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「法の書」 (Hō no Sho)
“The Book of the Law”
With this episode arrives the true beginning of Index II, covering more or less the first 169 pages of volume 7 of the light novels. What can I say? It’s the usual Index fair, with an entire episode being dedicated to exposition, which is really good pacing when putting into context that this is adapting a light novel. Speaking of that, the first thought that came to my mind once the episode wrapped up was “thank god, they didn’t turn it into Shana II“. That’s right, everything in this episode is adapted directly from the light novels, even the delicious nun-service scenes. From what I’ve seen, there is a lot of misconception on the internet concerning the origin of these scenes. Well, I can assure you that every single scene in this episode is straight out of the original material. I can understand why some would find the service scenes a bit jarring, but they really weren’t that bad. There were three service scenes in total (unless of course you count meido-san Index) and all were placed at the very end of the episode and served to show how clumsy our new red-headed nun is.
Speaking of that certain red-headed nun, we’re formally introduced to battle nun loli Agnese Sanctis (Kugimiya Rie) this episode who, as I mentioned before, is rather clumsy. Of course, her clumsiness is understandable considering she walks around in the biggest pair of platform sandals I’ve ever seen. Of course, those screw up aren’t so bad for Touma, not until Index shows up at least. Being a Roman Catholic Church battle nun, she has been sent to track down and retrieve Orsola Aquinas (Endo Aya) and the Liber Al vel Legis from the Amakusa Catholics. Needless to say, it’s certainly an interesting plot to start off the second season with. The story is finally beginning to dive deeper into the magic aspect of the story and flesh out the ideas, characters, and institutions on that side of the Index world. We even got a little peak at England and St. George’s Cathedral while Stiyl and Necessarius Archbishop Laura Stuart (Kawasumi Ayako) were walking through the streets of London. While on that topic, I should probably mention the basis of the Amakusa Catholics and the Liber Al vel Legis involved in this arc. For those of lesser knowledge, both the Amakusa Catholics and the Liber Al vel Legis have connections to the real world. As Kanzaki mentioned back in episode 17 of the first season of Index, the Amakusa Catholics use a magical style incorporating both Christianity and Buddhism, a practice that developed from the need to hide themselves within society as Christians were once persecuted in Japan. As for the Liber Al vel Legis, or “Book of the Law”, it was written by none other than Aleister Crowley in 1904, supposedly guided by his guardian angel Aiwass. I won’t spoil anything, but sufficed to say that it’s not a coincidence that the Superintendent of Academy City is based on the real life Aleister Crowley.
Lengthy explanations aside, this was simply an exposition episode, as mentioned earlier. Personally, I can’t wait to get to the meat of the story when we’re formally introduced to the Amakusa Catholics next episode and find out their true motive for capturing Orsola. It seems that a sizable amount of action comes along with that, judging from the preview. I know a lot of people have been itching to see the fight scenes they had become somewhat accustomed to from season one, and have been disappointed that the first two episodes of season two have not offered a lot in the way of seat clinching action. However, in Index there can’t be good action without good plot development first, and with the set up for this arc out of the way the stage is set for a battle royal. Looking from the perspective of a novel reader, as I mentioned before, I take this episode as a good sign that J.C.Staff won’t go the route of Shana II with Index. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with putting in filler and focusing on love triangles, and I can understand why some people would enjoy that more than plot, but I watch and read Index for plot, and seeing J.C.Staff leave the story for what it is with minimal changes does my heart good.
Preview
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EDIT: *Note: This episode covers the Prologue of volume 7 to Chapter 2 Part 4 of volume 7 of the light novels (pages 15-134).
Exposition episode at it’s best!! With a sprinkle fan service.. But, they do it so well… Hope next ep will cut that out and go into the action…
nice setup episode to make me want to see more…
can’t wait for actions though… next episode should be epic?
on a separate note, does our lovely railgun has anything to do during this arc?
thanks for the write up 🙂
No, she doesn’t.
Mikoto is a side character on the science side. Of course she wouldn’t have anything to do with things on the magic side.
No worries, biri biri will appear in at least two or three arcs in this season
I can think of Remnant and Daihasai arcs to have more Mikoto, but her roles are still kind of small.
