UQ Holder Chapter 16 SPOILER Images (Update #3!)

Here is the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 16, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

**********UQ HOLDER CHAPTER 16 SPOILERS**********

The chapter 16 sweetness begins.^_^

Apparently, a lack of footwear is important in performing shundo. Yeah, don't recall that element being an item in Negima! ^_^;

That's it for the moment. If there are more, I'll make an update. ^_^

Update #1: Kuroumaru.

Update #2: Kuroumaru is apparently without gender as a member of the crow tribe until 16.

As an aside, while I had thought Kuroumaru might be karasu-tengu based on the whole "I look female, Karin says I'm female, but I'm actually male," having Kuroumaru actually be gender neutral (sexless) was an earlier thought of mine.

If more UQ Holder chapter 16 spoiler images come up, I'll make additional update(s).

Update #3: These should be the last of the chapter 16 spoilers.

Thanks again to Southrop, who just lost his beard, for providing these. He has spoiler notes for UQ Holder 16 for those interested.

No New UQ Holder This Week

It is that time of year in Japan where weekly manga magazines take breaks. As such, there's no new UQ Holder chapter this week. (There's also no new Hayate the Combat Butler chapter either.)  But, I did find this nifty piece of colorized art of UQ Holder folks from meister-armitage.  LARGE IMAGE ALERT!

Anyway, UQ Holder will be back for chapter 16 next week.

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 15 Review (Time for an idiot to learn something new.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 15 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

In a jumping contest, Touta jumps far higher than Kuroumaru. Touta is shown to be strong enough to easily lift a large tow truck. In a running contest, Touta is shown to be faster than Kuroumaru. Karin acknowledges Touta is unusually proficient in ki (chi), but she orders Touta to arm wrestle Kuroumaru, in which Touta loses easily. Karin smugly tells him she's next, and she smokes Touta in arm wrestling, meaning Touta is stuck cooking the meals, which the kids appreciate since he's a good cook.

During the meal, Karin concedes that his cooking is quite good, so she suggests he do this for the rest of eternity. Kuroumaru and Karin decide that they should use arm wrestling from now on to determine who will cook. Even though Touta doesn't want to learn shundo, he hates losing, so he decides to take Karin's suggestion to become better at it if he wants to win at arm wrestling.

Touta goes off and practices what he's observed others do, feeling pretty good. However, he's watched by another guy who's irritated by what he observes. He punches Touta, telling him he's got shundo wrong, then tries to explain the basics to Touta. The man points to the dust clouds as proof that Touta is no good at shundo.

After giving a demo, Touta is impressed and decides he has been underestimating shundo. He wants to know what shundo has to do with arm wrestling. After Touta mentions that he's only been doing shundo for a few days after having first seen it a month earlier, the man decides Touta is actually a genius. The man tries to explain how the shundo technique works in regards to arm wresting, but Touta thinks it is a load of crap. The man punishes him for this, then proceeds to show off more uses for shundo, including midair shundo.

With that, the "martial artist Kaito" tells Touta that he'll teach him one of the two shundo tricks for him to master.

Thoughts/Review:

Karin pretty much steals the show when she's doing stuff on panel. Her smug look when she told Touta that she was next for an arm wrestling challenge was pretty awesome. Her laying the smack down on him added to that. Then the way she acknowledged his cooking abilities just dripped of snark while being sincere in her compliment. That level of awesomeness doesn't come about every day.

As for Touta, Akamatsu-sensei had already established that Touta pretty much sees something and can instantly do it. With this chapter, Akamatsu-sensei takes the time to spell it out in black and white -- Touta has an abnormal proficiency with ki (chi) usage as well as his abnormal ability to learn things by watching others rather than go through formal training.

Akamatsu-sensei does appear to be shifting Touta's attitude though. Until now, he'd been opposed to learning combat skills. He has trained in some things, like sword usage, but when he was given a chance to learn shundo, he declined. 

Bring in Kaito, who may be a random so-and-so or may be something specific, who happens to be an expert in shundo, sees Touta doing shundo moves in a poor fashion, then takes it upon himself to educate the mindless moron. I'm too tired to speculate on Kaito's motivation, but as far as Touta's concerned, seeing him actually moved to want to learn proper use of shundo is a new development. Hopefully, Akamatsu-sensei will continue to cause Touta to grow as a character.

Finally, I did notice (and thanks to Hata for alerting me it would show up) that Kuroumaru's compliment of Touta's cooking was the equivalent of a marriage proposal in Japan. Karin agreed with the remark, but though Touta is too thick to get such references, it is part of Akamatsu-sensei's setting up a harem of sorts for Touta.

If I'm not mistaken, the manga will have a break next week due to Weekly Shounen Magazine being off, then a chapter around Christmas before another break because of the manga magazine. So, until the spoilers come out... ^_^

UQ Holder Chapter 15 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

Here is the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 15, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

**********UQ HOLDER CHAPTER 15 SPOILERS**********

The sweetness begins.

.
Bwah!ha!ha!ha! Karin laying the smack-down on Touta. As far as I'm concerned, she can keep bringing it on. ^_^

That's it for the moment. If there are more, I'll make an update. ^_^

Update #1: More UQ Holder 15 goodness. ^_^

Southrop has some interesting notes for chapter 15, which are of course spoilerific as well. ^_^  Thanks again to Southrop for the shares. ^_^

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 14 Review (Give a girl a mallet, a sword, and a hard heeled shoe to kick butt with.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 14 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta is impressed with how Karin dispatched Wrecking Ball, then frets about her cutting him in half. She assures Touta the man isn't dead, and sure enough, Wrecking Ball reveals he's a cyborg, firing a laser beam from his eye. Karin is unharmed, so Wrecking Ball assumes she's using magic apps, specifically a barrier app. He uses a barrier nullifying kick app as his bottom and top halves attack. Wrecking Ball then uses a weapon storage app, where he has nine High Frequency Green Dragon Crescent Blades summoned from, which launch at her.

