House of KoMOE with KoMOE leaving the house.

In Episode Five of the Index anime, our overly hotheaded hero has to cool his head a bit to figure out a way to save his newfound friend from certain… Memory Wipe. He has until a little after midnight to complete this Mission Impossible. Will he succeed or fail? (Oh, who am I kidding.) Will Index ever wear that pink bunny suit again? Will Kaori finally overcome her plushie addiction? Okay, so not all of these are even true statements in the first place, and we ain’t got all the answers, but… Ooh, shiny! *Distracted*

I'll make you an offer you cant refuse.

Touma seems to be spending a lot of his remaining time sitting in a corner wondering what to do, but Kaori calls Touma up to remind him of his deadlines. See, Touma, that chick is nice enough to tell you that you’ve got no time to waste. Go take her out for dinner or something sometime.

Darned prank calls. I'll tell mom next time.

In a sudden stroke of genius, Touma grabs the phonebook and starts calling every hospital and/or neurology research center he knows. Of course, he should’ve called earlier because they’re all closed. He finally managed to get someone, only to realize that it’s already midnight… Geez, doesn’t time fly, eh boy?

Footsteps tell Touma that Index’s retainers have arrived for her midnight dissection. Or whatever they’re going to do to her. Maybe something like what Franken Stein does to Maka’s dad. At night. On the bed.

OkayI’llstopnow.

Guess the carat, win your prize.

Touma, still in Good Guy Justice Mode, attempts to convince Stiyl and co. not to carry out the mindwipe. This completely pisses off Stiyl who grabs Touma and berates him for not understanding the weight of the situation. He even challeges Touma to dispell the cross used for the ritual, but Touma isn’t able to bring himself to destroy the most certain chance they have. As they proceed with the ritual however, Kaori takes pity on the tearful Touma and lets him have ten minutes to say his goodbyes.

Proof that teaching in a towel is possible.

Touma later realizes that something is suspicious about the numbers he heard. He finally is able to call up Komoe-sensei who informs him about the basic functions of the human brain and that it’s improbable for a brain to over-exert itself to self-destruction. (I know that many night-cramming students would like to disagree with her. Keke.)

Just examinin' th' goods, ma'am.

Armed with his newfound knowledge, he prepares to go in deep. Like, reaaaal deep.

BOOYAKA!!

Unfortunately, this causes Index’s AI to go berserk. Analyzing the situation, it declares Touma a target for annihilation and prepares St. George’s Sanctuary in preparation to eliminate him.

Intruders Will Be Shot On Sight. Hint: You're all intruders.

Thoughts: Well, much of the episode was spent with watching Touma mope around trying to figure out some way to save Index, while much of the good stuff happened in the last half or so. I can’t say that it phased me much, since I sat through stuff like .hack//SIGN (AKA one of the most draggy of anime in the entire world).

I find it a little amusing how Touma trusts his sensei’s answer so much while not taking a second to compare the circumstances between normal people and someone with possible magically-enhanced memory or something to that effect, but I guess that’s a byproduct of shonen and hotheaded protagonists = Shoot first, ask questions later, and may a lucky roll kick in to help us all.

On another hand, looks like JC staff is pretty intent on being faithful to the original novel, so I guess that alone in itself is a reason to be happy.

Overall, I still found this episode rather enjoyable on the whole, especially with the bit at the end where Index turns into some kind of zombie Artificial Intelligence thing. It was actually pretty awesome and scary, probably made better by the music, but zombie posessed Index was certainly very ominous.

And now for something else altogether: A what-if situation in the form of…

Index Episode 5: Chobits Style.

It will blow your mind!

P.S.: Still, it kinda amuses me how many people were like zomg 15% memoree eez BS. Yes, so are Espers and Magicians. Honestly people. Why so serious?

Which part of This Is A Fictional Universe don’t you understand? (Though I was also amused at the same time since I was spoiled about the 15% being fake beforehand, so it was funny to see all these people going zomg dis eez ridonkuluz.) It’s like how people argue that “if you can see an attack, it’s not light speed” and other attempts to say “This suckz becuz it don’t follow realistic scientific conventions”. Well he-llloooo, but in fiction SPACE HAS SOUND so shaddup. =P</Endrant.>

Ah yes. To Aru Majutsu no Index. For some inexplicable reason I liked this series from the offset. It’s been a little up and down so far, but regardless, it’s some pretty entertaining stuff. Now let’s have a quick look at what we have right now, shall we?

