Summary:

After lunch, Touma, Index, and Hyouka wander around the underground shopping center, and the two girls go off to have some cosplay pictures taken while Touma answers a phone call. Touma can’t figure out who’s on the other end because it’s garbled up, and after hanging up, he accidentally sees Index and Hyouka changing again. The girls still get their picture taken though, and the group is then approached by a member of Judgment who informs them that there is a terrorist around. Everyone is being evacuated, but before Touma and company can reach the exit, they are discovered by one of Sherry Cromwell’s golem eyes. With the mage about to act, the entire area gets locked down, so Touma and the girls are trapped inside. Fortunately they’re found by Kuroko and Mikoto who inform them that a large-scale battle might occur. Index and Mikoto start arguing because they’re suspicious of each other’s relationship with Touma, so Kuroko decides to teleport those two out to safety first, leaving Touma and Hyouka by themselves for a little while.

When Touma then hears an explosion and gunfire in the distance, he decides to go stop the mage and leaves Hyouka by herself to wait for Kuroko. He finds the Anti-Skills force battling Cromwell and her golem, but Yomikawa and her men are in pretty bad shape, so Touma steps forward to face the challenge. Recognizing Touma as the Imagine Breaker, Cromwell introduces herself and surprises him with the fact that she’s from Necessarius. The reason she’s here is because she’s trying to start a war, and she actually wants people to know that she’s from the church. As Touma tries to figure out how to combat her golem, Hyouka arrives on the scene, and although Touma tries to get her to cover, he doesn’t reach her in time: the golem smacks the ground, and a piece of the debris nails Hyouka in the head. When Touma checks to make sure she’s still alive, he’s realizes that the left half of her head is missing. It is not, however, a bloody mess. Instead, he can see clearly into her head and is shocked by the object rotating inside of it.

When Hyouka regains consciousness and sees the hole in her head, she freaks out and runs away from Touma, but she heads right towards Cromwell’s golem, and it knocks her down. Hyouka gets back up though and flees further into the dark tunnel that is this shopping center. Cromwell decides to chase her, and that leaves Touma by himself to figure out what’s going on. By chance, he suddenly gets a phone call from Komoe, and she notes that Himegami had tried to call him earlier. Komoe is calling about Hyouka, and she reveals that Hyouka didn’t show up on their school’s security cameras. She thinks that Hyouka and the AIM dispersion field are related, and she theorizes that Hyouka came from the slight power discharge of the espers in the city all piling up. Hyouka wouldn’t know anything about this if she always thought that she was human, but in truth, she’s a physical phenomenon created from the AIM dispersion fields. Having said that, Komoe also points out that Hyouka isn’t just an illusion without a life or a heart, and Touma is resolved to help her.

Meanwhile, Hyouka regenerates her face and her glasses, but she soon gets found by Cromwell and her golem. Cromwell already knows all about Hyouka and how she’s not really human, and she compares Hyouka to her golem, calling them both monsters. Fortunately, Touma arrives just in time to save Hyouka from being crushed.

Preview

Well that was a lot better than last week’s episode, but it bothers me still that there is no natural realization of what’s going on – Komoe had to call up Touma and tell him everything over the phone. That meant that they broke away from all the action for several minutes of mind-numbing technobabble, and it still doesn’t entirely make sense to me how Hyouka came to be. On the other hand, I did enjoy most of the rest of the episode. Seeing Index and Mikoto together was quite amusing, and it hadn’t really occurred to me before this episode that the two didn’t know each other. I wish though that Mikoto had stuck around instead of being teleported away from the action. She could have provided some much needed firepower, plus I just plain like her character more than Index or Hyouka. Speaking of which, I also don’t understand why it takes Kuroko so long to teleport away and back – theoretically she should have been able to come back to pick up Touma and Hyouka almost immediately.

I did laugh though at the very end of the episode with the overly dramatic shot of Touma saving Hyouka. Is he now so overpowered that he can confidently use his arm’s power without even facing his opponent? I’m reminded of a certain scene from Bleach… I doubt though that this confidence or power will carry over into the actual battle between him and Cromwell. Anyway, there are two more episodes left, so I assume next week won’t be the conclusion of all this. Normally I’d hope for the best, but in this case, I just hope they’re not dragged down by more technobabble.

40 Comments

  1. What bugged me about the teleportation scene was that they didn’t really think of getting Hyouka out first. If she was a normal girl without any powers shouldn’t she be evacuated first? Of course the story would have to go a different direction then..

    anonymii
  2. “it still doesn’t entirely make sense to me how Hyouka came to be”

    from the subs I’ve seen, basically, Hyouka is the result of a bunch of random esper powers that are released by espers (the aim field thing). Essentially, she is a coincidence generated by the aftereffects of thousands of people using their powers.

    The part I don’t get is the imaginary number theory part, but everything esle makes sense, assuming one finds such a coincidence to be possible (it’s an anime, so such coincidences have to happen to have a plot…)

    alyu
  3. Lol @ cosplay o.O
    I wonder if it could actually work if this series focused more on the harem aspect… since for the most part there’s only one male protagonist >.> Kinda like Shana.

    Dbad
  4. I have a feeling Touma cant be teleported, (i thought he negated all abilities) but it might just be with his arm, im not 100% sure.
    in any case, this series is just a bunch of random arcs put together, they probably do go together some how, but its tempting to call it episodic at times..
    i still enjoy each episode though, the crystal in her head was pretty cool.

