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Summary:
The members of Judgment have been very busy with all of the graviton incidents, meaning that Kuroko and Uiharu have had little time for their friends. Saten in particular feels left out because of her own lack of abilities, and she jokes to Mikoto about using the urban legend Level Upper which supposedly increases ability levels. Seeing Saten like this, Mikoto suggests that all four of them go shopping together, but she finds out later that Kuroko is still too busy to come. Nevertheless, Mikoto, Saten, and Uiharu go out together, and unbeknownst to them, Uiharu’s Judgment armband is spotted by a certain someone who is constantly getting bullied and holds a grudge against Judgment members. Inside a store, Mikoto runs into Touma who is helping a little girl around, and the two part ways without any major incident. A short while later, Uiharu gets a phone call from Kuroko warning her that the next incident will be taking place at the store she’s currently at, so she and the others begin evacuating everyone. They succeed in doing so, but Mikoto runs into Touma again, and he’s lost sight of the little girl, so the two go back inside.
The pair arrives just as the little girl is passing to Uiharu a stuffed animal that was given to her by a guy with glasses. Realizing that something is wrong with it, Uiharu tosses the stuffed animal aside and tries to protect the little girl while Mikoto springs into action and attempts to use her railgun against it. Unfortunately, Mikoto fumbles the coin she was going to use, and an explosion envelops the area. Believing that he was successful, the culprit slinks off, happy with his success and power. Mikoto, however, had survived and now finds this culprit in an alleyway. She counters his power with her railgun, and when he starts yelling about the evils of people with power, she punches him. Kuroko arrives soon after and explains to the guy that even Mikoto started out as a Level 1 and had to put in a lot of work to get to Level 5. In the aftermath, Kuroko goes up to the scene of the explosion, and even though everyone thinks that Mikoto saved the day, Kuroko is confused at how Mikoto’s power protected the others. What Mikoto doesn’t tell anyone is that she wasn’t able to do anything back then, and it was actually Touma who had stepped in and used his right arm. When she runs into him again, she suggests that he could be known as hero, but Touma doesn’t care about anything like that as long as everyone is safe.
Preview
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For the most part, I thought this was a pretty good episode. I loved Touma’s role and attitude here – I hate to say it like this (and I think I’m repeating myself), but he’s a lot more fun of a character to watch and cheer for when he appears in a limited fashion like this, without his annoying parts. The one thing I didn’t really understand though is how his power stopped the blast. I was under the impression that the Imagine Breaker could have stopped the reaction in the toy/spoon that caused the explosion, but once the explosion happened, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything against it (akin to a regular bomb going off).
Anyway, Mikoto was also fun to watch this episode because of the way she acted around Touma, but what I didn’t really like was the portrayal of the villain. I mean, I can appreciate the emphasis on power and the lesson that Kuroko and Mikoto taught the guy, but it seemed very stupid for him to be targeting Judgment instead of just going after his bullies. Plus he was just a really weak and whiny kind of guy in the first place, so there’s not much to be impressed by. The Level Upper, on the other hand, is more interesting story-wise, and it’s what they’re pointing to (perhaps a bit too obviously) as having powered him up. It also looks to be what next episode will be focused on.
Agree Touma really does well in a limited role. He comes in and can save the say without things going too far. Besides in Railgun when he does show up it’s to fool around with Mikoto and drive her crazy which is pretty fun as it is. I’m guessing his power worked because the explosion was caused by an esper ability. If it had been a normal explosion he couldn’t do anything but because it was abnormal it was enough for him to get involved.
Well the criminal is pretty much what you’d expect. Someone that is willing to blow up a little girl to get his target clearly is trash that doesn’t think clearly anyways. You’d think he’d target those who bullied him but instead he directed his rage at those not involved in it. Maybe he’s just crazy or is just a loser who thinks he’s so important that Judgment should have of course been protecting him 24/7.
Pretty good episode though.
he has the power to stop other peoples powers.. that dudes power being explosives in a sense Touma can stop his power if you compare it to Mikotos lightning he can stop it when it is airborne being shot at him and when she just tried to zap him by grabbing him. Whatever their power make do or cause he can usually stop it unless its something like a building collapsing in which case he would just be screwed..either way Touma is badass! i love his appearances in this anime he always shines in at just the right time and as much as i liked when he would goof around with more screen time he did have too much dialogue in the other series.
the bomb was part of the guy’s power so touma can stop it. i think.
anyway biribiri was full of awesomeness today as always.
