First Impressions / To Aru Majutsu no Index

OP2 Sequence

OP2: 「ROAR」by Maon Kurosaki

「独立国同盟」 (Dokuritsu gokudoumei)
“The Alliance of Independent Nations”

Gentlemen, what you’ve all been waiting for is finally here: World War III. Russians; ICBMs; global warming; new harem members; teasing out the ass—does it all start making sense now? Well, probably not (except for those fortunate light novel readers among us, praise be unto them), but you got to admit Index is now bringing all the cards to the table. It’s time for this series to start showing its stuff, and what stuff it’s going to be.

If there’s one defining factor amidst all the chaotic confusion that is big Catholic swords smacking little Russian churches in Index’s penultimate arc it’s the merger of magic and science. This has been the series’ defining trait of course (hell One Punch Man personifies the theme) but WW3 is arguably the point where both truly intertwine together. For the first time we have overt conflict between the two sides, with both effectively facing off to determine who will dominate the future. Will magic retain its historical primacy, will science finally ascend to its place as the one inherent truth, or will both come to some form of mutually agreed coexistence? Not an easy answer to determine, but considering the likes of Accelerator and Shiage are running headfirst into a side of life they barely considered (if ever) you can bet it’s one that everyone will have a say in. There’s a powerful struggle at work under all of Index’s visual flash, and it’s one finally coming to a head.

Having Index finally bring the thematic fight though doesn’t take away from the fact the show hasn’t changed on another front: pacing. No matter the amount of fun existing with Touma’s new girl Lessar and her less than skillful flirting—Schrodinger’s Panties comes up true in this case—seriously, just why is she with him right now exactly? Just what did the lady killer do to get a former enemy tagging along to Mother Russia? Also best Princess Carissa and that French attack? Yeah I’m not going ask any questions, although I really really want to. While you can be reasonably assured answers at minimum will come regarding the importance of Sasha Kruezhev and Vento of the Front (Fiamma will certainly tell all at the appropriate time) for better or worse it’s another case of “light novels or nothing” here. Want a little bit of logic and explanation to go with your Last Order? Well too bad, we’ve got battles and fists to the face to get to. No matter how much it may be Index’s time to shine, it seems the strategy up until now won’t be changing.

It’s going to be a white knuckle ride until the end, but at least you can be assured it won’t be boring. After all, with one, erm, interesting girl set to make her debut, things are about to get quite tasty indeed.

 

Preview

24 Comments

  1. Big Catholic swords smacking little Russian churches

    And here reality surpassed the fiction when this was written. Our current Pope seeks the “brotherhood” to the Russian Orthodox Church and others.

    But yes, in the past only being catholic and just evangelist (France and England) was sufficient to start an 10 War.. But i hope Mankind surpass it. even if old times want them back

    Religion Wars

    p.s. This time i try to tame my “Persona”

    Worldwidedepp
    Reply

  3. One big cluster fuck of events that I got no idea what is happening but for some strange reason I’m still following it.

    Thought Index III will be as coherent as the first 2 but nope.

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2018%20-%20Large%20Preview%2002.jpg
    But hey… Misaka is BACK! And she traded her coins for nails! MORE GIRLS FOR ACCELERATOR’S HAREM!

    Yorokobe shounen

    Henrietta Brix
    Reply

      1. Simply put, Fiamma’s been using everyone, including the Church he supposedly served, to achieve his own goals from the start and his “colleagues” in God’s Right Seat eventually realized that, around the time that he put the Pope in a coma. They started moving to try to undermine him, but by that point he had secured his hold over pretty much all of the Roman Catholic/Orthodox Church’s forces and secured an alliance with Russia.

        Acqua still had the strength to fight, so he went back to England to try to stop the coup Fiamma had orchestrated, but Vento had lost a key part of her magical arsenal when she fought Touma and needed time to find/develop a replacement before she could move against Fiamma directly. Her role, even in the light novel, is fairly minor (largely just to set up how overpowering Fiamma is), but it’s also to show that not everyone on the “Roman Catholic” side is on-board with what Fiamma is doing.

