Summary:

Touma is able to dispel the golem with just one touch of his right hand, but Sherry Cromwell easily reforms it. Fortunately for Touma, he’s got the Anti-Skills force backing him up, and they chip away at the golem with their bullets. Cromwell counters by casting a spell to reinforce the golem, and Touma knows what he has to do. Although he doesn’t want Hyouka trying to stop him or touch him due to his ability, Touma reassures her that he’s her friend and promises to return. He then charges at the golem and gets thrown back, but when it tries to smash him, he slides under its arm and reaches Cromwell behind it. While the Anti-Skills keep the golem busy, Touma punches Cromwell to settle the fight, however this doesn’t knock her out. She’s still able to cast a spell that allows her to create a hole in the ground and escape through it. Realizing that Cromwell might be going after Index, Touma wants to get out of the underground shopping center quickly, but he learns from Yomikawa that they’re stuck there for the time being.

When Hyouka takes a moment to thank him, Touma tells her about how Index is in danger, and he considers jumping down through the same hole that Cromwell used to escape. Convinced by Cromwell that she’s a monster, Hyouka knows that there’s another way to save Index by using her own body. Touma tries to tell her that she’s not a monster, but Hyouka wants to use her own power to protect someone she cares about, and she jumps through the hole before Touma can stop her. Hyouka lands safely, and as she runs through the subway tunnel below, she thinks about how she originally existed in a world of heat haze and how meeting Index brought her into the outside world. She thinks that if Index found out that she was a monster, then Index wouldn’t want to be her friend anymore, but Hyouka nevertheless wants to save her.

By this point, Index has left Mikoto’s side to chase after Sphinx, and the cat brings her to a deserted area of the city. Shortly after she gets Sphinx back into her arms, Index is attacked by Cromwell’s golem. Index is able to tell the type of magic being used, and although she can’t use any magic herself, Index has the ability to manipulate the golem’s movements by intercepting the spell and causing confusion in the magic via a set of verbally uttered keywords. Knowing that this isn’t enough, Index also gets the golem to absorb one of the safety pins that she was using to hold her clothes together, and this limits the golem’s movements. Unfortunately, it smashes the ground in front of her, throwing her back, and it then changes from remote control mode to automatic control, meaning that she won’t be able to manipulate the magic governing its movements anymore. As the golem prepares to finish her off, Index hopes for Touma to come save her, and a certain something happens.

Preview

Shocking: Index was actually able to do something instead of sitting on the sidelines the entire time, and it was actually pretty cool, thanks in part to the fast-paced insert song jellyfish. Granted, in the end she still has to be saved (which the preview seems to spoil as Hyouka), but in this case the effort counts for something. She actually appears useful for once instead of being a whiny title character who never does anything. Why haven’t we seen more of this Index? If only Mikoto had been with her, then the two wouldn’t have had any problems with the golem. In fact, I’m kind of disappointed that Mikoto has been so close to the action for two episodes now, but hasn’t gotten involved in either of them.

As for the rest of the episode, I enjoyed the action at the beginning, but the parts with Touma and Hyouka were really slow. I also laughed really hard when Touma punched Sherry Cromwell in the face. For someone who spouts as much self-righteous crap as him, I’m amused by how he has no qualms about hitting a girl like that. Then again, I guess you could argue that he believes in equal treatment of all villains, regardless of gender. In any case, it looks like he might get another chance to do it next week in the finale if the preview is any indicator.

32 Comments

  1. “I guess you could argue that he believes in equal treatment of all villains, regardless of gender”

    LOL, you almost make it sound like there is something wrong with that:) Doesn’t anyone believe in “equal treatment of villains”, with the possible exceptions of those idiots that can’t hit a girl even if it is to save their own life (Sanji from One Piece comes to mind)? I’m glad that Touma is not like that.

    To Hell with the double standard! 🙂

    Darklord
  2. Aside from Touma’s speeches which take up 25% of each relevant episode I really enjoyed this episode. Especially the loli japanese nunjitsu towards the end. Wish we had more of that before.

    Samurai Pumpkin
  3. At least jellyfish came into play once!

    Index hardly gets to be in the center of things to begin with, so it’s only natural it took this long for viewers to see her make use of spell interception. 😉 That said, most of the heroines in the light novel more or less get shoved to the side to begin with as new characters make their way, so…(Kuroko seems to have more “page”time in the recent novels than either Index or Mikoto for one thing).

    tautau
  4. “I guess you could argue that he believes in equal treatment of all villains, regardless of gender”

    Nothing wrong with equal opportunities and gender equality nowadays lol. 😀

    If some crazy psycho chick began summoning giant golems with the intent of killing you, your friends, and starting some war between science and magic, then you’d probably want to hit her too hehe. 😛

    Ninja Penguin
  5. Index actually looked cool!!!?? Unbelievable stuff.

    The Anti-Skills are still as useless as ever, even with infinite ammo turned on. Sherry was standing right between Alice’s legs, so why don’t they shoot her instead?