Touma’s limited showing is due to how he is portrayed in the manga. If I remember the manga basically had a single frame showing how the floor was perfect and you had to figure out the rest as to how that happened. The bit at the end of the episode between those 2 was a nice touch.
I wonder if that scene was present in the novel? Hum.
Yay now we getting somewhere interesting, more Touma and Mikoto plzz
Indeed, Touma’s Imagine Breaker can stop anything that was caused by psychic or magic power. Since the explosion was the result of the accelerated Gravitons, it was negated. Just like Mikoto’s ionized Iron particles.
I agree with you about Touma being a lot better like this, he’s like a “passing by hero of justice” (HnG reference). Also what shines the most is Mikoto’s interactions with Touma, man I never get tired of them! From To Aru majutsu no index, this series, and their respective mangas, still awesome to watch the two interact.
Also about your question OMNI, this is just what I thought from reading other materials, but it seems like Touma can also stop the explosion and other related effects due to magic, psychic, and divine abilities. This is evident with the fact that he can also stop Mikoto’s railgun, which of course means that he shouldn’t be able to stop the force of the coin, but since it was still an effect of an ability or created by an ability. He can still stop it. Anyways just my 2 cents.
Touma is so badass. He gets to use super auras and punch people.
So, if someone with a gun shot a few rounds at Touma, he’d be screwed (full of holes, dead) since it’s a normal weapon–no magic, psychic or divine ability was used. Good to hear that his weakness is being human, after all.
I kind of figured that Touma would be the one to save the day instead of Mikoto. I had that one figured out last week. Just one question, if the level upper is legit, doesn’t that make one of the story arcs from Index kind of pointless? Also, I am not sure, does this series take place before or after Index? I didn’t watch Index that much but plan on watching it soon.
I love Mikoto’s reaction to Touma not caring who got the credit.
Technically and scientifically speaking (since the anime is a bit scientific) is that it doesn’t need to be an esper caused explosion for him to block it because technically speaking… it’s just an explosion with normal compression of sound waves and fire. So… yeah. Although that’s digging to deep into it.
Does Touma have a Japanese reference behind his name? “Tou” and “ma”. Anybody know? I’m a Japanese self study that’s curious.
@Samurai Pumpkin
People discussed Touma’s last name which is “Kamijō”.
I really think they need to play down the hints they give in the series… It makes for less “I saw that coming” moments.
Wow, another nice episode. Even though I read the manga beforehand, its still impressive and interesting to watch haha. I’m just curious that although the kanji in the preview is “Imagine Breaker”, the katakana is “Level Upper” Hm… puzzling. Or am I just interpreting it wrongly?
Pretty sure that’s intentional.
@Tenkou
Imagine Breaker is written 幻想殺し while the Level Upper is 幻想御手.
I always found Touma’s power to be portrayed irregularly in Index and Railgun.
Take Mikoto’s railgun move with a coin – Touma may be able to dissipate the electricity on the coin or whatever, but the coin is still a piece of metal travelling at mach speeds and so would surely still kill him. The same with the blast from this episode.
I guess you’ll have to take everything with a pinch of salt and suspend your disbelief a little more.
Still, Touma annoys me however long his appearances are…
Well, anything directly caused by psychic and magic powers are negated by Imagine Breaker. That’s why even convection currents from Styl’s fire powers in Index doesn’t even burn him when it’s supposed to. It takes indirect damage from supernatural powers, or pure physical attack, to bypass Imagine Breaker. Meaning, blowing up a city block to collapse the building on Touma with Graviton would work, but a direct Graviton explosion is not going to leave a mark.
@Wayne
It is easy to make the level upper story fit with the Index Misaka Misaka plot. Either:
– make the source of level upper vanish.
– make it have serious side effects which curtail its use in a long term basis.
– make it only work for increasing people’s level upto level 4.
Instead of thinking of all the cool ways to kill Touma, recall from the first ep of index he was running from a bunch of bullies… he’s as human as it gets when it comes to fighting like a man.
It’s an anime, toss some suppression of disbelief here.
I think it was pointed out before that Railgun’s events happened before and right about when Touma first met Index.Since the super computer satellite is still not destroyed because they used it to detect the graviton acceleration in the city, it would put it somewhere before Index destroyed it and Touma losing his memories.The back story of “How Misaka and Touma” met wasn’t really explained in Index since by the time you see the opening in Index, He already knew Misaka and was trying to save the thugs from her knowing she’s a level 5 already.
Now why can’t Touma be more GAR and less preachy like this in Index? He does have the potential to be a better likable main character if he were more like this.
