First Impressions / To Aru Majutsu no Index

「大覇星祭」 (Daihaseisai)
“Grand Champion Star Festival “

And we finally arrive at Daihaseisai, the great festival where espers from all over congregate to test their skills against one another. Needless to say, with this type of event taking place we’re able to see a clusterfuck of an episode with nearly every character in the series introduced thus far making an appearance, bringing back first season side characters such as Himegami Aisa, Aogami Pierce, and Tsukuyomi Komoe. Ah, and lest we not forget that even Aleister Crowley and Laura Stuart were slipped in during this montage of character appearances. The reappearance of various character and their interactions with each other will probably turn out to be the number one charm of this arc. That said, I thought this episode captured the spirit of Daihaseisai perfectly, showing all of the students competing in games with their school and Touma bouncing around from one place to the next. This also gave us another great excuse to see Touma and Mikoto interact more, much to the chagrin of Kuroko. I found their exchange at the beginning of the episode extremely cute, as they were making bets on whose school would win the competition between each other. It probably didn’t occur to either one of them, but they looked just like a flirting teenage couple during that scene, a fact that obviously didn’t slip pass their parents, who witnessed the scene. Speaking of which, this Daihaseisai not only gives us the chance to see all the students within Academy City who we’ve been introduced to so far come together and interact, but to see the parents of Touma and Mikoto as well. Of course, we were introduced to Touma’s parents back in the Angel Fall arc of the first season, but this is the first time we have been shown Mikoto’s mother, Misaka Misuzu (Shinohara Emi), who looks like Mikoto’s older sister rather than her mother. If her looks are any indication of how Mikoto will turn out in the future, then Touma should hurry up and get his dense head out of his ass before it’s too late, because any man would be dying to nab that.

The highlights of this episode though were probably the introductions of our other two newest members of the cast: the uptight, headstrong, top heavy committee member Fukiyose Seiri (Fujimura Ayumi) and the curvasious, flirtacious, Western magician Oriana Thomson (Yuzuki Ryouka). From first impressions, you can’t really get a sense of whether Seiri is tsundere for Touma or just full on tsuntsun, and likewise it’s difficult to get a hold on exactly what her archetype is. While she has a habit of hitting Touma when he acts like an idiot, she shows no outward affection of the romantic kind towards him and is more playful with than genuinely irritated by his misfortunate antics, shown when she jokes he’d obviously go support the girl’s sport event rather than the boys’ as he is “Kamijou after all” . She also doesn’t seem to be aware of her own charms as a female, as she finds no shame in getting her shirt wet and doesn’t even realize that her bra could be showing as a result. It’s also odd that she didn’t blush at all when Touma walked in on her while she was changing (might I mention that that scene was indeed DELICIOUS). Basically, it’s difficult to tell whether Seiri is an airhead, naive, or simply doesn’t care about the fact she is a girl with female parts. In contrast, our other new temptress seems to be far more aware of herself, or not, considering the outfit that she’s wearing. While we only caught a mere two minutes of her this episode, it was easy to tell that she’ll be a very sultry opponent for Touma, Stiyl, and Tsuchimikado. It’ll just be a shame when Touma has to Falcon Punch that pretty face of her’s, which we all know will happen.

Speaking of that, we’re given another magic side problem within the midst of this festival on the science side. While I think this arc would have been perfectly fine if it concentrated strictly on the sports festival aspect, I also think that the festival plot device is far overused in Japanese anime and the magical rendezvous plan overarching the festival adds an interesting element to what would otherwise be your standard trope. As for the plot itself, we’re once again dealing with the Roman Catholic Church and one of their nuns. It should be getting a bit clearer at this point that the RCC is becoming the main antagonist of the Index world on the magic side, so it should be no surprise to see it being the one plotting some kind of scheme again, this time involving the holy relic “Stab Sword”, which has the power to instantly kill a saint with by using the religious symbolism of Jesus being stabbed to death on the cross. As Tsuchimikado warned, the only reason why anyone would want this type of weapon is to prepare for war, but considering how the villains always have some underlying plans in Index, what appears to be their intention on the surface is probably something completely different.

 

*Laura is a Windows 7 user! Also, the length of her hair is ridiculous; I wonder if her hair length is a better representation of her age than her appearance is.

 

Preview

*Note: This episode covers the Prologue of volume 9 to Chapter 2 Part 7 of volume 9 of the light novels (pages 10-152). Also, this arc is the first one that spans over two volumes in the series, so this will have 6 episodes in all (3 covering volume 9, 3 covering volume 10).

