November 8th, 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 177
UQ Holder Chapter 177
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Touta’s opponent introduces himself as Agali Arept. The four-armed, skeletal warrior attacks, so Touta adopts a purely defensive posture to try to survive. After gaining some distance, Touta attempts to come up with a plan, but Agali presses the attack. Touta uses his wits to survive and summons Kurobo. He is able to use the Gravity Blade to get an attack on Agali.
Agali summons a massive monolith onto Touta to stop him. Touta burns his chi to prevent from being crushed. And Agali isn’t sure that killing Touta wouldn’t reactivate his immortality. As such, he tries to crush Touta’s spirit by informing him that Yukihime is stuck on Mars, and his pactiones partners are all dead. As such, he pulls Touta’s cards and shows that they all have no border, which is an indication of death. But Agali does concede that should people with a pactiones who pass through a rift in the dimensions could still be alive, but in limbo.
Touta believes them dead, so Agali decides to end Touta by beheading him. However, the headless Touta comes to life and regenerates his missing arm, meaning his immortality is back. Touta dispatches Agali and is out for four months. He then wanders the earth on a quest to find his missing comrades.
Thoughts/Review:
I have to say that UQ Holder Chapter 177 was somewhat underwhelming. But it is setting up the return of Touta’s battle harem.
Rift is the Key?
Based on the info dump from Agali in UQ Holder Chapter 177, I suspect that all of Touta’s immortal battle harem (and Santa) are actually with Dana. As such, they are disconnected from the pactio system and thus their cards are “dead”. And considering how time runs different in Dana’s realm vs. everywhere else, I can easily see her playing host to Karin, Kuroumaru, and the others.
Further, putting the battle harem into Dana’s realm would provide Akamatsu-sensei a deus ex machina moment for Touta to be saved in the future. I can see that happening for sure.
Agali Arept
As an enemy, Agali Arept failed to impress me in UQ Holder Chapter 177. Yeah, he looks like that Magic World entity that Negi defeated. But outside of that “scary, bone-monster” look, he’s rather rubbish. Yeah, Akamatsu-sensei is making Touta more Mary Sue this chapter in his ability to survive by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin. But Touta should be an easy victory.
It is true that Agali did stop Touta, but in the end, he’s an utter moron for killing Touta. After stopping Touta, Agali states that killing Touta might actually cause Touta’s immortality to reactivate. So maybe the idiot thought that by breaking Touta’s spirit, Agali could kill Touta. Instead, Touta’s immortality reactivated once Agali beheads him.
I’m guessing that after Touta’s headless body beheads Agali, he uses the same ability he used on Dana to dispatch her. Whether this has killed Agali or not remains to be seen.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Let me wrap up my shorter review of UQ Holder Chapter 177 with some final thoughts.
- If I’ve understood the chapter correctly, Eva may have joined Nagi and Negi within Mage of the Beginning. But that explains why MotB hasn’t made her move on Earth.
- Akamatsu-sensei continues to make Touta take on different EMIYA forms from Fate/Grand Order. Earlier, it was Archer. Now, it is Assassin. 😂
- Why’d it take four months for Touta to “reform” on the beach? And how’d no one find him in the meantime? After all, as he traveled the globe, he was apparently under constant attack.
In the end, UQ Holder Chapter 177 was rather underwhelming as a chapter. So while nothing special, it wasn’t bad per se as it is setting up Touta’s new quest.
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Why couldn’t we get this villain ages ago? He’s doing a much better job of actually connecting to Touta and getting in his head than previous antagonists.
Some more worldbuilding is interesting. Is this actually the first time the mechanics for the Pactio system have been explianed? Who put these magic circles all around the solar system?
Also maybe a couple members of Touta’s harem (the mortal ones) are on that interstaller spaceship that was mentioned a while back? Which is why they wouldn’t show up as being inside the solar system.
That is a good point.
I believe so. Before, all we knew was a magic circle had to be drawn and magically, a pactio was either allowed or rejected. This is pretty massive.