Karin appears to be pierced and Wrecking Ball is starting to gloat, but he's shocked when he discovers that all he did was destroy Karin's clothing. Showing no shame, Karin moves in slowly, then quickly takes out the cyborg's bottom half before dropping a foot down on the back of his head, taking out Wrecking Ball's top half.

Touta is impressed again as Kuroumaru gives Karin her jacket to cover up with. The kids begin to emerge from the church, as do people from the slums, all clapping for the trio. Karin is given a hat, which she gives to an impressed little girl. Karin explains to Touta and Kuroumaru that her immortality is different from theirs, in that she she cannot be harmed, much less die. The little girl, seeing Karin's face, tells her to not be sad since everyone is happy. Karin smiles, which Touta notices and remarks on, leading to his punishment.

In the city, a werewolf (?) and a man are getting a briefing on the situation from a worried person on a monitor. The two aren't worried about immortals defending the church since the two of them hunt immortals.

Thoughts/Review:

Another good chapter with Karin getting the spotlight. Oh, no spotlight on Touta. Well, no wonder it was good. ^_~

At this point, Karin is like Setsuna at the start of the Kyoto arc. She's pretty much all business.  She doesn't waste time, nor does she worry if she gets stripped.  If she has an opponent that needs to be dispatched, then nothing is going to stop her from dispatching said opponent.

Karin's immortality is rather interesting. Assuming she went through the UQ Holder initiation rites, then her time underground wouldn't have been much of a problem, other than killing the monsters. After all, there's apparently no way any of them can harm her.

That does beg the question though -- if Karin's immortality is that she can't be harmed nor killed, then why did she bother with a barrier?

Other unanswered questions -- why would Eva get angry if Karin literally shredded Wrecking Ball? Why would an apparent government organization want to move in on the slums (PMSC)?

Wrecking Ball's sword summoning looked a lot like something Archer would do from Fate/Zero as well as Fate/stay night.  Just saying. ^_~

Thinking about Karin again, she's got a sword, and for some reason, what I jokingly refer to as a croquet mallet. I keep wondering about the mallet.  When I saw all of the swords from Wrecking Ball, I couldn't help but have a flash thought about the pactio system from Negima! and how that would probably carry over into UQ Holder. With Karin being as attached to Eva as she is, I wonder if Eva has made a pactio with Karin.  That would be something interesting.

So far, this "slum arc" (for lack of a better name) is turning out to be pretty interesting, mainly because Karin is getting more face time while Touta takes a back seat.  I really hope Akamatsu-sensei can work on improving his character.

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 13 Review (Give a girl a croquet mallet and watch her kick butt.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 13 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

The UQ Holder regulars aren't happy with Touta for attacking them, but they soon start entertaining the kids, who were frightened by Touta's attack. Touta ends up being entertained as well, causing Karin to remark on his childish mentality.

Karin and Kuroumaru are discussing the slum issue when Sister Kasuga arrives to thank them for helping. Sister Miao bangs a pan to summon the kids to lunch, kicking out some older, freeloading folks trying to score a meal. Touta enjoys some soup as the kids warm up to him.

Touta's bluster about protecting the church is silenced when the church takes a massive attack. A large man shows up, so Touta tries to stand up to him, only to get blasted back. The regular UQ Holder members defend the children from the brute's next attack, getting blasted down as a result. Kuroumaru comes in to assist them as one of the regulars identifies the brute as the Wrecking Ball, who uses a very expensive magic application to use compressed air bullets.

Wrecking Ball is about to attack, so Karin comes in to guard Kuroumaru's back. However, Totua jumps in front of her to payback Wrecking Ball for the earlier hit. Touta asks for permission to take down Wrecking Ball, but Karin tells him no as she'll deal with it. Touta refuses to accept that, so Karin flips to behind Wrecking Ball, telling Touta that first come, first serve. Karin battles Wrecking Ball, appearing to end things by telling the brute that no one can harm her.

Thoughts/Review:

Touta the idiot, still needs to learn a painful less. But enough about Thick Skull.

Sister Kasuga (KASUGA Mikan) provides us another name tie to Negima, this time via Misora. It would be cool if Sister Kasuga was the granddaughter of Misora, but that would be rather difficult IMO unless Misora had a child out of wedlock which took her family name, or Misora was somehow of an important enough family to warrant her husband marrying into the Kasuga family. As such, Sister Kasuga is likely either some relation of Misora's, or not related at all.

I do note that the Sister that looked like an older Cocone wasn't around. I was hoping she'd be here and could be shown helping defend the church. Oh well.

Wrecking Ball is just a generic, large villain, though as others have noted, he does slightly resemble one of Negi's opponents in Negima. I figure Karin will finish him off next chapter (assuming he's not already down for the count).

As for Karin, she is pure awesomeness at this point. OK, so she frightens the children, but she used Touta as a croquet ball when they first met to send him to the underground, and she's schooling his butt in the fight with Wrecking Ball.  I'm really hoping that we see more of her and start getting her background fleshed out, including why her "battle uniform" is a Mahora uniform.

As an aside, I wish Crunchyroll would put the effort into two page spread art that scanlators do. Crunchyroll's manga app just takes the two pages and slaps them together for the two page view, meaning the two page image isn't seamless.

Otherwise, this was a pretty good chapter, Touta elements not withstanding.

UQ Holder Chapter 13 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

Here is the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 13, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

**********UQ HOLDER CHAPTER 13 SPOILERS**********

Up first, another family name from Negima!

