Characters / A Certain Magical Index Touma Kamijou

A Certain Magical Index / Scientific Railgun / Scientific Accelerator character index
Main Characters
Touma Kamijou | Accelerator | Railgun's Main Cast (Mikoto Misaka)
Science Side
The Level 5s | The Teachers and Students of Academy City | Academy City Founders, Researchers and Law Enforcement
Academy City's Dark Side | The Sisters | Other Science Side Characters
Magic Side
England and its Allies | The Roman Catholic Church | GREMLIN | True GREMLIN | Other Magic Side Characters
Other Characters
Other Light Novel, Manga, and Anime Characters | Audio Drama, Video Game, and Movie Characters

Touma Kamijou

He Who Purifies God and Slays Demons

Voiced by: Atsushi Abe (Japanese) and Micah Solusod (English)

Touma is the primary protagonist of A Certain Magical Index and a recurring character in A Certain Scientific Railgun. By all accounts, Touma is an unremarkable tenth-grader in Academy City with a power rating of Level 0—one which belies his dreaded power, Imagine Breaker, with which he can cancel any power—magical, esper or divine—with his right hand alone, but also at the expense of his luck. Possessing a strong sense of justice, he helps anyone in need and will not hesitate to challenge stronger opponents, even if he has to protect erstwhile enemies. This willingness to help those in need has resulted in him receiving the affection of many women.

