This arc wasn’t a bad way to finish Index off, although they probably could have done without Touma repeating the same speeches over and over again. There is nothing wrong with reassuring someone that their life is precious. But it does go a bit overboard when you keep repeating it. If the person can’t get it then you might as well spare the audience from having to continue listening to it. But that doesn’t change that this was still an alright arc, just not my favourite.

Impressions:

Now to be fair I’m not a real fan of the Hyoka character type. It’s not because she isn’t technically human, but rather the rest of her. Really for some reason just couldn’t care much about her character while things were going on. Sure have sympathy for finding out she wasn’t human, but she really did some foolish things. Charging toward a golem is hardly the best course of action. If your going to freak out and run might as well do it in the opposite direction. At least she managed to impress near the end with fighting the golem and having a nicely done farewell with Index. Although I was personally waiting for her to get knocked off the building they were on when Index tackled her. There is a time and a place for running into a friend and that probably wasn’t it. Sure Hyoka would be fine since she isn’t human, but Index would end up going splat.

A nice part of the arc was including Kuroko and Mikoto in this. Although they didn’t have a major role it was nice seeing them here. They had a pretty comical scene at the very end with Kuroko sneaking into Mikoto’s shower stall. For some reason I don’t think that is the first time she has done something of that nature….With all the magicians sneaking into the city there really is more and more chances for confrontations. That city is going to get into a serious mess at some point.

Probably a key point for Index fans was the role she played this time around. Honestly Index has been a very minor character ever since the first arc ended. They can’t let her use magic since she would be too powerful. There wouldn’t be a point of anyone else in the show since her ability would let her handle just about anything the universe could throw at her. On the other hand if she can’t use any magic she is only useful as a reference book. Best place to keep her is out of sight and just make a phone call if troubled. She was a pretty key player with making friends with Hyoka and surviving for so long against that golem.

Liked the last scenes which showed how everyone was doing after this situation. I can’t believe Touma went to the hospital just to brag about not being hospitalized this time around. Though suppose for him it is a great achievement to not be badly hurt. Might want to avoid mentioning he went and beat a girl up though…It was also good to see Accelerator and Last Order for a short moment. Obviously she knows what happened from the comment left regarding that specific arc. But also she wouldn’t be there if she didn’t remember what he did. Guess it’s not a bad idea for the former scientist to take care of them both. It’s probably not safe for Accelerator to stay by himself in the condition that he’s in. Perhaps the greatest surprise was someone actually giving Last Order some clothes!

It was a pretty good arc and it set things up for further conflicts down the road. Sadly for Touma a potential new addition to his harem had to leave the stage after the fight was over. But he would have destroyed her with his right hand anyways so it’s not a huge loss.

Final Words:

When I first heard about this show I just wasn’t sure what to expect from it. There seemed to be interesting potential with the mixture of special abilities and magic. Not too often you go and make those distinctions between the two of them. At times the show could get really technical and slowed down by its own explanations. It is difficult since they did need to explain how some of these thigns were possible. Yet they could go too far and completely ruin the pace of a fight with people talking about their moves. It’s probably why a novel is a good place for this kind of story. They can just write down the explanations and it is less apparent that the fight is stuck at a standstill.

But the fights really weren’t that bad overall. The best one was still the first with Touma going up against Stiyl. Was such a huge event and made one wonder if the apartment complex would get burned down. Some of them ended in a pretty suspicious manner. The fight between Touma and Accelerator was tough since it was hard to see Touma winning. Accelerator who was supposed to be smart completely stopped using his brain and didn’t do what was letting him win the fight earlier on. Overall the fights weren’t bad and we got to see numerous abilities come into the picture.

