July 1st, 2015 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 85
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta is tasked with defeating the magic beast he initially encountered, but it easily squashes him, forcing him to stay in the ground for a week. He emerges to tell the tale to Kirie, Santa, and Kuroumaru. Kuroumaru notices Touta’s positive attitude, leading Kirie to think there’s a woman involved, but with only Dana and herself in this place, Kirie suspects Kuroumaru became a woman without telling her.
Touta meets with Kitty during the early morning hours, where she seems very surprised to see him and to hear him say that it has only been a week since he last saw her. She inquires about his training, then shows him her doll magic. He easily defeats her first summoned, life-sized doll, but then she summons quite a large number of life-sized dolls. Touta wisely goes for Kitty, but she easily throws him and defeats him.
Kitty invites Touta to tea, which he accepts. However, as two of her doll servants make preparations, Dana awakes, meaning their time is over. As Touta sees Kitty fade, she tearfully asks him to not keep her waiting after he promises to get up early to see her.
After another day of training, Touta gets up early and finds Kitty waiting for him. Again, she is surprised to see him, but as she promised before, she has a feast waiting for him. Touta is very happy by this, but wonders what the cost to him will be. She says that she owed him since he is the one who caused her to stop wanting to die. She reveals that it has been ten years since they first met, due to them living in different times. Even if Touta gets up the next morning, for Kitty, it will likely be a 40 year period.
Touta is stunned by all this, especially since Kitty is saying goodbye. Kitty says she’s prepared for this since Dana explained it all to her. As such, she has one final request — to be stroked on the head, something she finds soothing and something she hasn’t experienced in eighteen years. As such, she puts her head on Touta’s lap and he strokes her head.
Thoughts/Review:
Darn you, Akamatsu-sensei. I didn’t want to care, but I felt for Eva in this chapter. Well played, sir; well played. (I still don’t ship Touta x Eva though.)
As many of you know, Eva was a favorite character of mine from Negima. During the Eva arc in volume 3, Akamatsu-sensei only gave us some scant information regarding Eva’s past. We saw that she encountered Nagi at some point, followed him around for a while (with Chachazero in tow), then Nagi ditched Eva, after which Eva tracked him down to Japan and ended up falling prey to a simple trap. This of course still leaves the big question of how she was able to spend any significant time (as was implied) with Ala Rubra since Eva never knew about Arika. But I digress…
I had thought that time for Eva was passing more quickly than it was for Touta, based on how she kept growing in power with every encounter, and she learned Japanese. As I said in my chapter 83 review,
I still say that a fair amount of time has passed for Eva in this castle. I say this because each time Touta encounters her, she’s more powerful. (Well, that’s how things have been presented to us, but of course, in two chapters from now, this could all be turned upside-down on its head.)
Well, it is two chapters later, although the way things were written, the implication is that ten total years have passed — eight years passed from Touta’s previous visit to his last one, and two years passed for the time Touta was away a week. However, that doesn’t account for all the days, weeks, and months from their other encounters. I don’t understand the time skip pattern here, so I can’t make sense of things properly. It seems like Eva has been trapped at the castle for longer than ten years, and that if the time gap was ten years for Touta’s last two visits, then there has to be at least a combined total of several months to a year to account for all of Touta’s other visits.
We still don’t know why Dana actually pulled Eva into her realm. However, unlike with Touta’s training, it seems that Eva has more of a run of the place, summoning dolls as her servants and such. In some ways, it seems odd that Eva would choose a replica of this castle as her resort home (which was called “Lebenschilt Castle” in Negima). Well, I say “replicate”, but that’s making assumptions. The assumption we all had in Negima was that Eva’s powerful magic pulled this castle and surrounding lands from someplace on Earth and enclosed it in a diorama bottle.
I suppose this sub-arc will explain why Eva’s dioramas had a time displacement affect — something she learned from Dana.
Anyway, if Eva was 16 when she first encountered Touta, she’d be 26-27 now, presuming only ten years have passed. For this entire period that she was trapped in the castle, Touta appears to have been her only friend (or so we are to imply). So when Eva attempted to have tea with Touta, but was unable to do so since Dana was waking up, her tears had me sad.
Their last meeting nearly had me in tears when I saw the table of food. When Eva had promised that the next time they met, she’d have everything ready for his next visit, I immediately had the thought that for Eva to have such a feast ready for Touta, she had to have it ready in advance. She never knew when Touta was coming, so as I see it, Eva had her dolls make a feast every day for who knows how long, maybe even the entire eight years, just so she’d be sure to be ready for him once he arrived. Just that thought brought a massive lump into my throat as I could empathize with Eva’s character and the loneliness she must have felt over the years, waiting for her friend to return, and the hope that today would be the day she’d get to see her friend.
