Some quick summaries before I go …

Since I have a bit of time, like another day or two, I can post some more. But my computer setup is more frustrating, so it’s not going to be the usual routine.

Kuragehime 8 moved Shuu’s story along nicely, thanks to the greed of the chauffeur and a misdialed number. So not only is Shuu and the girl being tailed, but Shuu knows all about it. At the moment it feels like a completely different story from Tsukimi’s. Kuranosuke is getting more ludicrous in his money-making schemes and in the end announces he’ll make a wedding dress for Tsukimi and they’ll make millions. Tsukimi rightly thinks he’s out of his mind. On the other hand we get the sweet moment pictured above.

I don’t have access to any notes, or Google, I don’t know how I’m going to write about A Certain Magical Index 10 coherently. Um, Touma and Orliana fight. Orliana doesn’t use a spell twice, which will be her undoing in the next battle. Then, when we learn that Academy City is going to be claimed by the Roman Catholics when they stick St. Peter’s Cross into the ground, changing reality and everything. Touma responds to this by meeting up with Index and getting introduced to Misaka’s mother.

It’s more Shiori slowness in The World God Only Knows 10. Endless quiet bits where she struggles to say a word. And we get another waltz-music interlude; this time she turns into a naked fairy. That livened things up a bit. Keima rattles her by dissing books. And slow progress is made. She accidentally flips her inner and outer voices and actually has a conversation of sorts with him. Meanwhile Elsie is still enamored with fire trucks.

More nines: Index II, Arterial

In A Certain Magical Index 9, Touma, Stiyl, and Motoharu continue their search for the elusive Orliana, with plenty of explosion, lights, thumping music and weird jargon.

Touma’s got a bead on the girl and gets the other two to join them, only to run into one booby trap after another, which the two, amusingly, push Touma forward to face. Since he can dispel magic it makes sense, but it again emphasizes Touma’s sad-sack qualities in the face of all this weirdness. And we need this humor when the other two are busy going on about finding vital signs and reversing them, or whatever Stiyl’s on about. Something about hastily created, unstable magic books. The upshot is that Stiyl can’t use his magic anymore without pain, and Motoharu has that condition anyway. Again, screw the jargon. It means they may sacrifice their lives in order to stop Orliana, and to Touma’s dismay, are perfectly willing to do it.

How Misaka plays the ball-throwing game.

Index is more fun with characters and battles, so it’s a relief to find that Orliana set a magical trap of sorts in the stadium where the athletic festival is being played. They rush there and slip in, Motoharu babbling jargon the entire time, just in time for the ball-throwing contest. The subsequent scene works not only for the tension of discovering which basket Orliana has tainted, but because this ball-throwing contest includes the kids’ special abilities. This means lots of explosions and smoke and mayhem. What’s more, Misaka is pissed that Touma’s “participating.” It’s the sort of scene this franchise usually does well, mix character-driven comedy with the action, especially when Touma is trying to talk Misaka away from the tainted basket while she’s in full tsundere mode.

Okay, there are dumb things. How did Motoharu know it was one of the baskets that was tainted? Why didn’t Touma just walk straight up to Misaka and pull her away from the basket? But it worked well enough. And when Fukiyose sets off the trap and is injured it makes this situation personal for Touma. Once again, it’s the characters that save this show.

Fortune Arterial 9 has about an equal ratio of vampire story to high school comedy story. Unfortunatly, the episode as a whole is mostly exposition, with a lot of thunderclaps.

But we start with the fallout from last week’s series of crazy events. Haruna has all her memories back and knows Erika is a vampire, and she’s going to tell her sister Kanade. What will the result be? Just what we expected. Kanade is too grateful to Erika for saving her sister’s life that she doesn’t care if Erika is not human. So that’s out of the way. Then we get the question of what a “Servant” is. Kohei wants to know, but Lori proceeds to dump the school cultural festival work on him. And so we get a lot of scenes of students bonding and working, just like they did for the athletic festival. Ah, I think, so it’s going to be one of THOSE episodes …

