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Admittedly, I was expecting Touma's patented punch to the face to come an episode or two later; however, with the revelation that all Oriana was carrying was a billboard, it became clear that this introductory part of the arc was coming to an end. After questioning Oriana about her careless disregard for innocent people (while Tsuchimikado was writhing in pain behind him), Touma's self-righteous indignation shone through and his fist did the rest.
Despite being next week's episode title, a discussion between Laura Stuart and an artifact historian reveals that the original Stab Sword actually doesn't exist. What Oriana is actually attempting to transfer is St Peter's Cross, which would disrupt the balance between magic and science so abruptly that Academy City would be instantly transformed without any of its citizens being any the wiser. Naturally the aggressor is that crazy ol' Roman Catholic Church again.
During the five minutes or so that weren't long monologues or exposition (which, to be fair, you have to come to expect from Index) we have Index re-inserting herself into her own series, by getting annoyed with Touma for not paying attention to her. We also see Touma's parents conveniently meeting up with Mikoto's mother, Misuzu, which eventually leads to a bit of a stare-down between Index and Mikoto over Touma. Who will prevail? My guess is neither, and Touma will stay as dense to their feelings as he usually is. Huzzah! |
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This episode finds Shuu's father curious at just who exactly Shuu is presumably dating, and bribes Hanamori with the promise of a new Benz or two to spy on his childhood friend. Cue up the appearance of the short, darker-skinned man from the opening as "a guy that Hanamori knows" to tail Shuu and learn about his new "girlfriend." Shuu doesn't stay in the dark for long, as Hanamori accidentally calls him instead of his friend, while his friend is tailing Shuu and Inari at a bar. Inari, to her credit, is blackmailing him like a pro, and even when Shuu tries to cut to the chase and talk about his father and the redevelopment project, Inari brushes him aside and tries to worm her way closer to him.
In other news, Kuranosuke realizes that the Clara weather charms that Tsukimi made are going to sell better than the Wedgewood tea sets that he found in storage. (I don't know much about pottery, but I'm fairly certain that Wedgewood is a name that even Antiques Roadshow wouldn't sneeze at). This leads to him enlisting the Sisterhood in making Clara dolls on site at the flea market, with Chieko showing off her incredible sewing skills. Tsukimi ends up getting lost in pairing up various fabrics to resemble specific jellyfish, and they all end up making a lot of money.
Still lost in her daydreams, especially of her mother telling her that she'd make her a wedding dress that looked like a jellyfish, Tsukimi puts a ruffled rag on her head and wraps herself in a white sheet while she's alone in her room. Of course, it's at this point that Kuranosuke walks in causing Tsukimi to freak out and Kuranosuke to once again be attracted to her. Among other things, this nearly causes his true gender to be discovered by Mayaya, when she attempts to revive him with Vicks Vapo Rub. In the end, Tsukimi admits that she was remembering that her mother had said that she would make her a jellyfish dress (conveniently leaving out that it would be a jellyfish wedding dress). Kuranosuke gets a brilliant idea, inspired by the Clara dolls, and says that they should make a jellyfish dress together in order to make enough money to buy the apartment. Two people working together to achieve a dream? I love stuff like this, let's go! |
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Poor Index. Despite being the headlining character of this series (it is called A Certain Magical Index, after all) she is shown for maybe a total of thirty seconds, while audience favorites like Mikoto dominate the screen time. Not that I'm complaining, because Mikoto is adorable, but still, you've got to feel a little bad for Index, whose series no longer requires her involvement.