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A-C

• Above Good and Evil: A rare heroic example. As explained by Aiwass, Touma cares little about society's concepts of good and evil. He doesn't even have a consistent set of morals he follows on every occasion like Acqua of the Back, he simply does what he considers the right thing to do in a particular situation. That is why he will defeat an antagonist only to turn around and help them if he feels they deserve it, like when he saved Fiamma of the Right or when he decided to side with Othinus despite almost everyone else in the world wanting to kill her. Even Touma lampshades on this after Fiamma claims he isn't such a good person because he lied to Index about his situation.
• Accidental Pervert: Poor guy constantly ends up bumping into a girl, either accidentally groping her or seeing her naked. Taken to a ridiculous extent when, during a stay in Italy, he walks in on Orsola in the shower, then Index opens the door of an adjacent one where she's in, giving Touma a second eyeful. In general, he doesn't seem to understand the concept of knocking before entering a room. He's apparently the only man who has seen Kaori Kanzaki naked and lived.
• Achilles' Heel: Imagine Breaker can only negate the power itself, not the aftereffects. Then there's the fact that it only works from the right wrist down, so if a power hits somewhere besides his right hand first, he's screwed. It cannot instantly negate a power if it is extremely massive or maintained by an outside source... which he exploits to his advantage in Volume 20 during his second fight with Accelerator, grabbing one of the latter's wings and throwing him off-balance, allowing him to get close.
• Acquainted with Emergency Services: He's very well acquainted with the hospital staff in Academy City, given he usually ends up there after fights with espers or magicians. In particular, the "Frog-Faced Doctor" gets to know him pretty well. On at least one occasion he showed up at the hospital despite not being badly hurt in the incident just to say hi to the staff and brag that he didn't get hurt this time.
• Action Survivor: Save for Imagine Breaker and a Spider-Sense, he gets hurt like any normal human would, meaning he can be killed by opponents way more powerful than him and conventional weaponry such as guns and knives. And while a capable fighter he is easily defeated by experienced warriors, martial artists and multiple opponents. Mostly due to his wits, tenacity, unpredictable luck, incredible resilience to pain and injury, and Heaven Canceller that he barely manages to survive.
• Adaptation Expansion: The 'Invisible Thing' in his right arm comes out as his finishing move in the PSP games.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the light novel, Touma used to skip a lot of his classes in one semester because he thought that being forced to enter remedial classes for one week during summer vacation was a light punishment compared to four months of truancy he had done in one semester. This small detail of naughtiness is cut out from both manga and anime adaptation (aside from Komoe simply telling Himegami and Index on one occassion that "Kamijou-chan had been a naughty boy since his first school day"). After his memory loss, Touma becomes a better student and always attends his classes as long as he isn't involved in some misadventures.
  • In general, most of Touma's rougher edges (neurosis, self-loathing, occasional violent tendencies, etc.) and internal narrations in the novel are cut out from the anime, making him more affable as a result.
• Adaptational Wimp: Most of his death-defying and world-shaking feats of heroism from the books are either cut out or toned down in the anime, making most of anime Touma's battles seem less impressive. Case in point: Touma and Accelerator's 2nd battle during World War III in the anime is a very toned down version of how things played out in the novels (Compare Accelerator battling him with 100 wings on the get-go vs a mere 2-5 wings in the anime).
• Aesop Amnesia: He never learns to knock before entering a room, and to watch where he's going and what he says. He also almost always leaves the others out of the loop and tries to solve everything on his own because he doesn't want to worry them, even though the others will surely help him.
• All-Loving Hero: He just wants to protect everybody.
• All There in the Manual: In the aftermath of Railgun T Episode 14, the Railgun manga editor Ogino Kentarou posted on Twitter the individual powers of the eight dragons that emerged from Touma's arm during Daihasei Arc with the exception of the "Angel Dragon", as Mikoto was still fighting said dragon in the Jailbreaker Arc at the time of the anime's airing to avoid spoilers.
  • The white dragon that emerged from Touma's arm first "The First Dragon" specializes in decursing and psychological attacks. If it should bite a person, their very memories could be destroyed.
  • The eyeless black dragon "The Blind Dragon" also specializes in psychological warfare, in that its mere presence causes a person to become overcome with terror and confusion.
  • The blue dragon "The One-Eyed Cobra Dragon" is a water dragon that summons rainstorms. Its fangs also carry the undiluted concept of poison so anything living it bites will either die or suffer a Fate Worse than Death.
  • The green dragon "The Four-Eyed Dragon" possesses multiple vision-based abilities such as illusion and hypnotism that are powerful enough to blur the line between dreams and reality. It also has a powerful scream that can destroy Shadow Metal.
  • The red dragon "The Corpse Flame Dragon" is an undead fire dragon Wreathed in Flames that can use an Energy Drain that can also function as a Life Drain.
  • The blue-white crystalline dragon "The Ice Crystal Dragon" is an ice dragon reputed to be as strong and tough as the very planet itself.
  • The yellow dragon with a pointed head "The Spearhead Dragon" is a lightning dragon that emits electricity from its body and shoots lasers from its mouth.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Itsuwa almost-kisses Touma while lying in bed in Volume 16.
  • He nearly kisses Fukiyose in Season 2 Episode 8.
• Almighty Janitor: He's not really powerless—his Imagine Breaker is simply outside of Academy City's power rating system. This is especially true since Aleister incorporates Touma in his plans that involve removing his various problems.
• Alternate Character Reading: His name is written as "上条 当麻". Kanzaki reinterprets it in Volume 1 as "神浄 討魔", which is his epithet: "He Who Purifies God and Exorcises the Devil". In the epilogue of Volume 14, Kamachi gives an alternate reading to his surname: "神上", which means "He Who is Above God". His given name can also be read as "透魔", meaning "Invisible Demon", which is also the name of the thing inside Touma's Imagine Breaker.
• Always Save the Girl: Touma is frequently more concerned with the individuals than the long-term consequences.
• Amnesiac Resonance:
  • Despite losing his memories in the very first volume of Index, Touma's reflexes are still as sharp as ever, as he can block Mikoto's lightning just as well as he could before through nothing but muscle memory, which is why it takes Mikoto a while to realize something's up.
  • In addition, it's noted that by those who knew him before he lost his memories that fundamentally he still hasn't changed that much from the Nice Guy All-Loving Hero he used to be. Granted, part of it is him trying his damnest to act the same to avoid that awkward conversation, but it just comes naturally to him.
• Anti-Magic: The Imagine Breaker nullifies any power it touches, including magic.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Touma is very good at analyzing the powers of others to search for weaknesses and blind spots that he can use to beat them. In fact, part of his fighting style is based on how he subconsciously analyzes the involuntary movements of others, like their body language and facial expressions, to predict their attacks.
  • This even extends out of battle as seen in Volume 20, where he was able to determine the location of an enemy camp by using a simple map he bought from a local store in Russia.
• Ax-Crazy: Deliberately invoked in Season 1 Episode 9 to disorient Aureolus.
• Badass on Paper: He has defeated very powerful individuals and beings of unimaginable power, amassed connections with individuals of political significance (such as the Royal Family and the US President), ended World War 3 with a single fist, and eventually developed a reputation amongst magicians and power users, as someone not to be trifled with. He is also a teenage kid struggling with his classes due to perpetual poverty and misfortune, and a rather lousy fighter with a mean right hook when up against martial artists or highly trained soldiers (with the World War III thing there were several factors unrelated to Touma which indirectly sped up its end).
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: He can do this as long as he's facing a magical weapon. He even managed to catch Fiamma's 40km long Flaming Sword!
• Barrier Warrior: Touma lives by the concept that "the best offense is an ass-kicking defense".
• Benched Hero: Briefly in volume 16, Touma is taken out of action after his first confrontation with Acqua that leaves him critically hospitalized.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a pretty laidback, optimistic and down-to-earth Nice Guy once you get to know him.... but God forbid if you hurt innocent people on his watch. He's also been noted to be very terrifying when someone makes him really mad, as seen when he chased and almost killed a terrified Aureolus Dummy by strangling him with his own chain after he killed several innocent students in front of him. Even a mass murderer like Salome is left unnerved by an angry Touma when he discovers she and the other members of the Kamisato Faction had used Mikoto Misaka and the Tokiwadai students as bait for Yuiitsu Kihara. It becomes more pronounced in NT22R, when he literally goes murderous towards the Emanation, for taking his identity to manipulate several characters and stealing his Imagine Breaker.
• Beyond the Impossible: Several characters note that Imagine Breaker doesn't make any sense and defies the laws of both science and magic.
• Big Damn Heroes: Is quite fond of these, usually coming out of nowhere. Examples include:
  • In the Sisters arc he interrupts Accelerator, who's beating down one of the Sisters.
  • In the Amakusa arc he faces 250 battle nuns by himself, all to protect this woman he met earlier in the day.
  • In Season 2 Episode 7 he and Mikoto save Kuroko from falling to her death, then punches a 4500kg object mid-teleport, breaking several laws of physics as he interferes with the 11th dimension to send it back. Yeah, Touma's been messing with space and time to save people.
  • He pulls off his best one yet in New Testament Volume 4 by breaking into a separated reality to grab Marian's hand before she can draw Dainsleif, and then bringing two characters back to life just by being there.
• Blasphemous Boast: Pre-amnesia Touma often told people his right hand was capable of negating miracles from God. Of course, he does later start backing up these claims... and then there's that "Invisible Thing" inside him.