This is KASUGA Mikan, who might be the daughter (or otherwise related) to KASUGA Misora from Negima, who was also a nun.


If there are new updates, I'll post them. ^_^

Update #1: A few more images.

Southrop has some translator notes for the upcoming chapter. ^_^ Thanks a ton to Southrop for the share.

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 12 Review ("...a boy without a winkle is a girl, and everyone was really disappointed.")

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 12 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta has a memory dream before waking up in the cramped room he shares with Kuroumaru at UQ Holder. Heading outdoors, some of the regular members of UQ Holder are drinking in their humanoid form. Their constant addressing him as "Touta-aniki" or as plain "aniki" irritates him since he thinks they are making fun of him, not showing respect. They refuse to stop since they are required to address the "numbers" members of the group with such honorifics.

Touta is also upset at the menial chores he does day in and out for only ¥200/hour. He wants to speak with Yukihime, but is denied at her request until he moves up to executive status by doing jobs. When Touta hears this from Basago, he thinks he has to do more cleaning, which amuses Basago, who then corrects Touta by assigning him a real mission with Kuroumaru, along with Karin as backup.

Meanwhile, Karin gets ready and goes to Touta's and Kuroumaru's room, where she discovers a naked Kuroumaru. Not only that, Karin discovers Kuroumaru is not male as she claimed. Kuroumaru desperately insists that she is male, but Karin isn't buying it, citing how improper it is for Kuroumaru and Touta to bunk together. Kuroumaru begs Karin not to tell Touta her secret, which Karin agrees to for the moment.

Now geared up and ready to go, the trio race to the job cite on foot. Karin explains they are going to the slums, an area outside the capital where the poor and undesirable are, placed there after the world decided to redistribute poverty equally among all nations. UQ Holder's mission is to protect such people from those who would attempt to slaughter the innocents living there.

They head to a church, where a nun has some small kids outside. Also outside are a group of yakuza-looking guys. Touta charges in, thinking these are the villains, and attacks. The nun tells him that they were part of UQ Holder.

Thoughts/Review:

Bwah!ha!ha!ha! I've been thinking all along that Kuroumaru was a girl, which is why my reviews of late have refused to use a gender term with her...until now.  Girl it is.

I chose my catch line quote in the header from Blackadder II, where the character Nursie is recalling when Queen Elizabeth I was born and everyone initially thinking the child to be a boy.

Out you popped, out of your mummie's tumkin and everybody shouting, 'It's a boy, it's a boy!' And somebody said, 'But it hasn't got a winkle!' And then I said, 'A boy without a winkle? God be praised, it's a miracle. A boy without a winkle!' And then Sir Thomas Moore pointed out that a boy without a winkle is a girl, and everyone was really disappointed. 

Besides being a funny line from a funny, British comedy, the line reflects fandom's attitude about Kuroumaru. For whatever reasons, a lot of folks wanted Kuroumaru to be a girly dude, have a romance with Touta, and so on. A lot of folks have stated how unhappy they'd be if Kuroumaru turned out to be a girl.

I never saw Kuroumaru as a dude. Everything about Kuroumaru screamed "girl" to me. As I have seen it, Kuroumaru was born a girl. She has all of the instincts of a girl in how she kept her chest covered to how she held up her arms in front of her, fists clenched below her chin, to express frustration with Touta. So for me, her whole body modification thing was an attempt to make her male, which failed.

Kuroumaru is desperate to be thought of as male. When Karin discovered her secret, Kuroumaru's initial response was to still deny her gender and insist she was a guy. When Kuroumaru saw that Karin wasn't going for it, she shifted to a plea to just not tell Touta her secret, and relief when Karin agreed, even though it was conditional.

So, I got to thinking. Why would Kuroumaru be like this?  We know almost nothing about her background, but we know that she's in a clan of some sort who appear to wear masks of some kind of bird design. Then it hit me -- what if Kuroumaru's clan is not a crow-youkai clan like Setsuna's, but were instead a clan of karasu-tengu -- a different kind of youkai?

Again, this is just speculation based on very limited evidence, but tengu are almost always male, hatched from giant eggs. We only saw males talking about Kuroumaru. The bird masks the men in Kurouaru's clan wear could be karasu-tengu type masks.  Tengu have great supernatural powers, and certainly we've seen Kuroumaru do something unique with the Kenfuka Bakuenheki attack (though admittedly, this could just be a previously unknown Shinmeiryuu attack, but it could be something special to Kuroumaru's tribe). Tengu can do shundo, as I understand it. Indeed, tengu martial arts skills are quite good, enough so that they've apparently taught ninja, samurai, and others.  Tengu, in more modern times, are protectors shrines, temples, and even help humans. Kuroumaru's tribe may have been the ones to teach humans the Shinmeiryuu arts.

So I can easily see a clan of karasu-tengu discovering a rare female born from a clutch, who then attempt to transform said female into a male because tengu are supposed to be male, but they fail. If Kuroumaru's body was already that of an immortal, then it would make sense that their attempts would fail. (Update: As pointed out, the various translations strongly suggest Kuroumaru's immortality came from the body modification. In that case, I'd say the clan's failed attempt to transform Kuroumaru into a proper male which resulted in her not only remaining female, but also resisting any further attempts to modify her body, no wonder they'd considered her cursed.) In a clan of nothing but men, she would be raised male, but she'd feel shame about being female, and now doubt, she learned to cover herself to prevent others from learning her secret.

Anyway, it is just a theory of mine which fits with the available facts at present. I could easily be wrong.