The main plot of this episode revolves around trying to catch the magician Oriana Thompson, or Route Disturb, as she's known in the religious/magical community. Using a technique called Short Hand, she is able to counter any tracking spells that are placed on her, causing Tsuchimikado and Stiyl to both undergo difficult and painful magical spells in order to find her. Naturally, the origin of Oriana's Short Hand spell is located on a basket pole smack dab in the center of the middle school ball throwing event, which endangers any student who would happen to accidentally touch the pole. Predictably, Mikoto is there, wondering why Touma and Tsuchimikado are entered in a middle school event. This leads to an awkward situation, where Touma is looking out for her safety in his oblivious way, and Mikoto presumes that he likes her. Adding to this is the fact that Touma resorts to tackling her before she can touch the basket pole, causing him to conveniently end up on top of her. The most unrealistic thing about this entire scene is that throughout, Touma is only concerned for her safety.
As it turns out, the pole next to Mikoto was the wrong one anyway, and it's Seiri who ends up touching the Short Hand spell, causing her to be injured by its magic. Touma runs to her and dispels the magical effects, gathering her in his arms afterward. Jumping on his typical righteous horse, Touma vows to catch Oriana because she doesn't hesitate in endangering innocent bystanders.
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This week we turn our focus away from the Golden Trio a bit and take a look at the twin sisters: Marino and Mizuno. If anyone had any doubt last episode whether Marino/Manticore was using her position to turn her sister in rather than protect her, it should have been dispelled by this episode, although all bets are off for the future, especially since Marino has a growing interest in Takuto along with Mizuno.
Marino's interest in Takuto is piqued during the sports festival which pits her team against his in the wonderful sport of baseball. This interest only grows during an, "Oh Star Driver, I thought you were better than this," moment where Takuto falls into Marino's chest while running through first base. To the series's credit, Marino isn't too embarrassed, rebuffing Takuto's attempt to help her up. After the game, Marino watches as her sister teaches Takuto an, "It will be okay," spell, the very same spell that her sister had taught Marino herself when their mother left them to find their wayward father. Later on that night, Marino warns Mizuno not to teach people spells anymore, because they never believe in them. Mizuno declares that Takuto is different. Lo and behold, later on that night during the "robot of the week" fight, Marino/Manticore watches as Takuto recites Mizuno's spell verbatim and defeats one of Marino's Banishing Age lackeys.
This episode begs the question as to how exactly one becomes a maiden of the island. It would seem that Mizuno and Marino were typical twin sisters when they were younger, so exactly how and/or why did Mizuno become a maiden? Wako and Takuto both mention that the marks somehow appeared at one point or another, but no further information has been forthcoming. Also interesting is how the Banishing Age has devolved into lethargy, with its stooges ignoring Head's warning that they won't be able to defeat Tauburn without reaching the third stage.
Another notable thing this episode was that Sugata mentioned that it's been a while since "the three of them" meaning Ivrogne, Sugata, and Wako have all been together, hinting that before the current Golden Trio, there was a previous Golden Trio. This statement also cuts to one of Ivrogne's memories, featuring the three of them erecting the totem pole as seen in the Wakuto episode. There's a bit of tension between Ivrogne and Sugata as well, leading me to believe that there may have been something more to Ivrogne's attempt to try and bring Wako and Takuto together. |
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This week's episode of Kuragehime was the first episode in the series that felt a bit lackluster. Perhaps it's because it continued to focus more on the romantic triangle aspect of things rather than Tsukimi and the Sisterhood. It all begins when Inari stops by the apartment building with the bribe of macaroons, which the Sisterhood is unable to resist. Fortunately, her visit is interrupted by Kuranosuke, who screams that he'll never let them tear down the building, making the ridiculous claim that the Sisterhood will buy it. Cue Mayaya and Banba throwing salt at Inari and her lackey to get rid of them. After they leave, Tsukimi notices Shuu's glasses in the bag with the macaroons, and comes to the conclusion that Shuu and Inari are dating.
