Back to the Vaults: “UQ Holder” Manga Review
UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi!

With the abrupt end of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, fans were excited to learn that Akamatsu-sensei was doing another manga called UQ Holder. Further, it was to be a sequel to Negima. Considering how good Negima had been until its end, there were high expectations for UQ Holder. However, things never did quite pan out for this otherwise okay manga series.

Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. This one is a LONG one. 😅

–> Buy UQ Holder Volume 1 Manga from Amazon.com!

* * * S P O I L E R S * * *

The Story, in Brief

In 2084, KONOE Touta is an orphan in who has no memories of his past from when his parents died in an accident two years prior. He is taken in and fostered by a woman named Yukihime. She’s a well endowed teacher at a country, Japanese school. One day, Touta and his friends get conned by another teacher into using magic apps to take down Yukihime. Turns out he’s a bounty hunter looking to kill the notorious vampire, Evangeline A.K. McDowell.

After Touta consumes some of the injured Eva’s blood, he becomes an immortal vampire. They dispatch the teacher, but Eva, as Yukihime, takes him to hit the road. Their goal is to head to UQ Holder, an organization of immortals. While on the road, they encounter TOISAKA Kuroumaru, a demi-human immortal hunter. When Kuroumaru learns Touta and Yukihime are immortals, Kuroumaru attempts to kill them. Yukihime defeats Kuroumaru, then reveals that Kuroumaru is in fact also immortal.

The members of UQ Holder pick them up. After Kuroumaru and Touta pass their trials, they join YUUKI Karin for a mission and they become a team. Over time, the organization becomes involved in dealing with Negi Springfield’s mission. Since Negi is Touta’s grandfather, it gives Touta more motivation to know more and to save Yukihime.

The Good Start

When UQ Holder started, the first chapter was about 85 pages. It did a great job of setting up the world. It made the link between UQ Holder and Negima, though the massive time skip didn’t sit well with a lot of folks. Likewise, the unceremonious dumping of Chachazero irritated a lot of people. Nevertheless, when Yukihime-Eva and Touta set out on their journey, I really liked what I read.

For the first few chapters, Yukihime-Eva and Touta are walking through Japan, where we see the how society of the future has changed, at least outside of the Shin-Tokyo. I really liked this aspect of the manga’s start. It helped develop the world they were in.

The introduction of Kuroumaru added another dynamic to the story. It revealed how Yukihime-Eva’s and Touta’s lives were under constant threat. At the same time, Kuroumaru gave us another line to the Shinmeiryuu school of fighting. Likewise, Yukihime took on Kuroumaru as a disciple, like Touta.

I really hoped that the journey would be one where Touta could learn about immortality as well as training with Kuroumaru under Yukihime-Eva’s tutelage. Alas, this was not to be.

Changing Gears and Earlier Touta

Somehow, the members of UQ Holder discovered Yukihime was on the road. As such, we get a bunch of 2016 stretch limos, that seem out of place for a series set in 2084. This results in the journey getting cut off in favor of getting Touta and Kuroumaru on some adventure in dark caverns. As a story, I didn’t mind it a ton, but I didn’t like how the gears of UQ Holder shifted on a dime like that. The story was okay, but when this first came out, Touta annoyed me.

The second story where Karin, Touta, and Kuroumaru head to slums to help a church protect orphans was much more interesting. The villains were all interesting, including the sadistic one. However, this is where Touta as a Mary Sue went to the next level. His ability to instantly become proficient was still there. However, out of the blue, he had Magia Erebea abilities. If you are initially reading the manga, this is a Mary Sue moment for sure. Granted, there’s an explanation given WAY later in the manga, so on the reread, it wasn’t as bad. However, I still noticed.

The next story where Kirie is introduced contains another good story, culminating in a confrontation with Fate, a powerful, former antagonist from the Negima manga. Even the insane Tsukuyomi returns from Negima. Following that, we get a murder mystery that turns into a gory, vampire tale. The revenant Santa is introduced here and it is an incredible story! Unfortunately, Santa becomes a minor side character after this.

The Manga’s Identity Search

While things were quite interesting in UQ Holder at this point, it is clear that the series had an identity problem. This stemmed from the fact that the series was tied to Negima. Yet the unresolved story elements of Negima were neglected. As such, Akamatsu-sensei (no doubt at the encouragement of his editors) started bringing back more Negima elements. That included reintroducing the ultimate antagonist of Negima, the Mage of the Beginning (Ialda).

Akamatsu-sensei also brings back the battle tournament concept, which played major roles in Negima. Personally, I loathed the idea and I suspect Akamatsu-sensei did too, since he kept putting it on the shelf. One way he did this was to introduce the “actual” shinso vampire Dana to the mix, also known as the Witch of the Rift. Here, Touta gets training.

At the same time, Akamatsu-sensei finally gives us some of the backstory for Eva (Yukihime), thanks to time slippage. Unfortunately, Sensei also introduced a romantic ship between Eva and Touta. Since Eva had been a mother to Touta for two years, it had an “ick” factor to it. Plus, it killed Eva’s romantic thoughts for Nagi that came from Negima.

