「守る理由」 (Mamoru riyuu)
“A Reason to Protect”

Welcome boys and girls to the Index thunderdome. We’ve got the fights, the explosions, and the crazy smiles. Need some new random characters? Got that too. Fists to the face? We have you covered. A bit of levity to break the tension? Thought you’d never ask. Oh yes it’s all here this week, and if you thought it wasn’t enough never fear, because this episode was just a taste of the thunder fuelled shenanigans to come barrelling on down the pipe.

Part of the fun of the WW3 arc for me is the sheer chaos of it all. While the light novels were already ridiculous enough, the anime (in part thanks to that Usain Bolt level pacing) has taken it up a notch, throwing everything—including the Mil Mi-24—at us as quick as possible. Thought the random break to British (and Catholic) cuties beating on French heathens wasn’t random enough? Nothing a little Versailles blondie action cannot solve. Truthfully I was getting a bigger kick at the time out of Knight Leader showing Carissa to be a sub under that dom exterior, but hey, nothing beats a little flashy lightsabre neon sword action when the going gets confusing. After all we’ve got Shiage and Acqua duking it out Saving Private Ryan style with inbred Tunguskas and Russian PMCs while Mugino gets ready for Level Zero beatdown round three: if you cannot find a bit of fun in all of this then I think you might need another stiff drink. Or three.

The real entertainment however lay with Accelerator and Touma, who faced off for a second time. This one of course was a little more anticlimactic than the Sisters arc (mostly down to the lack of context with Touma’s random appearance), but at least we got several minutes of glorious Accelerator villainous laughter to make up for the confusion. Oh and plenty fists smacking heads, but I think we all knew that was coming—and the inevitable outcome—once the One Punch Man made his appearance. Accelerator winning a tit-for-tat smack-a-thon with the world champion of right handed haymakers? Oh you sweet summer child, you haven’t been around these parts long enough. At least this battle has more or less solidified Accelerator’s development towards to good side, showing him all in on protecting Last Order and willing to look past previous transgressions in favour of a more peaceful future. He may think Touma to be insufferable and beneath his notice (somewhat), but there’s no denying the respect for helping out one of the most innocent girls of them all.

With the entire main cast now in play and a few more explosive pieces ready to make their appearance, Index is ready to get to the main act. The only question now is how Touma and friends wind up saving that titular damsel in distress.

 

Preview

22 Comments

  1. I still can’t get over those dumb Touma fights.
    Like every opponent suddenly loses all their intelligence and attacks only from the front so Touma can easily dispell them. He gets soo many free passes, I’m just happy when this show is finally over.

    Shio
    1. Not an excuse for the Anime but in the LN Accelerator attacked from multiple directions and Touma used his Imagine Breaker a little different to create a safe spot within Accelerators barrage of attacks.

      1993espada
    2. He really doesn’t get much in the way of “free passes”, but I can certainly understand how you might think otherwise…

      Accelerator wasn’t in his right mind during this fight by any means. He wasn’t explicitly trying to kill Touma (though that certainly could have happened), he was just lashing out – venting weeks of repressed anger and frustration at the one person he thought could take it. That’s also why he deliberately targeted ONLY Touma, and didn’t drag Lessar or anyone else into the fight.

      Also, the anime skipped over a fairly significant detail about Touma’s capabilities that Accelerator works out in this fight – namely that he’s developed a kind of subconscious sense for detecting supernatural attacks before they occur by reading tiny changes in the surrounding environment for a clue as to what’s about to happen. That’s how he can dodge (or catch) a bolt of lightning from Misaka – the potent magnetic field she generates to fire it causes things like nearby metal objects to move/warp and hint as to what’s coming, giving Touma a split second or so to either start moving his body out of the way or move his right hand into its path like a lightning rod to intercept. Touma’s ability to analyze his opponents’ powers and devise a way to survive and fight back is nothing to sneeze at…

      In the light novel, this fight is told pretty much entirely from Accelerator’s perspective, and it’s made abundantly clear that from the perspective of someone with an overwhelming power that no one else can stand up to, someone like Touma – who takes everything he throws at him, then inexplicably stands back up and keep coming – can look utterly terrifying.

      Veltharis
  2. I really hope Vento will pitch in some more to help Touma against Fiemma. WW3 is being dealt with by Touma’s acquaintances but Vento will really be a nice addition to the team. It sounds like Accelerator just has some pent up stress being the only one protecting last order and all honesty besides Touma, Accelerator and Hamazura are the ONLY ones trying to save the weak. Mugino is still alive someone should really put this mad dog down for good.

    RenaSayers
  3. Boo, they watered down the Touma vs. Accelerator round 2 fight. They held back on the crazy attacks Accelerator did and used smoke cover to get out of animating Touma dealing with Accelerator’s wing. I was looking forward to the part where Touma grabbed one of Accelerators wings and pulled it to throw him off balance and then counterattack.

    They better not be cutting how Misaka gets a ride to Russian, because there is something interesting there.

    RPG_Fanatic
      1. While a rematch between Mugino and Misaka would be fun, Mugino is Shiage’s problem. It’s like when Misaka was chasing Touma around the city, only with less negation protection and more attempted murder.

        The thing I am talking about specifically is what Misaka finds while digging up information.

        RPG_Fanatic
  4. I really hope they make Misaka…useful soon cause she’s been literally useless/irrelevant for the entire season so far.

    Also lol, enemies from literally 1 arc ago and now allies. I guess any female who gets falcon punched in the face by Touma is like a rite to passage to his harem.

    YanDaMan

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