This causes Tsukimi to ask Kuranosuke if Inari and Shuu are dating, and only when Kuranosuke makes the assumption himself does Tsukimi begin to cry (on his shoulder, no less for all of you Kuranosuke/Tsukimi fans). Kuranosuke finds himself becoming attracted to Tsukimi once more, and this scene between them is absolutely adorable, especially the way that Kuranosuke finds it necessary to remind Tsukimi that he is, in fact, a man. Later on that day, he also nearly kisses Tsukimi in her room before the two are interrupted by Mayaya's antics. The most interesting thing to note is that this is the first time we've seen Kuranosuke be attracted to Tsukimi while she's not all made up. Tsukimi remembers nothing, since she closed her eyes the entire time he was leaning in towards her.
Meanwhile, Inari meets up with Shuu and shows him the picture that she so diligently took with her cell phone, making it seem as if they had sex. Since Shuu still doesn't really know what exactly sex involves, he believes her. She doesn't blackmail him outright, but the implications are there, and it's especially devastating for someone like Shuu, who has already been scarred by his father's misadventures with Kuranosuke's mother.
While searching for ways to pay for the apartment building, Kuranosuke tries to sell off Chieko's expensive doll collection, drawing the scorn of the entire Sisterhood. Kuranosuke refuses to take "no" for an answer and ends up petitioning their mangaka roommate, who says that if she sells enough doujin, she'll pay the down payment herself. Encouraged, Kuranosuke buys them a stall at a flea market and invades the apartment once more to raid Chieko's mother's storage. Tsukimi admits that the idea of buying the apartment building is ridiculous; however, she can't help being swept up by Kuranosuke's ridiculous enthusiasm. Yes, Tsukimi, you too can be as blindly optimistic as the energetic Kuranosuke, if only you'd let yourself be. |
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Whereas the last episode of anime I blogged (Index 8) focused on fanservice for the guys, Star Driver cheekily begins with a bit of fanservice for the gals with both Sugata and Takuto acting all buddy-buddy together in the bath. It's nice to see the two finally acting as real friends, although it only serves to further the theory that all two guys have to do is beat the crap out of each other in order to become friends for life. This also puts Wako at ease, since now she doesn't have to worry about two guys fighting over her anymore and can conveniently put the whole situation behind her for the time being. As the three friends eat breakfast together, Wako returns to her happy, and usually hungry self. While in Sugata's house, Takuto takes note of the oil paintings signed with a red "R," that also appear in various other locations in Star Driver. The girl in most of the paintings also looks a lot like the departed Fish Girl/The North Maiden.
Meanwhile, we're introduced to two new characters, one being the pink-haired genki girl from the bus in episode eight, proving that there is no such thing as an unenergetic pink-haired girl in anime. Her name is Mizuno, and she immediately joins Team Takuto after he jumps out of a window into a tree to save a baby bird. Later on that day, she's even more thrilled to learn that Takuto is in Night Flight, which she is conveniently led to by the Vice President, and promptly joins the club. Mizuno shares all of this with her twin sister, Marino, who is far less genki while being far more athletic and practical.
As it turns out, Marino is also the new de facto leader of the Glittering Crux's Banishing Age, since Head has taken a leave of absence (to probably drink away his depression at the North Maiden's departure). As "Manticore" Marino is ridiculously over-the-top, and only serves to anger her counterparts, the slovenly underlings of the Banishing Age, who plan to use her to their own ends. (Sidenote: they also have an "R" painting hanging in their bar.) The only reason that they put up with her is that her cybody, recently restored by Professor Green and the Science Guild, is rumored to have the ability to find the West Maiden. That night, after watching one of her Banishing Age cronies get his butt kicked by Takuto, Marino promises Mizuno that she'll protect her, and never let anyone find out that Mizuno is the West Maiden.