Akamatsu-sensei then decided to up the ecchi factor by bringing back chapter 2 story character Shinobu (nothing to do with Love Hina 😜). He also introduces loli character YUKIHIRO Mizore. Her purpose is to stir the pot, add ecchi loli content, and provide more romcom elements to the story that had not been present to date. Thus UQ Holder is no longer what it was.

The Touta Harem

There’s no doubt in my mind that the harem elements Akamatsu-sensei introduced in UQ Holder was a desperation move. The manga wasn’t nearly as popular as Negima. Further, dripping in Negima elements, including a backstory for Eva’s early years didn’t help. (I suspect that adding the romance between her and Touta didn’t help things.) As such, since Akamatsu-sensei’s previous works (A.I. Love You, Love Hina, Negima!) were all successful harem titles, why not make UQ Holder the same?

Still, I have a weakness for harem titles. So while I didn’t need the ecchi content, especially for the lolis, the harem shift didn’t bother me. In fact, I wanted a harem ending. Why? Well, since this is a group of immortals, a battle harem made sense to me from a story perspective. Touta, Kuroumaru, Karin, and Kirie were the immortals that could last until the end of time, along with Eva.

Oddly enough, the harem elements do in fact help add to the character arcs for Kirie, Kuroumaru, and Karin. I felt that Akamatsu-sensei did a good job working the romance side of things so that all three girls came to a logical conclusion regarding their feeling and the harem situation.

The Eventual Character Stories

As the manga went on, one of my biggest frustrations in UQ Holder was that we didn’t get a lot of backstory for Kuroumaru, Karin, or Kirie. Akamatsu-sensei briefly touched on their histories, but that was it. In fact, while I didn’t mention this in my Negima review, the fact that Akamatsu-sensei didn’t go into Eva’s backstory frustrated me to no end. The same could be said for Setsuna.

While I may not have been keen on Touta getting inserted into Eva’s backstory, at least we got quite a lot of it. Kirie got only a small amount shown before her time at UQ Holder, which is a shame. On the other hand, Kuroumaru not only received a revealing backstory flashback, but her Yata no Karasu (Yatagarasu) tribe got an exploration as well. I felt many elements of Kuroumaru’s story would have been Setsuna’s story in Negima.

Karin also got an extensive backstory reveal. Thanks to her time alone with Touta, as a result of the harem stuff, she opened up to him. I absolutely despised that Akamatsu-sensei decided that Karin was actually Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ. And yet somehow, Judas was actually a woman even back then. If Karin had been some woman who followed the Lord and then supported Judas, I would have been okay with that. Still, the backstory of when Karin first met Eva as Yukihime was quite nice, which also added Jinbee.

It wasn’t just the harem members that got backstories explored. I’ve already mentioned Jinbee. Outside the flashback with Karin and Eva, Jinbee also got his own flashback story, which I appreciated. And just prior to the end of the manga, Gengorou’s backstory got a reveal. As such, I highly appreciated chapters dedicated to this!

The Negima Connection

I’ve already mentioned that UQ Holder had a massive connection with Negima. In addition to being an alternate timeline sequel to Negima, UQ Holder saw tons of Negima crossover. On one hand, this is a boon to fans of Negima, who wanted more of that content. On the other hand, it was somewhat of a negative to UQ Holder, as it helped contribute to the manga not have an identity of its own.

Still, as a fan of Negima, I couldn’t help but love these moments. I especially loved the flashback chapters set when Negi was still a teacher at Mahora and Asuna had not yet left for Inverse Mars (the Magic World). I loved it when the elderly Chamo returned with the broken Chachazero, who was brought back to life just to do another flashback story.

Toward the earlier parts of UQ Holder, one got the feeling that Touta was supposed to be Negi. By the end, he is the replacement for Negi, right down to fighting the Mage of the Beginning. I’ll be honest, the final fight is not one I like, namely because it is a deus ex machina moment, of which there are many in UQ Holder. And the final chapter appears to retcon the end of Negima by revealing that Eva there is Shiori instead. 😑

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I’ve written a ton, and it has taken me ten days to do it (thanks to work). But let me wrap up my UQ Holder look-back with some final thoughts.

• Although Touta is a vampire, as a plot device, it is mostly forgotten. That’s a real shame. Even Eva’s vampirism is mostly forgotten except for the flashback. Even then, it is barely a thing.
• I mentioned the manga’s over reliance on deus ex machina moments. Often, I felt that Akamatsu-sensei wrote himself into a corner, thus the big red button push. Further, it allowed Sensei to switch gears when he wanted.
• One thing missed in the manga is the burden of immortality. This is kinda touched on with Kirie and maybe Jinbee. But a deeper exploration would have been lovely.
• I honestly think Akamatsu-sensei looked at Mashima-sensei’s (Fairy Tail amongst others) success and tried to emulate it with UQ Holder. After all, in Fairy Tail, Mashima-sensei just told individual stories with only a minor thread for an overall arc. If there were continuity breaks, no one cared. Alas for Akamatsu-sensei, his audience didn’t want him to do those kinds of segregated stories.

In the end, I do have a soft spot for UQ Holder. There are banger stories within the pages of the manga. There are some stories I’m not as keen on. Because I was a Negima fan, I didn’t object to the increased inclusion of Negima story elements and characters. Despite the flaws with UQ Holder, I still really enjoy rereading the manga.