10 Second Anime - UQ Holder! - Episode 4

Touta and Kuromaru join Karin on their first UQ Holder mission to protect an orphanage in the slums. Powerful mercenaries give the new Numbers a hard introduction to their line of work.

Episode 4 - "Invasion of the Assassins"

Hmm.

I have to say that the use of Chamo to censor Karin's scenes in the shower stalls was distracting and totally unnecessary. Ken Akamatsu's art style has always featured Barbie Doll style nudity, which means no nipples and smooth crotches. There's just no there, there. In his funny scenes, which are intended to titillate too, he always put in something to cover up those parts, whether it was blasted clothes, flower petals, or tree leaves. But in his fight scenes, he just let the girls jump and flip and kick.

Using Chamo to cover Karin while she was showering - good. Using him to cover things up during a violent confrontation - bad. Just let the naked Barbie Doll punch and kick!

Another thing I want to mention is how this future world has turned Marxism on its head. Instead of wealth redistribution, we have poverty redistribution. This kind of thing is being played out right now in modern Europe with the EU mandating mass migration quotas of its members under the guise of war zone refugees and asylum seekers. The thin cover story, meant to evoke pity and to taunt people to stay silent or otherwise look heartless, is causing enough resentment that member states are beginning to separate. Forced wealth redistribution, whether positive through social welfare or negative through forced acceptance of migrants, always increases the population which ultimately receives the money.

In UQ Holder's world, the slum population has been steadily increasing through the decades. Poverty is being increased through this redistribution plan instead of its intended plan of decreasing it per capita. Marxism always fails to understand human nature. If you give someone just enough to survive, but not enough to escape poverty, they'll stay trapped and resent you for it as their jailer. Always. The hard solution is just to let people find their own way through. Those who do will be proud of their success. Those who fail just haven't succeeded yet. Let them keep trying and face the consequences of their choices.

Heh.

Touta and Kuromaru are full fledged Numbers. Touta is Number 7. Karin is Number 4. I still don't know what the numbers mean.

It's time to stop sweeping floors and go on a mission with Karin. Yeah! It'll be easy. Yeah! You'll only die two or three times. Ye-, what?

Karin runs like a ninja. Touta and Kuromaru do not.

Ha! Way to knock over your own guys, Touta.

Touta totally sucks at arm wrestling, so he gets to cook. He cooked for Yukihime for two years, so he should be pretty good at it. All is forgiven by the SP's.

So, who wants to clear these slums anyway? It looks like the world has seen some kind of sea level rise and there are artificial urban islands. Wouldn't the property of reclaimed land where they stuck the slums be really valuable? Who owns it? Are some developers trying to take advantage of squatters' rights? Why don't they build their own island like Yukihime did? I guess it only matters that somebody is pushing around a nun and the orphanage she runs.

Oh man. This traveling bro martial artist is going to be a bad guy, right?

Ha! They just recycled the same punch Kaito landed on Touta. Touta seems used to this kind of "instruction."

Training montage with feet. I'm somehow reminded of Mighty Guy and Rock Lee from Naruto...

Aw. Kaito is a werewolf and a bad guy.

Karin the Steel Saint.

I'm just going to stick all the lovely ways Karin is being Karin, despite the Chamo censorship, right here.

Funny how she didn't start looking sexy until the shadow binding covered up certain parts of her. See? Just let the Barbie boobies fly!

Okay, back to the shounen action. This is regular stuff. Each of the fighters are trying to figure out how the other guys' powers work. The mercenaries are really intent on solving the UQ Holder's immortality.

Touta went down quick as a vampire. Karin can't be injured, but she still feels pain. Kuromaru has fast regeneration, but can't handle faster damage.

It's a real cliffhanger! Except for Kuromaru's firework show that the assassins quickly dismissed. Come on. They should be better than that. Obviously the cavalry will be coming soon.

Although, I have a feeling that Touta is a different kind of vampire. The hero is always special in some way before he becomes "special," right? I'm sure he'll start doing something before help arrives.

The end card makes it look like Touta is going to be doing something. But what?