November 26th, 2017 
AstroNerdBoy ユーキューホルダー! 魔法先生 ネギま！2 Anime Review
UQ Holder! Mahou Sensei Negima 2
UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 08
UQ Holder Episode 08
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta’s friends Nikumaru and Mitsuhashi see Touta and greet him. Fate comes up behind them and puts on a smile, but is clearly holding them hostage. Touta is irritated by Fate’s words. Touta concedes defeat, but then screams about a terrorist, causing Fate to be confused and allowing Karin to sneak in and get Touta’s friends to safety. Ikkuu, who’d been temporarily stopped by Fate’s associate Tsukuyomi, manages to get free and cause the orbital weapon platform Al-Iskandariya to attack Fate. Kuroumaru engages another of Fate’s comrades (Asura) while Kirie attempts to snag Fate, only to become petrified.
Karin sees the plan is FUBAR and orders a retreat. She grabs the petrified Kirie and ties Kirie to her body. Karin is attacked by a priest named Shaba, leaving Touta to deal with Fate. Fate is surprised by Touta’s abilities. Karin sees a timer on Kirie and calls Touta to ask what this is. Touta has a feeling he knows and suggests that they all gather at Fate when the counter hits zero. They do and Kirie breaks free from the petrification spell, thanks to a magic app. Kirie kills herself, returning to her save point while Ikkuu, Kuroumaru, Karin, Touta, and Fate arrive in the caverns under the UQ Holder HQ, where Yukihime is waiting.
Yukihime and Fate square off against each other, but then back down. Out of respect for them capturing him, Fate says he’ll answer one question each from Kuroumaru, Ikkuu, Karin, and Touta. Ikkuu asks what Fate needs Touta for. The answer is to free Negi. Karin asks whom Negi loved — Fate or Yukihime (Eva). Fate responds that Yukihime loved Nagi, but passes on discussing her feelings for Negi after a threat from her. Kuroumaru asks about the urgency of grabbing Touta and learns Fate won’t need him for 20 years. Touta asks if Fate killed his parents, to which Fate confirms.
Touta activates his Magia Erebea, but the magic thing planted on him earlier activates. Negi Springfield’s image appears and he is able to communicate with the group. After greeting Touta, Fate, and Yukihime, Negi tells Touta Fate is wrong. Yukihime telepathically tells Kuroumaru to find the magic device on Touta and destroy it. Negi is just about to reveal all when Kuroumaru destroys the device. Touta is upset about having this valuable information cut off. Fate and Yukihime agree to an alliance, thanks to this turn of events.
Thoughts/Review:
UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 08 sees us have the largest break with the manga as the series attempts to speed things up even faster. Not sure how we fit Mizore into the mix with so little time.
What Was Changed
One of the biggest changes from the manga is that the battle between Fate and Eva (as Yukihime) was axed. So not only did we missed these two giants duking it out, we didn’t even get to see Eva use Magia Erebea. With the anime making a lot of note of Touta possibly inheriting this from Eva, I’m surprised that we didn’t get to see Eva using ME.
The next major change is in having Cutlass’s purpose in bumping into Touta revealed. Instead of being an assassin looking to kill immortals, Cutlass is just Negi’s errand girl, allowing Negi to holographically communicate with Eva, Fate, and Touta. I’m going to guess that this communication will replace the manga’s shocking communication, whereby the Mage of the Beginning revealed herself after pulling Touta, Eva, and Fate somewhere to reveal Negi and Nagi.
I found it amusing in a non-funny way that while we had to cut the Eva vs. Fate battle, we had lots of time for a lengthy recap at the start of the episode. Go figure.
What I Liked
One thing I liked from the anime is seeing just how fast Kirie was taken out of action. That speed was lost in the manga, at least in week-by-week basis. That helped show just how fast Fate can petrify someone.
I really hate to admit this, but I laughed out loud at Touta taunting Fate. I guess that’s the little boy in me.
What I Didn’t Like
Obviously, I didn’t like the fact that the fight between Eva and Fate was cut. That said, the fight scenes that were shown didn’t look as ugly as the previous episode, but sadly, they are underwhelming visually. It is terrible of me, but at times like this, I think, “I wonder what kind of magic ufotable could have done with this?”
I didn’t like how Eva ordered Kuroumaru to kill the transmission from Negi. It is one of those convenient story devices to prevent the audience from learning information while throwing it in your face that the information is RIGHT THERE! 🙄
Finally, I didn’t like how Tsukuyomi looked in this episode. Maybe it was the blue hair.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
OK, time to wrap up my review of UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 08.
- The anime stated that it was 20 years since Eva and Fate last saw each other. The manga stated it was 30 years. I wonder why the 10 year difference?