As to Touta, he's a mixed bag to me in this chapter. I give him brownie points for deciding that if he had to scrub and clean his way to see Eva, that's what he'd do. Naturally, he loses all of his brownie points by leaping before looking, thus attacking his allies because he assumed he already knew everything.  Touta's stupidity is what makes him so irritating as a character.

Regarding Touta's flashback memory-dream (which gave me a flashback to Asuna om Negima, who had similar amnesia and flashback memory-dreams), man was he torn up. No wonder Eva had to do something to save his life, otherwise he would have bled to death from his ripped off arm and leg wound.  People are speculating that Eva caused Touta's memory loss, and that may be right.  She would have done that to spare him the trauma, then just takes over as his guardian.

Speaking of Eva, I hope we learn what caused her to soften enough to join a group like UQ Holder, and its mission to help the weak. I'm pretty sure it was her time with Negi and the class, but I'd like to see that confirmed.

Sheeze, I've already written a ton. I'll have to be brief now. ^_^;

The slum thing is interesting, but exactly what I expect from social engineering types who think they know how to make everything equal and "fair" even though that's not possible.  I wonder if the nun at the church turns out to be Cocone. That would rock. ^_^

In the end, this chapter ended up being more enjoyable than I expected, as evidenced by how much I've spewed here. Looking forward to reading more. ^_^

UQ Holder Chapter 12 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

Here are SPOILER images from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 12, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

**********UQ HOLDER CHAPTER 12 SPOILERS**********

Southrop has also written up quite a few translator notes for the chapter for those wanting more information. ^_^

Update #1: One more, NSFW image. 

BWAH!Ha!ha!ha! Akamatsu-sensei, you so-and-so!

Akamatsu-sensei's "UQ Holder" Gets Jabbed in Kumeta-sensei's "Sekkachi Hakushaku to Jikan Dorobou"

KUMETA Kouji-sensei, probably best known as the manga-ka of the popular series Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, has recently started a new manga series, titled Sekkachi Hakushaku to Jikan Dorobou. In his second chapter, he goes after AKAMATSU Ken-sensei's new manga, UQ Holder. Apparently, Kumeta-sensei isn't a fan of Akamatsu-sensei and has jabbed him a few times in Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei.

For those who don't know, UQ Holder is the sequel to Negima! UQ Holder is about a group of immortals, of whom Eva, the shinso vampire in Negima!, is a member. Eva has been the guardian to a boy named Touta, who has recently become an immortal vampire.  Touta is an oblivious character who has certain thoughts on how things should be and that's that. One of his dreams is to one day get to the top of the space elevator (tower), which could be seen in the distance from his rural village.

It is this premise that Kumeta-sensei pokes fun of in chapter 2 of Sekkachi Hakushaku to Jikan Dorobou (no translation needed to get the visual gag).

But, Kumeta-sensei doesn't stop there. According to Hata (Negima!/UQ Holder fan extraordinaire), Kumeta-sensei goes after the fact that the first chapter of UQ Holder was 82 pages; he jabs the whole immortality concept that is the basis of UQ Holder, and he apparently cracks about the female lead (I'm guessing Yukihime, but those who can read Japanese can correct me). I'm not sure which chapter(s) these shots come from, but here are the pages.

****WARNING! LAST TWO IMAGES ARE NSFW!!!****

Anyway, I found this rather amusing. I'm not sure how serious this thing is between Kumeta-sensei and Akamatsu-sensei. If anyone has more info, do share in the comments. ^_^

Update: This information comes from Hata regarding the conflict.

Ken and Kumita never knew each other well, in fact, according to Ken, he NEVER talked to Kumita once, even if sometimes chances present itself during the year end Kodansha party, the only connection they shared is the friendship with Hayate's Hata sensei, (Hata being the assistant to Kumita once.) they both refer to each other on BBS/twitter as "that guy/jerk", (yaru) and the interests are all one sided from Kumita, pretty much acts like a stalker in his reference to things related to Ken,

basically Kumita since the days of Love Hina never fail to troll Ken whenever he could, the most likely reason general public can come out with is he is jealous at Ken being a life winner, (otaku being a successful, rich mangaka marry to a young, pretty, cosplay wife.) Kumita himself never give a reason for his actions.

contray to public belief, Ken said he is not mad at Kumita, and Kumita also had extend free promotion such as for Ken's wife failed cosplay photo salon.

you can read all about it by google both names together, this is well known to most people follow either mangaka.

http://www91.odn.ne.jp/cjt24200/yamada/text/m/index2.html
http://wiki.kumetan.net/index.php?赤松健

H/T: Hata ^_^

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 11 Review (UQ Holder defined.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 11 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Kuroumaru and Touta launch an attack on the monster seals. Kuroumaru's Kenfuka Bakuenheki creates a massive wall of flame, which ends up killing one of the monster seals that ate Touta's arm. They continue slaughtering the monsters and Jinbee encourages them, telling them that they have to kill all of the monster seals, giant spiders, and bats in order to escape.

Up at the UQ Holder HQ, Karin thinks about how Touta was living with Yukihime and she's not pleased. Three girls (two beast girls and a human-looking girl) are playing with a ball, which gets away from them and rolls to Karin. They nervously approach her to get the ball back, but she absentmindedly destroys it. The trio flee crying to AMEYA Ikkuu, who scolds Karin for making the kids cry. He rapidly repairs their destroyed ball, then tells Karin that she should smile more. Karin says she has no such orders from Yukihime.

The sealed well leading to the underground labyrinth shows signs of activity, causing great alarm. Karin tells Ikkuu to inform Yukihime while she handles things here, should the magical monsters come forth. Touta and Kuroumaru emerge as Karin whacks Touta hard with her mallet. She's surprised to discover her mistake. Touta recovers and goes off on Karin, who takes his words as a challenge.

