UQ Holder Chapter 92 Manga Review (Dark Evangel)

ユーキューホルダー! Chapter 92 Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 92

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

UQ Holder Chapter 92Kitty is waiting for Touta when he arrives with Kuroumaru, Kirie, and Santa. When she races up to Touta, tearfully embracing him and going for a kiss, Touta immediately realizes that this is not Kitty. Demanding to know her true identity, Dana sheds the disguise, praising him for having seen through her illusion. Touta fears they didn’t make it in time, however, Dana says they did, which is why she wanted to reward him. Kirie demands to know what is going on, so Touta tries to explain that he was going to meet a younger Yukihime for the first time in 287 years. Kirie doesn’t understand, so Touta doesn’t attempt to explain future.

Touta requests that Dana let him see Kitty. Dana says he’ll regret it, but since there’s no putting Touta off, she bluntly tells him that after 287 years, Kitty has forgotten all about Touta and her promise to him. Touta is shocked by this, so Dana reminds him that 287 years is a long time and that in that time, memories fade and circumstances change.

Kirie heavily teases Touta about being dumped, but she’s dismayed when Touta takes a mature attitude about this, citing how he’s happy for Kitty as long as she’s happy. Dana praises him for his response and causes a giant, Gothic window to appear. Through this window, Touta will be able to see what Kitty was doing at the moment when she was supposed to meet him. Kirie is irritated when Touta says he doesn’t have to check in on Kitty, so Dana baits him by implying that at this time in Kitty’s life, she may not be looking forward to her future and that whether he looks or not won’t change anything.

Touta takes the bait and leaps up to where this giant window floats above them. Looking down, Kitty appears to be in a giant cathedral, a massive cloak swirled about her, and a massive ring of icy, thorny vines all around, culminating in ice roses. A couple of bat-like wings are on her back and at her feet lay the shattered remains of soldiers whom were apparently frozen. Touta is stunned by this and pounds on the window, screaming the name “Yukihime” until the girl turns and looks his way with a cold, dead stare.

Thoughts/Review:

Well now, well now. This chapter had a lot of positives in it for me, and I hope this leads to a long stretch of seeing Eva’s life in the past.

For starters, although I normally hate Touta’s being able to do anything, I liked how he was able to see through Dana’s illusion. That’s because here, it made sense. He’d lived with Eva for a couple of years, so he knew her from that level, and he’d gotten to know her younger self as time flowed for her. As such, it makes sense that he’d know that Eva, whether as Kitty or as Yukihime, would not try to kiss him.

I give Touta credit as a character for again taking a mature route when it came to hearing the news that Eva had forgotten both him and the promise. I’ve no doubt that he was disappointed, but at the same time, I genuinely believe he was happy for Eva as long as Eva was happy.

Further, I like how Touta’s mature attitude was almost as good as Kirie getting a massive, backhanded slap that sends her flying across the room. Kirie has been desperately trying to take over the position of “most irritating character” of late, so I’m happy to see her figuratively smacked down.

For me, as a long time Eva fan, the best part of the chapter was seeing Eva from 450 years ago. It felt like Eva was in some sort of cathedral with the giant Gothic windows (I also had a feeling of the old Diablo game for some reason). We see her with her cloak, which also doubles for bat wings. She seems to have used it as a melee weapon along with some powerful ice magic, possibly after having used ME (but that’s really speculating there). The shattered soldier bodies all around her indicate she has just slaughtered them all. This is her Dark Evangel time, I think.

UQ Holder Chapter 92

As to the cold look on her face, I was immediately reminded of the scene in Negima when Eva briefly told Asuna and Setsuna a bit about her past. She kept trying to get Asuna to understand all the death that she (Eva) was responsible for and how she knew what she was doing. I think this is the time just before Eva fled to that island, where she’s having to kill people left and right. She’s become “evil” by her own standards.

I’m REALLY wanting Akamatsu-sensei to delve deeper into Eva’s past. Seriously, this is the stuff I was so frustrated we didn’t get to explore in Negima, and this is the perfect time to do so in UQ Holder. We’ve done it somewhat so far, but I want it done a lot more.  I want to see Eva’s biography, including how she ended meeting Nagi and Ala Rubra, how she didn’t know about Aika, and then finishing with Nagi defeating her, cursing her, and then showing a montage of Eva’s redemption through Negi.

The one thing I was disappointed in was not seeing evidence of Chachazero in the the fight. Granted, based on Eva’s skills, Chachazero could easily be elsewhere, slaughtering away. I’d actually still like to see when Eva made a pactio with Chachazero and how Chachazero “came to life” as it were.

In the end, this was a highly enjoyable chapter for me. I’m really hoping we continue exploring Eva’s past.

