September 10th, 2017 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! 魔法先生 ネギま！2 Manga Review
UQ Holder! Mahou Sensei Negima 2
UQ Holder!: Magister Negi Magi! 2 Chapter 140
UQ Holder Chapter 140
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Negi prepares to battle Nagi-MotB as Negi’s allies prepare to battle the forces of CE. Asuna uses her magic cancel on the sentient asteroid that is MotB. Nagi-MotB gets an advantage on Negi, but Negi is saved by Jack. Negi goes for a final charge attack, punching out Nagi’s heart. Nagi is still alive despite not having a heart and tells Negi to stand back. Nagi calls for Asuna, then snaps his finger to destroy his heart in Negi’s hand.
Kotaro prevents Negi from going to his father as MotB emerges from Nagi’s body. MotB has a hideous, monstrous form. Fate has Koyomi use her Horaria Porticus pactio artifact to freeze time on MotB. Nagi and Asuna combine their powers into her artifact sword and attack the body. This causes the asteroid to be destroyed. Negi brings Negi’s body to the asteroid where the non-battle participants of his harem await.
Nagi is dead despite Konoka’s use of her healing magic. Ako uses her artifact to determines that Nagi is still alive. Jack, Takamichi, and Al are stunned by this, calling it a miracle. Fate seems to think that Ialda (MotB) is ultimately responsible for this. Two years later, Nagi awakens from a coma and is visited by Asuna and Eva. Sometime later, Nagi leaves the hospital. Sometime later still, a celebration is held where all of Negi’s classmates attend as well as Jack and Cocone.
Touta likes how things ended, but Kirie wants to know more. As such, Dana produces a photo showing Negi marrying Chisame some five years later. Dana states that they don’t have the time to go into how the pair got there. This pleases Kirie. Dana produces a photo showing Nagi marrying Eva. She states her belief that they had a happy end in a world without Touta. Touta isn’t bothered by this, stating that they have a right to be happy and that UQ Holder will make their own happy ending.
Thoughts/Review:
And so the end of Negima is fleshed out a bit in UQ Holder chapter 140, but in typical fashion, Akamatsu-sensei still cuts things short to move along.
Setting Up the UQ Holder Win
I “laughed” at Touta calling Negi’s victory a super cheat due to Asuna returning from the future. However, by Dana showing Touta what happened in another timeline, Touta and UQ Holder have their own cheat.
So what do we have here?
- They need to use a time-stop ability on MotB. Lucky Kirie has that ability by smooching Touta, eh?
- They need to use magic cancel ability. Lucky Touta has this.
- They need Magia Erebia ability to combine with magic cancel. Yeah, Touta again.
- They need a battle group to take on CE folks, or at the very least, Konoka, Yue, Al, and Jack. And we have that.
- MotB needs to be kind as she dies for Negi to survive this.
So everything is mapped out and since UQ Holder members are immortal, they have an advantage there in that they can’t die.
Five Years Past Negima
Akamatsu-sensei had two favorites out of Negima — Eva and Chisame. So even though Negima ended with Chisame being a recluse, in UQ Holder, he can make Chisame marry Negi and live happily ever after. Naturally, he has to poke fans in the eyes for this bit of retcon by stating that there aren’t enough pages in UQ Holder chapter 140 to tell that tale. At the same time, he can telegraph that his ship for Touta is Kirie. So expect more Kirie rammed down our throats come hell or high water.
For Eva, he allows her to have her “good end” by marrying Nagi. Nagi looks like he got forced into this somehow. Eva got her wish and finally scores with Nagi. “Yay Eva!” is how we are supposed to go. Speaking personally, I’m not feeling it. I would rather that Negi and Eva hooked up, but with Akamats-sensei lusting for megane girls, it was never going to happen.
What About Arika?
