First Impressions / To Aru Majutsu no Index

「座標移動（ムーブポイント）」 (Zahyō Idō (Mūbu Pointo))
“Coordinate Movement (Move Point)”

Well, that was certainly a quick finish. As I mentioned last week, this arc (volume 8) was set to be covered in two episodes, and thus this felt a bit rushed, but at least the pacing wasn’t as bad as last week’s episode. That said, I didn’t like how the anime portrayed the arc, as it felt as if characters were just being thrown in for no particular reason and it didn’t address the importance of Last Order and Accelerator being shown, i.e. why Last Order remembered Accelerator despite the fact that all her memories from the time she first met Accelerator were wiped. I suppose in the context of the anime we can just assume she doesn’t remember when she first met Accelerator and simply sees him as a guardian, but even from that perspective, J.C.Staff didn’t portray it well. Furthermore, the plot overall felt very disjointed and difficult to follow, and due to the pace it was difficult to get a good sense of the atmosphere of the arc and the character’s true emotions with scenes hopping all over the place. By that, I mean an average viewer probably would not be able to fully grasp that this was a continuation of the SISTERs arc being told from Kuroko’s perspective, and to a larger extent wouldn’t be able to understand why Awaki suddenly went nuts, without re-watching these last two episodes multiple times, and even then the emotional value wouldn’t be very high. It’s also a shame that they didn’t include the talk between Touma and Kuroko after the resolution of this arc. All of this could have been avoided and properly resolved if the arc had been given three episodes instead of two, which has thus far been the minimum amount an arc would be capped at in the Index anime. To say I was overall disappointed with the decision to only give this arc two episodes wouldn’t be a stretch, but I understand why J.C.Staff made that decision and hopefully we’ll be grateful that they did later on in Index II, but for now, I’m frownyfaced.

My nitpicking of the portrayal of the plot aside, I was very pleased with the production and choreography of the events themselves. Awaki and Kuroko’s second teleportation battle was great, and one of the new BGM that was played during Awaki’s monologue scene was excellent and set the mood for that particular scene well, even if the episode overall felt disjointed. Awaki losing her mind from Kuroko’s preaching felt a bit random as the anime portrayed her as being completely calm last episode and neglected to show her inner feelings, but I thought the scene of her losing her mind was awesome and the rape face she made during the scene was especially delicious. It should have been made clear how crazy she was once she shot Kuroko, which was gruesome, but if that didn’t get the point across, her kicking the gun wound and then attempting to drop the entire building they were in on top of Kuroko should have even more. Talk about kicking the puppy while it’s down. Of course, thanks to that we got to see a brief display of what it would be like if Touma and Mikoto ever teamed up for a fight, with Touma using his ninja skills to jump across debris and catch Kuroko in midair before canceling Awaki’s teleportation by destroying space-time with his hand (HOLY SHIT). In regards to this scene, in the novels Mikoto used her magnetism to hold together the falling debris in a stair like position so Touma could run across them, but I’m guessing this couldn’t be portrayed very well in the anime so J.C.Staff just decided to skip that small detail. Meh, either way it looks cool.

And of course, I can’t forget Accelerator, who delivered this week’s Falcon Punch and some more awesome GENDER EQUALITY. His entire scene left a tingle up my leg, and I liked the shift in art style J.C.Staff chose to do for the scene, showing a flatter, grayer Academy City on a one-way road, an obvious reference to Accelerator’s name. The change in art set up the despairing mood and almost dream-like, unbelievable situation Awaki found herself in well. The creepiness of Accelerator’s constantly changing expressions and voices really helped to be build up the mood as well, and the climax punch was probably the most awesome moment in Index II so far. It felt somewhat random due to J.C.Staff’s rushing, and I would’ve appreciated if they had made more clear the magnitude of the fact Accelerator, the one who killed over 10,000 SISTERs, basically just stopped the resurrection of the Level 6 Shift Project himself by destroying the remnants of the Tree Diagram, but just taking the scene for what it was, I found it very enjoyable and exciting. Also, there was another great new piece of BGM played for this scene as well, and based on the new pieces I’ve heard in the past 3 episodes, I’m really looking forward to Index II’s OST.