Then there’s the one bit of actual drama in the episode, mixed in with helpful exposition. Kohei actually asks Erika what a servant is (thunderclap), and we jump to Kiriha and her master, Kaya, who just happens to be Erika and Lori’s mother (thunderclap). I don’t really get the Kiriha angle. We learn that a servant drinks the blood of a vampire to become one, which gives them all the vampire fringe-benefits (eternal life, heightened abilities, etc) but binds them to the vampire as a servant. Meanwhile Kiriha is confronting Kaya, saying it will all stop now, etc. She obviously hates being a servant. Why did she agree to it in the first place? Not to mention that there’s something afoot that she’s against … Oh, by the way, while everyone else was wondering who Kiriha’s master was, Seichiro knew it all along, but wasn’t talking. Huh?

After that it’s a long heartfelt scene where we learn that Kaya is requiring Erika to obtain a servant by graduation or she’ll be dragged back to the estate, never to return. She hates this. She wants to be human. She refuses to drink blood from one (though she’s taken to guzzling packs of it from her fridge). Her mother hates her for acting like this. I can sort of understand her mother’s reaction: “Kids today. They want to have fun in school and hang out with friends instead of going around drinking people’s blood and wearing capes and being evil like their parents. What is this world coming to?” Kohei, by the way, in that friendly, trying-to-help-out manner that male harem leads often have, offers himself as a servant. And something like that may happen. Erika has another attack of blood-lust, particularly Kohei’s blood. The question is will that happen to thunderclaps or sentimental piano music?

Index II 8, Amagami 21

A Certain Magical Index II 8 is an even bigger mess than usual.

It STARTS straightforwardly ...

It’s the Daihaseisai, an annual athletic festival that all the schools in Academy City participate in. We start with some adults looking for Misaka, who also know Touma. Once they see them walking together (placing a bet) they’re satisfied and we never see them again. Then some weirdness with Touma’s team, and the competitions begin. No need to describe them, because they make no sense whatsoever.

Besides, we don’t see much of them. The show is too busy reintroducing us to obscure characters from the past (well, they’re not really reintroduced, they just show up, usually to bug Touma) and setting up the new convoluted story arc. Two magicians have snuck into Academy City to transfer a “Stab Sword,” which can kill saints. There’s more to it, but I got tired of taking notes. Touma gets this info from Stiyr and Motoharu while looking for Index because they became separated while looking for a way across the street which is blocked for a parade. Then, seconds later, he’s in a giant ball-rolling competition, then he’s back with the two men, then back to the giant balls, where he is run over. So the episode goes. Oh, he sees Index naked again, but that bit I don’t want to have to explain, as it has to do with a future event, and involves more characters from the original series I’ve forgotten about. I told you, this episode is a mess.

Let’s just say Touma is concerned, not only because of this sword thing, but because for some reason they can’t let Index find out. She will attract magicians or something like that. And then there are more pointless side scenes. Only with a minute to go does the plot ramps up, as Touma naturally runs into Oriana Thomson, the carrier (we know in an instant because she’s carrying a long object draped in cloth), grows suspicious and starts to tail her. And that’s it. I know Index likes to go off on tangents but this episode takes the cake.

Amagami SS 21 also introduces a new arc. Let’s see, who can we get to be Junichi’s girl this time?

That's the spirit, Tsukasa!

Actually, Tsukasa is merely volunteering to run the annual founders festival, an event that Junichi has avoided because of his Christmas heartbreak two years ago. It’s this thought that maybe he should do something to change his luck that causes him to volunteer as well. It’s not just to spend time with Tsukasa, honest! And so the latest amiable Amagami story arc begins—with lots of scenes of festival preparations. Tsukasa is organized and tireless, and Junichi is not, but he does his best to help, including a little scene in a storeroom that can’t be opened from the inside, and guess what happens? But they’re not at the stage to start kissing belly buttons yet.

Tsukasa is a little TOO perfect, and I worried for a while if this was going to make her too uninteresting, but things pop up. Her reticence and instant foul mood when they encounter her sister on the street, and then there’s the bit where Junichi discovers Tsukasa’s dropped notebook. He looks around in it for a name, and then she shows up.