That said, the Touma we’re seeing now is the one before he lost his memories prior to his ordeals with Index.
Both Index and Railgun are written by Kamachi Kazuma, though maybe as a visual medium, the Railgun manga performs better with less words, and there’s not much hassle when adapted into an anime. OTOH, for the Index novels, being a words medium, tends to get long-winded due to all the explanation, and suffers when adapted into anime.
have happen if misaka or accelerator use level upper ^o) …….. hmmmmmm…. then all those imoutou wud be a waste @@?!
kinda wanna see himegami ~”~ but guess a minor character in index wudnt turn up in railgun q.q
well the explosion was magical/physic in natures so it can be negated
touma needs to show up in every ep
Here comes the ship train… KurokoxMikoto sinking ToumaxIndex sunk. Yay for MikotoxTouma Our yuri raep vixen is loosing ground with Touma. I love how Mikoto react every time Touma is around. I can feel the love oh yes
I watch index and Touma is very vulnerable to phisical attach. He was cut fighting Kaori; actually he did took a beating from her. The only thing that saved him was the rightious speech he gave. Actually MexKaori I got a wife..
I meatn Physical attacks … I want an edit support in the forum !!! lol
Touma’s Imagine Breaker is as mentioned, an ability that negates all Esper or Magical abilities. However, he wont be able to negate physical attacks that might be fired off from said abilities. The reason he could dispel Misaka’s iron sand sword in episode 4 was because she was holding its shape using her power. Hence the minute it came in contact with his hand it simply reverted back to dust. In a sense that would be the same result as the explosion since it is essentially and esper ability by the acceleration of gravitons.
And regarding physical attacks from abilities, if u look back at To Aru Majutsu no Index episode 9 in the battle against the Alchemist and his ability Ars Magna, Touma’s arm got sliced off by the physical blade that the alchemist conjured. So that kinda proves he cant really negate physical attacks that are fired off. So i highly doubt that if Misaka fired a coin at him using her railgun he would not be able to stop the coin.
Personally, I love the idea that Touma had very little of a role in this ep. It makes he seem much more hero’sique. As should the hero of the film’s role should be.
Touma is the man, nuff’ said. Misaka fumbles her precious coin, Touma sighs and then saves the day. In the world of To Aru, Imagine Breaker is pure hax.
Great episode, just wanted to say 2 things.
First in direct relation to the episode: why didn’t the guy go after the bullies? Well, I think he was working on his powers to build up to that point. From a person like him’s point of view, I believe once he reached a level that he thought was sufficient, he would have blown up the bullies, but not in the hidden way that he’d been employing up until that point. He would want them to have full knowledge of what was going on as he blew them up. On the other hand, he was bitter at what he perceived as the lack of ability of Judgment to “save” him so he went after them. From what I can see though, he might have been crazy but not stupid and thus would not have openly gone up against them, especially when his powers weren’t fully developed. About him being weak and whiny, yeah. He was. And he realized he was weak. But contrary to Saten, he went the way of jealous bitterness, especially because of the bullying. There’s always people like that.
…wow that was long. Oh well.
Second point. To the people that seem to be like, why couldn’t Touma be like this in Index? Well. He lost his memory, for one. That in and of itself makes a huge difference. For one thing, Touma here seems much more self-confident.I attribute that to being because he knows who he is. However, in Index, he doesn’t know even himself. As a result, all he knows is the fact that his hand can negate powers. A lot of Index seems to be him wondering about people he should know but doesn’t and relies on that gut feeling he gets of wanting to help out, protect and save people. However, since he has no working knowledge of how he acted in the past, it seems he would often try to act “normal”without really knowing what that is. Hence the preachiness. I know, it’s not entirely enjoyable but that seems to be Touma working through his confusion in verbal form. For the record, a prime example of his character change is how he doubts Index with magic, but later on easily accepts Himegami. Anyways, this is getting way too long…
@Samurai Pumpkin
上条 当麻 are the characters used to write “Kamijou Touma”.
Like duh (the person) said, you just gotta suspend your disbelief in regards to Touma’s ability. As long as it doesn’t start blatantly negate “physical” attacks, I’m pretty much cool with it.
@Ence: Nice analysis. I suppose Touma really is trying to preach his whole past decades worth, heh.
I really like how the ED started to play ‘early’ in te final seconds of the last scene. What is that called? Remembered the same thing in a Shigofumi-episode, which was also great to watch back then 🙂
I want to see an Index cameo, even if it’s just her walking in the background of a scene for 2 seconds. :3
Or maybe some Accelerator..
