UQ Holder Manga Chapter 6 Review (Eva, the Ane-san!)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 6 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

With Touta having snagged Yukihime's towel, she agrees to let him have a look, but he says he's not interested in looking at an old woman's body. This results in his receiving punishment from Yukihime, causing Kuroumaru to laugh at their antics. This pleases Touta, and Kuroumaru reluctantly agrees to be Touta's friend, if only for the pact. Touta wants Kuroumaru to address him as "Touta" rather than the normal "Konoe-kun". Kuroumaru uses "Touta-kun", causing Touta to ask for the honorific to be dropped. Kuroumaru can't do that, so Touta settles on Kuroumaru addressing him as "Touta-kun".

With that, Touta realizes that Kuroumaru is wrapped in a towel like a girl, so he wants Kuroumaru stripped to finally reveal if Kuroumaru is male or female. Kuroumaru flees, and is pursued by Touta and Yukihime, who's also curious.

The next day, the trio hit the road. Kuroumaru thanks Yukihime for the discipleship. Touta races ahead with Kuroumaru right behind. Touta starts talking of dreams and having Kuroumaru meet his friends, including Shinobu. Their conversation causes him to ask Yukihime if there are other immortals. She says there are, so Touta comes up with a new goal -- a team of immortals/undying doing good deeds. Kuroumaru is struck by Touta finding good in what the clan considered cursed.

Yukihime laughs at Touta's words and starts to speak of someone who had similar ideas as him when suddenly, a black sedan pull up.  A guy emerges from the car, addressing Yukihime as "Mistral Yukihime". More black sedans arrive with yakuza-looking guys emerging, addressing Yukihime as "Ane-san" and rolling out carpet to a limo for the trio to get into. Yukihime tells the stunned Touta and Kuroumaru that she and the person she mentioned earlier created a group of immortals called UQ Holder.

Yukihime wants the yakuza-looking guys to stop the "Ane-san" stuff, but the first guy tells her that since the others are mostly from Japan, it is to be expected. Touta asks if these guys are immortal, to which Yukihime says they aren't, at least not like herself and Touta, whom are considered in the nobility ranks of immortals. She goes on to describe different methods people have used to become immortal, including body modifications, at which point she looks at Kuroumaru. Kuroumaru sees them all as enemies of the clan, but Touta finds that foolish, stating he wants to be friends with them all.

Thoughts/Review:

Akamatsu-sensei continues the "is Kuromaru a girl or a boy" thing, but appears to be tying it to this body modification thing that Eva mentioned. I think Kuroumaru was born female, but what Kuroumaru is now, who knows.

The joke is old, but Touta's attempts to get Kuroumaru to address him as "Touta" without any honorifics amused me. I guess it is because in America, we don't have this issue.  It was hard enough for Kuroumaru to address Touta as "Touta-kun" from "Konoe-kun", which is why Touta eventually resigned on getting Kuroumaru to drop the "kun".

To the story as a whole, Touta's and Yukihime's road trip came to a very unexpected end. What I wonder is how UQ Holder knew Eva was on the move. Eva had lived at Touta's village for two years, having apparently left UQ Holder to do so. It makes me think that Touta's parents may have been members UQ Holder for them to ask Eva for help like they did.

Regardless, I had been expecting Eva, Touta, and now Kuroumaru to travel by foot to the tower, meaning we'd get at least a few more chapters before that happened.  But, here we are with a large fleet of cars to pick up Eva and company, meaning that next chapter, we should be at the tower.

Also, it seems that with UQ Holder having already been established, then all of the characters that will make up the manga UQ Holder are already in place rather than be picked up like Kuroumaru was. That's going to make introductions somewhat of a pain. What I mean is that with so many characters coming in at once, who knows how long it will be before we get even the limited background information that we have for Kuroumaru and Touta.

Well, that is what it is.

The assumption is that UQ Holder was founded by Eva and Negi. I hope we get confirmation of whom this person is, but it wouldn't surprise me if Negi turns out not to be the co-founder.

As to the lackeys in UQ Holder who showed up to pick up Eva, I am amused by their attitude toward her. The use of "ane-san" to address her adds to that whole thug/gangster/yakuza feel.  Having Eva be in charge of a yakuza-like organization works for me. *lol*

Now that I think about it, Chamo may have called her Ane-san at times too. Hmmm.

It is also interesting that one addressed her as "Mistral". Of course, I'm assuming that's what was intended, but I now see that there's some thoughts that it may have been a typo and that Mistress was the intended word to be used in the Japanese. I guess we'll find out eventually.

So, an interesting twist on where I expected things to go. I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from here.