December 7th, 2018 
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 155
UQ Holder Chapter 155
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Karin continues her tale. She reveals that Eva passed on forming a pactio with Karin. At that moment, Ba’al arrives after a 120 year absence. He had been observing Eva to see what she’d become. Eva’s powers are on par with actual shinso vampires, but Ba’al notes that Eva’s spirit is still that of a little girl. Ba’al easily overcomes Karin’s barrier and plants a World Tree seed in her. Thanks to Ba’al’s power, the seed immediately grows and Karin is sealed inside as part of the tree.
For the next 140 years, Karin has no memories. She is rescued by Juuzou Shishimi. He has a message for Karin, but does not know where Eva is. He asks Karin to come with him. Following that, Karin did not see Eva until ten years ago when she created UQ Holder.
Karin tells Touta how her Grace of God powers rejected the pactio from Eva. Touta embraces the weeping Karin. As it is late and raining, she then has them go to her former residence in the city. After Touta makes tea, he uses a Pactio Circle App to attempt a surprise pactio on Karin. The negative reaction from Grace of God is more severe this time. Touta does not believe this means Karin is rejected. In his mind, no one knows who’s going to be saved until Judgement Day.
Touta believes he can overcome this human power, so Karin decides to let him have a second go at her lips. He again activates a Pactio Circle App, and again, the rejection reaction happens. Touta uses his power to negate it, so the negative reaction power increases. After some time, Touta becomes concerned about hurting Karin, but she wraps her arms and legs around him. Their clothes are disintegrated in the process. However, this time, Touta is able to use all of his power and form a pactio.
As Touta lays unconscious on the floor, Karin sees her pactio card and is genuinely happy. She kneels beside him as Jinbee and Gengorou enter. Since both Karin and Touta are nude, Karin realizes how bad this looks. Sure enough, Jinbee and Gengorou assume the two have had animal sex, based on the clothing and pillow debris.
Thoughts/Review:
Heh-heh-heh! Well, since the chapter came out early (but not on Crunchyroll), I decided to go ahead and write my review now. Welcome to the harem, Karin!
Removing Karin From Eva’s Story
I had wondered how Akamatsu-sensei was going to separate Karin and Eva. If Karin was prepared to follow Eva around for 120 years, she’d never leave Eva’s side. Having Ba’al seal Karin inside of a World Tree by making it grow within her did the trick for sure. ?
So now, Eva can wander around for however many years sans Karin. What bothers me is that it was implied that Eva saved Karin from being burned at the stake. I was disappointed we haven’t seen that story yet.
Also, why didn’t Karin go find Eva after being rescued? In her story, Karin just took off after Juuzou. Granted, Karin cannot be with Eva ’cause that would be a MASSIVE retcon to Eva’s story. Eva has to do whatever things Touta saw her do in her time of despair, then hang out with Ala Rubra for a while (all the while being blissfully ignorant of Arika), then have Nagi curse her, then have her return to the light side, then have her freed from the curse, then have her form UQ Holder. Whew! Did I get it all?
Still, I would love to see more of what Karin did in those intervening years.
Holy Magic
Speaking of Karin, I’m still not happy that shinso vampires can basically ignore it. So far, it is only Karin’s immortality that causes them problems. She can’t be physically injured, even if she feels the pain. So they can’t easily kill her. But I’d still like to see this Grace of God magic cause shinso more problems.
Nevertheless, sealing Karin within a World Tree by making it grow from within her seems extreme. Karin is all flash when it comes to her powers and the shinso. So what threat is she to Ba’al? I guess he wasn’t worried about the threat, but just wanted to see what would happen when he planted a World Tree seed in her.
The World Tree
I almost get the sense that this is the World Tree featured in Negima. The only thing against this as a theory is that while there were mountainous areas around the World Tree, they weren’t as rugged as what we saw in UQ Holder chapter 155. But I kinda like the idea that maybe Karin and Eva were in Japan.
Still, it is interesting that a World Tree was used to seal Karin. It made me think of why MotB (I presume in Nagi’s form) was sealed at the World Tree in Japan. That’s something I don’t believe was ever explained. (Not that it really mattered since Nagi somehow regained control himself to visit his son. And then Nagi came and resurrected CE on the Magic World. And then got killed by the Asuna-Negi combo. But hey, what do I know?)
Karin’s Pactio
Shifting to the present, I’m still not keen on non-mages being able to perform pactiones. And Akamatsu-sensei decided to have the “I can’t use magic apps” Touta suddenly be able to use magic apps ’cause “reasons.” ?
Still, seeing Karin look all cute clutching a pillow and giving consent for Touta to kiss her a second time was kinda worth it, I guess. ?
The actual pactio attempt reminded me of Negi forcing a successful pactio with Chachamaru in Negima. Here, Touta keeps pouring on the power until he succeeds, just like Negi did back then.