84 Comments

    1. He has animal magnetism apparantly. But it provides for such fun interactions.

      I especially like how he didn’t bat an eyelash before replying ‘Hell yeah!’ to Oriana. Sometimes I wonder about Touma’s teenagerhood but it’s all okay again 😛

      SpacyRicochet
      Reply

  3. Love this episode, the best episode this season has yet to offer so far! Damn, Seiri looks pretty hard to figure out, dont know if she would fall for Touma and be part of his harem lol. If I was Touma, I would choose either between Seiri Fukiyose or Kaori Kanzaki, hell it would be better to have them both. The rest of his harem are too childish… unless, we consider future prospects like how Mikoto could possibly grow up to be like her mom lol. Then she has awesome potential. Anyways, I really enjoyed this episode because of the many interactions from a lot of characters, man I hope this arc will be longer than 2 episodes.

    X
    Reply

      3. But back in the episode 2 post, you said it would be three, 6-8 in fact. This arc could end up being shorter as well, or even longer, as its supposed to take place over the course of a week.

        da5id
        Reply

      4. Oh you mean my prediction about how I thought the anime would handle apportioning episodes to volumes? Yes, I said I though volume 8 would be 3 episodes, but I didn’t say those episode amounts were confirmed. As for this arc’s episodes, it’s confirmed for 6. 3 for volume 9, 3 for volume 10. Also:

        Show Spoiler ▼

        BTW, with volume 8 only having 2 episodes, they’re probably going to use that would-be third episodes to either make volume 12 three episodes long, which is the best choice, or make volume 13 five episodes long, which isn’t bad but would be… dragging it out a bit at the cost of volume 12. Either way, the last arc will probably have seven episodes.

        Suzuku
        Reply

  5. thanks for the post
    nice episode… love the interaction between Touma and Biribiri…
    too bad biribiri wasn’t a few years older… like her older sister mom… 😀
    Seiri, awaken and show your love to imagine breaker 😀
    and lol at windows 7…
    ps. link to crowley pic is actually on komoe instead…

    jrj
    Reply

  6. speaking of falcon punching…. this series is pretty direct with hitting women and not just that vague thrown to the ground and rolling scene, there is some serious fist-ti-cuff going on. Accelerator nearly broke that girl’s face last episode. Kinda weird how touma is totally ok with wailing on women all the time, granted they are often crazy but still.

    Will
    Reply

  7. This episode overwhelms the previous episode, it’s just so fun to watch and funny to see the various interactions Touma has with the other characters, as well the bustling atmosphere of a city-wide sports festival, it’s like friggin’ holiday there.

    Seiri stole the show though with her scenes with Touma just screamed my inner-shipping self, sorry Mikoto; and I agree, you can’t just put Seiri in a familiar archtype. Seiri is like that bro you hang around with, you’re like acquainted though you’re not really friends at all, though he doesn’t hate you but is just seemingly neutral to you, though of course, shows concern from time-to-time…except she’s a girl, which makes it better.

    Oh yeah, time to wreck some Roman Catholic shit Touma!

    Gaze of Providence
    Reply

      2. careful with that comment, we might get another toradora here! (which would be lame!) i’m having a difficult time choosing between mikoto and itsuwa! completely polar opposite archetypes.

        RickyMack
        Reply

      3. Index age? We don’t exactly know that and I think it’s pretty safe assumption that she like Laura isn’t quite as young as they seem. What would be the point of a magical book storage that suffered from ageing? We also have seen several former caretakers of Index, more then one with romantic interests in her. I think they even mentioned way back that Index had been made to forget a lot of things over the years, including lovers. It doesn’t quite add up with her apparent age unless they quite literally had a thing for girls in diapers.

        Znail
        Reply

  9. to think Laura would use a windows 7 OS hehehe
    Another image of Mikoto and Shirai getting mad was good.

    lol Touma is a sucker for crying girls to bad their isnt any image to relate it.

    i wonder what Oriana is thinking after the barrier break.

    And as as Aisa would say “Another flag has been raced.”

    ♛Croosboy♛
    Reply

  10. Fukiyose Seiri’s archtype? For now just refer to her as the strong independent female-class-representative character. She is after all voiced by “Fujimura Ayumi”, who was the former Student-president cum Maid-waitress ^^

    (Then if you consider Touma and Accelerator’s VAs…)

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

    1. ‘Onegai, please can you keep my secret~’ sure is fitting here.

      By the way, Suzuku, it’s ‘Chagrin’, not ‘charge-in’.

      Offhand information, Stiyl was the one who set up the ‘Windows 7’, and it seems like he’s also the only magic guy who can really use technology.

      Teh_ping
      Reply

    1. Yeah, about that…Touma punched the shit out of Stiyl…twice, and they became allies afterwards (although Stiyl dislikes Touma).