I know fans are screaming, “But what about Arika?!” To that I answer, “Whom is this Arika you speak of?” 😉
In all seriousness, I’ve long believed Arika is a retcon character. I don’t think Akamatsu-sensei ever had any plans to bring in Negi’s mother into the story. Indeed, one of the reasons for my old “Negi is Nagi in disguise” theory was the fact that Negi apparently didn’t have a mom. Negi was born about the time Nagi disappeared. Negi was an orphan. No one in Negi’s village talked about Negi’s infamous mom, but they sure talked the heck about Negi’s infamous dad. Nagi never talked or thought about his mom until he’s shown the movie of Arika and thinks, “I wonder if that’s my mom.” 🙄
As a character, Arika only works during the war on the Magic World. After that, Arika stops working because she can’t fit into the timeline thanks to Eva. Sometime after the war, Eva hooks up with Ala Rubra and hangs out with them long enough to become a trusted companion of theirs. Jack inherits her Magia Erebia scroll. Takamichi mentions training with her as a fellow student. While we don’t know for sure how long Eva was with Ala Rubra, it is implied to have been a long time.
Not only that, but Eva travels the globe with Nagi for a time until one day, he gets sick of it, curses her, and sends her packing to Mahora. Yet in all that time, no one in Ala Rubra ever spoke of Arika. Arika never showed up with them while Eva was there. And Nagi never mentioned Arika to Eva when Eva was following him around.
If Akamatsu-sensei even attempts to tackle the Arika issue, I will be stunned beyond belief.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Sorry my review is so late. After the insane work week and dealing with getting a replacement motherboard for my PC, I took Saturday and most of Sunday off to sleep and stuff my gourd. *_* So I now need to get my review of UQ Holder chapter 140 wrapped up.
- I didn’t comment much on the fight ’cause there wasn’t much to discuss. We got to see the cameos of Negi’s battle harem and allies do their thing and that was it.
- I will say that Negi punching out Nagi’s heart was pretty gory.
- With the Negima flashback over to rapidly tie up the story there, I guess our UQ Holder cast will take center stage once again.
- MotB’s current “true” form looks like something out of Neon Genesis Evangelion. 😆
In the end, UQ Holder chapter 140 rapidly wraps up the Negima story and drops a couple new dangling threads. At the same time, it provides a blueprint for how Touta and company will defeat Negi-MotB.
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Overall a pretty meh chapter. The fight was disappointing, the conclusion was unsatisfying and Nagi/Eva makes about as much sense as Hakase/Godel back in the day. Maybe Akamatsu is trying to tell us something about age gaps… Since Chisame is presumably dead, I wonder if Eva hooks up with Negi should he be freed. I’m ready to see what UQ is up to since all these chapters have really done is drudge up painful memories of Negima and it’s abrupt end.
Had Negima been allowed to end properly no doubt we would’ve gotten a lot more but sadly it’s done and a monthly series does not serve a good purpose to a shonen series with so many characters.
It’s hard to tell how much of this Akamatsu has planned out and how much of it is flying by the seat of his pants. While I don’t doubt that Chisame was always the girl (the fact she’s a lot like Naru certainly helps), I feel like it’s a way to present a cheap conclusion when there were girls who were nicer and more supportive to him. I actually kinda liked that she turned him down, but to get back with him some 12 years later seems…. well, contrived.
But it’s still strange to confirm those two couples and still leave Konoka/Setsuna up in the air when it’s so obvious they’re together the only thing that’s missing is a wedding shot. And never mind the possibility of Yue/Nodoka… Seeing either (or both) would’ve been far more satisfying than Negi/Chisame and ESPECIALLY Eva/Nagi. Even if Arika was retconned that just screams bad taste… Unless it’s a ploy to make the Negima ending timeline even less likeable? Who knows with Akamatsu.
On another note, I watched the OAD, sans subs and I somehow doubt it will ever receive them. I knew most of what was going on because it was directly ripped from the manga… IT was alright, actually, although Kirie seemed a little…. well-endowed. Maybe it was the angle? I don’t know… Either way, the animation was okay, didn’t notice too many glaring errors, the voices felt decent and the fact it followed the manga was refreshing. And the promo for the anime is scenes directly from the first chapter, so here’s hoping with that too. Though the lack of Santa is really depressing. He’s going to get the Kotaro treatment.
Please, please, PLEASE do the series some justice and have a good anime that’s well-liked so we can finally have our properly animated Negima. Come on, that’s not too much to ask, right?
I pray to God that they dont drop the ball on this, they need a good studio or at the very least properly animate it and maybe get a Real Proper Negima anime.
