Am I the only person still enjoying UQ Holder?
UQ Holder is complete disappointment. I expected much from Akamatsu, but he decided to do regular fantasy action series and throwing away his specialty.
Am I the only person still enjoying UQ Holder?
UQ Holder is complete disappointment. I expected much from Akamatsu, but he decided to do regular fantasy action series and throwing away his specialty.
@Kaizou:
UQ Holder is complete disappointment. I expected much from Akamatsu, but he decided to do regular fantasy action series and throwing away his specialty.
Maybe he considers Negi his best work?
Negima is his best work. With an awful ending that came 15-25 volumes too soon.
But he should have either moved on after that, or just called this "Negima Z" out the gate rather than a side spinoff…. thing.
Actualyl, all things considered, I'd probably have to say now that Love Hina was his best. It was just long enough that the characters changed and grew, didn't outstay its welcome, and the ending was solid.
Negima is his best work. With an awful ending that came 15-25 volumes too soon.
But he should have either moved on after that, or just called this "Negima Z" out the gate rather than a side spinoff…. thing.
Actualyl, all things considered, I'd probably have to say now that Love Hina was his best. It was just long enough that the characters changed and grew, didn't outstay its welcome, and the ending was solid.
Has there ever been a good Z series?
Dragonball. Jojo. Gundam. Gunsmith Cats. Lone Wolf and Cub. Trigun.
Hell, 90% of Trigun was spinoff series, technically.
Getting away from manga, there's been plenty of novels and tv series that were spinoffs or follow ups that were good.
Who did Negi married in the end? The Manga finished so fast that I never tried to look for hints.
Who did Negi married in the end? The Manga finished so fast that I never tried to look for hints.
They never officially said, its was intentionally left vague so readers could pick their favorites I guess, but given the very vague hints in the last chapter it was PROBABLY Makie Sasaki, the rhythmic gymnast.
Cause she was first place in the first two fan polls, I guess. She and Negi certainly didn't share a lot of screen time and she never featured too heavily into the plot, though she at least had a kiss and pactio by the end of the series, unlike about 1/3 of the class.
(Setsuna won most of the 6 popularity polls after that, coming in first four times, and second the other two, losing to Setsuna and Yue I think.)
Eh. I don't know. I am not reading UQ Holder in ongoing, but still plan to catch up eventually.
! Negi married a clone machine.
! His partner hasn't been revealed yet, but one of his clones running around claimed Negi couldn't have children.Occasional spoilers sound interesting to me.
Am I the only person still enjoying UQ Holder?
Not really, surely there are a lot of us who still read it weekly, it's just that it gets tiring to read all the hate people has for the series. Come on people, let it go already!
By the way, I've come to loathe the ecchi and harem subgenres as the plague of manga, so I'm really glad the author left his Love Hina ways behind so we could read Negima and UQ Holder.
By the way, I've come to loathe the ecchi and harem subgenres as the plague of manga, so I'm really glad the author left his Love Hina ways behind so we could read Negima and UQ Holder.
Uhm…
I don't think you read the same Negima that I read.... that was a massive harem manga, loaded with constant fanservice all the way till the final chapter.
And it was mostly underage fanservice at that. At least in Love Hina they were mostly college age.
Uhm…
I don't think you read the same Negima that I read.... that was a massive harem manga, loaded with constant fanservice all the way till the final chapter.
And it was mostly underage fanservice at that. At least in Love Hina they were mostly college age.
But you could see the progress, it's obvious how Negima starts as a harem to evolve towards battle fantasy, all of us recommended to read past the few first volumes to get to the good parts after all.
And UQ Holder is the next step of that evolution, where all the harem has been dropped in favour of shonen tropes.
But maybe I'm in the minority when I think that Akamatsu did the right thing by changing the focus of his mangas
No, Negima was still pretty heavily a harem manga even at the end. It had a lot of battle shonen in it, but the romance and fanservice were still a major component all the way through.
I haven't more than glanced at UQ, but it looks like its just a reverse harem. So, same thing.
Of course it was, not denying it. I was just saying how all those other components were introduced with time. Fanservice is there to please the fans, and those fans were Love Hina fans back in the day. Now that he has shown us how he is able to write good action shonen manga, Akamatsu is giving us UQ Holder.