• Blessed with Suck: Touma's power also negates his luck (which is probably the reason why he's attracting such deadly trouble in the first place), causes him to be classified as Level 0 because his power can't be detected by normal means, and is hardly useful in mundane situations, either. Imagine Breaker prevents telepathy from affecting him, so he can't hear telepathic warnings. Healing magic is automatically negated in his presence. He can't be teleported to safety, etc.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: His code of ethics is rather odd. While he is definitely a good guy who helps others, he is not bound by a simple white and black morality, instead he does what he feels is right, even if he has to break the rules or declare war against the world.
• Book Dumb: He is very good at fighting, surviving, and figuring out his opponents' weaknesses. And with his tendency to monologue for hours he is deceptively verbose. Likely because his fights constantly make him miss school, he has poor grades and is ignorant about a lot of topics like language, geography, history, and mythology. At one point, his companions, who are all from England or Italy, start talking about the Japanese surveyor and cartographer Inō Tadataka. He has no idea who that is, causing his companions to say that he must be a slacker to not know his own country's history.
• Born Unlucky: Imagine Breaker gives him bad luck, but on the other hand gives him a great advantage against supernatural foes. However, before he entered Academy City, he caused misfortune to people around him as well, but that stopped at one point, hinting something caused the misfortune to not spill out onto the world.
• Born Winner: He's had Imagine Breaker since birth, with all its benefits and drawbacks.
• Boyfriend Bluff: Mikoto tries to get Touma to pretend to be her boyfriend to discourage another guy who keeps following her around—the grandson of her school's superintendent—so she doesn't get tempted to blow him off the usual way.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He can actually do well in certain subjects, such as practical physics and geography. However, he tends to apply them only in a pinch, has a hard time grasping the rest of the Power Curriculum Program, and is bad at other subjects, particularly those concerning language.
• Broken Hero: Born with a power which ostracized him from his peers, nearly got him killed and his life secretly filmed by tabloids during his childhood, failing to save Mitsuari from committing suicide, then being beat up within an inch of his life protecting a young Shokuhou, all before he met Index. Despite this and the constant misfortune he faces he remains one of the most compassionate characters in the series and will willingly risk life and limb to protect Academy City and the world.
• Brutal Honesty: He can be rather tactless at times. During his first real meeting with Misaki Shokuhou, he bluntly told her to adjust her position because he could see up her skirt.
• Bully Hunter: Even if said bully has magical power, Touma always has his trusty right hand to fix that. It is for this reason that he has won the affection of Misaka's Sisters.
• Busman's Holiday: He always ends up having to fight bad guys and save the day, even during his vacations.
• Butt-Monkey: For Touma, every day is a bad day.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Played straight when Hamazura recommends that Touma drink after the latter returns to Academy City.
• Catch and Return: Later in the series, he realizes that since Imagine Breaker cannot instantly negate very powerful attacks, then this means he can use his right hand to catch very powerful attacks and throw them back.
• Catchphrase
  "Such misfortune."^note  Changed to "Damn/Rotten luck" in the English dub.
  "I'm going to break that illusion."
• Character Filibuster: Drops two to three minute long speeches off the top of his head at least once an arc (though usually more than that), usually to deconstruct the antagonist's motives or get someone to help him. See the Dare to Be Badass entry for just one of his many examples of this. Not bad for a high school student who is struggling through remedial classes.
  • Does this to himself at some point during NT 9. Tearjerker ensues.
• Characterization Marches On: As the series progresses, Touma's memory loss became less of an issue, more so after the Angel Fall arc. Given that readers are introduced to him shortly before the fact, it's understandable that his characterization wouldn't change all that much, given little is known of the "old" Touma. This is only discussed again when he faces Terra of the Left and only regains importance when Fiamma uses the revelation to make Index go berserk. Then the Kamijou Arc has it reveal that an Emanation of Touma formed as a result of the damage from the conflict with Coronzon as well as his own regrets and subconscious wishes, the entity sought to usurp Touma's identity, taking most of Imagine Breaker and his other powers with it, as well as possessing the memories which he had lost, serving as the Post-Final Boss of New Testament.
• Character-Magnetic Team: With Index.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: He's a normal human except for Imagine Breaker, and yet he possesses exceptionally high levels of endurance, allowing him to survive injuries that could normally kill most people and continue fighting. He has also demonstrated some impressive feats of strength, with his punches launching people through the air and cratering the concrete when they land, and once knocking away a gigantic metal cross with his left arm.
• Chick Magnet: Nearly every girl he meets ends up falling for him. Index and Komoe theorize that this is another side effect of Imagine Breaker, both from a magical and scientific perspective.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Quoth the guy...
  "I don't need a reason to save someone."
  • Taken to a certain extreme in New Testament Volume 4. Kagun Kihara seems to truly believe that Touma can and will save anyone within sight, given the omnicidal catastrophe set off in that arc. He wasn't too far off from the truth; at the end of the volume, just when all hope seems lost, it's Touma's unexpected presence that manages to prevent further deaths. Ironically, he was also too late to save Kagun, as Marian and Touma himself lampshaded.
  • Lampshaded by Thor, who chastises Touma for not immediately going off to save Fraulein Kreutune. Justified because Touma was going through doubts over the events of New Testament Volume 3.
    Thor: Lies? Secret plans? I don’t care about any of that. A girl named Fraulein Kreutune is being imprisoned. That should be enough for you to go save her. What does it matter if there is more to the story or if someone else has some other goal!? If there is a girl closed up in some dark room being treated cruelly, that should be enough for you to go save her! I thought that was who the ‘wonderful enemy’ I had imagined was! Was I wrong!?
  • Mikoto also admits that she likes this aspect of him.
  • Later deconstructed in NT Volume 9, where it's revealed that he has several self-worth issues due to self-loathing, and after he's placed in a utopian world created by Othinus, he decides to give up and end his life to protect the world Othinus created... until the Will of the Misaka Network convinces him that it's alright to fight for his own sake rather than to fight for others. She also lampshades it, saying that if Touma knew she was slowly disappearing in the new world Othinus created, Touma wouldn't have hesitated to save her at the detriment of the world, but it was more important for her to convince Touma to fight for himself, to prevent Touma from giving up again in the future.
• Cincinnatus: To a certain extent. No one's calling him to become the leader of a country, but so far, he has amassed millions of connections with individuals with political power (like the Queen of England and the President of the United States), is friends with people who can decimate armies within minutes, and has developed a fearsome reputation among magicians, some espers, and eventually, some alleyway punks. Yet despite it all he only wishes to continue living a relatively mundane life, cooking for Index and goofing around with his friends.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Cynical, pessimistic, sarcastic, terribly blunt, neurotic, naive, slow-witted and reckless beyond measure, with a notable lack of moral clarity, all these offset by his uncompromising and unwavering desire to help those in need, unconditional kindness, humility and modesty, Touma is a very flawed and complicated man, no doubt a result of personal tragedies, a bleak Dark and Troubled Past, chronic bad luck and several personal issues who nonetheless endures his pain and burden to help others. Even after losing his memories, a brighter outlook on life and a close circle of friends and aquaintances could barely keep him from losing it altogether.
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: His constant stream of bad luck earns him much sympathy from almost every single girl in his class, earning him the ire of most boys (probably except Aogami and Motoharu). The people who have met him try to justify this by saying that his Imagine Breaker even cancels the Red String of Fate. No fated lover means lots of possible options...
  • Exaggerated with the fact that all the Misaka clones are in love with him due to what he said in the Accelerator battle; ALL TEN THOUSAND OF THEM. ^note  Technically only 9969 of them as Misaka 20001 (Last Order) and 20002 (Misaka Worst) are closer to Accelerator than to Touma.
• Code Name: On the Magic side, he's known as "Imagine Breaker".
• Combat Pragmatist: He's not above using psychological warfare on one guy, throwing a shovel full of dust at another, or splashing boiling coffee to a terrorist's face to blind him. He fights dirty.
  • Though if you look at the people he fights against, you can hardly blame him.
• Conveniently Seated: Touma sits on the second-last seat next to the window.
• Cosmic Plaything: Once you get far enough into the series, it isn't a question of whether God hates him or not, it's a question of how many hate him.
• Covert Pervert: Though he really tries not to act on it, narration often has Touma partake in Eating the Eye Candy and Male Gaze whenever he's with Stripperiffic sexy lady du jour. Just like his old man.
  • That said, this goes out the window once he's in a fight.
• Creepy Good: Not through a creepy power (if you consider the Invisible Thing separate from his powers) or personality, but through his unconditional kindness and compassion; case in point, Leivinia Birdway, who knows all about people's inner desires and usually exploit them to get the upper hand, is both annoyed and unnerved by Kamijou's Chronic Hero Syndrome and genuine, sincere kindness, to the point of calling him "insane". And apparently the Kiharas fear the boy, with his humanistic drive to do good opposing their ruthless and unfettered For Science! approach.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Touma himself at times notes; that for all his skills and abilities he can't hope to take on multiple foes and win, lacks purely offensive abilities, will mostly lose to more experienced fighters, can't fly, isn't tech-savvy like Mikoto, Accelerator or Shiage, can't drive, and his sole power is only useful in certain circumstances and situations.
• Cursed with Awesome: His powers are actually of divine origin, but doesn't learn of it until New Testament Volume 2, after which he endeavors to learn more about it.
• The Cynic: It's heavily implied that pre-amnesia Touma was this, and not without good reason considering his Dark and Troubled Past and constant misfortune. After his memory loss, the "current" Touma inverts this.

