Summary:

On this particular day, the girls are talking about urban legends, and the ones they bring up include a woman who’ll suddenly take off her clothes, a Level Upper tool that increases a person’s abilities, and a guy who has an ability against which other abilities have no effect. This last one gets Mikoto’s attention because she had actually met someone before with that power – Touma. He had tried to save her from a group of thugs but had angered her in the process, causing a surge of electricity in her that knocked everyone out. Everyone, that is, except him. Coincidentally, right as she’s thinking about this, she runs into Touma trying to help a woman who’s looking for where she parked her car. Touma is in a hurry, so he wants Mikoto to help the woman instead, and as they’re arguing about it, the woman suddenly starts to take off her shirt because it’s so hot. This attracts a lot of attention since they’re out in public, and Touma ends up running away, leaving Mikoto with the woman. As it turns out, the woman is a researcher studying cerebrophysiology and AIM dispersion fields, so Mikoto tries asking her about an ability against which other abilities have no effect, but the woman isn’t able to help her much.

When the woman’s skirt then gets stained by a random kid’s ice cream, she almost takes off the skirt in public, but Mikoto takes her to a restroom to get it washed and dried. While she’s getting dressed, the woman brings up thanking Touma, and the way Mikoto talks about him makes the woman think that Mikoto likes him. Mikoto is eventually able to help the woman find her car, and afterward, she feels tired and blames Touma. As luck would have it, she runs into him again and proceeds to challenge him to a fight. He agrees, and so the two face off by the riverbank. Nothing Mikoto throws at Touma hurts him though, and even when she tries to electrocute him by grabbing his right hand, nothing happens. This gives Touma the opportunity to punch her, but when he sees how scared she looks, he falls down and pretends to be defeated. This just angers her even more, and she ends up chasing him for most of the evening. She’s ultimately unsuccessful at catching him though and returns back to her dorm, only to find Kuroko convinced that Mikoto has been cursed by the woman who takes off her clothes.

Preview

That was without a doubt the best episode of Railgun so far, and arguably it was the most fun I’ve had with an episode of either series, so kudos first to J.C.Staff. The battle between Mikoto and Touma was exciting even though you knew that there was no way Touma would lose, and it was just hilarious in general just to see the two interact – the comedic timing was perfect, especially the scene where Touma pretended to fall in defeat. Mikoto also managed to be extra cute this episode thanks to all the tsundere moments, and Touma got to act cool a couple of times as well, yet never came across as preachy. It’s worth mentioning though that I think a lot of my enjoyment here comes from having seen all of Index and knowing the ups and downs of Touma’s character combined with how weak Mikoto really is towards him. I’m not sure if someone who hasn’t seen Index would enjoy this episode nearly as much.

In any case, despite all the fun stuff, this episode moved the story forward a little as well with those urban legends – which obviously aren’t so false – and with the introduction of the scientist lady Kiyama Harumi. She actually comes off as a much nicer and less creepy character than I remember from the manga, but her lack of common sense is still there. Given how different this anime adaptation has been so far (in a good way though, as this episode shows), I’m curious to see how they use her character and develop the story from here. It’s hard to believe I’m saying this, but hopefully there’ll be more Touma too.

63 Comments

  1. I am loving this series. Everything To Aru no Majutsu no Index was lacking is in here. They rushed the storyline too much in To Aru no Majutsu no Index and no personal insight or storyline was provided; only solving problems one after another. Too bad this is not about Touma, i would have loved to see more about Touma and his harem in some kind of character development.

    banzemanga
  2. I love it when Touma is in the same scenes as Mikoto. (I had found Index a bit annoying…)
    Need more cool Touma and fun and funny scenes with Mikoto 🙂 (Well, any scene with them together is good.)

    oh, and First 😛

    ciq666
  3. Great episode. I love how they actually point out her status as a Tsundere type. IMO in the A certain Magical Index series the best parts imo were with Misaka mikoto, Touma and her clones. It’s awesome seeing an entire series dedicated to the character.

    Only complaint I have about Touma was he didn’t cry out “So unlucky!!” or w/e his catch phrase was. It would’ve been perfect to throw that running gag in there.

    synkronized
  4. First, and you’re right synkronized, now that you mention it, his catch phrase was missing. 🙂 If you want to see a similar character, then you might want to watch Nyan Koi if you aren’t already.
    Anyways, yes, after the worst episode last week, this was definitely the best episode, so far. Hope they keep it up. So far I still prefer the first series, which has more Touma and less annoying “girls eating cheese cakes” scenes.

    bobara
  5. Wow, an episode where 100% of it came from the manga… I see alot more of you are happy now. I just wonder how are they gonna handle those scenes that were put in Index for some dumb reason. Oh well, atleast yall can enjoy this level upper mess – & its just sad for anyone not being able to do one lousy pushup 😛

    Megas
  6. @vin-nii: The most enjoyable of Index was the interaction between Touma and big variety of charactes when he is involved in big troubles thanks to his funny bad luck.

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20-%2004%20-%20Large%2013.jpg
    Harumi: Can I join your harem?
    Touma: hah??
    Harumi: I can show you my atributes.*starts to get naked*
    Touma: *nosebleeding *Ah!! ok! ok! first put some clothes on!
    Harumi: btw who is the girl near to us?
    Touma: I don’t know.

    I still prefer the first series, which has more Touma, funny bad luck and less yuri antics…. MikotoxTouma?? Hah! There is no pairing between them in the whole series(Index and Railgun), so I dont want to dream awake. Index self has more opportunities wihth the guy.

    Lero
  7. @ewok: Biri biri = Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of electrical discharge. Since Mikoto discharged electricity sound similar to biri biri, thus Touma nicknamed her as Biribiri.

    silver_wolf
  8. All this time Touma never knew that he himself was an urban legend, huh? And how strange, he actually looks cooler here when he’s not preaching.