        Veltharis
        Reply

  4. Pancakes do u remember the academy city invasion arc? There last order also got ill after fuse kazakiri was used as a artificial angel. Now that aleister created a much stronger artificial angel aka dragon aka aiwass, last order role is seemingly done and she is left for death. Only way to save her from the strain of the artificial angel lies in russia as aiwass said in ep 17, accelerator is doing everything against the odds to save a death soul that is dearest to him. Ps to create a angel aleister uses the misaka network which creates a huge strain on last order to the point it being life threatening like in the case of aiwass. Hope i could answer missing knowldge. 😉

    AcceleratorAngel
    Reply

  6. This Fiamma of the right is starting to really annoy me, I can’t wait till Touma put him in his place. (I really hope he does…) Is Fiamma backing the Russian’s and their agenda for this WW3? Now Vento is involved I am hoping she too would want to interrupt Fiamma and his plans for Russia. This will be of great assistance to Touma if Vento’s interests kind of align with Touma’s.

    Academy City or probably Crowley has sent in Misaka worse to make the matter worse. If this is the cities idea of stopping WW3 it’s a bad one. The City should have just sent in Misaka and Kuroko or the Misaka sisters instead.

    One last thing, is it me or is this episode starting to really feel grim? Not a whole lot of funny moments just those parts where Lessar spouts nonsense at Touma.

    RenaSayers
    Reply

    1. Actually it is the opposite. Fiamma is the one who wants a world war and has convinced Russia it is in their best interests to side with him. Academy City’s technology is a valuable prize and from the speech, Russia thinks it will get it by siding with Fiamma and winning this war.

      Academy City has no interest in stopping this war outside of crushing the opposition. The first episode had a Weapons demonstration fair and in the third episode they bombed a French City after getting permission to move in.

      RPG_Fanatic
      Reply

      2. As far as I know Crowley jumped at the opportunity to teach the world lesson “dont mess with Academy City”
        Between all the espers and technological advantage he is pretty sure he can win.
        Outside of animated things IIRC, AC armed forces trashed the Russians with stealth fighters, drones. mecha and whatsnot.
        Not sure what would they do if Russians would use nukes, but probbaly some technical gadgetry to defeat missiles is in place.
        I am afraid thought that this curbstomp might make entire world just stop their differences and focus on taking out Academy City by whatever means necessary…

        ewok40k
        Reply

    1. We still have enough Atom Bombs to end Earth and their Humanity.. and even make it uninhabitable for many many generations to come.

      You know Godzilla the OVA 1-3? This kind of “horror”. There are no “clean Atomic Bombs”

      Worldwidedepp
      Reply

  10. You would think that they could at least manage to produce the most important arc on a consistent level, but nope, already the first episode is at it again with plenty of off looking characters.
    I was also surprised that the Touma/Lessar scene from the season 3 trailer with her following him in the snow didn’t show up. Maybe because it was not off model and wouldn’t have fit in with the rest? 😉
    Still, looking forward to Mikoto’s taking part in the battle. She hasn’t had any action so far, so I hope that the upcoming episodes will make up for it.

    boingman
    Reply

  13. Damn, the one arc I’m excited for and it’s still confusing as f**k at worst (except for the LN readers)–or vaguely makes sense at best (thanks only to reading the character pages over on TVTropes).

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
    Ah, Lessar. She’s kinda like Kuroko (and just as young) except she’s Touma-sexual. Also, despite the shadows of the scene, I can distinctly make out Lessar showing off her kinky side-tie panties to Touma in the train. (Damn, she thirsty… Though in fairness, it’s to get Touma to work for England.)

    https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
    Ax-Crazy Misaka incoming…

    Incognito
    Reply

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