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27 Responses to “UQ Holder Chapter 92 Manga Review (Dark Evangel)”

  1. shadowofthevoid says:

    This was a great chapter. And it was up on time! Two weeks in a row!

    Touta seeing through Dana’s disguise and brushing off Kirie’s nasty remarks (getting trolled by two women at the same time!) shows some definite character growth on his part. But seeing Evangeline in that situation with that expression on her face is almost a tear-jerker. She really is a tragic figure, and I’m glad that’s being explored more.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      And it was up on time! Two weeks in a row!

      Actually, it was up a little early, but “Sssshhhh!” 😉

      But seeing Evangeline in that situation with that expression on her face is almost a tear-jerker. She really is a tragic figure, and I’m glad that’s being explored more.

      Yeah, she is. That’s why I’m looking forward to seeing why she became known by all the names she’s known by.

  2. mattcgw says:

    Its ‘The girl in the fireplace’ Part 2, With offical ‘windows’.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      😆 Yes, very true. Considering how much into sci-fi Akamatsu-sensei is, he might have taken a cue from Doctor Who.

  3. Dargor says:

    So basically, the only chapters Astro seems to like is when the chapters have actually nothing to do with UQ Holder, but Negima. Which is fair, because Holder pretty much has done nothing to pull interest on its own merits.

    Frankly nothing to this chapter but the continuum of Eva bait. Ax Touta’s…well, “story”, if you can call it that, out and this series would otherwise be Eva centric without actually placing her in the center. Everything horrible about UQ Holder pretty much can all be traced back to Touta anyway. Get rid of him as he currently is and the Lifemaker, give Eva expanded focus, and Holder probably wouldn’t be the mess that it is. Alas, its not to be, but a guy can dream.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      So basically, the only chapters Astro seems to like is when the chapters have actually nothing to do with UQ Holder, but Negima.

      I admit, these are the chapters I like the most. Considering how Negima wasn’t finished, I suppose it is natural to want those Negima plot threads explored.

      Get rid of him as he currently is and the Lifemaker, give Eva expanded focus, and Holder probably wouldn’t be the mess that it is. Alas, its not to be, but a guy can dream.

      Since the Lifemaker is another Negima carryover, I still want that retained. However, I would have preferred that UQ Holder have been about immortality more, during which we learned about Eva and such. But I guess that wouldn’t fit the shounen genre. 🙁

      • Dargor says:

        I’d disagree in regards to the Lifemaker. Aside from Eva (Who still never had THE focus from Negima), setting Touta up as the one thing to take the Lifemaker on has no real emotional hook to it whatsoever. The Lifemaker was Asuna and Negi’s enemy first and foremost, as his actions basically spawned the entirety of what the main plot of Negima was in the first place. Shifting focus over to someone who is more peripheral outside his the shared context of Eva pretty much punts them out of what their stories could have/should have been.

        UQ Holder should have had its own antagonist instead of rehashing a plot line that should have been resolved by characters within the native series he stemmed from. Almost everything bad about Holder stems from the fact that it does nothing for itself but constantly rehashing older people/places in the worst possible ways while doing nothing to add anything of its own. Touta is literally the spawn of a bad fanfic writer who really wanted a Self-Insert power fantasy by slapping Negi and Asuna together. Get rid of ME and everything else super special about him, and he’s nowhere near as bad as a plot device. The only thing he has going for him is his personality, and that’s not enough to save him when the story is more then willing to do everything for him.

        • Seimei says:

          I do not dwell on your second paragraph would be a waste of time for both of us. However I can not let the remark on lifemaker. And this, for two reasons:

          1. The lifemaker is aged of 2600 years, not 20 years or 50 years. He probably commit countless misdeeds and LOTS of enemies to cross his path. Taking this into account, and there is NO reason, in the screenwriting perspective of the global universe of Akamatsu (and not a single manga, of course) to be so decree that the mage of the beginning is the reserved antagonniste of Asuna and Negi.

          Negi had NO valid personal reason to defeat lifemaker other than “I want to continue the legacy of my father.” As for Asuna, she had even less reason apart from the fact that she did not help him in his plans.

          Certainly Tota also will fight him, surely to endorse the legacy of Negi, I can not deny that. But Eva has MUCH MORE reasons to want to kill the mage of the beginning that Asuna and Negi combined!

          Besides we still do not know the last three “numbers”. If it is, among them there is someone who has a reason to fight him (I think in first to “hidden twin brother of Dynamis alias Juuzo lol or perhaps the vampire-boy). You can not declare that only the characters from the previous series have a legitimate right to fight him, under the ONLY reason that you prefer them to those of the current series.

          2. To say that an antagonniste can not appear in two consecutive series of the same universe, without the next series are accused of being fanfics, it shows as you probably not seen or even ridden, Jojo Bizzarre adventure!

