All of it began when I was 7 years old, my grand-mother for some reasons, ended up buying the first volume of Love Hina for my sister. And even now, we both ended up loving the manga. We loved it so much that we even had all the CDs of the anime. Love hina was the first manga that introduced me to the manga world as well as the anime world, even before naruto. And this fresh air from the generic looking cartoons I had back there, it was the first time I was enjoying at maximum something. His artsyle was really good for a romcom and the warm feeling you get from reading it is one of the best feeling I've ever had. The comedy was all I asked for at the time, it cheered me up so many times that I don't even remember and just looking back at it some times just reminds me of how beautiful it was. Thus, you can't even think how sad I felt when Love Hina came to an end. There was this huge whole I had and not seeing whole the cute faces of the girls in the manga just felt unbearable (I swear it was true despair xD). So at some point I got into naruto and loved it as much, but it never could have reached how good Love Hina was so when some day my mother came back with Negima! from the same mangaka, you can't just imagine how happy I was just discovering a whole new world once again but with the same vibe and warm feeling. And once again, it came to an end, it was once again painful. And thus, I thought I could never found something better than that. But oh boy how foolish I was. I don't know why(maybe because I'm stupid) but I've never wondered if Ken Akamtsu did other stuff after Negima. Until last year's summer. I was at the beach and I found a library that sells mangas, I thought it was surprising and just picked some random mangas. And I swear I almost cried in front of everybody.
I FOUND UQ HOLDER (aka Negima 2)
After this story comes the shit you were waiting for.
Story: Ken Akamatsu made a name of himself as the final boss of harem mangas, and this one is better than anyothers he has created thus far. What stroke me in negima was the harem side with action that felt right. You didn't really think it was wrong for a teacher to be hanging around with hot high school whom wants his banana. The action fights felt really good as well. And you find everything back but better. He managed to find something refreshing of all his work so far and you can see that the story is developping from what negima left.
Art: That's where Ken Akamatsu truly shines in my opinion. The fact that it's a romcom (yes it is) but with action is already good enough, but his art style is just made for it, I probably laughed at lout a lot but most of the time I was just smiling. The art express just how much fun and love he is giving in every panels. And I'm getting to the fights, OHHHHHH the fights. If you are a shounen tard, you'll get everything you want. You've read my hero academia yet? You thought the fights scenes were epic? Damn you're not prepared for this. The amount of details there are in the fight scenes is hallucinating, I always found myself on the edge of my seat even for the smallest fights to tell you the truth. By the way, he was one of the most emblematic user of tip-ex for drawing the thunder spells, just letting you know who the hell he is.
Character: I'm repeating myself but this guy is a beast in this category as well. Just how hard is it for a normal manga with like 5 character to develop them. Now think when it is a harem. That's the first thing we say about harems; it's the fact that the character development sucks. And I can't safelty say that this manga won't let you down. Every character has his personnality and his past, they all have a different personnality as well and the relations they hold betwenn all the characters will fill you with warm. It's like you are part of this big "family" (well they are just friends/acquitenances but it feels like they have really deeps bonds for some reasons, just shut up and lemme suck this manga please)
(Ill just do a category Enjoyment/Overall)
So what can I say about it in the end. Well first, you defntily have to read the first Negima to read this one or you'll understand nothing so check it out, it's high quality content, one of the best mangas ever in my opinion. Then, about the real shit, personnally I hadent touch a Ken Akamatsu mangafor like more than 5 years so you can imagine how nostalgic I was when I read it and my reaction when they were some familiar faces in it (as well as his unique art-style). It's definilty a must-read for every manga fan and a classic as well. You feel refreshed and good when you read it, it's like ecstasy you know. So here it is, 10/10 for sure. You should definnetly check Love Hina as well. You know when I made the comparaison with the fight scenes in My Hero Academia? It was to lead to now, you remmeber when the first season of my hero academia (I'm talking about the anime yes) first came out? Everybody saying "back to the routs of shounen", "It doesn't revolutionyze the genre but it's good" and stuff? Like it was the product of every shounen this far?Well you see, Ken Akamatsu is an own genre of it's own and this guy was able to imrpove his genre during all his work so far and you can clearly see how masterfully Uq Holder is made. Everything he has done leads to what it is now, one of the most entertaining manga to read and it's so damn good.
PS: Sorry for this long ass review hoped you read it this far and I'm glad if you did and just did not skip to the end (if you're reading this and you feel guilty read it :(< ), this review was really close to my heart because Ken Akamatsu is truly a part of my identity as a human being. I'm talking about it now because it fits what I wanna talk so here it goes., just telling you that this manga was my light of hope when I was in a 10 years span of despair for me and my gamily as a whole and all his work realyl did save me. It was the only one that could touch my heart at the time and just ritting this review fills me with nostalgia. So here it ends. Finnally for you ^^ Still hope you liked it even though it was long xD
Also sorry if my grammar was quirky and almost burned your eyes I'm not a nattive speaker ^^' Hope you held on to ;)
