August 7th, 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 174
UQ Holder Chapter 174
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Mizore realizes Touta has gotten closer to Karin, Kuroumaru, and Kirie. As such, she demands a fall day date with Touta. Shinobu asks to come along. Touta is immediately given the day off to go on the date. As they go into town, Touta realizes that both Mizore and Shinobu are growing and getting older, but he will stay the same.
By coincidence, Touta runs into his old school mates. They tease him about being with two cute girls. The group have lunch, where Touta brags on how awesome his old friends are. After lunch, Touta leaves with Mizore and Shinobu to continue their date. Sometime later, Shinobu takes off so that Mizore can have some solo time with Touta.
The two chat, where Mizore challenges him to find the thing he’s good at, beyond fighting. He wants to protect everyone’s path, which is what Mizore wants. She proposes marriage to him to further help him accomplish this as he would become the head of her powerful family. She also kisses him. And because of the upcoming fight Touta must attend, she promises to wait as long as she has to.
Mizore has Shinobu come in and Mizore leaves. Touta learns that Mizore has arranged so that Shinobu can get schooling along with Honoka and Isana. Shinobu takes them up on the speeder bike, where they can have a chat in the air. She expresses her fears on never amounting to anything. But she vows to try to make her dream of being a member of the crew of the Mayflower III a reality.
Touta confesses his own lack of confidence considering his borrowed life and abilities. Touta decides he’d like to go to college with Shinobu, pleasing her greatly. Afterward, Touta parts company with them.
Thoughts/Review:
Thanks, Akamatsu-sensei, for having the fairly lovely UQ Holder Chapter 174 end on such a depressing note.
Shinobu and Mizore
Although I was surprised to see it, I’m glad Shinobu and Mizore got a bit of love in UQ Holder Chapter 174. In terms of story, neither character has mattered much beyond their introduction to make whatever splash they made. The only exception to this is during the racing arc because both Shinobu and Mizore were racers.
Nevertheless, I liked both characters. Shinobu started as a clear nod to Shibobu from Love Hina. But when Akamatsu-sensei brought her back into the story, I was happy to see her. And it was unfortunate that due to the nature of needing lots of shounen action, there was really no place for her in Touta’s battle harem and thus no place to showcase her.
Mizore was always a fun character. I liked that she spoke her mind. Initially, I thought she would have more of a role in UQ Holder because of her wealth. But alas, Akamatsu-sensei didn’t know what to do with her other than provide loli fanservice.
Still, this chapter does finally gives them the love and attention they deserve. It is unfortunate that it comes at the end of the series. And based on how the chapter ends, this is probably the last time we’ll see either character other than maybe a cameo.
Touta’s Friends
Another surprise in UQ Holder Chapter 174 was the arrival of Touta’s friends from high school. I never really gave much of a care for these guys. After all, they were just characters used to get the manga started. After that, they had no role in the manga, other than for continuity’s sake.
Nevertheless, even though it is massive coincidence for Touta to run into his friends as happened in the chapter, I can understand why Akamatsu-sensei wanted to provide some closure there. And I suspect that some of Touta’s attitudes displayed in this chapter will play a role in the fight with MotB.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Let me wrap up my review of UQ Holder Chapter 174 with some final thoughts.
- I’m not sure how Touta’s date fits in with the looping Kirie was supposed to be doing to allow Touta to train. But I suppose I’m not supposed to look too deeply at the mechanics there.
- I did get a chuckle at Karin’s reaction to having been honest with herself regarding Touta. You can’t go back, Karin!
- I liked how Shinobu and Mizore’s friendship allowed them to have this date, complete with solo time with Touta for each of the girls.
- At the end of the chapter, the narration from Touta indicates that this date was the last time he’d ever really talk to either Mizore or Shinobu. In terms of story (not manga ending practicality), why is this? Is it because Touta will basically sacrifice himself to free Negi? I guess we’ll find out.
In the end, UQ Holder Chapter 174 was a lovely chapter. However, it ended on a somewhat depressing note, indicating Mizore and Shinobu have exited the stage for the last time.