So, Tsukasa has a mysterious, perhaps sinister side to her. Guess I don’t have to worry. Not much more is accomplished this episode, just the usual side scenes with Umehara, other Junichi victims (I loved the bit where Haruka peeps at the swimmers), and Miya (I have fallen in love with her “Mui-shi-shi-shi!” laugh). Everyone happily going through their lives in a happy anime series.

Sevens: Index II, Fortune Arterial

A Certain Magical Index II 7 finishes its arc sooner than expected. Aside from some pointless lecturing it’s quite fun.

Okay, Kuroko's lecture wasn't bad.

Kuroko goes off alone to face Awaki in their rematch. How she knows where Awaki is I have no idea, but the point is made again that when Index/Railgun characters try to solve all the problems alone they usually meet with misfortune. Also, it’s too early in the episode for a final fight. Kuroko should get her timing straight. After Awako buries her under a pile of furniture, it’s explanation time. Typically for this franchise the bad guy’s motives make next to no sense. Turns out Awaki wants to use the Remnants to rebuild the Tree Diagram in order to give powers to creatures other than humans. Why would she possibly want to do that? Because, we are told, she is ashamed of her special abilities. Why not refuse to use or negate her abilities, then? I told you it makes no sense.

After Kuroko’s rebuttal, basically, “I don’t care what your motives are, you’re still a shithead who hurts people,” Awaki concedes the point by shooting her (well, Kuroko was swinging a lampstand at her, but still …) and uses her abilities to make the building collapse. Improbable though it was, the subsequent scene is the series’ best yet. Misaka clone 10032 has rousted Touma, who meets up with the real Misaka, and it’s cavalry time. It works partly because the action is terrific, also because I thought for a second that Kuroko was actually going to die (at which point we see a hand holding a coin, and I knew it would be all right).

And then we get a satisfying coda. Though Awaki has escaped, Accelerator confronts her and beats her up. I guess the Misaka clone he shares a bedroom with filled him in. Good to see him in action again. At the moment I forget what side he’s on; in this episode he just seems pissed off. And so the arc ends after only two episodes. I could have done without the crazy lectures, but the action scenes were great.

So I figure someone on the staff of Fortune Arterial said “Wait, isn’t there supposed to be supernatural stuff in this series?” and the others said “Oh, yeah,” and the result is episode 7. The school comedy angle only takes up nine-tenths of the episode.

We can break down the story into two parts with the same conclusion. In the first, Kohei discovers that it’s Erika’s birthday, and though immortal vampires are blasé about such things, he rushes out to get her some flowers. She’s touched by the gift, and later, admiring them in her room, she has the same sort of attack she had in episode one. I was wondering if they’d ever come back to that. I suppose you could call it a metaphor for the chest-tightening of adolescent love as well. In spite of her decision not to date anyone, she doesn’t seem immune to romance.

Then it’s as if it never happened. The big swim meet arrives and everyone happily behaves the way they did during the sports fest. Erika is perfectly fine. I wonder if she even bothered to mention her little interlude to Lori. The episode is called “Omen,” and I was beginning to think we’d already gotten one earlier. Would the rest be all swimming pool hijinks? Would there be another attack? Later on, Erika and Kohei have a swimming match. She holds out her hand to help him out of the pool. Aha! I thought, but no. She just slips. But then their faces get too close, and we see the aftermath.

Really, Erika, you should see a doctor.

Now if all we’re going to get is Erika squirming in her bed clutching her breast, I’d get irritated. However, they do feed us another clue. “I want blood! No … I promised …” but that’s all we get. Well, at least it’s SOMETHING. Maybe next week they’ll actually give us a little more. But the way this show works it’ll probably have to do with the annual culture festival. They haven’t used that cliché yet.

Index 6, Kuragehime 4

A Certain Magical Index moves to a new story and exchanges cult-babble with techno-babble. But it starts innocently enough.

We start with some typical Touma/Index/Sphinx hijinks, apparently there to establish that the weather reports have gotten faulty lately, and then we don’t see them again for the rest of the episode. We get some typical Misaka/Kuroko hijinks (naked drop-kicks in the shower, bra padding, nothing new), and finally the story starts in earnest. Something to do with the theft of some destroyed satellite remnants. Kuroko gets involved and runs into a more formidable teleporter than herself.

