「水の都」 (Mizu no Miyako)
“City of Water”

If you felt this season was a bit short on fan-service, then a certain magical index may just make you feel otherwise. All that stuff about magic and science clashing and a story beginning? That’s just a cover-up to get sisters out of their nun habits for all to see. Stab Swords and Croce di Pietros don’t have anything on this kind of religious taboo. To that end, what better way for the girls to strip down and be displayed in all their glory than on vacation in Italy, after Touma manages to win a pair of tickets despite his horrible luck. Naturally, what’s too good to be true turns out to be just that, as this lighthearted episode kicks off a new arc at the end with the return of the Roman Catholic Church. At this point, I can’t really say I’m expecting anyone other than that religious “cult” as the antagonists, though I am a bit surprised to see the return of Agnese in a very revealing outfit. I guess someone figured Orsola and Index fan-service may not be enough, and threw in the Kugimiya Rie-voiced Agnese for good measure. It never hurts to have options, so if one sister isn’t doing it for you, there are two more to choose from. Personally, I’m leaning towards Amakusa’s Itsuwa (Kayano Ai), who’s taken an interest in Touma after he beat down a bunch of nuns. Apparently, punching girls in the face wins other girls over. *shrug*

Given that we’re just over the midpoint of the series and that the episode opened with a monologue by Touma, it almost seemed like a recap was in order. Luckily, those were just some highlights from the end of the Daihaseisai — most notably Touma’s folk dance with Mikoto that prompted a drop kick from Kuroko — before things got underway with the aforementioned “what happens in Vegas Italy stays in Italy” type of happenings. Afterward, things got rolling pretty quickly with the attack on Orsola, where Touma quickly landed a couple punches to the face, plus the summoning of a fleet ice ships for some yet to be revealed purpose. In conjunction with the animation quality moving back up several notches, this episode quickly reminded me of all the good aspects of this series that I enjoy. It almost made me forget about the previous six-episode arc, which didn’t look all that great and spent too much time talking about plot development instead of showing it. This time around, Touma didn’t say much and was unknowingly dragged into a religious conflict like usual, leaving the explanations for later. For now, I’m content with the assumption that the Roman Catholic Church is after the Book of Law again while Touma and Orsola try to figure out what’s going on. Judging from the preview, Amakusa and Tatemiya will be joining the mix again, so I’m secretly hoping that Kaori makes an appearance this arc as well.

 

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「メモリーズ・ラスト」 (Memories Last) by 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the 2nd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

I was actually expecting a new opening sequence as well this week, but it looks like the second one featuring Kawada Mami’s “See visionS” will be held off until next week at the very least. As for Kurosaki Maon’s “Memories Last”, it’s a lot less upbeat than “Magic world” and is much more befitting for an ending theme because of it. I’m finding that it works really well as an outro the more I listen to it.

Preview

88 Comments

      1. I have to agree. It’s just blasphemous for there to be such thing as a hot nun… especially one like Orsola. LOL I especially liked the way she was willing to give Touma and Index “time alone” since they were heading back to their room. Goes to show you the woman has priorities.

      2. it definitely would be downright sinful if she instead offered to join in! man menage a trois with two nuns from different christian backgrounds…::receives one way ticket to hell for the thought, tosses it in the massive pile of other one way tickets::

        RickyMack
    1. Doing a quick Google search, the Japanese passport indeed says “Japan” and the UK one does say “British Citizen”. For reference, the US one says “United States of America” under the relevant “Nationality” section.

      tenton
  1. hahahaha. touma thinks dancing with mikoto is misfortune.XD
    wonder when will they change their school uniform.
    every sister being hot is a crime. XD
    but what really concerns me in this episode is about the ship and why Agnese is in the ship

    ♕Croosboy♕
    1. Oh yeah i think touma’s luck always attracts big events that affect the world(and the world of other girls as well X). hahaha but i guess his luck always tease him sometimes.

      ♕Croosboy♕
    1. They’re still normal, real, solid ice that was just molded into a certain form by magic. It’s like if Kuroko teleported a bowling ball over his head; he wouldn’t be able dispel the bowling ball itself even though it was affected by something supernatural.

      Parse Error
    2. Next episode might show the reason why.

      Though, usually if Touma cannot dispel something, logically one should assume that it either regenerates faster than Imagine Breaker could dispel it (Innocentius, Dragon’s Breath) or requires the core to be destroyed (the alchemist’s spell on the school from the 2nd arc of the first season).

