neko’s thinkbox

Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Ah, I had my hopes up for this episode, but the first opinion I had after the episode was that it was a mediocre ep, only because of the excessive dialogue. (tbh I had more fun watching Kannagi after Index today, and I haven’t followed that series all the time yet.)

Read my lips… (in b4 random otakus smooching the screen)

First things first: a couple of days ago, Kawada Mami’s new single PSI-Missing got finally released! And as expected, it’s simply awesome. Can’t stop listening to it, and there it goes, looping in my player ad nauseum…

As usual, your tl;dr summary: »Show me dat spoiler!«

To Aru Majutsu no Index Episode 5 - Midnight (Limit)

Stiyl and Kaori pay Touma and Index a visit, but this time just to warn Touma that the erasure of memories would take place at midnight. Soon after their visit, Index collapses. Touma, having no clue what to do, sits at her bedside, trying to find a solution to the problem.

Sometime in the evening, Komoe leaves for the public bathhouse, leaving Index and Touma behind. A couple of hours before the appointed time, Kaori gives Touma a phone call to remind him the limit: midnight. During the conversation, Kaori reveals that they couldn’t achieve anything with magic, and that Index couldn’t remember how to use the spells stored in her memory. Touma on the other hand is convinced that there is at least one person in the entire city who could use science in order to take Index’s memories.

So he calls up various people, but to no avail: Komoe is relaxing in the pool, and every other contact doesn’t pick up the phone, except one. But at that time, it’s only a couple of seconds before midnight…

At midnight, Stiyl and Kaori appear in Komoe’s apartment as promised. Touma desperately tries to convince them that there might be a way to use some kind of scientific or psychic technique in order to have a less painful memory erasing process, but then Stiyl confronts him with the question if he seriously considers telling Index straight in the eye that she would be the guinea pig of experimental science and medicine.

He presents Touma a crucifix (with the words Index Librorum Prohibitorum carved on its back), which is a vital part of the ceremony, and dares him to destroy its powers with his right hand if he is so sure those psychic techniques will eventually save Index, who is suffering greatly. Touma, of course, is totally hesitating, and decides not to touch the crucifix. Stiyl then proceeds with drawing a field on the wall.

Touma wants to part properly with Index, but Stiyl tells him to get out and calls him a monster for his right hand. Also, they wouldn’t know what he would be doing to Index in that time either. Kaori puts in a good word for Touma, though - if he had such evil intentions, he would have touched the crucifix earlier already. Stiyl gives in and grants Touma ten more minutes alone with Index.
An emotional convo ensues, Touma regrets his weakness, and promises Index to make up for it next time. She falls asleep. Touma goes through everything he knows so far: the 103000 books take up about 85% of Index’s memory, while the other 15% would be filled within one year. He decides to call up Komoe-sensei to get some more info about memory.

Komoe, relaxing in some kind of massaging chair, tells him about the capacity of the human brain to store approximately about 140 years of memories, the (rather futile) distinction between the word, reflex and event memory, but most importantly, reveals that even if one was to have a perfect memory (like Index has), exhausting the available space is impossible. Which makes sense: imagine if 15% of one’s memory would be filled within one year…. Eight years would suffice to kill one person. That’s stupid, right? And that’s all there is! So in the end, it’s not Index’s brain which is threatening to ASPLODE, but something else that’s harming her.

Following this logic, Touma starts touching Index’s forehead with his right hand, and slowly moves downward. If there was something, it would be located near the head, in a hidden place. And guess what… there it is, down Index’s mouth, a magic seal in her own throat! Without any other option, Touma reaches inside Index’s mouth with a finger, but upon contact with the seal… a violent pressure wave is released.

Stiyl and Kaori, alarmed by the huge explosion, rush back inside the apartment. Index’s self-protection program is initialized again, this time with hostile intents though: the first to the third Necklace having been broken, the program now proceeds to erase the threat to the 103000 books stored in her memory - Touma.