So you figure eventually the two will duke it out a second time; it’s good to keep it on a personal level because the story becomes confusing. Something to do with all those Misaka clones they created in the first series, a supercomputer (I think) called Tree Diagram, and starting some project up all over again. More Misaka clones? I’m working with vague memories and Wikipedia to get my head around it all.

I wish I could remember what she's referring to ...

What’s more, Misaka knows all about the intentions of teleporter Awaki, and feels personally responsible for whatever the hell is going on. And she didn’t tell Kuroko about it. Typical of her. In Railgun she was always going off on her own and sometimes paid the price for it. I was more surprised by Kuroko’s reaction. She isn’t angry that Misaka kept something from her; instead she expresses concern and secretly vows to get involved herself. And I learn the lesson again: let the babble flow by and pay attention to the character interactions instead. Oh, and at least one Misaka clone decides to do something, too, but apart from disrobing we don’t know what. I can’t remember, but did the first Index series have this much fanservice?

Another good episode of Kuragehime. We learn some more about Tsukimi’s past and the plot gets stirred a little more.

The key to the plot-stirring is seen in a flashback Tsukimi has while the girls roast sweet potatoes over a fire. At a similar fire her mother collapsed. Her love for her late mother can still upset her. We’ll be getting back to this. But for now they introduce the problem of the building being demolished in two years (the girls are either fine about it or hysterical), set that side as a future plot point, and move on to this week’s actual story. Tsukimi wants to go to a big aquarium to see the jellyfish, Kuranosuke invites himself, and Shou invites himself, too. It’s his car, after all. At first it’s a lovely scene. Surrounded by jellyfish and dressed in one of Chieko’s kimonos, Tsukimi is radiant and happy. Then it gets cheerfully odd when Kuranosuke returns from the bathroom (the ladies’) and sees a shocking event.

Shamefaced confession amongst the jellyfish.

It’s sort of innocent. The jellyfish triggered more memories of her mother, and Shou was simply acting out of compassion. Nevertheless it triggers jealousy in Kuranosuke, much to his surprise. He could have just about any woman he wanted, but when nerd-girl gets hugged by someone else he grows furious! And another thing. Tsukimi might have a thing for Shou, but she can’t talk or act normally around him unless she doesn’t have her glasses on. If she can actually see the world, she is afraid of it.

So we know pretty much what Tsukimi and Kuranosuke are thinking, but what about 30 year-old virgin Shou? We know he likes the dolled-up Tsukimi, but did not recognize the usual nerdy one. We get a possible answer when he sees Tsukimi in sort of a transitional state, half kimono, half nerd clothes. Tsukimi is convinced he’s now disgusted with her, but his reaction is quite different, and leads to the best gag of the episode, and that’s saying something. Just discussing the plot and characters like I’m doing shouldn’t obscure the fact that the show is loaded with funny little moments: Tsukimi’s “ole!” chant, the two nosebleeds, Kuranosuke in the ladies room. There is almost always something interesting going on, and then there are moments where you can just sit there and watch Tsukimi watch the jellyfish with joy.

Fives: Index II, Soredemo

When I watch A Certain Magical Index II (or I, for that matter) I find myself having to take extra notes to help me through all the cult-babble. This time I mostly gave up and just watched.

It’s a losing bet, anyway. The show will invent whatever it wants. All it has to do is sound kabbalistic or at least in Latin. And 9/10′s of it actually have no bearing on the story. Like here. All we need to know is that the good guys are trapped in a cathedral while some crazy deaf nuns with weapons try to break in. Then we learn the ironic truth: there was no reason for anyone to go after Orsola in the first place. Her method to decipher the “Liber AL vel Legis” is bogus. I began to suspect that when she began to explain it. A simple letter replacement system? Come on! But the cool concept here is that the book can be deciphered in hundreds of ways and they never come out right. I love this idea! I wonder what Borges would have done with it.

Sadly, we have to return to the plot. The nuns break in, then all of a sudden (except for Touma having a “I have a plan!” look) Touma is one-on-one with Agnese in some other cathedral. Agnese whips out a crosier and explains the weapon’s abilities and history in some detail while beating Touma up. She also whips up some theology in Orsola’s previous line about people acting through believing. Oh, she also laughs a lot. But then the big fiery cavalry shows up, and the acting through believing concept comes back to bite her on the butt. Not the best Index conclusion, but it will do.

