September 25th, 2017 
AstroNerdBoy UQ Holder Anime Licensed (But it will probably cost you more money!)
Sentai Filmworks has licensed the UQ Holder anime series (TV series only, not the Limited Edition OAD from what I can see — I’m checking for confirmation on this and will make an update if I get an answer). The series will be simulcast on Anime Strike for $4.99/month. Of course, you need to be an Amazon Prime member first, so that means that you’ll also need to pay $10.99/month (though I think Amazon has a deal to pay $99/year). So, for those interested, chalk up yet another monthly streaming expense to an already fractured streaming market.
I’m glad to see UQ Holder anime licensed, but I’m really not happy with the constant fracturing of the streaming market. After Netflix because such a hit, everyone and their brother has decided that they MUST be in on the streaming market. I’m already paying for Netflix (which is losing most of the stuff that I used to stream from background noise while working), Crunchyroll, and Amazon Prime. So add another cost to watch UQ Holder legally. And with Sentai in charge, I’m guessing the adaptation will be Americanized somewhat (aka: localization) and we won’t see Japanese honorific usage and such. But we’ll see.
But, if you can afford the additional charge, you can now watch UQ Holder legally in the U.S. Not sure how this will impact folks outside the U.S.
Assuming I get a PC back and I can make time (and not be utterly exhausted), I’ll try to review the series when it airs.
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Huh, if I paid for the subscription, I could actually watch it.
…Nope, still not supporting it. Its not worth a single cent anymore.
Officially. 😉
Will be interesting to see if it gets dubbed. Not sure the interest is there especially since the OAVs/movie from Negima did not get dubbed.
Not sure how lucrative the dubbing business is nowadays. One of the other series I watch, Symphogear, is in its 4th season and still has yet to be dubbed or even released Stateside.
I doubt the Japanese allowed the Negima! OADs to be licensed. That’s because the OADs were only for those willing to pay for the LE edition of whatever takoubon volume the OAD was attached to. I have the movie ’cause I bought the LE tankoubon it was attached to (which was the final manga volume, if I recall correctly). I haven’t checked, but it may be that the movie is also classified as “limited edition,” and if so, then the Japanese likely wouldn’t license it (or would charge too much to have it licensed).
That sounds like an incredibly shortsighted production model to me. Back then they should have been promoting the Negima brand as much as they could, and actually reviving the anime after the first two attempts demanded reaching for a wider public. Instead, they chose restricting it to people who already followed the manga and were willing to pay extra for stuff they already had seen in the printed page. Preaching only to the already converted.
Unfortunately, the Japanese business model is all very shortsighted when it comes to anime. It is based on getting otaku to spend massive amounts of money. That’s the primary focus. So if the otaku spend massive amounts of money on limited edition stuff, but then that can be purchased in America for a fraction of the cost, it kills the LE market. The Japanese are desperate to protect their house of cards business model, so we in the West are hosed.
But doesn’t Akamatsu fancy himself an innovator and promotor of new and different ways to distribute manga? Why does he go along with this outdated and explotaitive model, doing things like saying nothing while the recent Negima manga special and the OAD get incredibly restricted releases? Doesn’t he realize it ended up sinking the last chances Negima had to get a full anime release, after the missteps with its OAD and movie? Wasn’t the whole point of J-Comi opening wider and more accesible ways to read manga and open the market-medium?
I mean, jeez, what’s his stance then? For all he talks about standing up to editors and their business models, it looks to me like he always ends up folding to them and what they want to do anyway.
I think his choices are to allow the animation companies to do their thing or not have his series animated. Japanese anime production companies and distributors are too invested in the current model to switch.
Thanks for the information!
I found this page, and it says that there will be two more OAD (It is in another language so I translated it from google)
UQ Holder! Mahou Sensei Negima! 2: 02 October 2017
UQ Holder! OAD 2: 09 Mars 2018 (Vol. 16)
UQ Holder! OAD 3: 08 Juin 2018 (Vol. 17)
Here is the link:
https://adala-news.fr/2017/09/lanime-uq-holder-oad-2-oad-3-dates-au-japon/
Also on this other website, it says that on October 2 will begin the anime, on October 4 there will be a special of the manga, on October 5 an artbook, on October 6 a guidebook and on October 8 there will be the monthly manga chapter.
Here is the link:
https://bibliotecabrasileirademangas.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/ni-200-capitulo-especial-de-uq-holder-e-outras-noticias-internacionais/
Could it be that this time the anime is faithful to manga?
Well, the first OAD took liberties. I’m not holding my breath. ^_^;;;
As long as it doesn’t take Shaft-sized liberties I’m fine. The OAD was more or less faithful while some things were added/cut. The preview does certainly look like the very first chapter, though I imagine they’ll cut the fat on a few things.
I didn’t like the character designs for Eva or Chachazero that much in the OAD.
My only real issue was with Touta’s voice, which I thought was quite terrible.
Yeah, you can tell Touta is voiced by a woman.
I still prefer Kirie as a red head than a blonde…to me its a better fit to her feisty personality. But not orange like Ichigo Kurosaki in BLEACH.
