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「絶対能力 （レベル６）」 (Zettai Nouryoku (Reberu 6))
“Absolute Ability (Level 6)”
Episode at a Glance:
While explaining Schrödinger’s Theory and how it relates to esper abilities, Komoe manages to confuse Index to no end. Elsewhere on a bridge, Mikoto recalls how she was once told that her esper ability could potentially be used to save a lot of handicapped people, unaware that her DNA would later be used to produce experimental clones for the military. As she quietly calls for help, Touma arrives with the Sisters project document that he found in her room, demanding to know what the hell she’s doing. After Touma reads how the Tree Diagram super computer forcasted that it would be possible to evolve Accelerator into a Level 6 by getting him to kill 20,000 of Mikoto’s clones (an alternative to killing 128 of her), Mikoto further reveals that she’s been taking out research facilities in an attempt to stop the experiment and save her sisters. However, she’s unable to take the facilities out as quickly as they resurface and the international law against human cloning seems to be conveniently overlooked in this case. With her unable to kill Accelerator, Mikoto reveals her plans to get quickly killed by him instead, thinking that it will throw off the Tree Diagram’s calculations and put a lot of doubt in the experiment. According to Mikoto, they would be unable to recalculate for the experiment since the satellite super computer was destroyed (…by Index not too long ago) and the whole thing would be put to a halt.
Having heard her plan to save the remaining 10,000 clones by dying, Touma stands in Mikoto’s way to prevent her from throwing her life away, but surprisingly adds that he won’t fight her. Failing to heed her warnings, Touma gets blasted by her railgun attack, but manages to get back up from it. Mikoto on the other hand ignores her inner desire for help, claims she doesn’t deserve to have someone worry about her well-being after she’s gotten 10,000 of her clones killed, and attacks again out of frustration. After sustaining a second attack, Touma refutes that Mikoto’s death won’t save her clones and that she’s not really a bad person, otherwise she would’ve killed him already. Frustrated further, Mikoto sets off an electric explosion which seemingly kills Touma, but is shocked and taken back to tears to see him struggling to get up again. Not too long after, Touma passes out while trying to think of alternatives to ending the experiment.
Next Episode:
「一方通行 （アクセラレータ）」 (Ippou Tsuukou (Akuserareeta))
“One-way Street (Accelerator)”
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Impressions:
If there’s one series from the Fall season that’s fallen “out of line” with my expectations, it has to be To Aru Majutsu no Index. In terms of production values, it’s definitely up there with J.C. Staff and I’ve Sound working on the visuals and music respectively. (Note: I love I’ve Sound’s music.) However, the recent uneventful Deep Blood arc and the pacing at times tend to leave me wondering what’s going on with the series. Personally, I’m not against dialogue heavy episodes (e.g. I enjoyed Nabari no Ou), but this series seems to take that to a different level at times, making me wonder if J.C. Staff is trying to find opportune moments to burn up overall series time. They do it well enough so that scenes don’t feel drawn out or filler-ish, but when an episode ends, I often look back and realize how little actually happened.
Take this episode for example. A good 80-plus percent of the time was used for the scene between Touma and Mikoto on the bridge, where they “heatedly discussed” the Sisters project. During it all, they managed to keep things interesting with Touma standing in Mikoto’s way and trying to save her life, and her firing a bunch of railgun shots at him for his efforts. Aside from the two of them divulging all the background details needed to establish this arc though, that pretty much sums up this week.
With that said, I did like how Touma stood in to try and save Mikoto’s life by putting his own on the line (chivalry at its best), but I couldn’t help but feel how out of place that move was. As things stand now, I really don’t see those two having a relationship that would constitute something like this happening. In addition, I found it hard to believe that Touma would put himself in this you-have-to-kill-me-first situation when he had no idea that Mikoto secretly wanted someone to help her. Given how rational he was in trying to save her life, he didn’t seem the slightest rational about his own. If the two of them were in a life-or-death situation together first or if Touma had shown some sign that he might like Mikoto in the past, this would’ve worked for me. Unfortunately though, it just didn’t feel like the right time for Touma to be doing this to win Mikoto over.