The two charge each other as Kuroumaru tells Touta he shouldn't fight girls. Touta says that in war, sex doesn't matter, which is what Yukihime taught him. Touta increases the weight of Gravity Sword, surprising Karin a bit, though she acts like it is nothing. Gengorou breaks up the fight, citing that fighting between UQ Holder members is not allowed. Touta is amazed that Gengorou is holding him up in spite of the massive weight he's now placed on Gravity Blade.

The commotion causes a lot of people to emerge from the buildings, but when they see Kuroumaru and Touta, they are surprised since only a month and a half had passed since they were dumped underground. Even Ikkuu took four months to escape. Jinbee emerges from the well and vouches for them, so everyone accepts the two, addressing Touta as "Konoe-aniki" and Kuroumaru as "Tokisaka-anesan". Jinbee flees when Gengorou demands he get back to work after slacking off for two years.

Touta asks what UQ Holder does, amazing Ikkuu since they took the test to join without knowing anything about the group. The people who'd emerge all transform into youkai, surprising Touta and Kuroumaru. Ikkuu calls this group of general UQ Holder members as Hyakki Yakou, and says that UQ Holder is a group of otherworldly beings who help each other out and that they are protectors of that. Touta decides he's going to take over the place, irritating the youkai, who ask Ikkuu if they can teach Touta a lesson.

Thoughts/Review:

This chapter turned out to be more interesting than I thought it would be, which is a pleasant surprise.

I'm glad that the somewhat tedious mini training arc is over. Although it makes Touta overpowered at the moment, I'd rather the story move to more interesting areas.

Touta still hasn't learned a blasted thing from his time underground. He lost an arm, but the moment he got it back, everything else was forgotten. I really would love for all of those youkai to teach him a very painful lesson.

That brings me to the youkai. That was the big surprise here as it turns out that all of the yakuza-type folks are actually youkai. The one big dude does appear to be the same youkai that Asuna and Setsuna fought during the Kyoto arc. I hope it is.

The fact that youkai can have human form is not new to the Akamatsu-verse. After all, just prior to the Mahora Budokai arc in Negima!, Negi and Kotaro had to fight Count Herrman, the youkai that petrified Negi's village. His transformation seemed more illusionary than the youkai in UQH, but maybe we'll learn more down the road.

The three young girls were quite adorable. Looks like they are all beast girls, with one looking like Konoka (which I'm assuming is part of the Akamatsu-sensei curse of not having a lot of character designs).  It would be cool if they were related to the girls from Negima! on the Magic World.

As to Jinbee, I guess he was slacking off for two years since he could have escaped by cleaning up the place below on his own.

That does lead me to wonder how new recruits normally get through. If there's no one down there, and the only way out is to defeat the magical monsters, how do they learn that without someone there. Jinbee really gave Touta and Kuroumaru a major leg up.

Finally, I did not Touta reflecting on the fact that even though he is a vampire, he still enjoyed the sun. It would be interesting to see if Akamatsu-sensei actually provides more information on vampires in his universe.

So, a better chapter than expected. I hope things continue to improve.

UQ Holder Chapter 11 SPOILER Images

OK, here's the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 11, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

*****SPOILERS*****

Time for some Shinmeiryuu action, eh? (A new technique according to Southrop.)

If anyone has any more spoiler images to share, let me know. ^_^

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 10 Review (Of maids and fools who can do anything.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 10 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Karin is attired as a maid and serving Yukihime tea when she inquires about the two boys they sent below. Yukihime says they'll return before the eight year time limit, but when she later says that she used to live with Touta, Karin crushes the tea cup in irritation, surprising herself. Karin is not happy to hear Yukihime suggest that should humanity die, Karin and Touta might be the only people left alive due to their type of immortality. Karin reminds Yukihime that Jinbee is still down there, whom Yukihime had sent down there as a joke, but she'd forgotten about him.

Meanwhile, Jinbee is with Kuroumaru and Touta at the Gravity Blade. Touta can't remove it from the stone, but as Jinbee speaks of those who've tried and failed to remove the sword, suddenly Touta removes it, having discovered a weigh dial on the handle which makes it heavier or lighter.  Touta starts getting cocky, so Jinbee causes the sword to get very heavy, causing Touta to lose his other hand for a bit. Jinbee cranks the weight of the sword to 500 thousand times normal. Touta doesn't believe it can actually be that heavy, so Jinbee throws the sword, causing the tower building they are on to be cleaved in two.

After retrieving the sword and returning it to a mere 200 times its normal weight, Jinbee gives the sword to Touta, asking the boy why he became immortal and why he came to UQ Holder. When Touta explains, Jinbee is not impressed. He tells Touta that if he can master the sword at its current level, which Jinbee figures will take about six months, he'll train Touta on the next step.

With that, Jinbee leaves, so Kuroumaru agrees to help Touta train. A month of intense training later, Touta and Kuroumaru return to the tower and Jinbee, who's surprised to see them. Touta announces he's mastered the sword as requested and tosses it to Jinbee, who's sitting on a rock ledge. The weight of the sword causes the rock Jinbee is on to break off. Jinbee discovers the sword is set at 2000 and is impressed that Touta could handling it at that level, whereupon he tosses it back to Touta.

Thoughts/Review:

As many of you expected, we continue to skip forward in time.  Touta and Kuroumaru aren't getting out as soon as I thought they would, but I find myself wondering how many years Akamatsu-sensei will keep them underground.

Touta's ability to master anything in a short period of time is something I'm not finding that interesting. I think it would be more interesting if there were more elements to flesh Touta out, but he's just an arrogant punk who probably could use several punches to the face.  After all, there have been other characters (Negi from Negima! for a start) whom were much more interesting in their rapid growth.