The denouement occurs, as is so often does, in Touma’s hospital room. Kanzaki gives us the rundown, but Touma’s speech is better. The show’s cult-babble is unintelligible but often fun. The politics and power moves by the ten thousand organizations this show juggles is the thing that bugs me the most. Touma cuts through all that by explaining why he’s not affiliated with anyone. He’s worked with the Anglicans before because Index is a member, no other reason. “If Agnese had asked me for help I probably would have helped her.” Too bad there’s more political talk to bring the final moments down.

Two inconsequential stories in Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru 5. Both were predictable. The second was better.

Toshiko has won tickets to a private screening and wants to invite Sanada. She tries to get up the nerve, blames her procrastination on Hotori, and fails. Hotori watched from the sidelines, amused; in fact, that’s what she does for the entire episode. In the end she mutters something about having the world work for her, instead of the other way around. Even her boss doesn’t know what to make of that. Not terribly interesting.

In the second one Hotori’s kid brother Takeru is asked out by his tsundere classmate Eri. This puts the boy in all sorts of danger. Eri is the type who would report boys using game cards in school, in other words, the enemy. Of course, we’re all asking why she asked him out in the first place. We don’t get an answer.

So he goes off on his first date with a girl, hoping he isn’t spotted by his male friends, and having various adults he encounters tease him. It’s really the worst thing for a boy. Date-wise he doesn’t do too badly. A couple mistakes, but they manage to have fun and Eri shows she has a sweet side. At the end he figures maybe some girls aren’t so bad after all, until the next day when he meets her in school. His conclusion: “Women are such mysterious creatures.”

Hotori's reaction to Takeru's conclusion.

Again, predictable. But it was nice to see Hotori interact with her siblings (there’s also a mini-story concerning her sister) in ways that aren’t so abrasive.

Fours: Index, Arterial, Letter Bee

A Certain Magical Index II 4 brings us plenty of what makes the series so fun to watch.

Touma to the rescue.

The first part is surprisingly low-key. The Catholics have Orsola, and Anglicans can’t interfere, Tatemiya goes off to fight them alone. Touma’s job is done. There’s a long bit where three characters just walk, and you can almost hear the gears turning in Touma’s head as he decides what to do. Unlike some others, he is a free agent, and he has no decreed reason to rescue Orsola, except that she’s a girl in trouble. This is reflected in a nice speech Orsola makes while the nuns are roughing her up. She had received aid from people with nothing to gain. What a gift!

Stiyl and Tatemiya close behind him ...

And you figured that Touma, walking in unarmed and facing a battalion of fighting nuns, would need some aid himself. It’s not surprising that Tatemiya joins him, of course, but then Stiyl finds a loophole in the Anglican policy (I knew that cross that Touma gave Orsola would come into play eventually), and Index is there because Touma is. And we got ourselves a big fight between magic users and nuns. Explosions! Fire! Leaping escapes! Epic swordplay (well, Tatemiya just swings his sword and a bunch of nuns go down, but his friends are pretty good)!

... and Index with her light show.

And the show’s specialty: Cult babble! This time it’s Index’s turn to whip it out. “Sheol Fear,” which, according to the fansubbers, “… thoroughly impeaches contradictions in the Christian teachings.” For our purposes, she starts to sing, a light show begins, and the nuns all fall down. Apparently she can use the power of all those secret books in her brain. Nice trick. But the nuns come up with a rather gross way of overcoming Index’s song, and so the episode ends. It was a good one. It had something for everyone, except fanservice.

Fortune Arterial 4 continues to be a most bewildering vampire show. Once again the only hint of threat is an evil smile from an unknown girl at the very end. Oh, and there’s this part at the beginning.

Lori and Erika give Kohei a matter-of-fact rundown of what vampires really are and aren’t. Yes, they drink blood, but consider actually biting people to be kind of gross. They’re indestructable and immortal, but they’re not sure about that. And Erika doesn’t like hot foods. Now, it’s clear that they have some plan for Kohei, at least Lori does, but I’m beginning to think it’s not going to be very sinister.

