Nooooo....
I was a huge Mahou Sensei Negima fan, but the harem and fanservice aspects to the last series were always things that I tolerated about it. One thing I liked about about UQ Holder was that it was clearly moving away from those genres, despite a handful of obligatory bath scenes and stripping scattered throughout the first ninety chapters. Kirie's crush on Touta I thought was interesting because it was never in our face and Kuromaru's relation to him was always played for laughs so it rarely came to attention, however as of the last few chapters a more typical harem is clearly starting to form and I really, really don't want to see that happen. At least in Negima they were upfront with it in the first chapter, but you can't just dump in a harem 100 chapters in. I suppose Negima did something similar with the shounen battle genre, although at least in that case we had 2-3 arcs of build up leading to it so we barely noticed any sudden shift. I might take it better if the newly (re)introduced love interests were more 3D dimensional - unfortunately they seem like pretty typical harem characters at this point. I have hopes for Shinobu, but right now I don't care about Mizore at all.
I don't particularly want to see the Touta-Kuroumaru ship happen, though I don't mind the rethinking of their relationship becoming a core part of the latter's character development. But come on, in true clueless-harem fashion this was clearly how this confession was going to go down. Kuroumaru has become such a satellite character for Touta since his introduction, and the author seems intent on keeping the status-quo. At least he's come to terms with his feelings here; I just hope he doesn't spend another hundred chapters before deciding to deal with them. If he decides to pursue them, I also hope he doesn't feel obligated to become female just because he likes Touta despite considering himself male. There's nothing wrong with a gay relationship, and this is the future so it's not like reproduction would really be an issue as Touta's own existence proves.
Has Touta really surpassed Karin? Even if they're on around the same level now, I'm surprised given how far she seemed to be from him just an arc or two ago and that Dana made it clear Touta wasn't even close to finishing her training course. And, of course, he wins with the obligatory stripping move (though knowing her she's still gonna fight). This is going to be a regular thing with him, isn't it? Like grandfather like grandson, I guess.
Just what is this idea of Touta's? He's been reeking confidence ever since the last story arc finished (which I did enjoy), and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I thought he matured, but he still seems like your run-of-the-mill idiot hero. I thought his total disinterest in fighting or getting stronger were his most unique traits, and in losing those he's possibly become even more cliche.
Really, I just want to get the Mahora Tournament under way (the author might be saving that for the big 100, though). The as-of-yet unutilized Ayaka might be swooping in as a sponsor to cover the entry fee, which would disappoint me a little as I wanted to see a return to the Prelim tournament even if it was just to make waves. Touta's really hogged the spotlight recently, so I hope other characters get their time in the spotlight soon.
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