June 9th, 2020 
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 172
UQ Holder Chapter 172
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta attacks and instantly defeats Genshin. Zankurou is stunned and frightened by Touta’s jump in power. However, she quickly recovers and challenges Touta to come at her. Touta accepts and gives her a massive beating. She compares his new power levels to that of a High Daylight Walker. Touta used Kurobo to launch the same finishing blow on Zankurou, but she’s able to use Hinamori to fend it off.
Touta calls out for Kuroumaru. Within Hinamori, Kuroumaru recalls the moments before the ritual was completed to turn Kuroumaru into Hinamori. Kuroumaru emerges from Hinamori with multiple wings and white (?) hair. Upon seeing Touta, Kuroumaru attacks him. Kiroumaru intercedes to a stalemate. Something catches Kuroumaru’s eye, so Kuroumaru flies in the direction of the castle town.
Kiroumaru and Touta chat a bit about Touta’s time with Kuroumaru. After receiving Kiroumaru’s blessing, Touta flies off in pursuit of Kuroumaru. This causes Kuroumaru to stop. Since Kuroumaru doesn’t recognize Touta, the two fight again. Touta realizes he’s losing the fight on a skill level and loses an arm. As such he surrenders and allows a surprised Kuroumaru to stab him with Hinamori.
Touta grabs Kuroumaru and kisses her. She now recognizes Touta despite his change of appearance. He hugs her and she apologizes to him.
Thoughts/Review:
Well, I may be running massively behind thanks to work and a serious lack of sleep, but I’m finally getting my blog post for UQ Holder Chapter 172 up.
Pretty Much As Expected
Based on the spoiler info I received on the chapter, things in UQ Holder Chapter 172 played out pretty much as expected. That said, I didn’t really expect Touta to “insta-kill” Genshin. (I don’t think he’s dead, merely out for a while.) And I didn’t expect him to so easily defeat Zankurou either. That gave the chapter a sense of urgency, as if trying to speed along to the end. And indeed, that may be Akamatsu-sensei’s goal, especially considering all of his distractions of late.
That said, I won’t deny a sense of enjoyment seeing Genshin and Zankurou getting theirs. Plus, since Touta looks like an EMIYA Servant in the Fate franchise, it doesn’t feel Mary Sue to me. I don’t know if that makes sense or not. But somehow, Touta seems like an Avenger Servant.
I did expect Touta to have to battle Kuroumaru. That went down pretty much as expected. However, I didn’t expect Kuroumaru to now have six sets of wings and light (I assume white) hair. And I thought that Kuroumaru would have the power to be humanoid or sword. However, since Kuroumaru was wielding Hinamori, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
I need to get this published and get back to work. As such, let me wrap up my review of UQ Holder Chapter 172.
- I’m hoping we see Kuroumaru continue to use her six-winged form.
- Also, I hope Kuroumaru makes an official declaration of womanhood. Akamatsu-sensei made sure to draw her with distinct cleavage during her Barbie Doll naked fights.
- It is not a hard call, but I predict that the Immortal Hunters will ally with UQ Holder to battle Mage of the Beginning at manga’s end.
In the end, UQ Holder Chapter 172 was a fun chapter, even if by the numbers.
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The chapter was enjoyable, it’s just good to have the series back. Though that wrapped up quicker than I thought. Wonder if we’re gearing up for the final battle in the next few chapters.
Yeah, I wonder that as well. I’m thinking the manga ends by year’s end, but we’ll see.
Chapter was okay. I still stand by my opinion that if the immortal hunters were more prominent in the story, were shown as a legit threat to UQ, and Kuromaru received more equal focus, this would’ve been so much better.
Kuromaru’s rampage upon awakening adds more evidence that the Hinamori used to be the Hina blade from Love Hina and Negima.
I think of all the immortal hunters, Kiroumaru, would at the very least, join the fight against Ialda.
I totally agree.
I didn’t get that feel. Kuroumaru came off as a holy warrior attacking something evil, not someone possessed by evil. After all, Touta’s powers are “dark side” if you will.