The difference here is that Touta’s and Karin’s pactio attempt and kiss was just about like sex. Karin certainly gripped Touta like a lover. I think the only reason Akamatsu-sensei didn’t have her leg lock his whole body was because UQ Holder is in a shounen manga. ?
Interesting that Karin’s pactio card shows her with nothing new in terms of gear. I really do think her mallet is a pactio artifact. Maybe she had a pactio with someone else in the past.
Welcome to the Harem, Karin-chan!
With this successful pactio, I think it is safe to say that Karin is now in Touta’s battle harem. She’s been showing signs of falling for Touta for a while now. Usually, she’s fully tsun about it. She has previously stated that she’d rather die than kiss Touta for a pactio. However, the fact that she told Touta that long backstory about herself and her time with Eva (and Jinbee) was the start of her giving into her dere side.
In UQ Holder chapter 155, Karen does some interesting things that mark the complete shift in how she sees Touta. For starters, she invites him over to her old place. When Touta does a surprise kiss on her, she doesn’t seriously try to hurt him. And then when Touta spells out his idea, she volunteers to be kissed by Touta, even after Touta gives her an out.
But more than this, it is when Touta is about to break off the kiss for fear of hurting Karin that she goes all out for Touta. Her gripping him like a lover so he won’t break the kiss spoke volumes to me. She wants Touta to succeed. And then when she gets her pactio card, she is genuinely happy.
Frankly, I hope we see a change in Karin’s attitude toward Touta, so that the other girls in Touta’s harem sit up and take notice.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Well, I wasted time raging again about WP forcing us to their hideous, anti-blogging editor known as Gutenberg. And since I need to go to bed now, I’ll wrap up my review of UQ Holder chapter 155.
- Juuzou’s cameo was a nice one, and unexpected too.
- I have to admit that I laughed out loud at Jinbee’s and Gengorou’s reaction to seeing the naked Touta and Karin amongst the piles of destroyed clothing and pillows.
- As ecchi as this chapter was, I couldn’t help but think that Akamatsu-sensei wants to see some UQ Holder hentai. ?
In the end, UQ Holder chapter 155 is VERY ecchi, but is a very good chapter nevertheless. I still want to see the rest of Karin’s time after her rescue explored. Also, I want so see some exploration of Kuroumaru’s history and tribe.
So what are your thoughts? Did you like the chapter or hate it? Respond in the comments section as I’d love to hear what all of you think.
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Honestly, the most simple reason to not returning to Eva’s side is not knowing where she is. Like, they were probably tracking her for decades/centuries, periodically losing and gaining her trail as they went around the world(it’s big and they didn’t have modern tech).
Maybe. But Eva was at Mahora for a long while and not moving anywhere.
It’s not like she could possibly know that.
Eva was a notorious person. And it wasn’t like it was a secret that Eva was trapped at Mahora. Herrman was quite aware of her presence there and did stuff to try to ensure she wouldn’t interfere in his plans.
Maybe one could say that after a while, Karin gave up. But it just doesn’t feel like this is something she’d do.
Evangeline was even registered in Mahora under her actual name. That’s the kind of stuff anyone with an Internet connection could have found out even back in 2003. And before anyone asks why would Karin think of looking for clues on Eva around a school, that school was under direction of someone well known between mages as the head of a major Magical Association. Mahora also has a World Tree, and if someone should know about World Trees and magical imprisonments that should be Karin.
In all honesty, I think it’d have been much smarter just having Karin be released after the events of Negima, not before, and much less that long before.
Otherwise… eh, good enough chapter, I guess. This Karin minisaga has perhaps been the best UQ Holder has had through its whole run.
IF Akamatsu-sensei has Karin reveal more of her time, say to help explore Juuzou’s character, then I’d be OK with how things went. It may be that while she was with him, a plausible reason for Karin not tracking down Eva may exist.
Yeah, I agree here. Akamatsu-sensei may have been shy about getting away form Touta after what happened in Love Hina, where Keitaro only bookends an entire volume. The manga really came up short without him in the mix.
But UQ Holder is a different beast. And it really could do quite well with or without Touta. That’s why I want Akamatsu-sensei to allow Kuroumaru to have a nice backstory arc and even a visit to Kuroumaru’s tribe and homeland.
The reason Touta was unable to use magic apps was because he couldn’t control his powers, right? Training with Dana fixed that.
Maybe. I would need to go back and reread all that to see if Touta could use apps or not.
The Springfield line once again gives the middle finger to the laws of magic.
Hahaha!
Really great chapter. Akamatsu-Sensei flipped the possessive psycho lesbian trope and turn it into, a deep compelling character traite. A source of karin’s insecurities around Touta, she had to wait around 200 years to be reunited with her love ?, meanwhile Eva feels so alone and upset that becomes deeply infatuated the first person to treat her as human, and follows him around like karin did. She’s a very uzume like character (from sekirei) an independent orbit from the MC, that act as the MC main motivation after fining out their backstory.
Uq holder already has the numbers to match.