(I haven’t read the manga, I’m guessing none of them show up)
Since this chapter in the manga Touma is not going to appear anymore until the end of the next posible arc.
*Kamijou Touma, his existence in his own world is a mistery:
-Considered in both, magic side and science side as their natural enemy.
-The Imagine Breaker mistery is not solved yet, in japanesse called Gensou Goroshi(Illusion/Fantasy Killer), in the later novels God Right Seat leader, Fiamma of the Right, suspects that Touma is the Holy Stone “Imaginary Killer” and wants kidnap him.
-Kamijou has more than one way to be written, one of them means “The person who is higher than God.” Maybe Touma doesn’t knows this just like Index doesn’t knows that she CAN use magic.
@Kinny Riddle: Index = novels(the first arc are transition arcs), Railgun = manga = Mikoto fanservice.
@Ence: Looks like you already read the novels, aren’t you?
@duh: The coin started to move thanks to a supernatural power, Touma hand dispells the electricity returning the coin to the state before the electro-shot, doing all this before the momentum affects him…. the same for the explotion..duh!!
@Lero Actually I haven’t read the novels, though I would love to. Everything I know about this series is from the anime.
Railgun definitely benefits from Touma being restricted to cameos and short dosages. Misaka makes for a far more palatable protagonist. She’s strong, has a bit of attitude, but stays in control for the most part. . . and best of all IS NOT preachy!!
@Lero – Doesn’t explain the I beams off rail road tracks flung at him by Accelerator being unable to be stopped. Though honesty I’m not too picky about the consistency issues as I really enjoy Railgun and Index .
@L3g0la5
I thought that was a result of him not being able to touch the blades in time. Remember, he was cut at the shoulder, not hand.
Upss I meant “Since this chapter in the manga Touma is going to appear one more time and the next arc until the end of the next posible arc.
@Lone – Accelerator does appear in the manga so hopefully he will appear later in the anime as well (as long as they cover that much)
@Wayne – Currently its still before the events of index. In the timeline Index is starts on July 19th but railgun starts July 16th
(Also the current episode was July 15th so the scene on the bridge should happen very soon if they are sticking to the timeline)
on my previous post i ment the current episiode was July 18th NOT 15th sorry about that.
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
EPIC FAIL!
I’m getting tired of after-ending scenes. Really, FMA, Railgun, DtB…stop it! When the ending starts, the show is supposed to be over 😛
Oh! I’m glad you’re posting about this animation. I came to love it and wished you’d post about it. Now I can blissfully read your reviews too.:D I always liked to read them, you know.
I’m guessing Touma can stop anything which is directly caused by someone’s power, probably including Mikoto’s railgun blast, but not the following effects like… well, a ton of stuff. A building collapsing like rofl said, a car thrown (and released, not pushed all the way) by a telekinesis, etc etc.
I really like Touma’s attitude because he’s… well, just the type of male characters I like. His do-I-care-about-anything yet a willing one and all, you know. No idea how he is in A Certain Magical Index because I never read or watched the story, but you know. I’m loving this animation. Just could do without Kuroko’s perversion.
Oh and I like Mikoto because, not only her appearance, personality, attitude and (most importantly) the ability seriously appeal to me, she wears pants under her skirt. It’s rare for me to like both the male and the female lead (if Touma can count as a male lead.. that is). I’m keeping my anticipation high.
Update for those that are following the railgun manga.
3 more scanlated chapters have been released that cover material not seen before in season 1 or in railgun.
Oh goodie. The Sisters, huh? I disliked that part because (not only does the claim that Misaka can’t defeat Accelerator make absolutely no sense because you get electric shock regardless of the direction of the current, so all that self-sacrifice is just a plot device,) Misaka had to cry.
Just kidding. But the idea itself was kinda meh. And I think if the experiment were to end, it’d be more likely that the Sisters would be just disposed. For some reason they were freed(…..a ten thousand of them….) but it just doesn’t make sense.
But I seriously liked the character ‘Misaka’s sister.’ So overjoyed to see her(them?) again.
Touma Fan all the way. @Starshade if someone were to throw a car at touma through telekinesis either the car goes all the way towards him and hits him with the telekinesis still enveloped around it or falls short due to the telekinetic hold being released. Pretty much the best and probably the only way I am aware of to defeat him is to use a physical attack which he obviously can’t defend against or have a magical/esper ability he can not immediately dispel with his right hand.
Touma is the man.
I wondor if there is romance stirring up.