Kamijou Touma

* Anime
* Novel
* Manga
* Railgun
* Mental Out
* Imaginary Fest

## Abilities

### Ability

**Imagine Breaker** (幻想殺し (イマジンブレイカー) , *Gensō Goroshi (Imajin Bureikā)*?, lit. "Illusion Killer")

## Debuts

### Manga

Index Chapter 1
 Railgun Chapter 2
 Astral Buddy Chapter 8 (cameo)

### Anime

Index Episode 1
 Railgun Episode 2

### Video Game

Index PSP Game

**Kamijou Touma** (上条 当麻, *Kamijō Tōma*?) is the main protagonist of the *Toaru Majutsu no Index* series and an important character in the *Toaru Kagaku no Railgun* series. As a Level 0 Academy City first-year high school student, his point-of-view allows the audience to become acquainted to the mysterious world of *Toaru Majutsu no Index*, and is mostly involved in the events of its Magic Side.

He is a typical teenager with the usual angst and laid back attitude common for his age - this is apparent in the way he handles his guardianship of Index. In spite of being her guardian, albeit unofficially, he usually leaves Index to her own devices - often unprotected and often leaves her without an explanation which causes the latter to look for him and end up being in harm's way.

He possesses the mysterious "Imagine Breaker" in his right hand, which is capable of negating all forms of magic, esper powers, and other divine abilities. This, according to Index, even includes his own good luck, as they are the blessings of God.

Because of his ability, he has been unwillingly dragged into a war between the several factions most notably between the two major churches. He lacks commitment to the role he has been thrust into and often lets his emotions get the best of him. This often results in someone close to him getting hurt first before he takes a decisive action.

He has a very strong desire to aid all those who are in need even if it means putting his life on the line and will not hesitate to challenge an opponent who is several times more powerful than himself. In spite of this, and the obvious disadvantage he is at compared to his opponents, he never really bothered on learning any offensive or defensive skills and merely relied on brute strength and the ability contained in his right hand. Because of his willingness to help others unconditionally, he has attracted the affections of many characters in the series, which Himegami Aisa jokes about, stating that his life is like a dating simulation where he is bound to unlock more paths to more girls.

## Etymology

On its own, Touma's name spelled in kanji doesn't mean anything special. However, when other characters reference the pronunciation of "Kamijou," it takes on different and seemingly coincidental meanings. When Touma first meets Kanzaki Kaori, she believes his name means (神浄討魔) in kanji as opposed to (上条当麻). Kanzaki's interpretation translates to *One who Purifies God and Slays Demons.* (Yen Press: *The Magic Slayer of God's Cleansing*)

Later in Volume 14, Touma's family name "Kamijou" (上条) is mentioned to be homophonous to La Persona Superiore a Dio (神上) in Japanese. The author's Afterword section also mentions a tantalizing hint on what the difference is between these two possible alternative translations of Touma's name, though in-universe none of the characters have noted the similarity as it is obviously in a different language.

Finally and possibly coincidentally, another interesting case is that Touma's given name is homophonous to 透魔, which can be translated as "Invisible Demon." This is interesting as Touma wields an incredibly powerful and invisible force in his right arm which is temporarily released if that arm is severed, one so powerful that even Fiamma of the Right feared it.

## Appearance

Touma looks like an ordinary high school student except for his most striking feature, his spiky black hair. It's been mentioned that his spiky hair isn't natural, but he made it that way using hair gel after seeing it on a fashion magazine. Despite appearing to have black eyes in most media, his eye color seems to be blue in the cover illustration of *Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Biohacker*. However, in general it seems as though Touma's eyes are inconsistently colored in the Light Novels, possibly either because of lighting or Haimura Kiyotaka taking liberties.

Because he resides in Academy City, Touma often wears his school uniform along with an orange T-shirt underneath. This applies to both the summer and winter versions of his uniform (though when wearing the winter version he doesn't button it). Around the winter season, he wears a white hoodie under his jacket. He also wears a black and white jersey zip jacket along with his casual clothing. Because of his tendency to wear his uniform in such a manner and the fact that he seems to attract trouble, many people easily mistake him for a delinquent. On holidays and weekends, Touma generally wears a casual shirt and pants.

Following the attack on the Queen Britannia and his temporary loss of Imagine Breaker, Touma briefly had a sky-blue arm in place of his normal right arm, which could unravel and surround his body in the form of a dragon - a sky-blue and lemon-yellow winged lizard with crocodilian jaws, giant bat-like wings and a thick tail.

## Personality

### Events in *Toaru Majutsu no Index*

Touma is the type that acts before he thinks. He can never just sit around upon seeing someone in a pinch and will go to great lengths to protect or help the person. This he does at great risk to himself, which typically results in him being hospitalized for several days after each confrontation. When fighting seriously against a particularly strong opponent, Touma will usually first declare that he'll "destroy that illusion" of theirs, before actually engaging. Though this is only part of Touma's well-meaning nature and unconditional kindness. When Himegami Aisa asked him about the reason why he saves people, he answered: "I don't need a reason to save someone". Even when he is in a blank slate after losing his memories, Touma still displays this personality.

