Let Ken be Ken, I say…

As I’ve noted many times over, UQ Holder really has no damn business being as good an anime as it is.  This week should be a low ebb for me – this is where the best arc in the manga (it would have made perfect sense in Christmas season, too) was supposed to start.  Instead, we had what I think could only be called a massive timeskip – oh, about 70 chapters.  It really shouldn’t make any damn sense, but miraculously, it does.  Is that because I’ve read the manga – would a new viewer be totally confused by what’s happening here?  Obviously I’m not the one to answer that, but for me it’s striking just how coherent the narrative is considering it’s the definition of rushed.  It does feel rushed – but not in a bad way.

The other reason this show shouldn’t be as good as it is, of course, is that it’s pretty shameless at times. Tsunderes, harems, comic violence – UQ Holder (this is all from the manga of course) has a lot of stuff that I normally can’t stand in anime, but somehow Akamatsu Ken is so damn good at that sort of thing that it seems to operate on a different level than most other shows that sail these waters.  He always seems to want to write an action series and a harem breaks out – it happened with Negima, and it happens with UQ Holder too.  That’s too bad in a way, but the end result does manage to somehow be right in Ken’s sweet spot.

Make no mistake, this is the point in the story when the harem gloves come off – it may be happening a lot sooner in the anime than the manga, but the signs were always there.  There’s never been any question that Kuromaru loves Touta in a unique and rather endearing fashion, but the arrival of Yukihiro Mizore (Kitou Akari) is the impetus to force several of the others to reveal their cards.  That name should send familiar of course – Mizore’s the granddaughter of none other than Yukihiro Ayaka, the class rep of Negi’s 3-A.  In those days Ayaka was an unabashed shotacon, but now she’s an old woman in a wheelchair – accompanied by another familiar face, the ageless Chachamaru.

Mizore is a lot to take, I admit, but she does bring a different sort of vibe to the cast.  She pretty much declares for Touta immediately, which sets off alarm bells most especially with Kirie (it’s not as though anyone was fooled anyway, but a stray “too!” certainly makes her feelings official).  Kuromaru can’t be so open, of course, but the reaction tells a lot – as does that of the mild-mannered Shinobu.  As humans, Mizore and Shinobu may have a sort of mono no aware appeal that immortals lack – a point the mischievous Karin is only too happy to rub their noses in.

In trolling terms, though, it’s Ikkuu who definitely has the driver’s seat this week.  He cooks up a story about the onsen at the inn being haunted, and a legend where if a girl washes a boy’s back 50 times, they’ll be together forever.  Ikkuu may be technically 85 but his sense of humor seems to be closer to his biological age of 13 – and the girls are grist in his mill.  Ken-sensei really needs no excuse to offer up another hot springs farce – he lives for those, pretty much – but this one does point up the difference between immortals and regular humans where these sorts of things are concerned.

It’s not insignificant that it ends up being Yukihime who washes Touta’s back, nor is it that they’re so totally at ease in each other’s company that even being naked doesn’t faze either of them.  Ultimately this is the relationship in UQ Holder that really matters, and even though the anime has rushed through it by necessity I think the essence of it still shines through – there’s a bittersweet quality to it that many of this series’ better moments have in common.  Where Kitty is concerned, this is complicated – she’s been around for a long, long time, and most of it pretty painful.

What of the answers Evangeline finally gives Touta once all the shenanigans have ceased?  Well, she considers it important enough to appear in her true form when she tells it.  Negi, she tells Touta, defeated a powerful wizard called Ialda Baoth – the “Mage of the Beginning” – 20 years ago.  Ialda is not immortal, but she is undying – she takes over the mind of whoever defeats her, and Negi has been in her control ever since he did so.  Kitty and fate have the same goal – save Negi – though she tells Touta that their methods are so at odds that Fate left her to pursue his on his own.

The last bombshell is the biggest – while Fate was responsible for the accident Touta has been told of, his parents didn’t die in it – because he has none.  He’s a clone, created from Negi’s DNA.  As far as it appears, though, that doesn’t make Yukihime care for Touta any less – which Ayaka has picked up on immediately.  Even if Evangeline can’t deny Touta’s observation that she appears to have been in love with Negi, her boya is no longer around – but Touta is.  As with everything else connected to Evangeline A.K. McDowell and the Springfield boys, this is complicated.