Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- lb:toaru [2024-10-23 15:39:56] – [Belief] ninjasr
+++ lb:toaru [2025-09-28 09:32:00] (current) – [Esper Development Program] ninjasr
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Toaru Project ======
-{{ :lb:img:toaru.png }}
+{{ img:b:r:toaru.png?460 }}
 The とある(Toaru) Project is a fairly large franchise spanning [[lb:Light Novels]], [[lb:Manga]], [[lb:Anime]], [[lb:Games]] and more.\\
 The main appeals are the fantastic worldbuilding and storyline; showing off the struggle between [[#Science]] and [[#Magic]].\\
 This is one of my personal favorites.
 <WRAP centeralign>
-Related:\\
+[[lb:toaru:what.if.academy.city.existed]]\\
-[[lb:toaru:what.if.academy.city.existed]]
+[[lb:toaru:accelerator]] • [[lb:toaru:hamazure shiage]] • [[lb:toaru:hokaze junko]] • [[lb:toaru:kakine teitoku]] • [[lb:toaru:kamijou touma]] • [[lb:toaru:misaka mikoto]] • [[lb:toaru:shokuhou misaki]]
 </WRAP>
+{{tag>anime light_novels manga otaku speculah}}
 ===== Reviews =====
 This was initially a small note regarding the entire series, but I eventually added way more. I'll fix it up at some point. For now, it's okay like this.\\
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 === Toaru Kagaku no Dark Matter ===
 It's fine.
-===== Characters =====
-==== Protagonists ====
-The main protagonists of the franchise, as far as I can tell.
-=== Kamijou Touma ===
-The first and primary protagonist. He appears in basically all the works at some point or another. Academy city considers him a Level 0. He attends a Certain Highschool (name unknown).\\
-He has the ability ｢{{ruby|幻想殺し|イマジンブレイカー}}｣ - ｢Imagine Breaker｣ which resides in his right hand. It lets him cancel out //all// supernatural phenomena, whether it originates in science or magic. One less than ideal side-effect of this is his misfortune. Because he cancels out all supernatural phenomena, he also cancels out divine blessings and luck. This leads to his de-facto catchphrase: ‘Such misfortune!’\\
-He's a person with a kind heart. When someone asks him for help, he will help them no-questions-asked... sometimes he helps even when they don't ask.\\
-Touma has a sort-of internal sense of right and wrong, not governed by societal norms.\\
-In day-to-day life, he worries about not having enough cash to buy himself food. He's a bit book-dumb, exemplified by his need to attend make-up classes for his make-up classes for his make-up classes for having a failing grade in school.\\
-<wrap spoiler> At the end of the first Volume (first arc in the anime) he loses his memory and starts pretending he hasn't. This lasts until the last Volume of the first Index series. This is actually one of my favorite aspects of his character, only because he pretends he knows what's going on 90% of the time... to not reveal he lost his memory.</wrap>\\
-He lives with Index and her cat Sphynx (or, more accurately, they live with him). People say it doesn't make sense because of how annoying she is. They seem to miss that Touma actually likes Index.
-=== Misaka Mikoto ===
-{{page>lb:toaru:misaka.mikoto&firstseconly&noheader&nofooter&noeditbtn}}
-=== Accelerator ===
-One of the first antagonists, promoted to protagonist. He ended up getting his own spin-off as well, ｢とある科学の一方通行｣ - ｢A Certain Scientific Accelerator｣. His real name is currently unknown, so he's known by his nickname, based on his ability. He's the first ranked Level 5.\\
-He has the ability ｢{{ruby|一方通行|アクセラレータ}}｣ - ｢Accelerator｣, which allows him to control vectors. With a slap he can turn you into a puddle of blood, theoretically.\\
-He honestly just wants to be left alone so he can relax in peace. He's spent most of his life getting attacked by all kinds of people, ranging from your standard street thug to the //military of Academy City//. He comes off as a psychopath and a bit insane, at first. <wrap spoiler>The Level 6 Shift Experiment kinda gave him trauma.</wrap> He saves the life of Last Order and then pledges to protect her.\\
-So far, I can't really think of anything else to say about him.
-=== Hamazura Shiage ===
-A minor antagonist, promoted to protagonist after getting punched. He was originally the second-in-command of one of the largest Skill-Out groups, before becoming the leader. After getting punched, he became an ITEM lackey, declared independence and is now a full member of ITEM.<wrap spoiler> He also gets on the bad side of Academy City... for being lucky. Apparently, he was so lucky he interfered (unintentionally) with the plans of the Chairman of the Board, Aleister.</wrap>\\
-He has no special ability, being a Level 0. Although he is unusually lucky...\\
-He's similar to Touma, but more hesitant and less concerned with ideals. He's willing to do a lot of things for the person he loves. Had something of an inferiority complex for being a Level 0, pretty sure he doesn't have that anymore.\\
-A little perverted as he admits to being interested in bunny girl costumes.
