UQ Holder! by Ken Akamatsu

[Gilthwixt]

"Near-future battle fantasy" follows boy in a world that became aware of magic a decade earlier

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2000990

I don't know if anyone else in TBA was a fan of Negima like I was, but I am personally freaking the fuck out. There is no way this series is not a poorly disguised Negima sequel.

[rtil]

i'm not familiar with negima personally

[Gilthwixt]

That's a surprise. I feel like you and much of TBA would've been all over that series when it was running, but maybe I'm just biased.

Backstory: Mahou Sensei Negima! started out as a harem series not unlike Akamatsu's earlier work. The premise was: "A 10 year old wizard from Wales is assigned to teach English to middle school girls in Japan". Unlike most harem leads, Negi is too young and too British to be thinking of his students that way, and in early chapters it was mostly light-hearted ecchi slapstick, with a bit of action here and there (like the last third of Love Hina)

Around the 50th chapter, the action started featuring more and more until the series was 60% Action-Adventure, 40% Romantic Comedy.  It became clear that this was Akamatsu's intention from the start, but his prominence as a Harem author forced him to pitch the series in that genre.

What started out with silly, ecchi dodgeball matches in chapter 6...



...went on to have full on Budokai tournaments around chapter 100...



...to life-or-death battles with mercenaries around chapter 200.



A lot of people hated the change, but I think what made the series so fun was that there was something for everyone. It became a self-aware, tongue-in-cheek homage to the shounen and harem genres in general. Just about every trope you could think of was pulled out and lampshaded. Each of the 30-something girls in Negi's class had a background or ability that represented a different archetype; the in-world mechanic of unlocking latent abilities was "kissing in a magic ritual", so the romance and action interact as each girl is eventually dragged into Negi's double life as a wizard on a dangerous quest. And unlike most Shounen I'm familiar with, Akamatsu took great care in explaining the science and mechanics of the supernatural elements in the series. Many of the spells and creatures are taken from languages and folklore from all over the world, and there a number of references to popular culture.

[rtil]

hm well i really don't read manga so that's probably why. 30 characters sounds like a little too much as well.

[BluPhoenix]

i liked the love hina manga a lot

didn't really care for negima tho

[Evelynn]

i liked the love hina manga a lot

didn't really care for negima tho

same,
well actually I didn't really give negima a chance. I was kind of disappointed to see that all the girls in the story were fawning over some young kid whereas in love hina keitaro got wrecked as a daily theme just out of unfortunate timing and misunderstandings and I guess I just missed that type of humor hina brought to the table.

[soup]

the premise of negima is ridiculous, but thats why i like it, and a lot of other manga/anime

that being said, akamatsu still draws a pretty interesting story with some cool characters out of it. i can appreciate that

[Gilthwixt]

hm well i really don't read manga so that's probably why. 30 characters sounds like a little too much as well.

I would tell you to watch the anime(s) instead but they pretty much gutted any of the action that balanced out the series. And yeah, there are a lot of characters, it gets to be like game of thrones or wheel of time with the number you have to keep track of, but it's a slow a build. It starts with a core group and more people become central to the plot over time.

i liked the love hina manga a lot

didn't really care for negima tho

same,
well actually I didn't really give negima a chance. I was kind of disappointed to see that all the girls in the story were fawning over some young kid whereas in love hina keitaro got wrecked as a daily theme just out of unfortunate timing and misunderstandings and I guess I just missed that type of humor hina brought to the table.

How far did you guys get? It has a bit of an identity crisis until the end of the school field trip arc, but it really comes together. I posted mostly shounen examples up top but the humor is definitely there, and even though it takes on more of an adventure feel there's plenty of romantic comedy and slapstick mixed in. Negi's magic sometimes goes haywire causing him to shred everyone's clothes, and Asuna send him flying for it Naru style. While he's mostly too innocent to get into trouble like that there are plenty of other characters that aren't. Chamo-kun is always taking a beating for being a perv, and you'd probably like Jack Rakan. He breaks out of a supposedly inescapable dimension through a combination of panty stealing and sheer force of will.

[Gilthwixt]

Speaking of Love Hina, I get the feeling that we'll be seeing quite a few cameo appearances from Love Hina characters and/or their children in UQ Holder. Most of the sword wielders in Negima learned Shinmei-Ryu from Motoko's sister, who appeared in flashbacks several times throughout the series (the possessed Hina blade belonging to Keitaro's family also showed up), and Naru's stepsister was actually a recurring character too, so we know it's the same universe.

And because of the way Negima ended:

[spoiler]time-travel and dimension hopping are both entirely possible. I'm starting to wonder whether or not Akamatsu might pull a "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle" like CLAMP did with Card Captor Sakura, and have characters from alternate-verse Love Hina and Negima show up as allies or mentor figures.[/spoiler]

[BluPhoenix]

my library has pretty much the entire series, but i kind of lost interest at book 5.

oddly enough, i never got bored of gto

[Evelynn]

How far did you guys get? It has a bit of an identity crisis until the end of the school field trip arc, but it really comes together. I posted mostly shounen examples up top but the humor is definitely there, and even though it takes on more of an adventure feel there's plenty of romantic comedy and slapstick mixed in. Negi's magic sometimes always goes haywire causing him to shred everyone's clothes, and Asuna the new Naru which is an entirely different character sends him flying for it Naru style. While he's mostly too innocent to get into trouble like that there are plenty of other characters that aren't. Chamo-kun is always taking a beating for being a perv, and you'd probably like Jack Rakan. He breaks out of a supposedly inescapable dimension through a combination of panty stealing and sheer force of will.

I read the first and possibly second manga (maybe even third? I dunno it was years ago).
also... fixed

[rtil]

does it finally get good by page 3,000? [spoiler]like homestuck?[/spoiler]

[BluPhoenix]

wasn't that picture phoenixpix completely traced just a calendar photo of asuna
[spoiler]yes[/spoiler]

[rtil]

This has gone from WRong to down right pathetic assholes and I don't mean all of you. I'd like to see all of you who take a discuss towards my picture to come up of something better so I can be the judge of em. You fucking low life trash asses go outta your way to do this is just dumb. OwneD? Ryan, let's take a look at your drawings shall we? Are you gay? Or are you obsessed with dicks? Either way your GAY!!!! And you owned yourself when you decided to pick up that pencil and start drawing you gay bastard. SinitronBone. I can give a fuck less about your Hoe B-cube okay?! For all we know she's cheating on your ass! And Grinace you better keep trying cause your not getting there!!

If your art sucks and you want to just hate BETTER people's art then I can understand.

[Gilthwixt]

This has gone from WRong to down right pathetic assholes and I don't mean all of you. I'd like to see all of you who take a discuss towards my picture to come up of something better so I can be the judge of em. You fucking low life trash asses go outta your way to do this is just dumb. OwneD? Ryan, let's take a look at your drawings shall we? Are you gay? Or are you obsessed with dicks? Either way your GAY!!!! And you owned yourself when you decided to pick up that pencil and start drawing you gay bastard. SinitronBone. I can give a fuck less about your Hoe B-cube okay?! For all we know she's cheating on your ass! And Grinace you better keep trying cause your not getting there!!

If your art sucks and you want to just hate BETTER people's art then I can understand.

This is the first thing I see clicking into the thread and I had absolutely no context. That trace was pretty shit though.

does it finally get good by page 3,000? [spoiler]like homestuck?[/spoiler]

No, only 1000 pages in 

[Gilthwixt]

1st chapter is out http://readms.com/r/uq_holder/1/2026/1