      There would be no reason for Touma to NOT punch Oriana during this arc, even if did end the way your spoiler implied.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

  15. Touma is really such (un)fortunatr guy!
    Oriana loooks like magical Lara Croft – HAWT!
    The class rep is cool, even wet t-shirt doesnt faze her. She just turns around and sips her juice – and caught changing she just threw Tomas bag at him 😛
    Misaka’s and Touma’s parents meeting was priceless, especially when Touma’s father started display the same magnetism as his son…
    lol @ poor hungry Index
    – double lol @ Index caugth changing clothes and bite-fail 😛
    – third lol when I saw the cat censorship while rewatching – see screencap 32

    ewok40k
    Reply

  16. Touma’s mom is she really his biological mother or step mom I fogot.

    Another thing I like Mikoto but for some reason I really fond of Fukiyose Seiri, not just because she got a delicious body, but her attitue toward touma feel so much like an actual couple when she drag him by his neck collar, also fun to fun when she headbutt him I was laughing my ass off. With mikoto it feels more of a one sided thing since touma is so dense.

    bullxx
    Reply

  18. THIS is bad luck?! Then I wonder what would Touma call attractive girls throwing themselves at him and willingly taking their clothes off.

    It was nice seeing both new and old (Aisa!) characters interact throughout the episode, Biribiri’s mom and Fukiyose was pretty interesting. A lot of very funny moments kudos to Touma’s “bad” luck.

    Oh and can I ask novel readers something, you can put it in a spoiler box if you think it’s too much. How long in days does the Daihaseisai last?

    Jaden
    Reply

    3. Thanks for the answers, for a moment I thought this’ll be just a one day event so when Suzuku said the whole arc will take 6 episodes I was hoping for a 24 sort of thing, tough luck. ^^

      Jaden
      Reply

  19. Mikoto has a new rival which is Misaki- i mean Fukiyose… If she keeps showing up she might even rival in terms of popularity (I DOUBT IT THOUGH :)) ). In the end she’s a nice new addition to the harem.

    Komoe-sensei tearing up causes the whole class to go GAR is fuckyeawesome :)).

    ahelo
    Reply

    3. And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu…

      LoL
      Reply

  23. Why does Touma’s mom calling her own son in such a formal way?

    Since there hasn’t been any decent translations of the novels or being translated in America, I’m getting pretty eager to see through this series.

    Karis
    Reply

  25. Rather than not being aware her shirt has become see-through, could it be that Seiri is purposely showing Touma her bra? Maybe just for a few seconds, and then consider whacking him if he continues to stare. Good thing Touma took the cue and quickly turned his head. lol

    It’s quite amazing this is only the second time Index and Mikoto have met each other, despite both being billed as the 1st and 2nd female leads (and the respective title-characters of their own series as well).

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20II%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
    I see Uiharu gets another cameo, woot. But still no Saten-san. Shame.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  26. @Suzuku: “If her looks are any indication of how Mikoto will turn out in the future, then Touma should hurry up and get his dense head out of his ass before it’s too late, because any man would be dying to nab that.”
    No they aren’t Novel 8, says Mikoto burns the fat of her own body using her powers unconsiously and her own mother tells her to eat proper food(vol. 10) instead dieting(vol. 8). So, no.

    Back to that review(?) of your, seriously all your Mikoto fanboyism is being showed more and more, you totally ignored/omitted on purpose any mention to Index in cheerlead clothes and + her bite fail/accidental kiss, Komoe being bullied by a teacher causing her class students to go RAGE mode, and didn’t mentioned the nice BMG when Seiri was holding Touma’s hand!!!!. Instead you were Mikoto future here, Mikoto X Touma there, Mikoto + etc.

    More than review it feels like a total expression of devotion to your fav character, half of the entry, at least for the next episode try to hide your true self, but I know you won’t, both know what you will do about “that scene” during a sport event you are looking forward.

    Ichi-san
    Reply

    1. lol I can’t tell if you’re being serious or trolling, but you try and write a 900-1000 word post on an episode and see if you can fet EVERY SINGLE THING in without sounding like you’re droning on. I focus on the things that I find most interesting during the episode and flow well with the post, I’m not going to force talking about how Index once again bites Touma into the post purely for the sake of trying to show “neutralism”. I chose to talk about Mikoto and Touma’s interaction because, frankly, it was more interesting than talking about how Index attempts to bite Touma for the nth time and fails, or how Komoe cried for two seconds and motivated the kids. They simply weren’t notable parts of the episode, not enough to warrant me forcing them into the post; just be happy that I took shots of the bitefail and even made a pan of the Index changing scene.

      As for my supposed Mikoto fanboying, I would be lying if I said I didn’t like her more than Index, but that certainly doesn’t mean I’m purposefully giving her more attention in my posts. That said, Mikoto is simply a more interesting character to write about and has more to pounder on casually than Index, who the most you could say about is “ah she looks like such a cute pet”. And FYI, Touma is my favorite character.