So with this arc behind us, we’re moving onto the Daihaseisai, which was mentioned back in episode 2 and in passing by Mikoto last episode. It’s a congregation of all the schools in Academy City, so we can definitely expect more of Mikoto and some other great surprises. The superb art that was present in the last two episodes seems to carry over into next episode as well judging from the preview, which already has me looking forward to it. This arc’s structure and resolution left me with mixed feelings, at least as far as the portrayal of the events went, and with the upcoming arc having so much potential to be a fun watch, here’s to hoping J.C.Staff will do a better job of striking a balance in pacing as they most likely will not rush the hell out of everything.

 

Preview

*This episode covers volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 1 to the Epilogue of volume 8, with parts of Chapter 3 “Between the Lines 3” mixed in (pages 143-245).

77 Comments

    1. This review makes me want to be able to read japanese. That way I can actually read all these scenes Suzuku is complaining about. Perhaps making this into three eps would have captured my attention just as well due to the character development. But more often than not, the anime versions of character development leave me with a ‘I knew that already!’ or ‘Duh!’ feeling.

      That said, as someone that didn’t read the light novels, this episode was still great. It didn’t feel that rushed to me, but then again, I was looking at this from the ‘We need more awesomeness’-side of the audience. And awesomeness it delivered.

      Still slightly confused on Accelerator’s account though. But I’ll have to check how he got brain damage and if it’s that thing around his neck providing the processing he needs. And I just realized how awesome it would be if he could convince the Misaka’s to aid his processing 😀

      SpacyRicochet
      Reply

      2. Check the episode 20 of the first season, Touma’s doctor says he will use the Misaka Network to do the calculations for Accelerator, its not necessary to a non novel reader to go and check the novel source.

        Dante
        Reply

  5. “Just because I’ve been nerfed doesn’t mean you’ve become any stronger than me.” – Quoted for Badass Awesomeness

    I wonder why Awaki didn’t just take her loot and run. Instead, she had to go and taunt Mikoto, which means Kuroko and Touma with his haxxor Imagine Breaker will get involved eventually.

    And if that’s not bad enough, her clone sisters, along with Accelerator, who is jacked up into their telepathic network, also decides to join in the fun.

    Wonder if we’ll see more of Awaki.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

      1. Last season it was mentioned his ability to go on full power has now been limited to less than 15 minutes. Still, doesn’t make him any less badass than before, so you have a point: Being “nerfed” is in the mind of the beholder, if one’s will is strong enough. 🙂

        Kinny Riddle
        Reply

    3. Awaki has trauma being stuck on a wall. Thus she’ll twice perform calculations teleporting herself. She would have been Academy City’s 8th Level 5 if she didn’t have psychological hangups.

      ReddyRedWolf
      Reply

  6. “Why Last Order remembered Accelerator despite the fact that all her memories from the time she first met Accelerator were wiped.”
    She just backed up her memory from the Misaka network…
    Another two things we learnt from this episode: No matter, how cute a girl is, if she have loose screws, she will get falcon punched. (Well, I found her reason really ridiculous)
    The second thing is Touma’s awesome jumping power. Did he really jumped floor-to-floor, or I’m just seeing things becouse of sleepiness?

    Linzermaster
    Reply

  8. This story arc was rushed and I’d prefer they leave the fan service like the shower and shopping scenes out to put more into the anime series

    Seeing Accelerator just totally destroy Awaki was crazy and proves he’s still “BOSS”

    kyonkun
    Reply

  9. GENDER Equality = Great Quality. well i already seen some gray view in s1(from where rune is used).

    i cant w8 for the next episode

    “When parents and lolis meet, the story begins”

    ♛Croosboy♛
    Reply

  10. Well I hate to admit it, but this was the best episode so far. It’s like they took the steaming pile of doodoo that was the 6th episode and transfigure it into pure gold, which is still blemish with doodoo.

