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Toaru Majutsu No Index
alt title(s): To Aru Kagaku No Railgun; A Certain Magical Index; A Certain Scientific Railgun
A Certain Magical Index

Touma is just an extremely-unlucky Ordinary High School Student, living in a state-of-the-art city dedicated to the study of people with esper powers and possessing an unheard of ability to negate the effects of esper powers with his right hand. One day, he wakes up to find a young girl dressed like a nun hanging on his balcony. Her name is Index, and she claims to be on the run from rogue magicians who desire the 103,000 magical texts of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum locked inside her head...

Based on a series of Light Novels. There are also two manga adaptations, one being a spinoff centered around Mikoto (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, "A Certain Scientific Railgun") with an anime adaptation of its own.

Relationship Chart, now translated.

Another Relationship Chart. Be prepared to be in shock and awe (no, not that Shock And Awe), if you wish.

A character sheet of both franchises is now under construction.

Examples shared by both series
  • Alternate Character Interpretation - Accelerator: A young man who's trying to redeem himself for the terrible things he has done while trying to avoid turning back to his past self or a sadistic heartless monster who hasn't change his ways and enjoys being a powerful killer.
  • Anti Magic - Touma's right hand, the "Imagine Breaker". He outrageously claims that it can negate even miracles from the gods, and subsequent events back him up on this.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism - Despite there being espers throwing destructive powers left and right, the standard reaction one gets when mentioning magic to the general public is "There is no such thing as magic."
  • Armor Piercing Slap - Subverted. Try as she might, Misaka just cannot get a hit in.
  • Artificial Riverbank - Where Misaka and Touma have a duel.
  • Badass Normal - Except for his right hand, Touma is truly a Badass Normal.
  • Beware The Nice Ones - Itsuwa may look a shy, polite weak girl but when Touma got killed by Aqua, she becomes an angry merciless woman wanting revenge and to kill Aqua.
    • According to the Omake manga chapters, messing with Uiharu is not good idea as she's actually a mini Poison Ivy. Oh Crap.
    • Laura Stewart may look like a sweet innocent teenager but people have to remember that she's the Archbishop of Necessarius, she's not afraid to use her powers to eliminate her enemies in whatever means, all while she's smiiling at you.
  • Blessed With Suck - Touma's power also negates his luck, is probably the reason why he's attracting such deadly trouble in the first place, causes him to be classified Level 0 because his power can't be detected, and isn't of any use in mundane situations, either. And if a power hits somewhere besides his right hand first, he's screwed.
  • Berserk Button - If you hurt their friends and family, Mikoto and Touma will kick your ass.
    • Harm Last Order and Accelerator will show you no mercy.
    • And finally if you try to kill Touma infront of Itsuwa, prepared to die and suffer the consequence even if you are a Saint!
  • Beach Episode - Starting from Episode 15 to 17 in Index combined with Bizarro Universe for a maximum amount of Fanservice without risking Character Derailment. Also, Episode 13 for Railgun even if it's just hologram manipulation. Science these days.
  • Bottle Fairy- It is heavily implied confirmed that Komoe Tsukuyomi is one of these, what with all those beer cans and her messy apartment. Or spending time drinking with her fellow colleagues.
  • Catch Phrase - "Such misfortune." To a lesser extent, Touma is also fond of telling people that he's going to "break that illusion".
    • More specifically, he says "I'll kill it... That illusion/fantasy of yours!!" It's actually a pun: The Kanji given for 'Imagine Breaker' is 'Illusion/Fantasy Killer (Genso Goroshi)'. Cue punching things with his right fist.
    • On Touma's "Such misfortune": Very obviously used throughout the series. Tsuchimikado told him not to say it around Kanzaki Kaori because she is a saint granted almost godlike power, but had people sacrifice their lives for her because of it
    • Inverted in episode 23 of Index, where he says something like "Your illusion... isn't so easily broken!" (in order to reassure a friend)
    • Accelerator's catchphrase: "Such stupidity.."
    • Kuroko's catchphrase: "Judgment desu no!".
    • Saten's catchphrase: "UUU-III-HAAA-RRUUUU!!!", Cue Skirt flipping and Uiharu screaming in shame. ;)
  • Cat Smile: Komoe-Sensei, and other characters during the Furo Scenes in Railgun episode 17.
  • Chick Magnet - Touma is definitly one. Amusingly, it seems his father Touya is too, ending up in a Meet Cute situation with Misaka's mother. Mrs Kamijō was not amused or please.
    • Inverted for Misaka, who seems to be hit on by guys fairly often. Then there is the huge amounts of Les Yay she has with most of the girls she meets.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome - As explained by Mikoto and Index
    Index: You're another "I didn't ask for help but he came to help anyway?"
    Mikoto: *nod*
    Both: ... *exasperated sigh*
  • Christianity Is Catholic - While there are a lot Catholic characters in this series like Kaori, the series also show other Christians of different denominations like the Church of England and the Russian Orthodox Church.
  • City Of Spies - Academy City itself. Because of the city's unwillingness to share its research with the rest of the world, a lot of organizations have sent spies into the city.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe - Esper powers affect reality based on their users' internal reality. According to the pseudoscience of the series, if a Schrödinger's cat experiment was set up, espers would find the cat in the state that they believed it to be, because they believed strongly enough that the cat was that way. Hypnosis, brainwashing and drugs are used to throw the subjects internal reality out of whack. So, it might be argued that the strongest espers like Mikoto and Accelerator are the most stubbornly out of touch with the reality normal people live in.
    • By the same logic that implies Touma is the most firmly grounded in reality human alive since his power actively denies all supernatural things.
    • In Index, Aureolus's Reality Warper magic is directed by his thought; the more he loses confidence in it and thinks it might go wrong, the more it will go wrong.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl - Kuroko, who threatens Touma the moment she sees him out of suspicion over his relationship with Mikoto, telling him that if he wants to make a go at Mikoto he'll have to go through her first. Though despite her jealousy, she never tries to sabotage or otherwise impede Touma's conversations with Mikoto. While clingy and jealous, Kuroko has the best interest for Mikoto at heart.
    • Played Straight once she realizes Mikoto might like Touma and when Mikoto starts dating with Touma, Kuroko tries to ruin their date. Ironically 10032 and Last Order are the ones who ruin the date.
  • Convection Schmonvection - Apparently his magic-nullifying power also gives Touma an over-all immunity to convection, seeing how all these lightning strikes and flame demons end up two feet away without him being barbecued by the ambient heat they give off.
    • Considering the near complete lack of fire damage to the building (only metal doornobs and such are affected at all) in his first fight against a mage, its not just his hand.
    • See Clap Your Hands If You Believe, above. A slight expansion of the definition of Touma's power is all that's really necessary to justify this weirdness.
  • Cosmic Plaything - Touma, as a cost of his power.
  • Creepy Cool Crosses - A very creepy version goes to Vent of the Front. Now only does she wear two crosses earrings but also has a cross hanging from a chain from her tongue. It doesn't help that her face is heavily pierced.
  • Cry Cute - Index when Touma(he really enjoys teasing her several times) teased her on the way to a hotsprings.
    • Komoe when Touma ignored her lessons in the class room.
    • Kuroko's reaction to Mikoto's rejection.
    • Misaka, when she thinks Touma is going to punch her.
  • Cursed With Awesome: Kaori Kanzaki is actually a Saint, which has cause her alot of angst in her life.
  • Date Crepe - Kuroko gets the same flavor of crepe as Mikoto in an effort to get more intimate with her, and is horrified when Mikoto shares a bite with someone who got a different flavor.
  • Delinquents - Academy City seems to be crawling with them sometimes. So far groups of them have: hit on Misaka twice, been interrogated by/hit on Misaka and attacked Accelerator. Unfortunately, since they are usually drop-outs from the Esper program they are usually Level 0-1, and so not the ones you have to watch out for.
    • They sure like to hit on Misaka, don't they?
      • More like plain stupid. Why are they messing with a Level 5?! They have no chance!