-==== Minor Protagonists ====
-=== Shokuhou Misaki ===
-Protagonist of her own spin-off ｢とあるかがくの心理掌握｣ - ｢A Certain Scientific Mental Out｣, which started very recently. She's the fifth ranked Level 5.\\
-She has the ability ｢{{ruby|心理掌握|メンタルアウト}}｣ - ｢Mental Out｣, which lets her control minds.\\
-Centre of her own clique at Tokiwadai. Has a somewhat playful personality as she likes teasing Misaka (who she can't mind-control because of electricity). She has a soft spot for <wrap spoiler>Misaka's clones, due to being friends with one in the past. So she does a lot of stuff to help them and prevent another "Level 6 Shift".</wrap> It came as a bit of a surprise to me, honestly.\\
-She seems to genuinely want to do good, in her own strange way.\\
-She's also very lazy and uses her mind control to get out of doing PE and the like. Very out of shape.
-=== Hokaze Junko ===
-Protagonist of her own spin-off Astral Buddy. She's a Level 4.\\
-Originally introduced as a member of Misaki's clique, her spin-off made her a slightly more interesting character.\\
-Her ability is ｢{{ruby|転移装着|ランペイジドレス}}｣ - ｢Rampage Dress｣. An electric power that lets her strengthen her cells.\\
-She is basically the embodiment of the good Tokiwadai stereotype. She's also notably naïve, not really understanding <wrap spoiler>what Aogami Pierce (the Great Blau) was talking about when describing his sexy dreams (it makes just as much sense in context so I won't bother) or when she doesn't understand that girls can be lesbians</wrap>. It's a little cute though.\\
-Like Misaka, she is a great fan of Gekota. <wrap spoiler> She even wears Gekota-themed underwear, which is too small for her (yes, there's Gekota-themed underwear)</wrap>.\\
-She wants Misaki and Misaka to get along and doesn't really understand why they aren't getting along.
-=== Kakine Teitoku ===
-Had a one-shot where he was the protagonist ｢とある科学の未元物質｣ - ｢A Certain Scientific Dark Matter｣. He's the second ranked Level 5.\\
-His ability is ｢{{ruby|未元物質|ダークマター}}｣ - ｢Dark Matter｣, which is kinda confusing and I don't yet fully understand it myself. In essence though, it lets him do all kinds of weird stuff, because it doesn't exist.\\
-Has a pretty big inferiority complex... for being ranked number 2 and not number 1. Yes, really. Despite this, he treats almost everyone below him as dirt.\\
-According to himself and others, he is the "spare plan" in the event something happened to Accelerator. Which only pisses him off more.\\
-He gets very angry easily and seems to have something of a tragic past.<wrap spoiler> In his spin-off, he finds and kinda befriends a young girl called Yuzuriha Ringo. At the end of the one-shot, she ends up dying. This has a pretty bad effect on him.</wrap>\\
-For some reason, he doesn't like getting innocent civilians involved... but will do so if he needs to.\\
-<wrap spoiler>He is currently dead... I think?</wrap>
 ===== Worldbuilding =====
 This is to keep track of all the worldbuilding elements of the [[lb:toaru]]. I will almost certainly make some of these sections their own articles as I find more information.\\
@@ Line 110: / Line 65: @@
 The Esper Development Program is one of Academy City's most important 'things'. The aim of the program is to turn regular people into ‘Espers’, people with superpowers. Details regarding //how// this is done is not revealed.\\
 Espers are ranked by ‘Level’. This basically explains how powerful they are.((:ref:>https://toarumajutsunoindex.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Curriculum_Program#Levels))\\
-  * **Level 6**
-    * Person with Absolute Power.
+<WRAP card vstack>
-    * A largely theoretical level. Basically a legend.
+<WRAP header>Level 6</WRAP>
-    * Immeasurable power.
-  * **Level 5**
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Absolute Power.</WRAP>
-    * Person with Super Powers.
+<WRAP center-text>A largely theoretical level. Basically a legend.</WRAP>
-    * You are strong enough to fight a military force on equal terms.
+<WRAP center-text>Immeasurable power.</WRAP>
-  * **Level 4**
+</WRAP>
-    * Person with Great Powers.