It would be really nice to get a proper Negima anime, but when they went the OAD route, I think that pretty much killed it.
Well, since Akamatsu-sensei seems dead set on pushing Kirie for Touta, I suppose the Negi x Eva pairing is possible. Unless of course Nagi is still alive somehow. 😉
I could see other flashbacks, if needed. But you are probably right that it is all done.
I think that for the most part, the battle against MotB was planned. Of course UQ Holder is mostly by the seat of his pants. 😛
Yeah, I’d say 50-50 on getting subs. Official subs, no chance. That said, I still need to watch it. Man, I miss my PC. 🙁
I kinda doubt we’ll ever get a properly done Negima anime.
Now the real test of fire for UQ Holder as a series comes– whether it’ll be able to stand on its own legs now the answers to what happened at the end of Negima have been given. I’m imagining Akamatsu is betting the anime will fuel the manga enough to keep it a better option than just trying another series (I think the short story he’ll be doing for Shonen Magazine soon will be a tentative prototype for some new likely series), but, if the anime focuses on Negima as much as the promos suggest, anime-brought viewers will most likely be disappointed and leave if there’s not much Negima content in the manga from now on.
On the other hand, the organization needs to get out from under Ala Alba’s shadow already, so it’s kinda some lose-lose situation.
I suspect we’ll still have a strong Negima influence from here on out. Otherwise, why rename UQ Holder to have a subtitle of “Negima 2”?
Looks like end of the UQ Hold Manga is accelerating…Diana has shown the method used to kill MoB. Given how “well” manga doing, this maybe forgone collusion that essentially Akamatsu is setting final arc for the manga into motion.
If i am right, which i certainly i hope not. We won’t see alot stuff that has been seeded over the years this manga has been published. Other worlds, the tournament, bigger more epic story of adventure that the manga had given us promised years ago when it got started.
*sigh*
Anyways, be funny if Yuki saw those pictures. Hilarity that would have come from that viewing.
What I suspect is that IF sales of UQ Holder pick up, we’ll see a delay in killing MotB because UQH folks will need to get stronger and such. However, if sales aren’t that good, then Akamatsu-sensei has a means to quickly end the series.
I can pass on any and all tournaments. 😉
There’s still a chance for that, but we’ll see what Sensei does.
Ahh but this time around Cutlass has the time stop ability too on MotB side, so its not exactly the same, more so if Cutlass is watching all this. hmm and they have Yue and Nodoka to predict and prevent Tota’s group. Maybe Makie is a key person?
Makie is likely dead, right?
I would think so … but wasn’t it her in the new promo pic? The one showing Negi’s back along with Yue and Nodaka? I gotta check. UQH has used alot of black ribbons and gymnastics so Makie would fit in but not as a elderly person… maybe another descendant of her, which fits the UQ theme.
I’m not sure. If you find something, let me know.
Hah! All the MotB needs and wants is a male mate. UQH sets up a hot date with MotB and Fate. MotB likes Fate and Fate always loved MotB. Fate melds with MotB. Fate-MotB kicks out Nagi and Negi and disappears happy. UQH become fantastic managers of a successful Hotel. The manga then morphs into a romance manga, who will Tota choose? Eva or will Kirie have a say? Then there is another heart of Karin… what will she do? Just kidding.
This last chapter showing Fate after the battle … seems to be a suggestive hint of his feelings for her.
Maybe.
Haha! 😀
Well, we already know who Negi married and how Negima would have ended (After so much time talking in the forums about who Negi loved) although Arika didn’t appear or heard of her, ‘Arika is not here, Arika is gone… ♫’
I always thought that the Lifemaker was like a ‘parasite’ that went from body to body and was some kind of spirit that could not be physically touched, for example, “http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WSYUcyanMMw/UKJ6zlxB78I/AAAAAAAADLQ/eYFPvSwiS1k/s1600/bfxzb.png” but that form I didn’t expect it, I don’t dislike it, though. (Poor Nagi, having that thing inside him and pass through him) I wonder if the form of woman that the Lifemaker always has, is another body that possessed, since her true form is that monster, (How was that thing created? Maybe was it some experiment?) for what it shows, Lifemaker adapts the personality of the person she owns, so I wonder if when she appears in her true form, it is only a monster with no personality.