    • An argument could be made for Touma and his friends being delinquents as well. Low marks and very little effort to improve them? Check. Constantly getting into fights? Check. Bleached hair, piercings and general disregard for the dress code? Check check and check. Of course it a subversion since Touma would rather avoid fights and just run away.
    • And there's the Skills-Out's, gangs of Level 0's who protect themselves against higher level epsers who bully them. Noble at first until some of those gangs started attacking espers who never bother them.
  • Demoted To Extra: Poor Aisa. Her importance in the series got reduced after the Deep Blood arc. She and even her Voice Actress Lampshades about it.
  • Determinator - Touma is surprisingly tenacious against overwhelming opponents. Even when he knows he is outclassed and his power can't help him, he charges in anyway just to prove a point, and because he's the hero. His Evil Laugh is amazing.
  • The Dulcinea Effect - Touma succumbs to The Dulcinea Effect throughout the series. This is even discussed at one point by part of his Unwanted Harem.
  • Early Bird Cameo - The anime version of Index and the Railgun manga and it's anime adaptation has characters from the later novels appearing much earlier.
    • In Index:
      • Episode 1 has Motoharu who originally appear in Volume 4 of the Novels but was mention in the Volume 3.
      • Episode 2 introduces Kuroko when her first appearance was in Volume 3.
      • In episode 21, we meet a red hair girl who teleports Motoharu to Aleister Crowley's Secret Lair, Novel readers might know her as Awaki Musujime, the antagonist from Volume 8.
      • In the Epilogue of episode 24, we have the guess appearance of Laura Stuart, the Archbishop of Necessarius.
    • In Railgun:
      • In manga Chapter 1, Aiho Yomikawa makes a cameo appearance after the crime scene.
      • In Chapter 8, you can see Stiyl passing by Uiharu.
      • In Chapter 11, Mikoto & Kuroko meets a certain Frog-face doctor.
      • In Chapter 15, the "Shonen Hero" in one of the Level Upper user's memories is none other than \Gunha Sogiita the 7th Level 5 psychic , and in the same chapter we have the appearance of a group of girls hanging out. Those girls are none other than the members of ITEM lead by the 4th Level 5 psychic, Shizuri Mugino.
      • In the first episode of Railgun anime, we have 4 cameo appearances (two from the novels and two from the Railgun manga). They are Mitsuko Kongo & Aiho Yomikawa from the novels and Mii Konori & Tsuduri Tessou from the Railgun manga.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - Mikoto, Kaori and Itsuwa are very popular with the fans. See Mikoto's Popularity Power below.
  • Elite Mooks- The Hound Dogs.
  • Evil Albino - Accelerator
  • Fan Dumb- When the Index anime started airing, some fans who only known about the series through it's manga adaptation started to accuse J.C. Staff of Adaptation Decay as it was different from the manga and when they learn it was going to be 24 episodes and the Deep Blood arc started airing, they accuse J.C. Staff again of creating filler to fill in the 24 episode slot and considred the new arc airing as Non-canon because it wasn't in the manga in the first place and wonder why they didn't make episodes based on the Railgun manga instead. However these accusations are rather idiotic and embarrassing if the fans have bother to do research to learn more about the series before they started accusing it in the first place, they would have learn that, a) To Aru Majutsu no Index started as a light novel series not a manga b) The anime is based on the light novels not the manga c) The Deep Blood arc is canon as its based on the 2nd novel and the Index manga skipped that arc in favor of the Sister arc, and d) J.C. Staff is adapting the novels, not the Railgun manga. If they have done that first, the would have not embarrass and made a fool of themselves in the first place. At least J.C. Staff please them when they started producing Railgun after Index.
    • Even though there were some fans who knew the anime was based on the light novels, they accuse the anime of Adaptation Decay because it was produced by J.C.Staff and it'll receive the same treatment that the studio did to other Light Novel series they did before like Shakugan No Shana and Zero No Tsukaima, even though they have never read the To Aru novels in the first place. Their accusation were rather baseless as those who did read the light novels will tell you, except for some minor changes, the anime was a faithful adaptation to the novels.
    • When the Index anime aired, fans complain they wanted less of Touma and more Mikoto screentime so they got the Railgun anime staring Mikoto but they still complain. The reason? They wanted more Touma in the Railgun anime!
    • And their complaining yet again about the Railgun anime because it's not doing [[Spoiler:The Sisters arc]] and doing anime original episodes, despite the episodes being written by the author of the novels. Fans are either dumb or have seem to forgotten that [[Spoiler:The Sisters arc has yet to be completed and if they did do it, it would Overtook The Manga thus ruining one of the best Story Arc of the Railgun manga and ruining the Railgun anime with Adaptation Decay!]]
      • Thats because the fans are not dumbs, the complain became from the logic "the author is helping to do the canon fillers, so why not to help to finish the sisters arc". Those fans are complaining about Adaptation Decay because, the connections between Index and Railgun were skipped in the anime and some events like the meeting between Saten and Mikoto were changed just to make this series more of a Slice Of Life.
  • Fan Nickname - Not a true Fan Nickname, since Touma uses it too during the first Story Arc, but "Biri Biri" (a sound effect for shocking) for Mikoto.
    • There are also pikachu-tan (pikachu-chan) and pika-pika-tan, which are fanbased.
    • Thanks to Mikoto in episode 10 of railgun, fans have now call Touma's doctor, Dr Gekota! * ~ * (At least it beats calling him Frog Face.)
    • Superman is what fans are calling Acqua of the Back and Gunha Sogiita.
  • Fantastic Racism - Though everyone in Academy city is treated with equal rights in theory, in practice your chances of getting passed over for jobs, universityies and all other opportunities in life steadily increases the lower your Power Level gets. Well meaning Level 5's such as Mikoto try to reassure their "lesser" peers with ultimately hollow mantras of "Do your best!! Your power level dosen't matter!!" oblivious to the fact that certain people are simply born incapable of crossing certain hurdles no matter how hard they try. Naturally, this breeds intensely bitter resentment, especially amongst the Level 0's of the city's population; ripe for exploitation by people like Professor Kiyama Harumi through schemes like the "Level Upper" incident...
    • And this is before we get into the positively vicious racism between Science and Magic.
  • Fish Out Of Water-Some of the magicians are not used to or familiar using modern technology which leads to hilarious results.
  • For Science!
    • Index: In the interests of science, let's see if we can make an absurdly overpowered, power-hungry, and relatively unhinged esper with little regard for human life even stronger by sending thousands of adorable clones to their deaths against him.
    • Railgun: We get a flashback of a previous incident in which orphaned children (complete with one girl talking about how grateful she was to the city for taking care of them) are used as research experiments (you see where this is going, right?) and ultimately all killed (sent into comas?) when put through a treatment to test pushing psychic powers to their limits. As the experiment goes terribly wrong, the head researcher stops another from calling for ambulances, saying the results are much more interesting and no one will miss the children.
    • Scientists in this city are assholes.
    • It doesn't help that the Academy City's Board of Directors allows this kind of activity.
  • Fridge Logic: Innocentius (the big fire monster) would've melted the surrounding area by its very presence—the anime even showed it melting metal door handles. Even if Touma's right arm can block magic/esper abilities, it probably wouldn't be able to cool the entire surrounding area and prevent everything from catching fire.
  • Gratuitous English - Anti-Skill, Dummy Check, Imagine Breaker, Judgment, Skillout, BLOCK, STUDENT, ITEM, GROUP, AIM...
  • Hatedom- Even though hes trying to be good, most fans still hate and cannot forgive Accelerator for being a sadistic monster especially what he's done to the Sister clones.
    • Hamazura got a bit hate from fans for defeating Mugino and when fans learn what happen to her, fans now want him dead and hopes Mugino to burn his (bleep!) off!
  • Hot Mom - Touma's & Mikoto's moms are hot! Heck, Touma's mom is voiced by Kikuko Inoue. Their Dads are lucky men.