D-H

• Dare to Be Badass
  "Just answer me one question, Magician. Don't you want to save Index? You guys have been waiting for this, haven't you? A method where you don't need to take away Index's memories... a method where you don't need to be Index's enemies... a method where everyone is smiling and that everyone wants... that leads to the ultimate happy ending! You've been waiting forever for this, haven't you?! For this development? What have you guys been clenching your teeth all this time for?! Didn't you swear you'd save this one girl with your own hands? You'd like to be the main characters of the story too, right?! Quit being content staying a side character! Didn't you put your lives on the line to protect this one girl?! Then it's not over yet! It hasn't even begun! Quit getting depressed in this kinda long prologue! You can reach her if you stretch your hand out! Let's get this thing started already, Magician!"
• Dating Sim: According to Aisa, his life is a walking Dating Sim.
• David Versus Goliath: All of his fights, but especially the ones against Accelerator, Fiamma of the Right, and Othinus.
• Death of Personality: Pre-amnesia Touma is gone and never coming back.
• Decoy Protagonist: Pre-amnesia Touma is this.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He's made an art of it.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Almost all of his former enemies become his allies later.
• Delinquent: Touma's not really a delinquent, but to most outsiders, he probably seems like one (the spiky hair doesn't help). It's not like he's not trying to do well in school, but it's pretty much gotten to the point where the forces of karma are against it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As a child, he apparently caused so much misfortune to others, that a man tries to kill him because simply shaking Touma's hand caused him to lose his job, and had his entire life secretly become a reality show by a greedy television company.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Touma saw his right hand as a useless bother, and couldn't find a good use for it. Then he meets Index, and realizes that his hand is the only thing that can save her, and with a glorious rant as narration does so, only to lose all his memories. In his place is the "second" Touma, who always helps people and values his hand as a saving tool.
• Determinator
  • Besides the many times he gets back up, battered and bloody, by the power of his sheer will, he channeled a power even stronger than the "Invisible Thing" in order to stop Fiamma once and for all.
  • Touma utilizing this trope against his fight with Accelerator causes the latter to start worrying about potentially losing a fight for the first time. Unlike other thugs who tried to take him on before, and regretted it the moment he lopped one of their limbs off, Touma has a very fierce look on his face that makes the latter rather uneasy despite getting hit a lot of times.
  • This was pretty much the only thing he had going for him against Othinus. He essentially refuses to break so many times (implied to be on the order of billions) that Othinus just gives up. And after Othinus surrenders to the combined forces of America, the UK, and Academy City Touma, who at this point is aware of her change of heart, fights the entire world just to save her.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He literally punched out Innocentius (a 3000° fire demon), Accelerator, Ellis (a massive concrete golem), Fiamma of the Right, and even the Archangel Gabriel.
• "Die Hard" on an X: When the plane he and Index are riding on is taken hostage by terrorists, it's up to Touma to put a stop to the terrorists' plans, a la John McClane.
• The Dreaded: Although most of the Science Side have no clue who he is, since he's a "level zero" on paper (although Accelerator, the most dangerous Esper in the Dark Side of Academy City, is afraid of him), most of the Magic Side is utterly terrified of him and his Imagine Breaker. It gets to the point that GREMLIN is perfectly willing to destroy the world if it means taking Touma with it. It works.... 10031 times to be exact.
  • In New Testament Volume 4, there's Kihara Byouri, a sociopath who fought GREMLIN (the same Magic organization designed to FIGHT TOUMA) with a cheerful (if not disturbing) smile on her face. The one time she ever shows fear was when Touma's name was brought up. The narrative itself seems to imply that Touma is the worst possible opponent for a Kihara to face. In contrast, Amata, another Kihara, shows no fear when he was pitted against Accelerator, the most powerful Esper in Academy City.
  • After the events of New Testament Volume 10, he develops a reputation as the guy who'll foil your plans, kick your ass, and steal your girl. He's depressed and annoyed about this, but can't actually refute any of it.
• Drunken Master: After taking a bottle of beer (which Shiage encouraged him to), completely drunk on his way back home, he nonchalantly dodged one of Mikoto's bolts, and scored up a harem implied to be in the millions.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's saved people, the city, and even the entire world on several occasions. And he gets absolutely no respect for it. Not even the freaking President of the United States endorsing him can get people to cut him some slack.
• The Dulcinea Effect: He will work his ass off to save anyone, even if he's only known them for a few minutes.
• Enemies Equals Greatness: A large premise of the latter half of the first series is that because Touma defied great entities, Accelerator, the Catholic Church, etc, he is considered a great figure. Itsuwa even lampshades this at the start of the 16th volume.
• Enemy Without: In the Kamijou Arc, after defeating Coronzon Touma's Imagine Breaker is separated from him longer than usual, causing it to form an Emanation of himself with all his combat experience, Imagine Breaker, and the memories he lost in the past (both the memories he lost back in July, and those of Shokuhou's). They then proceed to take his identity and manipulate numerous people, including Mikoto, Index and the aforementioned Shokuhou, forcing Touma to team up with Accelerator, Shiage and Rimea, alongside Takitsubo, Dion Fortune, and Qlipyah Puzzle 545 to stop them.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: It applies to him during the first recreation of the world by Othinus during NT 9, Version_Alpha, where everybody's perception of Touma's previous actions are to see him as an "Incarnation of Violence" rather than a hero. It's best shown where Komoe broke into tears just when she was about to kill him, and to a lesser extent, his parents still acknowledging him as their son despite agreeing that Touma had to be killed.
• Evil Laugh: Deliberately invokes this during his battle against Aureolus Izzard, with a Slasher Smile for additional bonus points.
• Extremity Extremist: Tends to concentrate on right-hand punches.
• Fastball Special: Performs a variation of one where Acqua launches him using his Ascalon straight at Carissa to destroy Curtana Original. It earns extra points due to Touma and Acqua doing it wordlessly in true Bash Brothers fashion, and the ridiculous bullet-like speed Touma is sent flying.
  • Also gets tossed by Gunha in the Railgun manga (which takes place before the above).
• Fetish: For Cool Big Sis-type girls. He doesn't talk about it much.
• The Fettered: A rare case of both this and The Unfettered. While Touma doesn't have a consistent set of morals, and some rather rough edges to his personality, he refuses to trade lives or commit immoral deeds, and is shown to have a lot of empathy and an unbreakable idealism. Even after Magic God Othinus destroyed the world at the end of NT8 and tortured him for literally god-knows-how-long in the Infinite Hells in NT9, with plenty of the recreations of the world challenging him of the flaws of his belief, he still refuses to bring himself to hate her and instead, learned to truly understand the tragedy and sadness from beneath her "hopelessly evil and rotten to the core" exterior and went on the challenge the entire world just to protect her.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: The Fighter to Accelerator's Mage and Shiage's Thief.
  • Sword and Sorcerer: He'd be the Sword with most offensive espers and magicians when teaming up with, but the narrative specifically emphasized this with him and Thor.
  If one thought about it, Kamijou’s ability to negate only the enemy’s magic and Thor’s direct firepower was the ideal combination.
  • In the Biohacker SS, as the more combat-oriented and (mostly) courageous member of the 3 pre-amnesia Touma fills the Fighter role from the get-go with Mitsuari as the Mage (very powerful telepathy similar to Shokuhou's but is physically weak) and Seria as the Thief (genius tactician, skilled driver and lockpicker and while a capable fighter she relies on Touma to do the fighting).
• Fighting Your Friend: While he's a vocal supporter of Defeat Means Friendship, he really doesn't take well to this. Case in point; in NT 6 he spends the whole fight against Thor panicking and worrying about his injuries, only fighting so that he can put him down and make him get treatment once it's apparent he can't get out of it. In NT 7 he's reduced to tears and broken screaming as he's beating Tsuchimikado down. By the end he's shaken enough to threaten a relatively innocent old man to make sure he'll be alright.
  • Basically the entire plot of NT 10 as friends, allies, and acquaintances all pop up to eliminate him and Othinus.
• Fights Like a Normal: Since his only power is to nullify others' powers with his right hand, he has to get down-and-dirty to deal damage.
• Fingore: While Index is in John's Pen Mode, several of his fingers audibly break with visible blood as he holds back the Dragon's Breath spell. He also breaks two of his fingers by destroying Gungnir but shrugs it off.
• First-Episode Twist: He loses his memories irrevocably. This goes on to have massive implications for the rest of the series. Pre-memory loss Touma, however, was a very different person, and is treated as a Posthumous Character. There's also the satellite that he and Kaori destroyed in their attempt to restrain Index... it's one of the cruxes of the Sisters arc.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Touma goes from an unknown existence in Academy City to the mortal enemy of the Catholic Church and many other magical groups over the course of the series.
• Generation Xerox: Shares his father's chick magnetism.
• Global Ignorance: He is very ignorant about topics like geography and history, which the other characters find really annoying. He tries to use the excuse that he's a Japanese student and shouldn't be expected to be knowledgeable about countries like Denmark, but none of the other Japanese characters have this problem.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: He says he just doesn't get why people are assholes who grab power at the expense of others, constantly asking them why they don't use their abilities to make the world a happier place. However, this doesn't diminish his effectiveness at all. Just because he doesn't know why people do bad things, doesn't mean he's unaware that they do.
• Good Is Not Soft: He is one of the kindest and most compassionate people in the series... and everybody gets shocked when he starts beating up bad guys and saving people without expecting any reward at all.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Just because he's naive doesn't always mean he's unaware; he shows he can be just as cunning as his more intellectual allies and the enemies he faces, if not even more. And unlike Accelerator, Mikoto and Shiage, with the limited resources he has at his disposal Touma shines best with the creative uses he employs with his power and wits.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: His general fighting style. Justified in a lot of cases, because his right hand nullifying the enemy's abilities is generally the only thing he has going for him. In the battle against Accelerator, he can ONLY hit him with his right hand, and brings a new meaning to winning single-handedly.
• The Greatest Story Never Told:
  • Despite all his death-defying feats of heroism, most of Academy City is completely oblivious to his existence. He can save the world and then get in trouble for missing school. Not that he's interested in becoming famous, though. He even let Mikoto get the credit for saving everyone from the Graviton Bomber.
    • Subverted later on, when he meets with a false Aihane Etsu that brags his name to try and scare him with his identity only to be scared out of his wits due to his reputation the unaware Touma has in the dark side of Academy City.
  • Mind you, this is not the case with the Magic Side.
  • In NT Vol 9, he goes through a Hell that would have broken any other man, then manages to get Othinus to pull a Heel–Face Turn. Only Othinus and the Will of the Misaka Network know about this, leaving everybody else confused as to why he's suddenly defending Othinus, the world's enemy.
• Guile Hero: He might be unmotivated and willing to go along with people who'd presumably know better but he can really get into his enemies' heads and he was arguably far more effective when he was moving independently during World War III. It becomes even more noticeable in NT where he's much more prone to sneaking around on his own incentive.
  • He becomes a scarily competent chessmaster during the Ichihanaransai Arc where he flawlessly leads both major factions by the nose with little effort while carrying out his own objectives. Albeit he was admittedly vengeful about Birdway's manipulations preceding that.
• Has a Type: Admits he has a thing for reliable older girls. Doesn't really talk about it that much, though. Ironically, amongst his harem the one who fits the bill best is Kanzaki, but even she's rather shy when it comes to the concept of romance.
• Healing Factor: Subtly implied throughout the novels and anime, then made explicit when he regenerates his right arm after Fiamma severed it.
• Handicapped Badass: His PTSD from Othinus' Infinite Hells has done nothing to curb his unbreakable will and heroic spirit.
• Heroic BSoD: Had many moment of regret and depressions but never lingered on them and let himself be set back but then came Baggage City on top of Hawaii which left him a disillusioned mess of trust issues and irrational guilt. It took Thor forcing his way into his life, repeatedly punching him in the face and breaking HIS illusions with a "Reason you currently suck" speech snowballing into a verbal fight then a full blown brawl to snap him out of it.
• Heroic Neutral: Most see him as an Ideal Hero while he claims to be doing it all for himself, but he's mostly this (still blurring the line since a true Heroic Neutral wouldn't go nearly as far as he does for the sake of total strangers in need). Index, Thor and Aiwass are the only ones to really notice this side of him so far. Accelerator too stopped putting him on a pedestal by NT.
• Heroic Resolve: After getting beaten by Accelerator, he stands up after Mikoto shows up. Curbstomp ensues.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite everything he has accomplished, he still considers himself a mere Level 0, and openly says everybody else can do things he cannot. He also freely admits that his fighting style and skills are not suited to fight multiple opponents, opponents with superior speed, opponents who can fly, and opponents who have superior fighting skills.
• Heroism Won't Pay the Bills: Saving everyone doesn't pay. He constantly struggles to pay for his rent, groceries, hospital bills, etc.
• Honor Before Reason: To the severe detriment of his own health. He absolutely refuses to ignore or abandon anyone in trouble. He also used to have a problem with asking others for help.
  • And just when you thought Touma couldn't possibly get any worse with this trope, in NT9, he doesn't hesitate at all to protect a girl who is now the target of the entire world.
• Hope Bringer: When all seems lost, he inspires almost everyone that everything will be all right. Part of it is from Imagine Breaker, the other is from how nice and reassuring he is. Exaggerated in New Testament Volume 4, where his very presence inspires Maria Kumokawa and her friends not to be afraid of Ragnarok.
• Hot-Blooded: Not usually, but piss him off enough and he'll definitely be pumped up and raring to punch your lights out.
• How Do I Shot Web?: He has no idea how Imagine Breaker works (to be fair, nobody knows how Imagine Breaker works except Aleister and Aiwass) and it takes him a while to figure out its limitations and that he can use it to play Catch and Return with powerful attacks.
• Humble Hero: He'd rather goof off with his friends and cook meals for Index than to take credit for his heroic deeds.
• Hyper-Awareness: Constant misfortune and fights with Skill-Outs and power-users gave Touma a sharp instinct towards danger; he almost always notes how things seem wrong whenever Magicians show up and cause trouble, before they show up; this is more emphasized in the books than anime (such as his initial encounters with Stiyl Magnus and Kaori Kanzaki both pre- to post-amnesia).

