UQ Holder! Vol. 1

Beware, spoilers below!I've been a huge fan of Ken Akamatsu ever since his hit work Love Hina. I fell even more in love with his work Negima!, to the point I bought up every single volume and obsessed over how much detail he poured into it. Not only that, there was the amazing drawings of fights that would take up pages, leaving you wanting more and more, and more and more he provided, going from a small scale battle in a lake to one on Mars, fighting for the fate of the entire magical world. It kept me hooked from beginning (like after volume 4 it gets good I swear!) to end, and I was honestly disappointed in the manner in which it ended. I looked up the controversy surrounding it, and found out a lot that I will not discuss here.What I will discuss is UQ Holder though! It is a continuation from one of the timelines derived from the Negima endings, one in which many people assume *spoilers, you have been warned* Asuna had not returned from her slumber on Mars, and one in which Negi has died despite being immortal.We see this new story start with the immortal vampire Evangeline A.K. McDowell, telling us the loneliness of being an immortal, and how this story is of those that banded together despite the curse of everlasting life. After this, we are introduced to Touta Konoe, seemingly descended from the Konoe family and Negi himself, as well as his friends and caretaker, Yukihime. He does not remember much, though we can already guess that he holds a lot of potential within him due to his lineage. Some things happen, and he ends up having to become a vampire through Evangeline (Yukihime). Because of this, they must leave their home, and along the way meet up with a swordsman of the Shinmei school (Setsuna reference for the win!) Kuromaru Tokisaka. Without revealing too much, they finally meet the organization UQ Holder, and boy are they...eccentric toward their leader.I hope you see that I loved this work already. I already placed the second on preorder and am in love with all the nods towards the characters of Negima! Let's meet again in the next volume!

The <i>Negima!</i> manga franchise had a really badly-written end due to some wrangling in the Japanese parliament. Basically, media industries over there want to have their companies gain greater control over the characters in their products as the comics' companies in the US have. Many authors, fearing loss of the creative control over their stories ended them prematurely. Ken Akamatsu, creator of <i>Negima!</i> was one such author. Therefore, he rushed an end to the series, which really upset fans as it just wasn't very good.After the bill mentioned above failed in the Japanese parliament, Akamatsu decided to revisit the Negi universe, this time through the eyes of immortal vampire Evangeline from the original series, and her ward, Negi's grandson Touta.<i>UQ Holder!</i> begins two years after Evangeline, now going by the name Yukihime, became Touta's guardian. Following some tragedy which everyone thinks was a car accident, Evangeline took Touta in and he lost his memories of before that point. This doubtless will become a major plot point later on.Touta has some big, but largely indeterminate dreams. They are really quite vague. He just knows he wants to go places, do things, sing, other stuff. Really, my description is not that far off how vaguely he himself describes his dreams. At first, Evangeline doesn't want him to leave the small rural town where they live, but events change that.Those events are Evangeline having no choice but to sire Touta as a vampire to save both their lives when he is nearly killed by an evil bounty hunter. The newly-vampirized Touta saves the day, but now is an immortal vampire.They decide to leave town and start anew somewhere else where folks won't know their secrets. Somewhere they can have peace from those who would want to harm vampires and other immortal people. Thus the adventure begins.This is kinda fun to see the two characters play off of each other. They are such opposites. She's a really old female vampire, and he's a young, brand-new male vampire. She is jaded and tired of immortality, while he thinks immortality is great. She is gruff and stern, with a hidden heart of gold, and he is kind and very trusting, but can be <i>very</i> tough when the need arises. Each one really is what the other needs.This dynamic between the two, and allies they meet along the way, is at the heart of the story. It is what makes it worth reading. Oh, it has lots of action, and, in the beginning, probably too much gore (though that stops quickly enough to a typical shonen level). But that's not what makes the story so riveting. Their familial bond of love does. It is quite funny and heart-warming all at the same time.Highly Recommended.-----A quick note about the title. The letters “UQ” are translated from the Japanese kanji for the word meaning “eternity”. The title <i>UQ Holder!</i> literally means <i>Eternity Holder</i>, which refers to the main characters' immortality.

So yeah tota the main character dies then turn into a vampire but he will be an immortal kid so yeah he will be a kid for the rest of his life kinda funny there but anyway the book is good and of course he is related to negi springfield so yeah all that power is inside him this will be a good story because i just finish reading all the volumes book of negima! so this will be continue to the future its a good start there.

Tôta Konoe has been living in an isolated country village for the last two years after a car accident killed his parents and gave him amnesia. Raised by the mysterious and strict teacher Yukihime, Tôta dreams of nothing more than to travel to the capital and clime the space elevator to seek his fortune with his friend. When a bounty hunter comes to town however, Tôta's life is turned upside down and he is forced to make a choice that will change his life forever.'UQ Holder!' is the latest (and possibly last) series by Ken Akamatsu and is set in the same world as his previous series 'Negima!', around seventy to eighty years later. Although you don't need to have read 'Negima!' to understand this series, it probably does help somewhat and there are a number of references to the previous series here and there. The main theme of this series is immortality and it is quite interesting how it explores the natures of its different forms.This fist volume is mostly just setting things up for the series, introducing three of the main characters (Tôta, Yukihime and Kurômaru) and giving some information on the current state of the world. Of the main characters Tôta is probably the weakest being the closest Akamatsu has ever got to a standard shônen main character (something that has annoyed some fans) but I still think he has some good points, even if he is an idiot most of the time. My favourite character from this volume though is probably Kurômaru who has a humorously serious personality and interesting character design.The artwork for the series is of typical Akamatsu style, although there is less in the way of fanservice than in some of his previous series. As with many of Akamatsu's previous works, he does reuse some character designs (Kurômaru is very similar to Setsuna Sakurazaki) but anyone who has read his work should be used to that by now. The fighting is nicely drawn, and is probably a little bloodier than in the majority of 'Negima!', with the battle at the end of the first chapter being particularly good.The translation of the chapter is relatively good (although I do have a few minor issues with some things) with the Japanese honorifics intact. There are some translation notes but rather than put them in the back of the book as some series do, they are done as bullet points on the relevant page.Many 'Negima!' fans were disappointed about how that series ended and this has led some to look unfavourably on this series as well and while I still greatly enjoy this series, even I would say it isn't quite as good as its predecessor. Despite this though, I do think this first volume shows a lot of promise and I feel it has a better pacing when read as collected volume than it does when read weekly. Overall I feel this first volume is worth a low five stars but five nonetheless.

If you liked Negima you’ll love this. Fantastic manga so far, I love the characters, the story and the refined Akamatsu art style. Just don’t read it on a crowded train, it still has occasional fan service...

At first I wasn't sure if this was a knock off or a scam but as I read I laughed, got excited and thought "wow" from start to finish then I knew it's a proper Ken Akamatsu book.I noticed some characters from previous titles (I won't say which) and I can't wait to see the next UQ Holder.

negima and love hina are two of Ken akamatsu series but UQ holder is just as great none stop comedy an action well worth a read you will thoroughly enjoy

Interesting idea for a follow on. Some characters revised but with different mechanic. More gore than negima but still some light hearted banter. Some fan service but low key