UQ Holder Volume 2
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Ken Akamatsu
Translation/Adaptation: Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley
What They Say:
Yukihime brings Tota and Kuromaru to UQ Holder HQ where they meet a whole team of immortals like them. As new recruits, they are shown a cold shoulder. To earn respect and become full-fledged members of UQ Holder, they must first pass a test. Without any warning, Tota and Kuromaru are dropped into a murky underground maze. Their mission: to escape from this dark, monster-infested maze in eight years. Tota says he’ll get out in a week. Can Tota beat the odds?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Almost one year ago, Crunchyroll announced they’d be broadening their spectrum of content to manga. To start, they have 12 titles including the marquee Attack on Titan. But among them was UQ Holder, a then-little-known manga spin-off of Negima! At the time, Kodansha had just announced the license to the physical release of the manga at New York Comic Con. I don’t remember hearing much talkback about it at the time, but I don’t know how many Ken Akamatsu fans I know.
Ken Akamatsu, for those that don’t know, did Love Hina and Negima! prior to UQ Holder.
While UQ Holder is a spin-off of Negima!, it thus far hasn’t needed any prior knowledge of Negima! to enjoy it. Its main character, Tota, isn’t even someone who would be alive when Negima! took place as far as I can tell. His mentor, however, definitely was alive during Negima! She’s our favorite 700-year-old vampire named Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell (voiced brilliantly by Laura Bailey in the dub!). Her presence by the second volume is largely secondary and, in fact, she doesn’t appear for a good portion of the book.
The book instead focuses on Tota and his companion Kuromaru (he’s a hermaphrodite who chooses or gets chosen his gender at 16; I use he because he insists he will become a man). Tota is your typical shonen protagonist as he picks up the chi moves pretty quickly and he picks up the magical future sword that’s not Excalibur but is clearly alluding to it. He’s the proverbial chosen one for something.
That’s where I draw problems with the comic. I wonder in what direction its going. At first, we get defeat Yukihime (actually Evangeline) and then the eight month trial of get out of this magic well. After that, it’s been largely directionless, focusing instead on the immediate concern (save the orphanage) rather than an ongoing narrative. If there is any ongoing narrative, it’s just that there are people who want to kill immortals.
Character designs will look exactly like Love Hina and Negima! Ken Akamatsu is still drawing them, after all. There are your ecchi moments (girls just can’t seem to keep their clothes on!), but they’re not so prescient that they’re bothersome.
In Summary:
These first two volumes seem to be coming along at a snail’s pace, but they certainly don’t lack entertainment. Characterization is a little lacking now as the focus is more thrust onto the story of the day. Volume one had some cool characterization with Tota, specifically regarding him becoming a vampire. I’m hoping for more stuff like that in the near future.
We only got volume two in for review, but you can check out all that’s currently available on either side of the Pacific on Crunchyroll manga, if you have the subscription (that’s where I read volume one).
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: July 8th, 2014
MSRP: $10.99
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