    The point is, this episode was great, however, the director shouldn’t have removed the Kuroko and Touma conversation, as well as the fact that if I recall correctly, Touma punching spacetime in the goddamn face with Kuroko looking in awe wondering how the hell Touma managed to do that, instead of merely pushing it back with his right hand, though it does look pretty badass when Touma manage to jump up the debris, however, the Kuroko and Touma conversation scene was a must.

    The Awaki and Accelerator fight scene was the highlight of the episode, though it could’ve been at least gentler to Awaki, since she is supposed to look like she should’ve survived her encounter with Accelerator, instead we get Awaki getting her shit handed to her, getting her head smacked on the wall, and what? falling at least 20 storeys of height.

    Also, Show Spoiler ▼

    Nice job Index II director for “not doing unnecessary things” like you promised.

    Gaze of Providence
    Reply

  11. Accelerator can actually kill the girl just with a slight touch, just like the way he killed some of those sisters. But he just knocked her out this time. He has mellowed for sure, although he would never admit it.

    U Doh
    Reply

  13. Ahem, I left this arc with two new impressions:
    Kuroko is really more than lesbian comic relief. I respect her now much more than before.
    Accelerator just destroyed his own path to level 6. Maybe he was nerfed, but now he commands a greater measure of respect as a human from me.

    ewok40k
    Reply

    1. Episode 20 of the first season, Accelerator comments to himself just before he performs vector brain surgery on Last Order, that her memories will reset to the week before he met her.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

    1. Show Spoiler ▼

      Very sweet scene, can’t believe they took it out.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

      1. Thanks for the response I was going to ask for the same because many people had talk but I haven’t nor have any idea of where to begin with, reading the novels to have any idea of what’s going to happen, and also did the story have finished or is still on going, i mean the light novels or in general the story of To aru majutsu no Index.

        Anyway in action this episode this episode was the best so far in To aru… II.

        BGA
        Reply

      2. The light novels of To Aru Majutsu no Index are still continuing and are pretty much bestsellers at this point in time. For where to start, all of the completely translated light novels on baka-tsuki.org are going to be in the second season, so you could start from volume 7 (last arc) or volume 8 (this arc).

        I do encourage people to read the light novels since the anime just glosses over important details and there are some really epic moments in there that weren’t portrayed well in the anime.

        Suzushina Yuriko
        Reply

      3. I disagree, as the anime portrayed the best moments very well, such as Accelerator’s scene and Touma cancelling space-time, even if they cut Kuroko’s astonishment.

        Also, to put the “bestseller” comment into perspective, Index novels have sold over 10 million copies (god-level sales for light novels, and even most manga) and on average, the recent volumes that were released this year (20-22) all sold over 100,000 copies in the first week. The only other light novels that I can think of that accomplish this are Haruhi, Durarara, Baka to Test, and just recently (by that, I mean just two weeks ago with the release of volume 7), Ore no Imouto.

        Suzuku
        Reply

  17. Though I find the new season to be very cool and entertaining, it seems sort of strange that some of the female characters are getting the finishing punch. It kind of ruins the atmosphere a bit, that the hero punch is finishing off a girl like that.

    code fanboy
    Reply

    1. I think that’s mostly a problem with the fact that people in Japan want their loli-fix at every point in time. It makes it common sense for the author to introduce as many female character in his series as possible, as long as it doesn’t conflict the direction he wants the story to go. This means a lot of girl villains and thus a lot of girls getting FALCON PUNCHed!

      That said, I hated the fact that the entire church military unit of the last arc was female. Hello, despite being loli giving you extra powers (it’s a law of anime), you still would want some males in your combat unit!

      SpacyRicochet
      Reply

  18. I don’t know…~ I got more thrills out of Takagi’s Falcon Punch. <3

    And the gender equality is crazy. I get the whole "omg is she gonna be okay” feeling after seeing stuff like that. D: I mean dayumn ._.”

    Shirt
    Reply

  19. Few thing I find awesome and funny with last two episode

    1. When Accelerator say ” Just because I am weaker doesn’t make you stronger”. I find it so awesome because most of his enemies thinks they can take him on now because he got weaker, but they never realize such simple facts. If Accelerator powerlevel was like a 10 so now he got weaker and hes an 8 that doesn’t make a lvl 5 character think that they have a chance now. Hes weak but it doesn’t make others stonger thou.

