Summary:

While trying to bust a car thief, Kuroko ignores Uiharu’s warning and instead charges ahead. She gets caught off-guard when it turns out that there’s a second thief, and the two end up escaping, stun-gunning Uiharu in the process. Although Uiharu is okay, she’s unhappy that Kuroko ignored her warning, and the two get into an argument that leads to Uiharu bringing up the promise they once made. Kuroko doesn’t even remember what that promise was, so Uiharu storms off. Back in her dorm room, Kuroko’s loud fretting annoys Mikoto and prompts her to question how Kuroko and Uiharu came to work together in the first place. It all goes back to elementary school, when both girls were still relatively new to Judgment, and Kuroko was assigned to patrol with Konori Mii. Uiharu had run into them at the post office, and all three of them had then gotten caught up in a robbery attempt. Thinking that there was only one robber, Kuroko had attacked and defeated him, but it turned out that there was second one, and he took Uiharu hostage. What’s more, this second robber had an ability that allowed him to destroy a security robot, and in trying to protect Kuroko, Konori had gotten injured.

Realizing that her own rashness was at fault, Kuroko had vowed to save Uiharu and had managed to teleport her outside the now locked-down building. The bigger problem then had been the second robber whose ability was Equal Speed. It gave anything he threw a constant speed, regardless of what was in its way, until the object broke or he canceled his ability. He was thus able to use large metal ball bearings as projectiles that could both help him escape and hurt his opponents. Having shown this to Kuroko, he wanted her to help him in exchange for the freedom of all the other hostages. Kuroko, however, had refused to bend the justice she believed in, so the robber had attacked. Much to Kuroko’s surprise, an electric burst was fired between them at that exact moment, disintegrating the ball bearings. She used this opportunity to subdue and capture the man. In the aftermath, the person who had fired that electric burst disappeared, and Kuroko had been left wondering what happened. Having heard what Kuroko had said about justice, Uiharu had vowed the same, and the two had promised to work together to mature and become full-fledged members of Judgment. Remembering all this now, Kuroko gets a phone call from Konori informing her that Uiharu has gone after the thieves from earlier, and at Mikoto’s urging, Kuroko finds and joins her.

Preview

Although it doesn’t compare to how great last week was, this was still a pretty good episode. I think I’ve said before that I’m not the biggest fan of Kuroko’s character, but I didn’t mind them doing character development by revealing the past like this, and I thought it was a nice touch to have Mikoto be the person who secretly helped save the day. Young Kuroko and Uiharu were also very cute, especially Uiharu, though it did bother me a little that Arai Satomi‘s voice felt even more ill-fitted for an elementary school kid than it does normally for a junior-high school girl. The other thing that bothered me is why, instead of teleporting Uiharu to safety, Kuroko didn’t just teleport the bad guy instead. I doubt the robber would have tried to break back into the building in broad daylight, and although he might have gotten away, it’d have been the much safer thing to do for everyone involved.

This episode also made me a bit more curious about Konori Mii’s character and her x-ray-vision/clairvoyance ability because it seemed like it would be very useful in the sort of scrapes that Kuroko and company get themselves into. Maybe we’ll see a bit more of her from now on, though it looks like next episode will be more Mikoto focused.

41 Comments

  1. Kuroko might only be a Level 2 then, she did say that she couldn’t teleport herself yet, and Uiharu is 2 years younger than her so it could be that she can only teleport a limited weight. That said, Konori Mii is dam hot!

    T.K.
  2. I didn’t buy it. why would a villain who was ready to kill a kid in an instant surrender him self calmly a second later. guess the episode’s time was running out and they had to finish things up. Almost halfway through the series now and still get “this is an ova” feeling

    gmoney
  3. Episodes 5 & 6 are from the manga and all, but their really fillers. They really don’t have anything to do with the plot. As for this episode, it had its quirks. I know those girls are small & everything, but that’s just too small for 12 – even though I know anime love to portray 12 yo’s on an infinitely small scale.

    Megas
  4. i think this series is way better than the first one, but i don’t think that is saying much. i thought the first series was horrible, although it had some interesting characters. 2 of which are starring in this series. i liked everyone in Index EXCEPT for touma, and since he was the center of most every episode i found it boring.

    as for kuroko’s voice: i agree it is horrible, does not fit the look of the character at all. the strange thing is, i have heard that same seiyuu’s voice in other work before and she can do a voice which does not sound so old, but for some reason is using that old-voice for kuroko.

    baxter
  5. I think Kuroko was threatening the robber that she would teleport his head off his body (hand on the head is a hint to the guy) if he didn’t give up, so that’s why the robber gave up easily. Also she didn’t want to lose to the guy but she wanted to teleport her friend from danger. Remember in the 1st episode when she threatened to teleport one of her metal sticks into the body of the bank robber who remembered the rumor of a level 4 teleporter with a bad disposition?

    samu
  6. AFAIK Kuroko did a bluff with the last robber. I seem to remember something from the Index series about how her teleport power only works if the person she is teleporting wants to be teleported in the first place.

    TheDude
  7. -The other thing that bothered me is why, instead of teleporting Uiharu to safety, Kuroko didn’t just teleport the bad guy instead.

    I believe there’s a weight limitation on Kuroko’s power, so the robber might have been to heavy for her.

