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Summary:
Uiharu has gotten sick recently, and while going to deliver some medicine, Saten runs into Mikoto and Kuroko. All three of them go to visit their sick friend, and Uiharu ends up asking about if there’s been any progress on the graviton case. The mystery still is how a Level 2 was able to use Level 4 powers, and Mikoto is reminded of how Saten told her about the Level Upper. Since Saten doesn’t know the exact details of it, they refer to a related BBS, and Mikoto and Kuroko go to investigate a gathering spot to learn more about it. While those two are gone, Saten takes care of Uiharu and wonders what would happen if she herself used the Level Upper. She laments her own lack of power, especially compared to her friends, and while Uiharu can relate to that, she reminds Saten of how much fun they all have together.
Mikoto and Kuroko meanwhile arrive at the restaurant gathering spot, and Mikoto pretends to be an innocent girl who wants to learn about the Level Upper. Her act attracts the attention of a group of thugs, and they take her to a back alley to take advantage of her. Mikoto finds herself with no choice but to fry all of them with her electricity, and she’s then faced with the female leader of the group. This new girl has the ability to control the viscosity of asphalt, but it’s still no match for Mikoto’s ability. Unfortunately, not only does Mikoto not learn anything useful, but she also realizes too late that she unleashed a huge blast right next door to a power station, and it took out power across the city. The next day, Kuroko alerts Mikoto to how the culprit from the previous case has suddenly lost consciousness, and the baffled hospital doctors have brought in an outside specialist: Kiyama Harumi. Back in her own apartment, Saten is still trying to find the Level Upper and stumbles upon a hidden link pointing to it.
Preview
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This wasn’t a bad episode by any means, but the main question on my mind after seeing it was why Touma was completely taken out. As those of you who have read the manga might remember, Touma was supposed to appear and end up facing Mikoto’s wrath in a bridge scene that mirrors the one in the very beginning of Index. I always really appreciated that as a sign of how the two series are connected and parallel, but unless they’ve decided to move it to later (which would feel awkward given the potential need to repeat the circumstances and blackout aftermath), it looks like that connection might be gone. Instead we had here a random girl who made for a decent fight, but that scene didn’t carry anywhere near the same weight as the Touma one would have.
On a different note, I also found it odd that Judgment didn’t have more smart people working on the level mismatch problem in the graviton case. It seems like the kind of thing that would raise a lot of red flags, and surely someone else in Judgment or Anti-Skills has heard of the Level Upper urban legend and put two and two together. And yet here we are, and it’s always Uiharu, Saten, Kuroko, or Mikoto in the lead. It’s not a bad thing because obviously they’re the main characters, and it’s fun to watch them in action, as Mikoto’s innocent act and Kuroko’s reaction this episode clearly showed, but it still bothers me a bit. Oh well… On the plus side, the story is really getting going now, and it looks like next episode should have a lot of Saten and Kuroko.
First! Aw, no Touma!
I hope that they aren’t trying to avoid tying the two anime’s together. That kind of takes away from the point. Would be disappointing. Although at the beginning of the episode they always start out by showing the date some I still have my hopes up.
Also for those interested in the series like another 6 translated chapters have been made available for this manga over the past 3 days. It has some interesting content.
no touma? ftl
Slow episode this week, and as mentioned, cutting out Touma and putting that girl in … >_>
Only highlight was Misaka’s act + Kuroko’s headbanging XD
It’s funny how in To Aru Majutsu no Index everybody can’t stand Touma… but here we actually like seeing him from time to time. I can understand why though. His brief appearances have been well done.
I just remember trying to tune him out when he went on his long spiel’s in the original anime.
In this part of the actual manga, Touma does appear, however it was similar to the episode 1 scene for Index (which was their first meeting). J.C. Staff appears to be trying to combine the two series’ plotlines so that they flow co-currently. So to reduce the amount of confusion, they took him out. There’ll be more Touma to come. Let the Level Upper arc finally begin!
Hey they changed the scene with Touma. A pity actually, since that was a crossover scene between the two series.