  • Heroic BSOD - Several characters get one.
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel - Index: Someone getting suspended in midair and stripped of all their skin, complete with close-ups of an arm, a chest with beating heart, and the frozen, staring face.
    • And to a lesser extent, the Fetus Terrible (see below) in Railgun.
    • What Accelerator does to his opponents/victims who crosses his path.
  • Hivemind - In yet another unexpected use of a power, the Sisters (clones of Mikoto) use their electrical powers to maintain a collective memory. In Railgun, the true purpose of the "Level Upper" is simply to harness the combined mental power of 10,000 espers as a super-computer substitute; this has the side effects of temporarily increasing the participants' powers (through leaked experiences) and granting the mastermind All Your Powers Combined.
  • Ice Queen - Kanzaki Kaori. Naturally, she gets defrosted later. By Touma, of course.
    • This troper would like to note that as much as she is an Ice Queen, in the novels there are some funny moments involving her. Of course, given that she's an 18-year old, she's pretty much a young maiden at heart. So Yeah.
  • Indirect Kiss - Mikoto and Touma are eating together and at some point both put their hot dogs down next to each while distracted by something else. When they turn back to their meals, there is much confusion over which is whose. Mikoto panics over indirect kisses, while Touma doesn't seem to notice or care—after all, didn't they order the same thing?. The audience will note that they did in fact eat the wrong hot dog in the end.
    • In Railgun, Kuroko becomes elated at the prospect of getting a bite of something after Mikoto and later freaks out when Mikoto and another classmate innocently spoonfeed each other samples of their ice-cream. Kuroko desperately asks for equal treatment, but Mikoto refuses—after all, didn't they order the same thing?.
  • Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition - Each of the 8 limited edition Index DVD's contains a chapter of the Railgun side story mini novel written by the author of the novels and art drawn by Motoi Fuyukawa of the Railgun manga. Wanna have good reason why you want to read this mini novel? Three things:
    • The Railgun cast vacationing in the USA with a Beach Episode too.
    • The US forces versus Aztec Magicians.
    • The Aztec's flying Fortress versus Mikoto flying driven by hydrogen from the sea. Just buy the Limited Edition DVD's to learn more.
    • The limited edition Railgun DVD's also contains a chapter of the Index side story mini novel staring Kaori Kanzaki, written by the author of the novels in each DVD.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty
  • Knight Templar- Real Knights literally. The 13 Knights of the Roman Catholic Church will hunt down the traitor Izzard no matter if innocent people are in crossfire.
    • The same goes for the Knights of England, who were reponsible for the death of Ellis who was a subject of an magic/esper experiment despite Ellis already suffering from it. Their actions would come back to haunt England 20 years later when Sherry Cromwell, Ellis magician friend tries to start a war between Acdemy City and Necessarius. Of course, she got her revenge later during the English Magic Civil War.
  • Love At First Punch - Inverted. Misaka first met and took an interest in Touma after he blocked her electric attack.
  • The Man Behind The Man - Aleister Crowley is the fundator of Academy City together with Heaven Canceler a.k.a the frog faced doctor, and controls the Board of Directors of Academy City making him the real ruler of Academy City and one of the minds behind the Level 6 project. Despite this, the Directors are still in charge of the City everyday affairs.
    • The Pope controls God's Right Seat, a secret Magical organization within the Catholic Church. But in reality, the current Pope is actually a lackey of Fiama, the leader of God's right Seat so basically God's Right Seat controls the Catholic Church.
  • Token Minorities- Within Necessarius, a British Anglican organization these three are the token minorities within the organization.
    • Kaori Kanzaki: Japanese, Catholic, Swordswomen and a Saint.
    • Sherry Cromwell: British, Dark Skinned Blonde, Jewish and Golem summoner.
    • Motoharu Tsuchimikado: Japanese, Onmyōji, Spy with questionable loyalties and Magician/Esper Hybrid.
      • And lets not talk about those European Catholic Battle Nuns once they join Necessarius.
  • Manipulative Bastard - Aleister Crowley & Fiamma of the Right.
  • Moral Event Horizon - The researchers involved in both events under the For Science entry above cross this line in a big way. Accelerator also crossed the line before he's even seen; however, he seems to be trying to come back from it.
  • Mugging The Monster - see Rescue Romance below.
  • Mundane Fantastic - Esper powers such as teleportation and invisibility are just facts of life.
  • Narm - Apparently, Accelerator can state-change air into plasma by making ridiculous noises with his mouth.
    • To be fair, the ridiculous noises are another form of his evil laugh.
  • Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Accelerator, Teitoku Kakine, Mikoto Misaka, Shizuri Mugino, The Queen of Tokiwadai, Gunha Sogiita aka the 7 Level 5's of Academy City. Seriously, unless your Touma, you have no chance of winning against any of them. Ever!
  • Necessarily Evil - Necessarius was originally formed by English Puritans to destroy magic & magic organizations in England for God and the country's well being. But in order to do that, they too use magic to destroy magic, hence why they were called the Church Of Necessary Evil. Ironically, when the organization, became a part of the Church of England, they became the very thing they try to destroy. Now, Necessarius new job is to protect Britain from any magical threats that threatens the country, no matter what.
  • New Technology Is Evil - Vent of the Front sees people who use technology and Espers as Heretics and thinks they deserved to be killed. All because her older brother died from a Ferris Wheel accident that she survived.
  • Not Distracted By The Sexy - Stiyl is not disturbed at all upon coming to complain to the Archbishop Laura bathing. Probably because he's used to her doing this kind of thing.
  • Ordinary High School Student - The nature of Touma's power makes him fit the bill compared to all the other superpowered individuals, so long as people are trying to find new and creative ways to kill him. Touma's protests to Mikoto that he's just a "Level 0" are met with a compelling rebuttal in the form of a giant blast of (ineffectual) electricity.
    • Saten Ruiko and Kurozuma are even more ordinary than Touma.
  • Popularity Power - Mikoto's so popular, she was voted No.1 by fans as their most favorite female character in a light novel series in 2009. Due to her powers, her tsundere personality and character, she's loved by fans. She's even the protagonist of her own spin-off manga written by author of the novels. Plus she's voiced by Rina Sato in the anime.
    • Also Touma was voted No.3 as the most favorite male character.
    • In the overall light novel character category even Touma, getting the third place, surpassed Mikoto! who got the sixth place.
    • And it seems that in Railgun, even though the show is about Mikoto and co, some of the audience somehow wants Touma back in the screen.
  • Panty Shot - Played straight and subverted. Soon after he just met her, Misaka Imouto gave him one. It's how he told them apart. Subverted in Railgun. Despite Saten traditionally greeting Uiharu by flipping up her skirt, we never do get to see the contents.
  • Religion Is Magic - Whereas ESP is science.
  • Rescue Romance - Subverted: Touma tries to get a delinquent hitting on Mikoto in a diner to leave her alone—saying that he's troubling her—and winds up getting chased off when the delinquent's friends return from the bathroom. When he finally seems to lose them and stops to rest, Mikoto walks up and admits to frying them to save trouble. Turns out Touma had known she was a powerful lightning esper the entire time, and had been trying to protect the delinquents from her. The "fight" that follows only strengthens her determination as his Unknown Rival.
    • Railgun depicts their 'previous' meeting in a similar fashion, with Touma trying to safely lead her away from another gang and unintentionally pissing her off with repeated references to her being just a brat while talking to the guys. Electricity ensues.
  • Schoolgirl Lesbians - Kuroko, who gets concerned at how much fun Mikoto seems to be having in her rivalry with Touma. Clingy Jealous Girl, too.
  • Ship Tease - Anytime Touma spends time with any of the girls (who have a crush on him), they are just darn right adorable.
  • Ship To Ship Combat: Which girl should be with Touma? Don't ask! because the moment you say so, you will get yourself in a nasty Ship To Ship Combat between other fans over their favorite girl!