When I saw the spoiler image showing Touta stroking Eva’s head, I thought it was pushing the romantic angle further. However, in reading the chapter, I don’t think it was a romantic thing on Eva’s part. Again, the loneliness of Eva comes up as she mentions how it has been eighteen years since anyone did that for her. I would presume that Dana never did it, so that would account for the ten years since she met Touta. We still don’t know how long Eva was there when Touta met her, but assuming it had only been a short time (since she still spoke her apparent native tongue), and assuming that she was sixteen when she met Touta, then that means she was eight when she last had her head stroked. I figure that was done by her parents, but there I ago assuming things again.
Still, if her mother or father used to stroke her head, then it would make sense as to why she’d enjoy having someone she cared for also do that for her. I found that to be very moving.
With Akamatsu-sensei apparently ending this thing with Touta going back and meeting up with Eva in the past, I guess this means I won’t get my wish to see how she ensouled Chachazero, or how she got her first Chachamaru-prototype doll she summoned to politely address Touta as “Touta-sama” and be very formal, or how she learned about the pactio system, etc. That makes me sad because frankly, Eva’s story is so much more compelling to me than Touta’s. However, Sensei has surprised me by giving us a taste of Chachazero and more in UQ Holder, so maybe he’ll do more in the future.
I’m still not looking forward to Touta reconnecting with Eva’s Yukihime persona because of the potential awkward moment of their reunion. I guess Dana could wipe Eva’s memories of Touta, which explains her not seeming to know him when she encountered him initially, assuming Dana can do this at all. Of course, if Eva remembers, then there’s no real explanation for her not seeming to know Touta initially, but it would explain why Eva decided to give up her life and raise this kid for two years.
Finally, Kirie puts a little humor into this chapter with her rightly suspecting that Touta’s attitude change was due to a woman, but then her wrongly thinking that Kuroumaru may have chosen to become female without telling anyone. That made me laugh.
In the end, I found this chapter to be poignant, which is part of the emotional roller coaster UQ Holder puts one through (excitement, happiness, irritation, anger, frustration, and now poignancy).
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This chapter, in some way, I feel VERY sorry for this Evangeline, besides I think that the Evangeline of the present time besides suffer all this, she hadn’t Touta at her side if Dana erased her memories about Touta.
I’m very confused, then, the Evangeline (Negima) Did she already meet Touta and she forgot him? But, Isn’t Touta a clone of Negi? Touta didn’t exist when Evangeline met with Nagi, did he? ._.
Will Dana erase the memories of the Evangeline of the past time? Or this Evangeline is of another dimension what hasn’t to see with the Evangeline of the present time? (I remember that Chao went to different times…)
I would like to see Touta meet again with Yukihime/Evangeline to see if it changed something. (I would like to see that Evangeline is the same as always) I don’t know what will happen with the Touta’s feelings for Evangeline. Because It seems be that he is more fond of Evangeline after he met again with the Evangeline of the past time. (Sorry if it’s confusing to write so much “Evangeline” but with 2 Evangelines it is difficult)
Well, aside from it. The sword appeared out of nowhere XD I thought that he had left in the mall.
When Evangeline did appear the doll, for a moment, I thought in Chachamaru. Also, I realized in that Evangeline changed her style of clothes and she is dressed like in negima.
I think that we are seeing the past of the Evangeline slowly with this Evangeline. Although I would prefer that the Evangeline of the present time, She had explained something about her past to him. I wonder if Chachazero will appear with the soul and I wonder when Evangeline met with Karin (In a chapter Evangeline showed up rescuing Karin)
“The next will probably be 40, So this has to be goodbye”
Won’t she really show up anymore?
Yeah, well we already know Touta wasn’t a thing in Negima, so there will be questions and retcon potential, disguised as “nothing said this and that didn’t happen.”
Gah! I meant to talk about that. ^_^; Yeah, that was really out of left field, as if Akamatsu-sensei said, “Ooops! I forgot he had Kurobo.”
Things that would make excellent material for an Eva manga.
That’s how it seems, but we’ll see.
And also, How old Evangeline has gotten since that she showed up with 16 years old?