Once again, Star Driver has a wealth of options as to where it chooses to take all of the various subplots that are slowly being woven together. Firstly there's Marino/Manticore, who seemingly has joined up with the Banishing Age only to protect her sister by throwing around false leads for the Glittering Crux to follow. It begs the question, "What does one have to do to enlist in the Glittering Crux?" One also has to wonder (once again) how much Head actually knows, since it was supposedly he who gave Manticore the interim title of Leader of the Banishing Age. Lastly, there's the question of the paintings and what significance, if any, they hold towards the Golden Trio and the Glittering Crux members. |
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Everyone breath a sigh for poor Kamijou Touma, who has the repeated misfortune of falling into well-endowed, attractive young women wherever he goes. He even has the misfortune of adding yet another girl to his, "I-I-It's not l-like I like y-you or anything!" harem: the extremely busty Fukiyose Seiri. Whenever I see an episode like this, I always wonder how awkward it would be for the reverse to happen, and for a woman to fall into a man's crotch, although to be fair, that's happened in many anime as well. I imagine it would be quite awkward, unless you knew them biblically, so make sure that all of you are keeping your balance out there or this could be you! One thing that is kind of interesting about Seiri is that she remains unflappable, maintaining her composure and stature as a committee member even when Touma can obviously see her bra through a wet t-shirt, or walks in on her naked in a classroom. Way to keep your cool and not get embarrassed, Seiri. I like you.
Regardless, this episode of Index wasn't completely full of throwaway fanservice. Another one of the women that Touma gets knocked into, Oriana Thomson, also helped set up the next plot arc in which the Roman Catholic Church (again?) is using the sports festival as a cover to receive a holy relic from Oriana called the Stab Sword. As Tsuchimikado explains to Touma, it channels the symbolic power of Jesus being nailed to the cross and acts as a "golden gun" for saints. Saints like Kaori. Tsuchimikado adds that the only reason someone would want a relic like this would be to start a war. Therefore, it's fortunate that Oriana conveniently bumps into Touma, causing her to apologize coyly and shake his hand. Touma's power negates her magic barrier, which causes him to take notice and follow her through the streets.
All in all, this episode was a basic setup for the next plot. I'm hoping that it takes more of a character-building route mixed with action, much like the two-episode Railgun arc did last week which I personally liked better than the first five-episode arc. The fact that the Roman Catholic Church is once again involved makes me think that we really haven't seen the last of Sister Agnese and her battle nuns especially if the Church is, like Tsuchimikado said, preparing to start a war. |
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| ...that's why the lady is a tramp.
This episode is split up among a whole slew of storylines. The main two involve Kuranosuke taking the newly transformed Sisterhood out to eat on what is presumably his father's dime, and Shuu being drugged by Inari, photographed, and tricked into thinking that he had sex with her. (See: lost his virginity to her.)
For Kuranosuke, dinner leads to him thinking that Tsukimi is adorable when she's blowing on her hot drink to cool it, or looking at the moon and saying that it's like being underwater. Freaked out at his own feelings, he goes into the girls' bathroom and punches the wall a few times. By the end of the night, the Sisterhood has seemingly accepted him under the incredibly fake-sounding name of Kurako.
For Shuu, it means freaking out at the fact that he believes that Inari took his virginity and he storms out of the hotel room she set them up in, pushing her down and leaving his glasses behind. I'll admit, I cheered a bit when he just shoved her onto the floor like he did.
As it turns out, Shuu has some long-standing trauma with women, due to him seeing his father with Kuranosuke's mother, Lina, at a young age. This brings up a few questions as to how Kuranosuke is so well-accepted by his family, as he's living in his father's house as presumably his father's child outside of marriage. After arriving home, disheveled, Shuu drives to Amamizu to see Tsukimi, who is still dolled up from going out to dinner. He asks her to shake his hand, and this seems to sturdy him somewhat, as he walks back to his car, thanking her. Confused, Tsukimi calls out to him and watches the car drive away.
It's certainly interesting how everything is unfolding, especially since they've taken the focus off of the apartment being torn down, and back to the characters. Tsukimi was a bit on the back-burner as Shuu took the main focus of this episode. Next episode it looks like things will be getting even more interesting with Kuranosuke and Inari both making their moves (on Tsukimi and the redevelopment project respectively). |
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So after last week's developments with Sugata possibly being controlled by Scarlet Kiss's first phase my expectation was that Star Driver would drag that out a bit more, while causing more tension between the Golden Trio. After watching episode eight, I want to thank (and give a great big hug) to Star Driver for once again subverting my expectations.