And the ¿reverse? harem part I don't understand. While there is still a lot of fanservice I wouldn't say there is the focus those kind of manga give to romance
And the ¿reverse? harem part I don't understand.
Are you talking about you don't know the meaning of reverse harem?
More about how the main character is a guy, and his possible love interest, as few as they are, are girls, so I don't see the reverse part, it's pretty standard. (If we are talking about Kouromaru he is only interested in case he chose to be a girl, so it doesn't count in my opinion)
…hmm. So I searched for his thread to check out what that Negima sequel/spin-off thing I started reading when it came out was. But it seems like it's a terrible manga?
Its not so much that its terrible, but being a sequel to a series that had a horrific rushed ending is an immense weight around its neck that it can't escape. had it just been its own thing entirely, or straight up Negima 2 with most of the cast still in place from the getgo, it'd have been fine.
As a quasi-spinoff, its just saddled with problems that have nothing to do with how good or bad the story itself might be.
@Game:
…hmm. So I searched for his thread to check out what that Negima sequel/spin-off thing I started reading when it came out was. But it seems like it's a terrible manga?
It's entertaining. Akamatsu has always struggled with endings and that leaves a bitter taste in people's mouths. But thus far this manga has been enjoyable, now that he's into his stride in regards to the storyline, it's really enjoyable.
So it's been like five years since I bothered with Akamatsu since the unfortunate end of Negima!, how has UQ Holder grown? Is it good now or…?
So it's been like five years since I bothered with Akamatsu since the unfortunate end of Negima!, how has UQ Holder grown? Is it good now or…?
God, has it been 5 years since that ending? Ugh.
@TLC:
God, has it been 5 years since that ending? Ugh.
I just checked and it was actually 3 1/2 years. Yet, all this time and I still haven't read the last half dozen chapters (though I read several UQ chapters to see what it's like).
Basically, I'm holding out until I hear about the chapter where the main characters travel back in time to participate/observe the true final arc of Negima in an amazing fusion of the two series that Akamatsu totally planned out all along and totally wasn't acting like a douche.
http://mangafox.me/manga/uq_holder/vTBD/c126/1.html
The story went full harem, but now seems to be going back to fighting. This last chapter brings back a lot of old characters, take it as a good or bad thing.
Just posting this here in case anyone is still interested in the series.
Savage.
Wait,….. whut?
Uhh context please?
He's finally here. He, I mean, she is finally here and has already given us away with the most evil face I've ever seen in any Akamatsu work.
The November issue of Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine is revealing on Saturday that Ken Akamatsu's UQ Holder! manga is changing its name to UQ Holder!: Magister Negi Magi! 2.
Kodansha had announced in June that UQ Holder! would switch magazines from Weekly Shōnen Magazine to Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine. Kodansha publishes Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine once a month. UQ Holder! went a break starting with the 30th issue of Weekly Shōnen Magazine on June 22, and is returning in the November issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine.
Also, out of sheer curiosity, I read the latest chapter.
And then had to backpeddle by about three.
Huh. Not sure how to feel. Sort of kind of interested again. but don't want to read 100 chapters to get proper context.
Is he actually going to give a proper epic mega finale to the previous series that he so royally screwed us on? It's cool that the story points are there but… still not going to ever get real proper closure on the old cast?
Well…shit .
Also, out of sheer curiosity, I read the latest chapter.
And then had to backpeddle by about three.
Huh. Not sure how to feel. Sort of kind of interested again. but don't want to read 100 chapters to get proper context.
Is he actually going to give a proper epic mega finale to the previous series that he so royally screwed us on? It's cool that the story points are there but… still not going to ever get real proper closure on the old cast?
I can tell you a few things, but only under the condition you are willing to get spoiled. If not, get to work and start reading it all.
I can tell you a few things, but only under the condition you are willing to get spoiled. If not, get to work and start reading it all.
Give me a super bare bones version.
I don't WANT to keep hating the ending of Negima and would be cool with having a monthly title again… but not sure I want to put in that time when I have a ton of other things vying for my time.
I am rather lost here. Can someone explain to someone as clueless as me regarding Ken Akamatsu what this means? Is this related to Negima and that infamous ending?
Give me a super bare bones version.
Allright then.