    TJ
  6. During the Index vs Golem Ellis battle, I kept on expecting Mikoto to show up and hit it with her Railgun again. Imagine the huge dissapointment I had. I guess most viewers felt the same way.

    Hmm, Index can immobilize with a safety pin, Mikoto can turn any small metal object into an armor-penetrating bullet.

    Spell-enhanced safety pin + Railgun = massive hurt

    Too bad that’s never gonna happen, ’cause that would be so badass.

    magnumslinger
  7. The author was going to save that to many… many novels later. Actually, even in the last editions of the novel, the “gathering” of characters still continues. I think Itsuwa must appear also. But as far as i know, Mikoto gets some pretty cool action scenes on those…

    As for the expectations of the bloggers of this place, maybe the series was not of their likes but… if there’s enough people who actually liked this, i think we would see a lot interesting things in a second season. I take that possibility, although i’m not absolutely certain of that…

    Xanathos
  8. sorry for the double post, but I just found out that Baka-Tsuki picked up translating the light novels on Feb. 27, 2009
    can’t wait to read about the exciting stories with more details
    Touma is probably going to show pu at the lst minute and kick ass.

    ciq666
  9. What bothers me most on this series is, that it doesnt have any real great Plot. Somehow Characters are highly introduced and then forgotten about it (i. e. Kanzaki, Stiy, Accelerator, den blonde Guy and Misaka and Index didnt have that great of a Part in the Show too).
    But the show is still good to watch ^^

    FlyTaggart
  10. I’m so sad the season’s coming to an end…
    Despite a lot of the obvious faults that the anime has, it’s still the ongoing show I enjoy the most right now… Guess I’ll just have to wait for season 2…
    *sigh* oh well…
    The new spring season lineup looks pretty interesting though xD

    And It’s nice to finally see Index in action, been waiting for that!

    Thbro14
  11. Sigh, this episode had so much potential!

    I found the incredibly and awkwardly over-dramatized first half (Touma and Hyouka talking to each other behind the barricade) to be stereotypical, boring, and frankly, just a drag. Why exactly do they spout predictable lines right after each other, and how come Touma can say so much when he only met her a few hours ago? Bah.

    Drawing a magic circle in the few milliseconds the camera is away is pretty hard to do, if I do say so myself. Plus if you take a look at the speed Sherry Cromwell draws the golem the second time, it actually takes time. Based on the time it takes her to write that magic circle, it’s pretty much impossible for her to draw a more complex one in a shorter amount of time, and right after Touma slugs her to boot!

    And… why are the almighty goddess Mikoto and that… (what’s her name again? Hmmn… Oh, right, it’s something along the lines of…) Index girl just standing around? They already know that Kuroko can’t teleport Touma out of the underground complex (right hand), so shouldn’t they go somewhere else and, well, do something?

    Biribiri needs to get in on the action. Mikoto+Index tag team would’ve been really fun. But all we get is some Index action?! It’s suddenly randomly revealed that Index can manipulate others’ spells to a degree? Why haven’t we heard this before? Then couldn’t she have done something in the past… say, fifteen episodes? Random skills GET! Stupid Index… wait. Index? Wasn’t she that main heroine from episode 1? Hold on a sec. Is… is… is Index the main heroines again?! Holy shi-…!

    But this is just a bunch of negative comments. Basically, I really hated the first half of the episode, but the latter half was okay, despite Mikoto’s serious lack of screentime.

  12. I agree man. This episode had loads of potential it just decided to ignore. It was one of the better ones…sad to say.

    I agree, I don’t like how the series has “Index” in the title, but so very rarely does she do anything. I mean sure, it’s different NOT to focus on the character the show is named after, but it also kind of makes me not give a crap about any of the females so far. I mean really, they’re either just their for Fanservice, and that’s it. All of these girls have a 2-3 episode Arc, that introduces them, then puts them in the backround forever. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if in Season 2, Touma & Index weren’t even the main chars and only made occasional pop ins.

    The Writer of these novels really needs to learn what’s called “Pacing”, and “Proper character development”. It’s either that the anime made 70% of the episodes up, or the writer is just a bad one.

    Mkilbride
  13. Index was so great at the last minutes. Using her supreme knowledge to fight the baddy. I do hope Hyouka survives, but the chances are quite slim.
    @Thbro14 Yes indeed, after this and ToraDora ends I need to find replacements, but I don’t find any decent series at the moment. I probably wait for Square’s other series, FMA 2.

  14. @Hirvine
    you should really check out the spring lineup (if you haven’t already)…
    I do think a few of the shows (other then FMA) look pretty promising…
    (Couldn’t post the url leading to the preview-poster – Got blocked by the spamfilter)

    @Higoku
    I was told season 2 was confirmed during the airing of the final episode xD
    So season 2 is coming for sure…

    Thbro14

Leave a Reply to tautau Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *