First Impressions / Series Introduction / To Aru Majutsu no Index

OP Sequence

OP: 「No buts!」 by 川田まみ (Kawada Mami)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「8月31日（さいごのひ）」 (Hachigatsu Sanjūichinichi (Saigo no Hi))
“August 31st (The Last Day)”

Having been looking forward to this sequel ever since Railgun ended back in March, I must say that this first episode certainly did not fail to meet my expectations. This episode gave me exactly what I was looking forward to seeing again on Touma’s side of the story; nonsensical arguments between Kamijou-san and Index, misguided magicians with pathetic illusions clouding their vision, and yes, even the “Kamijou Choir” that this anime has become infamous for. Lest we not forget the imagery porn that Index and Railgun are also known for, with backgrounds so beautifully drawn and detailed that you would not be at fault if you mistook them for real images at first glance. Even when compared to the stunning art of the first season, it is apparent that Index II has gotten a sizable budget upgrade, with every building and road looking as if it were drawn in detail. Of course, with the first Index anime being a great commercial success and Railgun averaging sales of over 20,000 DVD/BD copies per volume, it’s not difficult to understand why J.C.Staff would pour every bit of its prime resources into this franchise, which some would say comes at a cost to their other projects this season. Surely, the gap in production quality between Index and every other show J.C.Staff is producing this season is pretty jarring. Hell, I’d go so far as to say Index II has the best production value this season with the exception of STAR DRIVER.

Production quality aside, the episode itself was quite enjoyable. I love how Touma always plays the straight man even while surrounded by the most bizarre things, worried more about the fate of his homework when he’s FUKOU DA’d by a maid or being attacked by a magician. Even hearing Touma give his “holier than thou” speeches again was refreshing, I really missed them, although I’m certain many feel differently. While Index doesn’t have nearly as much personality as Touma, I must admit her moe levels are not to be trifled with, as seeing her make that adorable neko face and coercing Touma into buying her food would make any respectable weeaboo have a “hnnng” attack. Even so, Index pales in comparison to our resident Biribiri, Misaka Mikoto, who’s coming fresh off of her own show with totally new levels of deredere. I damn near had a heart attack watching her soften up when Touma was in her face. That level of moe is certainly dangerous, we can’t have anyone suffering a death by moe, now can we? The bondage Index is nothing to play around with either, mind you.

Of course, just like without an ever adorable Index and an electrifyingly moe Mikoto, Index would not be Index without Touma getting attacked by a well intentioned but misguided magician, a role which is filled by Yamisaka Ouma this time. His story, while somewhat generic, is interesting, having gone through the trouble of hunting down Index only to attain one grimoire among 103,000 in order to save the life of the person he loves. Touma, being the saint he is, breaks that screwed up illusion and offers the services of Imagine Breaker to cure Ouma’s loved one. I like how J.C.Staff decided to jump right back into the series with another arc, almost as if the first season never ended. Not only did it accomplish the task of reintroducing Index, Touma, and his Imagine Breaker, but it also flowed well as a continuity. If you were to go straight into Index II from the first season you would feel as if there weren’t a year and a half long wait for this. That said, the episode itself did not take place immediately after the last arc of the first season timeline wise, instead taking place on the same day as Touma’s “date” with Mikoto and Accelerator’s first encounter with Last Order. For those out of the know, J.C.Staff cut the event that this episode covers from the anime in season one to save time for the Hyouka arc, and are now using it as a reintroduction episode. Keep in mind, this can be taken as a good or a bad thing. Good in the sense that it shows J.C.Staff are dedicated to remaining fairly faithful to the source material for this series (unlike some other adaptations) and will go out of their way to animate events when they can, but bad in the sense that this is also taking up time that could be used for sparring more episodes to later arcs this season. While I can see why some people would disapprove of this, personally I have no problem with them using this reintroduction as a means to animate an event that they originally cut , and am glad that they made that decision.

So in general, I’m simply looking forward to more Index. I love the world and premise that the series has set up, and the characters themselves are very interesting and entertaining as well. For me, the main appeal of Index has always been just how unique it is, whether it be the plot itself or the “battle system”, if the powers used in this series can be categorized as such. Never have I seen an anime where the only notable power the main character possesses is the ability to negate supernatural things not of this world with his right hand, and never have I seen an anime that takes science and religion and pits them in direct contest with each other. The first season barely touched upon the science vs. religion aspect of Index, let alone the true overarching plot, and as a novel reader I am very much anticipating seeing the more involved parts of the story animated later on this season. The beautiful visuals, Biribiri, and emotional speeches are just a plus for me when it comes to Index. The true meat of this series lies in the complexity of the story and setting and how crazy things get when science and magic cross paths.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Magic∞world」 by 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

75 Comments

  1. nice episode!!! I particularly like both the op and ed… 🙂
    So they just ignored the last arc of the first season of index?
    Nice that it sets up suspense and also the whole thing about accelerator 🙂
    Thanks for the write up, Suzuku

    jrj
    Reply

    1. This is why Divine picked him. I’m sure Divine had every one of his new staffers write at least a couple of reviews before deciding to let them on board.

