March 15th, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! Manga Review
UQ Holder Chapter 116
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta is excited about Kirie’s Time Freeze powers. Touta kisses Kirie on the head, then on the cheek, but nothing happens. Kirie is embarrassed as she explains that they need to kiss on the lips. Touta gives a brief explanation that this power would allow him to solve a problem with a final boss character. When Kirie learns that Touta’s motivation is Yukihime, she decides to help him with his experiment. However, she’s not going to do it in the open.
Finding someplace secluded, Touta gives Kirie a lengthy kiss, causing time to stop. Touta is very excited about this, so he kisses her again to get time going. He repeats this several times until Kirie blasts him with a spell to get him to stop.
Having proven Kirie’s Time Freeze powers are real when Touta kisses her, the two return to the public areas where Kirie wants to know the whole story. After summoning Santa, Kuroumaru, Ikkuu, and Karin, Touta tells them about the Mage of the Beginning and how she took over Negi’s mind 20 years ago after he defeated her. He tells of Yukihime’s plan to kill Negi, at Negi’s request, and Fate’s plane to do whatever to save Negi.
Having laid out the facts, he rejects the two choices, opting for a third option. Acknowledging his lack of knowledge when it comes to magic, he bows and asks the group, as his friends, to help him.
Thoughts/Review:
I get the feeling that this chapter is the one that completes the reboot of UQ Holder, allowing the team we’ve gotten to know to work for this goal of saving Negi.
I admit I found Touta’s thoughtless desire to test the Time Freeze by kissing Kirie to be amusing, including where he’s repeatedly kissing her to stop and resume time. Touta’s innocence comes off here because he’s not kissing Kirie for any reason other than, “Ooo! We stopped time! Now we’ve resumed it! Ha!ha!”
Of course Touta has the same effect Negi had on girls when kissing them. Kirie’s reaction reminded me of what happened to Asuna when Negi deep kissed her during the Mahora Festival.
So now that we’ve firmly established that when Touta kisses Kirie, they stop time, I like how Touta brought together his comrades in arms and bowed to them to receive their help. We didn’t get any new information about MotB or Negi, but I did find the symbolic imagery of the mental possession of Negi to be interesting.
I’ve no idea how the others can help Touta if only he and Kirie are able to move about in time. Kirie may be able to include the others, as she did during her time reset abilities. (Which reminds me, I wonder if she still has that ability.)
That aside, I feel that this chapter is what brings UQH to a point so that the group around Touta are working for the rescue of Negi and the defeat of MotB. To that end, is Akamatsu-sensei laying out a game plan to run the manga for a long while, or is he steering things to go ahead and bring about the final confrontation between Touta and MotB sooner rather than later?
I am amused to a degree at how Akamatsu-sensei loses Kurobo, Touta’s Gravity Blade. Others have recently remarked on this phenomenon, so I looked for it in this chapter. Sure enough, it disappears at times after having just been on Touta’s back.
Finally, Crunchyroll decided to pass on the ecchi Eva color splash page. This is by far the furthest I’ve seen Akamatsu-sensei push his naked chick art, and this art is what is to be on the back of the limited edition t-shirts they are giving away (so it appears that naked Eva is embracing you from behind). It is a shame that this is the route being taken to try to boost UQ Holder‘s ratings and sell a few more copies of Weekly Shounen Magazine.
(And yes, I saw that CR screwed up a text bubble again. 😐 )
In the end, UQ Holder chapter 116 is merely setting the table so that Touta and company can work as a team to rescue Negi and defeat the MotB.
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I hope the series isn’t ending with the tournament but it has been set up that MotB has entered and it would be disappointing if she just escapes, either with Negi or by possessing someone else.
I haven’t read Inuyasha, just watched a little of the anime, but I heard they kept confronting the villain and he(?) kept escaping. I wouldn’t want to see that happen but MotB escaping once is ok.
I want to see the series go to Inverse Mars. Kuroumaru is having his gender choice this year and I would like to see him have the ceremony back at his village that he mentioned to Karin. Maybe track down and beat up whoever experimented on him and those people with the tengu(?) masks that sent him on the suicide mission to kill Eva.
Also, we still haven’t been introduced to everyone from the chapter one colour spread. I assume at least one of them will be a participant in the tournament.
If the series is ending, the tournament will be skipped.