      Gaze of Providence
  2. They managed to pronounce wrong 50% of those few italian phrases… some are even wrong in meaning! Is it too tiring for the japs to use italians for italian, or at least someone who knows the lang and knows how to pronounce and can see that some sentences are wrong?

    lello
    1. Even if they manage to screw up all the Italian words at least they tried to take some effort and making it that not everyone speaks Japanese and that there other languages out there. Sort of makes it semi-realistic no?

      SilentCid
    2. i think a lot of times we take for granted how there are many different ethnicities in some western countries. just recently got through with assassin’s creed brotherhood, sometimes there’s italian slipped into the dialogue, story explanation being that the translation software is incomplete or glitches. but you can only get accuracy like that simply because of access.

      hell even with the access and an extremely large budget in the US you still have shit like casting a chinese woman in the role of a japanese character ::coughcoughMemoirsofaGeisha:: even worse, the air bender movie.

      but yeah i do hear what you’re saying, after playing AC with it’s renaissance Italian setting i could definitely hear the mispronunciation.

      RickyMack
  3. The ep’s title is Mizu no Miyako, not Toshi.

    Anyway, good episode, much better than the past 5. The Daihaseisai arc was promising at the beginning but fell off in the middle, although the finale was appropriate from a theme perspective. This arc is where Index starts to picks up in terms of plot developments and it also seems like the director has gotten better at story telling techniques, and as a result this episode didn’t seem rushed despite the fact it covered two chapters of the light novels. And the new ED is great, much more appropriate than the last and the visuals are infintely better. Speaking of that, this ED was animated by the team that did Railgun’s EDs, so I suppose it’s to be expected.

    Kioku
  4. So Touma is another harem builder too? Serious misfortune that is…
    I really laughed a lot during this episode… very funny 🙂
    can’t wait to see the new OP and more plot to be revealed about this new arc!

    jrj
    1. yeah from the index wikia: Many of Touma’s classmates say, “Though Touma keeps saying he’s unlucky, he has the best position,” and joke about if nobody can stop Touma, humanity will end due to him taking all the girls. it’s a trait he apparently picked up from his dad which his mom and mikoto commented on the last arc. last season Tsuchimikado and Aogami were joking that he was going to add every fetish to his harem.

      RickyMack
  5. So Touma has only one shirt repeated three times (nice method from lazy animators).
    And I didn’t know they sell Index’s giant clips everywhere in the world.
    And Touma now knows the true meaning of trap (there was never a right door…)
    Aside, he is starting to look like an evil boxer.

    Ebisu
  6. A lesson learned from out misfortunate protagonist: always knock the door. But I guess that doesn’t apply to a guy who acts before he thinks in a desperate situation.

    Itsuwa gotta appear more often in the later series; she’s the only reason I keep coming back.

    That Roman Catholic guy in the preview seems like a gigantic ass; I know cause I hate him already.

    Karis
  7. “I’m content with the assumption that the Roman Catholic Church is after the Book of Law.”

    They already have the book from what Tsuchimikado told Kazaki during the Book of Law arc. He stated it was probably deep inside the Vatican’s library. Plus the English Church that Orsola was taking in after those events already announced that she doesn’t know how to decode the book and her method is a flawed one. The Roman Catholics went after Orsola in the first place was to prevent her leaking out the secrets of the book if she did know. If it were to leak out all religion pertaining to Christianity would stop.

    SilentCid
  8. “If you felt this season was a bit short on fan-service”

    I think I’m going to explode if I see someone whining about the lack of fan service in any series these day. In fact, a series without it is much more applaudable than anything else.

    g0rth0r
  9. I’ll lay ten to one odds that while Alister (upside down tube guy) had a hand in getting Touma to Italy, I think that since it was a pair of tickets, the actual person who sent those is Laura Stuart (Arch Bishop of the Index’s Church) as this seems more her style.

    I say this because there’s too much coincidence that Touma just stumbles upon this, and that Laura probably caught wind of this and nicely suggested that she’ll supply some tickets for Alister to use to ship Touma over. Alister would agree simply because this allows his weapon, Imagine Breaker, to grow more and hopefully stabilize.

    After the failing of the Cross of Peter, I think the Roman Catholics are just going to use more brazen methods. So while the animated version of the Cross of Peter sucked (I’ll hold judgment on the novel version later), I’m thinking it likely set the stage for the war between Science and Magic.

    And how many girls does Touma need to win over here. He’s got Index, Mikoto, MISAKA, Kaori, Itsuwa, Aisa, Orsola, and probably now Agnese. Is he trying to catch up to the legendary harem master, Negi Springfield? I’m guessing probably.

    Dorian
  10. Orsola is a sheer delight. I think she’s the most fetching nun ever (including cosplaying nuns like Mio in MM!). Having Endo Aya voice the role only makes her more wonderful. I felt a jolt of electricity go down my spine when I heard her interrupt Touma and the Italian woman with her, “Scusi.”

