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To Aru Majutsu No Index Feats/Discussion/Analysis Thread - One Othinus To Rule Them All
- Thread starter Cryso Agori
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Finished Accelerator’s story and now on Mugino’s
Accelerator’s a very technical character to use. Tricky but damn powerful once you get used to his combos
Mugino is a fucking zoner’s wet dream
3 fights in a row of spamming her Scatter Shot and / or Silicon Burn moves from across the stage to where the other side couldn’t even land a hit on me
Accelerator’s a very technical character to use. Tricky but damn powerful once you get used to his combos
Mugino is a fucking zoner’s wet dream
3 fights in a row of spamming her Scatter Shot and / or Silicon Burn moves from across the stage to where the other side couldn’t even land a hit on me
^ Aeon uploading a recent interview with Kazuma Kamachi
Regarding OT1's publication:
Kamachi: "We came up with various ideas after the project started. It wasn't decided to do Index straight away. There were completely different ideas, but among them, we decided to do a magical story.
In order to highlight magic, we wanted to do something opposite, so the story was born set in the city of science - Academy City. Miki told me that having two axes might make it difficult to understand, but I'm glad that I pushed for it (wry smile).
Although the story is completely different, there was a character in a previously submitted manuscript who was the prototype for Mikoto, so I carried over some elements of her."
Did you have a deep knowledge of the occult in 2004?
Kamachi: "I've always been interested in mysterious things like that, but I didn't have much knowledge about them, so I often researched them while writing. However science and technology are constantly evolving.
The occult, or rather what I need doesn't stray from the existing framework to an extent, so I've managed to get this far. New materials are constantly being unearthed and conventional wisdom is constantly being overturned in a short period, which isn't the case with the occult."
What about science?
Kamachi: "I get information from Newton or the science section of the news from time to time. If I were only writing about science or magic, I might run out of material, but as I'm gathering information from both sides, I'm somehow able to keep writing."
What did you pay attention to as a new writer?
Kamachi: "At the time, there were many trends in Dengeki Bunko, but I think supernatural urban action stories stood out of the most. Boogiepop was of course popular, but Shakugan no Shana was particularly popular at the time.
In order to avoid being lost in a world filled with all these supernatural powers, I thought the protagonist should be someone who destroys all the supernatural powers."
How did you come up with the outline of OT1?
Kamachi: "If I only depicted the occult, the standards would be vague, and it would be hard to understand how strong it is. From there, I added a scientific flavour to the magic side, Index was born in that process.
In terms of the structure, I wanted the heroine to be someone who arouses the protagonist's desire to protect her until she reveals her true nature. In that case, I wanted to give the heroine some desire that everyone can understand and make her look cute.
As a result, Index became a character with a strong appetite. One technique is to use eating scenes while explaining difficult things."
How was Kamijou Touma created?
Kamachi: "I hate to say it myself, but the story of Index is quite complicated. The enemies come from abroad, and it uses Western magic that is not very familiar in Japan... this leaves the readers wondering, "Who is this person? What does he do?
Why would someone do something so horrible?" I think that rather than making the main character more aggressive, it would be best to keep it as simple as possible. So I made him a hot blooded character who breaks down injustice and moves forward.
His tendency to be unhappy is, in a sense, the flip side of wanting to be happy, so I assigned him desires, just like Index."
What was the reason behind memory loss at the end of OT1?
Kamachi: "Of course, the main reason was to deal with Index losing her memory... but once he starts harbouring secrets, he's no longer just a hot blooded guy.
I thought it would be more interesting for the main character to lose his memory that way. But now that Touma has a backstory, his memories have become more solid (laughs)."
How was Misaka Mikoto created?
Kamachi: ""Although the setting of Academy City was born, there was no character who could prove the strength of science. So while setting the pinnacle of their power as espers, Mikoto naturally came about as a character with electrical abilities.
To be honest, she wasn't that important in OT1, but as we had multiple meetings, Miki told us "I want to make OT3 a story about the science side", so we decided to establish her a heroine.”
Which characters are difficult to control/write?
Kamachi: "It's Accelerator. He's a difficult character who thinks about complicated things even when looking at an ordinary scene, so I feel that it's harder to use him than Kamijou, who expresses his emotions more directly."
You're famous for your fast writing speed, so surely you spend less time worrying than other people...?
Kamachi: "I wonder (bitter laugh). Well, I never delete my manuscripts, no matter how embarrassing the content is.
If I delete scenes and start over, I'll end up in an endless loop and think what I deleted was better, so before I rewrite something, I copy and paste it elsewhere and save it, so I can go back to it. Right now at my fastest, I can write a volume in about one week."
Did writing Index at the same time as Heavy Object and Zashiki Warashi of the Intellectual Village confuse you?