- I’m trying to remember if we’ve ever seen Touta’s friends again since this story came out in the manga. I think not.
- With each episode I watch, I can’t help but wish that Akamatsu-sensei hadn’t been so keen on trying to emulate Mashima-sensei’s style of only planning the manga on an arc-by-arc basis. Oh well.
In the end, I can’t say that UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 08 is a bad episode, but the anime just fails to wow me when it should.
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You’ll be “happy” to know that Mizore makes her debut next episode in what looks like an adaptation of the “scrub Touta’s back 50 times” chapter.
This anime is all over the place and it’s still the best one Akamatsu has produced. Admittedly low bar to leap over, but still.
I dunno, despite XEBEC’s off the rails last handful of episodes, I still found it reasonably decent then this. Granted, this is coming from someone who thinks Holder is pretty sub part in just about everything it does.
The OVA’s are still much, much better then what we’re getting here though.
Well yeah the OVAs are better. Shame they were never dubbed. Xebec had the right idea off the hop but devolved into a mess with gaudy animation and a very questionable ending. The fact that it ended just prior to the series’ best arc is heartbreaking. To this day I still wish for an animated Mahorafest and I cannot for the life of me understand why it hasn’t been done.
Sadly, the OADs were done for the Japanese as exclusive content with the purchase of the Limited Edition manga. I hated they went that route because they only picked a few things to adapt and adapt well.
Well, the OADs were done specifically for hardcore fans.
Haha! Well, I just watched the episode. I want to write a review, but I’ve got to get some sleep.
Well, what can I say about this chapter, some scenes were like in the manga, others not (As each chapter there is always something new that they add) I was wondering that Cutlass made Touta when he collided with him in the previous chapter, it turned out to be to communicate with Negi, it was funny when Touta mocked Fate XD
When I thought they were going to put the fight of Fate and Evangeline, I was happy, but, it didn’t last long because they eliminated it, it was like the NOOO of Darth Vader
(I have the feeling that Evangeline fights less in the anime than in the manga)
Regarding Negi, in the manga it caused more impression, the expressions of Fate and Evangeline seeing Negi are different in the manga, in the anime it didn’t cause so much ‘feeling’…
PS: It is strange to me that this anime gets to have only ’12’ chapters, Love Hina had 25 and Negima 26 chapters.
[spoiler]
In the next chapter, it seems that Mizore appears and they fight to wash Touta’s back (And I thought that this chapter, I would not see it, considering that it is the number 100, that ironic.
I wonder if they will put some new in this chapter too.
Ayaka and Chachamaru appear, I leave the link.
http://uqholder.jp/story/
[/spoiler]
And I leave this images I found
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJCxUWVUwAE24xc.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOruWNBUEAA9gHD.jpg
https://imgsa.baidu.com/forum/w%3D580/sign=985eca79f6faaf5184e381b7bc5594ed/01dbfed3fd1f4134c14f67212e1f95cad0c85ebe.jpg
I think you are right.
Well, these days, the Japanese are less willing to take risks. Sadly, UQ Holder is a risk. 🙁
Akamatsu stated after that chapter came out that 30 years was an error, and he should have put 20.
After all, we actually saw them together less than 30 years ago in the flashback in chapter 24
I was not aware of that, or I’d forgotten it.
UQH is scraping by in the lower half of anime ratings, and I don’t see it rising farther up than this.
Source:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2017-11-23/the-best-and-worst-of-the-season-so-far-week-of-nov-12-18/.124416
Considering it is a late night series, I guess it isn’t too bad.
Judging by the title episode 10 adapts the visit to Mahora Academy post Santa’s arc.
I don’t understand the decision to pull him out of the series while Mizore gets in. Not that I have anything against her, but she doesn’t really add anything to the series.
Apparently unimportant cute girls add more than actually interesting but ultimately unimportant characters >_>
To Mizore’s credit she actually wasn’t as annoying as I thought she would be. She isn’t really a bad character but Santa is far more interesting.
The entire episode coming up is Fan-Service city. [spoiler] I think it’s mix bag. It feels RUSHED. Again….but it has bright moments. The tournament thing is completely gone at the moment so they could squeeze in Mizore and the other girls’ competition for cluess-wonder time. Eve doesn’t even register that 50-scrub thing being a love joke. I’m sure she heard of it before. I hope very much she NOT being redirected to look at Touta as possible leading man. He’s too immature anime character wise vs his slightly more seasoned version in the manga. SLIGHTLY MORE! :D. [/spoiler]
I think this and episode before it should been put together in one spot. It’s basically a 2 parter.
I’ve accepted this is going be rush job, that fights are going get cut short, and story slightly changed. I want it changed ALOT more than this.