  • Shock And Awe - Mikoto has power over electricity, which she exploits in her signature railgun attack, accelerating a coin to multiple times the speed of sound. She also uses it to materialize a chainsaw whip out of nearby iron particles in Railgun. Whatever else you say about her, she certainly is creative as a Level 5.
  • Skirt Over Slacks: Mikoto and Mugino.
  • Stalker With A Crush - Although at that point the crush part is debatable, Mikoto did follow Touma quite excessively, including once chasing him around for a full night.
  • Superhero School: Subversion. Academy city doesn't teach their students to become super heroes, they just teach them how to use and improve their powers.
  • Tear Jerker - There some moments in the series they will make you cry.
    • Episode 6, when Index discovers from Touma's doctor that Touma's memories are destroyed but althought Touma doesn't remember her, lies playing a joke to her to ease her.
    • Episode 24, despite learning Hyouka isn't human, Index still loves her as she's still her best friend no matter what.
    • Episode 5 Flashback of Railgun: Watching a little Uiharu crying for help as she watches her friend Kuroko getting beat up by the bank robber, you can't help but to cry yourself and wanting to hug Uiharu to calm her.
    • Uiharu telling Saten not give up as she will wake her and their friends before they sucumb to the side effects of Level Upper. Saten is grateful of what she said before she falls into a coma.
    • Uiharu and Saten's reunion after being cured from Level Upper and Saten realizing there are some things more important than powers; her best friend. Awww...
    • Misaka 9982 last momments before her death is just, so, heartbreaking....
    • What happened to Kiyama's students and what she had to suffered to saved them makes you want to support her.
    • Itsuwa trying so hard to saved a dying Touma after his battle with Aqua. You can't help but feel her pain...
  • Teleporters And Transporters - Kuroko can teleport herself or anything she comes in contact with as long as it weighs 137kg. The higher concentration required relative to other types of powers prevents her from using it if she can't stay focused.
    • And there's Awaki, who's even more powerful than Kuroko as not only can she teleport objects without touching them, she can teleport objects as heavy as 4,500kg!
  • They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot - Some fans are disappointed about the lack of focus on Touma's memory loss and feel in needs more attention. However, most seems to forget that Touma's memory loss is permanent so there's no way for him get them back.
    • In volume 9&10 and 14, it finally gets address when Touma's parents and later Mikoto learns about Touma's memory lose and confronts him about it.
  • Tomboy And Girly Girl - Misaka and Kuroko occasionally drift in this direction.
    • In Railgun the second half of the Four Girl Ensemble, Saten and Uiharu, fulfill the trope even better, since Kuroko's behavior is not always what you'd consider "girly".
  • Trying To Catch Me Fighting Dirty - Touma to a small degree. Using psychological warfare on one enemy and throwing a shovel full of dust at another, he's shown not to really care much about fighting fair.
    • Justified because... just look at who his enemies are... no, more importantly, just look at what they have.
  • Tsundere - Mikoto over at Touma, obviously. Especially over the Sisters clones arc.
    • Lampshaded & practically outright called one in one of the spinoff episodes.
Harumi: You uh... You like him?
Mikoto: W-What?
Harumi: You know, when a girl behaves all cold towards the guy she likes. It was popular a while back... Tsun... Tsun... Tsundara? No... Tsunjire?
Mikoto: Not a chance!
  • Urban Segregation: Depending on which district of Academy City you go, it's either good or bad. For example: The School Garden is one of the best district to go as not only it looks like a modern European city, it where most of the elite girl schools and high class shops are located. However only elite school girls are allowed in the School Garden and school girls from other districs need permisoon to enter there. District 10 aka "The Strange" is one of the worst district as not only is it dirty and many building are run down and in disrepair, it's also where most of the gangs like the Skill-Out's lived. It comes to no surpise why the city's only cemetery and correctional facility is also located there.
  • Unknown Rival - Mikoto hounds Touma on a regular basis trying to get him to fight seriously with her, having misinterpreted his mysterious ability to negate her lightning as a sign of some incredible power that he's holding back. His nonchalance toward her and her otherwise remarkable power is a blow to her pride as one of the strongest espers in the city.
    • And then she's really unknown because his memory was erased. He has no idea who she is anymore.
  • Waif Fu - Kuroko
  • We Have Reserves - The Sisters. See For Science for details.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist - Everyone, even Accelerator (with a little Ret Con)
  • When All You Have Is A Hammer - Touma's complete lack of offensive power basically reduces his strategy to running at the enemy—using his hand to shield himself—and punching them really hard in the face. Some thought to figuring out the weakness in his enemy's flashy attack may be required first.
  • Your Mind Makes It Real - Izzard's Ars Magna-type alchemy. Basically, an Ars Magna user is a Reality Warper, barring they can keep their thoughts in check; Touma only beats Izzard by scaring him half to death and causing him to buff up Touma with a dragon for an arm.

To Aru Majutsu no Index
  • A God Am I - Accelerator's ambition, at least early on. He doesn't state it in so many words, but he does say that he wants to become so powerful that trying to fight him will be a sin. The implication is clear.
  • Anti Hero - Accelerator of all people, since the arc where he's the protagonist.
  • AlmostKiss - Itsuwa almost kisses Touma when he is lying in his bed in vol.16 of light novels.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism - Touma sees esper powers on a regular basis but initially dismisses the idea of magic as nonsense. Index's counter-skepticism of Touma's power is a lot more reasonable, considering he (an atheist) is claiming precedence over God's power. Academy City in general seems to hold this attitude, considering its brain-enhancing esper program as thoroughly scientific and counter to any related superstitions that might crop up. But since science is basically proven hypotheses supported by data from repeatable experiments about how the world works, the fact that magic is repeatable means...
  • Artifact Title - After the first arc, Index has next less relevance to the plot other than in passing mentions as a Mac Guffin and providing to Touma information about the magic of his enemies. The E Ds are still dedicated to her side by side with Touma.
    • The things changes in the last arc of season when Index deals on her own against a golem.
    • Despite the general misconception, Index has proven to be extremely relevant since the events of vol.6 and most of the vol.7 of the light novels.
  • Art Shift - Touma—and drastically so—when he sees President Obama Kuroko.
  • Awesomeness By Analysis - Index's complete knowledge of magic finally gets the spotlight in episode 23, in which she holds her own against a giant golem with a few quick phrases and safety pins. If Touma hadn't knocked out the caster, she would have won.All this to a Theme Music Power Up, too.
  • The Beard - 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 can't just blow him off the usual way.
  • BFS: Kanzaki Kaori's katana (whew), which is easily as long as she is tall.
    • Aqua of the Back's sword Ascalon, which is about 3.5 meters.
  • Bodyguard Crush - Implied with Stiyl, but Touma is nice enough not to press the issue.
    • Itsuwa who lives with Touma since the vol.16.
  • Civil War - In the magic side, In the volumes 17 and 18. Britain gets into a civil war between the two princessess of British Royal family for the throne which leads two of the major magic factions of England to support one side agianst the other.
    • In the science side, In the volumes 15 and 19. Team Group is involved in a power struggle between the various underground organizations of Academy City, with two of those organizations lead by the second strongest and the fourth strongest Level 5 espers.
  • Cloning Blues
  • Color Failure - See Thunder Shock, below.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming In episodes 19 and 20 when Accelerator takes a bullet to the head to save Last Order. Even if it doesn't redeem him.
  • Dark Skinned Blonde - Sherry Cromwell.
  • Day In The Limelight - Episodes 19 and 20 casts former antagonist Accelerator as the protagonist and shows the events that make him less of a jerk.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu - Touma's victories against a Reality Warper and an esper who won about ten different superpower lotteries feel a bit like this. (Bonus points because he literally did punch them out.) One wonders just how much more they can keep powering up the villains.
  • Dishing Out Dirt - Sherry's magic. She mostly uses it to summon a Golem to fight for her, but she can do other things with it too.
  • Drama Preserving Handicap - Index's "Walking Church" robe provides her with amazing defensive capabilities. Touma inadvertently destroys it in the first episode to prove the existence of his Imagine Breaker. Index patches it back together, but it's lost its defensive powers.