Merlin! 😂
That could be possible, but there has been 40+ years go by. Thus I would think that anyone on a ship wouldn’t still be there.
I can’t find the chaoter yet… as for the pactio, this was explained before in Negima, the in a different dimension is something new but at the same time it is a bit of a stretch since inverse Mars is a different world/dimension, so if the concept is true, Negi must have had plenty of panic attacks each time his contracted partners would jump between worlds?
The way the chapter describes things, there are magic circles all around the solar system. As such, pactiones can be made within the solar system. Once outside the solar system, the pactio cards go dead. Inverse Mars would still be within the solar system. However, Dana’s realm would not.
Ah so he is trying to retcon his way around it by creating false suspense with new ‘information’.
Which points to Dana then… unless all of the vampires have their own dimensions…
overall it just seems to blatantly obvious…
This is obviously an EEEEEEEDGE redo of Negima’s own old ‘In our way there, we got ambushed by sudden enemies and taken out like chumps, and now the lead’s got to collect us back’ plot that led into Mundus Magicus, but that had the luxury of unfolding in a weekly format where each page packed much more information and development (while this chapter is basically just a large fight scene with big panels).
Akamatsu keeps falling in the same habit of writing a monthly as if it were a weekly, where the plot he’s trying to tell doesn’t fit.
Skullhead is just a convenient expodump plot tool to start pushing the derailed story back into the way to a direct confrontation, which makes him feel even more gratuitous than the over the top Grim and Gritty Nineties Image Comics look already did. And by God, Touta’s a bore when he’s not playing off someone more colorful and quirky than him. After all this shit, he’d better act properly shell shocked and retaining the trauma development he must’ve gotten here, rather than bouncing back to Stock Shounen Boy when interacting with the others.
I see what you mean. When he was writing a weekly, he couldn’t be leisurely with things. He had to convey a fair amount in 18 pages. With 40, there does seem to be more padding by filling space with larger panels.
Yeah, I agree. If this happens, I think it makes Touta as a character a better one.
Crunchyroll needs to get their act together. The chapter is still AWOL on their website, and their manga reader still uses Flash, which will cease to be a thing in just a few weeks.
Anywho, this chapter felt a bit too much like filler. That fight should have been a lot shorter, or the message being conveyed by it should have been done so in fewer pages.
That’s why I ended up just going to comiXology.
Yeah, with more pages per chapter, Akamatsu-sensei doesn’t feel pressed to tell the story in a tighter fashion.
This series continues to be a trip and a half. I don’t mind where this is going, I just hope we’re not subject to “Only Touta” for a long time. I was burned heavily by the “Only Luffy” arcs in One Piece that lasted two looooong years. I do wonder how close we are to the very end. I feel like this series probably has a year and a half to two years left.
It’s hard to believe but this series has been going on for over 7 years, whereas Negima went for just over 9. It’d be very bizarre if this series actually lasts longer (at least time-wise) than its more popular predecessor.
UQ Holder actually had a six month hiatus from the end of the weekly serialization to the start of the monthly publishing shifting over to the Bessatsu, so you have to substract half a year from that.
I had originally thought that the series would end by now. However, this time skip story arc came out of left field, so yeah, UQ Holder could go on a while longer.
It’s tough to say because arcs in this series seldom run long (unlike Negima) so I wouldn’t be surprised if we were back to normal times in 2021. Asuna went 100 years into the future and was back in her own time within a few chapters.
Yeah, it is hard to say where things might go at this point.
Despite all those years, why didn’t any of the enemies find Touta but nevertheless the others were found?
And Nikitis? I wonder where he is.
I find it hard to believe that those enemies got rid of UQ Holder so easily … Weren’t they supposed to be at the level of Ialda’s group?
I’m Ialda, and I’m waiting for Touta to come face me, and when he’s finally going to come where I am, Baal intrudes on my plans, messing it all up and I get so angry that there is no place or universe where he can run away from me.
I don’t know how this is going to end, but I hope they can go back to the past, although they will have to face Baal again. Maybe Chao, she’s the wild card.
