Saturday, December 19, 2015

UQ Holder 106 Review

I haven't cared much for the last couple chapters. I like Kirie a lot, and I appreciate the characterization we got of her, but this whole time freeze thing seems like a completely wasted opportunity. 4 months pass in the span of two pages, and literally all that happens is that Touta trains nonstop while Kirie is holed up in her room all depressed. Maybe it was necessary to drive Kirie to the edge so that she would finally open up to Touta, but frankly I wasn't very interested in the recent harem building to begin with and just found it boring.

Yet again, despite being fresh with character development from the last arc, Touta just comes off as bland here. I guess I have to give props for him becoming less of a stereotypical shounen idiot hero, but this 'maturing' has just made him completely boring while still keeping most of his flaws. The only thing I found interesting about him now is his relationship with Yukihime, but even that is getting drowned out by the sudden harem (and, of course, he's completely clueless). Tie that with the fact that it doesn't seem likely to me that any of these numerous relationships are likely to go anywhere anytime soon, and honestly I have to say that I think I prefered the old Touta. He was cliche, yes, but at least he was still a little interesting.

I did like what we heard of Kirie's past, as brief as it was. Although it makes me wonder how she even got that unique power of hers considering how comparatively ordinary the household she was born into seemed to be. Maybe she was experimented on somehow? I always theorized that she might be related to Negima's Chisame in some way, but considering her terrible upbringing I've reconsidered that. Chisame was one of the more jerkish members of 3A, but there's no way she would  neglect a child to the point of death (or allow someone related to her to).

The way all of this time freeze stuff gets resolved is just too easy, and just reinforces my opinion that this was all meaningless. There's so much potential for a plot like this, and it all seems squandered in the way it played out. The method in which its resolved (a kiss) also seems out of left field, because there's never been any indication that her ability worked anything like that. At the very end Kirie shouts something like 'Forget It Ever Happened!', which sums up my opinion on how much this is going to matter in the long run. Well, maybe this is going to become a regular power of hers later on.






Monday, December 7, 2015

Tower of God S2 Ep. 179

It's been awhile since I've been this hyped for a Tower of God Chapter. Spoiler warning, as I'm cutting straight to the chase - the combined form of Hoaqin and his four siblings is in fact the Slayer White. Not a Slayer Candidate like Bam, but a full blown Slayer.

As White is almost undoubtedly a High Ranker, if the five of them successfully combine then the heroes will have almost no chance of winning. As OP as Bam is himself for a regular, facing a slayer at this point in his journey would be like, in One Piece terms, a Shichibukai showing up in East Blue. Then again, the previous irregular Urek was said to have fought the 5th ranked Ranker (and very likely the father of Hoaqin and siblings whose unreachable strength drove them into fusing in the first place) Arie Hon on even grounds when he was still in the regular stage himself. Urek was on the 100th Floor at the time while Bam is still just below the 40th. If Bam had completed his training with the God of Guardians then maybe he would have unlocked his full potential immediately and stood a chance? Maybe Bam will pull something off, though, and actually manage to stand up against him. If I had to guess, though, I think Yuri will step in if White does indeed appear.

Considering how far Daniel is going to revive his former nakama Roen, is he really going to let his other former nakama get killed by Anna in the process? Although Roen was probably the most special to him. Daniel has already been skirting the line between both sides to achieve his interests, but I don't know if he would outright turn against Hoaqin.

Judging by the voice that comes from the White Heavenly Mirror, Wangnan and Vicente's group must have acquired another of the siblings over the last month. If so, then that leaves only one of the five unaccounted for. As the voice says that someone is nearby, it makes me wonder if they are en-route to acquire the fifth as well.

I can't be the only one that has found Vicente incredibly suspicious ever since he convinced Wangnan to release him from the mirror. While he might have some disagreements with Hoaqin, he seemed to forgive Wangnan much too easily for that.