December 12th, 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 – 10
UQ Holder Episode 10
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta tells Kuroumaru that he’s depressed over learning that he’s a clone of Negi. Mizore interrupts to take him to the Mahora Budokai. Kuroumaru and Kirie join them as they see the festival going on all around. Touta tries to enter the tournament, but there are no open entries. Touta takes a positive attitude about this when Ayaka shows up with Chachamaru. TATSUMIYA Mana also joins them. Ayaka asks Mizore to stay behind while Negi’s former students escort him to Negi’s former classroom, where he meets the ghost Sayo.
After Mana receives word that a contestant is injured, she lets Touta enter the tournament. Kuroumaru, Mizore, and Kirie are in the stands to watch Touta’s first fight against someone named Cutlass. Cutlass addresses Touta as “Niisan” and easily bests Touta, even after Touta activates Magia Erebea. Although pinned to the ground, Touta manages to land a blow on Cutlass, revealing a girl. Cutlass wants to end Touta, but she’s just the warmup act. With that, Negi descends through the barrier around the tournament ring.
Negi wants Touta to join him to help save the world. Touta scoffs at this, citing that his grandfather could have taken him anytime over the past two years. Negi only recently became aware of Touta’s existence. Yukihime uses her magic to take down Negi’s barrier. She knows she’s facing the Mage of the Beginning, but she finds herself magically bound. Her former classmates Nodoka and Yue descend as does Negi (and Nagi’s) companion Jack. Karin, Kirie, and Kuroumaru join the fray as Yukihime frees herself. With that, Touta challenges Negi-MotB.
Thoughts/Review:
Ugh. I honestly can’t believe I was forced to watch some bloody tournament crap in UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 10. Part of me wonders if originally, Akamatsu-sensei may have planned to go this route in the manga.
What I Liked
Mizore was good stuff for me. I like her in the anime in the same way I like her in the manga. She’s a positive, cheerful force of nature. And in this episode, she got the only laugh when she considered the possibility that her great-grandmother might be making moves on Mizore’s Touta-sama.
I liked that we saw Yukihime consulting with the elderly Ayaka before Touta met with them. That was something not in the manga, but stuff like that is what I wanted to see in the manga.
It was nice to see Mana here. I really liked seeing Yue and Nodoka drop from the sky. Heck, I even liked seeing Jack arrive. But that’s just Negima nostalgia and thinking of what might have been had Negima been given a PROPER anime adaptation.
What I didn’t Like
There should be no surprise for longtime readers to find that the thing I hated most about this episode was the bloody tournament. I nearly screamed when Mizore said, “Hey! Let’s all go to the Mahora Budokai!” I loathe tournaments as I had my fill of them by the time Negima was over. Alas, this was chosen to be the spot to have the final showdown for UQ Holder vs. Negi-MotB and company.
The battle between Cutlass and Touta didn’t serve a real purpose. The only reason I can think of to have Cutlass even fight Touta is because Cutlass is playing an apparent important role in the manga. She defeats Touta, mocks him, and for what? Negi could have just descended without Cutlass doing jack and the result would have been the same.
That aside, Touta had no business being in any stupid tournament. Yet he’s in the tournament ’cause “reasons.” Right now, the anime is suffering from the fact that it has to cut so much infrastructure material that pretty much everything is happened ’cause “reasons.”
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Ultra busy (what else is new), so let me wrap up my review of UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 10.
- Afro gets a cameo. I don’t have anything against the character, but he seemed like someone who would play a more important role for Touta, then he got put on a shelf and forgotten.
- Where was Al in that showcase showdown at the end of the episode?
- I’m sad that Honoka and Isana didn’t show up. It isn’t surprising that they didn’t, but considering who they are, I kinda though Akamatsu-sensei might have them show up in some form.
- Shinobu only gets an extended cameo here. I guess if everyone else is away, you can play hooky that day.
In the end, UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 – 10 is an episode that suffers from a rushed desire to reach a made up conclusion. All I keep thinking is, “What might have been.”
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Al shows up in the next episode. As far as I can tell he’s just there to do the flashback bits since his opponent isn’t present in the anime. A lot of the Negima VAs don’t sound like they’ve aged much even though it’s been almost a decade since the last Negima anime (not counting the OVAs/movie).
This anime, while not poor, just screams “Missed opportunities” everywhere due to it’s short length. At this rate I would’ve preferred if they took a slower approach and cut it off at the conclusion of the first arc, at least there’s a chance for a second season. I’m assuming that episode 12 will give a definite conclusion since it’s skipped so far ahead.
As for this episode, it was alright I guess. You can tell they definitely had too many ideas and not enough time to lay them all out though. 3 episodes to wrap this thing up is far too little.
Still interested to know what the Japanese think of this anime, or even if they care. I’m guessing they don’t but who knows.