When Touta said about cheats, then Negima was all about cheats, lol but Kirie’s ability is an ultimate cheat! XD let’s see what happens now that we came back to UQ Holder.
After seeing the OVA, 22 minutes… This was from Evangeline’s point of view when she met Touta. Also, they didn’t put everything, Touta’s declaration of love, it was only a part, the “I want you to go a round with me every night” it wasn’t shown, and the people behind the door, there was neither Ameya nor Santa, also doesn’t show up when Touta goes through time travel and goes to Evangeline when she is already ‘Dark Evangel’ or when Lifemaker appears and transforms her, I would like it to be shown in the anime. I also thought that they would put Evangeline in a different voice when she is an adult and the voice of Negima when she is a child. But, anyway, it wasn’t so bad either.
This other teaser trailer of UQ Holder that came out:
https://youtu.be/bRg50KbVblw
It seems to start from the beginning… I don’t know if they will skip a lot of chapters or if they really will start from the beginning, I don’t know what to think.
PS: In the manga Karin would have killed Touta just to get her hands on Evangeline if they had shown the same end as in the OVA.
The promo certainly looks like it’s done same way as the manga started in it’s earliest chapters. I think we’ll see a variation of it near end of the anime’s run. There simply not enough material for closure with a 12 episodes series. Unless they plan this thing to be 24 episodes, with 2nd 12-episode season, this isn’t a good source for long running anime.
All the other Negima series were done so they didn’t relay on the manga so much for ending, but different take on the manga itself.
It’s too bad there no other revenue sources for the franchise. Manga may have gotten more attention if there were video games (that maybe better way get new readers than a Anime) in time they got left to save franchise.
It’s hard to make action videogames out of characters who can’t be killed, and it’s pointless doing an UQ Holder game that is not action-oriented. I guess there are enough females to do a date simulator, but then again, most of them are lolis, so eeeeehhhh…
I suspect that her original form is the woman we’ve seen multiple times in Negima and UQ Holder. After over 2500 years, this monstrous form is what she’s become. Frankly, I would have liked to have seen her talk about finally being free (or something) after Negi-Asuna defeated her.
Yeah, the cheats are in at UQ Holder too. The fact that the UQH battle folks are all immortal being the first one.
As to the OAD, I haven’t watched it yet. I need to though.
Your thoughts imply that you think that “recluse Chisame” and this chapter’s Chisame are different, and I’m not sure why. You remember that this flashback is that of the timeline that Negima focused on, right?
Given when the marriage takes place, I see no discrepancies here. Chisame was a recluse before they got married, which lines up pretty neatly with the epilogue.
Chisame was a recluse, but an advisor. But then she gets married to Negi. Negima did not state this at all, but it is a minor thing. As I mentioned to Durra, the party shown in UQ Holder is much larger than the party shown in Negima. So unless Akamatsu-sensei is retconning the Negima timeline, what we are being shown is another timeline.
The party in UQ Holder was never stated to be the same party as the one in Negima. Just because they were both parties involving Ala Rubra and Ala Alba doesn’t mean they were the same party, and indeed, in Negima, Negi states that he’s going to hold another gathering for Nagi that has all of 3-A coming this time. Regardless, even if they were the same party (no evidence towards it), that would be a pretty freaking minor retcon, not a “massive” one.
It’s 100% guaranteed to be the same timeline as the Negima one, as that’s the ENTIRE POINT of the flashback, both in-universe (to show Touta & co how to fully beat the Lifemaker in the only timeline that managed it), and out-of-universe (to give Negima a more detailed ending).
Well, there’s not really a point of having a party with a few people, then come back to the same place when everyone can come. But I digress… 😉
While I’m sure it is supposed to be 100% guaranteed, in my mind, Akamatsu-sensei is playing fast and loose with things. But that’s just me and my cynical nature of late. ^_^;
There’s one big problem with that theory — the party celebrating Nagi’s return didn’t have the entire class, only some members. For example, the twins’ kids were shown as a photo, not as members of the party. That tells me that this is a completely different timeline…or a massive retcon of the Negima timeline.