I-P

• I Can't Sense Their Presence: Because of Imagine Breaker, he cannot be detected by scanners for psychic energy, which causes him to be labeled a Level 0. In the Deep Blood arc, Stiyl Magnus explains that magical characters can't sense him either because Imagine Breaker erases mana in his presence. However, Stiyl then explains that an experienced magic user could simply look for an area where they can't sense anything and find him that way. The organization GREMLIN does just that to keep track of him.
• Identity Amnesia: After Volume 1, though he doesn't particularly care.
• Ideal Hero: The guy will do anything, say anything, help anyone, fight anyone (gender be damned), and throw himself in front of any person who is in need simply because he wants to. His Incorruptible Pure Pureness is so intense that he's even gotten multiple (and in some cases, all-powerful) villains to join his side. Even though he personally identifies as a Heroic Neutral, it doesn't change the fact that if he sees someone in trouble, he'll lend a helping hand if he's able.
• Immune to Mind Control: Zig-Zagged, but Double Subverted even in the worst case. Imagine Breaker passively protects Touma most forms of mental alterations whenever they're non-targeted. For example, he isn't affected by People-Clearing Fields, he was the only one to be completely escape the effects of Angel Fall, Telepathy usually fails on him, etc. Sufficiently powerful espers or magicians, like Misaki Shokuhou or Aureolus Izzard, have managed to get their abilities to work on him, but even then the effect is neutralized the moment he touches his head with his right hand (which he seems to do almost as a Character Tic).
• Implacable Man: Got your arm chopped off? Keep going. Have a car dropped on you? Walk it off. Get hit with a massive bolt of electricity twice? Gonna have to do better than that.
  Accelerator: He's standing...? He shouldn't even...be alive!
• Improvisational Ingenuity: Touma does this sort of thing on a daily basis, armed with only his quick wits and a right hand that can cancel all manner of supernatural abilities on the fly. He has managed to beat several characters who are far more powerful than him, including Accelerator; a character with a Superpower Lottery that makes him seemingly Nigh-Invulnerable.
• Improvised Weapon: Shovel, sand, a piece of rebar, a hairdryer, hot coffee... anything Touma can use to even the odds against his enemies.
• Innocently Insensitive: Has a habit of insulting people with causal comments.
• In-Series Nickname: Called "Kami-yan" by Tsuchimikado and Aogami (just "Kami" in the dub).
• Interrupted Suicide: He briefly gives up hope when Othinus puts him in a world that doesn't need heroes like him and decides to jump off a building, but the Will of the Misaka Network stops him and convinces him to keep going.
• I Work Alone: He rarely asks for any help from his more powerful friends, and prefers to do things himself.
• The Jinx: Part of his bad luck includes vending machines, ATM machines, his refrigerator, and other devices breaking down around him. It stops being funny when his parachute malfunctions. In fact, "Jinx" was his Embarrassing Nickname before he moved to Academy City in the dub.
• Kid Hero: Starts the series at 15, later turns 16.
• The McCoy: Between Accelerator's Spock and Shiage's Kirk.

  • The Kirk: Amusingly, he's this to Mikoto, who is much more Hot-Blooded than him.