Kuruko continues to demonstrates the durability of her head is by her table-headbanging again. XD
Saten and Uiharu really make a good pair, mirroring Biribiri and Kuroko. I like how Uiharu complained about getting a cold because Saten kept flicking her skirt, which Saten said was to check whether Uiharu had her panties on.
It was a decent episode, but I was so disappointed that Touma’s part was taken out.
BTW, has anyone read the manga recently. They’ve finally scanlated the Mikoto POV of the Sisters arc. It’s cute, cool, awesome, badass, funny, bittersweet and so many other things.
It would feel a bit weird to have Mikoto’s encounter with him on that bridge in this episode… after she has a full on fight with him in episode 4 out in that field, where she finds out all about him being able to nullify her power. In episode 1 of Index, she has no idea why he’s able to defend against her power, and then she demands a fight with him later in the episode. It doesn’t make sense for her to do that AFTER having already had a fight in episode 4.
i tot touma supose to be hero here >< “
what?!?!? no MikoTou interaction?!?!
The restaurant scene here and the first scene in Index take place at different times: Touma mentions summer vacation has started in his opening monologue, while this was a school day.
@Rockfest: The bridge scene in Index wasn’t their first meeting, Touma already knows she is one of the level 5’s and has a habit of blasting people that annoy her.
@Nazarielle: Mikoto witnessed Touma’s ability twice already before the fight in episode 4 (in episode 2 and the flashback of the first meeting)
It’s a cover up I tell you! Judgment is actually behind it to protect the scientists while they carry out a massive experiment upon the public. Yes, a conspiracy theory! I have never read the manga so I am just saying random stuff. This is Random Curiosity, no?
Hmm…
From the screencaps, seems there’s no Touma appearence this week
Not downloading, then.
Has anyone noticed how most people watch Index for Mikoto, and how these same people watch Railgun for Touma?
ToumaxBiribiri FTW!
…Well. This episode was interesting in and of itself. Some interesting theories pop up in my head concerning the Level Upper. I’m not certain if this classifies as spoiler since I’ve never read the manga or the novel but I feel they made the “mystery” of the level upper too easy. It’s a song. Remember bomb boy? He was always listening to music. Bet you anything it was the level upper. Perhaps, listening to it more increases your power. My current thoughts concerning it have to do with the matter of personal realities and AIM. They wouldn’t just throw something like that in just so they could ha e Saten get teacher harassed and then a subsequent conversation withUihara. My thought is that the level upper alters oneself through the music by affecting the brain. The usage of the level upper could alter the procceses within the brain causing a trigger in increase in AIM (An Involuntary Movement). Those with strong senses of perception toward the world they live in (whether good or bad) can then increase their powers fairly rapidly. As such, the crimnals harboring strong feelings like hatred or Uihara’s personal obsession with being like Mikoto could trigger such a thing. Basically those with personal realities of substantial size. As for the unconsiousness, I suspect the level upper is not permanent but rather requires the fairly constant dosage of the music to maintain the artificially increased AIM. The lack of that source most likely led to a drop that the altered brain couldn’t follow. Perhaps if they were able to do a before and after brain wave comparison, something like this would show up. However, that would mean that as the Anti-skill doctors said, the body appears fine but they have no consiousness. Whether it’s possible to regress back to normal or not appears dependent on how far along the alteration (level increase) was progressed.
Disclaimer: the above is purely theory alone sprung from my demented head. I have no idea if it’s right or wrong. Please don’t take it at face value and treat it as fact ><
I’ll give them a tomato if they don’t try to attribute magic to quantum mechanics anymore.
The Index scene would only cause confusion to the viewers as that was the first time Biribiri had a fight with Touma (which is clearly not the case here in Railgun). I think there was nothing wrong in this episode (except the fight could have been longer…), but overall, well done!
@Kaminakun
No, the scene in Index clearly indicates that Touma had met BiriBiri before as he tried to save those delinquints from HER instead of the other way around.