An incredible series that still holds up.
Yet, this karin mini arc, is the best material uq holder has ever done. If one begins to expand and explore the characters, which in which in turn sets the required ground work whilst getting the audience invested, allows for some great writing and motivation, the readers respond very well to that. (See the third act of civil war, we are rooting for both sides, and know both are valid. Due to the set up from winter solider.) anything can be done, as long as its commmited to and is consistent with the required work/screen put in. See what has happened with karin. A tragic love like uzume and chiho. That made the second series really moving as she is used as a catalyst for mintao to be proactive instead of passive, as does the ceo.
And focusing on such, is easy because usually knowledge about the protagonist=major story progression.
Interesting that karin wakes up in the late 1700’s, unless Akamatsu-Sensei is referring to japan’s very very poisonous industrial revolution in 1860’s. Which means she missed both the unification of Japan and greater Britain.
That must’ve been interesting, so see two major bastions a Christiandom rise much higher than catholic Europe, and the new world not being frontier setters.
Absolutely. I wonder if Akamatsu-sensei was hesitant about doing such an arc, based on what happened when he removed Keitaro from an entire volume of Love Hina, save for appearances at each end of the volume. Without Keitaro in the mix, Love Hina fell apart.
UQ Holder is another beast completely. It doesn’t need Touta to hold it up. That’s because even though Touta is the MC, he’s in a group of others, many of whom are immortal like him. I think when Akamatsu-sensei did the chapter where Jinbee and Gengorou were the stars, the positive reaction there showed him that he could go all out with a Karin backstory arc. And I think most fans are having a very positive reaction to this backstory arc. I hope this means we can get one with Kuroumaru, including a trip by UQ Holder folks to Kuroumaru’s home world and tribe.
The only thing that was missing from Karin’s flashback story is her being saved, apparently by Eva, from being burned at the stake.
UQ holder didn’t seem to know where eva was at the beginning of the series when she was raising touta either. They didn’t even know jinbei was trapped right underneath of their own base.
I suspect they had to know, at least certain members, based on how they were able to drive right to them in volume 1 of the manga. They may not have known all of the details, only that she was on a special case for the group.
Well, the joke element of this aside, Eva did send him below without telling anyone what she’d done. You can ask why no one questioned where Jinbee was all that time that Eva was gone. But I think this boils down to the somewhat indifferent attitude immortals form over the passage of the years.
Have you seen the details of the pactio card of Karin? It reads Sanctus Lucifer. Do you have insights as to what it means? Does it have a connection to her new power or her history?
Sanctus is Latin for the word “holy.” Lucifer is of course a name for the Devil. However, in Latin, the word means “light-bringer” and is the word used for the planet Venus. So in this case, Sanctus Lucifer would be “Holy Light-Bringer.” In that regard, I would say that it has very much to do with her holy magical abilities.
As to anything else, I couldn’t say.
I haven’t read the new chapter yet. Just skipping to the comments to post this:
I was hoping CR would have gotten their ducks in a row this month and avoided a repeat of last month’s situation where UQ Holder Ch. 154 wasn’t up in time. Alas, it appears that this is the new normal for CR. This series at least cannot legitimately be referred to as a “simulpub” anymore because it’s not being published simultaneously with its Japanese release. It’s fortunate that CR has plenty of anime to watch, because if I was there just for the manga I probably would have dropped my subscription at this point.
That’s just insane. I wondered if something like that would happen, which is why I decided to just use comiXology. Anime is the only reason I’m really keeping CR, and to be honest, I don’t want to do it since they are giving customers the middle finger.
Thanks for letting me know.
Hmm, my post didn’t stay. Weird…
It was very meaningful chapter. Akamatsu-sensei certainly proposing basis of holy magic or magic of god is based on everyone praying, their faith this really magic? I hate see religious groups getting hold of that subject.
Touta was fairly clever about this chapter, but now question remains was just moment of brilliance or just a fluke.
Sorry for the delay. My normal notification didn’t alert me. ?
With all of the stupidity WordPress is doing of late, it doesn’t surprise me. I’m not updating to the hideous Gutenberg, but even still, it did upgrade to 4.9.9 and that could have caused problem.s
This seems to be a fairly common trope in Japanese fantasy-type stories. Faith and prayers of followers equates to more magical power.
Considering the number of Christians who read manga and light novels, I don’t think that’s an issue. (Can’t speak for other religions.) I think that basically, Christians write it off as the silly Japanese not understanding Christianity.
Question now is what will be next reliable source of UQ Holder manga now. Crunchyroll will likely cause issues with next chapter next year i suspect now their anime/manga source alliance is crumbling.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there will be a free (legal) source available. The comiXology (Amazon) site/service will still sell the latest chapter for $0.99 (US) plus tax. They don’t put it out for “free” as part of their premium service until the chapter has been out for two months. ?
Uq holder 156 is up in comiXology
Took forever, but I got it. And now my review is up.