As to Jinbee, he's turning out to be the Jack Rakan of this series, only not so mercenary. Beyond that, I really don't have a feel for him as a character.

Karin serving as Eva's maid is unexpected in that I didn't expect for a member of UQ Holder to play servant to Eva. Heck, Karin even addresses Eva as "Yukihima-sama", which in and of itself is rather interesting as well.  Why not "Eva-sama"? Other than Akamatsu-sensei's apparent desire to keep Eva semi-separate from Negima! by mostly addressing her as Yukihime, I'm wondering why Eva would have UQ Holder not address her by her proper name.  In public, if Eva is trying to avoid bounty hunters and the like, sure; go by Yukihime. In private, Eva (or Evangeline).

I did find it somewhat interesting that UQ Holder uses the test to exterminate the pests underground. So, how are these magical beasts coming across? Through the one gateport under Mahora? Is there some other method of transport?

I guess Al's place is no more. Bummer.

Finally, the Kuroumaru gender identity joke continues. Sorry Akamatsu-sensei, but I'm weary of that. Just settle it and have done.

Oh well. At least the Twins are officially doing this for Crunchyroll and Kodansha Comics.

UQ Holder Chapter 10 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

OK, here's the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 10, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

Yes, the Kuroumaru "is that a boy or a girl" joke continues.

No doubt, a scanlated chapter will appear moments after I post this, but what the hey.

Thanks again to Southrop for giving us these teases. ^_^

Update #1: I missed this one, which Southrop posted first. ^_^;

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 9 Review (Of naivety and more Negima! tie-ins.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 9 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta is all ready to accept Jinbee to train up, but Kuroumaru is suspicious of Jinbee, becoming irritated at being addressed as "ojouchan" by him. Kuroumaru attacks and Jinbee loses his robes, revealing a massively scarred body. Kuroumaru scolds Touta for being so trusting without knowing anything about Jinbee. Kuroumaru's sword ends up in Jinbee's hand somehow, thwarting Kuroumaru's sword attack. Kuroumaru shifts to a flying kick instead as Jinbee tosses the sword aside, leading to an unarmed fight. Despite only having one arm, Touta jumps into the fight, performing a shundou move to reach Jinbee in a flash. The two are quickly defeated by Jinbee, who refers to Kuroumaru as "ojouchan" again, causing Kuroumaru to try to deny being a woman again.

Jinbee takes the two to his residence in this underground place, which he hasn't been to in six months. The place is filled with books and the three have nabe. Kuroumaru and Touta speak briefly of their immortality. Jinbee tells them he's a 1400 year old immortal, having become one from consuming the flesh of a merperson.  Kuroumaru has to explain to Touta about the Japanese legend of merpeople, and how mermaids and the like did not have the positive image in Japan prior to the popularization of Western mermaid stories.

Jinbee continues by saying how his immortality is actually weak, which is why he is so scarred. Further, he had comrades, but he's the only one still alive. Touta is impressed with Jinbee's story and is about to scold Kuroumaru for not trusting Jinbee, only to discover Kuroumaru has been moved to tears. Kuroumaru starts to address Jinbee as "senpai", then shifts to "jinsei no sensei" (life master), shocking Touta, who then reminds Kuroumaru of the scolding given to Touta for going gaga for Jinbee.

Jinbee is amused by the pair of them, so he sends them to deal with the monster seals. The two excitedly go to do so, but once there, Touta realizes there's not much he can do with only one arm. Kuroumaru uses incredible sword skills to wipe out one of the monster seals, impressing Touta greatly. However, both Kuroumaru and Touta are forced to flee when a herd of monster seals charge them.

Returning to Jinbee's lair, both apologize. Jinbee figures that Touta could watch Kuroumaru's back, but he needs a weapon. Jinbee takes them to the tower hideout of an "evil mage" that has been abandoned for thirty years. Going up to massive deck extending from this tower, Jinbee shows them a sword the mage created, which is lodged in a stone and called Gravity Blade.

Thoughts/Review:

Those of us reading this manga know that Touta is desperately in need of some schooling to get him off this path of blind stupidity. However, although Kuroumaru may be more cautious and highly skilled, even Kuroumaru is in need of education in this regard.  Both characters are pretty naive.

It is interesting how Akamatsu-sensei brings in the Japanese legend of obtaining immortality via the flesh of a merperson. I know Takahashi-sensei did a manga about this years ago (Mermaid Saga, aka: Ningyo Shiriizu (人魚シリーズ)).  I like how Akamatsu-sensei is reminding folks that merpeople were not considered to be attractive half-human/half fish creatures, but rather more monster-like.

It looks like Akamatsu-sensei is going to run the "Is Kuroumaru a girl or a boy" joke into the ground. Jinbee calling Kuroumaru "ojouchan" adds to that, as does Kuroumaru's girlish, negative reaction.

Onto more substantive stuff, Akamatsu-sensei made a big point of having Touta blatantly reject Eva's offer to teach him the shundou-jitsu arts. Despite this, it appears that Touta has acquired the skill after only observing Kuroumaru use it. That's way faster than even Negi learned it, and Negi had some actual training in it. This suggests to me that Touta may have already known it, but we'll see.  Akamatsu-sensei may be suggesting that Touta can learn anything he's exposed to.

Since Touta has been shown to reject using a sword, other than the boken Touta used in the beginning of the series, yet was shown with a sword in the promotional art, I guess having Touta lose an arm is Akamatsu-sensei's way of getting Touta to use a weapon rather than just rely on his fists. I suppose it isn't too much to say that Touta will get this Gravity Blade in the stone.

