November 19th, 2016 
AstroNerdBoy Info From Japan on UQ Holder Volume 12 LE Manga
Hey gang! Hata has provided us some information for the UQ Holder Volume 12 limited edition manga release.
the limited edition of UQ 12 boxset hit the store, and the first review is out.
– the Eva fabre poster is basically another takeoff of the Kirie fan service blanket, enough said, probably only people with melonpan’s attitude can openly hang it in their room. 🙂
– the design booklet has some interesting details, including 81 pages of the initial ch. 1 sketch, from the one page posted we see the boy was not originally named Tota, and Eva was shown nerfed with a missing eye, of course now it was only hinted at that Eva was weaker than before without the eyepatch.
– in the DVD, there was the expected interview with Akamatsu and Matsuoka Yuki (Eva), it also has three PV of old Negima songs, the one new info is there will be an OAD before the anime, the reviewer of course speculate it would be in another one of those limited edition boxset.
– the desktop calendar consisted of 12 Super deformed Negima (no UQ) characters, one for each of the 2017 month, only generic patterned background.
– the new 32nd Eva pactio card has the exact attributes as the old one, the only difference is Eva instead of dress up Negima loli witch style, here is in a more mature UQ civil style (during the kiss with Tota for book 11 cover)
– last there will be an Akamatsu lifetime drawing exhibition in Tokyo, from next year March 18th to 26th, I suspect it is done to hype the anime, so I am guessing the earliest anime is probably next year’s spring season? (April) maybe even later.
The Japanese source for the above info is Beatarai. There are two blog posts, here and here. Beatarai has several images in the posts, so do check them out to see everything.
I think Eva with an eye patch would have been interesting. It would certainly have caused speculation on how she was unable to regenerate an eye, unless the eye patch was part of Eva’s adult illusion.
I had thought about buying UQ Holder Volume 12 LE, but finances are tight. I wouldn’t mind seeing the original draft version of the first chapter of UQ Holder, but oh well.
If any of you pick this up, let me know your thoughts about the release!
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I’m guessing the OAD will be similar to the ones done for Negima. Introducing the characters while playing out some scenes from the manga.
Yeah. Those were fine, but at the same time, ultimately disappointing. I’ve wanted a proper, well done adaptation of the manga, not bits and pieces.
Does this LE have anything worth in it? It doesn’t see anything to do with the UQ?
It really didn’t grab my goat. The pactio card and the draft version of chapter 1 of UQH were the only items I was truly interested in. Not enough to pay the high price for the LE, plus the outrageous shipping charges.
I already gave my impressions on the UQ 130 entry. Looks like a complete waste of time and money, other than maybe the Promotional Videos for the songs, assuming they have new animation as that shot of the girls trying to cash on the Idolmaster wave seems to indicate. So odds are we’ll naturally never get to see them.
It seems the booklet, other than the Chapter 1 prototype storyboards, has an overview of the Negima plot reusing old artwork, which is completely useless for anyone who already read the manga, but I doubt any new reader unfamiliar with it would invested enough as to be buying this in the first place. So what was the point?
It’s kind of interesting to see Chachazero was still active in the prototype, I guess. Seeing her completely forgotten by Evangeline other than her inanimated body on a display without ever being addressed by her (and also apparently left behind afterwards) still rubs me the wrong way, since for all her flaws she always was very loyal to Evangeline in her own way.
“last there will be an Akamatsu lifetime drawing exhibition in Tokyo, from next year March 18th to 26th”
Translation; we either forget about April 2017’s chapter, or it’ll be only twenty or fifteen pages long.
I didn’t notice Chachazero.
Ditto. I complained about that in my chapter 1 review. I suspect Akamatsu-sensei dropped Chachazero as she’s a total scene stealer. I’m glad we’ve gotten to see Chachazero in the flashbacks and when Touta did his time travel stuff. So at least Akamatsu-sensei hasn’t totally trashed her.
Eva told Tota about surviving and being a puppet master. Chachazero is her creation and I have the thought that Eva created Chachazero with the intent of having a someone with her, and Chachazero became from puppet to assistant, maid, butler, etc, but Eva only treated her as a puppet device/servant than a real person/being with its own thinking.
Because of Eva’s long immortal life, it eventually stopped any feelings or love for or about anyone or anything like Chachazero. The classic Artificial Intelligence vs a real person. My impression is that Eva felt extremely alone with no other real person in the world to be with, and it became her source of despair.