  • Easy Amnesia - Index remembers very little of her own life because of her periodic mind-wipes, and at the end of the first Story Arc, all of Touma's memories are permanently destroyed due to magic-induced brain damage.
  • Everythings Cuter With Kittens - Pretty much the sole reason Sphinx exists. Not that I'm complaining.
  • Fanon - Fans have speculated that the Amakusa Catholic girl that Touma fought and saved from a fall in volume 7 may be Itsuwa, the Amakusa warrior who was first introduced in Volume 11. If it is true, that may explain why she has a crush on Touma in the first place. We'll just have to wait for season 2 of Index to see if it's her.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry - Kaori apparently only needs one full leg on her pants.
  • The Four Gods - The global spell that swapped everyone's appearance was accidentally set in motion by Touma's father collecting supposedly mystical figurines that represented The Four Gods and placing them in each of their associated directions.
  • Funbag Airbag - Komoe-Sensei in the second intro.
  • Genre Savvy - After getting hit with magic-induced amnesia, Touma knows that any bizarre-looking characters he encounters are likely important acquantances of his. He's quite proud of this prediction, actually.
    • Unfortunately, the first time he tries this, he's wrong. But the person is quite important to what's going on, regardless.
  • God - [[Spoiler:In the Science side, God is called the one who reachs SYSTEM(a.k.a Level 6). In the Magic Side, God is called the one who reachs "la persona superiore a Dio"(the person higher than God)]]
    • Is stated that God is beyond magic and science but the things get interesting when the word "Kamijou"(Touma's last name) is discovered to have this meaning.
  • Golem - Sherry can create one from the earth around her. It can absorb more earth to repair battle damage and grow larger.
  • Good Is Dumb - Accelerator, after becoming more of an Anti Hero, is weakened in later novels.
  • Glowing Eyes Of Doom: Accelerator's red eyes and some Level 5s when they start to fight.
  • Handicapped Badass - In connection with Good Is Dumb and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Accelerator suffers major brain damage at the end of his first arc, requiring a cane and the Sisters' Hive Mind to remain functional and use his powers. He's a Bad Ass since he can still use his incredible redirection powers, if only for 15 minutes at a time. But seriously, with that kind of power, few enemies would last 15 seconds.
  • Holier Than Thou - The Romanic Catholic Church, the Saints (like Kaori, William and Sylvia), and God's Right Seat. Even Touma is in the list due to his "nature".
  • Holding Back The Phlebotinum - Index has mastered, functional knowledge of all magic, but her ridiculous power, cumulating in destroying a satellite by accident with a giant magical laser beam, is only seen once when Touma trips her auto-defense program (and subsequently destroys it). If someone would just tell her that she really can use magic, Index would become a nigh-unstoppable force of nature. As it is, she makes do sporatic analyses and is of little direct plot relevance.
  • Hostile Show Takeover - In the DVD bonus shorts. While fighting crazy-defense-program Index, Touma tries to get Kaori and Stiyl to take action by telling them to quit being "just side characters. Don't you want to be main characters too?!" (The pair think about it for a second and decide to murder Touma.)
  • Hot Chick With A Sword - The katana wielding Kaori.
  • Hot For Student - Komoe. Touma used to be a naughty boy, apparently. Various things happened. Various.
  • Lampshade Hanging - Touma acknowledges his tendency to break into long monologues: "Quit getting depressed in this kinda long prologue!"
    • Also the various discussions about how Touma keeps meeting new girls and expanding his harem. Various characters imply that he's the protagonist of a galgame.
  • Legal Jailbait - (Komoe-sensei, chain-smoking beer-guzzling Christmas Cake loli)
  • Laser Guided Amnesia
  • Level Grinding - According to the Tree Diagram supercomputer, Accelerator needs to kill about 20,000 Sister clones in order to become a Level 6. And so the project begins.
  • Light Is Not Good - God's Right Seat whom each member was bless with God's power. Maybe except for Acqua who is the only noble and lawful good of the 4, the rest are corrupt, selfish or manipulative.
  • Love Confession - From Index towards Touma in the end of the first arc.
    • Of course, he avoided any answer by changing the theme of the speech because he lost all memories he had. He still wonders how was his relation they had and how was his previous self, so the answer is still waiting.
  • Mad Scientist - The scientists behind the Level 6 Project. Or its better to say Half of Academy City's scientists.
  • Magical Database - In a literal sense, with Index herself being an index about magic.
  • Marshmallow Hell - Poor Sphinx, stuck in Hyouka's breasts like that. Also Touma with Oriana Thompson breasts during the Daihaisei sports festival.
  • Meaningful Name Aogami has blue hair and Himegami has hime hair.
    • Touma is another case, his last name, Kamijo, means "The person higher than God", but he seems not to know that fact for now. Only few people know, like Fiamma of the Right, who thinks that Touma is the holy stone "Imaginary Killer", Terra of the Left who was about to tell the truth about Touma's right hand when he suddenly dies. Kaori is lately suspecting the truth about him.
    • Also Komoe-sensei's name as well. "Ko" means "small" or "tiny" in Japanese and moe means... well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. See Moe below for more details.
  • Meido - Maika. She goes to a maid school and sits on a cleaning robot that spins round and round.
  • Mind Rape - Exactacly mind break when Index uses her skill "Hell Fear" against the magicians.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction - Accelerator goes from toying with Touma to raging fury after Touma slaps Accelerator's hand away with impunity. He really isn't used to people being able to ignore his power like that.
    • Later this scene was turned into some sort of a yaoi joke in the DVD extras.
  • Moe - Komoe-sensei. She'll be the most adorable teacher you will ever have! That doesn't help the fact that she is looks like a ten-year old girl!
  • Morality Pet - The loli Last Order (the 20001st Sister), for Accelerator, the guy who killed over ten thousand Sisters! She even gives a long speech about how he isn't such a bad guy deep down. Even Accelerator is in disbelief.
  • Mundane Solution - Touma defeats Firestarter's indefinitely regenerating fire summon by tripping his apartment's sprinkler system, thus washing away the runes sustaining it.
  • Naked First Impression - Touma walks in on Index(many, many times) and Hyouka changing. Lampshaded in the following episode when he is standing in front of a changing booth:
Touma: This Kamijou Touma won't repeat the same mistake he made back in the Nurses room
  • New Transfer Student - Subverted when Komoe-sensei announces Touma's class will be getting a new student. Index walks into the classroom, only it turns out she was lost and looking for Touma. Himegami is the actual new tranfer student.
  • Ninety Percent Of Your Brain - 85% of Index's mind is taken up by the grimoire collection. This leaves her only able to maintain one year of memories. Subverted when Komoe-sensei not only reveals that the 15%=one year explanation was completely wrong, but goes on to explain in layman's terms how the brain works with memory.
    • Also averted in the fact that the 85% thing is about her memory, not "brain function" as the claim usually is with this trope.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished - The first time Accelerator actually tries to help someone with his powers and what does he get? A bullet to the head for his troubles; though he survives, he gets brain damage that makes him reliant on the Sisters' Hive Mind to make up for the impaired brain functions. His powers are also reduced; he can only use them for 15 minutes at a time. Overlaps with Good Is Dumb.
  • Nosebleed - Touma in reaction to having a half-naked Index sleeping in his bed. Also subverted in that he had a nosebleed from humidity before he saw her, and lampshaded in that he defends himself by calling it unrealistic "manga-like" interpretation of a nosebleed. His nosebleed did get worse upon seeing her though.
  • Not So Different - Touma and Accelerator both suffer brain damage in similar circumstances. Faced with the choice of using their powers to save themselves or to prevent someone from dying, both choose to save the other person. They're also treated by the same doctor.
  • Older Than They Look - Komoe-sensei looks like a young girl (and wears bunny pajamas), but her home is littered with cigarettes, beer cans, and neurology books.