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Too little, too late for all of the minor characters in this chapter. Akamatsu at least tries to give them a farewell, which is more than what most of Negima’s cast could say before their story just stops leaving them hanging, but… it’s still not enough. None of them ever got anything relevant or helpful to do, so the ‘leaving the future to humans’ feeling doesn’t ring sincere when humans can’t do anything but relying on immortals to solve all their problems for them.
Mizore and Shinobu’s Pactios were a complete waste since they never did anything of any importance with them, so why did even get them in the first place? Sadly, Akamatsu wastes his secondary characters too much. They always have these interesting premises and designs but then the delivery and closure always miss the mark.
I always liked Shinobu, and Mizore grew on me, from my finding her obnoxious and unbearable to finding her likable (never funny, but likable). It’s a pity we didn’t get to see really anything of her relationship with her grandmother and Chachamaru, or who were her parents and why she always was on her own when she was both a millionaire and a minor, which makes no sense. Still, both characters deserved better. Touta’s classmates, on the other hand, never amounted to anything at all. Those won’t be missed.
Sorry about the delay. I hate it when I don’t get notifications. 😅
None of the pactiones really had anything of importance. I honestly think that Kodansha talked Akamatsu-sensei into introducing them just to have something extra to sell to the otaku.
“Big facts,” as a friend of mine would say. We could have gotten a lovely, character story that also delved back into Negima a bit.
I agree.
I see that the farewells are starting, which is disappointing. The chapter won’t fix the atrocity that was the racing arc, but it is nice seeing their characters and personalities patched up.
As another commenter stated, Akamatsu doesn’t give his side characters a chance. The old blind guy who was posed to be a major threat? Comes back once and never touched again. Kiroumaru? Brought up twice, once as an introduction to something bigger and once as a retcon. Not cool. Pactios haven’t been brought up in a while, and the tournament arc was dropped.
Heartwarming chapter, but it also highlights the lack of focus on a ton of side characters. The sad thing is, a lot of the characters are pretty likable and interesting. But we don’t get to see much of that at all.
Also, I’m predicting that Touta dies, some B.S happens, and he’ll be brought back in the future. Don’t know why, but it seems right.
Very true.
I never thought Akamatsu-sensei was interested in doing another tournament. At the time, I think he and Kodansha were scrambling to raise flagging sales of UQ Holder. Tournament stuff always seems to jazz the shounen crowd. I know some of my blog readers were very keen for it, even though I never believed Sensei would finish it.
For sure.
Interesting theory.
I don’t mind chapters like this even if I’m not the biggest fan of Mizore’s character. I like that she has thought things through and isn’t just a brainless bimbo like Ayaka was at times. I also like how Touta admits that her forwardness actually puts him off. Thinking back to how Negi chose Chisame, I wonder if Touta isn’t the same way?
Considering that Touta is absent from the time Asuna wakes up in (and Ayaka’s descendant past Mizore isn’t), maybe he stays in and helps Asuna reinforce the Magic World? Then again she did oversleep by 30 years. But it sure feels like we’re entering the final stages of the series. It’s easy to forget, but this series is quickly approaching its 7th anniversary, only two years less than Negima itself. Granted it switched to monthly, but still.
I suspect not only is this the last time Touta is going to talk to them, but it’s probably the last time we see them period.
Agreed. It would have been interesting for us to have gotten a Mizore story where we see Ayaka get redeemed after she became an adult and such. But alas, we never saw that tale.
I think we may get a cameo in the last chapter, telling what happened to them.
Feels like the series is suddenly jumping into the big finish. I feel like Touta’s story is just an extension of Negima’s plot and isn’t really anything to do with Touta, just a how to fix Negi’s screw up now.
Sorry for the delay. Man, this lack of notifications stinks.
But yeah, I agree. I’ve always thought that from the start, Touta was Negi’s story with a new character. But as you say, Touta’s story continues into how to resolve Negi’s failures.
UQ Holder celebrates its 7th anniversary today.
https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1298952278016028672
Thanks!