In my last Index post, I assumed they would wrap this arc up with this episode, and move on to the more interesting (and sadly Komoe-less) arc, but that will have to wait for the next episode now. Instead, there has been only static dialogue in this episode, save for the last minute where Index’s self-protection goes haywire.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this series, recently. To Aru Majutsu no Index definitely is perfect novel/manga material, I’m sure it would make for a great audio dorama too, but these days, I feel that it is not dynamic enough for the anime so far. It almost feels like the manga advances faster than the anime!

I mean, it’s a really awesome story, and there’s a lot of interesting dialogue - which is very good in printed media - but on TV you would expect a little more… dynamism. That’s where this arc “fails” in the general opinion so far: action. I’m not complaining though, mind you - I do love this series. I prefer having a well-built story rather than rushing through the most important parts without any explanations. Just seeing the nice visuals and cute characters, I’m content. But perhaps I have this positive attitude because I already know how awesome the story is - what if I had never read it before… etc. Ah well, enough complaining.

A girl as cute as this turns into THIS! What has science done! (wait… wasn’t it magic…)

So, this ep didn’t bring redemption, but there was at least the important info about Index’s condition: 15% of her memories filled within one year? BULLSHIT. Although it is proven that every single human subconsciously keeps classifying memories by importance, and tends to forget the least important ones, that doesn’t mean the brain vacates some space by itself in order to prevent overfilling.
I think it is safe to assume that even if one was to remember strictly EVERYTHING (which in itself is already impossible), it would be impossible to exhaust the possible memory available.

I don’t even know if any kind of capacity limit (like those 140 years mentioned in the anime/manga) with any kind of scientific relevance has ever been defined. Besides, as far as I know, memory is quite expandable, so yeah. Then again, it’s still unclear whether Index is a real human or not, considering all the different stuffs those guys from Necessarius must have implanted into her… (also, take a look at the Opening, that being in the LCL tank… (lololol neko’s stupid NGE reference) (Actually, it’s not Index but very similar… Area 51 here we come)

Whatever! Take it easy! (’ヮ’ )

So, what does this tell us? Necessarius lied, Index almost died. Well, Styil and Kaori could take the blame for being so gullible- but then again, they didn’t know better as well did they? So they blindly followed the orders of Necessarius, thinking that an excess of memories would be lethal to Index.
In fact, the seal that was inside Index’s throat was a precautionary measure of Necessarius to prevent Index from betraying them; those 103000 books stored in her memory have the power to distort the world, after all. So, erasing her memories prevents her from remembering how to even make any use any of the hidden knowledge. And just in case, another mechanism (the seal) unleashes some very dangerous powers within Index. Guarantee void when seal is broken? Not bad, Necessarius.

Next episode should FINALLY bring this arc to end with some long-deserved ACTION, and then ep 7 will be imouto-licious! (or not. But a Miko is fine too :D Wakimikos even more, but we won’t have that privilege in Toaru.)

Oh, I already typed a lot, but I still feel like having my usual Komoe folly. Sooooo, this time I paid a lot more attention to Komoe’s “desu”’s, as has been suggested in the IRC channel, and apparently it’s pretty symptomatic for Kimiko Koyama (Komoe’s VA). People find it annoying, but I find it rather cute. (Then again, I liked Suiseiseki’s desu too… I’m a Desu-tard?)

Speaking of Komoe……… RRRRAWR, MY GODDESS!

*dies of moe*
I can’t get enough of her! Especially since I most likely won’t see her in the next arc at all… ;O;

Oh, and here’s some very random trivia from this ep. Do you know this symbol?

Yes, it’s the seal/necklace thing down Index’s throat, FABULOUS! 1up for you. Actually, that is the symbol for the planet Jupiter. It could be an interesting reference to Roman mythology: Jupiter was the ruler and protector of the gods, and the symbol was the thunderbolt - does this mean the symbol here is protecting some kind of magic of the gods? Heh.