UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2

Episode 6

After the action-packed mini-arc of the past two episodes, the UQ Holder! crew find themselves back at the base for a breather episode. A lot of incidental details that might have been glossed over are given another look in this one, but of course the biggest talking point revolves around Kuromaru. After several episodes of jokes about his apparent feminine appearance, this episode finally reveals the details of this character's gender. Or lack thereof.

As Kuromaru himself explains it, his race of demi-humans are genderless until they choose male or female on their sixteenth birthday. Of course, Kuromaru has presented as a boy and used male pronouns since we met him, and that will be important as this episode goes on. The immediate response from Karin, who makes this discovery, is less nuanced however. After the past couple episodes painted Karin in a rather cool light, her likability regresses significantly when she immediately equates Kuromaru's lack of junk with his gender and physically attacks him to attempt to force him to choose a female gender and enter a relationship with Tota. Not only is this a bad look for the character (confrontational as she's always been), it also comes across somewhat hypocritical, given that Karin's primary motivation is her own romantic designs on Yukihime. It's an off-putting introduction to the concept of a fantasy-based intersex character, but fortunately, this attitude seems isolated to Karin herself rather than the series' overall. Ikku, making his first formal appearance since a brief introduction earlier, is more respectful of Kuromaru's plight, offering a suggestion that he disguise himself as a girl and go on a date with Tota to see how he likes it.

I don't want to turn this whole review into a dissertation on Kuromaru's gender, since the episode covers a lot of ground otherwise. Shinobu gets more exposition on her hobby of building hover-bikes and her dream of racing one. The dreams of the other characters present us with more information, as Tota expounds on why he and his friends wanted to climb the tower in the capital, eventually rounding back to Kuromaru trying to decide if he wants to be Tota's partner or his lover. There are also snippets of information from Yukihime, implying that she may not have been truthful about the supposedly simple origin of Tota's Magia Erebea powers, which thankfully walks back the deus ex machina feeling they gave off in the last episode. Fate Averruncus is also teased again (with a name this time), and another new character named Kirie is briefly visited with the implication that she'll be important starting next episode. With all this plus the Kuromaru content, there's a definite sense of detailed setup for this episode, even as the breezy date situation in the foreground marks it as more of a breather.

The other important detail is that some members of the immortal hunters group from the last story are still stalking Tota to some yet-unexplained end, which interrupts the episode's date in UQ Holder!'s now-expected explosive action style, bringing us back to Kuromaru's situation. As Tota is captured by the still-repugnant Chao and a new bad guy with a neat design named Asura, the main conflict becomes Kuromaru's internal struggle with his chi and physical abilities in his magically-constructed temporary female form. There is a lot of talk regarding Kuromaru not being able to fight or use his powers properly ‘because he's a girl’, which does immediately turn the viewers' thoughts towards more unsavory depictions of femininity in the anime combat arena. However, I honestly don't believe this is the intent, largely due to all the ass-kicking lady characters in this series.

Instead, Kuromaru's dilemma seems to be him suffering personal dysphoria brought on by presenting as a gender he's never had any desire to be until now. He displays this in degrees throughout his date with Tota, the feeling of discomfort and sense of being ‘off’, and that disparity also fuels his off-balance issues in the fight. Indeed, the triumphant moment in this episode is not him declaring that gender doesn't matter in his abilities or relationships, but instead a strong assertion that he knows he is a boy and that his male-male relationship with Tota is the one that gives him strength. It's honestly an unexpected choice, given that other series with this type of development, especially those heavy on the fanservice element, might opt to push the character into the female box for the sake of more palatable relationship presentation, just as Karin attempts to do at the beginning of this episode.

Overall, the subject of Kuromaru's gender seems like a unique point for this series, and it doesn't come off as offensive to me so much as a bit clunky at times. It also chickens out at the end, with Tota joking about being attracted to Kuromaru's female alias leading to the demi-human re-questioning his choices. But as a story-mandated lack of resolution to the plotline for now, it's at least cute in a young-love sort of way. I think most people watching will want Kuromaru to learn that being a boy shouldn't get in the way of his obvious love for Tota.

Rating: B

UQ Holder! Magister Negi Magi! 2 is currently streaming on Amazon's Anime Strike.