As mentioned before Index really became a secondary character in a show that was named after her. She just stopped being that relevant and events just didn’t circle around her that much. At times the girl could be pretty annoying and selfish. For a person freeloading at another’s apartment she could be pretty demanding. It was just a bit much seeing her go around biting people, taking their bed, and not seeming to be thankful she has a roof over her head. She was a pretty sympathetic character early on though and so I didn’t dislike her. I just wish that she didn’t get Touma’s memory destroyed. After his memory got destroyed Touma was just not as interesting to me. I just couldn’t understand him not telling anyone about his memory.

There was little romantic progress in this series, because the main character had to rebuild his relationships from the ground up. It almost got to a harem stage with the girls that ended up joining his ‘forces’. Mikoto’s development was nice to see since it was building from her relationship to Touma before he ever met Index. She is just not the type who can easily talk about how she feels. Which is probably a good thing since the current Touma doesn’t seem ready for that kind of thing.

The series set itself up for a sequel pretty well. They introduced a pretty cute archbishop at the very end which wouldn’t make much sense if they weren’t considering continuing. A reflection of the series doing pretty well is the announcement that they will be animating To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. It is a side-story manga that has Mikoto as the protagonist. I’m really looking forward to it since Biri-Biri had easily become my favourite character in this show. My expectation is that they will animate this and probably announce a sequel to Index after it finishes. I have no idea when Railgun will be starting, but it’s something to look forward to.

Pretty glad that I decided to blog about this series and watch it. It was a pretty good time overall when you take all the pieces that made it up. It could have been done better, but it also could have been handled much worse than it was. A really interesting world was created and some fun adventures occurred in it.

I didn’t think that they would go and give an arc to Accelerator. Thought he would fall into the pattern of enemies just vanishing into the background after they are defeated. Still it wasn’t a bad move to give him some development and a chance to start atoning for his actions. Perhaps the most surprising thing is he didn’t go and kill anyone during it. Though that doesn’t mean he didn’t injure a few people along the way.

Impressions:

Suppose I have to ask the question of how everyone got to the hospital? I mean Yoshikawa was shot, Accelerator was unconscious, Last Order was in a tank, and Amai was dead. There is absolutely no one that could have driven them to the hospital. Oh well maybe they teleported or something…

I was surprised that they managed to develop Accelerator a good amount within a couple episodes. They were able to move him from some sadistic monster to a not so bad monster. It was kind of crazy to see his life as a young kid. I mean the army sent tanks against him….Just seemed like he was living his life as ridiculous things kept on happening. It appears that ever since he was young there were people wanting to take a crack at him.

Maybe it explains the desire to reach level 6 and hopefully be so strong that everyone would just not bother trying. Still it doesn’t change the fact he killed 10,000 Sisters. Those actions are something he’ll have to keep on living with. Still, Last Order did manage to give a perspective on it. Would he have really just killed them if they gave up and asked him not to? They had absolutely no sense of value in regards to their lives. At any rate he did kill some in pretty brutal fashions so can’t just pain him as some innocent dragged in. But in exchange for killing 10,000 he did go out and actually save the other 10,000. Doesn’t undo his actions, but it’s a good start in turning himself around.

He did a good thing in putting his very life on the line to save the girl. The guy could have avoided getting injured if he had pulled his hand away and focused on defending. It’s kind of like doing heart surgery and have a madman run in with a gun. You can’t exactly just stop what you’re doing and sacrifice the person you were trying to help. Figured he did something like stopping the bullet before it completely went through his brain. Still he didn’t get away undamaged from the whole affair. Language and computation are pretty essential things to have injured. The computation especially since he needs it to fully use his vector changing ability. It seems an incredible irony that the Misaka network can be used to help him. No idea how that will work and whether he’ll recover to his normal state. But guess it’s up to that doctor to pull it off and get the buy back on his feet. A weak Accelerator would be a death sentence with all the thugs that try picking fights with him on a regular basis.

Hope Touma realizes all the people that are hurt because of him. I mean winning gave all those people the naïve hope that they could beat accelerator themselves. At least he didn’t kill them though it didn’t mean he didn’t let them get hurt.