Regarding Kuroumaru, yeah, I’d love to see Kuroumaru’s past explored and for her to become a lovely girl. 🙂
Not Astro, NML that meant was that the series could end AFTER the tournament, not that the tournament will be ignored if the series ends lol. We know you are a anti-tournaments in manga, but is not a reason to misquote other lol ^^. I’ve said but I likes tournaments fans, so hopefully it will be epic. ^^
Personally, even though I too want to see exploring the solar-system, it does not boring me if the arc tournaments is the final arc. I must confess that if the manga could not last 15 years (literally) it does not boring me. 3 to 5 years should be enough to end the intrigues that have been taken. But if the manga it lasts longer I will take pleasure too ^^
Summarize the arc tournament is the penultimate arc or the last arc, both assumptions are right for me.
I know you want a tournament, but I think you are going to be highly disappointed because I don’t think we are going to get much. After all, look how long Akamatsu-sensei has avoided it. At best, there might be casual, “this is happening” moments, with a few, specific fights shown.
So, are we seeing the making of a group that will be a true successor to Ala Rubra and Ala Alba?
That’s my impression.
I’m seeing a common theme developing as in other popular mangas. One all powerful enemy and its powerful specialist, against the “hero” group that isn’t as powerful as individuals, but overcome the enemy because they work together as a team and overcome all obstacles. Naruto had all the ninja groups working as one, Kurosaki has his band of shinigami and his closes friends. I would have never predicted arrancar like Grimmjaw and Urahara Kisuke working together. Natsu has his friends in his guild,and all the other guilds against Zeref’s group. Zeref’s group also work independently and Fairy Tail works as a ‘band of brothers’.
Its obvious why the t-shirt pics aren’t shown. It is very ecchi and would definitely create a censorship ban to only adult entertainment in the US and affect sales numbers. Some guys tell me they would prefer the older Yukihime than the younger Eva so its less ‘child’-like. More so with Yuki’s new outfit that barely is keeping things ‘covered’. Some want Karin to be next. Then the question arises … what about Kuromaru…will she also be included?
Still patiently waiting for the last three characters from the promo pic to make their debut.
But — I still love and enjoy the way the story winds creatively through the problems and solutions. If real life was that simple. 🙂
I’m also waiting for Karin to go up to Kirie, and ask: So, you learned about this stopping time ability how? By lip-to-lip kissing WITH Tota, while on a date and on a boat and alone with him? Then your legs shook and got so very weak while kissing so you could no longer stand and collapsed? Yet you say you don’t like him? Regardless of her blasting him at the end.
Definitely that Kirie x Tota ship is well on its way.
Heh! 😀
Yeah, although I’ve not been blogging it, I have been reading Fairy Tail, so I know what you mean.
I’m starting to wonder if they’ll ever show.
greetings ANB I haven’t been viewing your page very long; actually I just re-purchased the entire negima manga 3 weeks – month ago to read them all again. I sold the entire series nearly 9 years ago so I had never read the magical arc before. It was awesome re-reading the series after such a long time because I remembered so little. It wasn’t until after I finished reading the series that I still wanted more negima! so I came here and read a lot of your volume/chapter reviews including the comments; it was fun.
I have volume 1-6 of UQ holder in english with 7 on pre-order at the end of this month. I’ve only just finished vol 3 though.
I don’t know of many good manga/anime. the only series i’ve read have been love hina, negima!, UQ holder, dragonball z, yu-gi-oh, and 6 volumes of samurai deeper (demon eyes kyo is cool)
love hina is a good classic, but i’m not sure if I would re-read that one again
any suggestions for me to try out given what I like so far?
First, thanks for coming by. 😀
Suggestions for manga. Well, since you like DBZ and Yu-Gi-Oh, you might like Fairy Tail. It is a LONG series, but it can be fun at times, but there are a few arcs that drug to me.
A Certain Scientific Railgun has been quite a good manga series. It is a shounen series with a female lead who can kick butt and take names. It is part of the greater A Certain Magical Index light novel franchise, where the lead female here is a supporting character there.
You might like Hayate the Combat Butler. It has a great story, although because it was sold as a gag manga, that story is very slow to pan out as the comedy elements trump for a long time. It has the harem elements like Love Hina, but not as much fanservice, though there is some. (I still reread Love Hina.)
If you were drawn to the romance aspects of Love Hina, then I’d highly recommend the Toradora! manga. It is a really good adaptation of the light novel.
If you like wacky comedy titles, D-Frag has been a surprisingly good ride. ^_^
:3
Reboot?
I think that until now, UQ Holder was a manga without focus. Now, I think the manga has focus, thus my use of the term “reboot.” We’ll see if this focus is to speed us to the end, or to put out a better manga.
Doubt it. My guess that if UQ Holder ends, this will probably be Ken’s last work. On the one hand, smothering UQ Holder in the cradle faster then Negima was snuffed out would be both gratifying and horribly depressing. On the other hand, the chances of extra Negima content would be zilch, unless someone else decides to pick up the series, which I highly doubt will happen.