      Anyway, I’ll talk more about Index when she’s involved in/does something worth talking about, just like I did during the Sheol Fear post and episode 1 post. And yes, I am looking forward to that scene. 🙂

      Suzuku
      Reply

      1. word! i think a lot of times folks get the impression: oh man i could do a better job! but it really is difficult to write for a mass audience. in the US, newspapers journalists need to write at a 7th grade level because that’s what the average American adult reads at. while it sounds simple, its a lot more difficult than it sounds especially when you have a word limit and complex things you might want to discuss.

        point being, there’s a lot of considerations that go into this webpage us readers have no clue about some of which Suzuku illuminated. while this blog in particular is very professional in their coverage, what we’re reading are impressions of the episode by the author, in other words, the color commentary rather than the play by play.

        RickyMack
        Reply

      2. Suzuku, I actually thought there was not nearly enough Mikoto in your post! I don’t think I can ever get enough of comments about Touma’s interactions with Mikoto and Kaori, who are my favorite characters in this show.

        My point is that people have different preferences in things like this. I’d say you’re doing a great job with your posts right now.

        Jin
        Reply

    2. Absolutely unbelievable.

      Just who are you to tell Suzuku what and what not to write on his (and Divine’s) blog? If you think you can offer a better job in covering EVERY character FAIRLY and keep it BRIEF, by all means, go ahead and offer your services so we may enjoy it.

      If you were trolling, then nice try.

      Kinny Riddle
      Reply

      1. I’m a casual reader. Its necessary to do the job? I’ve pointed already those 4 points, IMO, he missed.
        Trolling? No, hell no. If you want trolling go to that pigsty known as 4chan.

        Ichi-san
        Reply

  28. Great episode. I don’t think there’s any question that Seiri would fall for Touma- he’s the lead- pretty much every girl in this show will fall for him eventually, well maybe not Kuroko but my god that would be awesome!

    Science
    Reply

  29. @ Suzuku: Don’t worry too much Suzuku, its not like every person post here will read your review, all the opposite, people comes here to tell what they liked about the episode or what they didn’t liked.
    About the length of the entry you can take your time as you did for episodes 05 and 06, though I don’t know how long they are. Or you can C + P what Ichi said, IMO, I’m looking forward for the OST, I want Innocentius and Seiri’s BGM. That scene made me think “Hey! they look like a couple rather thn a one sided hidden romance”. And what is better is she doesn’t explodes in red like ther girls, for me:

    Highlight of the Episode = Fukiyose Seiri.

    Wilfriback
    Reply

  32. ToumaxSeiri for the win. Mikoto is just some annoying middle school kid that attacks Touma for no reason all the time. I can’t see Touma falling for that kind of person. Here we actually kinda get chemistry between Touma and Seiri (hesitation when holding hands, almost mouth-to-mouth kiss) and she’s the only one who doesn’t get lovestruck right off the bat when she interacts with him. I didn’t ship this pairing when I read volume 9 in the light novels, but the anime gave me a new impression of her.

    When she got drenched in water, Seiri was actually holding back her anger. She was drinking milk to calm herself down. When Touma walked in on her, originally in the light novels she didn’t attack him first but actually listened to his explanation and only KO’d him with his bag after he commented “……The reason why your shoulders ache is probably because your breasts are too huge — OH CRA—!?”

    In terms of looks, body, personality, and progress, Seiri wins hands down.

    Suzushina Yuriko
    Reply

    1. I really like Seiri (also love Ayumi Fujimura as her VA) and hope we will see more of her, but do note that the characters who get “lovestruck right off the bat” for Touma didn’t act that way when they were first introduced. Touma basically saved Mikoto from willingly letting herself killed by Accelerator by risking his own life and Mikoto really started acting the way she does right now after the fake date episode, which was almost toward the end of Season 1.

      Jin
      Reply

      1. yeah overhearing that conversation between touma and the mage where he said that he would do everything he could to protect her world really got Mikoto dere dere.

        though i do agree that there is chemistry with seiri as well the way he plays along with her comments that he brings people bad luck and is stupid. of course him constantly challenging mikoto’s supremacy is his chemistry with her.

        aisa is right. touma just keeps raising flags every time he interacts with women.

        RickyMack
        Reply

  34. This episode is like the best. Seiri is a great new character to bring into the story and she’s really nice along with Oriana and Misuzu. Seiri would be a good match for Touma but we all know that he’s a thickhead and will never notice that Mikoto or anyone else likes him. I do think that Seiri is a tsundere and likes Touma but she’s just emotionally awkward.

    Zangkin
    Reply

    1. I was actually impressed with Touma’s quick reply to Oriana’s question if he wanted a kiss, even if the immediate result wasn’t that positive. Honesty is a virtue after all! At least Seiri doesn’t have to wonder if he is interested in girls after that day! She should take some comfort in that he didn’t mind her display either 🙂

      Znail
      Reply

Leave a Reply

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