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「武装集団（スキルアウト）」 (Busou Juudan (Sukiru Auto))
“Armed Group (Skill-Out)”
For a short two-episode arc that coincides with the conclusion of this second season, there was actually a fair bit of lead-in to what’s around the corner, suggesting that this is the foundation for a third season sometime down the road. We’ll probably be seeing more of GROUP after Touma and Accelerator cleaned up most of Skill-Out, after the latter cornered their leader Ritoku and caused him to commit suicide over being killed.
Action-wise, I was quite impressed by what Ritoku could do with military-grade “Hard Taping” applied directly to his body, granting him both superhuman speed and power that normallys require a Power Suit to use, as it was enough to overwhelm Awaki’s Move Point, a Level 4 teleportation ability. It was a bit sad to see him die though, given how he’s a noble leader that doesn’t attack Espers indiscriminately and only the ones who use their powers on Level 0’s — something that Accelerator didn’t care enough to understand. The kicker of course was the picture of Fremea Seivelun seen on his cellphone, which was a bit of a cameo for novel readers who have gotten into volume one of the “Shinyaku” (New Testament) continuation that was just released this past month.
The highlight (or lowlight depending on how you want to look at it) was of course Mikoto’s mother Misuzu, who was completely wasted on the sidewalk when Accelerator walked by. The uncanny resemblance to Last Order that caught his attention was almost too funny, especially when he tried to brush it off as a mere coincidence. It’s always a blast seeing Accelerator in uncomfortable positions, as not many people can get away with falling on him, tripping him, and then giving him a nice dose of alcohol breath. Had it been anyone else, he probably would’ve killed them right there and then. In conjunction with Touma getting a first-hand taste of “Mrs. Misaka’s” cougar-like ways, I probably would’ve been perfectly happy if this sequel decided to close out on a comedic note altogether.
Of course, the alternative is better with Touma using his head for something other than telling people what they should and shouldn’t do, followed up by his trusty right hand. I actually had no idea the latter half was going to be about Misuzu completely, with Skill-Out sent in to stop her from taking Mikoto away from Academy City. I’ve never actually seen Mikoto as someone that Aleister’s heavily concerned about, but she is one of the few Level 5’s in the world, so I guess it only makes sense to keep her around with a war between science and magic brewing.
Aside from a pretty funny moment during Touma’s rescue operation (i.e. charge in and save her), I gather the decision to fit this arc into the anime was to formally introduce Hamazura Shiage to the series. It may not seem like it from this episode, but he actually becomes a pretty prominent character in the overall series akin to Accelerator. Hino Satoshi’s been cast to play him, which I found kind of amusing since he stars in J.C. Staff’s other big production, Shakugan no Shana. That isn’t quite enough to say a third season is guaranteed, but it does suggest that J.C. Staff has cast Satoshi with one in mind. Welcome to the series Shiage. I hope you enjoyed the bulletproof glass to the face welcome care of Touma.
Epilogue
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Final Impressions:
It’s been over two years since the first season finished airing, but my lasting impression was that it featured a diverse cast of characters in a very rich story, backed by good production values from J.C. Staff. The downside was that it often suffered from over-explaining the plot rather than visually guiding viewers through it, which I perceive as a fallout from how the light novel’s tendancy to do so. After all, when you’re just reading text, story is story even if two people are simply standing in a room talking about it. Imagination is key, so it doesn’t really matter if the characters are running around and fighting off the evil Roman Catholic Church or just hearing about how they plan to rid the world of science. As an anime, balance is pretty key though, something this sequel handled really well in some arcs and really dragged out in others.
I’ll be quick to admit that I didn’t particularly enjoy the runaround in Daihasei arc from episodes eight to thirteen, or the subsequent Queen’s Fleet arc during episodes fifteen at sixteen. It’s something that becomes more apparent because I blogged the series, as I’ll give what was divulged each episode a fair bit of thought, only to find that most of what was brought up will never see the light of day. If you’re simply watching the series, it’s a lot different because you can take what is revealed at face value and then decide what was truly important after the arc is over. Obviously, I don’t have that luxury when I’m covering episodes on a weekly basis, so this is the reason why I wasn’t enthralled about covering this series to begin with. It’s fun to watch, but not so much fun to blog — a sentiment that I now share with Omni.