  • One Hundred And Eight - When rumors first surfaced about Biri Biri clones running around, Kuroko fantasizes about having 108 all for herself.
  • Omake - Much as there was with Shana, there's a series of DVD specials titled Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan. They include, among other things, a nod to another of J.C. Staff's works, Toradora.
  • Only Sane Man - In the 15th episode, Touma suddenly finds everyone around him inexplicably recast in different roles, with no one else the wiser. Among other things, Mikoto is now his Genki Girl cousin, Index is his mother, and Kuroko is now President Obama ("Yes. We. Can!"). He spends half the time yelling at everyone for playing a prank on him and the other half just wondering what the hell is going on before he finally finds out what's going on.
  • Our Angels Are Different - Apparently, if you force an angel down from heaven or whatever, it goes berserk in the attempt to get back home to do whatever its job is and may destroy the world in doing so. They don't seem particularly thrilled about this.
    • And there's also the Artificial Angels created by Academy City like Huze Kazakiri, don't confuse her with Hyouka.
  • Our Vampires Are Different
  • Papa Wolf - In episode 20(5th novel)when Accelerator refused to kill Last Order and stood up against Amai Ao to protect the remaining sisters althought he got a bullet in the brain after a shot pierced his forehead.
  • Phantom Zone
  • Playing With Fire - Touma's first magic-using opponent, Stiyl, uses liberally distributed magical runes to throw 3000°C fireballs and control an indefinitely regenerating fire demon. He's a firestarter, twisted firestarter.
  • Pretty Freeloader - Index, and thanks to his memory-loss, Touma doesn't even know why!
  • Power Limiter: Shizuri Mugino has one to prevent her powers from harming her. Apparently if she released it she could kill Mikoto instantly in the first move but at the price of her life.
  • Rant Inducing Slight - Touma insults Aogami's infatuation with girls that fall from the sky, and he goes into an incredible rant about what he's into that contains so much Fetish Fuel it has to be seen to be believed. Here is the original list from the novels, be prepared:
Aogami: "Haaa, you’re too naïve, Kami-yan. I have a wide range of acceptance when it comes to women, not just including fallen female main characters, but also includes foster sisters, foster mother, foster daughter, twins, widows, senpais, kouhais, same-class classmates, teachers, childhood-friends, ojou-samas, blondes, brunettes, brown-haired, silver-haired, long-haired, medium-length haired, short-haired, girls wearing bobby pins, wavy hair, twin-tails, pony tails, one-sided pony tails, twin braids, ahoges, curly hair, girls in sailor clothes, blazers, judougis, kyuudougis, kindergarden nurses, maids, policewomen, witches, shrine maidens, nuns, military women, secretaries, lolis, shotas, tsunderes, cheerleaders, stewardesses, waitresses, Goth girls wearing black, Goth girls wearing white, girl in China dresses, frail girls, albino girls, fantasists, girls with split personalities, queens, princesses, thigh-high socks, garter belts, girls who crossdresses as guys, meganekkos, girls who wears an eye-patch, girls who wear bandages, girls in school swimsuits, one-piece swimsuits, bikinis, V-shaped bikinis, bikinis that barely cover anything, youkais, ghosts, kemono mimi girls etc. Any females is within my area of acceptance".
Touma: "At least one of them isn’t a female right?".
  • Reality Subtext - in the Index-tan special, someone who used a voice changer asked Kaori Kanzaki about her age, her Stripperific outfit, and her voice actress' Lady Drunk antics in the launch of the anime.
  • Reality Warper - Aureolus Izzard, whose magic goes far beyond what anyone else might consider alchemy...
  • Relationship Values - In a Shout Out to these, Last Order declares to Accelerator that her "love index" will go up if he feeds her.
    • Also in the end of the first arc of the series Index confessed her love towards Touma.
  • Replacing Reality - The way Esper powers works.
  • Rewarded As A Traitor Deserves - Quetzal, the magician who disguise himself as Unabara Mitsuki, betrayed his organization so they send a magician to kill him as punishment.
  • Robo Speak - Index seems to enter verbose debug mode when ever accessing the tomes.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something- The English Magic Civil War where the second and third princessess of the royal family fight for the throne.
  • Running Gag - Index's unique method of getting back at Touma. She has a wider bite radius than you'd expect for someone about half his size.
  • Shout Out - After Touma finally loses the delinquents in the aforementioned first episode, when Mikoto tracks him down.
    Mikoto: Being a good Samaritan by protecting the delinquents? Are you a certain hot-blooded teacher?
    • In one episode, Touma passes an old man and a little kid (illusions) reading a magazine with Shana-tan on it. "Shana-tan, moe~"
    • In another episode, after seeing Aisa Himegami skillfully heal an unfortunate bystander, Touma asks her:
      Touma: Are you a certain famous doctor without a license?
    • Touma gets tied down in the exact same straight-jacket and mouth restraints as Doctor Hannibal Lecter in Episode 15 when he goes berserk at Index, whose appearance had switched with a girl-crazy classmate.
    • The To Aru Majutsu No Index-tan omake is itself an imitation of the Shakugan No Shana-tan omake and makes clear reference to it several times. The Toradora tiger makes an appearance, too, for the same reason—same publisher/studio.
  • Slasher Smile - Accelerator's smile when he get seriuous or when he is enjoying a fight... or a murder.
    • Touma' smile at the end of the second arc whe his arm got severed by Aureoulus Izzard, also this plus his evil laugh which scared the alchemist.
  • Stupid Sacrifice - Mikoto's plan in the sisters arc, if she only would have tried to ask for help from Touma earlier many sisters' deaths could have avoided.
  • Squishy Wizard - After his fire summon is negated, Stiyl goes down with a single uppercut from Touma, who to be fair has a pretty impressive punch. Accelerator, the strongest psychic in Academy City, has no experience in streetfighting and subsequently thus goes down to a flurry of Touma's punches as well.
  • Superpower Lottery - On one end, you have people like Mikoto who worked to raise their rank and have intimidating powers. And then you have [[spoiler:Gunha Sogiita the 7th Level 5 psychic who born with his powers and Accelerator. He can change the velocity vectors of anything he comes into contact with, be it bullets or Elemental Powers—even automatically if he is in danger. When a character can theoretically fly, replicate the effects of a variety of other offensive powers, shrug off a nuclear bomb without even trying, and still have time for an Evil Laugh, you have to wonder if something went wrong somewhere...
  • Talking Is A Free Action - A lot of people in this show have the strange habit of starting long monologes to explain what they're about to do while attacking an enemy.
  • The Reason You Suck Speech - Reversed with Touma's verbal barrage at Aureolus.
  • Third Person Person - The Sisters narrate everything they say in third person, complete with descriptions of how they are speaking and what they are doing at the time. It probably goes with the Hive Mind.
  • This Looks Like A Job For Aquaman - Even though Touma's abilities aren't really that spectacular when compared with the abilities of everyone else, they end up being the only thing that can save the day most of the time.
  • Thunder Shock - Index and Aisa (plus a Color Failure), when Komoe starts happily talking about how Touma was a naughty boy, and how "various things" happened. Though in this case it's more like a Thunder Rage: "Another one?" "That bastard."
  • Took A Level In Badass: Remember Hyouka? The useless, scaredy, Meganeko girl with big boobs. Well, by episode 24, she's not the same person you know once she started to kick the Golem ass with super strength.
  • Unwanted Harem - Surprisingly, the only thing that isn't proportionate with Touma's bad luck is the number of girls who seem to have crushes on him. His harem includes but is not limited to: Index, Misaka Mikoto, Komoe Tsukuyomi, Aisa Himegami, Kanzaki Kaori, and (from the novels) Ursula Aquinas, Agnes Sanctis, Seiri Fukiyose and Itsuwa. Index and Mikoto meet in episode 22 and instantly dislike each other—Mikoto even gives off involuntarily bursts of electricity during the encounter. Of course, Touma and Index had been caught in a compromising position at the time, with Kuroko along to insinuate that he had been getting steamy with Index.