Yes, the old cast is addressed, and yes, so are the dangling plot threads. Just as you start reading the first page already provides you with a preview of what this story is gonna be about. And that's it, I'm not gonna say any more than this. Just that this serialization is definitely heading to wrap up all the major plot threads in a satisfactory conclusion. So look forward to it if you have some spare time.
EDIT:
Let just me add that at this point, anyone who hasn't read and finished Negima isn't going to get what's going on in UQ Holder.
Allright then.
Yes, the old cast is addressed, and yes, so are the dangling plot threads. Just as you start reading the first page already provides you with a preview of what this story is gonna be about. And that's it, I'm not gonna say any more than this. Just that this serialization is definitely heading to wrap up all the major plot threads in a satisfactory conclusion. So look forward to it if you have some spare time.
EDIT:
Let just me add that at this point, anyone who hasn't read and finished Negima isn't going to get what's going on in UQ Holder.
The series has been on my read for some time now, and the biggest reason why i haven't really started is because of the infamous ending but if the current storyline is about to fix it then i'll start reading it.
Is he actually going to give a proper epic mega finale to the previous series that he so royally screwed us on? It's cool that the story points are there but… still not going to ever get real proper closure on the old cast?
The answer is YES.
And we finally found out WHO WON THE NEGIBOWL_!!!!_
GYAHAHAHAHA!!
Uehehhehhuhuhuhuhu!!
The general assumption was Makie, wasn't it? Given she was consistently number 1 in the popularity polls and how she was acting in the final chapter?
And way to reply to a post I made 9 months ago.
Eh, I thought what we're seeing right now is just one of many parallel universe though?
Eh, I thought what we're seeing right now is just one of many parallel universe though?
Yes, specifically what would be the TE if Negima was a VN.
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
The answer is YES.
And we finally found out WHO WON THE NEGIBOWL_!!!!_
GYAHAHAHAHA!!
Uehehhehhuhuhuhuhu!!
Uhm…
! Although she turned him down and that could give the other candidates a chance. Though the fact she just turned him down, not actually rejected, seems to heavily imply the ship is set in stone.
The general assumption was Makie, wasn't it? Given she was consistently number 1 in the popularity polls and how she was acting in the final chapter?
And way to reply to a post I made 9 months ago.
I think Ken did well here. There's a lot of butthurt shippers calling him "Hackamatsu" but I think if you're being intellectually honest, it's a very satisfying, closure-giving choice.
I'll say this: there were clear winners and losers here. Harem mangaka are famous for cop-out pairings, to avoid a winner/loser scenario which angers shippers who drive their sales. Mangaka often settle on the first girl, the normal girl, or the girl who polls really well - who is usually the first girl, but can be different as in the case of Ichigo 100% and its awful ending.
Akamatsu stuck to his guns and picked the girl he developed, and I think that's great. I'm not sure you'll be fully satisfied, but I think TLC would love it.
I don't give a shit about Negima and never will again. Akamatsu burned his bridges long ago as far as I'm concerned.
Specially as long as you show yourself totally incapable of getting over with the Negima ending.
It's funny because I don't understand it at all. Fanboy buttrage that is. People understand the meta circumstances behind that ending but seem to mentally isolate it from the ending's contents. The Evangelion ending was similar, Gainax ran out of money, yet people still criticize them for it? The emotional investment is too weird.
At least people don't criticize Togashi for being chronically ill which is why he can't finish Hunter x Hunter…oh wait.
It's funny because I don't understand it at all. Fanboy buttrage that is. People understand the meta circumstances behind that ending but seem to mentally isolate it from the ending's contents.
The series having to end early because of behind the scenes issues is what it is. That's fine, that happens.
So you find a reasonable stopping point and end it as reasonably as you can.
The WAY it ended and how it was all handled was complete BS. There were a hundred ways to open ended wrap it up, maybe not as epicly as it deserved, but with at least some satisfaction, in the last dozen chapters. An epic fight with the sudden appearance of Negi's final boss father would have been sudden, but it would have fit and tied everything up.
An ambiguous "we'll have to work towards this future!" ending would have sucked, but at least it would have been an ending.