    Precise Moment
  5. @Precise Moment
    I was thinking he can’t be teleported too, but they didn’t even try. He couldn’t recieve the message via telepathy, and that’s to his brain not his arm, seeing as his arm is attached to the rest of his body, came to a conclusion that he can’t be teleported @@?! Other than that……. I want more Himegami screentime Q_Q

    brianleung8912
  6. @Precise moment: remember hot Angel Fall didn’t affect him either? At the start of the manga Index basically told him that he was unlucky because luck was an act of god and since his arm basically cancel all esper and magic power, that was negated too. Basically area of effect powers like telepathy, and I suppose teleportation don’t work on him but he the spell or power is focused he has to use his arm to block it.

    Ayle
  7. YEAH i remember that bleach scene…sword to a BIG-ASS FIST!!! or was it a flaming BIRD-BEAK!?!?!….hmmm..huh? well.. a lot of times. anyway it was ridiculous dat no look golem-punch block heheheh. damn its almost finished right? too bad, i could go another 20 eps or so

    BROOKLYN otaku
  8. Kuroko taking a while to teleport is a detail that was touched upon in the light novels, IIRC. There’s a limit to how much distance she can cover and how much mass she can handle. She’s unable to use it when she’s under pressure or couldn’t concentrate because of the level of calculation she has to go through prior to using it too. She’s not going to be zipping left and right every nanosecond like some teleporters we see in other works. :S

    tautau
  9. Yeah, getting rid of Mikoto in this situation is ridiculous, but in the novel it was actually Touma who told Kuroko to get Mikoto and Index out of there. If you remember the promise he just made to “Mitsuki” in vol 5 (even though you didn’t get to hear it) his decision will make sense in that respect.

    It’s still stupid though, since she’s more than capable of taking care of herself, but that’s Touma for you.

    applesauce
  10. Doesn’t Kuroko only have a certain range she can teleport? She probably had to make a number of small jumps going out and coming back and that’s why it took her awhile to return.

    Terence
  11. Obviously there’s a second season *hopeful*

    How do you people know about arcs that are not shown in the anime?
    I tried to look for Enlgish translated To Aru Majutsu No Index light novels, but even after hours of searching online, no luck :S

    ciq666
  12. I’ll be honest here, all the sciency stuff that goes on in the show? I love it. So when they broke away from the fight to explain all that stuff, I didn’t mind at all.

    Chicle
  13. I really like this arc and the other ones but because of that, Index hasn’t really participated in the general plot like Touma has, except from her arc obviously. We will have to wait for a second season that moves away from this 26 episodes long character introduction.

    Evoker
  14. So, if Hyouka is made of congealed, left-over PSI energy, does that mean that Touma will destroy (cancel) her if he touches her with his right hand?

    (This speculation from somebody who hasn’t read the novels.)

    I’m a little surprised that Index didn’t mistake Mikoto for one of her sister-clones, whom Index met once. (Think: electrocuted fleas.)

    @TJ:
    > and Index + Railgun = Hilarious.

    Yes! Need more of them together!

    dbm
  15. Well despite some slight changes this series is still following the novel….to an extent. Any way this was a pretty good episode, despite Index’s over enthusiastic “ohh’s” and “Awws” that made my ears bleed. With the way things are going it looks like there going to finish this arch (or leave us on a cliff hanger) and leave other matters for the next season. (Assuming the news i got was right and we do get another season.)

    Azar
  16. Wow. Instant rivals.

    But despite that, the Kamijo Clout is now truly forming.

    Hopefully Mikoto learns about the magic world. Which is likely since she’s with Index.

    magnumslinger
  17. How convenient that the random manifestation of PSI powers is a busty meganekko, eh?
    Sometimes this series makes me facepalm for the obvious fanservice.
    Touma wins all his fights by deus-ex-machina. His power is only good on defense, on offense he has to rely on his bare punches. He should work in concert with his esper/mage friends instead of always trying to play the hero.

    Son Gohan
  18. you know I bet Touma would be an excellent addition of Anti-Skill if he ever consider it, cause you need someone who can manage rogue espers, and Touma is a prime canidate for the job. After all, he is just a normal human being who simply possess a unique ability.

    And considering Touma’s bad luck, he also seems to spread it around.

    Karis
  19. The ONE thing I hated about this episode is how Sherry knows that his ability is called Imagine Breaker yet she seems as though she doesn’t know what it does?

    Besides that I can explain a few things. First off Hyouka is basically a Humonculous. Basically all the little “bits of power” from all the espers created a form made of exactly what a human is made of and basically gave life to her. I think she gets her humanity from that little thing in her head. Obviously it’s the device that Science has “secretly hidden” that allows the user (in this case I’m guessing Hyouka) the ability to see what every ones ability/status and such are. This is what Sherry wants so that when she (and possibly many others) starts the war between Magicians and Espers (Religion and Science) they have the upper hand.

    As for the teleport. It’s because of her limit of 2 per person, Touma not being affected by it, and the fact she got held up by the other normal humans that couldn’t get out in time.

    ROFLWAFFLELAWL
  20. oh THANK YOU, thank you, thank you so much Baka Tsuki
    I just hope the translators can translate it as fast as they did Haruhi Suzumiya or at least faster than Zero no Tsukaima.
    but as long as it’s considered, I am happy 😀
    if Hyouka can regenerate, then wouldn’t she be immortal?

    ciq666

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