The remainder of the episode deals with Kohei in charge of the annual athletic festival, a huge undertaking. Kohei is suddenly beset with work. But he’s determined to fit in and make it fun for everyone, and the student body begins to rally around him. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to have him fall ill from exhaustion, or maybe a bloody vampire shows up, but instead we get one inspirational scene after another. While it’s nice that Kohei is testing his strengths and having a good time, after too much of it I was checking my watch. The festival must be next episode. Maybe a vampire, I mean, a new vampire, will show up.

Letter Bee Reverse 4 is a good one. We start with Lag, working on the engines of the imagery lighthouse he maintains with his beloved grandfather, happy that he’ll one day take on the caretaker’s role, when he starts hearing voices … Huh, what?

Guess who the monster is.

It works well. I try to figure out what the heck is going on with no clues except for a flashback scene where we learn Lag is going on a delivery near the same lighthouse. By the time the beloved grandfather shows up with a gun, muttering “hate,” I was thoroughly perplexed. But with any effective mystery, there’s a letdown once the solution is revealed.

The stories are uneven, but Letter Bee can be great to look at.

Once we learn what’s going on (and Lag uses his spirit amber to get to the bottom of this grandfather fellow) it becomes mundane. There’s bonding between Lag and the cool new character, Jiggy. Lag cries at the grandfather’s grave. The usual Letter Bee stuff. But at least the first half had me going.

Index II, Yakumo, Letter Bee, all threes

If you ignore the cult-babble A Certain Magical Index 3 almost makes sense. I suppose it helps to know that the Amakusa Church wants Orsola Aquinas (for different reasons than we think), and so do the Roman Catholics, though why they dragged the Church of England into this I don’t know. But all you need to do is follow Touma, not a member of anything, as he tries to get to the bottom of this for his own reasons. Also Steryl and Index, of course, who have their own way of dealing with the bad guys when they arrive, by deserting Touma.

Yeah, keep it on a human level. There’s a nice but rather long scene between Touma and Orsola (every time she escapes she runs into him) where she wonders what his affiliation is and seems surprised that he doesn’t have one. He’s just helping her out because he wants to. What the connection is with the crucifix he gives her (which Steryl gave to him) we don’t know yet, but that’s normal for this show. As for the plot, it seems that the Amakusa Church wanted Orsola because it will cause their saint, Kanzaki, to … feel better, I suppose. Seiji, the Amakusa leader, is pretty vague. The Roman Catholic Church, he claims, wants to kill her.

A member of the Roman Catholic Church.

You don’t have to understand the stuff about the disciples that sister Angelene unleashes (“debt collector, eradicator of magicians and lowly servant”) or Index negating the spell by babbling letters which sister Luccia (the crazy-looking girl above) describes as a Spell Intercept. Basically, Orsola Knows Too Much, one side wants to kill her, the other to use her, while Touma just wants her safe. Oh, and Index bites Touma’s head again, while Steryl still looks down at everyone. That’s all you need to know.

Psychic Detective Yakumo remains on probation. A lot of things in episode 3 work well, but some do not, and I have to start cutting something.

The story mostly was fine. Since we aren’t really sure which ghost was the main character it kept us guessing. It came to an exciting conclusion with some nice character development for Yakumo. But many things didn’t add up. Why did Nakahara and Haruka go off in his car? Did he have a motive after seeing the picture on Yakumo’s wall? Not to mention the sheer coincidence of Nakahama visiting Yakumo in the first place.

Poor kid ...

The climax went to a place I didn’t expect and worked well. Yakumo may have certain abilities, but he’s still powerless, unable to rescue the ghost kid from the nasty things in the tunnel. For which he beats himself up. Sadly, this leads to scenes of other characters talking about how troubled he is. We had figured that out already. And Haruka still has no personality at all. And they STILL haven’t gotten to the obviously evil guys we see every episode …

Letter Bee Reverse 3 is a standalone, full of heartwarming moments and stupid plot devices.