Although he is lacking his prior memories, Touma does not appear to mope over the loss of them in particular, as the beliefs from his pre-blank state still continue to motivate him, allowing him to understand what he needs to do even if he doesn't remember why. However, after losing his memories, he seems to approach people more cautiously, carefully choosing what emotion or mood to display when meeting someone he thinks he might know. This is to prevent them seeing through his ruse and exploiting him. When Touma meets Stiyl once again after saving Index, he displayed politeness and casualness towards him which immediately made Stiyl suspicious. Touma then realized his mistake quickly and created an explanation for his behavior. Touma also bears no grudge towards former enemies and is willing to help them if they asked for it.

Touma's personality is a juxtaposition of compassion and ferocity. He is extremely benevolent and altruistic, driven by his own strong sense of justice. In times of crisis, though, he is aggressive and focuses intensely on the task at hand as if his personality has undergone an astonishing change. Moreover, he has a distorted sense of values where he only finds self-worth from helping people without any compensation, feeling that the very act “helping people” is its own reward. He believes it is highly unfair that some people survive and others do not. When it comes down to receiving an injury or even giving up his life to help someone, he will do it without a second thought. The people who see this side of him are often very worried and attempt to correct his behavior, though they are unable to change his opinions. Nevertheless, Touma has a big and kind heart and is committed to helping out anyone in need, even if it means getting himself into trouble or being despised by others.

Although frequently sympathetic towards his enemies due to their tragic pasts and traumatic experiences, Touma is also very intolerant of people using those pasts as an excuse to commit horrible acts. Despite his strong sense of justice and desire for a world where no-one has to suffer, Touma generally seems to be more concerned with the individuals than the long-term consequences, which can occasionally cause him to have very strange priorities; when he learns about Oriana's plot to brainwash the city, it's not the possibility of mass mind control that really upsets him, but that her actions are interfering with the festival that's going on.

Aiwass has commented that Touma is only doing whatever he feels is right and is labeled "righteous" by other people impulsively as he compared the differences between him, Accelerator, and Shiage. Touma is someone who will follow what he believes regardless of what others try to convince him of. In addition, Villian commented that Touma is just like William Orwell, someone who follows his own ideals no matter what, though there are differences between the two: William is someone who stays true to his ideals and firmly believes it is the right path no matter what happens, and no matter who speaks against it; while Touma does not have set ideals and therefore can be manipulated into helping other people's plots. And when he does do something wrong, Motoharu describes Touma as someone who will carry that mistake all on his own, along with his own. Even so, he works to correct his mistakes in order to bring a smile to everyone's face at the end of the road, no matter the cost to himself.

Even though he is a well-mannered person who is kind to people in general, Touma will not hesitate to strike female opponents who harm innocents or disrespect life, such as Sherry Cromwell (who was going to start a war between Science and Faith that would result in the death of millions), Agnese Sanctis (who was tasked to eliminate Orsola), Oriana Thomson (who hurt Fukiyose Seiri and Himegami Aisa), or Vento of the Front (who planned to destroy Academy City and anything related to science to settle her grudge on what happened to her brother in the past).

Despite his righteous and heroic personality, Touma is rather dense and occasionally displays poor choice of words which results in him getting bitten by Index, having bolts of lightning thrown by Misaka Mikoto, and creating misunderstandings with the other girls he encounters.

During World War III, after his first clash against Fiamma of the Right, when Touma questioned Fiamma's actions about how rightful they both are, Fiamma dared him to confront Index about his memory loss which left Touma saddened due to the guilt. During his fight with Accelerator, he regained his confidence but the guilt still stays with him.

If the non-canon side-story *Toaru Gakuen no Index* is to be trusted, Touma apparently has the time to read *Weekly Shonen Manga*. While talking to Kanzaki, he implies that he reads it because he wants to know what will happen next.

### Events in *Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index*

When Touma returns to Academy City, his personality remains essentially the same, quite unfazed by the many threats to his life, as shown by his nonchalant reaction to Kuroyoru Umidori attacking him in his own bathroom.

However, after later events, specifically the events that led to the creation of Science Guardian and the distortion that occurred in Baggage City, Touma has started to stop trusting the people he meets, despising the fact that his actions, such as saving someone, are being manipulated into creating more suffering for others' ends. However, during his confrontation against Leivinia Birdway, Touma finally disregards his fears of failure, betrayal, or being manipulated.

Along with this, Leivinia sums up his personality - wanting himself to be put in danger instead of other people, having him fight, getting himself hurt - as insanity. Indeed, even the Will of the Whole Misaka Network would later question on his "unconditional need to place himself below everyone else". Despite Leivinia being a person who investigates leaders and charismatic leaders, she cannot understand what drives Touma, whom promptly tells her that he has no reason to abandon people who need saving in the first place, a clear reference to his "I don't need a reason to save someone" mentality. Moreover, Aiwass' comments on Touma being labeled "righteous" by other people are referenced. Leivinia compares him to Aleister Crowley and Laura Stuart, and refers to him as having the seeds to do something indescribably great, which will give him great power if he controls it, or will be disastrous for him if he does not.

