Magical Guys and Girls Collide!
- Episodes : 12
- Genre : Action, Sci-fi, Magic, Fantasy, Shounen
- Airing Date : Oct, 2017- Dec, 2017
- Studios : J.C. Staff
Contains Spoilers
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 Introduction and Story (Spoilers)
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 follows the story of a young boy called Touta Konoe who wants to find his place in the world. The way Touta wants to start this process is by defeating his teacher/guardian Yukihime. Despite Touta and his pals’ best efforts, the voluptuous Yukihime defeats Touta showing that he needs to grow as a warrior and a person if he wishes to defeat her. However, Touta doesn’t realize that Yukihime has more to her than he knows. This is where UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 changes dramatically. One of Touta’s teachers attacks Yukihime and when he tries to defend her, Touta is literally sliced in half.
Nearly dead, Touta is met by Yukihime who seems to give him a strange power. Despite the damage he took that should have been fatal, Touta finds his body fixed and back at full health. Touta then is able to survive the fight and even help defeat his one teacher who attacked him and Yukihime. Touta learns he has immortality now and that Yukihime is actual an immortal herself who changed her name from Evangeline McDowell to Yukihime to hide herself as she looked after Touta who lost his parents in a tragic car accident. From here, we see Touta go off with the now outed Yukihime to venture towards her hidden area. Along the way, Touta meets a friend/initial enemy named Kuroumaru Tokisaka who tries to defeat Yukihime but is bested by Touta and is then forced to become his friend as a condition for losing the fight.
By episode 4 of UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2, several elements of the show are revealed to the audience. The first is that Yukihime is actually leader of a group called UQ Holder which are immortals with different powers teaming up together to stop evil. We also begin to see Touta learn some of his power and even gain the important weapon known as the Gravity Blade. However, Touta’s true powers start revealing themselves by episode 5 where, after learning the flash step from a man named Kaito,—who is an enemy unbeknownst to Touta— Kaito fights Touta alongside several other assassins. Despite being nearly dead, Touta is able to activate a powerful form using a dark latent power called Magia Erebea. This won’t be the last time Touta uses this form—we see it appear a few times more—but this is where fans of the UQ Holder! manga begin to see some correlation with Touta and his apparent grandfather Negi Springfield.
In episode 8, we see a familiar face from both Negima! and the UQ Holder! manga series called Fate Averruncus. Fate’s mission is to kidnap Touta and use his powers for his organization—which we never learn what their main mission is to be exact—by any means necessary. Luckily, thanks to UQ Holder Numbers Karin Yuuki,—who we know a lot about at this point—Ikkuu Ameya, and Kirie Sakurame, they are able to trap Fate and make him reveal some important details like what happened to Negi Springfield really and the concepts of Touta not being just a mere grandson. UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 skips a lot to get to this point, mind you, but it does a good job of keeping things making sense even to those who have no previous knowledge of either Negima! or UQ Holder!
Episodes 10-12 are where the story reaches the climax. The audience learns more about Yukihime’s past, her love for Negi and possible signs she feels the same towards Touta, even though in the last episode she does reject him. Though what made these last three episodes so incredible was seeing the fights that took place. Originally, Touta—who had become a fill in for the Majora Fighting Tournament—fights a young warrior and is happy to test his skills. However, the grave reality of Touta’s opponent is that she’s actually apparently like Touta, a clone of Negi. To make matters worse, Negi appears with some of his students from the past and begins to do battle with Touta and the other UQ Holder Numbers. There are some dark moments in the final episode with Kirie being tormented by Touta’s “sister,” who we know by now is named Tena Vita, but that’s why the last episode few episodes really made UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 so engaging. Though Touta’s fight with Negi was amazing, too, and ended with a draw of sorts thanks to Asuna Kagurazaka hailing from Negima! UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 ends with a possible season 2 opening though there is no confirmation of this in any form.
What We Liked About UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 had a lot going for it for fans of the manga and newcomers alike. Within 13 episodes, there was tons of action, ecchi, harem and magical fights to keep anyone—including us here at Honey’s Anime—thoroughly entertained. The animation was handled incredibly well thanks to J.C. Staff who is known for great shows like Shokugeki no Souma, Toradora! and Shakugan no Shana to name a few. We especially love some of the more iconic fights we remember from the UQ Holder! manga like Touta versus Kaito or even when we saw Kuroumaru reveal the genderless nature that he/she tried to avoid showing. UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 was a fun anime that truly felt enjoyable despite the onslaught of shows that came out this fall 2017 season.
