Summary:

Unaware of everything that’s going on with Touma, Komoe explains to Index and Himegami how espers acquire powers by separating from the proper reality and obtaining their own reality. Academy City helps with artificially creating this reality and awakening abilities. The fact that there are Level 0s like Touma indicates that there are still rules that are not yet understood, and she suggests that this could be the key to SYSTEM. Along those lines, she claims that if someone with a status greater than humans appears, then this person could understand God’s answers. Touma meanwhile wakes up in Mikoto’s lap, and she’s crying because she’s concerned about him. He responds by telling her that he’s figured out how to stop the experiment: demonstrate to the researchers that their assumption of Accelerator being the strongest is incorrect by defeating him. In addition, it has to be him who defeats Accelerator because he’s the weakest Level 0. Mikoto tries to convince him that this will be impossible, especially given his current condition, but Touma ignores all this and just gets her to tell him where Accelerator is supposed to be. Mikoto has no choice but to point him to the right direction, and although he leaves her behind, she eventually decides not to stand around doing nothing.

By the time Touma arrives at the site, the battle between the clone and Accelerator has already begun. Accelerator is winning and is in the process of kicking the clone while she’s down when Touma finally appears. Remembering all her experiences with Touma, the clone tries to dissuade him from getting involved since she can be simply manufactured, but all Touma cares about is saving her. However, the fight with Accelerator is anything but easy. When Touma tries to throw a punch, Accelerator forces him away and then tosses steel rail after steel rail at him. Touma manages to emerge from this bombardment without any major injuries, and as Accelerator tries to reach for him, Touma slaps Accelerator’s hand away. The Imagine Breaker activates for a brief moment on contact, and this leaves Accelerator momentarily surprised. He responds by unearthing the ground under Touma to toss him away again, but Touma is subsequently fast enough to stay on the run as Accelerator continues the assault. Their fight results in the destruction of a container containing wheat flour, and with all that powder floating through the air, Accelerator decides to set off a dust explosion.

Preview

And here I thought that this episode would finish this arc, but Komoe’s speech at the beginning sucked up some time and things were drawn out a bit more, so they were able to end on a good cliffhanger and leave what appears to be the really exciting stuff for next time (more on that in a moment). From this and last week’s episode though, I can definitely see how Mikoto can develop feelings for Touma, however I also have to say that his shounen bravado shtick is getting a bit old. I’d love to see him get completely humiliated at some point and be forced to evolve more as a character. I suspect that’s not going to happen here though since Accelerator has already shown a sign of weakness with his reaction to being touched by Touma’s right hand.

That aside, the fights were still fun to watch, and it’s good to see that the Misaka clones use different tactics against Accelerator. It made me wonder about the possibility in the thousands of battles of them eventually just outwitting him. Outwitting Accelerator is probably what Touma is going to have to do as well if he’s going to win because it doesn’t look like his arm will help much against Accelerator’s power (on the other hand, I guess he’s managed to find a way to use it in all of the previous fights). We’ll have to wait a while to see the conclusion to the battle though because there’s no episode next week due to it being that time of year again. The difference, however, between this and most of the other series taking a break is that there is one channel here – AT-X – that does not appear to be stopping with all the others. AT-X is currently one episode behind the other channels, but it airs new episodes on Thursdays instead of Saturdays. What this means is that the earliest airing of this show will now be on Thursdays, and more specifically, episode 14 will air Thursday, January 8th, 2009.

29 Comments

  1. @Sadifn: LOL true! Just as Aisa Himegami said, that’s his fate, to unlock and go through a girl’s route, and end up living with them. Too bad it wont happen in Mikoto’s case, since she lives in a dorm, but lol at the maid (in the past ep.) commenting about him living together with a sister and a miko (too bad he can’t add the rich girl on the list).

    In any case, since the anime buys for time in every episode, they make Touma more idealistic and so he ends up talking a lot. I prefer the manga, since it doesnt waste a lot of time talking about the ideals and such. The fight with Accelerator should reach the end in the next episode. Too bad it also puts an end to Misaka’s arc.

    X
  2. lol @ Touma. He has to figure out there’s a certain way he has to fight in order to win ~easily~. But who cares about that. In the end its just like Sadifn said anyway. The yack is killing this show. But that’s also a moot point now.

    If this keeps up, Touma will soon have a super harem of the likes that would even make Yamamoto Akuji jealous. Too bad 10000 of them will be the same but I don’t think any well endowed guy would give a hell anyway 😛

    But really, why was the best part of this episode in the beginning…I really wonder why…hmmm 😀

    Megas
  3. @Sadifn

    While the novels/manga is still going we don’t know how it’ll end. The one key thing is that both Index AND Mikoto are constant. The other girls as people have said come and go or just linger around but do nothing.