Chapter was definitely enjoyable, but it was extremely fast paced. I was completely wrong on the wings merely being metaphoric as well. But I still can’t get past the fact this was only one chapter. Touta’s legs and the rest of the numbers weren’t there, the blacksmith giants were also gone. But if there’s some follow-up, I’ll be fine. I do miss her black hair though. :3
Kuroumaru is Akamatsu-sensei’s way of exploring the mazoku that Setsuna (Negima!) originated from.
He Akamatsu-sensei follows what he did with Negima!, I suspect Kuroumaru will have black hair again.
Happy end! Yay for Touta and Kuro’s first non-pactio kiss! If there’s not a harem ending, I hope they become the official couple. I’ve shipped them from the very first volume.
Yeah, if there’s no battle harem, then lovely girl Kuroumaru and Touta ship is what I’d like to see.
Chapter went as expected. While there seems to be a rush towards the final battle, I think Akamatsu will develop Touta’s past some more, particularly the other clones. And, with him gaining an adult form – likely temporary – this will likely prompt some shenanigans from the lolis after him, like Kirie, which will take up a few chapters as well. Akamatsu is known for focusing on fanservice ‘Plot’ more than on mere story-continuity plot.
Frankly, most of what’s going to happen has been foreshadowed enough that we can guess pretty close. I would not be surprised if one of the main reasons people are following UQ Holder at all is to discover Chao Lingshen’s actual family tree. I would not be surprised if Chao is a clone made from Touta and Kirie since, like Negi, their bodies prevent natural conception.
I don’t know about a few chapters since Sensei has forty pages to burn in a single chapter. But I can see maybe one more fanservice chapter, depending on if the goal is to get done by year’s end.
Why the Chao family name?
Sable Sidesticks’s transformation seems entirely new and needs an explanation next chapter.
And I do hope that Kuroumaru will keep their new abilities and appearance going forwards.
Ah. I forgot to mention Kurobo. Its sudden power-up was certainly random.
I suspect Kuroumaru will keep the abilities and sword for sure. As to appearance, I think Kuroumaru will have the ability to “change forms” as it were. We’ll see though.
Akamatsu has a real pacing problem, but I understand that if he wants to be done with the story. You can’t just introduce new characters only to be done with them the next chapter, most of it is just fan pandering (what even is the purpose of bringing back tsukuyomi?? Wasn’t she a bad guy? Now suddenly she’s all good, and supposedly the little girls masters…? You could have literally called her anything else and it would not matter). It also kinda makes me laugh how the blade sidekick ONLY ever talks when akamatsu remembers it was a character in the story. Oh how the mighty have fallen from the negima times
She was in the manga’s earlier volumes. I believe she fought Ikkuu. I suppose Akamatsu-sensei brought her back just to say, “I haven’t forgotten her–she’s exiting stage-right.” But yeah, your point on her suddenly being good and stuff without proper setup and such is terrible.
Well, even more, how did Touta suddenly gain the ability to access the “subspace” (for lack of a better term) area where Kurobo is stored? Kuroumaru used to have to pull it out for Touta. And now, Kurobo can turn into a giant mace or something.
You are correct. To be honest, I think Akamatsu-sensei has other things he’s more passionate about. I know he recently tweeted that he was really behind because he’d been doing all this other stuff. (I think it was for copyright issues.)
I loved this chapter so much!!!!! Finally Kuromaru is with Touta, I want a love confession next chapter!!! I love this ship so much!!!
Yeah, it was fun. 😊
I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but Akamatsu talked to the Diet recently about manga and its place in the larger world, and one of the things he mentioned was maintaining freedom of expression, particularly in the face of potential regulation by groups outside of Japan.
https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1277578343538257921
Thanks for the tip!
You can add this too:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2020-07-01/ken-akamatsu-comments-on-casting-poc-voice-actors-in-american-cartoons-japanese-anime/.161275
Thanks for the link.
New UQ Holder is out… Akatmatsu sensei hits a new low… it’s really intense but at the same time he is literally 1 step away from writing a freaking doujin, him not doing one is legit a waste of talent at this point.
I presume you mean “hentai doujinshi”. 😂 The old “4P” fantasy mode was certainly in high gear.
BTW, he did do doujinshi in his early days. I don’t think it was actual H material though.