With the foundation set for this arc, it’ll be interesting to see what Touma decides to do to save Mikoto’s sisters. I imagine that he isn’t thinking about helping Mikoto kill Accelerator, but chances are he’ll be forced to do so given how psychotic the potential Level 6 is. Some other possibilities of putting a stop to the experiment would be giving the scientists a Level 6 in another manner, whether it be with Accelerator or even Mikoto herself (…somehow). Whatever Touma decides to do, it should be fun to watch.
Music-wise, “Ame” (Rain) by Kawada Mami – the second track on the OP single – was used as an insert song and set the mood nicely. As stated above, I love I’ve Sound’s music.
-divine
…is still sick with the flu, but the headaches have finally subsided after five days straight.
Touma sure loves lecturing people…….
This show is a nice example of why talking too much is bad.
Boring episode is boring.
~.~ ” this epi pretty bore ! Can’t wait for next ! Touma vs Accelerator !
the problem is they don’t talk about anything meaningful….every episode is just touma wanting to protect a different girl that he barely knows, but he has no strategy. this episode he wants to protect girl #3, but all he does is stand in her way and act all emo-shounen.
I have a feeling that the actions will be coming later in the series, mostly when the series gets to Index’s part, I think. Because judging from what they did to Shakugan no Shana II, it is possible or they just following directly from the novel.
This episode was boring. J.C. Staff is spending a lot of money on visuals but the pacing is terrible.
Touma reminds me of Shirou Emiya with his “I must save everyone” mentality. This pisses me off greatly because there is no reason for him to risk his life for Mikoto at the moment. It’s a contrived plot device to make the girl fall in love with the hero.
Overrated series is overrated.
Son Gohan:
I wouldn’t go so far as calling it overrated just yet, but I agree with what you’re saying since it’s pretty much inline with what I said above.
Hmm I think you missed a bit of the point Divine. The talking was suppose to establish a point, well several in fact. Touma has an odd sense of chivarly. He feels like he needs to help people, and for the first couple episodes it makes sense. In the first ep he tries to save those guys from Railgun. And then is really only compelled to help Index because of how hurt she is. Now add the fact that he doesn’t remember any of this. Yet no one else knows. So when he realizes that Railgun knows him he feels compelled by it. His meeting with MIKATA then confounds that because even though she’s weird theirs still human qualities (like her wanting to help him with the soda and the cat thing). Now he witnesses the DEATH of her and the knowledge that their are more. All of which will die.
The past plus the present combine to make a situation that he feels compelled to do something about. And he even says it himself, he doesn’t know why he wants to stop her. I think that hints that even though he doesn’t remember her, apart of him…deep down..is COMPELLED.
Mikoto on the other hand is showing the cracks in her own armor. The badass Level 5 is actually weak because of her own abilities. She wants to fix things..but she can’t. And she doesn’t feel like she can get help from anyone.
Then you have Touma who is compelled to help everyone. The two combine into a battle of who can outlast who. Her unwillingness to accept help (which goes all the way back to Ep 1) and his need to help (also ep 1.)
I’m sure some will say I’m reading to far into it. But thats what I got out of the ep, which I feel was a explanation for what their about to throw at us.
Tikal:
Hmm, I’m not too sure I’m feeling the whole “being compelled” aspect of Touma yet, but I guess it would explain why he helps people he has no recollection of. However, even if that were the case, I can’t see why he’d put his life on the line right away. That’s the main thing I found a bit messed up.
In my opinion, he could’ve tried to talk Mikoto out of it before standing in front of her and pissing her off more. If she didn’t secretly want to be helped, I don’t think this method would’ve stopped her. Who in their right mind would choose this as their first option?
To me, helping anyone and everyone is just one quirky aspect of Touma’s character. Admittedly, I find it pretty jarring story-wise though, so I really hope they do explain his behavior later on.