Episode 2

That is one totally badass weapon though.

The first real action episode, it showcases the sort of epic special effects that the series is capable of churning out. Here we have Touma trying to protect Index and having him face off against a pyromage by the name of Magus Stiyl, who quickly understands Touma’s ability and summons an indefinitely regenerating fire monster to offset his Imagination Breaker hand. Touma also proves himself to be pretty resourceful in a pinch, setting off the sprinklers manually to damage Magus’s runes.

Geez but that’s a LOT of pink.

After the whole jig with his magician opponent, Touma naturaly gets down to business on how to patch Index up, but it’s not as easy as you might think – His right hand cancels magic, and psychics can’t use magic so… He finds his teacher, who’s a complete n00bskull with zero powers. Except for being pink. Really, really pink. Fairly straightforward, right?

Cigarettes! Beer cans!

Mostly. After some tidying up and Touma getting the heck off the premises, we’re good to go!

Episode Three

This is an angel. She refills HP and MP!

And so, Index’s automated voice mail starts spouting instructions on how to make Index as good as new. They basically turn the room into a closed dimensional magic warp… thing, and sing songs (Unfortunately, Komoe seems a little off-key…) to summon an angel. And bam, mission complete. Later, Touma swings by to check on them and see how they’re doing.

Jaws: Loli version. Now comes in pink bunny uniform flavour!

And much to Touma’s chagrin, we witness some bonding between the two. With teeth. I must say, Index’s pearly whites are really top-of-the-line. She must floss every day.

Our antagonists, acting all angst-tagonistic and stuff.

In the meantime, our favourite smoking pyro mage and his very smokin’ hot partner-in-crime are scoping out the situation. They don’t seem to like their job, but it has to be done. An interesting reveal of Magus being a friend of Index hints at something else going on here…

Don’t look behind you now… Because it’s a red light you oaf.

Of course, next thing we know, Touma and Index are walking down the street having a discussion on milk coffee when things turn sour. One thing leads to another and Touma ends up with a much different companion.

Episode Four

My name is Kaori Kanzaki, and I will be your host for this evening.

Behold, Kaori Kanzaki reveals herself, and she’s… Pretty much the Scissors perfect counter to Touma’s Paper Imagine Breaker. While Touma can plow through magic like nobody’s business, Kaori happens to be an expert in melee combat and can bust his face just by swinging the unsheathed sword in his face. Kaori isn’t very intent on doing battle, however, and explains her situation to Touma. Of course, Touma is the Stereotypical Male Lead and Does Not Look Before He Leaps, because he manages to rile Kaori off and consequently, really really pisses her off.

Like so. Facial distortions notwithstanding.

The next minute or so has Touma earning a crash course entitled: Why You Do Not Antagonize The Samurai Chick. Best thing is: It’s free! Oh Kaori, you so generous. <3

Close-ranged tug-of-war. Twenty bucks says the samurai gal wins this.

In one last futile attempt, Touma grabs her sword and starts spouting more of his heroic protagonist spiel, with Kaori seemingly wondering whether she should just beat him up s’more or feel sorry for his obviously broken mind. Maybe. Anyway he gets knocked out and stuff. There’s a Mikoto sighting here just to remind folk that she’s still in the show. As though anyone needed reminding – She’s just that awesome in the damned OP.

Thou shall not pass!

Next morning, Touma finds himself all bandaged up and in the care of Index. Unfortunately, certain folk come knocking and poor Komoe finds herself kicked out of this picture while Index is like all trying to protect Touma and stuff. Cute.

Cue CLIFFHANGER!

—–

Well, overall I’ve always felt that the story of Index has got quite a bit of potential, though I still warily watch it while trying to keep realistic expectations. I did like some of the exposition, but this is certainly a series with more exposition than normal, which might put off some viewers. Still, I don’t mind it at all – It makes for an interesting and sensible world. What does come off as annoying would be Touma’s overly righteous stance as well as the almost inescapable Touma x Index shipping. The animations for the fight scenes are always very nice, though I feel that the perspective shots in some static scenes could use a little more polish. No biggie though. Kaori and Stiyl provide some much-needed rogue elements for this arc to provide our share of epic battlz, and it looks like we’ll be ending the first novel in a couple of episodes at most, so maybe things will ease up or kick up a notch, for better or worse. I’ve however heard that Novel 2 was a little tedious and often considered the weak link to the whole series – So much so the manga skipped it. So… Buyer beware?