I found this in a page. It is about the timeline of Evangeline. But, being it in Japanese I don’t understand too much with the Google translator. Could somebody translate it? please
1386年(0岁)－依文出生
1396年(10岁)－依文十岁生日，被魔改造成吸血鬼
1402年?(16岁?)－依文被丹娜抓到城堡软禁
－(N天后)跟刀太见面第一次，依文让刀太看到自己想杀了睡著的丹娜
－(N天后)跟刀太见面第二次，依文吸了刀太的血饱肚
－(N天后)跟刀太见面第三次，依文跟刀太解释修练内容
－(N天后)跟刀太见面第四次，依文跳街头杂舞给刀太看，帮刀太修练
－(N天后)跟刀太见面第五次，依文睡著时被刀太偷窥到过去，刀太告白
1404年?(18岁?)－(2年后)跟刀太见面第六次，依文耍人偶跟刀太打场架，想告别却时间到
1412年?(26岁?)－(8年后)跟刀太见面第七次，依文办下午茶会，让刀太摸摸头告别
1492年(106岁)－依文带走夏凛
1903年(517岁)－依文来到日本，跟某个胖大叔学习合气柔
1988年(602岁)－依文跟纳吉相遇。同年被纳吉下了上学地狱诅咒。
2003年(617岁)－(2月)涅吉来麻帆良当老师，魔法老师正篇开始
(8月)白之翼跑去魔法世界打主线，后来闹到麻帆良所以依文也去打，打爆影‧起源魔法使，魔法老师正篇结束
2004年(618岁)－明日菜开始睡觉
2013年－魔法世界公开发表存在
2065年(679岁)－依文跟涅吉等一大帮魔法老师里的角色（这时间点看上去大家都还很年轻？），杀去火星上的夜之迷宫打起源魔法使。同一年涅吉(公式发表上)死亡。
2084年(698岁)－刀太双亲死亡，依文跟刀太开始两年的同居
2086年(700岁)－刀太以吸血鬼不死身份觉醒，依文跟刀太回到UQ HOLDER
2100？年火星独立战争开始（超说个想改变的就是火星独立战争，所以应该就是这个时代的人，不知道和刀太或涅吉是什麼关系，从时间点上是刀太下一代）
2135年(749岁)明日菜醒来，依文（还是想找纳吉）和超一起把明日菜送回以前，时间轴改变
This is actually in Chinese, not Japanese. 😉
I’ll have a crack at translating that for you, rather than doing my Chinese work for uni haha!
Well, Akamatsu really is doing the whole Girl in the fireplace from ‘Doctor Who’. It was rather a good episode. All in all, I was rather indifferent to this chapter, but I put that down to Crunchyroll’s POS reader.
Unrelated note, Fairy Tail has sold 25 million volumes. Qutie surprised; I had thought it should of be 35 million+ given how long it’s had it’s anime adaption; It also means that negima was outselling it by the end of it’s run, despite never having a proper adaptation.
Oh, snap! You have totally nailed it there. I hadn’t even thought about that, but you are exactly right. Heck, this sub-arc of the manga even had a clock. Excellent point, sir!
Negima was a much better written series. Fairy Tail, which I read, was always just a simplistic, shounen action series. Sadly, as time has gone on, it has gotten more and more tedious, though there are still decent moments.
Astro : Woah, Astro-san! You’ve managed to make me love a chapter that I thought not to like. I do not really like the romantic passages in papers manga. I prefer them in fanfiction and animated. I find that in manga it sounds hollow and, if we are in a shonen it “cuts the rhythm” much more than laughs scene between characters or mundane discussion. Or it must really well put the matter (which so far only managed to Inuyasha and precisely Negima could not do. As much as I was caught up in the romance of Inuyasha as much romance of Negima always bothered me (but that you already know lol), at least if is just my opinion eh?)
While in fanfics, share the similar format to the novel, such scenes is much more enjoyable. Similarly in the animated adaptations. The seiyuus often make a great work for to show the emotions of the characters,, so that I stood enthralled as much by a touching romance that share a beautiful and epic battle “dragon-ball like”. ^^
All that to say that ithis chapter apart from the update of the training does not captivated me (for once the roles are reversed lol).
But then, with the description that you just did you manage to make me cry and love this chapter!
I was not at all considered things like that! Yes You’re right! Eva preparing a dinner for 8 years never knowing if she will share with the friend that she waits! Was too sad!
And your theory that Eva would Tota as a friend (or even… a brother?) And a confidant is interesting. This make me wonder: “Eva really loves Nagi? Or she searches more a brother or father figure, or even a friend who spoke?”.