Even his initial "lets timeskip 6 months" bit kind of sucked, but we were willing to suck it up as a compromise to shave a couple years off the series so he could get to the end faster. But to then go from that to "And now fake out endings and apocalypse scenarios 100 years in the future and alternate universes and then go back and timeskip 10 years and just say we had an epic battle with everyone off camera and Negi picked someone but we won't say who and we'll just pretend this chapter has another 14 volumes behind it" was complete nonsense and a terrible way to handle it.
It's cool that he's managing some sort of ending now, but to have to do it in an entirely different series, with an entirely different cast. focus and premise, that didn't even really admit it was direct sequel until 100 chapters in? (Yes, it was set in the same universe but you can say the same thing about Love Hina.) That's not cool either. It's nice that its SOMETHING, but it's a really awkward way to do it.
The Evangelion ending was similar, Gainax ran out of money, yet people still criticize them for it? The emotional investment is too weird.
"We ran out of money" isn't an excuse. They were scheduled for 26 episodes and they neither budgeted or planned for that. It's not a case like Nadia where their 26 episodes suddenly got expanded to 39 and that had an obvious effect on things… but still got to the solid ending it had in mind all along.
They chose to blow their budget on having a different cover of Fly me to the Moon every episode and different launch sequences every time and didn't start creatively budgeting until the end. And, even with no money, they're the ones the scripted a couch trip with scribbled storyboard notes. If you had to resort to storyboards, there were other tricks they could have done to tell a real ending.
Except! Even if you ignore the last two episodes of the tv series, and look at the movie where they DID have money again, that was ALSO a terrible ending for completely different reasons that was explicitly designed to be a "screw you" to the audience, and the creators have even said as much!
And now the reboot version of the series is what, five years and counting for the last film to happen? For a film that was originally supposed to be out in 2010?
Evengelions MULTIPLE endings have a lot more problems than just "they ran out of money."
At least people don't criticize Togashi for being chronically ill which is why he can't finish Hunter x Hunter…oh wait.
If Togashi were actually sick you'd have a point. But most of the industry info, and his track record, and the inability to produce any sort of dependable schedule at all, points towards him just being lazy.
People would stop having problems with Togashi if it was clear he was working on his chapters throughout the year, and then said "Okay, here's ten chapters, I'll try to have more soon." And that tiny bit of professionalism, that tiny bit of courtesy to his audience, would go a very long way.
Instead every single time its "This time for sure I'll do a lot! Oh wait, work is hard. Time to break after a random number for chapters, for an undisclosed amount of time."
It's why we give Muira a pass for Berserk for being on basically the same sort of schedule. We can tell that he's working constantly to the best of his ability and the quality level of his art just takes 5 or 6 weeks to do a chapter.
It's funny because I don't understand it at all. Fanboy buttrage that is. People understand the meta circumstances behind that ending but seem to mentally isolate it from the ending's contents. The Evangelion ending was similar, Gainax ran out of money, yet people still criticize them for it? The emotional investment is too weird.
At least people don't criticize Togashi for being chronically ill which is why he can't finish Hunter x Hunter…oh wait.
Evangelion had exactly 26 episode planned and it's not being criticized for low budget ending.
It's criticized because Anno made no attempt, no planning, to have a concise and satisfying ending. It was a fucking mess.
"we ran out of money" is an excuse that only works for animation budget, not Anno's inability to plot ahead.
It's a shame considering he was generally good with well-planned endings of series up to that point. (Top o Nerae, Nadia, etc)
After Eva he repeatedly showcased his lack of planning or giving twoshits about conclusions with his shows, Karekano for example.
It's funny because I don't understand it at all. Fanboy buttrage that is. People understand the meta circumstances behind that ending but seem to mentally isolate it from the ending's contents. The Evangelion ending was similar, Gainax ran out of money, yet people still criticize them for it? The emotional investment is too weird.
At least people don't criticize Togashi for being chronically ill which is why he can't finish Hunter x Hunter…oh wait.
The emotional investment is the key. People really enjoyed Negima and felt betrayed with it's ending. Love and hate are two sides of a coin and all that…
I for one will keep reading UQ Holder, it is a direct continuation of Negima after all and is pretty good in the same way its predecessor was. But anyway, even if Negima had ended the way it did, it means nothing, wouldn't have been the first series affected by outside forces, and it doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the author's other works ( I hated Love Hina but that didn't stop me picking up Negima)
@TLC:
I don't give a shit about Negima and never will again. Akamatsu burned his bridges long ago as far as I'm concerned.