Kamachi: "Actually the works I wrote in parallel are the result of outputting (in a different form) the ideas I had accumulated while writing Index...
But I couldn't depict them there. You can't have Index depict the way people in HO smile even after they die. ZW is a bit of an unconventional story, but I wanted to write about strange things, including monsters, and I completed it properly. So I didn't get too confused."
Regarding Accelerator.
Kamachi: "I thought of him as a character to contrast with Kamijou. He's cruel, doesn't get hurt thanks to his ability, and guards with his whole body instead of just his fists. I took that character's story (OT3) and armed it with the latest science...
...and technology at the time, like cloning technology, quantum theory, and distributed computers (laughs). I did something similar with Shokuhou Misaki. She was born as a contrast to Mikoto, as a character with a mentality that contrasts with the physical."
Did you incorporate any elements from Haimura's illustrations into writing the characters?
Kamachi: "The angels... I think Kazakiri in particular was heavily influenced by Haimura's designs. It all started with me trying to make a friend for Index.
Index is a special girl, so I had to make Kazakiri a mysterious girl to match that. As a result, she became a collection of AIM diffusion fields, but at her core, she's a human."
Which character is the easiest to write?
Kamachi: "Kamijou. It may simply be because he has the most scenes, but his reasons for acting are simple, so he acts without me having to think about it (laughs). It's also easy to make Tsuchimikado and Stiyl move, on the magic side.
It's cheap, but leaving aside the battle scenes, I'm a little lost when it comes to slice of life. So, if I had to choose my favourite character, it would be Kamijou. But if I were to simply choose my own favourite character personally, it would be Orsola."
As you were writing, did your editor ever give you any instructions?
Kamachi: "This is about the background story of Komoe. I was thinking of a backstory where the reason she has a small body is because she never ages.
However due to the scale of the story, I was told not to include one too many mysteries, as a result I ended up making a cute teacher who just looks like a loli."
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Adding on to why I always figured Accelerator was rough for Kamachi to write - he basically ended up like Vegeta from Dragon Ball - originally supposed to be a one-note villain that became a fan favorite that got editors to notice and encourage the writer to make them a recurring and eventually main character.
If you read all of Kamachi’s works, you’ll notice there’s a kind of character archetype Kamachi is good with writing - characters like Touma, Hamazura, Quenser and Heivia, Shiroyama Kyousuke whose just a more serious take on the previous ones, etc.
Accelerator is pretty much the antithesis to them and it showed. Some of the first volumes that focused on Accelerator, the dialogue and internal thoughts from him were pretty rough before Kamachi got a better grasp on how he’d write Accelerator’s character that didn’t make him just seem like a lunatic or edgelord when he wasn’t with Last Order.
The other problem with Accelerator is of course his powers and writing actual scenarios where he could be challenged - brain damage that requires him to use an electronic choker that allows him only 30 minutes of his use for his powers a day and Kamachi still had trouble with this.
The Accelerator manga in particular suffered a lot from this - using his brain damage as a plot device to keep him out of his own spin-off to allow for other characters to get their development before he finally shows up and resolves the entire conflict in a chapter or two at best.
If you read all of Kamachi’s works, you’ll notice there’s a kind of character archetype Kamachi is good with writing - characters like Touma, Hamazura, Quenser and Heivia, Shiroyama Kyousuke whose just a more serious take on the previous ones, etc.
Accelerator is pretty much the antithesis to them and it showed. Some of the first volumes that focused on Accelerator, the dialogue and internal thoughts from him were pretty rough before Kamachi got a better grasp on how he’d write Accelerator’s character that didn’t make him just seem like a lunatic or edgelord when he wasn’t with Last Order.
The other problem with Accelerator is of course his powers and writing actual scenarios where he could be challenged - brain damage that requires him to use an electronic choker that allows him only 30 minutes of his use for his powers a day and Kamachi still had trouble with this.
The Accelerator manga in particular suffered a lot from this - using his brain damage as a plot device to keep him out of his own spin-off to allow for other characters to get their development before he finally shows up and resolves the entire conflict in a chapter or two at best.
Really have Miki to thank for how much more Level 5 content we got than Kamachi originally intended as well as Science side stuff in general being more prominent.
He pushed for OT3 being a focus on the Science Side which gave us both Accelerator and one of the best volumes in this whole series and made even better when we saw the Railgun side of it from Misaka’s point of view.
Kamachi originally wanted to do his first spin-off on Shirai Kuroko before Miki instead suggested Misaka, which gave us Railgun and cemented Misaka as basically the face of the franchise while also influencing how several of the other Level 5s would get their own series.
And I bet it was Miki who decided Shokuhou Misaki would have a past with Touma and eventually pushed her into being one of the main girls of Index alongside Index, Misaka, and Othinus by New Testament as well.