If you are reading into this correctly though, I guess it explains the source of all his misfortune. It’s self-induced. =P
Actually if you REALLY understand what they’re talking about it’s a pretty deep and interesting story. I’m not going to go through EVERYTHING but one that I found especially interesting was the one in the beginning where Komoe explains what Espers are. What she did was added to the Quantum Superpositions theory and added to it. What the theory originally states is that a probability is used with a positive whole number. If probability A has a .04 probability while B had .06. You would have a .24 probability of both happening (since you multiply both probabilities). But by adding other probabilities the probability of A or B (or both) happening becomes less. Also these other probabilities use a negative number. Meaning if you had a probability of having a girl say yes to going out with you, you also have the same probability of her saying no. Which would cancel eachother out. Which would also technically make it both a positive and a negative. Meaning they both happen at the same time.
The only way you can be sure which one it is is by observing it. In this case you asking her out. So until the event takes place you never know which one it can be. So like the thing Komoe was saying. The probability of the chocolate being in there can be 50-50. Since she showed Index that there was chocolate in there before making everyone believe it’ll be in there again 100%. But she could also be lying that there’s chocolate in there. Giving it a probability of 50-50. The people who control for themselves what is inside the box by making reality there own, those are the people they call Espers.
I love this series because they use so much of current human phenomena and add to it. For instance the whole Arsa Magna with Izzard is on the belief that we control our own life/reality with our mind. But we cannot control our mind. Though we may wish/believe a certain thing, our mind, our soul tells us something else. One of those being doubt.
[Extra] It can also be believed that our soul/mind is located in our Third Eye (located in between your eye brows I believe). You’ve always seen anime characters and such with 3 eyes. Well that third eye is our 6th chi/chakra point. 7th being the tip of our brain. Any information we receive goes to our 6th point (third eye) before it enters our brain/memory. What the Third Eye does is question the information we received. If we need the information. Why we’re getting the information. What we think about it. The Third Eye makes us, well us. So what our Third Eye does is puts us on our own path since it is our mind/soul and the belief is that we (our mind/soul) control our own lives. You can actually mentally train yourself to open your third eye. When meditating imagine both your eyes full closing (not just physically) and then try to imagine opening your third eye. The Third Eye is believed to be able to see into the other dimension which is a mirror image of the one we are in. It lets us have a sense of premonition. And I personally believe that’s what Deja-vu is.
So to end my rant. I just want to say that, this series is amazing when looked deeply into it. If you’re looking for just the main story so they can get to the fighting then I suggest just looking for a new anime, reading the manga, or only watch every 8 episodes. I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a good amount of fighting within the next 3 eps since it seems that Touma will be encountering Accelerator in the next ep.
But so far I’ve loved all the fights. The first one with Stiyl. And especially Izzard.
In my opinion, you don’t always need action in a show to make it enjoyable. I actually liked this episode. Especially Touma trying his best to save Mikoto. The battle between the cloning and her obsession with how she thought the world would better off be without her really shows there’s many people who have had hardships. Things like others looking at a human being differently like they were an alien. In fact that Mikoto has a “gift” if you can say, doctors were trying to take advantage of the supposed “Jesus” like miracles she could give to people in danger. She ends up trying to save clones of herself because of this accelerator achieving a level 6. To me honestly, I agree with Touma on this. It’s pointless going in there and dyeing because it won’t benefit her clones at all. The talking actually made me more interested. Sometimes you guys think that it’s all about the fights like TV. This is more of reading a book than watching TV haha.
read abit of the manga you’ll see how boring it gets, oops was that a spoiler?
too much talking
No way! The manga is better! The scene in the bridge in the anime is clearly extended to fill the episode, but the manga was short and sweet! Touma tries to stop Mikoto and gets blasted a couple of times, and then over.
Show Spoiler ▼
So in conclusion, if you want stretched out details and unnecessary angst then watch the anime, if not read the manga. Personally the story is concise in the manga, though the anime covers the novels quite well from what I hear. Still the show is still interesting, especially now that its Mikoto’s arc Show Spoiler ▼
The problem with this anime is that it has fallen into a ‘my-pace’ scenario. I don’t know if they want to have this series long, drawn out, & repetitive as hell like Shana but if it keeps on following the novel, it definitely will be. The pure nature of the novel is boring as hell. The manga’s pace is sickly faster than this, but it left out way too much stuff to gratify the pace. But that’s how manga usually are. You guys are actually straight on in saying this is like reading a book.