The most interesting thing that actually happens in this episode is that Fish Girl (Sakana-chan) ends her story, and ends her time with Head. By the end of the episode, she's on a ferryboat headed to the mainland. As suspected when we first saw that her chains were not actually attached to anything, it seems that Fish Girl was free to leave at any time which begs two questions: Why did she choose to stay with Head, caged that entire time, and what exactly goes in to "breaking a maiden's seal?" If Fish Girl chose to be with Head, and break her seal, of her own free will, we have to wonder if Head manipulated her, or if he actually had feelings for her. (Based on his actions, it would seem that he did.) Since we still have very little idea of where the Cybodies come from, what their purpose is, and what the purpose of Glittering Crux is, it's hard to tell which pieces of information are important, and which pieces are throwaway facts.
Another unexpected facet of this episode is that they seemingly resolved Sugata's dispute with Takuto (with a well-animated robot slugfest) or, at the very least, made the two come to an understanding. We finally get to see another side of Sugata that's not a weak smile and a nonchalant attitude, all the while developing Takuto's character a bit more as well. As it stands now, Sugata is probably the most powerful driver of Samekh that his family has ever had since he: A- wakes up, and B- handily overpowers Scarlet Kiss's cybody, causing it to be destroyed by Takuto. Speaking of Scarlet Kiss, we never saw her hand over her badge, so I'm wondering what exactly is going on with her. Also worth noting is that Professor Green is still right in the thick of Glittering Crux politics, which makes me think that even if you've been defeated in combat, handing in your badge doesn't necessarily mean leaving the Order.
It goes without saying that I can't wait for the next episode, especially since we'll get to know two main, and seemingly important, characters. |
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Kuroko easily finds Awaki in a nearby building, the latter of whom is exhausted due to aggravating an old injury caused by a self-teleportation mishap. Taunting Awaki, Kuroko launches on the offensive but is quickly overpowered when she reaches the limits of her own recent injuries, and finds herself unable to teleport. This allows Awaki to launch into her monologue about why exactly she wants to reconstruct Tree Diagram: in order to discover the true reason why psychic powers only visit certain humans. It's during Awaki's speech that Kuroko realizes Awaki's true desire is to somehow be rid of her psychic abilities, because she's afraid of them, and also afraid of being used by others who want her power.
Laughing at this, Kuroko manages to dislodge herself from the pile of furniture that Awaki had buried her under, and makes the concise point that whether or not a person has powers has nothing to do with whether they're going to go out and purposely hurt people or not. Proving Kuroko's point exactly, Awaki pulls out a gun and shoots Kuroko. Completely losing it, Awaki tells Kuroko that she'll bury Kuroko along with the building by teleporting objects into it while she gets away with the Tree Diagram remnants.
Unfortunately, Awaki doesn't count on the Misaka Network coming to the aid of their Onee-chan. Misaka 10032 contacts Touma and Index, who in turn track down the original Mikoto Misaka. The three of them rescue Kuroko from the collapsing building while, elsewhere in Academy City, Accelerator shows up to easily take care of Awaki.
Despite only being a two episodes long, this arc packed more Kuroko character development than nearly an entire season of Railgun. Kuroko had really always grated on me as a character, and I'm glad that these past few episodes showed a few other sides to her, especially the way her personality hardens with conviction when she's in a fight. This, coupled with the surprisingly sad scene between her and Mikoto where they're both lying to each other have done wonders in making her character a more likeable one. I've said this before, but never having read the light novels, I'm never sure what is filler or what is actually taken from the novels; however, the appearance of Accelerator, whether fanservice or not, was incredibly fun. I especially loved the line where he points out to Awaki that, although he may have become weaker, it doesn't make her weakness any stronger.
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