I’m assuming that after Eva leaves Chachazero, Ayaka probably found Chachazero and took care of her, and appears to be the caregiver for Ayaka now.
Eva explained that everything became insignificant over time in Chapter 1 showing Chachazero being left behind by Eva and stating:
Like Data in Star Trek TNG – I question if Chachazero has any emotions, or like Data that didn’t initially have any till he got the chip/upgrade of the emotion software from his creator. So chachazero may not have understood why Eva ditched her, nor have any negative attitude against her either.
Eva with a eye patch – it would make her look too much like a pirate/yakuza (One Piece character) cliche image. I kept on thinking of Darryl Hana as Elle Driver in her character in “Kill Bill”.
Um, I think you’re mistaking Chachazero (tiny crazy acting doll) with Chachamaru (robot maid girl who studies in class 3-A).
oops you correct! Thank you OverMaster!
Thanks for the information! It also has things from Negima, the Evangeline’s card did surprise me because she had a card in Negima, maybe will she have a pactio?
I’m happy that UQ Holder is going to have an anime adaptation and OAD, I wonder what animation production is going to have UQ Holder and if it will be the same in the OAD and the anime. (Maybe the OAD is about before Evangeline found Touta, as she and Negi created UQ Holder or maybe it’s about how she lived with Touta)
The design booklet with Evangeline’s missing eye, it seems me that she is more like in Negima, I mean, ‘Strict’ and when I saw Chachazero there lol the puppet lost returned to the attack XD
PS: Does somebody know what Evangeline and Touta are talking in the design booklet?
I don’t know what they are saying, but hopefully, someone can provide some details.
So Negi loved Chisame? Makes sense.
Negi loved lots of girls. 😉
Are we supposed to be excited about a ‘revelation’ that only takes place in a Japan-exclusive booklet instead of the story proper? Because that’s incredibly cheap and insulting. If you’re making your audience wait for years for an answer to some question you posed and left hanging, the least you should do is properly answering it within the manga itself.
Is it supposed to be exciting? I don’t think so. It is nonetheless an answer that ends all these years of speculation. Negima is over already, there is UQ Holder and it might be mentioned in it as well, in future chapters.
That’s no excuse whatsoever. When you’re crafting a story, especially one spanning more than a decade already, you’re supposed to make readers excited about what you’re doing, and that includes providing adequate payoffs for the plot points you posed in the first place, not to throw them casually as afterthoughts in limited supplementary material long after the fact. That’s not what storytelling is about, storytelling is about payoff IN THE STORY.
If you do that you’ve completely failed as a storyteller.
Yes, Akamatsu has officially revealed the info here: http://img.2cat.org/~tedc21thc/new/src/1479723530719.jpg
So Chisame is the girl Akamatsu-sensei had Negi whisper to Asuna about?
From what I understand, yes.
Thanks!
And like the ending to Negima itself, underwhelming and is just asking to be written off on a later date. Its like being handed a bowl of water with someone telling you its really a gourmet soup.
Until someone, in panel, actually states “X was the girl Negi loved”, there’s nothing to even care about or bother discussing. Its not even indicative of him actually ending up with someone, since he still appears to be thoroughly single in the epilogue and nearly everything afterward.
So Akamatsu-Sensei shat the bed with uq holder, volume 12 did 42k, therefore a permanent downward sales trend for the series has been established.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-11-23/japanese-comic-ranking-november-14-20/.109119
Nostalgia only gets you so far, it seems. But any commentor who frequents this blog, could’ve told you that. Even more so, with backstory retcons.
Hopefully, the anime becomes like the yugioh anime with its separate continuity, that added to the story or cannon filler arcs a la bleach, with the zanpakuto rebellion arc as well as the memories of nobody movie.
An alternative, could be To-love Ru manga ova bundles, especially since negima’s limited editions always sold very well.
The anime can only really be redeemed if it scraps 90% of what makes Touta…Touta, in my eyes. Or, you know, actually focus on the UQ of UQ Holder, since the whole immortality concept serves less as a narrative tool to deal with the casts personalities and characterization, and more as an excuse to hack them apart repeatedly for the shock factor. That only gets you so far, and it ran out around ten chapters in.
Honestly, I just miss what made Eva a decent character in Negima at this point. Terrible usage of time travel aside, stripping away what made a dynamic and interesting character into a sobbing mess for the sake of a power male fantasy is easily the worst thing this series has ever done to Negima, and that’s not getting into everything else that’s wrong with this series.