Aside from a few things here & there, its following the novel to a ‘T’. Around volume 12 of the novel, I couldn’t bare it anymore. I didn’t give a damn what happened next. The accelerator fights were so full of yack that it had me completely disinterested in the series by the time it was over. That ‘Last Order’ kiddy crap only sealed the deal. I don’t mind watching an animated version of this as long as they try to fit it into 48-50 episodes.
Its not that entertaining to sit through 20 minutes of yack in each episode & I hope they get that through their thick skulls soon.
I liked this episode. I got to review my old High school physics out of it. I can’t wait for the accelerator fight.
Divine- I think its maybe because he doesn’t “remember” her that he wants to help. He wants to remember and can’t, and the compelling feeling is his old memories trying to guide him.
I think he put his life on the line for two reasons. One, he didn’t think Mikoto would actually kill him, maybe based on just a gut instinct. And two…I’m not sure he’d be so sad about dying. He keeps talking about his lose of memories and how it makes the whole thing seem surreal. Maybe we’ll see him get out of touch with reality and take some stupid risk.
I also think that he may help people as some sort of cosmic balance. His right hand has made his life very very unlucky and perhaps something happened in his past that has made him realize he needs to help others.
/shrug. I just feel like their is a reason to Touma. Unlike some other animes he has a reason to save. We just haven’t seen the full depth of it.
predictable as a shoujo manga, WAY to many continuity errors, repetitive, irrelevant subplots, sub-par storyline
stubborn little shit needs to die already.
although I will admit Index is a cute ^^
Actually Tikal he only lost memories of up to two weeks. So pretty much everything about magic and index. Also the bridge fight in the first episode. But as for “Esper’s” and such he should still have all of it remembered.
Also Jason. Mikoto originally used her powers for the scientists because they told her she could save lives (since she can control electricity she would be able to, in a way, make someone alive again). Turns out they just used her ability to make clones. Clones used to make Accelerator (another one of their test subject) a level 6 by killing 20,000 of the Mikoto clones (aka sisters) compared to the 128 of her. But since 10,000 have already been killed shes hoping to go and fight accelerator to get killed. This way the sisters will be saved and hopefully the scientists will believe that Accelerator is a lost cause. Touma doesn’t believe the sisters will be happy being saved by Mikoto in exchange for her life.
All I want in this episode is to see Mikoto fries that retard Touma like a shrimp. I am so hate those stupid characters that shout “I wont let you do it blablala but I get no solution for the problem either!” >.>
@ mysterious
Personally, I think that what Touma did was correct. Although he did not have a solution to the problem right away, he did what he did before it was too late. If he just sat there and try to think of a solution when there is no time, Mikoto can say bye bye. However, if he stops her from trying to sacrifice herself first then he can have more time to think of a solution which of course you will see later that he does. Beside, I think that he is confident in his own Imagine Breaker which is why he is willing to put his life on the line because he probably think he will not likely to die anytime.
Wow, mysterious you’re almost as evil as me. However being the badass that I am, I would listen to her sob story like Touma did. Then when she goes to say she want to die to save them I’ll tell her to go on. Since its no bluff she probably go on and go in somewhat of a disappointed state. Then when she would be just pass me, I would knock her as hard as I could, then take care of the Accelerator myself. Touma just does it in the long drawn out method that the show is currently stuck in.
That twisted uprightness of Touma is also getting on my nerves cause its slowing down this crapper even more. He should said he would go on and fight the psycho since he’s gonna end up doing it anyway. Showing off how tough you are only should be done in front of your enemy not the ones you’re trying to help. Now if the ones you are helping just so happen to witness your toughness while you’re fighting then that can’t be helped. Touma doesn’t know what chivalry is at all or he’s just displaying a warped version of it.