I think this, because basically I think Eva can NEVER have real lover. Because regardless of spells, potions or illusions, she remains fixed at 10 years. This can only, partially distort her emotional construction and make her confuse love and friendship or the need of a family. That is why Dana said Eva “does not know love.”
Very good job Astro-san and very good analysis!^^
Wait, you initially didn’t like this chapter? If so, that makes me laugh for some reason. 😆
I’ve got no problem with romance, providing it is organic and natural. That’s why I’d like to see Kuroumaru become a lovely girl because it is clear that Kuromaru’s feelings for Touta go beyond being battle partners. And I can see Touta going for Kuroumaru, should Kuroumaru become a lovely girl.
Heck, just you reminding me of that scene is making me get a lump in my throat…darn it.
Body age wise, you are correct. However, mentally, Eva is still 700 or 800 years old (however old she is…I’m being lazy and not looking it up). If you notice Eva’s progression from the first time Touta meets her in the past until the last time, she still looks ten, but she clearly has matured mentally.
However, being immortal, it is hard for an immortal to love anyone. After all, people grow old and die. An immortal lives on, and in Eva’s case, never ages. And yes, it would be difficult for someone to accept her true form. I was kind of reminded of this when I reread chapter 1 tonight.
Evangeline is a tragic character in sense, she was survivor of a cruel act. Rendered for centuries to almost walk alone among what temporary friends and many enemies.
It does picture of her and give her more dare i say character to her? Her background was gone over, but not in detail. The series was not about her, but UQ Holder seems to be more so. I do wonder though what will happen to Touta in end of this. Lover, a son, while Negima while a beloved character in the past rendered in the trash bin?
Hopefully, we’ll finally get some where with plot after this training period is finally over.
Oh, she’s absolutely a tragic character. One got a brief sense of that when Eva briefly told Asuna and Setsuna of her past.
The wording of that second sentence is confusing to me, but I don’t Negima or Negi will be rendered to trash, if that’s what you fear. I don’t see it being possible for Touta to ever trump Negi in that regard.
Reason why I’m thinking it possible of that happening is Akamatsu-sensei wasn’t happy with Negi series came out, being force to make near-harem type rom-com-adventure. It would be fitting to trump perfect magician character (harry potter-like) for rough and tumble guy like Touta.
Well, I do agree that initially, Akamatsu-sensei was not that thrilled to do the series Negima was initially. However, by volume 3, he’d begun to turn it into the series he wanted.
Personally, I think with Touta and UQ Holder, Akamatsu-sensei wanted something more along the lines of Fairy Tail — a simple, shounen action adventure with minor, overarching plot stuff, and the ability to retcon at will.
Returning again to point out details that, we think, prove there was never a plot hole. Evangeline DID recognize Tota when she first met him. Refer to the flashback in Chapter 1, when Tota’s “parents” ask her to save him. She sees him, is surprised, and says to herself, “Is this…?” It was clear from all the way back then that Evangeline knew something about Tota from the minute she saw him.
I agree about that scene in chapter 1. But still, that’s already “Yukihime” from UQH!, not “Evangeline” from Negima..
Alethea : Yeah ! I agree with you, she recognize him since the begining…^^
I reread chapter 1 today because someone pointed to Eva’s blushing when she tried to give Touta tickets to the zoo as evidence that she knew him and was doing something nice for her old friend. I think a case could be made there.
However, in the scene you reference, when Eva asks, “Is this…?”, the parents respond, “Yes.” To me, since Eva was a member of Ala Alba and was part of Negi’s battle group after that (I guess it was still Ala Alba then too, but I don’t rightly recall), I figured that scene is pointing to her recognizing Touta, not as her old friend, but as the great experiment to make sure the power of Negi wouldn’t die.
So, does Eva back then recognize Touta as her old friend from hundreds of years earlier, or does Eva recognize Touta as the homunculus experiment he is? The scene plays like the latter to me, even after rereading the chapter.
There are bits that might be interpreted as Eva knowing Touta from long ago, but mostly they are weak bits. To be honest, at the time chapter one was written, I kind of doubt that Akamatsu-sensei had even conceived of the idea that Touta would meet Eva in the past. But that’s just my opinion.
Out of curiosity, did the chapter have an emotional impact on you both as it did on us readers? For me, having to translate this chapter, I’m thinking I might have had to use quite a few tissues before I turned in my work. 😛
Yeah, it seems the difference of their time flow here isn’t linear.