Well, it starts out well, discounting the “what shall I write to Gauche?” stuff at the very beginning. Sickly Ray Atlee has been receiving hand-painted postcards from a mysterious someone which have bolstered her spirits. She wants Lag to find out who’s been sending them. Lag becomes a detective, checking out the watermark (the world famous Howling Axolotls brand) and the paints. Meanwhile we’ve seen enough of the story to figure out it’s the clumsy new maid, Kimidori. But it’s nice to see Lag come to this conclusion on his own.

Amberground's first wide-screen flat-panel HDTV.

Alas, from here on out we get the same old deux ex amber spirit. When another maid tries to take credit for the postcards (in return for a lot of land) Lag, who has been sworn to secrecy, whips out the gun and, sigh, once again everything is revealed. I’m very tired of this plot device. It looks like Letter Bee hasn’t changed. I should really drop it, but after watching so many episodes I’ve sort of grown attached. I’ll give it one more chance.

Index 2, Amagami 15, Shinryaku! 2

A Certain Magical Index II 2 begins its first story arc. I had forgotten how confusing this world can be.

Steyr hasn't changed.

I spent much of the time going “Hey, I remember him … er, who is he again?” and scribbling a lot of notes concerning people and factions. Happily, the show goes from Archbishop Laura Stewart filling in Steyr about his new mission to a silly scene where Index and Maika the maid (rotating on a robot) talk about nothing at all. The fact that Steyr kidnaps Index while Maika just turns around and around is amusing enough, but more so when she delivers the ransom note (still rotating) and Touma sighs. It’s just Steyr.

Good job, Touma! Even if you had no idea.

We need the silliness because the actual story requires a reference tome larger than any that Index has in her head. Let’s see … There’s a book of incredible power called the “Liber AL vel Legis,” which can only be translated by one person, Orsola Acquinas of the Roman Catholic Church. But a renegade group called the Amakusa Catholics have both stolen the book and Orsola. Steyr is out to rescue both, using the Liborum Prohibitorum if need be, which Archbishop Laura Stewart has given him, even though he may have to go against the dreaded Kaori Kanzaki, one of the twenty living saints on the planet. Agnese Sanctis is also there to assist him (Meanwhile Touma just happens to run into Orsola on the street). Anyway, everyone’s now waiting for the stars to align so that the Amakusa Catholics can move using the vortices of the Miniturized Pilgrimage. Got that?

Oh, and Touma accidentally walks in and sees Index and Agnese naked, so he gets bitten a lot. This fills out the episode. A typical story arc begins, Index-style.

In Amagami SS the Ai story arc continues on its unhurried, amiable way. Junichi gets tickets to an amusement park and invites Ai and her little brother along, but the brother falls sick, meaning it’s just the two of them. Funny how that happens. We get typical amusement park scenes, well, at least until we hit the haunted house. I think they slipped Junichi a little LSD. He starts seeing things he shouldn’t see in such a place, and Ai gets … transformed.

What’s fun about it is Junichi’s reaction. I mean, what would you do your possible girlfriend became a bowl of delicious, piping-hot miso ramen, especially if you also had melted butter? It’s one of the weirdest erotic scenes I’ve ever come across. And it’s never explained. The next thing you Junichi is sucking on Ai’s finger. She’s a bit peeved about being eaten. Later she kisses him. Such is the way the Amagami romances roll.

We move to more serious things. Ai is not chosen to represent the swim team in a certain race and gets upset. Once again Junichi shows his own, odd way of showing concern. He should have at least taken his shoes off. So at this point they’ve bonded, even kissed. What’s left for the arc finale? The preview scenes look very interesting indeed.

Shinryaku! Ika Musume 2 is about the same as the first. Ika goes around either being naïve or bratty. Oh, we meet a couple new characters.

First, Goro, whom she bonds and un-bonds with, misinterpreting what a lifeguard does. It does force her to rescue a human when he can’t (namely because she’s stopping him), the closest thing this aquatic invader gets to a moral conundrum this episode. It’s not much. We don’t even get an answer to the question: how the hell could Ika possibly drown, anyway? The second story isn’t much better. Ika insists that they throw her a birthday party, and they humor her. Her bratty side comes out this time. But it DOES have fireworks.