Welp, disappointing I guess. The fight was nothing, half the cast did nothing, and lightning jesus negi is the only one with any screen time there. So about what I expected.
I really wish someone would rip the franchise out of Akamatsu’s hands. Whatever decent elements of story telling he used to have, its just simply not there anymore, period.
Yeah, his storytelling hasn’t been there for UQ Holder. Shame, really.
I dropped UQH during volume 5 or something, but I just couldn’t resist and read some of your reviews.
Conclusions:
– Akamatsu needs to stop TRYING to write (not writing, see) shounen. He’s just not good at it. Negi seems to have turned into Kurosaki Ichigo. Any comparison to Bleach is not a good thing. Endless power creep going nowhere is not good shounen.
– So many wasted characters, oh god. I remember that UQH “poster” from way back when with all the ‘numbered members’ I guess. Did some of those teased characters EVER show up?
– Secondary characters need development, too! The UQH organization is one giant cardboard cutout. The support cast needs to feel like people, too. Even Kubo Tite, of all people, managed to do that (with most of the Gotei 13 characters, at least.)
– Going from weekly to monthly is either because the mangaka couldn’t do it anymore (physically) or because the weekly ratings dropped considerably. Both are not good signs for the future. I don’t see how this style of shounen can work as a monthly series. Battle shounen are usually not good on a monhtly schedule. You tend to forget things really fast.
– I like the character designs overall, but pretty art alone does not make a good story. (Looking at you there, Oh! Great.)
– Heavily featuring Negima characters AND storylines (oh god, why; that horse is long dead, let it rest) feels like a desperate move to raise readership and sales numbers. Is it working? I have no idea. UQH needed to stand on its own two feet, and it just doesn’t. What merits does this manga have, besides being a sequel to a (mostly) popular manga?
Off the top of my head, these are the things that came to mind.
So much wasted potential makes me physically angry (blood boiling, etc. 😉 ).
P.S.
After the previous disasters, does anyone actually think the anime is gonna be good?
The anime, through some miracle, might turn out okay, but I can’t see it doing terribly well either. There’s too much going on in Holder that relies on context from Negima. If Holder was more of a separate story line with some returning characters, it’d be one thing, but I can’t imagine it’d be an easy show to get into as it is now.
Thanks! 🙂
It seems to happen a lot though, at least in the shounen stuff I’ve read/watched over the years.
For that matter, the whole “numbered” system wasn’t explained and hasn’t meant a thing. Akamatsu-sensei has been all over the place, but has been reluctant to explore anything lest he be tied to it.
Yes. We need more character development all the way around, including fleshing out back stories and such. Sadly, it won’t happen ’cause Akamatsu-sensei is loathe to be tied down with established canon.
Attack on Titan did pretty well. I haven’t read it, but it has fighting and such, right?
Speaking anecdotally, this return to Negima has seen my traffic spikes grow more when spoilers are posted. Last chapter was still not the heights of the peak of Negima, but the numbers were the strongest they’ve been for UQH since the manga started.
This is where I think Akamatsu-sensei screwed up. While keeping this as a spinoff-sequel to Negima, I think Sensei should have extended the travel time for Eva-Yukihime, Touta, and Kuroumaru. This would have been a perfect opportunity to do more character development and to have Eva teach Touta about what it means to be immortal. She could have shared her experiences (thus we could have seen things via flashback). This could have been added to by having Kuroumaru share experiences as well. Instead, I get the sense that someone panicked, so Akamatsu-sensei cut the trip short and moved to irritating Super Touta stories for a time. *_*
Haha! We’ll see.
To be fair about your mention of traffic volume UQ Holder brings in, Negima has always had a pretty decent draw to your blog. Given that the overlap is appealing here likely to the same exact audience, and that content has strictly been about Negima itself, none of this should be surprising. I’m not convinced its having the same effect on a financial level for Akamatsu, who has to deal with both avoiding alienating the Holder audience, which he may have done, and dealing with the Negima crowd, which he brought in.
Yeah, it is just anecdotal and just to my blog. So it may well be that there weren’t any increased sales. However, a part of me kinda thinks that there may have been an uptick, but we’ll see. Assuming he did get more sales, then it is Negima folks coming to see the ending fleshed out a bit. However, if that’s the only reason they are around, I can’t see them sticking around now that UQ Holder folks are taking the front again.