          In this manga (which each arc can be considered almost as an independent manga), a vampire Dio Brando, is the enemy of the hero of the first part (which was more or less his “childhood friend” (it is more complicated than that but I simplify because it is not the subject). He is defeated but returned in the third part, again as the main antagonniste (happens 100 years later) and he faces the grand-son and the great great grandson of the hero of the first arc. They will defeat him permanently.

          This manga was released in 1980 and is a legend (it is still not over! It is Part 8 actualy lol) if this manga of the old school stinks use this method of screenplay so completely legitimate, why Akamatsu would not have the right? A yes is true, YOU have decreed…

          In fact, the use by Akamatsu of this method is even more justified than for the author Jojo lol!

          Because, in Jojo the background of Dio and his powers are explored from Part 1! Certainly in Part 3, he received new capacities, but otherwise apart hear him say “Mouahahahaha! I am the great Dio and I come to avenge me against the Joystar family (the lineage of heroes) and to conquer the world: because I am very evil !!! Mouahahahahahah !!! “.
          But otherwise … bah his return is not used much, for once, THIRE, IN THIS CASE, there was the impression of reading a fanfic (yet Part III is the preferred of the jojo-fan, more than the first two parts together, and I am one of those fans, even though I sometimes feel that it drags in length).

          As for lifemaker we knows NOTHING about him nor his real name, nor the extent of his powers or his past or his real ambitions! NOTHING! ZERO!

          His return in UQ Holder is perfectly justifiable.

          In looking good I’m sure I can find many other writers whose reputation has already proved who have done similar things and nobody treated them condescendingly of “bad fanfic writers” (However I would exclude voluntarily the video games because there was cheating lol). But it is true that apart from the author of Jojo, I do not other examples that come to my mind. But I did not want to search, my goal is not launching a new three-hour debate between us two.

          However I wanted to give my opinion, on this part of your comment.

          Moreover, nobody has ever denied (Akamatsu-sensei first) that UQ Holder was a sequel of Negima with new characters, th fans of UQ are the first to say that, and they don’t hope anything more. Of course, if they if they get more, it’s even better, but what they wanted in the first and priority was to have the answers to the intrigues of the plot of Negima without the harem. Has done. ^^

        • WMC says:

          Hurray, Dargor from 9-2, 11:25 above. Somebody else willing to say so.

        • While I agree with you that the Negima ending is an eternal disgrace to a great series and that Touta is an even greater disgrace to this new one…
          To be fair, the LM IS that sort of immortal enemy that keeps coming back no matter how many times you deal with him. If he wasn’t the sort of guy who keeps coming back, Negi and Asuna woudn’t have to deal with him in the first place, either, since the Thousand Master and his allies SHOULD have finished him off years before Negi’s story even begins.
          So, at least when it comes to the point of “The LM is still here! He was supposed to be the exclusive enemy of Ala Alba/Negima! ” I disagree. It DOES make sense for this bastard to still be around and remain a Big Bad, even though he was defeated back in the day. As you said: “…his actions basically spawned the entirety of what the main plot of Negima was in the first place.”
          It’s true. And his actions are still influencing the world.

          Since it’s a history full of immortals, from my point of view, it makes sense that the character with the absolute immortality is the final boss – that way, he looks so far above, that even for the other immortals he looks like an unkillable monster and can strike fear. If done right, the LM presence here COULD bring epic moments to this series.

          That being said, however…
          I sure hope he doesn’t end up becoming fodder for Super Touta 3, once he eventually goes EVEN FURTHER BEYOND(!!!!) later on the series.
          …Or at least I used to hope, back in the day. I suffered too much with that rushed ending back in the day, and I’m not setting myself up for disappointment again. I’ll just wait and see. The guy used to have an intrincate plan for everything and had that godly, transcendent atmosphere about him… Now if he just becomes a dumb cliche villain here, then it’s ruined.

        • AstroNerdBoy says:

          UQ Holder should have had its own antagonist instead of rehashing a plot line that should have been resolved by characters within the native series he stemmed from.

          I won’t disagree with you, but I think it was clear early on in UQ Holder that the reason Touta was rapidly turned into Super Touta so he could take over from Negi and thus allow Akamatsu-sensei to finish off plot threads from Negima.

  4. cold_menthol says:

    In addition to all those, I’m also interested to know how she managed to “graduate” from Dana’s castle.

  5. Aki says:

    I want to read the chapter so badly now

  6. magine says:

    It surprised me when I saw Evangeline tried kiss Touta… But, she was Dana XD (I wonder that would have happened if they had kissed… lol)

    Maybe Chachazero also is there… Or maybe she showed up more later, because Touta told her something about have a partner or something, then, How old is Evangeline now? 450?