+<WRAP card vstack>
-    * Someone with this level has abilities powerful enough to be tactically equivalent to a military force.
+<WRAP header>Level 5</WRAP>
-      * In other words: you are like a group of soldiers.
-  * **Level 3**
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Super Powers.</WRAP>
-    * Person with Strong Powers.
+<WRAP center-text>You are strong enough to fight a military force on equal terms.</WRAP>
-    * Powers can now make life more convenient. At this point you start being treated as special by everyone.
+</WRAP>
-  * **Level 2**
+<WRAP card vstack>
-    * Person with Unusual Powers.
+<WRAP header>Level 4</WRAP>
-    * Similar to Level 1.
-      * In fact, I don't really understand what the difference is.
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Great Powers.</WRAP>
-  * **Level 1**
+<WRAP center-text>Someone with this level has abilities powerful enough to be tactically equivalent to a military force.((:fn:>In other words: you are like a group of soldiers.))</WRAP>
-    * Person with Low Powers.
+</WRAP>
-    * You have powers, but they're not all that powerful. The wikia says ‘enough to bend a spoon’
+<WRAP card vstack>
-  * **Level 0**
+<WRAP header>Level 3</WRAP>
-    * Person with No Powers.
-    * If you have no ability at all, you're a Level 0.
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Strong Powers.</WRAP>
-      * This is not completely accurate. Sometimes some abilities //can't// be measured, meaning some are classified as Level 0. (Examples include Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu.)
+<WRAP center-text>Powers can now make life more convenient. At this point you start being treated as special by everyone.</WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+<WRAP card vstack>
+<WRAP header>Level 2</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Unusual Powers.</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>Similar to Level 1.((:fn:>In fact, I don't really understand what the difference is.))</WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+<WRAP card vstack>
+<WRAP header>Level 1</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>Person with Low Powers.</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>You have powers, but they're not all that powerful. The wikia says <q>“enough to bend a spoon”</q>.</WRAP>
+</WRAP>
+<WRAP card vstack>
+<WRAP header>Level 0</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>Person with No Powers.</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>If you have no ability at all, you're a Level 0.</WRAP>
+<WRAP center-text>This is not completely accurate. Sometimes some abilities //can't// be measured, meaning some are classified as Level 0. (Examples include Kamijou Touma and Tsuchimikado Motoharu.)</WRAP>
+</WRAP>
 === Anti-Skill ===
 Anti-Skill is the police/counter-terror/military of Academy City. It is made up of volunteers sourced from the teachers of the city. They don't get paid, but do get compensation for work done.\\
@@ Line 251: / Line 226: @@
 Despite this, I don't actually buy this all that much. The two counter-examples would be Mugino and Saten-san. Saten-san's interest in urban legends, and problem-solving skills (I may be wildly misremembering here though) imply she isn't an unimaginative person... she's a Level 0. Mugino has, at least from what I've seen, never really shown to use her powers creatively... opting instead for brute force.\\
 Another counter example would be Uiharu, who is likely the best hacker in the world.
+----
+I'm writing this temporary addition after the temporary addition below.\\
+Now...this (imagination) is probably really stupid, since it's essentially an extension of belief. Adding onto what I added there, if part of the requirement is bettering your understanding of what your ability can do, than ‘imagination’ or creativity is automatically included. When you know that control over electro-magnetism allows you to stick to walls that have steel support beams because magnetism, it isn't really a case of requiring to be more creative.\\
+Although, it is shown that higher level Espers tend to be more versatile in how they use their abilities, while the lower-level ones are creatively bankrupt (even when they receive Level Upper). So, for example, someone who can control fire will, at a low level, only think of making fireballs or lighting things on fire. Someone at a higher level will be a lot more flexible, understanding they can, for example, rid a closed space of oxygen (first vaguely unique thing I could think of) to make someone suffocate.\\
+It //is// established in とある that your level will be increased if you demonstrate enough creativity or whatnot in how you utilize your ability. A Level 2 can be bumped up to Level 3 if they are equally capable in combat to a Level 3 and doesn't necessarily require them to actually demonstrate a power level equal to a Level 3. This does get confusing when you factor in abilities that are obviously useful (Tsuchimikado's) used by people who are obviously good in combat (Tsuchimikado) still getting classified as a Level 0. Tsuchimikado is also pretending (and not pretending) to be a moron, so it's possible he's being mis-classified.