    D_V_K
  8. She only needs to teleport a piece of the guy to give him a really bad day. Her ability would be stupid powerful if used effectively by the author. Even just teleporting a chunk of the floor above him or one his ball behind him would have made that robbery a lot shorter.

    m
  9. The other thing that bothered me is why, instead of teleporting Uiharu to safety, Kuroko didn’t just teleport the bad guy instead

    She needed physical skin contact as she had to touch Uiharus leg and late the robbers face.

    Chewy
  10. i wonder is there an anime WORSE than this one currently? ok, maybe 11eyes isn’t that good either.
    and to people who tell me be patient for main plot:
    i’d start watching naruto if i have that much patient, so no thank you.

    LD
  11. The way I see it, if a movie or a series isn’t half good by the time its at the half way mark, chances are, there ain’t going to be some grand ending that will make me change my mind about it. Horrible anime is horrible anime. The reason why I don’t like a lot of anime is because most of them now ARE horrible. For some of us, it takes a bit more than a few underage school girls and panty shots to catch our interests. If I’d wanted to read or watch a group of girls running around with super-powers and fighting crime, I’d watch the Powerpuff girls.

    If I want a deep intriguing storyline with awesome mind blowing art work – well, I don’t know where to find it anymore. It used to be that I could find it in anime, until the harem series became all the rage and otakus decided that they’d rather see a show based on the everyday goings of underage girls, to make up for their own lost youth.

    @kyon: Sorry, not easily impressed as you are. But I actually have standards in what I choose to watch. Of course, I would never tell you you’re opinions and views are wrong.

    Remy
  12. @LD:

    “An anime worse than this”…

    Well, naruto for one – but no one’s watching that shit.

    I don’t get it. Are yall trying to obtain enlightenment by watching anime or something. You can hate a show, but there’s always reasons for it. IMO, all those generic anime out there are worse than this one. I.E: Shana, 11 eyes, Kiddy girl, Kobato, Sora no Otoshimono, you name it – its probably on the list. Now that don’t mean that those anime are bad (well 11 eyes is shit), but there are some situations that bad & shit anime are good (NEEDLESS).

    Its all about perspective. Most people have a vision of what they think is good. People that can watch everything are special, they don’t pay any attention to that vision. They can also develop a wider scope than people that say everything is shit. I use to be like that until One Piece came out…

    After O-P, I needed anime that had some sort of plot to be satisfied, but then I ended up watching 2-3 shows a season & putting everything else in the vault. So now I rate anime on its pure entertainment value like its suppose to be. As much as I don’t like predetermined rating scales, I even had to submit to one. But its very small 0-5. Those I’ve rated a 0, I will never watch. But those 1+ I will give a chance. If I never seen or heard of it before, is a 1 – & it can go up (usually) or down (rarely) from there. i.e: White Album went from a 1 to a 0, NEEDLESS went from a 1 to a 3.

    I let this anime keep the 3 I gave Index & its still @ 3. In other words its still fairly entertaining (presently not getting any better or worse) – but they all can’t be a 5 like DTB. I get what you’re saying. Even the main plot of this anime isn’t going to make it any better or worse so its gonaa stay at a 3 in my book. OK, I think I babbled long enough 😛

    Megas
  13. Wow you guys are all Kuroko haters. Sad. No Uiharu haters? She’s ANNOYING.

    And the guy already said what is stopping him from going back inside? His goal is to get money or w/e. I don’t think a few pedestrians would stop that.

    Freya
  14. @Remy, gmoney, and others…
    Just as an FYI, the DVDs/Blu-Rays were solicited this week, and confirmed what was said earlier that the show is 24-episodes long. So, for what it’s worth, this is not near the half-way point yet, hence the pacing of the plot. (I assume they’re saving things so they have dramatic “season finales” in both end-December and end-March.)

    relentlessflame
  15. This is complementing the manga quite well.

    When watching anime look at it as though the cup is half full. Otherwise you will more often than not end up disappointing yourself. Enjoy it for what it is.

    Samurai Pumpkin
  16. I found it interesting how light hearted the episodes have been, compaired to whats coming that is

    T.K.
    “Kuroko might only be a Level 2 then, she did say that she couldn’t teleport herself yet, and Uiharu is 2 years younger than her so it could be that she can only teleport a limited weight”

    kuroko does have a range/weight limit, but iirc she and uiharu are the same age, its probably something related to moving herself requires more calculations than moving something else

    gmoney
    “I didn’t buy it. why would a villain who was ready to kill a kid in an instant surrender him self calmly a second later”

    kuroko was threatening him with her teleport, and it was faster than his ball bearings would have hit her

    Snoosnoo
    “The Level Upper arc really needs to start next episode. This wasn’t in the manga. Feels like they are just throwing in random backstory and calling it character development.”

    actually the only episode so far thats not from the manga is the one with the girl who could make people not notice her, that being said this episode and the pool cleaning are the two side story chapters

    Remy
    “If I want a deep intriguing storyline with awesome mind blowing art work…”

    can you count on more than one hand how many shows have both of those?

    longhaul
  17. @longhaul
    “gmoney
    “I didn’t buy it. why would a villain who was ready to kill a kid in an instant surrender him self calmly a second later”

    kuroko was threatening him with her teleport, and it was faster than his ball bearings would have hit her”

    We all understands that, but only kids of premature mind would actually buy it, see?
    And yes I hate this kind of animes lacking a decent brain, especially Shana.

    shorthaul

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