@Dargor personally, if the anime took an alternative timeline approach, in which Konoka and Negi did get married and attempt to assume the Otsian throne from Asuna (with consent), but the Senate opposed this. With some success.
It could create an interesting political atmosphere, which was something Akamatsu-Sensei did quite well with Godel, it would also place an interesting emphasis on Touta’s to climb the tower/his existence.
It would also mean that Touta couldn’t just Tank damage and give blows, which is what the majority of the anime will consist of, sadly.
It’s also a far more interesting premise, than what UQ Holder currently is/would be. Plus, inverse mars’s tropical sceneries will be far more aesthetically pleasing to the eye then a bunch of destroyed concrete urban centres.
Orrrrrr it could be a gag alternate continuity in the vein of Negima?! instead. Egads!
At least hopefully we won’t get any live action adaptation this time around. Can you imagine if that budget had been given to another anime instead? Granted, it seemed to be made on a shoestring budget, but at least we might’ve gotten a half decent oneshot OVA from that money instead of The Aberration.
anything that isn’t a straight adaptation of UQ Holder’ is a boon.
Otoyomegatari and UQ holder in the same week/chart. (I also miswrote, it’s 200-300K, although volume 9,should reach close to it)
Note that otoyomegatari is dominating UQ holder.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-30/japanese-comic-ranking-december-14-20/.97082
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-01-06/japanese-comic-ranking-december-21-27/.97275
The rest of UQ Holder’s charting is identical.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-10-21/japanese-comic-ranking-october-12-18
Otoyomegatari doing 60k
Well, it’s only the first week of the release. I think UQ tends to do around 90k per volume overall (while Negima sold comfortably over the 100k), how much of that is usually sold during the first week?
@OverMaster 50-60k, then another 20-30K, thing is the series hasn’t had an individual volume stay on oricon’s top 50 for a third (in which some cases the 50th spot is 4K) nor has any volume expect the first sold more than 100K.
I said the same for volume 11 which did slightly less for first week sales.
The issue is, that their is a proven correlation between the age of a series and increasing sales, (‘success’ should be accounted for) one piece is the exemplar for this, as well koaru Mori.
(Emma whilst under enterbrain only did 40K or so, now her current series otoyomegatari, is doing 400K a volume over 3 weeks. For a monthly series that hasn’t had an anime nor was the Mori-Sensei’s previous work widely popular) Therefore, Akamatsu-Sensei must be doing something wrong, especially if an obscure (my favourite) manga-ka like Mori is it doing proverbial laps around him.
I don’t know that other series so I won’t comment on it, but my best guess is the public might have grown disappointed and tired of being dragged by the nose after the end of Negima fiasco.
I think an actual Negima 2 taking from where the first series left and continuing Negi and 3-A’s story would have sold much better than this.
I think the public is grown tired is a accurate observation. Outside of Negima, UQ has done nothing. No new enemies, just more of a different twist using Negima characters. We have Iikyuu, Karin, Kirie, Santa, Kuromaru, Jinbei, etc – basically the rest of the very talented UQ numbers/immortals and support monsters, black shirts, probably enough combined force and numbers to probably overwhelm the MotB and Negi, excluding Fate and ME, at least from when they were shown when Tota first became a UQ number. These characters are sitting on the sideline, basically doing nothing, forgotten. Add the former Negima allies or their descendants that have gathered initially for the tournament.
Its a good time for UQ to shine and rescue their beloved leader Eva. But I seriously don’t think we are even going to go there any time soon.
No – it has to be Tota by himself. He is the only main character to do everything.
I would have love to see two women – the MotB and Dana go head to head in a all out brawl, or for that matter add Sayoko with Dana.
@OverMaster Otoyomegatari ( The Brides Tale) is a super niche historical series about the culture of central Asia, focusing on the preparation work and circumstances of that Brides wedding, alongside the differences between the silk road countries. As well as, the looming Russian hostilitys, as the Great Game plays out. (Also, British Raj India at somepoint will become the main focus.)
Another factor is the artwork is on some Ken Akamatsu Golden age/ Miuria’s amazing line work tier level of Art.
Now, compare the synopsis of; the far more accessable UQ Holder.
Doesn’t add up. Does it.
None of the anime adaptations of Akamatsu-sensei’s works have accurately adapted them. So I’ve always seen them as “alternate” stories.
ANB and others — Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Day – that is if you celebrate it!
Thank you!