@Silver: decide what is right for others is subjective so I dont go into that. If only Touma acts like what Megas said I would not be that piss off. I mean if you want to stop her then knock her out then you will have plenty of time to think of a plan. Just standing there and shout like how he did in the anime is so retard that I almost want to punch my monitor but he is not worth it.
divine, to clarify one thing, she wasn’t using her railgun, those were just thunderbolts. The railgun requires her to use a piece of metal and accelerate it, usually a coin from an arcade.
polke45, Index’s part already happened. The series will continue to move on.
ROFLWAFFLELAWL, no, Touma lost all of his episodic memories period. He knows what things are and how to do things, semantic and procedural memories, but he has no memories of his life. He doesn’t even remember his parents.
that guy looks so much like ikki from air gear…
The manga is more brief in its approach to the story, but imo, it does a MUCH better job at pacing. A lot of Touma’s idealistic spiel are cut short in the manga too, and he just uses actions to express his feelings, which imo, is a lot better. In short, as an adaptation, I think the manga works better than the anime. IMO, JC Staff seems to be having a hard time making this flow at a pace that doesn’t feel drawn out. Toradora, on the other hand, is moving along with pretty good pacing, albeit a bit too fast readers of the novel.
I don´t think it was that bad. Sure, a lot of dialogue and little development. But still i think the character´s actions did make sense. Mikoto´s sister hinted Touma´s “supposed” relationship with Mikoto (when she said that he was the one who gives her support), perhaps he is acting based on what she told him.
Since he lost his memories, Touma made clear a distinction between actions based on what one remembers and actions based on what one feels. He is risking his life because he feels like it, not because he must do it (like protecting a friend or family).
talk too much talk way too much.
touma is irritaing. he talked too much in the fight with kazuki, and he talked too much here. come on less talk more action! and stop all the whining and just save the girl.
@jajaja
Omfg, finally someone says it. xD
MAN!!! anime’s and mangas love mentioning Schrödinger’s Theory…
MERRY CHRISSMAS YALL!!!!!!!
Ok, here is my opinion… i give all the right about the episode but this might be the reason. The series is good in content. Takes exactly the contents of the novels, except the necesity to extend the time. My guess is that J.C.Staff wanted to correct the mistake of “let’s do all we can in one season”. If you remember, Shana’s first season was great, and the second one, lack of a lot. I felt is a little filler-ish if you ask me.
If we go quick, and try to skip the filler-ish thingy in this episode (that felt well made, though), we’ll end up in the… 8th or even far novel. As far as i know, most of the story has ended for now. Doesn’t mean it won’t continue… i think SS2 was released, and don’t know if there will be plans for next one. So… if we move so fast, when the writers of novels might have more to release, we’ll reach the 16th novel and have the necesity of showing fillers that actually sucks.
And another point… you don’t need fights to make everything exciting. If all series would be like Bleach in fighting content, it would get boring. (Ej: Code Geass, not all was fighting, but some tricks here and here, and nice cliffhangers LOL)
Actually in the novel Mikoto and Touma are projected a lot closer thatn in the anime. If you read the spin-off manga that follows mikoto’s point of view from everything it really shows her as practically a stalker. I’d say before he lost his memories she was a friend with a tsundere personality which made it seem like they weren’t that close.
The anime is actually moving a little fast compared to the manga, this episode just happened to be a little slow. The anime is actually almost 40 chapters into the manga at episode 12, not to mention that manga hasn’t even done the the deep blood arc yet.
I’m yet to see a fictional explanation of schrodinger’s cat that actually gets it right. This, I think, was one of the least coherent.
Even though this episode brought up a lot of questions and stuff, I liked it. It kind of explained to me the idea of being an “esper” (my idea was that it meant that a person who is able to manipulate his/her surrounding to form their own power[s]). But the problem with 80%+ of the show with Mikoto and Touma… I have to agree. It felt like another Naruto to me :[
http://aizen.usakochan.net/
that is true panda monium, her final explanation had absolutely nothing to do with schrodinger’s cat. she could have just said that final statement and that’s it, but they want to make some people actually believe that the explanation has some kind of basis or something. whatever, this episode was pretty boring. they stretched that out pretty damn far if i do say so myself. it all pretty much could have been boiled down to:
mikoto: i want to kill myself.