I would like to see someone tackle Negima with fresh eyes however, if they understood what made it good and have the creative chops to actually write something decent. Akamatsu stopped being that person years ago, so if someone else took up the mantle and could do it some good, I’d be immensely pleased. Granted, that also means losing out on Ken’s art style…but I’m not big on UQ’s 100% CGI look, so that’s not as big of a deal.
Yeah, I agree. I’ve read that he’d rather be an editor or work some other angle of the business.
I think that Astro mean by “We’ll see if this focus is to speed us to the end ‘, or to put out a better manga.” is not that if UQ Holder ends (which I do not hope and do not think it will happen lol ^^) Akamatsu will make a new manga, but rather that if UQ NOT ends (that I hope) that the focus of the plot of UQ on the extension/completion of Negima plot and deeper involvement of Tota in the legacy of Negi and ala-alba, UQ could lead to new peaks.
I think you just misunderstood the sentence. Free Astro correct me if I’m wrong of course.
When I say “I hoping that QU will not end”, I mean “will not end prematurely” I Shall specify it lol^^. Obviously every story must have an end. ^^ But anyway, UQ party does not seem to suffer the same tragic fate as Negima. But if it were to happen one day, then that day I say “it’s a shame, but so be it.”
But again I hope not that. ^^
I hope it doesn’t either, but once bitten, twice shy. There are some signs that Akamatsu-sensei *might* be speeding things up to get us to an ending. That doesn’t mean he is, just that it is possible.
Actually, if Akamatsu-sensei is tired of the UQH manga, I think it will rapidly come to an end. However, after the way Negima ended, I would suspect that Akamatsu-sensei would take just enough time to wrap up some of the Negima stories, such as MotB.
I reallly despised this chapter. Touta kissin kirie over and over just to test this ability made him look even more childish than what he already is. That wouldn’t be a problem per se if his character was defined like this throughout the whole manga, but every other chapter (or panel) he changes his attitude and suddenly becomes a sighing philosopher looking for his place in life, with the confidence to say to others “everything will be alright”. Where is the problem you may ask? This characterization makes him look like a total jerk when he acts childish (as in this chapter), simply because it seems just that, an act. Summing it up, he’s not the type of person I would trust! There are other nuisances in the chapter, like that problem with the sword you mentioned, but also: why the heck are they all together suddenly talking on a random roof? Why does ikku-senpai feel so useless all the time? And why does Santa look every time more like a drug addict?
Anyway, sorry for the rant. It just feels such a waste that Negima storyline is expanded on like this, and for interesting characters such as Kuroumaru, Santa and above all Kirie to be secluded as supporting characters for Touta. They really need 3 mangas for themselves.
It is to show his total disinterest in Kirie but also to show that he’s doing this because he wants to help Eva. He didn’t intend to kiss her on the lips until Kirie mentioned it. He’s not that bad.
touta is just extremely enthusiastic, but I think it serves his character well. sometimes it comes off excessively though
I keep reminding myself this is a shounen. It will take the sides of the main guy character, so it may be acceptable behavior to women, regardless of what readers may perceive. If it was a shojo I think the main gal would crush Tota completely because of his rudeness and not allow it even because of his perceived ‘innocence’ or ‘incompetence’.
At least Akamatsu-sensei allowed Kirie to strike back at the physical kissing attack by blasting him at least once (Kirie was saying NO! too) in reaction to what Tota was displaying, though clueless to his actions, esp when he said he wasn’t sure how long to kiss Kirie, and smiling while she slaps him.
At the same time Kirie was allowing this behavior as a way of finding out about this time-stop or time-freezing ability, so part of this is consentual on her part – till those important words came out: NO! and STOP!
Add the T-Shirt with Eva and the blanket with Kirie … its hard not to see where this is going and focus on the main/multiple story lines.
Touta really used to irritate me and I have certainly ranted on the character. Lately, I have not been feeling that. I didn’t think Touta was acting like a jerk, more like someone who just doesn’t think and just acts ’cause of reasons, in this case, “stopping time is cool!” Touta’s current status is traced to him meeting a young Eva, where he became aware of her as something other than his guardian. After he developed a crush on Eva, he’s been acting the way he has.
You are correct that Touta is not a well developed character. He’s poorly developed. But to me, he’s no longer as bad as he once was. 😛
They’ve been on roofs before and it would be simple for them all to leap up there. It gave them privacy to speak away from the crowds below.
Karin is the one the Japanese call “Useless-senpai.” 😆 But Ikkuu is poorly developed too, which is why he seems worthless.
