tournament and faces her. I’ve still got some things thought out for possibilities. And is her actual purpose for doing this other than Touta, because she was the one who started this and caused all this trouble just to get him to join a tournament. Plus, if her intention was just only Touta, she would have already gotten her objective finished if she just killed Touta already. But that would end the story too quick so it has to be that obvious “get stronger so I can be entertained” crud. Despite being an adversary of dangerous sorts of certainty. Her method’s just felt lame, and taking it out on various people that Touta doesn’t even know. He barely had time to check out the world, and I know where I’m going with this. So this means we’ll have a training and tournament arc coming up after two weeks.
Hoodie Girl’s comments about kids dropping all around here, may possibly be due to her past and kids died around her, from hearing the things she said before, she may have been an experiment or something. I’m still wondering at which point she was aware of Touta, and she’d managed to find him in the middle of somewhere. There must have been a way to track him or something because I still call BS on that part. Although I’m not surprised at how she despised the world, simply because of stuff that happened to her that only happen in a secret building away from all public, so no one would ever know of her existence but the top secret guys running the thing. So her anger is just all over place, not differentiating her focus between those responsible and those who aren’t responsible.
Still all this has to be for something if all that trouble was caused so Touta joins.
He was almost dead when she got interrupted. She only stopped in that moment because Santa, Kirie, and Kuroumaru became a blocking force and thanks to Kirie’s reset ability, Hoodie had no chance to kill them and then finish Touta off.
But as I think of what you said here, I’m now starting to wonder if Hoodie is tied to the Lifemaker. After all, the Lifemaker laid the trap that got Touta revealed, and that trap was Negi entering the tournament.
So I don’t think trouble was made just to get Touta. I think things are being done that will come to a head in a year. Touta is the icing on the cake for Hoodie.
I think in the last chapter he took the bandages off because he was holding the roll of them in his hand, and this chapter it may have been a single panel mistake, like Akamatsu decided to skip them but already had that panel done? Although that’s an interesting theory, it’s not been that consistent (or inconsistent enough) as a foreshadow.
Wider scale plot is on its way! Perhaps Hoodie hates Touta for being rescued from their cloning facility (defective model gets preferential treatment type grudge)? Where children/clones might have died a lot? I’m relieved she had a wider mission, because Touta hasn’t earned that much attention yet. It makes her a better villain. And the ‘I’m the only one who can stop her’ line, although true to what she told him, sounded REALLY cliche and jarring.
I would like it if Fate is running a billion unethical save the world experiments for his old boss behind the scenes, and the entire tournament set up is a diversion to keep Eva distracted.
Yeah, that’s certainly a plausible theory, though this kind of plot device could be considered cliched.
You’re correct about that. It is cliched, but it seems to me that Akamatsu-sensei wanted to do a more cliched manga title with darker, seinen elements.
Could it be that touta and hoody were made from negi. Maybe was hoody looking at touta the whole time and think now that touta only geting stronger when people in danger
That’s certainly very plausible.
Well, upside to this, upcoming one year on and off training acr is that we get to do more random stuff. EG go to Whale’s, get some more mana screentime, have touta watch jack’s film about ala rubra, maybe get some more details about Gateau’s death and who followed him.
Also some gravestones with a ku-fei cameo as the typical old martial art’s master.
I don’t know. It is so hard to say since Akamatsu-sensei appears to be trying to keep things random for the sake of being random. How deep we’ll delve into this prelim tournament and the tournament itself remains to be seen, as does whether Eva shows back up after being told of recent events.
It seems that Negi could not have any children by natural means. By the means of Cloning with the use of 23 of Negi’s chromosomes, and an egg from a female donor, Negi will be able to have children. One Negi’s reasons for having children is focus on protecting the timeline. Chao Lingshen is one of Negi’s descendants. The year of Chao’s birth is supposely 2088.
Of course, we may be in a timeline where there is no Chao.
The bandage that Touta wore around his head, was it broken by the rage? lol
How much rage the hooded has towards the people, Who knows the reason, sometimes the “wicked” normally she/he is that way by something cruel that happened in his/her past
Will they go back to UQ Holder? Or Will Touta continue with the tournament?
I wonder if Evangeline will appear in the next chapter, Kuroumaru told that they should talk with her about what happened
PS: What would we do without Kirie XD
Two weeks without chapter…
As much as I don’t care for tournaments, Akamatsu-sensei appears keen on getting the story into one.
I just hope we hear she’s been notified.
Har!
Hoodie could be bait and part of the process to bring Touta around to start shaping up into even more powerful vassel. I personally think whoever is the one is holding the Negi and his Father hostage is likely looking for a new host body and raising even more powerful one would be ultimate goal. Remember Nagi was captured and made into the Lifemaker aka the Wizard at the Beginning. I think this all about Lifemaker trying to make come back.
Yeah, but Hoodie tried to kill Touta and would likely have succeeded had she not been stopped.
I agree there.
Still wondering if Akamatsu will ever become man enough to kill ANY character. #facepalms
Oh, yeah, just to clarify:
1. The majority of 3A doesn’t count this time, they had died of old age before the history even started.
2. Sayoko was dead from the beginning, so yeah, she just went to the other side or something – and happy, so no sad death.
Personally speaking, I think the chapter would have been better if Hoodie’s attack succeeded. It would give a bigger sense of the danger she represents, and Afro dying would give more motivation to Touta, but noooo!
Not only Afro, they also managed to save every single person in that building. This sort of thing kiiinda makes you lose confidence in the enemies to come.
I mean, no matter what they do, nobody EVER dies by their acts. Then you get a situation like “The whole world is in danger because of my evil plan, bwahaha!” and you think “Whatever, no one is going to die anyways. They will just save everyone at the last minute or reset and bring back the dead ones.”
Big loss of impact.
I agree.
I think we both know the answer to that question. 😉
For some reason all this chapter does is set up a Negi vs Jack Rakan thingy only on a longer timeline and much larger scale tournament.
But, this all makes me wonder for some odd reason the possibility if Chao will appear at all? with her dimension hopping and time traveling capabilities, I would think that she could appear and even bring someone from the past to help out with this.(obviously not negi)
Just a couple extra change with my two cents.
Which is another reason I’m not really keen on the tournament thing.
As to Chao, who can say. Akamatsu-sensei seems very keen of changing up things just to change up things so that no one can guess where he’s going.
This break is killing me 🙁
I demand Akamatsu sensei to show us the remainder of UQ holder after This. But that’s just me wishful thinking
Yeah, we still haven’t gotten to them yet.
ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS ALREADY and the thrill is cooling down now :c does Akamatsu-sensei celebrate holy week or what. but anyway I’ll still be looking forward to it thought the story is getting off (for me) ….
I think he was falling behind and needed to catch up. He did that a lot with Negima toward the end.