You know, logically, if Chisame was the girl Negi loved, why didn’t the Mage of the Beginning use HER image to manipulate Negi? You’d imagine having Chisame tell him to go and fight would be more effective than having Yue and Nodoka to do the same.
This could mean simply a plothole Akamatsu didn’t bother to think through, but it also could be a hint those are the real Nodoka/Yue/Rakan/Al, just preserved and made into puppets somehow… the Mage of the Beginning might simply not be able to use Chisame because she never got her hands on her.
It would fit with the UQ members we saw on the floor even after Asuna dispelled the Mage’s illusions– MOTB only can use you and your image if she’s captured you first.
Mattcgw: I’ll take your word on it, but without having read that other series myself (and sorry, but I don’t have the time to try many new series, and I’m sort of burned on new manganime in general after several disappointments like Negima itself and Bleach. I’m sort of following Highschool DxD and Konosuba at the moment, though), I don’t think I should be issuing comparisons with UQ Holder myself. However, are you sure UQ is more ‘accesible’? It depends too heavily on plot points set up by a previous longrunner, and frankly by now I think a complete newcomer would be utterly lost at what do all these characters mean for each other, and what’s the big deal with things like Asuna’s cliffhanger.
Maybe she did. We don’t know the whole story of Negi and MotB.
This seems to be the pattern to date. So I think the theory is very sound.
Unlike most of the girls, Chisame, had no super powers aside from her computer enhancements. She did become his personal confident and non-love crazed student who was at his side all the time, even after leaving school.
She must have past away, not everyone lives a super long life.
Akamatsu-sensai will need litterly need pull rabbit out of his had with the mess he has made with the UQ Holder continum. Negi should never came back until the end of the entire story line. He maybe highly revered by those who enjoys Negi, i do; I wanted the story move forward without relying on the past. Akamatsu-sensai need a strong story arch to begin with, now he in trouble.
Is it certain that akamatsu really had a specific girl in mind when he originally did those panels? I’m not so sure
anyway I’ve noticed some negative feedback for UQ holder on this post. myself; I’ve actually really enjoyed the last handful of chapters (volumes even) and most of UQ holder overall
I know touta isn’t the greatest character and some of the UQ members have been neglected a little bit, but I think some of you may be jumping the gun
well, I’m excited to see how the negima story/characters transition during the next chapters
Jumping the gun? Jumping the gun?
It’s been 130 chapters of UQ Holder by now.
One. Hundred. Thirty. Chapters.
In terms of judging the quality of the plotting and the use of the characters, I’d say the ‘jumping the gun’ term stopped applying long, long ago.
Neglected a little bit? Most of the organization doesn’t even amount to wallpaper in terms of plot relevance.
“Is it certain that akamatsu really had a specific girl in mind when he originally did those panels? I’m not so sure”
He might be lying, but he says so here.
http://lion-sensei.tumblr.com/post/153558641930/yuushaninarenakattabakaraidaa-%EF%BD%95%EF%BD%91
“It’s been a few years now, so we don’t have to keep saying stuff like, ‘we’ll leave it to your imaginations,’ right? It’s (Hasegawa) Chisame. At the Akamatsu Studio, we were drawing the final chapters of Mahou Sensei Negima! with the idea in mind that the person Negi had chosen was Chisame. “
oh I’ve thought holder has really been picking up ever since mana was reintroduced at the end of vol 6 and the negima element started becoming more prevalent.
maybe i’m a little bias because I don’t really care about the UQ organization very much?
my hopes when I first discovered the series was that it would be somewhat of a continuation of negima
I’ve always thought akamatsu intended on focusing this more around negima eventually from the beginning. maybe that’s why the organization hasn’t had as much attention?
Not having any investment in the main cast is a serious problem for this series though. If you’re main attraction is focusing in on Negima content, what was the point of trying to do something else in the first place? Sure, you could make the argument to try and throw off the editorial and draw in new people…but you can do that too without writing off the previous cast at the same time. You could easily focus in on another core cast of characters while reintroducing those from Negima, and not have to pretend you were a new shiny original story.
Centering on the events of Negima with a character that does not care about them aside from a select few bits is not a good thing. Not only do you bait your readers on, you create a fundamental disconnect between what one portion of the audience wants, and what the other side wants. It might not be a death knell for the series, but it is indicative of very poor management on Akamatsu’s part, and just screams that he himself has no idea what he wants to do with it.