Then thinking about it, most of the time the only dark red heads were in kabuki plays with very bright long red hair representing gods or demons or spirits.
I think that, after Naru, Chisame and Asuna, Akamatsu didn’t want his next Tsundere heroine to also have light brown or reddish hair. The first few illustrations did have Kirie with darker hair, but she probably was officially made a blonde after several things concerning the series were changed.
I thought I remembered Kirie having darker hair, or at least not blonde hair.
I just need to accept the fact that anything Ken does gets shit canned.. I understand UQ Holder getting an anime is still good… I hope it goes beyond 13 episodes.. I really do. I pretty much accept that UQ Holder or not future Negima anime(possible) will ever get a North American or European localization. People would rather watch Hero Academia or Washed out Fairy Tale which just ended.
These characters have always meant a lot to me, they were like friends in a way. I grew up not having much real friends and Negima was that manga, always there for me. People found my obsession annoying, but it just never got the respect it deserved. I used to like Negima!? With the exception of the song 1000% SPARKING.. I really don’t like the second anime anymore, because a Negima anime won’t be made and Negima?! Is still the best animated version of Negima we will get and it doesn’t follow the manga.
Do you mean a dub?
As to Negima?!, it didn’t do anything for me, but that’s just me.
Well the music was catchy at least.
Haha! There is that.
Yeah a proper dub… I love the song SPARKING… But the second anime has really worn on me. I’m only getting the blu ray boxes because I’m a hardcore fan. I really don’t think UQ Holder will get dubbed.
I agree that I think it won’t be dubbed, then again they’ve dubbed far more obscure things…. With the age of piracy and streams I wonder if it’s even lucrative to dub anymore unless it’s a sure thing?
It would surprise me as well to see UQH with a dub.
anime UQ holder’s episode already came out!
[spoiler]
I saw the opening and apparently Santa will not appear -_-
(the end of the opening, it seems that not all characters will come out, Santa and the other three who have not yet appeared in the manga, although Fate shows up)
Personally, I liked the chapter, although Negi appears in the chapter and in the manga he doesn’t do it, the only thing I didn’t like is that they didn’t put Santa, but, let’s see how the anime advances.
[/spoiler]
Fate has been confirmed for a while now, Ishida Akira was officially announced to be voicing him here.
Spoiler-free small questions.
Why was Akira walking around the school in a swimsuit (which wasn’t the case in the manga)? I get she’s from a swimming team, but aren’t you supposing to dress up again before leaving the pool area?
Why does Negi sound so childlike? Even in the first anime, Satou Rina used to have less of a pipsqueak kiddy delivery to her Negi. Here he sounds like he’s a toddler!
Overall Horie Yui seems to be the Negima cast member holding up the best, her Makie sounds just as fine now as she used to. Great job there.
The OP seems more fitting a pure harem comedy than any sort of action show. I was hoping for at least a few images of Powerful Hand, Fate’s Ala Alba and Negi’s team looming ominously and posing in a cool way, or something. The part with a huge pink heart downright reading aloud ‘LOVE’ was especially cringeworthy.
That’s because HORIE Yui is awesomeness. 😉
I need to look for that. Thanks!
Remember when Netflix and Hulu were new and we were told that “cord-cutting” (dropping cable/satellite) would save us so much money? Fast-forward a few years, and we not only still have a situation where a great many shows are still only available on regular cable TV, thus necessitating keeping cable/satellite, but the streaming market continues to become more and more fragmented, each streaming provider having their own exclusive content. If you want to watch everything, you’ll need more and more subscriptions. Let’s say you subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, CBS All Access, and Anime Strike (and thus also Amazon Prime). That’s at minimum $49 in subscription costs, and even then there’s still a lot of shows you need cable to see. It’s getting ridiculous, and will probably only get worse as everyone else wants a slice of the pie.
Yep, I agree. I was unhappy with Disney breaking their partnership with Netflix to do their own streaming channel. All this is going to do is increase piracy.
My take about the first episode. [spoiler]I have mentioned this before, but It on par with the first chapters. The problem is the intro and first minutes of the episode so far. Its little worrisome…the intro and first couple of minutes was fan service city. The intro makes UQ Holder a romcom.
Thing that seems to be different about the show so far is Negi appearing to Touta as a specter, as the driving reason to go up the tower. Which is potential plot changer. That wasn’t why Touta wanted go up the tower. It was interesting that the flashback to Negima which was show latest chapter was first scene more or less (without Touta in the flashback.)[/spoiler]
Licensing won’t really change anything. I’m unhappy with the situation, but the piracy will properly continue. More exclusive it becomes (if its not pirated) it will become less seen and not promote the manga as it’s intended. At least Piracy could help people buy the manga if they really like it, but that’s big if too.
I’ll wait until I watch the episode to look at your spoiler.
As to the licensing situation, I agree that it won’t really help due to the fracturing of the streaming market.
I haven’t even started the main episode and already am judging the opening theme. I see the song as a sad revamped version of a sad anime series that was made over 10 years ago. Not a good choice of song IMO.
Well, hopefully I get to watch. My PC woes are not over.