• Knight in Sour Armor: Eventually becomes this after the events of New Testament 4, having been used in the plans of several people. Thor knocks it out of him.
• Language Barrier: He only knows Japanese and a bit of basic English, which often puts him at a disadvantage with foreigners. His attempts to learn more English and other languages have met with constant failure. But this is actually subverted because even though he only really knows Japanese, everyone else with any sort of importance knows Japanese due to Academy City's influence and are willing to translate for him.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Gets it in the very first volume thanks to being hit by the aftereffects of Index's Dragon's Breath on the head, which obliterates all of his memories before that point.
  • It is revealed that around a year before the series, Touma was seriously injured and nearly died while protecting Misaki. The operation that saved his life damaged his brain to the extent that he will never remember Misaki, past, present, or future. This extends to even after his second case of amnesia.
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to Book Touma, Anime Touma lacks his other counterpart's caustic wit, neurotic nature and extreme self-loathing, and his battles in the anime, while still intense, are noticeably watered down in violence (especially with the Deep Blood and Sisters Arcs) compared to the books' battles which can sometimes reach levels of violence frequently present in darker stories like Accelerator's and Shiage's.
• Logical Weakness: Touma usually wins if he hits or grabs the opponent. So it's a problem if the enemy is going to keep distance. To block attacks he needs to intercept them with his hand. And they need to be magical in nature, something like collateral shockwave from Curtana hits him like it would any human.
• Made of Iron: To wit, he has...
  • Survived his encounter against Kaori and managed to throw a punch in her face after he got his ass handed over to him.
  • Challenged Accelerator and won, despite being mortally electrocuted by Mikoto shortly beforehand.
  • Chased Oriana Thompson all over Academy City by running before fighting.
  • Defeated several Skill-Outs and Shiage in combat shortly after getting shot in the side.
  • Got beaten within an inch of his life by Acqua but survives, then goes to the Amakusa Catholics' rescue and managed to buy them some time for the "Saint Destroyer" spell even while still recuperating.
  • Defeated Accelerator again after the latter "awakened" and went berserk.
  • It's also implied that his ability to sense AIM Fields and intercept incoming attacks resulted from his growing attuning to the supernatural beatdowns delivered to him on a constant basis.
  • To avoid getting questioned and possibly arrested by Anti-Skill, he escapes from the hospital a short time after being shot several times.
  • NT8, 9 and 10 is basically an extremely long day for him, the course of which he fought various Gremlin magicians to get to Othinus, then faced Othinus' attempts to break his mind by creating millions of different worlds where he was forced to experience various horrifying things, then went up against (takes a deep breath) Accelerator, Misaka, 150 Five Overs, Index, Birdway, Sasha, Vasilisa, Kanzaki Kaori, Acqua of the Black, Knight Leader, Second Princess Carissa, Silva, Brunhild, Thor, Agnese Sanctis and her nuns, Marian Slingeneyer and her summons such as Ocelot, Surtr, and even Vishnu, and for the final boss, Othinus herself. This list can be expanded.
• Mage Killer: By negating their spells, magicians become extremely vulnerable to getting punched in the face by him.
• Magnetic Hero: He has a gift for getting people to want to follow him, which he doesn't notice.
• Manly Tears: Being a fighter doesn't stop him from feeling for friends and foes alike.
• The Many Deaths of You: What he went through when Othinus tried to break him as she changed the world countless times. Among other things, the narration mentions that he was cornered and beaten to death, slandered for a number of false accusations that resulted him in being executed through hanging, being forced to distribute his flesh to his acquaintances in order to save them after getting stranded on a mountain while waiting for rescue, paralyzed for life and being buried alive, all while decomposing, stranded in space after the Earth was rendered uninhabitable, and getting destroyed by a giant robot or an asteroid.
• Martial Pacifist: He always tries to talk things out with his opponents before resorting to kicking their ass. Amusingly, when told that the entire world is his enemy, his first thought is to study English so he can talk to them.
• Martyr Without a Cause: He always says he needs no reason to help, but always ends up badly injured. This becomes his key personality come the New Testament series.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His surname is translated as "He Who is Above God" ("La Persona Superiore a Dio" in Italian).
  • His name can also be translated as "He Who Purifies God and Exorcises the Devil".
  • His given name can also be roughly translated as "Invisible Demon".
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Many of his more powerful opponents view him as a weak nobody without his Imagine Breaker, and in Othinus' case, the Invisible Thing as well (or is it?). But time and time again, the narration shows that Touma's true strengths belie in his unrelenting determination for a better world without sacrificing people, refusal to kill anyone, and most importantly his unyielding, unconditional kindness.
  Othinus: "Martial arts, a gun, a knife, or any other obvious offensive power would only increase your ability to 'cut people off'. You would be no different from the cruel agents of revenge who delight in robbing people of a chance to reform and then tossing the majority rule loser into the abyss, all while calling it a punishment. Kamijou Touma, that is not your strength. Your greatest weapon is the powerful arm that reached into the abyss and saved even someone as hopelessly evil and rotten to the core as Magic God Othinus. That ability to connect is your ultimate trump card, so make no mistake and do not reach for a cheap answer. You couldn’t defeat the High Priest? This Kamisato guy wiped out all of those Magic Gods? You should be asking 'so what'. You should be looking down on Academy City for letting the High Priest die and on Kamisato for killing the Magic Gods without saving a single one. What is wanted from you is not violence on the same level as World Rejecter. It isn’t the power to kill. It is the power of human reason that can envelop that violence."
• Mook Horror Show: When Touma fights, readers/viewers see a high-school boy fighting and winning against opponents who are objectively much more powerful than him thanks to his tenacity, hard-earned street fighting skills, and a Power Nullifier right arm. His opponents, however, see a fighting machine who can nullify their powers of any kind and rise from a severe beatdown as often as needed. When even Accelerator dreads him, you know Touma is a household name among some power users.
• Morality Chain: To Othinus. Ollerus has stated that if Touma were to die in front of Othinus, she would become an even bigger monster than she was before.
• My Greatest Failure: As Seria mentions to Misaki in NT 11, Touma's failure to save Mitsuari Ayu from committing suicide was something he could never get over...
  • My Greatest Second Chance: ...which drove him to not repeat the same mistake when Misaki was about to do the same thing during their first meeting. However, tearjerking ensues when he loses his memories of Misaki (along with being unable to remember her at all), leading him to live with the above example before losing his memories altogether in the Index Arc.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In the novels' version of the World War III Arc, Touma flashes back through all the other arcs he had experienced since the Index Arc just before his clash with Archangel Gabriel (he survives). Bonus points for it really being his whole life, due to his memory loss.
• My Hero, Zero: Mocked as a Level 0, total ass-kicker.
• Nerves of Steel: Even when under extremely stressful situations, Touma almost always keeps his wits on him, doing what needs to be done regardless of the odds.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Both played true and averted. When he was little, he was outcast by the people in his hometown due to his bad luck, and was called the "The God of Plague"/"Jinx". When he moved to Academy City, he ended up becoming just your typical, unknown, and unimportant Level 0, with just a few people belonging to the dark side of Academy City knowing about his importance to Aleister Crowley. On the other hand, he's infamous among the magic organizations outside Academy City, with people in the Magic Side wanting to kill him, join him, use him, date him, potentially marry him, "use" him, or all of the above.
• Never Going Back to Prison: The ordeal with Othinus' Infinite Hells left a huge, traumatic scar on Touma's psyche to the point that the idea of possibly experiencing another similar situation with St. Germain, who introduces themselves as a Magic God, is clearly something he wants to avoid.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: To Index at the beginning of the series, and again at the ending of Volume 22.
• Neutral No Longer: Most arcs boil down to this. He likes peace and doesn't actively go looking for trouble. But he acts if he sees something he personally finds tasteless even if the other person has a Freudian Excuse or even a legitimately good reason regardless of which side they belong to.
• Nice Guy: He's always friendly to everyone, even to his enemies.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While most of his actions do at least some good, many of his decisions cause a lot of trouble later on. However, while Touma knows his actions may have negative consequences in the future, he still won't hesitate to save those in front of him because worrying about the future is not a good reason for inaction in his opinion.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Played with; he usually plays the Noble heroic role to any male character he's paired or works alongside (Stiyl, Accelerator, Hamazura, Thor, Gunha, etc.) despite possessing some Roguish traits himself (extreme neurosis, being a Book Dumb delinquent, and occasional bluntness). However, in the anime, it's played straight due to Touma's rougher edges ironing out.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: No matter what he does or who he saves, Touma always has to face dire consequences. He will suffer terrible injuries in the place of others, and his efforts will never be rewarded. He even has to pay for the resulting hospital bills.
  Aisa: "In other words, even if he does anything for Himegami, Kamijou is just helping others pay the bill meaninglessly. In most situations, what he pays would often become his wounds."
• "No More Holding Back" Speech:
  • A simple one in the conclusion of NT Vol 7 when he is asked, "What are you going to do now?"
  "The same thing as always. No matter how many times I reach game over and no matter how many times I must pathetically hit continue , I will not stop moving forward."
  • Near the end of NT Vol 9 where he declares that he's finally fighting a battle for his own sake instead of to save someone.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He himself has acknowledged that while Imagine Breaker makes him one of the most powerful fighters in Academy City and the Magic Side, when up against normal opponents, he's just a regular guy who street fights. Fortunately, he happens to have gotten really damn good at street fighting.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Whenever he fights, Touma never cares whether the woman he's fighting is exposed. In general, he ta girl's sexiness if she's unclothed, instead, he reacts due to the Unprovoked Pervert Payback that usually follows.
  Kazakiri: "He's also the kind of guy who speaks to you with a straight face even when you're naked..."
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Heaven Canceller compares Touma's ideals with Accelerator's: Both want to save those they care for, except Touma wants to do it without sacrificing anyone, while Accelerator is willing to kill if needed.
  • Othinus realizes that his adventure in NT9 caused him to become just like her, a traveler trying to return home, and that he's the only person in existence who truly understands her.
• The Nudifier: His right hand is the bane of people wearing magical clothing, as Index found out the hard way.
• Oblivious to Love: In spades.
  • In Volume 18, his reaction to Itsuwa having a Luminescent Blush is to think that she must be wanting to save Index.
  • It's even more ridiculous in the case of Index, who blatantly expressed her love for him early in the series. Either he's aware of it and just not reciprocating, or he's mistaking it for platonic love.
  • However, he's not oblivious to other people's love. He can often tell if someone has feelings for another, like when he listened to Ouma Yamisaka talk about the girl he was trying to help over the phone.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Tends to sleep in his bathtub, even though it is uncomfortable because Index tends to sleepwalk and attack him.
• Older Than They Look: His battles and ordeals against Othinus' Infinite Hells during NT 9 left him with the experience, outlook, and emotional stoicness of a man couple magnitudes older than the Universe despite looking and occasionally acting like a neurotic, teenaged boy.
• One Curse Limit: Due to the drawbacks of his Imagine Breaker, Touma is actually immune to any magical curse and can dispel curses on other people.
• One-Man Army: Once took on about 200 battle nuns all armed with swords, spears, and magic with his bare hands, and survived. Then he faced a massive crazed mob in NT Vol 7 and held his own until the others arrived to help.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Subverted. Obviously.
• Otaku: Downplayed, especially when compared to Pierce Aogami, but Touma's tendency to make RPG-related metaphors in narration indicates that he's this. In Volume 2, a freshly amnesiac Touma looks at his old bookshelf to try and get an idea of who he was before...only to note that his shelves only contain manga.
• Our Hero Is Dead: At the end of Volume 22, lasting through NT 1. He makes a triumphant return that is quickly cut short by a swift kick to the balls from Birdway.
• Out of Time, Out of Mind: After experiencing what is told to be billions of worlds of torture and death (some of which he spent an entire lifetime in) during his fight with Othinus, Touma seems to come back from the experience relatively the same, even joking about it at times. He tells Othinus that he subconsciously rearranged his own memories so it would look like their continuously repeating fight would instead feel like a single one to him. However, the trope seems to be averted at times, like how Touma still has trauma whenever he hears the word "Magic God" or encounters one, such as when he met St. Germain and pretended to be one.
• Outside-Context Problem: At first, none of the villains had ever heard of him and were at a loss to deal with him and his Imagine Breaker.
• The Paragon: If you get preached to or punched out by him, chances are high you'll become quite heroic somewhere down the road.
• Patrick Stewart Speech: Gives one to Fiamma in Volume 22, pointing out that if humanity was really as wicked as he claimed, then Fiamma would have been able to wipe it out instantly, as his power is increased by the malice in his enemies.
• Perpetual Poverty: Thanks to Index and his general bad luck, he's always short on cash.
• Physical God: The "Invisible Thing", according to the power level chart, is the second most powerful being introduced in the story. Which implies that Imagine Breaker could be even more powerful than that.
• Power Incontinence: Imagine Breaker is always on. This sucks because he could accidentally negate and destroy something he doesn't want to just by touching it, like someone's magical outfit. Kazakiri is made of AIM, so he can never touch her with his right hand or she may be erased.
• Power Levels: Although technically classified as Level 0, in practice his power is greater than pretty much anyone else in the series. Even the almighty "Breath of Saint George's Dragon" only manages to make his hand bleed a little from the strain of holding it back. At first Academy City's power ratings are implied to be flawed. Then it turns out that this is only partly true — the ratings are largely determined by a person's usefulness to Crowley's master plan. While Touma's power is, on paper, enough to ensure him a high ranking, it is so problematic analyzers had to brand him Level 0.
• Power Limiter: Imagine Breaker actually works as the seal to the "Invisible Thing".
• Platonic Life-Partners: To Index and later Othinus, much to her dismay.
• Plot-Powered Stamina: He has quite remarkable stamina for a kid, as he once chased after Oriana around Academy City for several hours during the Daihaseisai Arc, and despite the constant running he rarely stops to take a breath.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Every time he utters his Catch Phrases.
• Properly Paranoid: Touma is extremely suspicious of a generous bounty of good luck, believing that it will ultimately screw him over. When he won a trip to Italy in Volume 11, he went through every possible scenario of what could go wrong, from a terrorist attack all the way to landing in an airport controlled by either Necessarius or the Roman Catholics. Ironically, he actually wasn't too wrong about his guess. This results in a Brick Joke in Volume 17, where his plane gets involved in a terrorist plot and after foiling their plan, the plane lands in a Necessarius controlled airport.
• Punched Across the Room: He often launches people through the air when he punches them, especially if he gets a running or jumping start. The punchee sometimes makes a crater on landing. Taken to the extreme when he punches Princess Carissa after getting a warm up from being used as a Fastball Special by Acqua of the Back, where his punch not only breaks her weapon, but hits her in the face so hard she goes flying clean through part of the wrecked Buckingham Palace and away from it. The light novel describes her as ending up 2-3 kilometers away from the palace.

