May 12th, 2021 
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 183
UQ Holder Chapter 183
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Eva finds herself back in Mahora in 2004 with her 3-A classmates. As they chat, Konoka realizes Eva must have loved a lot of people in the past. Eva lies and admits to this even though Nagi and Touta were her only loves. This brings the rest of the class around to try to learn more. The girls are unable to defeat Eva in a tickling match, so they opt for a karaoke session
They rent a large room large enough to handle them all where anyone not scoring 90 or above has to speak of their first love. Of note, we learn Sayo-chan’s first love was the current headmaster, and Mana’s first love died in front of her when she was young. Eva scores 100, meaning her secret is safe.
The following morning, Eva heads out to catch the sunrise. Negi gives her a canned coffee, then asks her what she thinks of Fate’s plan to make everyone immortal. As they talk, a new female teacher named Yoda-sensei shows up. She goes to shake Eva’s hand, but Asuna stops it. She’s joined by Setsuna, Konoka, Nodoka, Yue, and Chisame. Eva realizes where they are in reality.
Ialda is annoyed that Eva has survived so many decades thanks to her classmates. The girls plus Negi encourage Eva to hang tough. Outside of this phantasmagoria, Yukihime-Ialda receives word that Karin has been rescued. To her, this signals the final battle is at hand.
Thoughts/Review:
Work has me insanely behind again, but I’ve finally read UQ Holder Chapter 183. And it didn’t go where I thought it would.
More Negima! Love
Since the previous two chapters had dealt with Touta hooking up with Kuroumaru and Karin, I think most of us were expecting UQ Holder Chapter 183 to be centered around Touta and Kirie. But instead, Akamatsu-sensei throws us a Negima! flashback story to explain how Eva, as Yukihime, has survived these many decades while possessed by the Mage of the Beginning.
While we’ve had other Negima! flashback chapters, for some reason, this one hit me harder than the others. I think part of the reason it had more impact on me was Akamatsu-sensei’s own acknowledgement of stories teased in Negima! but never done. One such story was Sayoko’s tale. UQ Holder may have told a version of what Akamatsu-sensei planed with Santa’s story. But in this current chapter, we did learn that Sayo-chan’s first love was the 2004 headmaster.
Further, we got another mention from Mana about her first love dying in front of her when she was nine. We had a tease of this in Negima! but the story never was told.
When UQ Holder finishes, I think Akamatsu-sensei should do a “Tales of Negima” series and flesh out these and other stories that were not touched in Negima!
The End is Nigh?
The way UQ Holder Chapter 183 ended, I suspect the manga ends this year some time. After all, we were given five pages of advertisement for the ultimate clash between UQ Holder and Yukihime-Ialda’s forces.
That said, having seen Mana in the flashback, I do hope she shows up for whatever final battle is at hand. Likewise, Zazie. Both should still be alive, thanks to their mazoku blood.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, UQ Holder Chapter 183 was a nice tribute chapter to Negima, allowing us another look at most of the old cast. (I don’t think Zazie showed up.) It really made me miss the old manga series and lament what might have been. But I suppose there’s nothing to do but gear up for the end of UQ Holder.
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According to some sources on Twitter (reliable I know), the series will end after 9 more chapters. It’s a bit of a shame but not unexpected, especially given how this chapter ended. Really surprised that the Kirie hat trick wasn’t completed (maybe she’s just too young looking for that subject matter), but man the nostalgia blast. Seeing all 30 girls again (and yes they all do appear except for Chao) was a huge hit and just the mundane slice of life stuff is something I’ve sorely missed.
When Ken retires after this series, I’d either like him to do as you said, Mahora side stories, or to oversee a proper adaptation of Negima. He’s no spring chicken but he’s not a doddering old man either, he could certainly do some extra things.
As for the chapter itself, I’m really curious about what the deal with Chisame, Konoka, and Setsuna is, especially seeing as Chisame is (supposedly) dead. It’s interesting that these three appear as teenagers compared to the adults that Yue and Nodoka are. Eva is now the Lifemaker, so it’s not unreasonable to think they simply just made constructs. And maaaan seeing all of CE again, ugh… I really hope this final battle is something special and not anti-climatic like Negima’s was (though I understand there was intent to do something on a grander scale).
And I don’t believe for a second that Negi was just unceremoniously killed offscreen, I don’t think Ken would do his most iconic character that much disservice. I think back to the finale of the anime and how all 31 girls got involved and believe something similar will happen here. It wouldn’t befit the series to have a completely happy ending, but I don’t think Ken would end his career on such a down note either. Canon dictates that Eva will be fine, but what about everyone else…? Will Chao come into play?