Hi, me from five years ago. Sure is fun to necro a thread from 5 years ago to be immediately met with some humble pie to the face.
I am sure a lot of newbies who read this will be bemused while the old vets who have been around a while will be laughing their asses off.
But okay, here we go.
For context, Mahou Sensei Negima was my absolute favorite manga right along side One Piece. If you just search through this thread with my name, you will find countless posts gushing my adoration, week to week to week. I implore you to not do this, the me from ten years ago is so fucking cringe, I could crawl into a hole and die as I almost did going through this when I dusted off the cobwebs and went through this old thread.
Negima was notorious for having an abrupt ending while it was gearing up for its final arc probably due to what was a nonsensical potential new editorial law that never went anywhere meaning the author shitcanned his best selling series for no good reason.
Needless to say I was very heartbroken. To the point that I burned the series from my heart, shut off all my feelings towards it and closed my heart to it. For ten years.
So why am I reviving a thread that hasn't had any activity for five years?
Like a month ago, I was randomly flipping through the news alerts on my phone to see an animenews article that UQ Holder had ended.
UQ Holder is the secret surprise sequel to Negima that from what I heard resolved a lot of the lingering plot threads from Negima, the degree of satisfaction of which it did this, I have no idea.
I was aware of this series for a while but I was resolved in my apathy. I was not interested in this secret sequel with a new protagonist and a new cast and new plot threads. I wanted my old protagonist with my old cast and my old plot threads. Negima's greatest strength was the balancing act of its massive vast of characters and how it fleshed them out with such depth and care, the most fun I ever had reading Negima was not for the awesome fights or the fantastic world building or the coolest execution of magic in any magic series ever. It was for that window to each character's daily lives, the fun little interactions between two characters that never interacted before, the fleshing out of a class consisting of 31 students and their teacher and the scores and scores of fun side characters we meet along the way. I very much doubted UQ Holder would care enough to satisfy my desires and I did not care enough to risk trying to find out. So I shut the idea of reading this manga out of my mind.
But now UQ Holder is ended.
I am but a man, just a weak, weak man. When a man is denied the most cathartic emotional climax of his life due to dumb, meaningless external circumstances only to be told, ten years later, that all the emotional closure he ever yearned for is just right there, waiting to be taken…
What choice do I have but to accept humility and succumb to temptation?
Of course...if I'm going to do this, I am going to do this properly.
And so I reread Negima.
So after ten years of not even touching the manga, what did I think?
Does it still hold up?
Well I read 38 volumes in two weeks so yes, yes it does.
It was quite amusing to see my speed naturally increase from a few chapters a day to a volume a day to 2-3 volumes a day as my interest rapidly grew to a massive 6 hour marathon read to finish off the final big arc.
It's funny because I went into the reread with what I presumed was a more mature, balanced adult perspective. I was not the 18 year old I was when I first picked up the series, I am 32 years old, a much different person, my tastes and sensibilities and reading experiences much more developed.
I thought my reread of Negima would be a more objective examination of the series with some random bouts of nostalgia as well as finding random bits of foreshadowing that i never picked up on before.
I was wrong.
Going through the reread, it was like I was that kid again, going through the same emotional journey, going through the exact same emotional beats and thought processes, feeling that same emotional connection to this story and characters and having the same feelings I thought I had long ago buried. It was an odd experience, I guess deep down, people can never let go of their past.
So what did I think on a reread? Pretty much the same things I thought the first time, honestly with the benefit of foresight, I had a lot more fun going through it again.
The first two volumes are still a rough start though knowing this, I did appreciate even at the start, knowing what the series would eventually morph into, the potential in the storytelling and the character writing and the art (some of the panelling and visual gags are downright genius and kind of lost in the later volumes as it's a lot harder to keep such a fresh energy after a decade of story-telling). I really adore this one panel gag.
They were also a fantastic foundation for the rest of the series giving you this really charming low stakes slice of life exploration of these seemingly normal junior high girls so by the time the series transforms into a full blown shonen, you have a perfect understanding of the main characters and how they fit into the world and you get that sense of satisfaction as they grow into warriors who get invested in a world far bigger than they ever imagined possible.
The Kyoto arc is still that massive surprise, an explosion of stakes and quality, a complete reshaping of expectations.