That’s true. Had it been given a budget and allowed to go properly, it could have been a good anime series as it could have fixed some issues with the manga AND made things easier for those who’ve not read Negima! to be introduced to that element.
I’ve heard that the ratings are tanking.
ANN too has very few positive things to say about this episode:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/uq-holder-magister-negi-magi-2/episode-10/.124864
Ratings for this show have continuously plummeted, from a solid B to a mediocre C. I predict low-end salses numbers for the BDs. Even if there were material for a second season (which there isn’t because of rushing) the numbers most likely wouldn’t allow it.
Ultimately, UQHolder is a show for fans of the source material. It’s not very accessible to viewers who know nothing of UQH and Negima. The casual viewer (without knowledge about the matieral) still sticking around at this late stage of the anime will also probably feel alienated by these last few episodes and the sudden appearances of tons of people never before seen or mentioned.
Verdict: Eye candy for fans of the manga, near incomprehensible plot for new viewers.
I would disagree that there isn’t material for a second season. ALL of the stuff they skipped would easily make another season/series.
Ultimately, the Japanese killed the anime the moment they approved to only have 12 episodes plus some OADs.
I do, wish people would shut up about wasted opportunity, the implication that a full 3 chapter per an episode and completly faithful adaptation, would suddenly make UQ Holder amazing; is nonsense. An anime brings all the series faults to bare and magnify’s them, tenfold.
Like Kirei’s overbearing presence and Touta’s lack of original arsenal, as well as, the constant lack of answers. (speaking, I like the idea that only Fate truly knew of Touta, and Negi-Idala only found out, months ago, because no explanation exists in the manga, although, Granny Asuna still stuck, even though she and Negi are supposed to be his biological parents! “Shrugs” Ken, has been so uncoming with, information that probably can’t remember if it was a red hearing/Plot point.)
I suppose anything, of enigmatic interest to Touta, is dropped faster than Arika.
At least, the IP is going To love-Ru with manga OVA limited editions, annoyingly not on Blu-Ray, (Lets hope, for an anthology down the line, so it can be licensed in the West.
Once again, Mizore is best girl.
I disagree here, though I understand your point. I found the RIN-NE manga to be tedious, boring, and mostly not funny. However, for the first 2-3 seasons of the anime, it was actually pretty enjoyable and funny. Of course, they didn’t go for a faithful adaptation. Because Takahashi-sensei wrote the manga to pretty much always make sure the status quo never changed, it made it easier for the anime adaptation team to pick chapters that worked well together and made new stories.
For the most part, the anime is far superior to the manga, though deeper into the anime, they run into the problems of the manga, mainly being that because the status quo must be maintained, there’s only so much the anime can do without going completely off on its own.
Another example is Planetes. The manga is a darker affair and while it is fine, the anime adaptation is much better because it is more enjoyable. It still has the darker elements and serious elements, but they did add a couple of characters as the people that ran the company division the main characters work for. That provided some comic relief. The only thing the anime didn’t do quite as well was the romance storyline and they didn’t explore one of the supporting characters as much as the manga did.
My long-winded point is that the missed opportunity is that the anime could have been tweaked to fix certain problems with the manga. It actually did do one tweak-fix I liked, that being showing the meeting between the elderly Ayaka, Chachamaru, and Eva.
Were it up to me, the anime adaptation would have gone into why Eva had a bounty on her head. The manga STILL hasn’t explained that and it is a forgotten story element. Also, why she decided to be known as Yukihime rather than Eva–I would have explained that. From there, I would have made tweaks here and there, starting by having Touta earn his abilities and have him question why he’s so good. In that way, the anime adaptation could have been superior to the manga. However, it would have taken a ton of anime episodes to do.
OADs are limited edition materials. It is highly unlikely that we’ll see them adapted for English audiences for the same reasons the Negima! OADs weren’t licensed.
Pretty much.
Zazie’s not anywhere either, which really surprised me– it’s not like she’d have eaten a large chunk of the episode away by constantly speaking and ranting, so it’s odd to have her nowhere in sight or even mentioned when Mana and Sayo are there. If anything Sayo was even more irrelevant in the UQ Holder manga than Zazie, who at least saved people off panel and gave some relatively helpful infodump. I like Sayo, but if they had to keep only one of them in, I’d have picked Zazie instead of her.
Also, the art continues being rather bad. Just look again at the pics in this post: at some point Nodoka’s breasts seem to inflate abnormally (one even more than the other, BTW), and Chachamaru’s always drawn off model (just look at her arms in the picture above! God, her arms!) The audience made of mannequins in the wide shots is another quite sad detail, and it gets even worse next episode…
Regarding Zazie, it is surprising she didn’t show up.
As to the art, well… ^_^;