It does appear that Gravity Blade is at Al's residence under Library Island in the Mahora Academy campus grounds. What happened to Al 30 years ago to cause him to disappear is a mystery (assuming this is Al's place), though I have read speculation that maybe he got snagged by one of those monster seals, which take 30 years to digest their food. I would be amused by this if Touta and Kuroumaru battle the monster seals and in one of them is Al, waiting to be pooped out.

Finally, the splash page showing Eva in her normal form and her Yukihime form was pretty nifty. ^_^

Akamatsu-sensei takes his first break next week, so we'll have to wait a couple of weeks to find out where things go.

UQ Holder Chapter 9 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

OK, here's the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 9, courtesy of the VERY gracious Southrop.

Heh! Looks like another form of the running joke, "Is Kuroumaru male or female?"  (Per Southrop -- not part of the joke.)

Update #1: Sword in the Stone. ^_~

Should Southrop share more, I'll update. ^_^

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 8 Review ("Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!")

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 8 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta and Kuroumaru are uncertain about Jinbee, who says he's been stuck down here for two years after consuming the last of Yukihime's special sake and grilled chicken. He asks them if they have any food since all he's had is these eyeless fish and sea cumbers for the last two years. They say they don't, but Jinbee uses magic of some sort to teleport Kuroumaru's emergency CalorieFriend (CalorieMate) to his hand, whereupon Touta and Kuroumaru are not happy by this.

Jinbee tells them they should have gotten out of the water as some giant, monstrous seal-like creatures attack. One bites Touta's arm off as he's rescued by Kuroumaru. The two flee to safety, whereupon Kuroumaru uses a kind of magic to create a flame from a pen. Two hours later, they two are still walking as Kuroumaru has been explaining ki and how ranged attacks can be used with it. Touta claims ignorance, but Kuroumaru thinks Touta's using ki subconsciously. To demonstrate, Kuroumaru launches a Shinmei-ryuu Ougi Zankuuzen attack with the use of a sword. It takes five seconds for the blast to hit something, meaning it is roughly 1.7 kilometers away.

A further two hours later, Touta's arm still hasn't healed even though the bleeding has stopped. They come to a waterfall, where they see a giant, serpent-like creature in the waters below. Another two hours later, the pair are hiding from a massive spider that could easily hunt them for prey. Twenty four hours later, the exhausted pair take a break, whereupon Touta starts thinking it might take them a month to get out. Kuroumaru notices that Touta seems to be in pain from his missing arm. He acknowledges it, saying he can almost feel it and it feels slimy as well as being in pain, but he doesn't understand why.

Jinbee shows up, saying that since Touta's arm was eaten, he has to act quickly or he won't get it back for thirty years. They want food, so Jinbee suggests the giant spider. He then talks about the serpent creature, which if it swallows them, they'd take three years to be pooped out. As such, that's why the UQ Holder test time limit of eight years was felt to be about right. Touta freaks about this, especially at the thought of thirty years passing, since his friends would all be middle aged by then. Touta demands a hint on where the exit it, but then discovers he's missing his other arm after Jinbee takes it from him.

Jinbee goes to explain that Kuroumaru has massive healing and regenerative healing powers, meaning that when a limb is lost, the body simply forms a new one. For Touta, his limbs are still alive via magic, thus when he loses a limb, his body needs to have said limb reattached, at which the limb is healed. As such, Touta's arm won't regenerate itself on its own for thirty years if he doesn't get it back and if one of his limbs were to be sealed away, it would never grow back on its own. Jinbee returns the arm he took and says that Touta has been way too overconfident because of his immortality, something Touta denies. Jinbee cites the fact that Touta's lost an arm as proof.  So, Touta decides that he'll return to defeat this monster to get his arm back, but since he doesn't know which one ate his arm, he'll have to defeat them all.

Thoughts/Review:

Wow. There was a lot of exposition in this chapter.

Considering what Eva did to Jinbee for touching her food and drink, I'd say that fears of her getting soft are overblown as well. She clearly has a soft spot for Touta, but she's still Eva.  I wonder if she's able to observe their progress from above.

Touta's finally starting to get the schooling he so desperately needs, but he still needs a lot more. That being said, having lost an arm and having to experience the sensation of it being digested is a good start. His acknowledgement that they might need a month to escape shows that he's just barely starting to accept a hint of reality. I expect that this forthcoming fight against the seal monsters will further his education (or at least, I hope it does).

I liked the explanations of Kuroumaru's and Touta's immortality differences. In the forthcoming (expected) fight, I hope we get to see Kuroumaru really kick some bottom.

Kuroumaru suspecting Touma of using ki is something I think as well. I wonder if this will mean anything significant later.

As to Jinbee, he's a character alright. His remotely stealing Kuroumaru's emergency ration made me chuckle, more so after I learned of why he is down here (stealing Eva's food).

As I saw Touta with no arms, I really couldn't help but think of the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Touta could play the part of the Black Knight.

Arthur cuts off Black Knight's left arm.

Black Kight: 'Tis but a scratch.
Arthur: A scratch? Your arm's off!
Black Knight: No, it isn't.
Arthur: Well, what's that then?
Black Knight: I've had worse.
Arthur: You liar!
Black Knight: Come on you pansy!

Arthur cuts off Black Knight's right arm.

Black Knight: Come on then.
Arthur: What?
Black Knight: Have at you!
Arthur: You are indeed brave, Sir Knight, but the fight is mine.
Black Knight: Oh, had enough, eh?
Arthur: Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left.
Black Knight: Yes I have.
Arthur: Look!
Black Knight: Just a flesh wound.
Arthur: Look, stop that.
Black Knight: Chicken! Chicken!
Arthur: Look, I'll have your leg. Right!

Arthur cuts off the Black Knight's leg.