That’s not to say it’s a total drag, because the other four arcs were very enjoyable with the lengthy exposition toned down. There were also the bridging episodes where the character interactions were the primarily focus, which turned out to be some of my favorite in the entire season. The cast of characters are very likeable and the production quality is generally good, so there’s really little reason why To Aru Majutsu no Index isn’t a safe recommendation to any type of anime fan. If you’re willing to overlook the times where it can get a little bogged down from having all the scientific and religious stuff explained you, then this is an otherwise great series that has a little bit of everything. It’s definitely one of the better offerings out there, even though I can’t really say it’s anywhere close to being one of my favorites. Regardless, if there is a third season, I’ll definitely be watching.
sad that index 2 is over now…
even worse is the ending does not feel like an ending… regardless of the fact that I know they are planning on a third season… I wish it has more of a closure to it…
though I do enjoy the funny moment in this episode, such as biri mom and such, touma’s seemingly none-bulletproof glass and accelerator.
hope season 3 comes out soon… and I got to start reading the LNs to understand more 🙁
again, thanks for blogging the show, Divine!
I have to agree, some of the arcs did get drawn out a bit much, but overall it was a fun watch. I do hope to see a third season soon. Thanks again for covering it, Divine. And hopefully you’ll enjoy the off season.
Touma is a prospective boyfriend for Mikoto, Misuzu’s daughter.
Accelerator has feelings for Last Order, a clone of Misuzu’s daughter.
So does that mean we have Misuzu’s prospective sons-in-law out to rescue her this episode? 🙂
Heh, in a sense ya.
Well technically Accelerator’s relationship with Last Order is a kind of Father-Daughter thing ^^
But for Touma? Yeah, if there were any doubts before about her approval for her Mikoto’s taste in boys, this episode completely destroyed it. Talk about a good impression with the in-laws… Then again, he hasn’t met Misaka papa…
Has Misaka’s father been on set yet?
Hey, I didn’t even notice Hamazura was voiced by Hino Satoshi, let alone even realize this seemingly pathetic antagonist would be the 3rd protagonist after Touma and Accelerator. It seems that in order to be promoted to a protagonist of Index, one needs to be beaten the crap out of badly by Touma, the 1st protagonist. lol
Speaking of Hino Satoshi, when is JC Staff gonna get their knuckled down and get Shana III out already? Already the novel series is coming to its conclusion come volume 22 to be released shortly…
Yeah, I barely recognised Satoshi Hino’s voice at all, completely different from the one he uses for Yuuji and Saito. But this is interesting, now all three of JC staff’s big male VA are in one series, this should be fun…
And Yes, that seems to be the Initiation proceed for attaining Protagonist-hood, but hey, the perks are great- You’re entitled to one loli and your own harem so it’s more worth while to be a hero in toaru than other series! But alas, this offer is only for science characters. Magicians (Stiyl, fake Mitsuki) barely get one girl as compensation
Stiyl got his own loli and Mitsuki also get her own fans later in the series. So yeah, Touma’s punch not only break your illusion, it also net you a girl.
It didn’t sound all that different from his usual voice, so I picked it out right away. I didn’t even check the credits when I wrote the post. 😡
Maybe they need to think how to bridge SnS II and III since I heard the ending of SnS II is quite different from the light novel.
Wasn’t SnS:S there for that?
Can someone remind me who this guy is? I gather he’s the shapeshifter (I think that’s what he is from the way Accelerator describes him) from GROUP, but I didn’t realise he was in the first series.
A large cast is good, except when you forget who people are after a 2 year gap between series.
He was Misakas stalker in ep when, remember the first “date” Misaka asks touma out on back in s1? So that this guy would think she already had a boyfriend and leave her alone.
I ever so vaguely remember that. Even after reading his entry in the Wikia, it doesn’t exactly make me recall who he is.
Oh well, I’ll scratch that off as me being forgetful. Thanks for the info.
You might want to check my post for episode 23. I refer to the season one episode that he’s in, plus the post Omni wrote for it. You can use that as a quick refresher, or just rewatch parts of that episode like I did last week.
For some reason I didn’t think to check your write up for episode 23, I should’ve known you’d have linked references to him being the busy and resourceful bee that you are.
Oh and on a slightly off topic note, my opinion amongst an ocean of visitors on this site may be insignificant, but I think you taking the next season off will do yourself and this site good in the long run. You certainly deserved a break.
Well, Accelerator getting kind of a nakama circle in the GROUP is nice. Misaka Mom is just hilarious with her drunken cougar ways. And the series just had to end with Indexbite and misfortune…
I am now eagerly awaiting next season. This time its war?
I actually prefered the 1st season.
The lack of exposition in this one made for a lot of confusing dialogues and situations. or maybe that was just bad editing by the fansub group?