    2. What I finds funny is Accelerator use to kill all teh sister like steping on a bug but hes getting all those verbal abuse from such a little girl like last order. Can someone say Karma is a bitch, he seem to have a soft spot for her thou.

    arixx
    Reply

    1. yea, but Touma explains in the first season that Accelerator never really wanted to kill the sisters in the first place. all the sadistic toying he did before killing them were his attempts to try to get them to break free of their programming. it might not make sense, but yeah when you kill like 10k people, especially against your will, you’d prolly get twisted as well.

      RickyMack
      Reply

      1. I think that was Last Order telling Accelerator that instead of Touma.

        As she too was monitoring the Level 6 Shift Project the whole time via the Misaka Network, and thus is able to make first hand observations that is quite close to the point.

        He’ll most likely never admit it, but I guess Accelerator probably tolerates Last Order’s bitching out of a mixture of both guilt at having killed so many of her sisters and gratitude at her giving him the chance to redeem himself (via him protecting her).

        Kinny Riddle
        Reply

  22. J.C. Staff sure took pity on Touma…

    in the light novel, after seeing Kuroku naked in the hospital he received a Thunder Slap from Biribiri as punishment….as compared to Kuroko’s teleport slap

    I guess Touma shouldn’t say ‘Fukoda’ this time. 😀

    ufobaby
    Reply

    1. Kuroko teleport-slapping Touma could also be justified in this case since she’s jealous that her beloved onee-sama likes Touma. (Meanwhile, Touma is still as dense as ever.)

      Pardon for asking, but do Mikoto and Touma know each other on a first-name basis? (And on another note, IIRC, Touma knows Kuroko by name but Kuroko never mentions Touma by name — referring to him as “that barbarian” or something to that extent.)

      Incognito
      Reply

      1. Touma in the prequel of the first anime he already knows that Mikoto is one of the 7 level 5’s in academy city. so I assume he knows Misaka’s name fully.

        not really sure on Biribiri’s side though…but i know she knows Touma by name in the later chapters of the novel because she was able to look up on it in a database….(not spoiling anything)

        Touma and Kuroko probably knew each other because they were introduced to each other by Biribiri herself during the sister’s arc…also Kuroko even showed off Touma their dorm room during that arc.
        I think what keeps kuroko from mentioning touma’s name is that she sees him as rival in love.

        ufobaby
        Reply

  23. Excellent episode, although I am mad that they cut out some great parts from the original text to make room for more fanservice. Like in last episode, the Accel/LO conversation was really important and cute and they cut the best part out, where it was revealed that Last Order remembered everything that happened and quoted Accel’s heroic line from the first season (much to his embarrassment). The Accel/LO conversation in this episode was less important but still funny as Last Order, getting mad that Accel wasn’t listening to her, cut off the calculations that let him talk and made him mad.

    Like others have said, the Touma and Kuroko conversation that was cut out was also important. Also, the anime doesn’t clearly explain why Kuroko was unable to teleport at that time (because she was in too much pain to do so) or why Awaki broke down (because she had always blamed her actions on her powers but Kuroko shoved the truth into her face and made her look at herself).

    I do applaud J.C. Staff for making the Accel scene so wonderfully animated and voiced. However Ayako subs, which many people watch because they come out first, has typos and its translations aren’t good. It also didn’t explain the “one way road” line which was a pun in the kanji used to write Accelerator’s name.

    I hope J.C. Staff will actually keep the important things in the episodes this season, or else I’ll be disappointed.

    Suzushina Yuriko
    Reply

  25. Nice episode. Accelerator and his falcon punch…. never expected that coming. I’m glad that badass is back. 😀

    BTW, Nobuhiko Okamoto really outdid in portraying Accelerator’s insanely crazy lines. But looking back at Mayoi Neko Overrun, his voice really felt different there, not until you hear him scream in agony from Fumino’s beating which is so damn funny. Oh yeah, most seiyuu in Mayoi Neko Overrun are also in Index/Railgun, esp. Rina Satou and Satomi Arai as Chise’s maids. 😀

    Kekeke
    Reply

  26. NICE ACTION! but i gotta say, what the hells up with Toma?!?! i know he got a special hand and all, BUT WHEN DID HE BECOME A FREAKING NINJA!?! the dude was defying space and time with his crumbling rubble skipping stones!