‘Cause he was the only character to get semi-decent development, then got tossed aside with nothing to do? 😉 It is a shame that UQH has been set up to be a Touta-only manga, otherwise I think time could be spent exploring other characters and making things more interesting.
Not a problem. 🙂
I can see Santa being wrongly grouped or stereotyped or appears more as a drug addict, or in the ‘hood’ by the way he’s appeared dressed in a hoodie and cargo pants and shoes.
I first mistaken him as a girl since I’ve seen girls wear the same outfit, and with the extremely long hair. His clothes, esp when he wears the hood over his head, gives off the ‘gangsta’ image so I can see it related to a drug addict too.
It was only after he opened up to Tota, and how he was added to the UQ group that we see the ‘nicer’ and good and soft side of his personality. We still don’t know what Dana was able to ‘improve’ him, as in his developed power, other than he was successful. Nothing about the final message from his love, Sayoko too — yes I remember that all of this really good story potential was conveniently dropped quickly. He is also very much a gamer, hacker, and someone’s worst nightmare going against bullies or those he doesn’t like.
Yeah, initially I thought that as well.
Which sucks. I wanted to see that message.
I think they used a random rooftop for they don’t have a easy private place to meet and a rooftop seems to fit their purpose, and not be seen by the wrong person. Can’t use Senkyokan because of Eva, nor the school with Ayaka, Mana, and Sayo there. The tower may be monitored by Fate.
Tota’s group hasn’t been with him all the time, so parts of what has happened are new to them. Ikkyu, Karin, and Santa has no clue what is happening because they weren’t there for the meeting and also Fate and the Konoe kids. So far its almost exclusive to the Negima characters and siblings. Kuromaru has only battled twice with Fate’s group but didn’t know about Negi and the MotB, but knew that Fate wants Tota to join him, or brought to him by his CE members. Kuro doesn’t even know about the twins and their attack. Karin too know something is happening, but till now didn’t put the pieces together. Note that Shinobu and Mizore isn’t there on the rooftop.
Ikkyu seems to keeps his cool at all times and not over-reacting, and also tries to understand what is happening before cautiously doing anything, stating Tota has a tough decision. I don’t think its him being useless, but more glad he is understanding what is happening and how serious and big the situation is – basically involving the whole world.
What the hell, is up with Karin stating that ‘the mage of the beginning’ ‘bought the world to the brink of destructionv! She never did that, she was trying save all the life she created. Their are some semantics involved, regarding the method.
However, Karin should know better. If the intention was ‘the end of life as we know it’ then I’ll take that.
It would also appear that Sensei is suggesting, that Kirie is actually a construct mechanism for the Cassiopeia and never existed in the first place. Which would make alot of sense; and another ‘deus ex machina’ for when Akamatsu wants to sweep any consequences away.
I also want see Touta transform into a Red Quetzalcoatl with Black wings, while giving him the convenient ability of interplanetary travel. Probably more drawing effort than Sensei wants to exert.
Also why is touta asking for training from those he did? He would be better off asking Ayaka, to get some world class tutors or even Konoka. If he wants to learn magic. which sum total will amount to the thunder god Lance and thousand bolts, as well as its fire equivalent.
Well, Earth was put in danger during Negima (to a degree). And we don’t know what other things she did before Negi defeated her.
Heh. Maybe that is true. 😉
It wouldn’t surprise me if Kirie is the basis for the creation of Cassiopeia.
😆 That made me laugh. Thanks!
He was asking for help, not training (I don’t think). He’s acknowledging he doesn’t know much about magic, but the others probably do.
I’d argue that the Lifemaker threatning the world boarders on being a near retcon, all things considered. The only thing keeps it being one is just a flat out lack of information, but it seemingly doesn’t mesh up with the Lifemakers orders and intentions as we saw them in Negima.
There, the Lifemaker explicitly forbids the direct murder of “normal” humans, despite the fact that its minions seemed to have found a way to fudge those rules, and secondly, the Lifemaker flat out didn’t even consider what to do with its minions after MM was ported over. That says to me that whatever came after the fact, it didn’t think it even need servants to do its bidding anymore once everything was said and done. If the Lifemaker’s goal is to port MV to CE at a later date, this strikes me as incredibly strange. Having those resources at your disposal, and just letting them go off to do whatever isn’t something you’d normally do if you had other giant ambitions after all.
Basically, like what is seemingly 80% of late game Negima and all of UQ Holder, Ken doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and is writing things on the fly regardless of internal consistency or any kind of logical forethought. Luckily he refused to elaborate on anything, so he can move the goal post wherever he feels like its needed regardless as to what intentions he might have established before.
