UQ Holder

UQ Holder!
Cover of the first volume, as published by Kodansha, featuring main characters Kurōmaru Tokisaka (left), Tōta Konoe (center) and Yukihime (right)
UQ HOLDER!
Genre	Action, fantasy, science fiction
Manga
Written by	Ken Akamatsu
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	NA Kodansha Comics
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Magazine (2013-2016) Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine (2016-present)
Original run	August 2013 – present
Volumes	14 (List of volumes)
Original video animation
Directed by	Youhei Suzuki
Studio	J.C.Staff
Released	September 8, 2017 – June 8, 2018
Runtime	22 minutes
Episodes	3
Anime television series
UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2
Directed by	Youhei Suzuki
Produced by	EGG FIRM Makoto Furukawa Yoko Tanaka Gouta Aijima Ryūtarō Kawakami
Written by	Ken Akamatsu Shogo Yasukawa
Music by	Kei Haneoka Shunpei Ishige
Studio	J.C.Staff
Licensed by	NA Sentai Filmworks UK MVM Films
Original network	Tokyo MX, SUN, KBS, BS11, AT-X, tvk
English network	SEA Animax Asia
Original run	October 2, 2017 – present
Episodes	12

UQ Holder! (later titled UQ Holder!: Magister Negi Magi! 2) is a manga series by Ken Akamatsu. Set several generations later in the world of his previous work Negima! Magister Negi Magi, it follows the adventures of a young boy who is transformed into a vampire and joins a secret society composed of immortal beings.

UQ (ユーキュー, Yūkyū) stands for 悠久 ("eternity"), the kanji that entwines inside the UQ logo, which alludes to the immortal nature of the characters.

Tōta Konoe is a young boy who is mortally wounded by a bounty hunter coming after his guardian Yukihime's life, who reveals herself as a vampire and saves him by transforming Tōta into one of her kind. Tōta discovers then that Yukihime is none other than the legendary vampire and magician Evangeline A.K. McDowell and joins her covenant of immortal beings, the secret society known as "UQ Holder".

As Tōta gets used to his new environment and trains himself to get stronger, he discovers that his grandfather, Negi Springfield, was once a great mage who saved the world from disaster, but now his body is possessed by an ominous entity known as the "Mage of Beginning" that threatens the whole mankind, and is slowly taking control of him, triggering a war between three factions: One is UQ Holder itself, led by Yukihime, who intends to uphold her promise to kill Negi should the Mage of Beginning assumes control of him for good, another is Negi's former brigade, "Ala Alba", now led by his former comrade, Fate Averruncus, that intend to find a way to separate Negi from the Mage of Beginning in order to save him, and Negi himself, accompanied by several of his former companions, who were supposed to be killed in a war decades ago, and gathered with an unknown agenda. It is also revealed that Tōta will have a main role in this conflict as he is an artificial clone with the powers of Negi and his former partner Asuna Kagurazaka, imbued with the powers of both, and the story is actually set in a different timeline from the original series, where Negi and his friends somehow managed to defeat the Mage of Beginning while saving Nagi, who married Evangeline.

Some of the characters from the Negima series make appearances in this series.

UQ Holder! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It began its serialization in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Magazine on August 28, 2013. Its individual chapters have been collected into fourteen tankōbon volumes by Kodansha, the first released on December 17, 2013. The series is licensed for English language release in North America by Kodansha Comics, who published the first volume on March 18, 2014. As the series is published in Japan, it is also released simultaneously in English digitally by Crunchyroll. In October 2016, the series changed magazines from the Weekly Shōnen Magazine to the Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, and was renamed UQ Holder!: Magister Negi Magi! 2 starting with the November 2016 issue.