 === Belief ===
 This is the one I'm actually leaning towards. Most espers just don't believe they could have abilities.\\
@@ Line 262: / Line 244: @@
 How exactly that ties into belief I'm not 100% sure. A guess I'm formulating as I write this is that getting a better understanding of the laws of physics could lead people to think ‘huh, I can do a whole lot more!’ which has the effect of strengthening their personal reality. A kind of virtuous cycle. Of course, if that's the case, that would technically mean it's possible to de-level: or, after learning more about what you can manipulate, you start to lose confidence in your belief in your own abilities, leading to a weakening of your personal reality (because you can’t currently change x, or feel as if it's too complicated or whatever; ‘The more I know the more I'm aware of what I do not know.’). Assuming that is true, it could also be that part of the ‘improving’ process is learning to ignore doubts regarding your personal reality. My memory is betraying me right now, but I don't think there's an example where an esper doubts their own abilities (there are cases where an Esper feels powerless //despite// their abilities) and it seems to me that espers have complete confidence in them.\\
 Basically, this shit is weird and complicated and it's probably a waste of time unless you're thinking about doing stuff with the TTRPG.
+Being a bit of an idiot, I noticed something else. This is vaguely similar to the alchemist and his abilities. Well...more like scarily similar. The alchemist also manifests his own reality which replaces real reality, just that it's //slightly// different. Kinda fits into the whole theme of science being a grotesque reflection of magic.
+Just happened to remember something I shouldn't have forgotten in the first place. But Musujime Awaki may be an example of a character who experienced a ‘de-level’ which may actually be evidence in favor of my theory (so says my ego). Her deal is that she had the potential to become a Level 5 and the first teleportation-based Level 5((:fn:>Although I get the prestige of getting your hands on a Level 5 for a power that doesn't exist...literally all the Level 5s have unique powers, so I'm not sure if this point of emphasis makes any sense to emphasize as toaru chooses to emphasize.)). However, she ended up having an accident during this push, that left her permanently stunted. Now, it should be noted she was and remains a Level 4, so it can’t //exactly// be said she de-leveled. However, power progression in Academy City isn't linear((:fn:>downright confirmed in Railgun, but I'll have to either confirm my notes or expand them, which'll be //fun//.)). A Level 5 is significantly more powerful than a Level 4, to a point where you can’t really compare the two. So Musujime Awaki may have been on the higher end of Level 4, only to drop to a mid-point. She didn't specifically fall from Level 4 to Level 3 (that would have been a far more significant decline in power), but she still isn't as powerful as she was in her peak. And her trauma resulted in her no longer being capable of improving.
+However, if this is how power progression actually works in とある, then that raises the question of how de-leveling doesn't result in a downward spiral. Logically, if you //see// your powers no longer being as good as they were before, then you'd lose even more confidence in them, which would only make them weaker.
 === M a t h ===
 Another possibility is the mathematical abilities of Espers. Essentially, if you're better at math, you'll be a stronger Esper.\\
@@ Line 273: / Line 261: @@
 Note: I mysteriously and suddenly remembered that the 'Level-Upper' is a thing. The Level-Upper works by synchronizing the brain waves of the Espers, allowing them to leverage their calculations in a network of others. They explicitly state that it's calculation ability. The issue here is that this still doesn't make sense for the simple fact that it's too obvious an answer.\\
 I also suddenly remembered Accelerator's computer.
+----
+Another temporary addition onto the above. A guess I am formulating is that it's still somewhat tied to belief, but that belief lowers the mathematical burden. So as you gain more confidence in your abilities, the math presented to you gets easier. This may explain how the Level Upper works via leverage if the key is belief.
 ==== Hamazura ====
 He is incredibly lucky and this is even noted in the story. He is so lucky that he ends up disrupting the plans of a certain individual.\\
@@ Line 308: / Line 300: @@
     * Mental Out -> 心理掌握 -> メンタルアウト -> mentaru auto; しんりしょおあく -> shinri shōaku -> 'Psychological Control'
     * Radio Noise -> 欠陥電気 -> レディオノイズ -> redio noizu; けっかんでんき -> kekkan denki -> 'Flawed Electricity'
+==== Mage: The Ascension ====
+I noticed something, in that parts of it read suspiciously similar.\\
+That's all I'll say now, so I'll leave it there, but with a link to where I'm [[1d6>Mage:_The_Ascension|getting this]].
 ===== Trivilinks =====
   * [[https://toaru-project.com/|Official Website]] - Kinda?
   * [[http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com/wiki/Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_Wiki|The Wikia]] - Surprisingly decent
   * I decided to start working on this article exclusively to test the ruby plugin. I wish I was joking.
-{{tag>anime light_novels manga otaku}}