@Dargor Karin could be implemented the Lifemaker in a massive human sacrifice attempt, on earth to prolong alternative Mars for another century. Which is doubtful.
Or translators taking liberties.
Regarding the Lifemaker, I suppose folks who haven’t been given all the facts would see MotB’s actions as taking the world to the brink of destruction. At least, that’s how I chose to interpret things.
Yeah, that’s true.
We found out the woman who Negi decided to stay with….The villain lol.
Ha!ha! Well, not that he had much choice. 😉
Hi, longtime blog time reader, first time commenting. I think I originally saw you on the Funimation Channel board years ago (never actually posted there, just checked it out sometimes because I had the channel, but its no longer carried). But yeah anyway, been here awhile, just lurking!
I agree that there was a reboot, and it started in the second half of chapter 76. Ken probably thought that qualifier tournament was going nowhere, and pairing up Eva + Fate for that tournament was the wrong decision. He also needed to do away with angsty rebellious Touta and that was effectively the start of several harem development arcs, which is what the fans wanted.
In those early chapters, the series just didn’t know what it wanted to be. Eva offered to train Touta and he declined. There’s a lot of extra undeveloped UQ Holder members, along with that cover promo image you still use for spoilers — I don’t know who half of them even are. And we were introduced to a bunch of different types of immortals early on…which is how I think the series was originally going to go, but fans want a true sequel to Negima. Like maybe he originally planned for those “nobles” to be some major villains down the line but wrote them out.
The current direction of the series certainly has me more interested.
Thanks for stopping by! ^_^
Heh! Yeah, that was a while back. Back when I was a FUNimation board admin, those were good times. (And FUNimation was a better company.)
Yeah, I agree. It wasn’t obvious then, but in hindsight, I think that’s where the shift started.
Ditto. Hopefully, this interesting turn is not just to end the manga sooner rather than later.
Reading comments from others from the recent chapters about the timeline dates, I’m understanding that UQH happens 70 to 90 yrs after Asuna was sealed?
This is before (the end of the 105 – 110? yrs when Asuna awakens and is released) she tearfully realizes and finds out all her friends are dead, she is found and saved by going back into time with Chao and Eva to when the earlier Asuna just left and begins her time sealed. Happily re-united with her class and Negi, and they somehow defeat the MotB and free Nagi – as shown together being happy in the forced quick solution and last Negima chapter.
So UQH is what others are saying is what happens in the alternate or second timeline dimension created while Asuna is still sealed, and before Asuna goes back in time to rejoin her classmates and Negi.
This is making more plausible sense with Nagi is still under the control of the MotB, and Negi about to be controlled by the MotB to replace a injured or dying Nagi, since they both appeared in that chapter when they examined Negi’s name entered in the Martial Arts Tournament. It may explain why we haven’t yet seen or heard about Asuna too, since everyone from Negima knows where she is, and she is still sealed away.
Checked the old volumes. Asuna overslept by 30 yrs so it was 130 yrs. Also the clock was very familiar at the start of this chapter — its one of two that Chao showed when returning Asuna back in time. But in this UQH chapter its much bigger and there is more detail. It was in Negima chapter 353, page 7. It also talked about the future for Negi and showed a frame with Negi and Nagi too. This was before UQH wasn’t even a thought. So not sure if will still apply to UQH.
The future Eva hinted of future hardships for Negi too, but no details. The future Eva spoke of using Chao’s time machine to find a spare ‘Nagi’ somewhere in another dimension, so back in Negima days, following the alternate timeline before Asuna went back is when UQH happened, and IF Akamatsu-sensei is consistent — maybe — or maybe not — Eva still pursues Nagi and not Negi, which then adds to what Eva told Tota, that she can’t make any decisions till they free Negi – not saying anything about Nagi.
The future Eva spoke of Negi saying “He was content when he passed away.” when she answered Asuna about the gravestone she saw of Negi when she was released. The grave said June 12 2065.
When asked by Asuna to the future Eva ” Why are you doing all this just for me…?”
Future Eva replies “hymph… Its a request from a man that couldn’t keep his promises.”
It bothered me then when I asked myself who is this man to motivate Eva to do this, and didn’t think of a answer. Now Tota comes to mind. But I’m not sure.
So we shall wait and see how much consistency is kept. I’ll read UQH no matter what, for I’m hooked to see how things turn out, keeping in mind all the past, and hopefully UQH doesn’t end before it needs to end.
Its like waiting for the next Star Wars movie and the spin about who and what happens.
I agree.
Idem^^
I’m not exactly sure when this takes place. ^_^; I should, but I don’t.