Ken Akamatsu releases a new Manga!

UQ Holder

Ken Akamatsu, creator of Love Hina and Negima! has just released a new manga called UQ Holder! which is basically Negima!: The Next Generation. It takes place in the Negima! setting about 10 years after the world became aware of the existence of magic and centers around Negi’s grandson who has been living a sheltered country life and must now go out into the real (future) world.

Having read the first 80-page “chapter” of the story, I have to say that I don’t actually like it that much. It’s really typical, and while I thought I’d like the tie-ins with Negima! (which I liked overall) I found they weighed the story down more than boosted it. Negima! had a very whimsical and organic feel to it, but this story feels very forced and like Akamatsu is trying too hard to harness both the Negima! setting and fan base and start something new at the same time. It’s hard to explain without spoiling it, so you’ll just have to check it out and make your own decisions.

I will say that it was very clear during Negima! that Akamatsu was a guy doing a romantic comedy/harem book that desperately wanted to be doing a fantasy-action book instead. At least this time he’s doing what he wants, but ironically, not having the character-driven romantic-comedy story as a base might turn out to be this story’s downfall. He just doesn’t seem to be very good at doing “real” shonen-type battle stories without them devolving into clichés.

As a side-note, Negima! ends without us knowing who Negi finally marries (likely the editors wouldn’t let him pick since it might hurt future collection sales), but to those paying attention this story now more or less tells us the answer with a 50% chance of being correct. (Which might not seem certain, but when you consider the odds were formally about 1 in 30, that’s a pretty big jump!)

Rob

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