I’m also wondering what will go on with Last Order? If accelerator was completely successful then the memories of the time spent with him should be gone. Though she did approach him in the first place so possible she’ll do the same again if given a chance. I will say that she could be incredibly annoying at times; always repeating Misaka, Misaka, Misaka, Misaka, etc. What idiot in the cloning department made them say that? You can create clones but not teach them how to speak normally? Oh well still a good kid with some interesting insights into Accelerator.

Anyways just about at the end of the series. This may be the last arc before the show wraps up. It was kind of a strange time to introduce a new ED. But I do like this one since the song is peaceful. Plus it gives appearances to a good amount of the cast. Find it odd how it still tries to play up Index as the heroine despite her not being involved much at all after the first arc.

This wasn’t a bad series of episodes. It actually managed to surprise me a little bit with how things ended up developing. Was also good to meet Touma’s parents and see what kind of people they were. It definitely reinforces the fact that Touma can run into crazy circumstances no matter where he goes. Of course it would be a boring series if he didn’t manage to stumble into these things.

Impressions:

Maybe it’s just me, but I still don’t get why Touma doesn’t say anything about his memory. I mean is there an actual reason behind it? It’s not like it’s a crime to lose your memory. Amnesia does exist so it’s not like there wouldn’t be some explanation behind it. Just seems strange to pretend in front of everyone that you are fine. Your whole life until this point is gone. Family and friends should be told just so you can be helped in re-orienting yourself. The only thing I can think of is not wanting Index to feel bad. But is that worth wandering through life in the dark? It’s not like the memory is coming back after all. Just seems wrong to not tell his parents at the very least.

At any rate this was a pretty solid arc when you think about it. Had some pretty comedic moments like his cousin having Mikoto’s appearance. Of course there is no other way you will possibly see her acting like that. The Index part has some laughs attached to it, though you also feel a bit bad for her. From her point of view Touma lost it and started being more mean to her than usual. Though it was kind of creepy seeing a guy wearing that bathing suit…The funniest thing had to be in regards to Kanzaki (who had some fanservice in this arc). I mean having everyone regard your appearance as Stiyl. It’s pretty funny though suppose she wouldn’t have agreed with me.

Touma doesn’t have a bad family that’s for sure. Can understand sending him to the Academy City to try and remove him from those who made fun of him. Oddly enough he actually did have an esper ability that explained it. Having his right hand actually cancel the luck around him which then creates all those terrible circumstances. It’s kind of crazy that his father accidentally caused the Angel Fall. He was just trying to help his son in any way he could and it almost caused a disaster of biblical proportions. It’s at least nice that he could spend some time with them after appearances were restored.

Is it a bit odd how often Touma ends up in the hospital? I mean he wasn’t even badly hurt this time around. Sure he got beat up a little bit, but that was hardly the worst thing someone has ever done to him. Frankly think they put him there for comedic reasons rather than due to any real injury. He didn’t even get a real opponent this time around. Though it’s good to not have him win and save the day every single time. Kanzaki actually handled herself quite well considering the level of her opponent. Not sure she should be thanking Touma considering he didn’t do anything.

Not sold yet on the new OP. The visuals aren’t bad, but the music doesn’t start off that well in my opinion.

Well considering I really like Mikoto this was a pretty nice arc to watch. Just shows how bad people can get to create tens of thousands of Mikoto clones and then have them brutally slaughtered. The desire to reach a new frontier in a level 6 completely blinded them to what they were doing. Making a lunatic like Accelerator even stronger is like signing your own death warrant. Had to be horrible for Mikoto to know what was happening and not having the power to do anything about it. She worked so hard to reach level 5 but that doesn’t mean she can overcome anything. Honestly like her and Touma together especially before the memory loss. She’s an interesting character so not hard to like her.