    All in all, a fun episode, although I’m not too impressed with the crystal ships yet.

    Mockman
  11. Touma currently can’t use his Imagine Breaker (something to do with last episode referring to Imagine Breaker being unstable.), that’s why he got high luck rather than bad luck this time around.

    pedobear
  12. I thought this was the best Index episode in season 2 to date. They managed to cover two chapters without excellent pacing, the backgrounds are scenery porn and insanely accurate, and on top of that we have a new ending. Really, JC Staff can do it if they try.

    At least Touma is actually trying not to walk into girls when they’re naked. That double bathroom trap was just unfair, and as for Index that was her own fault. I love that they put the Amakusa’s conversation about Touma being a monster in there too.

    The second opening is confirmed to be in episode 17, after this arc ends. JC Staff really has a problem with getting these out on time, for some reason.

    Suzushina Yuriko
  13. the days for DOB on passport has 3 digits, wut….. and passport written twice, the second time incorrectly? unless it’s one of those dual language things like spanish in the States.

    why couldn’t this series be called To aru Majutsu no Orsola? It would make the series SOOO much better! HAWT!

    fishies
    1. It’s not the days that are three characters. It uses an international dating system for the date; it’s dd MONTH (abbreviated to three letters) yyyy. For example, 16 JAN 2011. (notice all the dates are like that) And yes, it’s Passport and Passeport (a different language). What does appear to be missing on Index’s passport is the rest of the entries with multiple languages for each heading, e.g. the US one has 3 languages; for the last name, it says “Surname / Nom / Apellidos. UK one should say something like “Surname / Nom”. The other language is French.

      tenton
  14. https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20II%20-%2014%20-%20Large%2003.jpg

    much to my surprise, this was the only GOOD part in Touma’s constant stream of misfortunes. If only Kuroko didn’t come in to interfere. Anyway, Misaka seems to be getting more and more direct with asking Touma to have fun with her. Hopefully she doesn’t notices the huge harem the dude is making behind her back.

    Code fanboy
    1. If you’re referring to this Italy arc, then yes it’s from volume 11, the green one.

      If you’re referring to Touma’s monologue at the intro, then it’s an anime original. A good little addition I might add.

      Chaos2Frozen
  15. It’s very easy to forget that Index is an English girl sometimes until I saw her passport. lol

    Surely someone in the story ought to realize that Italy is more or less the backyard of the Catholic Church, i.e. Enemy Territory for the Anglican Church and Academy City? I’m surprised neither Orsola or her Amakusa bodyguards managed to stay on alert when in Venice.

    BTW, woot at Agnese returning, from the preview, there’s also Sisters Angelene and Lucia as well. And with Itsuwa slowly getting more screentime, I see the potential for growth for Touma’s harem. 🙂

    BTW, doesn’t Touma need to go to school? Can he really afford to take 5-7 schooldays off for a holiday when he’s technically still at the bottom of his class (based on Academy City’s official assessment)?

    Kinny Riddle
      1. Ah, that explains a lot. Thanks. 😀

        I know JC Staff is concerned about the pacing of the story when adapting it to animated form, but it really doesn’t hurt to include minor details like these to make the story flow better. I mean, they could have just give it a quick mention through a line or two of dialogues.

        Kinny Riddle
  16. Aw…I was hoping they would leave enough time for another “strip show” at the end of this episode. =) Those that read the novel should know what I’m referring to.

    Yay for Itsuwa, she’s definitely my number 2 after Mikoto. Shame that her arc may not really kick in this season if they end where I think they’ll end.

    xcswmboy
  17. The italian’s speak are well pronunced but the sentence it’s not contructed very well =D

    Very well made the place design (Chioggia) even if the bridge they break with the ship is “Ponte Vigo” ( and that’s the only place they can use to escape that have bridges..) should be large enough for that kind of ship.

    darkman
    1. Touma’s Imagine Breaker is not an all-purpose solution to everything. Remember that in the very beginning of season one he couldn’t neutralize Innocentius because it was regenerating faster than he could negate it and because it was held into place by rune cards. This is the same thing – if he doesn’t destroy the core of the magic, the ice will just regenerate.

      And for those who were wondering why they aren’t slipping on the ice, that’s because magic changed the melting point so water isn’t created to make it slippery.

      Suzushina Yuriko
  18. Loved this episode after the pretty “meh” daihaseisai arc. Also I’m starting to get pissed off at everyone asking for more Mikoto. She’s my fav character too but she has her own freakin series mang. I wouldn’t mine seeing more of the magic side/index in this series.

    いらはさん

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