Talk:Kamijou Touma/@comment-66.87.121.115-20140102012313/@comment-174.92.152.212-20140102035228

Hi, KingWizard here, I will try to give you how I see it.

But first and foremost, don't read the manga. In my opinion, it's a poor adaptation of the original material, while it has the advantage of an imagery of the events, it poorly translate the characters' thoughts like how the light novels do, so you can get easily confused (the anime also does this, but to a lesser extent). Furthermore, it cut 2 majors arcs in the storyline like it's nothing, giving the story no direction.

Anyway, ranting about the manga aside, let's talk about the light novels.

I highly recommend this work to anyone who enjoys fiction with a lot of powerful characters and crazy plots. The magic system is refreshingly different from all the others I've seen - everything is based off of some legend or religious story, which guides it away from being the normal beam/elemental spam magic, and includes some awesome bonuses for those who know their myths.

For all the volumes of Toaru Majutsu no Index that's been released, I still find it fascinating when Kamachi Kazuma (the author of the series) is playing with the rules of the game. He set rules, different rules, but he doesn't bend it like other authors who are absolute horror when writing. The author built the Magic Side to better contrast against the Science Side. Mysticism vs. Rationality. The Unknown vs. The Known. Moreover, it really emphasizes how the conflict between the two is a major theme of the book. It's more than just a conflict between two different power sets. Its a conflict between two different ways of life.

Comes Kamijou Touma, our protagonist. Kamijou's a Level 0, the lowest level of espers, because his particular superpower, Imagine Breaker (the ability to negate any and all psychic and magical phenomena by touching them with his right hand), is undetectable by the methods that measure the levels. Furthermore, his Imagine Breaker is actually not an esper ability, and later on in the series, it's heavily theorized that it's not magic either.

And we'll not get into whatever superpower is bottled up within him that pops out whenever his right hand is severed from the body...

Touma may be a Level 0, but he's not normal by any stretch of the imagination.

Now what readers and viewers see is an ordinary high school student defeating opponents millions of times more powerful than he is, thanks to his hard-earned street fighting skills, incredible tenacity and absolute refusal to hit the bucket, and his anti-magic right hand, otherwise known to some people as "Plot Armor". But I guess the "Plot Armor HAX" and "Gary Stu" accusations have something to do with the fact that his opponents rely too much on their powers. See, here in TAMNI (acronym for Toaru Majutsu no Index), power levels aren't necessary needed to win. There are lots of factors to think of when a fight occurs. All the fights against power users, whether magic or otherwise, are won by analyzing the opponent's power and finding its weak points, so the fights are not only spectacular but intellectually interesting. We have to analyze it more on the situation and not just watch it Kamachi's work is not your typical shounen fights where the stronger will win or the one with stronger willpower will win.

Anti-Magic allow rooms for creative (and crazy) interaction between the already established power. Plus, since this series focuses more on power utility and usability than power level, I can't see it falling to the level of the stereotypical fantasy shounen.

Numerous times, Touma actually needs help to defeat the villains. He rarely, if ever win his fights completely on his own, in a one-on-one. Imagine Breaker, for all its, is only contained to Touma's right arm. His allies provide support, exhausting the villain and/or distracting him/her. I think it's safe to say that Touma would not have been able to have beaten anyone without support. Just 'cause Touma's the one the camera focuses on and does the punching doesn't mean he's the only relevant character.

Pay attention to the fights, and you can easily see that Imagine Breaker is not all that was needed for defeating the foes.

There are other aspects that affect the fights in Toaru Majutsu no Index. Such as the psychological aspects of the enemy. Their resolve and moral values. The world in TAMNI isn't colored in black and white but with shades of gray in between. Thus there are not always the right or wrong in it.

In any given one of his fights, Touma spends quite a while speechifying about how the opponent is wrong and how their ideals will fail. It primarily works because his enemies are more often than not good people who think doing this or that bad thing can achieve their goals. In a less idealistic 'verse, Kamijou would have been six feet under with either a bullet to the head or a body charred beyond recognition. But this is the author's writing style. This is how the author has written Touma's character.

I like Touma myself. He's funny. But I can easily see where he'd rub people the wrong way.

In conclusion, I can't think of anything I've ever read that I thought was perfect or didn't want seen done this way instead of that way. Does Index have its flaws? Truckloads. Does it have cool stuff? Truckloads. If I had written it, would it happen like in canon? No, but that's true of everything. For example, if you are hoping for epic face-offs between espers and magicians, you're going to be disappointed most of the time. Espers fight espers and magi fight magi. Even at the end of the light novels, there is very little hostile interaction between the two sides. But Toaru Majutsu no Index is a cool work with a unique concept. Go read it. (Or watch it, if that's your thing.)