The lack of exposition also meant that the viewers didn’t get a lot of interesting details, like the reason musujime (move point) is afraid to teleport herself, or what powers exactly tatemiya saiji (the leader of the amakusa catholics) has.
I agree,season 1 was quite a bit better pacing wise. The Dahaisesai arc was so painful to watch, it was really hard not to just skip around. That being said, I really still enjoy this show, and will be looking forward to a 3rd season, of which i’m sure there will be one.
One of my only issues with the show was the huge change in style from season 1-2. I don’t really like that Touma never recovered his lost memories or atleast revealed that to anyone else. More than that, the show has just let that entire plot kind of fall by the wayside. This is also the first show that relationship wise I haven’t been rooting for the first girl introduced (Index), which was just made worse when they more or less removed Touma’s connection to her. Maybe deep down I’m just rooting for ToumaXMisaka because they almost look like an inverted IchigoXRukia, haha.
Index wasn’t the first girl introduced, Misaka Mikoto was actually introduced first by appearance in both the novel and anime except we do not know her name yet, and yeah I root for Mikoto to end up with Touma
Also, I compared Divine’s final impressions on Index II to Omni’s post on the 1st season finale that Divine linked to. They had quite different writing styles. That amused me a bit because I remember that 2 years ago there were people who confused Divine and Omni with one another because of similar writing styles.
It seems we now have two sides of Academy City fighting the same enemy in the Roman Catholic Church.
In the Light Side of Academy City, we have Touma, Index, Mikoto and co. Led mainly by Heaven Canceller.
In the Dark Side, we have Accelerator, Musujime and GROUP. Led mainly by Aleister.
In between we have Tsuchimikado acting as liaison between the two sides. If he feels Touma would be more useful in accomplishing a task, he would approach Touma. If he feels GROUP is better suited to cleaning up any dirty stuff (which Touma would be too proud to touch due to his sense of justice), he would go with GROUP.
So where does that leave our 3rd protagonist Hamazura? And would the Anglican Church continue its alliance with Academy City? Considering that Laura Steward has worked with Aleister before.
Will be looking forward to stuff hitting the fan in season 3. In the meantime, a 2nd season for Railgun wouldn’t hurt, no? 🙂
@Divine
Just out of curiosity, where do you get your toaru informations from? You don’t seem like a novel reader, but you obviously know more than what the episode revealed…
In any case, I do agree that the light hearted moments are the best scenes, almost wish they have Railgun’s slice of Academy City life, but with the three idiots and their class =D
When I’m unsure about something, I usually cross-reference the Wikia. That’s where my novel insight comes from.
Besides Dahaisesai and the magic side, I really like this series and I’m quite sad it’s ending
They should enter a scene with mother, misaka, and chibi all in pyama in the same big bed. And then have touma accidently walk in and getting the rage of misaka after the mother and chibi make a “wrong” comment.
I think there will be a season 3. It ended just like the first season. We might see an announcement shortly before the premiere just like the last two times for Railgun and season 2.
it ended good for me. sometimes dragging but mostly fine.
touma’s speeches can be annoying but sometimes good for certain enemies.
hoping that railgun season is next but im also fine with a 3rd season of index.
or maybe shana next time…. well after summer season.
Feels as if it was only just yesterday that I was sitting in and marathon-ing the first season of Index and Railgun (among other series). Now we’re already at the second seasons end and I’m pretty sad to see this concluding. Strangely enough, I never did find it too bothersome to have the long, drawn out expositions; on the contrary, I found that to be one of the series more interesting points but I associate that more with my own preferences in wanting to be intrigued as far as understanding the magic and science aspect of this show.
If there was something that seemed to fall short, it would have been the Daihaisei or Queen’s Fleet arc – which seems to be the general consensus – but I’m excited about the idea of a third season nonetheless. Here’s hoping our preaching protagonist’s falcon punch isn’t gone for another two years … Unless a second season of Railgun intends to fill the void, anyways. (:
Whats interesting is despite how there was around half again as much material covered this season, only the parts covering the last two novels felt rushed to me. When I say rushed I dont mean the occational scene that dosnt directly effect the main plot being fiddled with.
That being said there were lots of explanations for things here and there that were simply omitted. Just from this episode, would someone who hasnt read the novels know what the gadget on Musujime’s neck does?
Overall despite its flaws I enjoyed the season, with the short remnant arc (episode 6 and 7) being my favorite.
Just a random thought – in the anime Index has “excuse” for her actions just because being “too young” and having some charm. But imagine Index being 20 years older – what kind of excuse would she have for her nasty behavior ? The “cute” thing won’t work any longer …
Then, it would be very serious for Touma to keep her on his room, it would a “hard as rock” issues, if you know what I mean.