Maybe the one thing I didn’t like from the arc was how the fight ended. Accelerator seemed to drop his brain off between the last two episodes. Instead of just crushing Touma from long range he continually charged in for failed direct attacks. Of course its honestly strange how Touma could even dodge high speed punches no matter how bad at street fighting Accelerator was. Suppose you can say that Accelerator likes to finish directly and his failures made him stop using his head. Still was hoping for a better win by Touma than just having his opponent become an idiot.

Overall it was a fine arc. Got to meet many clones of Mikoto and let her blast Touma around with electricity. Moving into the next arc I just hope she stays fairly involved.

So this has been a pretty good series to follow for the first arc. There was quite a bit of talking going on, but was fairly necessary to explain motivations for people. Sadly there is only so much time in the episode and choices have to be made on what they are going to put in. Besides moving from a light novel to an anime means there is quite a bit of dialogue that is going to be put into the anime. Did take that into account though wouldn’t have minded a bit more actions for the first arc overall. But let’s not confuse that for there not being any action at all. The second episode especially was great for that side of things. He handled Stiyl quite well in the second episode because his attacks were almost all just shooting fire. Of course he almost won and if Touma hadn’t used the sprinkler system to wash away the ink runes it would have been over.

Overall I like the series in how it handles magic and science. Both sides clearly dislike the other with the esper students not really believing in magic. But the magic especially has done a good job explaining its roots. Magic being of the regular human is kind of funny when I think about it. They created special powers for themselves because of fear/jealousy of those who were simply born with the powers. Of course a school created to help students develop those abilities proves it’s not as simple as just having power.

Index brought up a question of what living is. Is it alright to live a fully year and then lose all the memories from that year? Kind of makes me think of Chihiro from Ef. But in that case it’s not quite the same. Chihiro only had 13 hours of memory, but there was continuity there. Unless of course she slept more than 13 hours, then she would be in a difficult spot. Index would lose a years memory no matter what and would have no way of remembering someone she met during that year. Her body would grow, but she could never move forward. Luckily we find out the Church was behind it and Touma was able to destroy the seals that were hurting Index. But I guess you have to think about Kaori and Stiyl’s decision. What would you do if your friend was going to lose their memory of you no matter what? Honestly I can’t agree with almost punishing Index by chasing her as enemies. Even if she will lose those memories is it right to leave her alone and then scare her?

I’m just glad we found some solution to this situation. But in the end Touma was the one to lose memories. He was a good actor pretending he didn’t and giving Index some relief. But I don’t think he can keep up the fact he lost all those memories for that long.

I’ll say right here this show has the best OP of the season so far. Along with the powers involved in the show gives off a kind of Shana feel. At the very least the song is great and the images going along with it give a very good feeling for the series overall. If the rest of the show follows through like this one should make it easy to make a post every few weeks about it.

The male lead for this one is the lord of bad luck Touma. No really the guys hand has the ability to cancel out powerful abilities and affect his luck by contact with the air. So unfortunately for him he ends up stepping on phones, debit cards, and in the OP slipping on a can. He’s a pretty strong male lead so far with confidence in his ability though complains about his bad luck quite often. He is a nice guy as well going out of his way to try and save some delinquents who were messing with the wrong girl. Sadly it didn’t go well and they started chasing after him. Though this girl who we find out later to be named Mikoto took care of them anyways. A person with electrical abilities and knows how to fire off a coin following the rail gun principle. Since Touma could negate her ability she ends up following him around in this episode and that could continue through the series.

Index, as the heroine for this series was a pretty unique character. Found by Touma hanging off the railing and apparently can eat food that’s gone bad. Possessing 103,000 grimoires has apparently made her a pretty big target. A pretty strange personality being comical at one moment, but able to show a serious side as well. Clearly the girl has been through some tough situations after being chased for who knows how long. Though by the end of this episode it’s pretty clear that Touma is going to get dragged into it.

Some pretty funny moments overall made this easy to watch. The effect of Touma’s right hand on Index’s clothes is pretty funny in itself. Does a good job of mixing the comedy with the serious moments that come up in this episode. Looks like this will be a solid series for people to watch.