R-Y

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Misaka's Red, Red to Accelerator's Blue.
• Rescue Romance: Many of the girls in his harem fall in love with him after he saves them in some way.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Imagine Breaker protects him from alterations in reality.
• Running Gag:
  • Whenever he gets injured he always ends up in the same hospital, in the same room, treated by the same doctor. Even on that rare moment when he isn't fantastically injured, he'd still pop up to greet the staff.
    Touma: "Hey, frog-man! I didn't get injured this time!"
    Heaven Canceler: "That's not something most people would be proud of..."
  • Then there's his habit of walking into girls in unfortunate situations.
• Sacred First Kiss: He loses his (to his knowledge, at least) first kiss at the end of Genesis Testament Volume 1 to Anna Sprengel, of all people. Granted, it loses some impact since she did it to infect him with a black pill containing St. Germain microbes that would infest and kill him from the inside.
• Save Scumming: After over 10,000 battles with Othinus, he memorized her attack patterns to the point that he can nearly effortlessly evade her attacks.
• Save the Villain: Touma will save both friend and foe as much as he's able. He saves Carissa from being killed by Fiamma despite her just minutes before had been trying to kill him and his comrades and willing to kill her family to achieve her goals, saves Fiamma later despite him starting World War III, and saves Othinus despite her killing him millions of times over. When he chooses to fight the world in order to save Othinus and succeeds, Queen Elizard points out on national television that while there are many stories of saints slaying dragons to save the people, Touma is the type of hero who manages to save the people and the dragon.
• Screaming Warrior: On occasions, he will become this, partly to hype himself up during combat, and partly to unnerve his oppoenents.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: The "Invisible Thing", though exactly what form it takes tends to vary (be its dragon head, at least eight different serpentine dragons, just a vague thing which is visualized in the anime as a constantly-shifting mass of energy that pools out of the remains of his right arm, or even things looking like dark red fish eggs with polygonal surfaces), assuming they're not multiple separate things.
• Selective Obliviousness: If someone directly confronts him about his popularity with women, he'll say he has no idea what they're talking about.
• Sharing a Body: In Genesis Testament Volume 2, he briefly experiences this with the St. Germain microbes infesting his body once they gain enough strength to communicate with him and the outside world. Luckily, he ends up being a Heroic Host when he convinces St. Germain to help him defeat Anna Spengel, with the two of them even switching who's in "the driver's seat" to use their specific abilities against their foe.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He is traumatized by his battles with Othinus. Though he hides it well, he sometimes gets triggered when something reminds him of them.
• Shattering the Illusion: His Imagine Breaker is more than capable of doing this, both literally and metaphorically.
• Shounen Hair: Has distinct spiky hair. Later subverted when it's revealed he actually styled it from a fashion magazine he read before.
• Shrouded in Myth: By the latter half of the New Testament novels, the name "Kamijou Touma" has spread so far that even two-bit street punks have heard the name, though they know next to nothing about him. The legend among them states that "Kamijou Touma" is an invincible force of justice that destroys all evil in his path and will sweep every woman he comes into contact with off her feet. Touma has a minor breakdown when he hears of this.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Whenever a bad guy tries to justify his or her actions, Touma will almost always manage to prove they're nothing but hypocrites and then punch them into the next week.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Never mind Imagine Breaker's theorized ability to attract women. Touma's a genuine Nice Guy, and that turns women on (especially after he rescues them).
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Towards Kuroko over Mikoto's affections. Touma doesn't really mind her or have any strong opinion about her, but Kuroko openly hates him and often calls him "ape" or "monkey" instead of his actual name.
• Skewed Priorities: He often focuses on something other than what everybody else is thinking about, mostly having to do with his Perpetual Poverty.
• Spanner in the Works: While not as good at this as Shiage, he can derail any complex plan by simply showing up and kicking ass.
• Special Odd Hand: Touma's right hand, the Imagine Breaker, has the ability to negate any supernatural powers, including the effects of psychic, magic, and divine powers.
• Spider-Sense: Touma had this power all along (or at least has been slowly developing it), but it's only recently been pointed out. He can sense changes in AIM Fields from Espers and, implicitly, Mana from Sorcerers. This allows him to react before an attack has even been properly launched.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Played With, despite being one of the earliest and most copied examples. While his Imagine Breaker definitely makes him near-unbeatable against magicians and espers, he can be easily defeated by others who are more skilled in combat than him/without powers/do not rely solely on their powers. Furthermore, his ability to take a beating, indomitable willpower, and being an All-Loving Hero make him more of a Stock Shōnen Hero than a Stock Light-Novel Hero. However, it is played straight in his case of being a Chick Magnet and having lots of girls having the hots for him, much to his dismay. If anything, he could be seen as a sort of "Missing Link" between the Stock Shōnen Hero and the Stock Light-Novel Hero.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: You wouldn't think he'd qualify for this, seeing as how he's the main character. However, in Railgun, where Mikoto is the protagonist, Touma essentially becomes this. This is particularly obvious in the Sisters arc, where Touma essentially takes on the Big Bad of the arc on his own while all Mikoto can do is watch. Since the two stories happen in the same city and often overlap, this can't really be avoided.
• Stone Wall: Touma is a fairly average street fighter, but his Imagine Breaker, combined with Spider-Sense, makes him Nigh-Invulnerable against superpowered foes.
• Story-Breaker Power: The "Invisible Thing" that even made Fiamma think twice about his chances to defeat it. Imagine Breaker is a slightly borderline case, as it can counter any power, but in turn, it can be countered if the opponent uses conventional weaponry (e.g. guns) or has superior hand-to-hand combat ability.
• Stronger Than They Look: Regularly punches people across the room on a daily basis, and has once knocked away a gigantic metal cross without help.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Imagine Breaker, as incredibly powerful as it is, is rather inconsistent with its feats. Despite being able to negate Othinus' world-destroying Gungnir, a single slash from Lola Stuart's Magick:FLAMING_SWORD was enough to sever the arm in nearly one go. Though this is explained later on^note Othinus' Gungnir Strike was concentrated within the spear itself while Lola's Flaming_sword gathered its power from the Tree of the world itself and several times in the series have shown the power's limits (can't instantly negate powers with a continuous source, has a limit on how much it can negate before destruction, can't negate secondary effects of a spell, can only negate one spell at a time, which most magicians would eventually use to their advantage, etc).
  • The Invisible Thing within his arm's in a similar vein too as despite overpowering Fiamma's new-gained power which made him superior to God's power it still wasn't enough to take down Othinus and Aiwass. Until in the climax of the NT series when Coronzon's attack which wiped out IB unleashed an even greater power than the ones in the first three instances which then continued to overwhelm and destroy Coronzon's essence despite her power surpassing that of Aiwass'.
• Superhero Paradox: Several antagonists showed up just because he showed up, and a few people like Etzali even blame him for it.
• Superpower Lottery: When his right arm is chopped off, he develops a power that makes everything Fiamma has pale in comparison. This is with Fiamma having been stronger than God at the time.
• Super-Reflexes: Since his Anti-Magic hand is useless if he can't react fast enough to bring it up to counterattacks, he needs these practically as Required Secondary Powers. It does help his body seem to just move on instinct when he's faced with supernatural powers, although it's ultimately proven that what Touma has is a serious case of unconscious Spider-Sense that he thinks are Super-Reflexes. He can react to the powers of espers, magicians, and even divine beings before they've even fired, but against mundane forms of attacks he's just better than average and wouldn't last long against a professional fighter.
• Super-Strength: More subtle than usual, thanks to his Charles Atlas Superpower he's strong enough to regularly send people flying through the air with little effort with a single punch, has causally thrown around things like safes and tables like softballs, and in an impressive feat of strength had once swatted away a massive cross weighing a couple thousand pounds with his left, unpowered hand. Even his foe at the time was shocked by this feat.
• Supreme Chef: Has learned to cook due to living on his own for several years. A good thing because of Index's bottomless stomach.
• Tainted Veins: In Genesis Testament Volume 2, which denotes the spread of the St. Germain microbes through his body and how they're slowly inadvertently killing him.
• Taught by Experience: Thanks to his quick learning and constant battles with magicians, espers, and trained martial artists, he could analyze magic himself without the need of magicians, and quickly find the weak points in his opponents' spells, fighting styles, and personalities where he would use them to his advantage to force them to draw or defeat them.
• Technical Pacifist: Touma normally can't bring himself to kill anyone. This is lampshaded by Heaven Canceller when he compared Touma to Accelerator in regards to how both protect the people they care about.
• That Man Is Dead: Admits in private that he is not his pre-amnesia self.