    So, this is what she meant when she told to Setsuna and Asuna all those things in Negima when she told them a part of her past… But why did she forget the promise with Touta? What could have happened for she change her personality so much? Maybe loneliness… If Dana knew what she was going through, she could have visited her once a year at least… I felt sad for her. (I see that Evangeline has bat wings on the back (Although I know that it is the layer of vampire)

    Dana told that she forgot him. But now maybe he will do that she remembers about him. what I mean. the Evangeline of the present time doesn’t remember him…Then… Won’t she be able to see him through the window? Or Dana won’t let Touta goes with her and he only will be able to see her through the window.
    And why Dana know all the story of Evangeline? Was she spying her all her past?

    I wonder. How many chapters are necessary for do an anime? I would know if 100 chapters are enough (Faithful to the manga I am referring to.) Seriously, not like Negima but an anime faithful to the manga, although I know that it is very difficult…

    PS: Is there chapter next week? Thanks.

    • cold_menthol says:

      How old is Evangeline now? 450?

      This is the confusing part for me. Dana said 450 years ago, which means Eva is around 250 y.o., which is weird. I guess Dana can show whichever Eva she wants to show.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Maybe Chachazero also is there…

      We know Eva had Chachazero based on an earlier encounter with Touta, but it would have been neat to see Chachazero with the blades, having participated in the slaughter.

      But why did she forget the promise with Touta?

      Nearly 300 years of a very hard life apparently put him well out of her mind.

      (I see that Evangeline has bat wings on the back (Although I know that it is the layer of vampire)

      I think that is a cloak of some sort, but I could be wrong.

      And why Dana know all the story of Evangeline? Was she spying her all her past?

      Why did Dana grab Eva in the first place? Whatever that reason is, Eva became a charge of Dana’s and as such, Dana obviously kept an eye on her, but didn’t interfere.

      PS: Is there chapter next week? Thanks.

      I think so.

  7. Rob C. says:

    Great Wheel keeps spinning in the sky. Touta finally sees what bad Eva he properly barely heard about. Funny thing is, if he had been with her continuously after their last meeting, perhaps Dark Eva won’t have had happened. Least in that timeline.

    Anyways, its good for Touta see Eva’s other face. What makes her who she is.Another step in Diana’s plan to each Eva about love. Though the hard way.

    • dominic says:

      When she found touta after the accident she said: this is… . I see..
      Maybe she recogniced touta as a clone or she remebered

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      Funny thing is, if he had been with her continuously after their last meeting, perhaps Dark Eva won’t have had happened. Least in that timeline.

      That’s true. Her brief encounters with Touta is what helped her get through her rough time at Dana’s castle.

  8. Seimei says:

    Astro : I generally have the same opinion as you on the chapter (Woaah !! Two chapters following on which we fully agreements, would there be an astral or mystical upheaval in the universe? ^^ Lool).

    Joking aside. I too was pleasantly surprised by the mature reaction of Tota when he learns that Kitty has forgotten about him.

    Moreover I found Eva with her blacks wings is even more badass than in Negima!

    And in fact I ask myself, if Eva is not REALLY a Shinso. Not, because there she has the demonic look of a Shinso, like Dana or like the vampire boy (and the same wings.that him!)

    By cons I think she could have lost her status of shinso, (in the same time that most of her powers, as it is say since the beginning of UQ). That is why Dana said that Eva is not a Shinso. she was indeed a Shinso in the past, but is no longer the case

    Arrrg !!! I want the next chapter !!!
    And like you I hope to see soon the lifemaker in action in the story ^^.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      The way I’m looking at things, I see Eva as an “artificial” shinso vampire, meaning that when the Lifemaker turned her into a vampire, he made her in the likeness of the shinso, which obviously the Lifemaker must have known something of.

  9. Feels like 287 years since I had interest in a chapter. This one was made of awesome. No complaints here. It’s nice to see Eva again, as she should be: The experient badass super powerful cold witch.
    AND THANK GOD THIS ToutaxEva ROMANCE CRAP IS OVER.
    THANK! GOD!
    It was making me lose interest in the history so much, I hope the history can go back to focusing on things more relevant (or interesting) to the plot from now on, as it did on this chapter.

  10. mattcgw says:

    So Eva was vamped in 1386 or so, meets karin in 1492, with Dana’s loadstone temporal displacement antics going on, so currently about 1690-1710, (She probably left greater britain by this point, so avoiding the Clique met shakespeare thing; that seems to be referenced with immortal entities in english speaking media.) Question is how did Eva lose Karin?

    I would assume the answer Akamatsu will give, will be Eva trying to fulfil her promise to Touta and hunting down Space-Time anomalies, she or karin get’s sukced into one and then displaced in another part of Europe. Thus separated and unable to find one another.

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