The School Festival arc is still the most incredible, tightly written story that ever juggled such a massive cast with so many satisfying story threads.
The Magical World arc is still the most BIGGER incredible, tightly written story that ever juggled such a massive cast with so many satisfying story threads, only it started with the most jaw dropping and effective escalation of stakes and tension I have ever seen in fiction.
The Negi vs Jack Rakan fight is still the greatest shonen fight ever put on paper ever.
The fanservice and sexual innuendo has aged with the grace of spoiled milk and your enjoyment of the series will be completely based on how quickly you get desensitized to it or to the fact that in essence, it's a massive love polygon with a bunch of 15 year olds and a very precocious ten year old (it's okay he is a very mature ten year old and they play around with age magic and eventually he becomes an immortal being so hey, spoilers for a decades old manga).
And the ending is still the ending.
I mean it hurt a lot less knowing it was coming. And to be honest, the reread did give me a fresh new perspective in that regard. While it ending the way it did was deeply unsatisfying, it would not have been anywhere near as bad if you stopped at chapter 353. The whole final few chapters with one of the characters being sent to a future where all her friends are dead and the emotional fallout of that just to be flung back a chapter later with a retcon does suck but if the manga literally ended as is on that third to last chapter, it would have been a very decent open ended ending, especially as the biggest lingering plot thread it had would eventually be resolved in a sequel series. It's those last two chapters that really soured the taste of the whole thing as they were an absolutely redundant resolution that flowed from an atonal mess with ill fitting inappropriate (in more ways than one) fanservice to a final chapter that was great in a vacuum but without the ten volumes that needed to precede it to make it work comes off as a massive slap in the face.
So if there's one thing I got out of this reread is that I went from this series is fantastic but the ending ruins it to this manga is fantastic, just skip those last two chapters and it stays pretty solid. Not that you can really skip them on a first read but it helps to swallow bitter pills if you compartmentalize your mind like that.
So after all this time, was it a good read? Hell yes, this manga is till as fucking incredible as I remember. Do I recommend the manga? Yes, with caveats. Wiil this be worth it? I dunno yet, I am only half way through my journey, it remains to be seen if I will get the emotional closure I so desire.
I'll soon begin UQ Holder to finish the second half of my journey after which I will write my thoughts one more time. I've heard mixed things about the series in terms of story and art, that it certainly doesn't really hold a candle to Negima, but I am far more interested in how it resolves the plot threads left dangling in Negima. I know for a fact that it does address two major points which are the final battle and who does Negi end up with in the Negima timeline, to what degree of satisfaction I do not know.
Plot threads which I would like to be addressed but heavily doubt they will be include:
1. What happened to Negi's mother, Arika
2. What was the deal with the Grave Keeper?
3. What was the deal with Amateru and the Pactio system
4. Seeing the rest of the girls get their pactios.
5. Seeing the rest of the girls interested in Negi confess their love and get a reply.
6. Christmas event with the Twins finding two furry princes they eventually end up marrying as well as the incident with Sakurako.
7. New Years Duel with Ku Fei
8. Saiyo's past life and her love for the principal.
9 Misora and Cocone's relationship.
10. Zazie, the demon princess and Venus, the world of the demons.
11. Valentine's Day involving Chisame, Makie, Nodoka and Akira
12. The cause of Ako's scar on her back.
13. No really, what happened to Arika?
14. The Tsukuyomi Stalking incident.
15. The Ayaka Oji-san incident
16. Kaede's family incident.
17. Hakase becoming Goedel's assistant (which ends in marriage apparently).
18.Yotsuba Strange Recipe Incident.
19. Mana's Bodyguard Incident.
20. The Paru-Sama incident
21. What happened to Fate's haremettes?
22. No really, what the fuck happened to Arika!?!
I very much doubt most if any of these questions will be addressed but I guess I'll find out in the next few weeks, huh.
Well this has been a fun 90 minutes of baring my soul to strangers.
Peace.
For what it's worth, I think it's really cool that you've done this.
Honestly. Huge fucking respect.
Let me know how that goes. I might have to binge the experience myself if it works out at all.
I’ll be looking forward to your review of UQ holder, I also recently reread Negima, and so I was wondering if UQ holder was worth reading so this sounds perfect to me