One thing this season did do was get people more interested in the light novels
I liked this series but think the end of season 2 was pretty flat and boring. I mean this episode could have been in the middle of the season and you would never know it was a finale if they didn’t skip the opening credits and ending. Also why was Misaka’s mom so drunk? It seemed really bad for her to be that drunk and sitting on the side of the street. Not to mention 5 mins later when the bad guys had her tied up all of a sudden she wasn’t drunk?
@Divine
Thanks for blogging this.
I do agree with you that the imagination is the key and using visuals instead of over-explaining things with dialogs. Now that i realize it, i think it is due to the fact that the anime adaptation comes directly from a Light Novel instead of a manga. I mean, in comics they already have the fight pictures layout already while in light novels they have to do it from scratch.
I think that is why we see the current trend of the fight against stronger bosses looks like as if the main character got weaker instead of fighting someone stronger than him. I mean, in the past; most anime were based on manga and rarely on light novels.
I know how people are always comparing Index to Railgun, and how Index fans always claim that Index has a deeper story than Railgun does. While that is very true, I preferred Railgun as, while the story was no where as deep, they portrayed it very well (with the exception of the messy end to the 2nd arc).
I felt that Index did not portray the story well. Most arcs felt a little rushed, a lot of babbling on by Touma could’ve been cut out or shortened and the background of some of the villains is laughable at best (i.e. that one near the end that hates science because her she was saved rather than her brother after surviving a roller coaster accident?). It is clear that the story is a lot deeper than Railgun, but as someone who has not read the novels, I felt that the anime has only just touched the tip of the ice burg.
I really enjoyed the second arc of the season (where the Roman Catholics first showed up in the series). I think part of the main reason is that there is a lot of interaction between Index and Touma in that arc. For a series named To Aru Majutsu no Index…there didn’t seem to be much Index at all this season :(.
I am hoping that if a 3rd season comes out, that they will give justice to the complexity of the story. Will follow it again if a 3rd season is released 😀
I feel the same way. while index has a complex and deep plot, it also made it much confusing.
railgun was able to develop its side characters and also had mikoto as the main character.
sure having a character who has the power to dispel anything is cool but thats pretty much the only thing he can do and will get a bit predictable on how it will end, while mikoto can use a wide variety to beat her opponents.
im hoping for railgun S2 to see the events of the manga animated.
HAMAZURAAAA~ Yes, this guy may seem pathetic now, but when a third season comes out a lot of people will change their opinion of him. This guy actually is very smart with the ability to hack ATM machines and hotwire cars, and he’s a good strategian with a grip on guns who has his morals like Touma (he actually wanted to find a way to not kill Misuzu) but will not hesitate to kill those who deserve it.
Accel did understand that Komaba didn’t indiscriminately kill espers. However, he had to finish the job. RIP Komaba, you will be missed.
I am disappointed that they cut out Accel’s and Awaki’s trash talk and the Necessarius part, but they included a picture of Fremea on the phone, which was a nice touch. I also liked that they animated the light novel illustrations as closely as possible, like with that last GROUP shot.
Overall, I was really looking forward to this when it was announced, but my expectations might have been too high as a light novel reader.
Learn how to use a spoiler tag.
There is no spoiler only about the episode, so isn’t necessary.
Obligatory quote:
Komaba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! T_T
It was a bit technical and I did get lost a few times- resorting to simply watching the amazing animation. But with your summaries, I was able to understand it for the most part. Thanks for sticking with the show despite it’s ups and downs.
I thought the coolest moment was when Accelerator decided to team up with GROUP. I love his smile. >:}
Re: Aleister’s interest in keeping Mikoto around. Mikoto’s importance to the city is quite high, if you think about it:
·All of the teachers tell her story (“A level 1 worked hard and became a level 5”) to inspire their students that they, too, could one day become an OP main character.
·What’s morale going to be like among the students (or parents for that matter) if the third strongest in the city skips out right before a war? It would trigger an exodus.
The lightnovel reason was that all level 3 to 5 students have military value and might be useful to the Academy if the war starts. Apparently taking one of the 7 level 5 espers is a no….
What Lurker says is the truth, besides that nor Mikoto nor the espers has any milittary value for Academy City except for Accelerator.
Oh I’m hoping they come out with a third series. I just love this story with varying levels in powers and how to achieve it is to reconstruct ones reality. GROUP has had a nice uptake to the series as things are finally starting to get mysterious. I want Misaka to show up more often in this season but I guess having her mom is nice to. There’s probably just no room to make her pop up suddenly. Hopefully, if there’s a third season, Touma will stop giving such long speeches (also I want to see more of the level 5’s such as Misaka or Accelerator). I’ve got to say though that his rant at the end of this episode was his best one. Overall with this anime, I love it and I hope that we’ll get to see more action later one.