Discussion Time
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 isn’t perfect we’re going to start off this discussion by saying that. There are several problems with UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 — that we will discuss in greater detail down below—but what UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 does right is enough to appeal to viewers of the genres it contains. There are tons of cool action scenes, some ecchi scenes, and even a harem element in UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 thanks to this being a direct sequel to Negima! and being written by Ken Akamatsu. Manga fans, don’t go into UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 thinking this will be the perfect adaptation of the UQ Holder! manga series. Go into UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 with an open mind so you can see some of the best fights from the UQ Holder! manga animated and to see what essentially is a continuation to Negima!
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is geared for two audiences. The first are those who love action shows with plenty of magic and supernatural combat. The other is for those who like some ecchi in their magic anime. UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 has a lot going for it and we can prove that to you folks. Down below are three reasons you should pick up UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2. While it might not be perfectly adapted like the manga, it still does an adequate job of capturing what we loved in the UQ Holder! manga series.
1. Tons of magical action
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is labeled as a magic, shounen and action show, thus it should be expected to have tons of it, right? Luckily, UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 does indeed have a lot of amazing fights and magical scenes. Touta and his comrades go into numerous fights together that are both brutal and pretty visceral. Characters get sliced up and even cut in half numerous time. Expect a lot of blood, shounen-like fights and tons of large scale fights.
2. Ecchi but not too much
For those who know the mangaka of the UQ Holder! manga—Ken Akamatsu—you know that UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is going to have some ecchi moments. Even in the first 3 minutes of episode one, we see a flashback of Negi from Negima! sneezing and blowing off the clothes of his female students. This should already show you that UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is going to have some ecchi scenes. Though, for those who don’t like too much ecchi, don’t worry too much. UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 doesn’t contain hundreds of ecchi scenes—which is rare for Akamatsu’s style—there is still enough to enjoy for ecchi fans and Negima! fans as well.
3. Interesting story and characters
Even if you go into UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 without any previous knowledge of Negima!—the animation or manga—and the UQ Holder! manga, there’s still an awesome and fun story thanks to the great cast of characters. Besides Touta being an awesome—if not sometimes cliché — hero, Yukihime, Kuroumaru and various others are truly unique and fun to witness. The idea behind immortals with such different powers like Kirie’s ability to save and restart time at past checkpoints or Karen’s powerful immortality are interesting and make you want to read further into the story.
While UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 does to make for one enjoyable series, it does have several pretty big failings. Due to this, we can’t say everyone will love UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2, even those who considers themselves fans of the previous series it’s based off of. Below, we have several examples of what UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 does wrong and why it might be hard to justify watching it. These examples don’t mean we hate UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 mind you though. Just things to be weary of if you decided to start UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2.
1. Skips a lot of the manga
Many fans of anime adaptations—including us here at Honey’s Anime—worry if they will take the manga of a series and use the source material that we’ve come to know and love. UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2, unfortunately, does an okay job of keeping main elements of the UQ Holder! manga in check but falls victim to not doing a good job preserving a lot of the material covered in the manga. There are noticeable chapters absent and even characters absent, like Santa Sasaki who should have made an appearance but didn’t in UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2. To make matters worse, this causes another big issue to overcome UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2. That part is mentioned in our next issue with UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2.
2. Rushed ending
At only 13 episodes, UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 rushes the final section and does it pretty noticeably to fans and even those not caught up with the manga. The tournament sequence should have introduced more portions of story and even allowed for more revelations for Touta but are completely non-existent in UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2. Even the concept of Touta’s participation in the tournament is done vastly different. In the UQ Holder! manga, Touta is actually asked to join by Afro—another character we don’t meet in UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2—but instead, he’s asked to be a fill in. Then when the fight reaches a really great apex, it abruptly ends and leaves us wanting more. For those who want a truly fleshed out story and want a proper manga adaption, UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 won’t do it unfortunately and that does make us quite sad here at Honey’s Anime.
3. Over way too fast
Since we mentioned the ending was rushed, we really felt UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 could have used more episodes. Not only would there have been more character development but the issues above could have been avoided. Here at Honey’s Anime, we believe that if UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 was at least 24 episodes, the problems above wouldn’t even be a thing. This doesn’t mean UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 was poorly done per say. Though the lack of episodes meant J.C. Staff had to really condense several volumes into 13 episodes. That’s why we know for a fact manga fans of UQ Holder! weren’t too happy with UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 and we can completely understand why.
Final Thoughts
UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is truly a good show and adaptation/sequel to Negima! which is a good thing for fans of both. We loved the action, ecchi scenes and story as well as the characters. However, the lack of episodes makes UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 feel rushed at times and thus, skips a lot of the manga. There are even characters that are removed from UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 completely which hurts to be honest. Though at the end of the day, UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 is an enjoyable anime and we know many of you who loved Negima! and UQ Holder! will still find enjoyment to be had. Have you seen UQ Holder!: Mahou Sensei Negima! 2 yet? Comment down below to let us know and as always for all your anime review needs keep stuck to us here at Honey’s Anime!
Author: Aaron
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