    • Possibly Misaka Imouto aswell...whom number around 9968 as of last count.
      • Well, 10032 definitely likes him and is even a tsundere in her own weird way, while with the other Sisters it's more implied.
      • Even Last Order gets in on it a little, clinging to him when they first meet.
    • Given the hassle that comes with an Unwanted Harem, it's likely that Touma's "success" with women is yet another form of bad luck. Of course, as stated in the novels and the manga he likes big sis type, so we can pretty much consider him even more of a unlucky guy since the majority of his ‘harem’ isn’t the kind he like. Probably skipped in the anime to avoid any Ship To Ship C Ombat.
Tsuchimikado: Then again, what kind of girls to Kami-yan like?”
Touma: Land Lady onee-sans, even temporary ones will do.”
Tsuchimikado:"We’re in a boy’s dorm, even the manager’s a old geezer too, you know?!"
Touma: "Shut up! Even I know that’s impossible in reality! I’m an only child, of course I’d admire onee-san type girls, so get off my case you two!".
  • Verbal Tic - Several characters have unique ways of speaking, one of the more obvious ones being Last Order's tendency to repeat the "said Misaka" portion of her Third Person Person speech twice.
    • Specifically she's announcing herself as the subject of the sentence twice (and she's the subject of all her sentences, given that she's narrating her own dialog), although the translators necessarily took some liberties in how it was phrased. This is also a case of a Verbal Tic being embedded inside another Verbal Tic, possibly making her the most annoying character to listen to ever devised. Or not.
  • Top Secret - Less than five people in the world knows about the truth behind Touma's right hand, which existed before under a different name. And one of them, Terra of Left, is dead.
  • Wild Card - Tsuchimikado Motoharu—self-professed liar—plays at this; at the end of the arc where his secret identity is revealed, he claims to be an agent, or maybe a double agent, or maybe a double double agent, etc... for the Church or Academy City (and relations between the two groups are vague to begin with). Conveniently, his esper power is slow regeneration, thus allowing him to survive the bloody backlash that accompanies an esper using magic.
    • Touma himself very loosely, if seen from the side of Academy City. One moment fighting in their best intrests , and the next against them, depending on what he thinks is right. Tsuchimikado even warns Crowley that if he keeps using Touma this way he might turn against him
  • Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds - Accelerator, since he childhood he was excluded by other childs because he was different(white hair and red eyes cause of his powers) thus causing the prey of the greed of many organizations who sent agents, SWAT teams and even a freaking army!!!. He only wanted to have friends, but no, a special group(Hound Dogs leaded by Kihara Amata) appeared and took him to Academy City where as a Guinea Pig passed through many anti-ethical experiments with espers of the same age like him who died in the process with the only survivor, him. This fact terrified the scientists who tested on him because his boy was enough modificated to be died a long time ago. The last test he participated was the Level 6 project where he got the promise to get a peaceful life... all was a lie.
  • Would Hit A Girl - Despite his chivalrous nature Touma has no problem attacking females he knows are after his friends.
  • Xanatos Sucker-The Pope. Under the belief that Touma is some herectic that wiil destroy the world by his former mentor Fiamma, he follows Fiamma advice on what the Catholic Church should do during the series without even asking about it. By the time the Pope realizes that everything Fiamma told him to do was not for the church but for his selfish ambitions, Fiamma casts a spell to destroy the the Vatican,which the Pope diverts the spell onto himself to save the Vatican.
    • Touma might be the worse case. He is used by everyone for whatever reason, and sad thing is he doesn't realizes it until it's too late.
  • Yaoi Fangirl - Tsuchimikado Maika, the Maid, who asks Misaka to pickup some Boys Love manga for her.
  • Younger Than They Look - Styl Magnus is 14.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
  • Adaptation Expansion- The anime gives more character development to the cast from the Railgun manga and even explain more details about Academy City and the people who live there.
  • A Day In The Limelight: Episode 17 is about the teacher and Anti-skill officer Tsuzuri Tessō.
  • All Your Powers Combined - The "Level Upper" hivemind gives its instigator the free use of the powers of all of its members, when an esper is only supposed to have one. By the time of The Reveal, this count is literally Over Nine Thousand.
  • Amusing Injuries - Kuroko would not have survived getting her darned neck broken by the dorm supervisor in Episode 2 if it wasn't so darned funny.
  • Anti Villain - Professor Kiyama, whose motivation of saving children who were her students rendered comatose by a corrupt government experiment is noble enough to earn Mikoto's sympathy and offer to help her accomplish it.
  • Barely There Swimwear - Kuroko's in episode 13. Everyone is not amused.
  • Big Ol Eyebrows - The reason for Miho for attacking Tokidawai students in the first place.
  • Brown Note - The main plot centers around a "Level Upper", which turns out to be an audio file. It works by synaesthesia, using sound alone to manipulate all of the senses at once—not, sadly, The Power Of Rock—in order to effect an increase in power. Unfortunately, its users inevitably fall into comas...
  • Continuity Cameo - Index and Aisa appears in Railgun episode 17.
  • Chainsaw Good - Mikoto attacks Touma with a chainsaw materialized from iron in the air, nearly lopping off a few limbs before she turns it into a Whip Sword and he's able to dispel it.
  • Character Development - Mikoto started as an idealist but later becomes an understanding realist when she learns not everyone has the will and effort to become a higher level esper and learns to respect and be senstive to other people's feelings especially the Level Upper users like Saten. But then it gets bad when she becomes a unbalance cynical, Stepford Smiler during the Sister arc. It Got Worse, very worse and then She Got Better.
  • Character Exaggeration - Yes J.C. Staff, we know Kuroko is madly in love with Mikoto, but was it necessary to make it over the top in the Railgun anime?
  • Chekhovs Gun - Episode 4: in a list of "urban legends", the Level Upper is mentioned. Similarly, closeups of a pair of headphones playing some music, eventually it is revealed that the Level Upper is actually a sound file that one can listen to.
    • Episode 12: The camera focuses to a group of 4 girls at a restaurant and a mysterious lady who likes Margery Daw at the nuclear power plant.
    • Remember episode 17? The one featuring a mysterious girl who's pendant has a picture of a certain scientist's student and the earthquake that happen in that episode? Guess who's the new transfer student at Uiharu's school and what Anti-skills and Judgment are talking about in episode 20?
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Kuroko gets hers in episode 9. Can't hit your enemy? No problem! Just bring a whole building down on their head and you'll be fine.
    Kuroko: I think I may have overdone it a bit...
    • Then there's Misaka's fight against the AIM Burst. Especially after it loses its regenerating ability and Mikoto uses her full powers to finish it including having the song Only my Railgun. playing too.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny:
    Postman: We have an order for Ms Shirai Kuroko.
    Mikoto: What's the contents?
    Postman: "Computer parts."
    Kuroko: (Aside to audience) Phew, thank goodness these companies are always discreet about their products.
    Mikoto: Who sent it?
    Postman: "Love Potions and Aphrodesiacs."
    Kuroko: Why the hell did they bother to label it "computer parts" then!!
    • Kuroko's reaction to finding out the curse of the Undressing Woman is infecious.
    • Pretty much any scene with Kuroko that, in some way, involves Mikoto.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Mugino was smart enough to leave Saiai to defend one of the research center while she, Frenda and Rikou fought Mikoto at the other research center in case Mikoto was just a diversion.
  • Designated Girl Fight: When the scientist in charge of the Sisters project learns that Mikoto is destroying their labs, he decides to sent in a team of mercenaries. Said team is Team ITEM but it's a subversion as they weren't hired because they were girls, they were hired because the team are professionals mercenaries and their leader is a Level 5. Currently Frenda is fighting Mikoto and the others are yet to get involved. But now with Mugino and Rikou being involved, its now a 3 on 1 fight. Cat Fight anyone?
  • Ear Worm - The Opening Song "Only My Railgun."
  • Eldritch Abomination: The AIM Burst creature after people have been shooting it, causing it to grow and deform, most notably developing eyes in random places.