What was revealed was a alternate reality where Negi and others helped defeat the Nagi-motb and saved Nagi too – ie Negima ending. As Rakan stated a miracle where after pulling out the heart and disintegrating it, Nagi still had a heart that was beating (the motb created another heart when taking possession?) still is confusing. That cannot be used by Tota with having Cutlass and Yue and Nodoka pactios predicting and protecting Negi-motb.
It would have been better if Dana showed how Negi failed and got possessed by the Nagi-Motb so as not to repeat it, and how Jack, Al, Yue, Nodoka got controlled and not aged, but age can be easily answered by magic or ability. I wondering now if Negi may have saved Nagi in turn to let the motb take control of him, but the Motb tricked him and kept both of them. At least there is now a reason why Tota was created with Asuna and Negi’s abilities. The pieces of how to defeat the Motb is appearing.
It would be fun if Makie’s ribbon can restrain the MotB or pull out Nagi and Negi from the MotB. That would make things easier too, but just my small thoughts on ‘what if ??’
I thought Konoka had used her magic to restore him at that point. Folks thought he was dead anyway, but Ako determined this to not be the case. And even then, Nagi was in a coma for a couple of year or so.
Otherwise, kinda hard for me to speculate, mainly ’cause I’m so tired from work, (and I don’t have my main PC back yet), I didn’t even realize you’d done replies. Sorry for the delay. ^_^;
Sorry to hear this ANB! Please rest when you can! Hopefully too the weather is getting better and cooler where you are and you are not affected by the severe weather stuff going on right now.
We’ve had an early blast of winter, the earliest I’ve ever seen for snow accumulations.
As to rest…hahahaha! What’s that? 😉
In all seriousness, despite being very tired, I’m thankful to have a job. 🙂
Previews/trailers for the UQH Anime continue come out. Latest Trailer looks like their advertising….doing whatever they can to bring any kind viewer. They show Touta and then they flash through only female characters, most of them in a hot tube naked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On79rp1WqPE
I got bad feeling that anime going be showing fan-service city in a bad way.
I hope i am wrong about this…
I think you are right about that.
Looks like the US / Western viewership going be bit narrow. Anime Strike got the rights for the series, that’s pay to view site. Unless pirate sites count, their not going get much viewership from the west unless it comes out a different way.
I agree. And yet everyone and their brother is starting their own pay streaming service ’cause people want to get away from paying $100/month for cable to pay $100/month for ~10 streaming services. *_* Insanely stupid, but I think it will drive more piracy.
Agreed! Would be nice to see more of the UQ numbers or positions, like the pin stripe coat UQ Deputy Vasago (chap 7 – looked like Fate) what can he do other than being the person picking up Tota in a limo. anything about Makabe Gengorou which appears to be a hotel manager and very similar to Mana (chapter 11 cover) having weapons, and also, anything more what Jinbei Shishido other than the janitor and UQ #2 can do other than throw big stones. No more fun stuff with the black shirt bodyguards too, as Tota first mentioned as the ‘yakuza’ feel to UQ.
Yeah, there is much potential. More than hot springs. hmm maybe the OVAs have it down, and start with the baths.
At least Karin worked with Tota and Kuromaru on a simple mission outside of negima. Would be nice to include Iikyu to have a roll in the negima story/mission or anything new with the syndicate that had sent that cyborg, blind swordsman and werewolf to destroy the orphanage. Maybe we may see Makie as a elderly physical ed teacher at Mahora since that school is very much part of negima.
I don’t know. To me, going for the lowest common denominator first doesn’t seem like the way to go. But we’ll see what happens.
I can be wrong, I just kinda remembered the anime for Negima! had Asuna opening the series at a bath/pool wondering about her new classes the next day and her hopeful teachers – then to meet Negi as she ran from the last train stop to the Mahora. Baths seems to be a continuous theme.
Well, the outdoor onsen/bath is a theme for Akamatsu-sensei. Can’t remember if it was in A.I. Love You or not as I only have volume 8 of the manga (the others I sold years ago to pay off medical bills).