    It depends on what side the arc lands on, is it magic? (index will be the main heroine), or is it science? (then it’s Mikoto). They’re pretty 50/50 I’d say.

    I also don’t know about the later novels but I do know that Mikoto falls for him fully.

    GP
  4. So far it it seems that the anime follows the novel pretty close and therefore I think there is still a lot to expect from the show. Like GP said, most of the girls come and go but the main one that tends to be around are Index and Mikoto and friends.

    Silver
  5. @Omni
    Touma doesn’t need to be beaten and humiliated anymore,after all Kanzaki already did that early on when she beat and left him half dead.I think much of Touma’s appeal is based on the fact that he accepts that he’s weak so he’s not in a habit of moping around when he does get a beating.Trying to outwit his opponent is Touma’s style(although I think it’s by necessity and not by choice)since his Imagine Breaker negates the possibility that he’ll get stronger or gain god-like powers to defeat his enemies.His bravado does get tiring though but I can stand that than the usual formula of: Getting beaten>mope>train>get stronger>beat enemy type of story.It’s not a common approach that in most stories the main hero is weak and stays that way but still manages to make it through.

    tabs05
  6. @tabs05
    Yeah after that beating let him have some hero time
    Meh, just wait for other characters to develop powers and save him, besides after this arc, I think the church will start coming for index again

    Twi
  7. Twi, next arc is the Angel Fall arc, focusing on Kaori. Show Spoiler ▼

    ravie
  8. @GP: O.o so that’s why in wiki they mention both index and mikoto as co-heroine, I completely thought that the former was the main character of the series especially since it’s practically the name of the show. I also thought that the other series, To Aru Kagaku no Choudenjibou, which Mikoto is the main heroine. So when did Mikoto fall for Touma? After this arc? Though I’m sure she’ll still be a tsundere/biri biri after lol, but it certainly makes her more interesting than Index whom is a sister/nun loli.

    @tabs05: Quite true, he didn’t stand a chance against her at all, I mean how could he? She has a weapon that can kill someone 7 times in a split second, and as an added effect it can even trap them. She wasn’t even serious in their fight at all, all that Touma did was attack her pyschologically, and he knew that he couldnt win. He doesn’t posses a power that can negate everything, and even if he does, it still doesn’t mean that he’s the strongest.

    @ravie: is that what happened in the novels so far? So I guess there are 4 arcs left to cover then.

    X
  9. the only thing Touma can do is grab Accelerator with his right hand and beat the crap out of him with his left. Provided that by keeping a hold on Accelerator with his right Accelerator is unable to use his powers.

    Well we’ll see if it works out as I suppose in the next ep of Kamijou Touma the loli magnet

    bearzerger
  10. @X: my guess is this anime will end after 2 more arc and then will continue again in season 2 in 2010.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    K
  11. I wouldn’t call the fifth novel 3 arcs, but unlike the other novels other than the short story compilations, it is 3 separate stories. Show Spoiler ▼

    ravie
  12. Vol 4 and 5 look like some kind of filler stories to me, so this series definitely should go for vol 6, even if it means 4 and 5 are rushed. In vol 6, there are a lot of spectacular scenes. And there, Touma actually becomes the crosspoint of Magic and ESP, Index actually looks like a heroine and Mikoto also has her moment or two.

    calde
  13. The end part where Accelerator was doing his Hahahaha was f’cking annoying. I bet that scene alone was a full 30 seconds. At least the pacing is slightly better than last week’s.

    Another thing about this series that is still making me scratch my head is, how do they rank these magic users? For starters, I’m pretty sure it’s not about beating your opponents (like in sport). Yet, the preview suggests that a level 0 will beat a level 5 next week, which leads me to the following conclusions: Either A) Touma was ranked incorrectly or B) the ranking system is flawed. Wouldn’t their powers be more like a game of JanKenPon, where there’s never ever a “strongest” magic user, that every magic user, regardless how strong he/she is, will be beatable by someone else.

    In any case, seeing the screenshots made me came up with this:

    Pic 25: “I wanna have rough sex with ya!!!”
    Pic 26: “… Too rough man, we’re through!!”
    Pic 27: “Nonsense! Let me feel you up again!”
    Pic 28: “I said enough!!! Don’t touch me!!”
    Pic 29: “ARRGGGG!!!! Why won’t you accept my love!?!?”
    Pic 30: “Broken-heart-otoko-super KICK!!!!”
    Pic 31: “Oh shit… didn’t know he would break like that!!”
    Pic 32: “Don’t run, Touma!! I’ll blow your mind, body and soul!”
    Pic 33: “… Literally”

    Nalface

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