What’s the thing on Move Point’s neck? Is that because Accelerator smashed her up last time?
Wow. U probably didn’t read the books and that’s actuall somewhat it.
Show Spoiler ▼
It’s ok to mention that one without the spoiler tags. It was suppose to be mentioned on that particular episode but they didn’t.
Her problem is that she gets easily stressed and once she is stressed she cannot control her ability. It gives massages so to assist her in controlling that power.
The creators are moving on to Hidan nno Aria for now, so if there will be a second for railgun and/or a third for index, we will probably see it announced at the close of that series. The thing that interests me is that, from my looking into the novels, the next big event ending comes after novel 22. The first series covered 6 novels while this series covered 7, but to get that far, they would have to cover 9, and that’s a lot. I just don’t see how they could have this particular event happening halfway through the third series.
Sorry I meant the fourth series in that last sentence.
Actually, the most preferable place to end it would be novel 19 since they could end it on a huge cliffhanger. Plus, the material in between novels 14-19 has to be my favorite of the entire series, especially novel 15, so it should make for a good season.
No I’m not saying they couldn’t end season 3 at that point, just that it would be weird to go from novel 22 to 23 in the middle of season 4, that’s all.
Heh, so no one realized our dynamic duo from Bakuman are talking to each other this episode?
Touma (Atsushi Abe/Mashiro) and Shiage (Satoshi Hino/Takagi) 😛
Don’t forget that Accelerator’s seiyuu voices Eiji, lol.
Haha, I didn’t know any of this. Great stuff.
misaka misuzu made me want more. thats all i gotta say
anyone else think that the ending for s2 sucked balls?
just you.
I think it would have been nice if they made a huge cliff hangar like the start of WWIII as the ending.
Anyone think that JC Staff is stupid enough to maybe rush a season 3 for volumes 14-22 instead of 14-19?nah
Epic punches to the face, Index’s headchomps, funny slice-of-life character interactions (especially if it involves Kuroko) and the new additions to Touma’s growing harem are just some of the things I wanted to see when Index II was announced, and in the end, JC Staff delivered.
I’m just sad that it’s gonna be a while before we see Itsuwa move into Touma’s apartment (and feature more prominently in the story), or see how Touma deals with the other members of God’s Right Seat. (Inb4 “read the light novels.”) Hopefully a third season (or movie) can fix that, but fans will be playing the waiting game first. Still, if this allows the next season/movie to be more polished, I don’t mind the wait. Besides, there’s a bunch of anime based on light novels long overdue for a new season.(Full Metal Panic, I’m looking at you.)
Isn’t FMP Kyo-Ani’s department? Then again Kyo-Ani has been shifting heavily towards Key adaptations and slice-of-life moe-4-komas lately, so perhaps someone else should pick it up.
I’m more looking forward to JC Staff picking up Shana III instead.
Wasn’t FMP a group effort? KyoAni gets more recent credits, but there were others involved I’m sure. Maybe the alliances needed to get FMP made fell apart, and a new alliance is needed to get the rest of the series made. (Remember Gonzo being the early leader of the group)
Changing studios seems to be the norm for some titles/properties (e.g.: the animated adaptations of Super Robot Wars, Strike Witches, Mahou Sensei Negima!, Hayate no Gotoku!), so I guess I won’t mind if another studio picks up FMP. (Unless it’s Studio Shaft. Surreal widgety crap in my mecha/comedy anime? DO NOT WANT!) Mad House, maybe? *shrugs*
That aside, I was simply noting that a good chunk of the anime we see nowadays are adapted from light novels — with a good majority of those LNs still incomplete but story-wise already way ahead of the anime adaptations, hence the “there’s a bunch of anime based on light novels long overdue for a new season” statement. (That and I’d really be happy to see a new season of FMP.)
thats the problem with adaptation from novel… and i think JC staff actually doing a great job for this. I cant imagine other animation company to match such level of adaptation, well except Kyo-ani
Pretty enjoyable end to the season, if a little dull, but we’re still only scratching the surface. I hope J.C. staff have plans for S3 but I won’t hold my breath.
TIME…. FOR WAR!
I might have missed it but touma never revealed he lost his memory. Not thtat it makes a difference. This season was balls also.
Yeah Accelerator and his gang seem a lot more interesting the Index.
do they kiss dam it