Why? It will do better if not a carbon copy of the manga. So they both stand out and both will survive test of time. Which they could continue to make money in the long run for sake of continuation and possibly being made better.
Without a doubt it’s super rushed… It is what it is at this point and I’m just going to enjoy it for all its flaws. I think I would’ve preferred Akamatsu did an incomplete anime like others rather than trying to squeeze 100+ chapters into 12 episodes. For that matter, why only 12 when his other series have been at least twice as much? Akamatsu is a pretty good writer but his inability to market his series properly really hurts him. UQ could be a really good anime if the proper budget and attention was put into it.
Sadly he seems to be aiming this series more at lolicons than those who enjoy action, which was kinda the point of the series in the first place.
I’ve been reading the reviews on ANN and up until episode 9 they were really positive about the series despite it’s shortcomings but they gave 9 a pretty bad review (C-). I don’t feel like this anime has been a revelation by any means but it has been enjoyable… However useless filler episodes have little to no place in such a truncated series that’s actually trying to tell a story and Mizore is the very definition of filler.
Losing Santa and his arc for Shinobu and Mizore is a terrible tradeoff and unless this series somehow gets a second season (and it won’t), it’s a complete waste of an interesting character.
It is a shame the Japanese wouldn’t commit to 24 episodes. Then things would have been done better.
I’ve always liked Mizore. And at least here, they did something that I complained they didn’t do in the manga. But I’ll speak of that when I get my review written.
And sadly, Santa has been made unimportant due to the ever shifting nature of the manga.
I’d argue any character not named “Kirie” or “Touta” has been rendered unimportant. Even Evangeline barely has a presence in this series anymore and Karin/Kuromaru have been relegated to harem observers.
But that’s another argument for another article. At least the anime does try to shed light on characters that aren’t those two.
Haha! Touche!
True.
Female harem > Santa. 😉
Well, RIP UQ holder!!, it has an anime, sells 20K more, and drops of a cliff.
Akamatsu-Sensei must have a minimum salary agreement, which may explain why the quality hasn’t drastically improved as the series declines.
(but their monthly chapters, are a massive improvement, because progression has to be made, and he is not facing as much pressure. So he can write the outline for chapter at a much more leisurely pace, and not face the stress of drawing the chapter and then having to do it again on Monday, or before publication) look at makabe, we’ve discovered more about him in 2 months than we have in two years. Instead of typical weekly serialisation meandering.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-11-29/japanese-comic-ranking-november-20-26/.124633
This ranking is from volume 15 of UQ Holder (manga)?
If so, I’m surprised that it isn’t in the ranking, wasn’t that volume where came out the chapters where it was known who Negi was married with and how they defeated Ialda and they had the happy end? (I thought that the fans liked that)
I doubt it. Its too little too late to start trying to salvage anything out of Negima at this point, and that “conclusion” was so half-assed, I almost wish it never happened. I’ll take no ending over a half baked one anyday.
I did not expect Houseki no Kuni / Land of the Lustrous to sell so well. I guess I’m not the only one who loves it.
Lol, One Piece in its 4th week still in 6th place.
Three Saki titles in the Top 50 (Saki, Toki, Shinohayu), I guess it’s popular?
My Hero Academia in its 4th week sells less than half than One Piece in its 4th week, Oda master race?
The last volumes of Magi and Fairy Tail in 2nd and 3rd place, makes sense I guess.
Space Brothers in 1st place, huh. I think it has a broader and generally older audience, that’s why it sells so much in its first week.
I really need to look at these lists more often, some interesting things to be found in them.
Are they publishing the list weekly?
Surely , that’s a rhetorical question.
I presume the list is made in English by ANN then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiODXeTliug
Preview for Episode 10. Looks like Negi shows up after the fight between Touta and Cutlass in the tournament, so the Naked Loli Water Race should be cut out.
All in all, this adaptation jumps across the manga material so wildly I don’t know how they could make a second season even if they had the ratings for it.
Yeah it’s pretty impossible for them to continue given this looks like it’s going to have an actual conclusion. LH and MSN got 26 episodes but I guess Japan is less willing to take risks on a series like this.
It’s a shame because a real, full adaptation of this series could be something special. Though I’d prefer that budget to go to a full adaptation of Negima, but I know that’s never going to happen. Ken just… can’t market his series at all.
Sad but true. Gone are the good old days when it was pretty much standard for a series to get 24-26 episodes.
Well, they could pick up some elements that have been skipped, such as Santa’s arc and Dana’s training arc. If done right, those could make up a lot of episodes. And they could be modified somewhat so that Mizore and Shinobu aren’t lost in the mix.