UQ Holder! Review
UQ Holder! was originally a manga written by Ken Akamatsu, and acts as a sequel to his popular Negima! series. Fans of the manga versions of the latter know the pain of incorrect anime adaptations as the Negima! anime infamously deviated heavily from the manga in plot, while the second anime series (titled Negima!?) not only shifted the tone and the storyline a bit, but featured different character designs all together! So then it’s sadly quite fitting that UQ Holder!’s anime adaptation also suffers greatly, though for an entirely different reason…
But before I get to that, let’s take a look at the series. UQ Holder! follows the exploits of Tota Konoe, the grandson of Negima! protagonist Negi Springfield, as he gets turned into a vampire by Yukihime (actually Evangeline from Negima!) in order to save his life. Now immortal, Tota gets introduced to Yukihime’s UQ Holder group and learns to control his new magical powers. In case you’re wondering (because I know I did!) the group name, and indeed the show name, comes from the Japanese symbol for eternity being pronounced “Yukyu”, so it sort of makes sense…? Anyway, we then get Tota meeting other members of the group, each with their own unique powers and often predictable personalities, plus a bit of harem thrown in for good measure (but not nearly as much as in Akamatsu’s previous work) The group soon has to face down immortal hunters, demons and mages, all with very brief backstories, if they get any at all…
Yes, this is the main problem with UQ Holder! the anime; it takes a good chunk of manga and tries to adapt it in 12 episodes. How much you ask? I looked it up and it’s nearly 140 chapters’ worth, judging by chapter titles! Just twelve episodes, and they even added new material in for some reason (so I’ve read…) It gives you very little time to actually get invested in anything, as characters and plots whiz by, sometimes leaving things out and assuming that you’ve read the manga and know about a subplot a character mentions in passing. It may not change the plot or redesign the characters, but UQ Holder! suffers from a bad adaptation in a new and just as disappointing way…
The series is full of humour as well as action, and while I don’t particularly lean towards the kind of “magically blowing all the clothes off of the girls” kind of humour any more, it’s not too bad here (and does make the show tie strongly into its prequel series…) and the harem-style scenarios aren’t very frequent. Again, my opinion, if those genres appeal, then you’ll be set, unless you don’t like a lot of action and occasional bloody violence, in which case the other part of the show will keep you away (or, you know, the whole frantic pace thing…) The lead is likeable, and his immediate friends are just about enjoyable enough to make you care about the sudden series of events happening to them.
Kuromaru Tokisaka, the old enemy-turned-ally, is probably the most interesting member of the cast, being from a genderless tribe of demi-humans that settle into a gender at around 16, be it from will or surroundings. It leads to a few jokes early on, thanks to Kuromaru wishing to be addressed as a boy, but his feelings towards our protagonist soon lead to her developing into a female… it’s an odd scenario, but it at least doesn’t completely make a joke out of what is an obvious analogy of teenage hormones and sexuality.
The English dub ranges from decent to cringey, with Tota in particular sounding like Ash Ketchum’s slightly more enthusiastic younger brother, which I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not (in the original Japanese version he’s also extremely enthusiastic and naive-sounding, so maybe it’s just the whole ‘being able to better understand different tones in your native language’ thing rather than the dub’s fault…) and Yukihime/Evangeline at least has an inoffensive British accent that otherwise could have crossed over into stereotype. Overall it’s a dub that if that’s your preferred method of watching you won’t be disappointed, though you may find yourself disliking the lead character rather than finding him amusing…
There isn’t much to say about the animation or soundtrack. They’re both fine, but neither are note-worthy, they just do their job as best they can. The series’ opening theme is “Happy☆Material” by Touta Konoe, a cover of one of the original Negima! openings, while the ending is “Steady→GO!!”, also by Touta Konoe and band mates. The extras are clean openings and endings, plus three OVA episodes (one of which at least shows us one of the mentioned but not animated side-stories from the manga…)
Overall UQ Holder! has its moments, both in humour and action, but is far too frantically paced to be really enjoyable. You just can’t invest in any of the characters or scenarios because they pop up so frequently and end so swiftly. They’re essentially adapting nearly 15 volumes of manga into a singe 12-episode anime; all you have to do is look at any manga you may have on your shelf that reaches that far and think about how much content that would be and you’ll realise the problem with UQ Holder! It’s a series that you can get some enjoyment out of, especially if you’re familiar with the original work and see it as a nicely animated recap, but it’s probably not worth going out of your way to track down…