PS: Is Evangeline stuck in Mars? I thought she is on far-off Pluto.
I think Touta was in orbit for years and only crashed down after decades.
Well, Karin has been easily defeated on several occasions. But this is the first time the immortals are supposedly dead. I still think they are in Dana’s realm, thus not active in the pactio system.
I’m not sure if that’s how it went. Ba’al may have been working with her for all we know.
As far as I know, she’s on Pluto.
Ooooo finally chapter 177 is up on Crunchyroll.
So slight retcon/expansion to existing lore for the Patio System. I have a bad feeling about the Solar System wide Magic spell… Ialda created the Patio system and it is supposesly inperfect but to set up the magic spell to cover the whole system over a thousand years ago, means she was capable of getting to Pluto and draw a system wide Magic Circle formula to create a Pactio system but at the same… possibly a system for something much most sinister.
Eva being on Pluto battling Negi-Ialda is a bit unbelievable for me…
1. It took 0.03 seconds for Negi-Ialda to take out both her and Fate at the same time.
2. Asuna, Rakan, Yue, Nodoka and Albireo Imma are by his side along with Nagi…
3. She supposedly went at it alone for 43 years…
This just doesn’t seem possible no matter how powerful she is. Even if she can take some of them down one on one, they won’t stay down unless Asuna assisted/wasn’t on Negi-Ialda’s side completely…
Aside for that it coule be Negi’s 9th Magic or whatever that last spell was… It could be a sealing/supression skill or Evageline is now the Life Maker having taken Negi’s place?
Skeleton dude makes a fair point… Santa is a spirit yet he has a card, if his soul moves on/gets purified then he wouldn’t exist? Unless he can move between like a spirit realm and physical realm hence the dead card?
Kuromaru could be dead, outside the Solar or turned into a sword and needs to be restored to human form?
Karin makes the most sense, she can’t die and near enough the only effective process to stopping her is to seal her away in a rift or something to stop her being summoned. I mean Ba’al was able to seal her in a tree once… so not surprising if he can do it again
Kirie is most likely dead, dead… for real dead this time ¬_¬
I feel like killing off some immortals could be good idea… but you know plopping them in Dana’s dimension just seems too dues ex machina, plus wasn’t she suppose to be neutral and if she saves them won’t that cause problems with her and other pure bloods?
I think some would naturally survive whilst others are dead…
I have very mix feelings about all of this
Man, it took that long? Sheeze. That’s why I went to comiXology instead.
I was thinking she may have sacrificed herself in a fashion similar to Nagi or Negi.
I hear ya!
A shame that this guy went down like a chump.
If there’s one thing I had to say that he did right was that he made Touta actually afraid and question himself. His actions and words spurred Touta into moving forth, and the reality of the world now has settled in.
Touta has accepted the realization of how he failed, and how he has taken everything for granted. And now travels around betting on a feint hope.
It’s amazing how this one off villain was able to do so much for his character. Which is why it’s a shame that he died just like that.
What I wish is that there’s no Dana ex machina. I don’t know want to be a lying hypocrite.
He’s not dead, Touta just turned his dimensional spell against him with the magia erebea. It was the same with Dana or with Baal during his fight against Evangeline.
Moreover, I think that Ialda still needs Touta to use her ritual in the best conditions.
I think you are right in that Agali isn’t dead.
Oh, come on. What sense is there on keeping this guy alive to bring him back? He already served his purpose and between Ba’al’s troupe and whoever Negialda can bring back it’s not like there’s a shortage of enemies to fight. The series just needs closure already, not prolonging its agony.
The only reason I suspect a Dana ex machina is because I don’t believe Akamatsu-sensei is going to kill off Karin, Kuroumaru, etc. So in my mind, the girls and Santa are safely in her realm, or Touta goes to her realm and goes back in time to “fix” the past.
Essentially, feels like it.
Lordy, this feels like Akamatsu-sensei press the fast-forward button. Almost like it’s a alternate reality that’s going to be undone by the time this Arc is done.
I’m not in love with jumble mess of story arcs.