Again, if you’re going to invest on the Negima characters you should’ve just done an actual Negima 2 covering the huuuuuge gap where Ala Alba had to, you know, defeat the Mage of the Beginning. The gigantic hole left between the last two chapters and the rest of the series, which spanned YEARS.
Jumping ahead 80 years to introduce a whole new cast only to shuffle them aside and then trying to go back to Negima makes no sense from a Negima or UQ perspective. You aren’t doing any favors to Negima (because most of its cast is already dead and we didn’t see the actual Character Development that got the rest where they are now) or UQ Holder itself (because its original cast is out of focus except for Touta the Spotlight Hogger).
Either way, it’s unexcusable. The most reasonable explanation is Akamatsu realized the UQ cast wasn’t working, either for him or the audience, and desperately went back to salvage as much of the Negima cast as he could in a bid to regain his old audience, but that just feels like a badly done patchwork job.
yea I would’ve preferred if those 2 chapters never existed. ch 353 seemed like a fitting ending w/o having to include an epilogue
as for jumping ahead 80 years. I kind of like the idea of not beginning where we left off. the really epic journey through the magical world ended and negi was about to start working on his new project and spend a lot less time with the girls. I imagine things having settled down afterwards for awhile
“Either way, it’s unexcusable. The most reasonable explanation is Akamatsu realized the UQ cast wasn’t working, either for him or the audience, and desperately went back to salvage as much of the Negima cast as he could in a bid to regain his old audience, but that just feels like a badly done patchwork job.”
possibly
I mean the series’ title is literally UQ holder so you would think the organization would be more ingrained within the story. I feel holder’s main purpose has really been to form touta’s current group and provide sort of a rendezvous location
good question though. whether or not ken akamatsu planned for this to be more of a continuation of negima from the beginning
I’m not convinced that he didn’t
He may have, but who knows for sure.
Overall, I’m positive on the series while acknowledging the flaws in it. I also understand the problems other fans have with the series, especially with how Negima ended.
Apparently the cover for this month’s magazine is out already and UQ is mentioned nowhere on it.
I’m not sure about this magazine’s promotional habits, but is it normal for it not to give at least a tiny blurb on the cover to a series from a well known author, about to receive an anime, only in its third chapter published there? It’s not like that’s Shounen Jump, other than Titan how many other mega-hit series to hog cover space do they have?
“I kind of like the idea of not beginning where we left off. the really epic journey through the magical world ended and negi was about to start working on his new project and spend a lot less time with the girls.”
The thing is, the girls were what kept the series interesting. I don’t even mean it in the fanservice department, but they were the actually colorful and diverse personalities that gave Negi something entertaining to bounce off. Negi isn’t a bad lead character, but he’s more of a straight man and needs quirkier characters to play off him and keep him from becoming too angst driven. And Kotaro and Fate don’t fit that bill too well, since one’s too much of a stereotypical shounen sidekick and the other’s too much of a stereotypical shounen rival. Fate never made a good ‘ally’ character anyway. Few shounen former enemies can pull the Vegeta Heel Face Turn and still remain interesting, since their coolness came from their being adversaries in the first place. And Fate’s time as an adversary’s past too. He doesn’t really click with Touta, their enmity feels forced and shoehorned, and he’s mostly redundant with the Mage of the Beginning herself around. He’s pretty much just an obsessed pretty boy who makes creepy faces now.
I’d argue Negima’s story was as much a trip of realization for the girls as it was for Negi, and truncating the story so they couldn’t get proper resolutions, after mostly sidelining them so we could get more of Negi as a stock Shounen action lead, was a bad move.
Which is your favorite one, Astro?
edit:
html Code still doesn’t work for me 🙁
So img HTML tags aren’t working. Testing…
As to my favorite, page 127 blonde hime cut (upper-right image) is my favorite. I really wish that’s what Akamatsu-sensei had gone with.
Well, it doesn’t appear to work for me either. 🙁 Other HTML tags are.
Ah, Sir Astro likes his hime-sama 😉
wanna see p 129, the last of 3 pages?
Sure. Love to see that page. ^_^
also Spoiler for next chapter:
super touta does stuff,
it ends on a clifhanger
😀
edit:
damit [s]Nappa[/s]html
Where there spoilers out early? I never saw them.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-11-30/top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-volume-2016/.109353
Uq holder definitely didn’t sell 400K, hell. A single volume of D.Grey man outsold Uq holder almost twice over.
Thanks for the info. 🙂