    Besides Touma and Kiyama “the stripping woman”, a third urban legend mentioned by Saten about the entering into a different dimension caused by the AIM dispersion field is probably referring to Kazakiri Hyouka, who Index befriended in the last few episodes of the first series, and who doesn’t normally “exist” in this plane of existence.

    I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this much for the whole Index series, so this is certainly a step-up in quality, at least for laughs. Not surprising since it’s the guys from Toradora taking charge of this series.

    Kuroko confirms herself to be a nutcase, not even Kiyama’s lack of common sense could rival that. LMAO at her banging her head on table, trying to suppress her fantasies of her onee-sama stripping in public, and trying to “cure” Mikoto by forcing a panties on her head.

    Oh dear, my stomach’s hurting from so much laughing yesterday and today, from Kampfer to Seitokai and now this. XD

    Kinny Riddle
  9. @Splash, as of the latest manga chapter, it is still not know what Uiharu’s power is. Though since she’s a lowly Level 2 esper, it doesn’t impact much on the plot. Her friend Saten, a Level 0 (a genuine Level 0, unlike Touma, who is only designated as such because his Imagine Breaker power is unmeasurable), is slightly more involved, but that’s all I’ll say without spoiling.

    Kinny Riddle
  10. @Kinny Riddle: Why is Touma looks cooler now? That is because this is Touma before he met Index. Remember that he lost his precious ‘thing’ after meeting Index, so this is the ‘real’ Touma. At least, that is how I see these things.

    silver_wolf
  11. Biri biri = Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of electrical discharge
    Biri biri also means

    @Kinny Riddle: That urban legend thing is non canon in the manga. And I don find a good directer the the Toradora’s the last two chapters were crap.

    Lero
  12. @Lero

    Women who joined Touma’s harem joined his harem before he even knew he had a harem. And he probably doesn’t even consider them his harem, only a regiment of Misfortune Guards. So this situation is more accurate:

    Harumi: *swoons over Touma* *joins harem*
    Touma: Why are you following me? Oh, misfortune!

    Mincemaker
  13. Just saw Shana S OVA and I must say though I’m a bit worried and disappointed. It seems like there was no improvement at all in the animation style. This on the other hand had a step up from the first series.

    Hope they get SnS season 3 right this time. Back to the topic Touma. w00t! XD

    megalith
  14. @Lero, I still fail to see how someone who directed Honey and Clover 2 could be considered crap for directing the ending of Toradora, which pretty much followed the novel ending, despite a few adjustments, so I beg to differ. If you want to blame the ending of Toradora, you should be blaming the original author.

    And just because his handling of a romantic situation is considered “crap” does not make him a bad director if the comedy element is on par with Toradora.

    And of course I was aware that urban legend thing wasn’t from the manga, think of it as an Easter Cookier the anime adaptors inserted for people with like me who have too much time on their hands. 🙂

    Kinny Riddle
  15. Ah yes, finally an excellent episode. No surprise the best episode by far prominently features interactions between Touma and Biribiri. Now we just need to toss in Accelerator and the MisakaMisaka clones. Imagine Breaker > Everything.

    So Very Odd
  16. Excellent episode, I would like to see more of accelerator and last order. They make a good team just like Touma and biri biri.

    Anyone keeping up with the manga knows that Mikoto’s abilities are constantly unfolding in clever ways.

    Zetribe
  17. @Kinny Riddle:
    1.- Honey and Clover 2 was done in a different context of time.
    2.- The (super-obvious)ending and some fun moments are not enough to compensate the whole series. In railgun, I keep the people not dreaming about ToumaxMikoto pairing in order to prevent any romantic disappointments.
    3.- Cliche always will be cliche, I only blame the director because the pacing was rushed.
    4.- I agree, his romance handling is forced and rushed, I felt the same in the novels, so there is no complain about that. *sarcasm*
    The comedy…maybe, but the chapter 3 of Railgun didn’t made me grin a bit, in contrast the previous one(I dislike yuri things but Kuroko made me laugh like Maria + Holic).

    @curious one: Because Touma lost his memories in 28 July, there is 4 or 5 days left in the timeline of Railgun.

    @Eirias: No, Railgun is Mikoto fanservice in the science side, so there is NO MAGIC SIDE related things like Index, Kaori, Necessarius, Amakusa catholic church, Anihilatus Ortodox Church, Romanic Catholic Church, Anglican Church or The God Right Seat :D.

    Lero
  18. This episode just strongly proves how a Touma and Mikoto episode is one of the best highlights in the whole series! I mean come on! The best episode I know in the To Aru Majutsu no Index series is EP.18, When Touma and Mikoto acted like a couple! It was only 1 episode, yet it rocks! Touma X Mikoto * (Misaka Imouto) = 1 Helluva show!

    X
  19. The Urban Legends (in the first few seconds after the OP) are all true! (watch Index to know more)
    I wonder if we’re going to see the wind-turbine thing – they already had that arc in Index, so I don’t think there will be, but maybe they will show it from Mikoto’s perspective?

    ciq666
  20. @sashimi
    Actually I think that’s Yuji’s mom. Google Image Chigusa Sakai.

    I love how Touma holds back and plays dead when Mikoto comes to the realization that she is vulnerable; something that she does not appear to be used to.

    BrownGaijin
  21. Alright! Finally, Touma shows up. 😀
    The ferrokinetic ability was an interesting addition to Mikoto’s repetoir, too.

    I LMAO’d at the scene where Kuroko panicked. That just made the entire episode for me! I agree, best episode of TAKR yet.

    DMetroneis

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