That and it was also the first time BiriBiri fired her railgun at him.
Aww, Kuroko love madness!!!
headdesk!
Other than that, I am worried about saten using level upper since all users end up in a coma…
I don’t know why, but Ruiko is my favorite character. -Shrug-.
Don’t post spoilers!
It seems the level upper is the main focus in this series people like Saten that have low levels will look for ways to increase their ability.I just hope she doesn’t become a victim like the rest unlike Mikoto who is a level five and apparently has one of the strongest ability (electricity) therefore she feels the need to show off when she is annoyed at someone although she clearly had the upper hand against the boss, i couldn’t help but think that the boss also used the level upper to increase her ability seeing as how those that use it end up in a coma and like someone said earlier it s possible that Kiyama Harumi is involved one way or the other the only thing i,m worried about now is who is the antagonist this series.
A lot of people don’t realize it due to unfamiliarity with the original source material, but the Index novels have a fairly clear timeline of events with dates given as things occur.
The Railgun manga was designed to fit into the original timeline as seamlessly as possible, and actually does a very good job of it and also clearly labels where events take place in the timeline.
The Index manga and anime adaptations shift and cut and add events and do not match the original events exactly. The railgun anime however goes even further in deviating from the original timeline.
Personally, I feel that it’s best to just treat the adaptations as their own thing and not try to figure out how they work with the canonical timeline.
@ryouichi
I think its because of her voice. Im convinced thats why I fell in love with her too. Its just so smooth
This episode sucks. How they take out Touma from the action.
Come on how could they cut of Touma! Especially in that chapter where he tells the thugs off to wank off some porn mags if they all decide to gang up on hitting on a kid, LOL! Touma even tries to defend them against the wrath of Misaka. Come on, the only thing I look forward the most in this spin off is Misaka’s personal interactions with Touma (just like in the Index series).
Yeah, I’m sad with the changes as well (i.e. no Touma appearance/Index crossover) especially when I just started to piece together the timeline of Index and Railgun. This episode definitely throws me off. However, I’m guessing the reason for the changes was to focus more on “Railgun.” Anyway, my two cents.
Unless I am VERY much mistaken, the bridge incident does not occur until the same night in which Touma confronts Accelerator–prior to that, of course. Mikoto provides him support with her clones, when Touma is on his last leg against Accelerator…I believe it can safely be said that the story simply hasn’t reached this point yet; the relevant posters believe it to be much earlier than it is.
The date is July 19th – the events are a bit different between Index manga and Railgun manga (well at least what they say is a bit different). This episode completely ignored that part :S I wanted to see how Touma would have handled it in the anime 🙁
Touma’s funner when Mikoto’s in the lime light. He’s much better as a supporting character than a main imo. We don’t have to hear those god awful speeches he gives. That and he directly compliments Misaka well, this mighty level 5 esper that has nothing on someone that would otherwise run from bullies. His scenes in Index w/ Mikoto played off that more than the other interactions.
NOOOO, I was so looking forward to Touma in this episode
Too much of a good thing hurts. Touma should be back soon. I can’t wait for Saten level 4 skill “flipping skirts without hands” poor Uiharu yay!!!
Maybe we can prove her wrong and sometimes she doesn’t wear them.
@ Nom: You ARE very much mistaken. ^^b The bridge scene everybody is talking about here, which should have been here, takes place at the beginning of Index episode 1, long before Touma even knew about the SISTERs or Accelerator.
The problem with Touma in Index was his constant incessant preaching and inane speeches. Since in here he is a side character, with brief speaking parts, he is pretty good. Compare that with Misaka who usually prefers to deal damage than talk things over and there is quite a difference.
Still, Index (the main character there) was way more annoying and useless than he was. The Miko was pretty much filler as well. They even joke with that in the -tan bits.
Show Spoiler ▼
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times (although this is the first time I’ve said it here): There are dozens of anime leads out there who preach just as much or more than Touma, and they never get called on it.
@synkronized: So why is he in the Oricon light novel rants places Touma as the 3rd place & Mikoto as the 6th???