      Awesome post, man. My sentiments exactly about the show overall. Though I haven’t read the novels yet. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ll usually wait until later to see how far off the source material they went.

      TehJawknee
      Reply

  5. Touma’s bad luck is certainly something he’ll be ever to get never rid of… 😀
    While Mikoto’s moe moment almost made my nose bleed.
    Good thing Touma ran off. XD
    I might have died from the ‘deredere’ moment.

    AC730
    Reply

    3. I’ve never seen a character blush so HARD! Divine was right! That was dangerously close. I had that same sharp pain in my chest!! lolol Holy craap she’s Adorable..! 8}

      (-watches the scene again-) That was just as epic as the music video transformation from Panty and Stocking!

      Shirt
      Reply

  8. Wow. The color looks amazing compared to last season. D:

    Also, halfway in, when I saw Mikoto blushing, I paused, went back to the old season, and looked for those scenes that she had in this episode during the quick flashbacks. I forgot what Touma said back then. I read the review by Omni also but I just had to re-watch the scene to get the full effect of Mikoto’s lovely flustered state. x3

    Shirt
    Reply

  9. Poor Biribiri, chronologically it’s only mere hours after she fell head over heals for Touma, and is still obviously flustered by it. Makes the whole scene adorable to watch though.

    fragb85
    Reply

  16. Bad Suzuku, you just forgot about Kanzaki’s part which “starts” the second while you talked a lot about a little scene of Mikoto along with various screen caps of said scene, your tastes afterall.

    Trivia: The waitress is voiced by Itsuwa’s voice actress, Kayano Ai.

    Wilfriback
    Reply

    1. Eh, there wasn’t a lot to talk about with the Kanzaki scene since it was only two minutes long, and I couldn’t honestly “speculate” on it as I already know what it’s about, thus I would just be spoiling the fun for others. I’ll just stick to giving my impressions as the actual events unfold, rather than elaborate on something I already know about and risk the chance of spoiling the readers in my posts.

      Suzuku
      Reply

  20. Guys, please get used to calling Mikoto “Mikoto” or “Biribiri”, not “Misaka”. This name is normally used to describe her clone number 10032, Misaka Imouto.

    Anyway, that was a great start, and based on the OP, it seems that Itsuwa will be introduced _earlier_ than in the novels, during the Amakusa arc which is about to start. Which is awesome ^_^

    Mentar
    Reply

    2. Don’t usually people calls Misaka-imouto and the other clone using all caps (MISAKA) to differentiate between the two? XD. Anyway, nice episode, although I’m pretty sure they’re going to cut a lot of part from the novel again T_T. Still very disappointed with the number of material they cut in season 1, especially vol 4 adaptation 😛

      aiueo123
      Reply

    1. The Japanese fandom seems to be taken with the idea of calling her Mikoto to differentiate her from all the other Misakas. At least, that’s the feeling that I get from reading Japanese wiki articles. Though it’s probably split, some artists on pixiv call her Misaka while some call her Mikoto.

      Tokkan
      Reply

  22. Some novelists might ask why mikoto had so much time in the op when she won’t really play a lot of parts in the novels. Just goes to show that she’s the favorite character as she’s also pawning in a show where she’s just a side character. + i know that there are a lot of people who are just watching this for her (that’s not me). What I really want to see in this series is the magic vs. science aspect which kinda failed in season one and obviously non-existent in railgun. I have really high hopes for this series because even with all its flaws, ive managed to be so engrossed with it (Ive played the op 37 times before the episode got even subbed.)

    ahelo
    Reply

  24. Barely finished re-watching the entire season 1 of To Aru Majutsu no Index and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun last Friday. Whew!

    And since my brother started reading the light novel translations and describing to me some funny scenes in the novels that he wants to see animated (mostly involving the Daihasei festival arc, more of Kuroko’s antics with her “Onee-sama” and Kaori + washing machine), damn hell I’m more excited to watch the rest of Index season 2.

    Incognito
    Reply

  27. I knew Index/Railgun was a high budget show but this season sets a new bar for the series, I mean if you look hard enough you can probably see someone waving inside those buildings (well, not really but the impact is there).

    Touma’s unlucky as ever with Index making everyday a lot worse and funny but the highlight would still be Biribiri and her flustered face (the six shots of her was genius BTW). As an episode, it was good as a stand alone plot and also as a reintroduction to the story and the characters, especially for Index and Touma with this “Imagine Breaker”.