Touma: i cant let you do that.
m: why not?
t: that’s a dumb question. what person would be fine with letting someone commit suicide. it just sounds pretty stupid.
m: well, do you have a better plan.
t: how can i? you just explained everything to me 2 minutes ago. how about we just talk first instead of you getting all emotional on me and going psycho.
m: NO, 2 minutes is more than enough time to come up with a plan to make the world a better place. WHAAAAA (proceeds with getting emotional and going psycho)
t: well, that’s not very productive now is it? … OH! (supposedly comes up with a plan that will have to wait until the next episode.)
@orange
Are you sure? In the beginning of the episode (where Touma explains most of what happened previously) he explains that he doesn’t remember anything prior to two weeks. It was either episode 9 or 8.
In episode 10 (after the op) he says that he lost his memories from 7/28 (the date in that episode being 8/20). So pretty much everything from episode 01.
But as for him not knowing his parents. He has yet to say anything about them. Unless you’re talking about further into the manga. Then I guess. But it’s not because of the Dragon’s Breath event.
ROFLWAFFLELAWL,
yes, I’m sure. Index’s feather destroyed all his episodic memories, period. Touma is talking about only having two weeks worth of memories, since by that point, two weeks have passed since he lost his memories. That’s why he doesn’t even recognize Mikoto when he meets her again during the Accelerator arc. Keep in mind he’s known her for about a month by the time he met Index at the beginning of the series.
His parents will show up soon in the anime.
I would like to say that he didn’t have a you have to kill me first attitude. He was saying that she was not a villain because she wouldn’t be able to kill him. He knew he wasn’t risking his life, because he believed 100% that she was that good of a person.
@orange
I’m guessing the Index’s father part comes out after a while right? Since it hadn’t been said in the anime yet. But hm. I remember in the ep before Izzard that he said something about not having 2 weeks worth of memories instead of only having 2 weeks worth. Then again I’m always high when I watch the series so I probably just heard it wrong.
But anyways. Seems like you’re following the manga (I plan on picking it up once I head over to Japan this summer, again). It still hasn’t finished right? How long to you predict the manga/anime to last? Or at least, do you think there’s going to be a second season?
ROFLWAFFLELAWL,
Touma’s parents are in the next arc. Not Index’s parents. As for the manga, keep in mind, both the anime and the manga are based on a series of light novels. Both are adaptations. The manga is only slightly ahead of the anime, and that’s taking into account that it skipped the second arc. The anime will pass the manga in just a little while.
As for the novels, there are 16 of them, plus 2 short story compilations so far. Novel 17 is due out in March, and gives no indication at all of being the last one, so it’s hard to say how long the story will go one.
If they decide to make more of the anime after this season, they have plenty of material. The anime looks like it will end with the 5th novel.
This is a good example of “the deep breath before the plunge”
@orange
I was referring to when you said “ROFLWAFFLELAWL,
yes, I’m sure. Index’s feather destroyed all his episodic memories, period. ”
Also the light novels. Most light novels all are pure Japanese (like no furigana). But does this one have it? I’m fluent in speaking and understanding Japanese and can read and write katakana and hiragana but always have a hard time with kanji (only know like 10 of them).
ROFLWAFFLELAWL,
ah I see, you wrote father instead of feather, so you confused me a bit.
You are in luck, as the novels do have some furigana.
orange
Actually. My bad. I’m the one that was confused. I thought you said Index’s Father not feather. I realized that NOW even AFTER quoting you. HAH!
But glad to hear the novel has furigana (for once). I’ll most likely be picking up the novel and manga when I go back to Japan. Man. Air Gear (from the first vol). Em 0. 07-Ghosts. Damn I’m gonna be broke.
too predictable and repetitive. please do something different touma, other than stand there and deliver the same lecture for the fifth time. god, this is so boring.