I like his character a lot, his interaction between various characters and him makes more interesting the novels, Accelerator was 17th .
@TheDude: The people cand understand each other speaking, you know?… ah well, in the LN Index has more plot related roles(since vol.7) meanwhile Mikoto only has some plotless apparitions.
Too bad I expected Touma in this chapter….
ol I read that Touma has no interest in little girls like Mikoto, Agnes, Komoe , *type here another loli* … shit Index is not a loli anymore XD.
@Shinji103
Speaking only for myself, Touma was so annoying because he was merely an obstructionist. He doesn’t like the solution others come up with, so he tries to prevent them from happening with faith that some good solution will magically materialize at the last minute (not that he has said solution in hand, or anything). This being anime and him being the main character, this somehow always seems to happen, but one of these days Touma needs to learn that life isn’t always desirable, and sometimes a bad outcome is better than all the other options; maybe then he’ll be qualified to preach about something.
@Justin: Wow, that’s an incredibly negative way to put it. 😛 A better way would be that he wants to save/protect everybody rather than accept that you can’t save everybody, so he strives for that result. You can’t get a result that you don’t try for.
And yet again, that is something that many, many other anime leads do. Talk to Kenshin Himura, or Vash the Stampede. They do that all the time. And now Touma is the first one of those leads to get called on it.
But it doesn’t change the fact that the massive majority of Touma haters are like TheDude: they just jump on the “he preaches too much” bandwagon without even thinking about it. If they thought about it, they’d realize that there are dozens more anime leads who preach as much or far more than Touma.
maybe they’ll move the bridge scene to the last episode to make it more fun or something. Railgun is only 12 episodes after all. I think.
@ purple
The index anime adaptation was exactly from the light novels which was its real source. The index manga on the other hand skipped important parts of the light novels making it an epic fail.
@ahelo: Actually the DVD release schedule shows that there will be more than 12 episodes. After all, JC Staff has always done 24-26 episodes in their animes.
dont use it sateeeeen… :'(
@Shinji But wasn’t Index just 12 eps?
@Ence: Erm, no it was 24.
You know… this thing isn’t going to stay light and fluffy for much longer. This plot is dark, and evil, and it’s just getting started, and Saten-san’s about to get trapped in it…
It’s a trap, Saten-san; don’t listen to it! It’ll manipulate your brainwaves via synasthesia… but it’s very dangerous…
I rather like this one 🙂
I think the discrepancy between what happened here and what happened in Index has to do with the ‘Personal Reality’ theory that was presented at the beginning of the episode. I get the impression that someone’s ‘Personal Reality’ overwritting things (Mikoto? Saten? The creator of Level Upper?)
@Kurotetsu: Hmm, that’s an interesting idea actually. (just for the record though, that’s not what’s going on in the manga; it’s interesting that it might be what the /anime/ is doing, though)
I can’t believe no one has asked or explained this. What happened to Uiharu’s flowers?
Aha I got so wrapped up in the Level Upper theory that I forgot. Maybe that proves it’s a headband? Still don’t know what her power is other than crazy computer skills…though she does imply they have something to do with her powers (episode 1). I rather like her better without the flowers.
Man, if she can control viscosity, then she essentially controls the Prantdl number of asphalt. She can also control the Reynolds number of the flow around asphalt, which means she can alter the boundary layer flow around asphalt. If this is true she could have created a thick insulative shield of air or non conductive gas around her via asphalt and beaten Misaka =/.
Saten washing Uihara’s back upped my level.
couln’t they get any information out of the girl they just beat? What was with that?
@ Shinji103
Really? Wow that was a big relief. I guess theyre gonna animate the sister’s arc after all.
FYI, another 2 chapters of the To Aru Majutsu no Index railgun have been translated.
As a fan of Saten, I personally don’t what to see what is going to happen to her after she uses the level upper. But I am sure she won’t end up like the other people who have used the level upper.
lol how often does Toma show up~?
@Shade 1545: Show Spoiler ▼