    The following weeks will definitely be interesting and I’m not a novel reader but it looks like Accelerator is gonna play a bigger role this time hopefully we’ll see Last Order too.

    Jaden
    Reply

  28. Back in Academy City with higher quality animation and graphics? Check
    Seeing all the familiar faces I’ve grown to enjoy and love? Check
    Looking forward to more of the gang and the 2nd season storyline? HELL yeah!
    Fun first episode but like Index, very hungry for more…

    Shinjiro
    Reply

  30. Ah, Index takes centre stage once again, but Biribiri is determined not to be outshone in moe-levels, which can only be a good thing for moe-tards like me. lol

    Thanks for explaining the timeline of this episode, Suzuku (for a while I thought you were Divine here), and I was wondering how long has it been since the Hyouka arc from season 1.

    The pace of Season 1 was rather slow, and it took like 20+ episodes for Index and Biribiri to even meet each other, we’ve hardly even scratched the surface between the conflict between Magic and Science due to Index’s arrival.

    Nakata Joji makes a good impression for his Index-verse appearance. I hope I’ll get to see him again.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

    1. Keep in mind that this is adopted from a light novel, thus it doesn’t adhere to anime pacing. J.C.Staff, for the most part, have been very faithful in the Index anime adaptation, so you shouldn’t expect to see a speed up in the overarching plot or anything like that.

      Suzuku
      Reply

    1. Sad to say that Saten is practically nonexistant in Index. I was really sad to see Saten being bus’d by Koromo in the quarterfinals, but she put up a close fight. The Railgun OVA will guarantee her being back next year.

      Suzushina Yuriko
      Reply

  34. ahh finally! hahahaha

    Glad to see Touma’s “Fuko da” back
    Glad to see Biribiri’s deredere mode here. 😀
    You sure also didn’t missed out bondage Index…i love that too
    But I’ll yet to see Index biting mode again.

    anyway, the first episode was totally awesome…and there’s more to go

    by the way, you missed Kanzaki-sama and Tsuchimikado-dono…they also have their entrance here. 😀

    ufobaby
    Reply

  35. I can’t say that Index is a masterpiece, but it’s definitely very interesting. I got bored during the first season at first, but I guess more because I wasn’t quite in the mood for it.

    After a few episodes it grew on me and finished it as fast as possible.
    I was definitely looking for the second season.
    More like…, as you said, I love its world. I’m totally in lvoe with its background. The city looks absolutely stunning, especially in the evening and at night. It’s also a great concept to make a city for students only.

    Overall, I think the first ep was a great warming up and I’m looking forward to less fillers in this season^^

    Lee
    Reply

  37. KAORI!!! *fanboy gasp* Please let her be apart of the story again, she;s too awesome to leave on the sidelines. Not that deredere Mikoto wasn’t lethally cute by herself.

    Anyways, good warm-up episode, now to jump into an arc. Glad to see nothing’s changed, although if they were going to show Aisa, they could’ve at least done something with her… Seriously, too many girls kicking around to manage.

    Aex
    Reply

  39. INDEX IS BACK HELL YEAH!

    Still think this episode is pointless and that they should have started right from volume 7, but still, the production values for this show are really high. Gakuen Toshi looks amazing.

    Also, Mikoto invading the OP and ED annoys me because she’s really just a side character here and people are demanding more screentime of her even though she JUST got her own 24 episode spinoff which will probably get a second season anyways.

    Looking forward to the Book of the Law arc up next.

    Suzushina Yuriko
    Reply

  43. Fightin’! Breakin’! Preachin’!

    I’ve missed this series so much. All that was missing was a FACEPUNCH for this to be perfection, but it was still really, really good.

    And yeah, I grew to love Touma’s preaching pretty quickly. Probably because it’s actual realistic advice/deconstruction rather than “BELEIVE IN YOURSELF AND FRIENDSHIP”.

    For Mikoto fans: She’ll be showing up quite a bit after the next arc, so expect more tsundere fun.

    DF
    Reply

  49. Everyone seem to be praising the series, but am I the only that felt this was far too mild of a start? The background music throughout was weird in places. The climax scene was completely anti-climatic and the Touma seemed much more irrational than usual just because they cut out his monologues. Well, this mini-sideplot episode was not that important anyway. To me, Biribiri is the only saving grace of this episode.

    Can’t wait for Daihasai!! Well, Book of Law arc is kind of epic too I guess. I’ll see how well they portray Orsola.

    xcswmboy
    Reply

  52. Biribiri is back!!!

    I enjoyed the first season of Index but preferred Railgun overall. This new season looks like they have taken the best of both and given it a big budget for artwork. Very promising start.

    Zetribe
    Reply

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