How prevalent do you think biribiri will be in this season? Truth to be told, she’s the main reason I watch index:/
LOL … the only reason I watched Railgun was for Touma (I even skipped the eps he didn’t feature in) XDD
I’m not really bothered about Misaka right now, tbh … why would I with that miniskirt loli-nun Taiga around. 😀
Great way to get back into the story. Last episode was a good setup to get back into the series and a sense of WHEN in the timeline this all happens. Now we can see what all goes down.
Touma just can’t get a break, first he pulls a Sakurai Tomoki in front of Sister Agnese, then an Urashima Keitaro in front of the whole congregation….
Wow no. 1: At last we have a Kugimiya character in Index, that means she’s appeared in almost every series produced by JC Staff. lol
Wow no. 2: At last Index is really making herself useful right from the get go, acting like an expert advisor in a police investigation. Unlike in Season 1, when she only started using her stored knowledge near the end, and that was mainly to help Touma and herself.
That said, not wanting to be eclipsed by the Kugimiya-upstart Agnes, Index continues her moe-toxication, first with the maid fantasy, then in complete nudity. 🙂
i was about to comment the same
Which part? The Kugimiya appearance, Index’s usefulness or her moeblob appeal? :p
The moment I saw this guy,I remember of Him, Mugen from Samurai Champloo.
Hope the dude shows some hip hop sword fights as well. LOL
same here, he does look like mugen lmao XD
iirc those scenes are the only ones agnese acts clumsy in, so given something that you will find out in the next episode I wonder if it was intentionally misleading.
w8ing for episode where the summer festival
Volume 7 START!! HECK YEAH!
Eagerly awaiting the next episode and the fight that’s about to begin. I love the Amakusa Catholics, especially Tatemiya (his hair is cool) and Itsuwa. I really can’t say anything about the fanservice since all of those scenes happened in the original LN… Also, god dang it KugiRie has finally invaded Index. I don’t think her voice suits Agnese in the slightest but oh well.
Really? I think her voice suits Agnese quite well. If you notice, she’s not using her voice in the way she does for Shana and Taiga, it’s a bit more smoother and serious-sounding.
All I gotta say is DAMN Touma moves fast.
Also, this season is off to a rockin start! Anyone happen to know what volume of the light novel it’ll end on this time? I think it may be volume 13, since that looks like the best season finale material.
Volume 13 :p
Not doubting your credibility, but do you have a source for that? I remember how a large number of users seemed sure that the first anime would end at around volume 5, and yet it ended up going all the way to volume 6.
Source aside, if you read the novels you’ll know exactly why they can’t go any further than volume 13 this season, and it’s only supported by the fact that the current arc will run 4 episodes. It’s a different situation from season one, where the anime could have stopped at either the Three Stories arc or the Hyouka arc and gotten away with it. It’s simply not possible this time around.
As for the source, it’s from a magazine scan that was posted on Yunakiti and Hatena.
Yeahyeah, Show Spoiler ▼
Show Spoiler ▼
Thank you for the spoilers. I am now looking forward to watching the rest of this season.
Not really spoilers, seeing as they don’t really say what happens in the arcs or how they effect the story.
Call me shallow, besides the plot exposition, there seems to be an exposition of girls with large “assets” as well. :p
1 – Laura Stewart
2 – Orsola Aquinas
3 – This Amakusa girl in pink
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20II%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
Show Spoiler ▼
Index doesn’t count?
Considering how many underdeveloped girls there are in this series so do I find the complaint about a few mature looking women a bit funny.
Huh? Znail I’m not sure I understand what you mean. If you read my post carefully, I certainly wasn’t “complaining” about anything.
To Silent Minstrel
Show Spoiler ▼
“covering more or less the first 169 pages”… 169 pages in 20 minutes? LOL.
Keep in mind that this is a light novel, therefore there isn’t as much text per page as you would find in a traditional novel. Also, much of the text is taken up by visual description that is animated in 2 seconds in the anime. Furthermore, the lengthy explanations and history behind the magic used in this episode would only confuse people further and is unnecessary in an anime adaptation. Aside from those, they cut out two or three comedic scenes that would have been nice to have but aren’t so great that one would be butthurt over it.
Finally, this volume has 347 pages, and the first half that was covered this episode is filled with exposition and comedy. What this means is that they are dedicating the next three episodes to 178 pages of action and serious business. You should be happy they got all of the fluff out of the way in one episode and saved the next three for win.
Show Spoiler ▼
The next time that you want to be an ass keep in mind that I can edit, delete, or filter your posts.