In the third story we meet Sanae, who takes an instant liking to Ika in the worst way. It’s basically an excuse to dress Ika up in various costumes for you fans out there who are into looking at cosplaying squid girls. You know who you are. But Sanae has a cute dog who bites Ika’s tentacle, so it’s not all bad.

The last episode ones? A Certain Magical Index II, Soredomo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

The first A Certain Magical Index series was both appealing and frustrating. It brought us some interesting characters but too often fell to incoherent stories with one magical group or individual after another showing up, as if they were pulling cult terminology randomly out of a hat. And Index appeared far too rarely in the show named for her. The spinoff, A Certain Scientific Railgun, had some of these same problems, maddening story arcs, sloppy writing, but grounded itself in the adventures of a handful of girls. The series was as much about their friendship as it was about level-uppers. Because of this the strange world managed to grow, and I found myself missing it when it was over. Which is to say I’m delighted to see A Certain Magical Index II.

I’m happy to say Touma is still Touma, a guy with no magical powers but a right hand that can dispel magic. He’s also unlucky and put-upon by everyone he meets, while all he wants to do is live peacefully and get his homework done. An appealing character whom I was always glad to see when he showed up on Railgun. And Index is … Index. Her main job in the original series was to get kidnapped or threatened, when she appeared at all, oh, and to bug Touma. The new series starts us with a minor stand-alone story to get us back into their world. A guy kidnaps Index so he can get a look at one of the forbidden books in her brain.

It turns out he wants to save the cursed woman he loves, he’s not really bad, etc. They do reintroduce a theme used very well in Railgun, that of a city where some people have powers, others don’t and the friction that can cause between them. I hope they get back to that. And as a bonus we briefly see Misaka, pissed and flustered in turns around Touma, though she gets more flustered than I expected. Hmm. Next week more old characters return and I’m going to have to catch up with all their affiliations and rivalries. Since this stuff dragged the original series down I’m not looking forward to that. Maybe this time they’ll do a better job.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru is about Hotori Arashiyama, a half-assed girl, and the half-assed maid cafe she works in.

About the only thing maidy about it is the outfits. They don’t even serve tea, can’t be bothered. This seems to suit Hotori fine. It suits Hotori’s classmate Sanada, too, since he’s one of their few customers and so gets time alone with her. I’m not sure where the story, if any, is going to go. The first episode has two: first, Hotori’s friend Toshiko shows up and tries to get the place to act more classy. In the second their homeroom teacher shows up to berate them for breaking school rules. Slapstick ensues, some of it funny.

A clumsy maid exercise goes awry.

I liked the premiere well enough but I’m not sure it has staying power. There are a lot of quick camera shots to keep us on edge and keep us from noticing that the character designs aren’t all that much, though the art looks fine. It’s quirky, which I always like. We’ll see.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 1 brings us four cute and annoying little detectives attending Holmes Detective Academy. Apparently in this world everyone’s either a detective and a thief. A “golden age” of, er, thieving and detecting.

Meet the Milky Holmes girls.

Everyone has a “toy,” some sort of inner power that gives them certain abilities. Milky Holmes (the name of the four-girl team) has lost their toys, thanks to some deviousness or other concocted by their nemesis, Lady Arsene. Not content with that, Arsene and her cohorts work in the academy and are using their influence to drive the girls out of school altogether, a big drop from before, when Milky Holmes was the envy of the school. The girls have three months to get their toys back—or else. Why Arsene, who as Henrietta, is the headmaster, doesn’t just expel them I don’t know. Some weird things are going on behind the scenes. And where did Kobayashi Opera, who trained the girls, run off too? What was that mysterious bolt of lightning during the girls’ humiliating attempt to defuse a bomb in front of the student body?

Meet Lady Arsene. Now, whose side are you on?

Not to say I’m interested. The girls are shrill little clichés. The bad guys, known as the Gentleman Thieves, are clichés as well, but they’re more fun to watch than the heroes. The show is fully aware of this and devotes most of the ED to showing Arsene in revealing poses. Twenty, posing as a teacher, has some good moments of narcissism, not enough to save the series, but things liven up when he’s around. In the end the series had better whip the Milky Holmes girls into shape if I’m going to keep watching it.