Even if it was for purely nostalgic reasons, I really enjoyed this chapter, and while I have reservations about the finale of the series, at least there’s a good indication of what’s to come rather than the surprise announcement we got in Negima.
I didn’t remember seeing Zazie.
That feels about right.
A proper anime adaptation would be lovely. But I do want those side stories as well.
Yeah, there are a lot of confusing things regarding MotB and the other entities involved.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree totally.
Zazie appears right after Mana does, even speaking to boot! I think Ken mentioned on Twitter that this was the first time he’s drawn everyone in a very long time (save Chao obviously).
I’m not much for slice of life, but man I could take hundreds of chapters of the girls just talking about mundane things and being themselves while they’re at it. Seeing Eva finally chummy with her classmates was absolutely the best.
Ken also needs to answer my most burning question: Which Smash Melee characters to the girls main?
OK, it was a “blink and I miss it” tiny panel. 😅 I was looking at Mana’s other spoken bit and seeing Ayaka afterward, not Zazie.
Here’s the ANN article about it ending:
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-05-08/ken-akamatsu-uq-holder-manga-ends-in-9-chapters/.172516
I washed my hands of this series years ago, but I’m glad others still enjoyed t.
With the series ending next year I hope Akamatsu retires for good. Akamatsu’s zenith was the mid-2000s, and IMO he just doesn’t have it in him anymore – his kind of storytelling felt outdated ten years ago and I don’t believe it has improved or changed significantly. I don’t want to see him write the same story over and over again, like other mangaka did (looking at you Gosho Aoyama and Nobuhiro Watsuki), until he dies. Just finish the story and retire in peace, like Akira Toriyama did.
I won’t be able to die in peace without the story of how Negi got Chisame to agree marry him.
But I don’t think that’ll ever happen so I will go to my grave without reaching resolution.
I suspect it would be kinda forced. 😅
He literally had years for it.
I’ve always been annoyed by this bad habit of Akamatsu, that of acknowledging he skips over plot points but never correcting it. Just pointing it out but never getting around to fix the issue just feels like he’s rubbing it in our faces.
Volume 0’s intentional blocking of info about Cocone, that panel of Dana saying they’ve ran out of time to explain Negi and Chisame’s marriage, and now Sayo’s comment on her relationship with Konoemon. It’s like he doesn’t care about providing exact answers and instead laughs at us for expecting them, which is awfully unprofesional.
I suspect that some of that blocking, such as Negi x Chisame, is because he didn’t actually have a story. But we know he had something in mind for Sayo and Mana in Negima. Its just that he never took time to explore it. I do get that there’s a risk in going off on side characters, but I think a few chapters dedicated to Sayo or Mana would have been loved by the fans.
Oh well…*sigh*
Thanks for the link. 😀
Thank you for the review! Good to see you keep this up ever since Negima old days… :3
Also, I have deen dying to say this: remember that four armed demon on Baal’s side? Not the tuxedo one. Ever since his first appearance, he has the exact,same,pose (first pair of arms crossed, back pair in epic spread pose)!!! lol
Thanks for your kind words. It has been a long journey.
Haha! I hadn’t noticed this, but now I’ll have to pay attention to this.
The spread with Yalda’s forces has some familiar faces I haven’t seen since Negima. There’s Dynamis, there are the other five Averrunci, there is the bunch of CE minions from Nagi flashbacks (names are Nii and Septendecim and that’s all I remember).
Yeah, it seems the whole old crew is back.
Is it me or is you review is getting shorter that usual?
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I wished KA would answer the questions that was never answered from Negima until today. Specifically:
Arika,
The Gravekeeper,
And lastly, Touta’s real Family/History (like who were those two people who died saving Touta?)
And also… We know that Nodoka, Yue, Al, Rakan, Chisame and Asuna got in to Ialda but how did Konoka and Setsuna got there in the beginning? I’ve been questioning that myself where they were and the only mentioned they have was Honoka and Isana saying that they are their GRANDMOTHERS and they were trained under Tsukuyomi with the influenced of Setsuna. Now we know where they are but my question is… HOW and WHEN?!?
They are getting shorter. I have so little free time any more. I haven’t had a day off in five weeks, so I’m kinda wasted. 😅 (Still glad to have a job through.)
As to your other points, I agree with the need to have those questions answered.
Wait till you read this months chapter… honestly the Eva Ialda is like the best vessel for life maker… maybe more so than Negi but at same time I kind of didn’t want to see Negi getting axe like that so maybe Negi could return unless he is now a minion meaning Negi vs Fate is imminent
It is difficult for me to believe Akamatsu-sensei will kill Negi or even Nagi. In Negima, Negi was able to save Nagi.
I did just read the chapter late last night. I’ll try to get a review this week, when I get a window from work.