To Aru Majutsu no Index II 08

Another great episode, I am starting to repeat myself but I cannot avoid it. I am really enjoying this season, it's getting better and better with each episode!

This was an introductory episode for a new arc. There is an item, a sword, that can kill a Saint in one strike but is useless against normal humans, that is being smuggled. This would tip the balance of the magicians factions and cause a world. Touma is recruited again, but this time Index must be kept unaware of the events otherwise even more magicians wold notice and come to Academy City.

All happens during the Daihaseisai festival. Kind of a sports festival where all Academy City particitates with schools competing with each other. Oh, and the students can use their powers :)

A special mention. At the beginning of the episode we get a glimpse of Misaka's mother. She is like her grown up version! Misaka might be the only character who has:

• several copies of her (the sisters)
• a loli version (Last Order)
• a grown up version (her mother)

That is awesome :D

The first half of the episode is very lighthearted. It is a sequence of funny moments and fanservice. The only plot part is the discussion between the archbishop Laura Stuard and Aleister Crowley (the upside down guy) about the sword problem.

In the second half we have... more funny moments and fanservice :) But also some plot development. Touma is shown to be talking with Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado about this item exchange. He will be absent minded during the festival activities and this draws the attention of his class representative (Seiri Fukiyose).

Meanwhile Index manages to temporarily satiate her unending appetite with the help of Komoe (the loli-teacher, Tsukuyomi). Seeing how sad she is because she cannot be with Touma Komoe decides to help. She can partecipate in the Daihaseisai activities as a cheerleader. Of course this triggers another funny fanservice event :D

Touma gets beaten again by Fukiyose and they direct to the next event. She tells him she noticed he his absent minded and looks like he is not having fun. Since she participated in the organization of the events this is making her sad... It would be a nice moment if it wasn't for a girl stomping on Touma and making him hit his forehead with Fukiyose's. The two are so close that there is a moment of embarassment, solved by Fukiyose's head stomp!

This leads to the conclusion of the episode and the start of the real plot of this arc. Touma ends hitting a blond girl who is (un)dressed in a very provocative way. The two shake hands and Touma's Imagine Breaker dispells a spell she was using. He notices this and starts to follow her.
She also notices him and decides she has to shake him off, giving the incipit for the next episode!

This was a very light episode which only needed to introduce the new arc. As such, the authors managed to put in lots and lots of funny moments (and fanservice). Also, many characters that make usually only cameos managed to get some screen time, such as Aisa (the kuudere, Himegami) or Komoe.

I like the shift between action packed episodes (like the last one) and more lighthearted ones. They manage to give you the best of everything and avoid monotony. There are many good characters that deserve some screen time!

Maika's maido bento!

M-M-M-MISAKA!?! Yes, MISUZU MISAKA

It will take the best part of a day to comb these hair!

Index face

The "fukou da" moment :)

Nooooooo, Komoe!!

Rental run winner

Mikoto cute face 1

Mikoto cute face 2

Mikoto indirect kiss embarassment

Kuroko indirect kiss realization

Double moe

Could not refrain from putting at least one Aisa screenshot

Oh oh, almost

That's what you get for messing around

Imagine Breaker in action

Water symbol: the flattest smartphone ever

Shiki 16

A very sad story...

Very nice episode with a very big revelation.

The episode starts with a flashback on the past of Sunako. It is actually just a small anticipation since the story will be told by her later in the episode. After the opening, the actual episode starts with Tohru (Natsumo's friend and killer) still bringing flowers in front of Natsuno's house.

Later the story of Nao is told and we understand that she really wanted to "help" her family bringing them on the other side. Of course, what she actually achieved was to exterminate them. The strange thing is that at a certain point she start to run and after she stops it looks like she is catching her breath... and I thougth shiki's did not breath!

Later on Tohru is summoned by Sunako who tells him her sad story. She was turned into a shiki and woke up in a grave. She screamed and screamed until an unlucky guy saved her. He became her first victim and after going home she was closed by her parents in a warehouse and was fed. She fed on the women bringing her food everyday. She read books and learned more about what she had become and decides to go back to her house. When she arrives there though, she discovers that her family had moved away. She started looking for them everywhere and went on for years, traveling the country, until she realized that so much time was passed that they would be all dead. It is a sad story, especially if you think she was just a small child.

The second part of the episode deals with the family of Akira and Kaori. Megumi is shown again to be really in good shape and quite happy with her new "unlife". She pushes Akira's father to attack his own family which in the end he does biting his wife. This is a turning moment because the following day Akira, upon finding her mother weakened and understanding what happened (but blaming Megumi) decides to take action. He wants to buy some amulets and Kaori to prepare some stakes. When he hears from some paesants that a house that should be empty seems to be inhabited at night he decides to attack.