Just give these sad spoiler-spammers the zero-tolerance treatment. Either that or embarrass them by editing their post into something that makes them sound completely stupid, something like “I just jacked off at Biribiri in the OP again despite her having no screentime this week.”
Ug, please don’t turn this into zero no tsukaima, jc staff…
Really happy that there was absolutely no filler in this episode at all, and really J.C. staff can’t afford to have any. It’s not like they don’t have enough material to work with, even with 24 episodes, it’s impossible for them to reach the current light novel volume, so every episode this season should be entirely canonical.
On another note, I’m loving the animation and overall feel of the show this time around as opposed to season 1 which was very slow in places and had quite a few people convinced that the deep-blood and hyoka arcs were filler.
I think there’s always going to be some debate over the best way of handling an adaptation.
Index takes the approach of following the source closely while removing whatever they can’t fit or easily convey in animation (and in general, it’s a tough series to translate visually). However, on the downside, some people find the show confusing or unfocused, especially when arcs are so disparate. There’s also no sense of a “proper”, unifying plot structure (introduction, rising action, climax, resolution).
On the other hand, the director of Shana went with a very different style. Instead of translating light novel to anime, each season is designed with its own continuity, and the original material is simply a guideline that shapes the general direction of the show. Original arcs are added and the content is rewritten to allow for a traditional story structure and central theme (which is probably why they went with the whole love triangle angle in Shana II. It gives the season a unifying theme that is developed over time and eventually resolved).
Most critics would say that the Shana approach is the “better” way of translating something to TV format. However, it’s very hard to pull off, and fans of the original tend to be upset.
Yup Yup. This right here…..
Most critics predicted that Avatar would be a flopp too. I wouldn’t take them too seriously.
The problem with making original content is that you are gambling on that whomever you pick to write the script will make up a story just as good as the source materials original one. From experience so can I say that this gamble fails almost every time. There are a few examples where it turned out good, but those are the exceptions.
Stupid Ayako subs. Can’t even spell “Ursula” properly. Or Anieze. OR Stiyl.
Anybody know better subbers?
While I agree Ayako’s subs are rather bad, the reasons you pointed out are not good examples of why they’re poor. If you notice, I also referred to them by Orsola and Agnese, the reason being that the official romanization of their names are Orsola and Agnese, confirmed in Toaru Majutsu no Index no Subete, an Index databook. UTW’s subs also use Orsola and Agnese btw. Ayako did fuck up Stiyl’s name though.
As for better subs, I recommend UTW. Their subs flow much better than Ayako’s and have better grammar and diction in general. Honestly, when I watched Ayako’s subs I felt like I was reading something a middle schooler wrote. UTW has released after Ayako the past two episodes, but it seems they have some type of plan to speed up their releases (I visit their IRC often).
Does UTW use “Such misfortune” in their translation of Touma’s catch phrase?
No, they use “How unlucky”.
I hope these 2 kicks a$$:
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20II%20-%2002%20-%2030.jpg
“Unfortunate” (read: accidental pervert) moments? Index chomping Touma? If those aren’t indications Index II is starting to get back to form, I don’t know what is.
I also want to see Sister Angelene (the shorter nun with pigtails) flipping skirts like Saten does with Uiharu and see how Itsuwa falls for Touma, but I guess those will take a backseat to what’s gonna happen next episode.
is kugimiya rei gonna be a loli voice character forever? i dont hate it but cmon give her some other voice over that doesnt have a loli character everytime. does liking this show make u a pedophile? cuz i luv this show alot.
btw loli characters r growing in the anime world if u guys still havent realize it. hopefully pedophiles dont start growing cus of watching shows like this
She has a squeaky voice that sounds like a little girl, so only natural that she gets loli roles.
A good Misfortune/Exposition episode, and next episode seems to be pure Touma being awesome. Index is back on track, alright. This is great stuff.
Ahem, as any veteran warhammer40k player will tell you, battle nuns are serious business:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_Battle
I still find it hilarious how people always complain about there not being enough Biribiri in Index and not enough Touma in Railgun. Guess there’s no happy medium.
loli nun fanservice is weird and awkward and looks totally irrelevant to the show imo. Besides that this was a nice exposition episode(comparing it to S1 by the way). Now that they have that out, time for the shit.
@Zilla: Isn’t all people but there is certain group who hopes this series to be turned into some random “abused male + tsundere” series something which never will happen if the series keeps close to the novels.