Black Knight: Right, I'll do you for that!
Arthur: You'll what?
Black Knight: Come 'ere!
Arthur: What are you going to do, bleed on me?
Black Knight: I'm invincible!
Arthur: You're a loony.
Black Knight: The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on then.

Arthur cuts off the Black Knight's other leg.

Black Knight: All right; we'll call it a draw.
Arthur: Come, Patsy.
Black Knight: Oh, oh, I see, running away then. You yellow bastard! Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!

*lol* Yeah, that's how I see Touta, only not so funny.

Beyond that, not a whole lot to say. We'll see how things go next chapter.

UQ Holder Manga Chapter 7 Review (Now, with Akamatsu-sensei displeasure.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 7 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

Touta is impressed by the limo that carries him, Kuroumaru, Yukihime, and Basago, but is surprised when the limo drops them off at a boat. He is further surprised when instead of going to the tower, as he'd expected, he's taken to the large complex that is the headquarters for UQ Holder. They are greeted by a large number of yakuza types, who gang rush Yukihime in happiness to see their "ane-san" again. Yukihime starts punching them all into the air away from her as a result.

Touta decides he's going to make friends with everyone and approaches the first yakuza guy he sees. The guy is not interested in Touta and irritated that Touta is ruining a happy reunion. Touta gets knocked away, but as usual, he's not letting that stop him. He comes back at all of the yakuza types, telling them his and Kuroumaru's name and how they are Yukihime's greatest disciples. The yakuza guys blow this off, and while Basago is somewhat amused by Touta, he tells the boy in no uncertain terms that no one said they'd be his friend.

MAKABE Gengorou arrives with fellow UQ Holder members AMEYA Ikkuu and Karin, and he silences Basago and introduces the trio to Touta. Touta is excited by this, but when he approaches Karin, she simply gives him a hard stare and blows him off. Gengorou asks if Touta wants to be one of them, to which Touta enthusiastically answers yes, citing how anyone in Yukihime's yakuza clan is OK with him. Touta continues his arrogant demands for folks to be his friend whether they want to or not.

Gengorou says that for an immortal to enter UQ Holder, they must pass an entrance exam, namely, they must escape a labyrinth underneath the capital within eight years. With that, the ground underneath Touta and Kuroumaru opens up and to ensure they fall in properly, Karin whacks both with her mallet. Both fall into the darkness, eventually landing in shallow waters. After making sure they both are OK, Kuroumaru laments being dragged into Touta's issue. Kuroumaru asks if Touta actually thought through anything when demanding UQ Holder be his friend. Touta blows this off, saying that once he's made up his mind, that's it.

Touta does wonder if Gengorou was right about there being an eight year time limit to escape this place. As they splash through the waters, Touta notices some sort of creature in the somewhat deeper waters. Kuroumaru summons a sword to dispatch this mystical beast, but a man fishing off a nearby rocky outcrop warns against it, saying that even if they killed it, the creature would summon others. Further, being eaten by one would not be good as it would take 30 years to digest. With that, he introduces himself as SHISHIDO Jinbee, leader of UQ Holder. He then asks them if they have food or fire with them.

Thoughts/Review:

As I expected, Touta and company get to UQ Holder in this chapter...well, most of them.

Touta's annoying aspects of forcing himself on others, to hell with what they want, has moved into the really annoying category. Frankly, I wish Karin had whacked him harder with that croquet mallet of hers. (Yeah, I know it isn't a croquet mallet, but I would have liked to have seen her whack Touta around like a croquet ball.)  He is in desperate need of a massive schooling on why being stupid is stupid.

The big question from this chapter is whether or not this entrance exam will actually take years to complete or not. If Akamatsu-sensei does decide that Kuroumaru and Touta will be down there for years, then we'll have "lovely" time skips in the manga, since obviously we're not going to spend years of our time exploring these depths with them. I don't mind time skips with purpose, but I fear that if we do get a time skip here, we'll end up getting more, which I'm not so keep on at the moment.  It may become necessary though, considering this is a story about immortals/undying.

At the moment, I'm going to lean toward them not being down there for years, but the implications are that Jinbee has been down there for a while, so who knows.

As for the creature in the water, I had a feeling it was similar to the ones that Nagi rescued Arika from in Negima.

The UQ Holder HQ is pretty impressive as a facility. Naturally, Akamatsu-sensei lets it be known that they have an onsen there. Well, it wouldn't be an Akamatsu title without obligatory bath/onsen scenes.

As to Eva, beyond her punching all those yakuza-type admirers, she was pretty much back seat. I did note that she was probably aware of what was in store for Touta and Kuroumaru. Considering how she is about tossing the cubs to the wild and seeing how they fare (Negi and Kotaro for example), she wouldn't object to this little test.

Beyond that, not a lot to say. We'll see how things go next chapter.

Update: Akamatsu-sensei isn't happy with the early scanlation releases of UQ Holder. Hata put out the notice that Akamatsu-sensei has been tweeting as such on October 7. Check out a couple of tweets (in Japanese ) here and here.

Whether the Japanese try for a massive crackdown or not remains to be seen.

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.

UQ Holder Chapter 6 SPOILER Images (Update #1)

OK, here's the first SPOILER image from the upcoming UQ Holder chapter 6.

*SPOILERS*

Eva-sama? Man.  Kinda reminded me of some scenes in Hayate the Combat Butler or Urusei Yatsura with the large staff on either side. I wonder if this means their days of walking are over.

*lol* I just love the look on Touta's face here.

Well, that answers that I guess. ^_^;;;

Thanks to Southrop for the excellent shares. ^_^

Update #1: I missed this one earlier. Blame it on the rain. ^_~

Hmmmm.

Again, thanks to Soutrop. ^_^ If anyone has more, let me know.