Btw, I checked, and actually, Touta did stroke Kitty’s head in chapter 80. Maybe that 18 years refer to that scene?
There’s certainly a time difference, but if there’s a pattern to it, or a source Akamatsu-sensei is using to base his time leaping scheme on, I don’t know what it is.
Crunchyroll needs a better, easier way to go back to old chapters, but I digress.
You are right. I’d forgotten about that, and she got angry about him doing it. Man, maybe Akamatsu-sensei is not counting that for some reason. I don’t know why he’d have Eva say 10 years if it was really much, much longer (18 years). However, now that you’ve mentioned this, it makes her request make even more sense. He was kind to her, fed her his blood, and offered to help her with nothing in return. So his stroking her head was something that she came to think fondly of in hindsight and thus wanted Touta to do it once more before they parted ways.
Excellent point there!
When I look at that one pic where Evangeline summons all those dolls, I can’t help but notice certain hairstyles on those dolls resembling Yue Ayase’s and Nodoka Miyazaki’s…
I did notice that, and one also looked like Chachamaru. However, I chalked that up to Akamatsu-sensei’s limited character designing skills. But it could have been a quite tribute to Yue and Nodoka.
Got my uq holder volume 5 5 days early from the physical retailer waterstones, not bad. Back to 10 chapter, so that could make the rest of volumes have a consis tentchapt ercount of 10.
The art looks a lot better, and more like something produced in HD. The use of lan guageis still a bit simple and the homosexual subtext between karin and yukihime is still censored in chapter 42 page 10.
Not much else to say, other than the Revenant in Academy city (mahora) arc’s opening chapters fit well in tankobon format.
Which reminds me, my pile of manga volumes is massive. I need to start working through that.
So according to this http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-03/d-grey-man-manga-relaunches-in-new-jump-square-crown-magazine/.90043
2015 is the year of endless impossible’s, korrasami, The last guardian, FF VII remake and shenmue 3 being announced all at once at E3 and the above. However a UQ holder anime is more impossible than all of this.
Really makes ya think.
Between Akamatsu’s dismal record with anime adaptations and that unlike Negima coming off Love Hina, UQ Holder comes in after both a deflating and unsatisfying conclusion of Negima and a lukewarm reception. Its pretty much expected, especially since UQ Holder hilariously seems pretty underground compared to the rest of Akamatsu’s works.
The only thing that makes ya think is what happened to Akamatsu’s Old Guard, but the answer to that is probably something we already know.
Well, I don’t sense much of a demand for a UQ Holder anime. Pretty much, the only followers of the series are old Negima fans, even in Japan. It doesn’t generate much buzz at all when the spoilers come out.
I found this. It is a ranking about the manga more sold in June in Japan. UQ Holder got 8 position 🙂 (I think that it is a good position if it has 50 positions)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-06-24/japanese-comic-ranking-june-15-21/.89666
Ah. It debuted at #8 with ~71.5K sales. Then the next week, it fell to #50 with only ~25K additional sales.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-01/japanese-comic-ranking-june-22-28/.89966
Compare that to near the end of Negima’s run (volume 37), when sales had fallen off. Volume 37 debuted at #6 w/ ~81K sales.
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=406639
However, the second week, the title only fell to #11 with ~74K additional sales. That means in its second week of release, a Negima manga title at the end of its run still sold more copies that UQ Holder did in its initial week for a title that has some 30 less volumes of content out there.
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=408933
Unfortunately, I can’t find sales for week three, and the charts used only went to #30. However, for Negima, you can see how sales didn’t fall off much for week 2. Were there sales records for the third week, I’m sure Negima would have fallen a lot more, but would still have sold a fair amount.
So yeah, UQ Holder doesn’t do the sales that Negima did at the end of its run. And Negima in its prime often would do over 120K in its debut week, if I recall correctly.
According to Ken Akamatsu’s J-Comi research, his theory is that sales (in Japan) always go up dramatically for the last volume of a series. A more accurate comparison would be to compare the same numbered volume of each series. See if you can find the rankings for Negima 7. Or at least go with some other volume in the middle of the series.
That certainly was true. Volume 38 (the final volume) saw a big spike in sales.
Well, in 2004, there weren’t folks tracking that on the web, at least, not in English sites. ^_^;;; I don’t have the Japanese skills to see if there were things published like that on Japanese sites. It would be interesting to know though since by volume 7, we’d finished the Kyoto arc and the manga had successfully shed the weaknesses of the first two volumes.