  • Eureka Moment - Episode 3: The girls are stumped over why a girl shows up on camera but isn't seen by her victims, since everyone with the power to turn invisible has an alibi. After Kuroko remarks that she "didn't notice" the pigeon Uiharu saw fly by, Mikoto realizes that the girl must have the power to erase her presence from the minds of people who see her directly.
  • Foreshadowing - In the manga Kiyama gives a hint to Mikoto over where she got the idea to create Level Upper. The origin of that idea? The Sisters project. Skipped in Railgun anime.
    • Remember some of those Urban Legends the girls were talking at episode 4? Their hints about whats going to happen in the Index anime.
  • Four Girl Ensemble - Mikoto, Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten... they complement each other well, don't they?
  • Fetus Terrible - A flying psychic malformed embryo... thing... formed from the negative emotions of thousands of espers. Not really conscious but damn good at blowing stuff up. Regenerates in a fraction of a second. Also, tentacles. Only The Power Of Rock can save you now.
  • Filler- Because there are currently only 4 manga volumes of Railgun, with the current arc The Sister arc still ongoing, filler episodes were created after the first arc in the Railgun anime to fill in its 24 episode slot. Thankfully, most of filler episodes and the characters introduced in the anime were written by the author of the novels so it's Canon.
  • Flower In Her Hair - Uiharu practically wears a flowerbed on her head, while Saten wears a lone white flower.
  • Guilty Pleasure - In-universe example: Mikoto has a love for childish cute things like the Gekota franchise, but feels incredibly embarrassed about it and tries to hide it because many characters point out how her likings are rather childish .
  • Heart Is An Awesome Power - X-Ray vision may not seem to be that impressive on its own, but when that means Konori Mii can never be surprised by concealed weapons, coupled with her bone-breaking martial-arts skills, makes her more than a formidable match in battle.
  • Hollywood Hacking - Misaka Mikoto herself. Granted, she's a master of electricity, but bypassing passcard locks, hijacking security robots, erasing herself from security footage, and breaking into a secure facility's network from a phone booth can't be THAT easy, even if you can control electricity.
  • Hypocritical Humor - Kuroko berates Kiyama for undressing in public as it's immoral yet Kuroko sees nothing wrong if she did the same things to Mikoto.
  • The Heartless - The Fetus Terrible, above.
  • I Just Want To Be Special - A large part of Ruiko's angst, as she has absolutely no potential in Esper ability, in a city full of people training to be Espers. Then she gets her hands on the LevelUpper...
  • Invisibility - The anime mentions offhand that there are 47 students with the power to turn completely invisible, and that count doesn't include more specific powers like the ability to not be noticed by direct sight.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac - Kuroko towards Mikoto, which is turn up to eleven in the anime. Though YMMV.
  • Love Potion - Kuroko laces this in the sports drinks she gives Mikoto... which backfires on her...
  • Mama Bear - Professor Kiyama Harumi : "I will save those children!! Even if I must make an enemy of everyone in this city!! "
  • Meaningful Name - Shirai Kuroko's name literally translates as "White-Well Black-Girl", a nice contrast that reflects her outwardly cute but inwardly perverted persona. Mikoto even points this out in Episode 2 before beating her senseless, shouting "I'm gonna fry you as black as your name!!"
  • Mission Control - Uiharu puts her computer skills to good use in episode 3, watching the action through an extensive web of surveillance cameras and giving directions to the other three girls through their earpieces.
  • Most Common Superpower - Who knew drinking milk is what made Mii Konori body that way!
  • Mundane Utility - Mikoto using her electric powers to cook rice and curry.
  • Not So Different: Kiyama and Mikoto. Both of them are good poeople who became cynical due to the fact those they care and loved were screwed by the corrupt Academy City administration (for Kiyama is was her students, for Mikoto her clone sisters) and both of them could not fight them as their were powerless against the administration. Though as shown in the "sequel" Index, Mikoto eventually grows out of said-bitterness.
  • OnlySaneWoman-Yoshikawa berates her fellow scientists over wasting thier time figuring out what type of panties Mikoto wear so they could make the sister clones wear the same panties when they only need the cheap discount panties she bought for them. Even the Supercomputer Tree Diagram thought so too.
  • Pettanko - Mikoto is very self concious of the fact she is not as... "developed" as other girls her age, if not younger. Meanwhile, Kuroko on the other hand is "less-developed" than Mikoto and is not ashamed of it.
  • Pink Bishoujo Ghetto - Aside from Touma, there is a conspicuous lack of male characters of any significance in this particular series.
    • However, with Kurozuma a respectable male character was introduced in episode 15. Let's see how he will affect the character dynamics.
    • Not anymore, he's gone now since episode 16.
  • Psycho Lesbian - Fondling Mikoto in the shower? Yup. Taking stalker picture albums of her? Sure. Lacing her drinks with aphrodesiacs "Computer parts?" You bet!
  • Rape Is Love - Kuroko's idea of her "first meeting of fate with her beloved Onee-sama" is forcing herself into her room and onto her...
    • To be fair to Kuroko, she forced her way to become Mikoto's roommate to protect her from others students who were jealous of Mikoto.
  • Relationship Voice Actor - Definitely NOT easy to spot unless you've been doing your research. Kanae Ito, who is the seiyuu of Amu in Shugo Chara is the skirt flipping Ruiko Saten. Aki Toyosaki, who is Su, is Kazari Uiharu.
    • They also play Nana and Momo respectivly, twin sisters.
    • Speaking of Aki Toyosaki, her fellow seiyuus, Satomi Satou and Minako Kotobuki who played as Ritsu and Mugi respectively in K-ON! (which Aki also voiced in),with the former voiced Edasaki Anri, one of Kiyama's students in Railgun, who looks like a mini Ritsu and the later voiced Mitsuko Kongō, who is not like Mugi in anyway except being rich.
    • The Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor in Railgun (the one who broke Kuroko's neck) is voiced by Hitomi Nabatame while 'her wife' Shizuka Ito voiced Kaori Kanzaki in Index.
  • Required Spinoff Crossover - Mikoto running into Touma, which happens sometimes before the main story kicks in.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses - the Dorm Supervisor of Tokiwadai Dormitories. Also Mii Konori in the manga, especially around Kuroko◊.
  • Serious Business - A team of top scientists spending an entire omake chapter speculating on what kind of panties Mikoto wears under her shorts, even sending a special ops team in a (thwarted) attempt to steal them.
  • Shout Out - A Shout Out to the 1942 classic Casablanca appears in Kuroko's imagination in Episode 2, with Mikoto playing Humphrey Bogart's Rick and Kuroko as Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa on the mist-filled runway in the finale; right down to Mikoto/Rick lovingly caressing Kuroko/Isla's cheek saying "Here's looking at you, kid!"
  • Technopath - Mikoto can directly control security computers, cameras, robots and read the circuitry of computers directly as an extension of her electricity powers. Truly a Level 5 indeed.
  • Theme Music Power Up: During the final part of the fight with the AIM Burst.
  • Too Kinky To Torture - Kuruko seems to enjoy the electric shocks Misaka gives her.
  • Urban Legends - Episode 4 shows us that there are a few of these around. The Undressing Woman and The ability to nullify other abilities are... well the former is shown in the episode and the other is obviously Touma, so those two are confirmed. There are others though.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist - Kiyama-sensei and her Level Upper plot. A little less extreme than most, since she does have a way to reverse the effects of the Level Upper-induced comatoses once she's done.
  • Wisdom From The Gutter - Subverted horribly. Mikoto gives some advice to Saten telling her Level's aren't important in life yet she is quietly offended by this since Mikoto's a Level 5 while she's a Level 0. Mikoto realizes the consequence of what she said when she learns Saten fell into a coma using Level Upper.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Heinous - Episode 3 is about a culprit who sneaks up on girls, stuns them with a taser and while they are unconscious performs on them the depraved, heinous act of drawing them huge eyebrows.

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