He pushed for OT3 being a focus on the Science Side which gave us both Accelerator and one of the best volumes in this whole series and made even better when we saw the Railgun side of it from Misaka’s point of view.
Kamachi originally wanted to do his first spin-off on Shirai Kuroko before Miki instead suggested Misaka, which gave us Railgun and cemented Misaka as basically the face of the franchise while also influencing how several of the other Level 5s would get their own series.
And I bet it was Miki who decided Shokuhou Misaki would have a past with Touma and eventually pushed her into being one of the main girls of Index alongside Index, Misaka, and Othinus by New Testament as well.
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Updated the interview with even more stuff.
Orsola being Kamachi’s favorite character - unexpected but my respect for the man just went up even more.
Touma’s voice actor Abe Atsushi has also gone on record to say Orsola’s his number 1 waifu as well
Both Touma and his own actor like their Nee-sans
Orsola being Kamachi’s favorite character - unexpected but my respect for the man just went up even more.
Touma’s voice actor Abe Atsushi has also gone on record to say Orsola’s his number 1 waifu as well
Both Touma and his own actor like their Nee-sans
Also, now that several chapters have been translated, general opinion of this volume has changed with the western fandom now aligning with the same general opinion as that of Japanese readers - namely that it’s an excellent volume with how readers are now describing it in places like Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook compared to the earlier whining.
Gee, almost like you shouldn't be making an ass out of yourself and bitching pointlessly about this series off loose summaries, unreliable sources, or just following the hate because it’s trendy and instead read it for yourself to judge
Gee, almost like you shouldn't be making an ass out of yourself and bitching pointlessly about this series off loose summaries, unreliable sources, or just following the hate because it’s trendy and instead read it for yourself to judge
Kamachi as he wrote this scene
GT11 was great. Fantastic journey through hell, even if the fanservice jokes (which Kamachi states were to lighten the mood of an otherwise dreary volume) were getting overused.
Was really impressed at how much character development “CRC” went through in this one volume that set up perfectly for the fight at the end between two young men who both want to return to the world of the living with so much they still need to do in life.
If I were to really criticize anything, it’d be that I wish more bits of hell were explored. Especially since Kamachi went the Dante’s Inferno’s wonderfully creative take of hell too.
Excellent volume that leaves me hyped for GT12 once it’s fully translated
In the mean time, going to read the latest ITEM volume first.
@Darth Zion @Paxton @fiamma @Hiryuu @NeloAngelo
Also, from a power level perspective for this volume, safe to say God’s back at the top of the totem pole in this
You got to be when heretical but otherwise god-like mages like Kingsford and “CRC” talk in nothing short of respect whenever their referring to Him throughout this volume and how even they are powerless to His Judgement when CRC’s fake Hell phase gets destroyed and devoured, along with the both of them, by the real Hell phase at the end.
Even the whole Aeon stuff from before seems like blatant bias from Crowley, the man who both set up the modern day system Magic in this series works on and hates Christianity
Plus, you got Coronzon, another God tier, saying it was Jesus, the Second Adam, dying on the cross that prevented the destruction of the entire Sephiroth.
Also, from a power level perspective for this volume, safe to say God’s back at the top of the totem pole in this
You got to be when heretical but otherwise god-like mages like Kingsford and “CRC” talk in nothing short of respect whenever their referring to Him throughout this volume and how even they are powerless to His Judgement when CRC’s fake Hell phase gets destroyed and devoured, along with the both of them, by the real Hell phase at the end.
Even the whole Aeon stuff from before seems like blatant bias from Crowley, the man who both set up the modern day system Magic in this series works on and hates Christianity
Plus, you got Coronzon, another God tier, saying it was Jesus, the Second Adam, dying on the cross that prevented the destruction of the entire Sephiroth.
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Nice
Also confirms He’s not just some mere mythological being created by Man along with the Phase, but like a Magic God in His own right with Heaven and the (real) Hell being Phases He created.
Probably the Sephiroth and all the Phases making it up as well given Jesus was integral to its continued existence
What I’m wondering is if God has some plan for Touma. He clearly had no problem with Touma returning to life with how the real Hell only showed up and devoured the fake Hell at the very end when Touma’s already on the staircase sending him back to the world of the living.
Probably the Sephiroth and all the Phases making it up as well given Jesus was integral to its continued existence
What I’m wondering is if God has some plan for Touma. He clearly had no problem with Touma returning to life with how the real Hell only showed up and devoured the fake Hell at the very end when Touma’s already on the staircase sending him back to the world of the living.
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cray thinking that there's no capital G God in Toaru and that Ein Sof and the Kabbalah is just a phase or some shit made up by Christian characters (even though Coronzon exists, and Niang-Niang outright namedrops Briah/Assiah in her fight with the former)) certainly is a perspective that is continuing to be proven wrong