• Theme Music Power-Up: "Gensou Koroshi (Illusion Killer/Imagine Breaker)", which can serve as a leitmotif along with its allegro cover, "Break Through".
• Think Nothing of It: He helps people, not for praise, honor, or reward, but simply because it's "the right thing for a man to do".
• Third-Person Person: On occasion.
• Thou Shall Not Kill: He tries to find a way in which a problem can be solved without killing another person, no matter how irrational it may seem. Accelerator even stated that this is what separates himself from Touma.
• Tragic Hero: Pre-amnesia Touma "dies" at the end of the first volume shortly after saving Index, following but not limited to a long string of brutal and miserable life experiences which had defined the rest of his life going forward.
• Tranquil Fury: Surprisingly enough, he has displayed this trait a few times, primarily when he is enraged past a certain breaking point. The greatest example is in Volume 2, where he witnesses Aureolus Dummy murder several students. Touma is so enraged by this that he completely clams up and proceeds to effortlessly beat him down, even using the Dummy's own chain to choke him to death. He only manages to stop at the last minute when Aureolus Dummy begs for his life, and Touma realizes that he doesn't have what it takes to kill another human being.
• Trauma Conga Line: NT Vol 9, where Othinus traps him in many recreations of the world, each worse than the last. It didn't break him until the last one, but thanks to the Will of the Misaka Network, he kept going.
• Turn the Other Cheek: Move over, Son Goku, we have a new contender.
• The Unfettered: A rare, extremely selfless, noble, heroic, and optimistic version of this trope. As stated by Aiwass, Touma cares little about society's concepts of good and evil, nor does he even have a consistent set of morals he follows on every occasion like Acqua of the Back, he simply does what he considers the right thing to do in a particular situation regardless of the consequences. Also, unlike most examples of this trope that would fit evil characters because they aren't hampered by morality, Touma isn't held back by self-preservation with the only goal in his mind is to create outcomes with everyone, good or evil, smiling in the end at any cost, but without taking lives, using violence to the point of brutal harm, or even holding grudges for past sins.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: There can be only one Imagine Breaker, and he has it. Specifically, it is not that he happens to possess Imagine Breaker but rather Imagine Breaker exists solely in Kamijou Touma's right arm and nowhere else.
• Unluckily Lucky: He's extremely unlucky, thanks to Imagine Breaker canceling out the good fortune he would otherwise receive. However, it also negates the powers of both magicians and espers. He has the bad luck of getting dragged into a battle against powerful members of both factions, but also the good luck of having the power to defeat them.
• Unlucky Everydude: Nothing ever goes right for him.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Naturally talented and powerful, capable of shattering concrete with a single punch, but with no known formal training, instead of relying on his Imagine Breaker, street fighting methods, and instincts. When up against trained martial artists like Kaori and Motoharu, he gets his ass handed to him, and the latter even recalls that Touma wasn't even able to land a single hit on him. Fortunately, he is a quick learner and eventually he grows out of it.
• Unwanted Harem: All the other guys in his class hate him for unwittingly making all the girls fall for him, joking that unless he is stopped, humanity may go extinct because of his charm. This goes up a notch when he made all surviving Misaka's Sisters fall for him after defeating Accelerator. And he's just getting started...
• Unwitting Pawn: He's always someone's pawn without realizing it until it is too late, which winds up crippling Academy City because of his involvement with GREMLIN. In New Testament Vol. 5, he finally gets sick of it and manages to form a plan that outwits GREMLIN and Levinia Birdway's faction at the same time. NT Vol 10 reveals that he has been this to the true GREMLIN — as in, the Magic Gods from all of the world's religions — for a while. The entire conflict with Othinus was merely a trial to manipulate Touma's growth.
• Warrior Therapist: In some ways, it's his modus operandi. Notably subjected are Misaka, Accelerator (twice) and Unabara. He even strives to learn English just so he can talk the whole world out of World War III.
  • It's lampshaded by Thor about how he follows his usual speeches with his trademark punch.
• Weak, but Skilled: His only power is the Imagine Breaker which is limited to his right hand and can't negate powers that are too strong, but he is still able to regularly take out Superpower Lottery Winners because he uses it so well.
  • Though Touma is really a Superpower Lottery Winner himself. Other than the Imagine Breaker, he has the Invisible Thing Imagine Breaker is sealing and something else that is even greater than the Invisible Thing and made everything Fiamma had pale in comparison. It's more like Touma doesn't really understand and cannot control his other powers.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The original Touma "died" after saving Index in the first arc because St. John's feather wiped every last trace of his memory and personality.
• Weirdness Magnet: He will somehow always find himself conveniently dragged into whatever major incident is happening at the moment. Justified due to Imagine Breaker erasing his luck and people wanting to use him as their pawn so they intentionally ensure that he somehow gets involved.
• Weredragon: In New Testament Volume 22 R, losing Imagine Breaker and it gaining its own Will separate from him results in him gaining the ability to turn into a dragon. The Emanation can also transform into one, albeit with different colors.
• What You Are in the Dark: Even though nobody really knows he exists and his accomplishments will never be acknowledged, he will never choose to walk away from somebody in trouble.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Given that his only ability is that his right-hand cancels out all supernatural events, Touma's strategy in combat tends to boil down to "run up and punch them in the face".
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: He believes in a world where everybody can be happy and nobody has to be sacrificed. Until he gets it, he won't stop fighting.
• Wife-Basher Basher: Even though he's more than willing to hit a woman if she tries to cause a lot of harm, he will hunt you down like a dog and kick you into the middle of next week if you harm helpless and nice girls.
• Wild Card: Is seen as one by the Magic Side. It's because he knows about the Magic Side, is not actually an Esper, and with no real affiliation with Academy City other than being a student there. As a result, he is often manipulated and used by the Magic Side to further their overall goals and interfere/solve problems that they cannot deal with. Some magical groups fear the creation of a "Kamijou Faction" consisting of people from both the Science/Magic sides that Touma had met due to his wild card status, which could destabilize the balance of power between the Science/Magic sides. Aleister Crowley himself relies on Touma having this status in order to further his overall plans, and thus freely allows others to use him, but should he ever choose a "side", he would immediately be captured and confined.
• The Woobie: In-universe example. While his misfortune is pretty much exclusively Played for Laughs in the context of the story, apparently all the girls in his class feel sorry for all the bad luck he has to go through. It's part of the reason for the offscreen parts of his harem.
• The Worf Effect: In New Testament Volume 4, One-Eyed Othinus casually beats the crap out of him and tears off his arm. The "Invisible Thing", which is easily more powerful than Fiamma, emerges from the stump... and Othinus casually crushes it. She muses that it was boring. Ollerus had to come in time to fight her into a draw before she can finish Touma off.
  • Touma has had his hand chopped off by Aiwass multiple times, and every time the Invisible Thing would try to hurt the being. Each attack was repelled as quickly as blinking.
• Worf Had the Flu: ...But when Kamijou's right hand was cut off by Kamisato's World Rejecter, the IT again appears, and nearly kills Kamisato (who can casually defeat magical gods like Othinus with a flick of his wrist), making Touma question if the Thing that defeated Kamisato was the same one Othinus easily crushed earlier, which begs the question if there are several Invisible Things inside Touma's arm.
• Would Hit a Girl: While he's normally a gentleman, dare hurt innocent people, and Touma will smash your face in, male or female.
• Wrestler in All of Us: When he is attacked by a huge crowd in NT Vol 7, he mows them down with clotheslines.
• Younger Than They Look: In a mental sense. The "current" Touma at the end of the very first volume is essentially a new person who's unbounded by the Pre-Amnesia Touma's Dark and Troubled Past. That being said, this later becomes inverted after his ordeal in Othinus' Infinite Hells in NT 9.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: On the receiving end of this by the Will of the Misaka Network, who convinces him to fight Othinus to return to his world, after Othinus breaks Touma with her "perfect world".
• You Are Not Alone: Tells this to Misaka at the conclusion of the Sister's Arc, who returns the favor at the end of New Testament 2. Ironically, while he tells people he would help them no matter what, he never seeks help from others and always tries to do everything on his own.
• You Leave Him Alone!
  • Railgun shows that he first encountered Mikoto while trying to rescue her from a bunch of delinquents hitting on her, with everyone else in the vicinity displaying Bystander Syndrome. He'd quickly learn that Mikoto was in no danger, as she ends up inadvertently zapping the delinquents in an outburst toward Touma for condescendingly speaking of her as a rude brat not worth their attention. At the beginning of the series proper, he tries to shoo away another group of delinquents from her, this time trying to save them from Mikoto.
  • His challenge to stop Accelerator from murdering Misaka 10032, armed with nothing but bravery, kindness, and a mean right jab.
  • To the entire world after he decides to save Othinus.

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