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  28. I’m not an Index LN reader but I enjoyed the hell lot of this. I wish they spent more time in this arc though than the last one but I don’t care as much cus I already like it as it is. Accelarator FALCON PUNCH FTW!

    ahelo
    Reply

  30. One thing I noticed in the past few arcs were numerous woman violence and girls getting knocked down and punched over. But this episode is so f*cking great; a good comeback from the bad ass. >:P

    Ken
    Reply

  31. I didn’t mind Awaki getting the Falcon Punch at all; why should guys have to be the villians all the time? I was actually thinking that Accelerator had killed her – during the fight, Awaki spits out a bunch of glass, and IMO internal injuries caused by that usually aren’t something one can easily recover from. And when her head lolled to the side after she landed on the fencing, I figured she had taken her last breath.

    voor
    Reply

  33. I didn’t understand Awaki’s trauma. What happens when you teleport yourself into a well? Can’t you just teleport yourself out of it? Or do something truly gruesome happens to you?

    Ayle
    Reply

    1. Remember that episode in Railgun where Kuroko teleports glass into support beams? Remember the part where Kuroko says that whenver she teleports something into something else displaces the matter of the object being teleported into, to make room for the object that was teleported? Remember the part when the glass break because the beams still applied pressure unto the glass?

      Yeah, it’s like that, though instead of glass it’s Awaki’s leg and instead of a concrete support column it’s a wall, imagine teleporting your leg into a wall and having an entire wall apply pressure into the leg.

      Think about that for a while.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

    2. Also, I forgot, during this episode Kuroko was unable to teleport due to the pain she incurred during the battle. Implying that one needs a clear head to be able to teleport.

      Now your question about if Awaki can teleport into a wall, can she teleport out of it? Well, what happens if you got your leg stuck inside a wall? Acting rationally despite the pressure being applied to your leg in that situation as well as the suprise of actually teleporting inside a wall, is not really what I would imagine an ordinary girl like Awaki could pull off.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

      1. I think there is a problem. No matter how you look at it still depicting violence against women. I know it was Touma’s signature finishing blow his punch but it doesn’t mean that they have to punch a women just to deal with an ending. I’m really not that against it but there should have though of other ways in dealing with it’s ending (story wise).

        Ken
        Reply

    2. It is only a problem if one is raised to see the problem; the mindset of women being given special treatment instead of equals, though somewhat noble belies a bias towards those of the opposite gender, that indeed that women are weaker, that women should be protected because they are weak.

      These two characters: Touma and Accelerator, hit people because they where dangerous opponents, they did not care about the gender about the opponents, they only cared that they needed to defeat them. Though of course, they are better ways to solve situations; however, what would you do if an opponent is willing to hurt and possibly kill you to defeat you? Would you stand idly by and try to negotiate an open discussion? Hilariously, Touma already does that sort of thing, although, of course it would more often not be enough, as is the reason why Touma punches them.

      What is so special about violence against women? What makes it different from violence against men, other races, children, the ill, and the elderly? Because of the fact that they are women? Because they are incapable of protecting themselves? Or that people should give higher regard to women’s pleas instead of everyone’s equally as a whole?

      So long as one is turned-off by the fact that a woman is being hurt instead of the mere fact that a defenseless human is being hurt, then one is part of the problem that views women as weak and defenseless, an oppression of the opposite gender you are not even aware of.

      Gaze of Providence
      Reply

      1. like what Suzuku pointed out…it was GENDER EQUALITY…and a breakthrough at that…anime series where only male villains getting a falcon punch conclusion is history…

        let’s not talk about feminism here…there’s no end to it except stereotyping women over and over again (on both sides)

        ufobaby
        Reply

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