Another scene change and we find Natsuno and Toshio talking. They agree that they will attack the shikis when they can be more vulnerable: when they think they have taken control of the village. They also agree that they will kill all the shikis. This is the big revelation, Nakano tells Toshio "including me", revealing he his a shiki too! If that is really the case he must be the same kind as Tatsumi (the butler inumimi shiki) since he can walk in the light of the sun without any problem. So he managed somehow to raise and get back to the village without letting the shiki know.

The final sequence of the episode is quite sad and of effect. Akira goes in the house, judging that it is still 12:00 and he has time before the night. It is not hard to find a shiki asleep, but when he convinces himlself and he is about to plant the stake in his heart Tatsumi stops him. He awakes roped in front of the shiki. A light pointing on a watch and showing the time. It is 16:30 and it is already late enough. The shiki awakes and looks at him with dark eyes, the eyes of the blood thirst. This is very sad... Well at least I hope he will rise as a shiki, maybe he will join Nakano in his fight. A strange look from one of the peasants, an old lady, can hint that she might have alerted Tatsumi. Could it be that there are already normal people aware and cohoperating with the shikis? Or maybe it was just a detail put there to cast some doubts for us watchers :)

Tatsumi is overpowered. I mean, the shikis are very strong and have incredible regeneration capacities, but they also have several limitations. During the day they are completely inactive and vulnerable and even at night they cannot enter a house if they are not invited and looks like they actually fear religious symbols. Tatsumi instead is simply strong. He can walk in the sun and he can go wherever he wants. Maybe also the owner of Kanemasa (Kirishiki Seshirou) is the same kind of shiki. It could be that there is a one in a hundred chance of raising as that special kind of shiki and this happened with Nakano too.

To me it always looked more like Tatsumi wasn't a shiki, but rather a werewolf, most definitely because of his inumimi-like hair. He uses his abilities to deprive people of any mean to figth back. When you think you found a way to stop the shikis, he shows up and ruins your plans. And he has a habit of doing so in a particularly evil way. This happened when Toshio was trying to save a patient by keeping her in his clinic and not letting the shikis in, and it happened again with Akira in this episode.

Well, at least he was not able to stop Toshio from butchering his shiki-fied wife. Wait, I don't even know if that was a good thing!

... count Dracula?

She is catching her breath!? Does she even have to breath!?

Megumi was born to be a shiki

But you are walking in daylight!

That's so unfair!

To Aru Majutsu no Index II 07

Accelerator is back!

The closing of the Railgun arc.

An episode full of action and very powerful moments. Awaki (the teleport girl) has just escaped from Misaka using human shields and she has confront Kuroko again. Kuroko is now much more motivated and with a surprise attack inflicts Awaki the same wounds she has. The two come to a full out battle and after Kuroko is hit she can't use her ability for a small moment, enough to be overcome by a pile of tables and chairs sent over her. The Awaki tries to convince Kuroko to join her. She is afraid of her ability and wants to understand why she got it and if only humans can have abilities. To do that she joined an external (to Academy City) organization with the purpose of restoring the Tree Diagram (the orbiting supercomputer accidentally destroyed by Index in the first season).

The sisters start to move. Number 10032 finds Touma and asks for his help, while Chibi Misaka, participating in the network discussion, thinks loud and lets Accelerator get an idea of what is going on.
Meanwhile the discussion between Kuroko and the Awaki goes on and Kuroko rages disagreeing with her motivation. She stands and picks a long lamp to hit Awaki but in return she shoots her with a gun! Kuroko is left on the ground bleeding, while the Awaki leaves and starts to destroy the building.

Climax of the episode, Misaka picks up a coin which had previously fallen from a broken window of that building and uses it to open a huge hole in it. Touma runs in jumping on the falling rubble, he stops the destruction with his imagine breaker and saves Kuroko. Very well executed and animated :)

And then, Accelerator is back! He finds Awaki wandering in the streets with her big trolley containing the Remnant and confronts her. She is afraid of him at the beginning but then tries to convince herself that he lost his power after the incident with Touma. Indeed, Accelerator confirms he suffered brain damage and now cannot make all the computations he did before. That's why he now uses an external device to help him do that! He shows his huge power, suddenly destroying most of the road and he is even able to fly by producing vorteces of air which look like four insect wings. He breaks the trolley and punches her in the face most probably breaking her nose. She falls uncounshous and he leaves saying that even if he should quit being the strongest in Academy City he won't because he wants to be it in front of Last Order (Chibi Misaka).

Accelerator is really a badass. He is incredibly powerful and he fights with an insane look on his face. He is one of my favorite characters and this was the best part of the episode for me. Don't take me wrong, I still love the parts with Misaka and the Railgun characters and Touma, Index and the others. Yet, Accelerator did not receive much screen time and I hope he will take the stage more in the future.

The episode ends with some fanservice. Touma got a big slap on his face from Kuroko for entering her hospital room at the wrong moment (while she was changing of course). And then he also found the sister 10032 naked in a sort of healing machine. "Fukou da!".

There were not big dedicated fanservice moments in this episode. Well if we exclude Awaki who is basically naked and even manages to shorten her miniskirt during the fight with Kuroko :)

The external organization was destroyed and all ended well... for now. Next episode is the Daihaseisai festival of ability users, with new magicians infiltrating Academy City and the start of a new arc. Is that Misaka's mother in the previews !?!

This moment was very "dragon ball" :)

Touma has now a new ability: Index launch

Touma fixing things with Imagine Breacker

Awaki, you were very unlucky to meet the Accelerator

Katanagatari 11

The next to last episode of katanagatari is great.

Togame and Shichika manage to retrieve the 11th deviant blade and to speak to Shikizaki Kiki (the maker of the deviant blades himself) who reveals openly to Shichika he is the 13th and complete blade. Emonzaemon takes the stage in this episode. He confronts the two remaining heads of the Maniwa ninja using Entou Jyu (the guns-sword) and is forced to retreat. When Penguin throws the Dokuto Mekki to Houou thinking of helping him the big wrting "That was a mistake" appearing was really a nice way to stress even more the turning point of the episode. Houou gets possessed by the memories of Shikizaki who later reveals his ninpou to be the ability to absorb other peole parts and memories, something which caused his fall to him. The legendary swordsmith attacks Penguin leaving him almost dead on the road where he is later found by Togame and Shichika. They take care of him and leave him in a inn where he fully recovers. In the latest episodes Shichika's humanization lead to always less cruel actions from him, opposite to the first episode where he was acting like a soulless killing machine, like a sword infact. That's why I was a little unprepared to the slaughter of Penguin from Emonzaemon. Penguin ninpou, called Unmei Kuzushi, is revealed to be some sort of "huge luck" for which any projectile would miss him, a real pain for the Entou Jyu of Emonzaemon. However, he manages to kill him nontheless and without any form of pity. It is hinted throughout the episode that Emonzaemon (who's real name is not yet known, it might be revealed in the last episode maybe...) and Houou had known since young and had learned the techniques of each other. Emonzaemon is holding a grudge with the Maniwa ninja, though, which is connected with the destruction of his Aioi clan. Maybe more revelations will come on the mistery of Emonzaemon, hopefully we will at least see his face...

The evolution of the relation between Togame and Shichika continues. Now that they can see the end of their journey Togame makes the move and asks Shichika if he will stay with her after the end. They might go on another journey to draw a detailed map of Japan (not a bad idea indeed, since they already visited basically all of it). Of course, she does it in a very cute way. Shichika accepts and the two move on to meet the 11th blade owner.

The "fight for the sword" in this episode was short and it looked like Shikizaki was only really testing the outcome of his work. With the end of this fight all the 12 Maniwa ninja heads were eliminated, one month in advance on the schedule.

But the real interesting part was the dialogue that preceded it. Shikizaki makes some quite big revelations:

• he was a "soothseer" and he realized the deviant blades with techniques he had seen in the future
• his aim and the aim of his family (all soothseers) was to change history

The creation of the deviant blades (including Kyotouryuu) was done to modify the future he has seen and overthrow the shogunate. So, the rebellion of Togame's father was caused by his plan. Moreover, the sacrifice of Togame's father was done to preserve history. A big revelation indeed. This changes the focus of Togame's "vengeance" towards Shikizaki and, possibly, his descendants.

If princess Hitei is Shikizaki's descendant she will also have the same foretelling ability!! That can be used to explain many things and to get to a very nice finale.

Kyotouryouu becomes perfected at the last minute of this episode... Did Shikizaki foresee also this or maybe it was the princess plan? Was all the journey a necessary step to complete the 13th blade? Not through the fights with the other 12 blades, but through the affection he would develop for Togame. After all, it could very well have been all a scheming of princess Hitei...

I am looking forward to see the last episode (10th of December) of this really deserving anime. This project is particular, not because of the number of episodes, but because of the longer then usual timescale. The lenght of each episode allows to explore many more details than you can with just 20 minutes and the longer time between episodes allows to avoid rushing and diminished animation quality. The animation and the drawings were consistently superb during all the show. But I don't want to make an anticipated review, I will wait for the conclusion for that :D

This is the hand of Shikizaki Kiki, reminds something?

Princes Hitei truly is direct :O

A man of few words

Very few words

"That was a mistake", so true

To Aru Majutsu no Index 2 - 02

Time to start with the first arc!
The episode starts with a sort of dejavu: Stiyl Magnus kidnapping Index, but this time it happens in front of the spinning maido (Maika Tsuchimikado) (!).
Several new characters are introduced in this episode and the setting is prepared for the story arc:

• Agnese Sanctis, a loli nun with a miniskirt (!!), and her nun army
• the Amakusa, a somewhat underground religious group
• the Archibishop Laura Stuart (a returning character)
• Orsola Aquinas, a kind nun with some attention problems :D

Overall the episode was enjoyable, although the last ten minutes are a fanservice fest which I found a bit excessive.

Poor Index, being kidnapped all the time

I must say that this was fun :D

The Amakusa, a quite etherogeneous group