In the Agitate Halation Arc, Touma was willing to defeat Rensa, knowing full well that he might kill Yakumi Hisako (who had turned into an AIM thought being and had entered Rensa's body) with his right hand, in order to save her. However, this could also be because he was confident that Rensa would be able to save Hisako before he could destroy her. Indeed, Hisako survived and was spared from being completely destroyed by Imagine Breaker after Touma defeated her, due to Rensa's actions.

Later, after finally falling into the nadir of despair in the Omega World (a world where everyone has been saved perfectly) and attempting to commit suicide, Touma finally does something for his own convenience after some convincing from the Will of the Whole Misaka Network. Here, he accepts that he wants to go back to his own world, where his actions had meaning instead of being in the perfect world, and was willing for it to be unmade. Despite this, during his fight with Othinus, the creator of that world, there was still some hesitation in his heart, as he too wanted to protect that perfect world. These hesitations were later thrown to the wind in his battle with Othinus, and after he lost he conceded victory and the world to her.

### Other traits

Supposedly as a result of Imagine Breaker negating his luck, Touma is unfortunate and often bemoans his situation when confronting an unfortunate situation with his famous catchphrase: "Such misfortune!" (不幸だ!, *Fukou da!*?) ("Rotten/damn luck" in the English dubbed version). However, regardless of his own misfortune Touma believes that he is not regretful for being unfortunate, and states that he would rather be unfortunate and help people than be fortunate and be happy and not notice people who are suffering. He states that being unfortunate is his fortune and it would be the path that he continues to walk on. This has somewhat fallen out of use in *New Testament*, returning only after his ordeals with Othinus have ended.

In conjunction to the above, Touma is often self-deprecating with his fortunes. He had once asked himself on why "the sky is so blue, but [his] future is pitch black". This also includes his luck with women. When Misaka 10032 placed his hand to her chest to measure his life signs, he was incredulous at the situation. Moreover, he is also quite aware that making a move on the powerful women who come on to him would be dangerous. The Will of the Whole Misaka Network describes him as "unconditionally placing himself below everyone else". Indeed, he downplays his own achievements. In his second battle with Accelerator, he downplays himself in order to deter Accelerator from his obsession of heroes and villains, referring to himself as a mere Level 0. This is taken to ludicrous extremes when he fights Magic God Othinus and proclaims that he would normally lose to "normal magicians" despite the achievements he has gathered up to that point.

A second catchphrase he often says in fights is: "I will destroy that illusion of yours!" When he says this, it usually indicates he will win the fight he is currently engaged in. Along with the "Such misfortune" line, this too has fallen out of use by him in *New Testament*, returning only after he decides to stop Othinus from committing suicide.

Touma has said on several occasions that he just doesn't understand why people with amazing powers would use them for their own personal gain instead of using them to make the world a better place. Ultimately, though, this makes him no less competent a hero, as he's still aware that what they do is evil, even if he can't understand why.

Ironically, despite Touma having many girls attracted to him, he has shown no apparent romantic attraction to them. However, Touma stated that he specifically prefers Dorm manager Onee-san (elder sister) types, as is the case with Kanzaki Kaori when he dreamed her wearing the swimsuit used by Index during the Angel Fall incident, and asking a kiss from Oriana Thomson when they first met. He also has shown awareness of the opposite gender when involved with them in embarrassing situations, such as his encounter with Oriana Thomson during the Daihaseisai. Despite this, Motoharu describes Touma as someone who has strong self-control who will not attack girls that are asleep (as shown by his behaviour around Index). Despite this, the narration states that Touma is not a pure Saint in regards to his attraction with the opposite sex.

Because of his charismatic personality, former antagonists on his side of the series such as Stiyl Magnus, Accelerator, Agnese Sanctis, Vento of the Front, Hamazura Shiage, Lessar, Cendrillon, and Othinus have become his allies.

According to the author, Touma generally refers to people by their "first name" (i.e. the name that literally come first in their name order), so he goes with Stiyl for Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado for Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

## Background

### Childhood

Touma is the son of Kamijou Touya and Kamijou Shiina, who live outside of Academy City. During his childhood, he was often seen as a jinx because of the misfortune that his right hand creates and he was called "god of pestilence" by people around him. Once, a bankrupt and superstitious person blamed Touma for his own misfortunes and tried to stab him. A TV station heard about the incident and tried to make a supernatural show based on Touma, as well as releasing images of him without his family's consent. Because of this, Touma's father sent him to Academy City when Touma graduated from kindergarten, as it was a place where many unique and gifted people lived free from superstition and Touma could be free from the kind of things he had experienced back home. This, however, was somehow a deliberate plot by Aleister Crowley to bring Touma into the City, and one of the most obvious effects of this is the birth of Kazakiri Hyouka out of fear of the Imagine Breaker.

### Life in Academy City

However, during his time in Academy City as a child, Touma wrote letters to his father; from there, he determined that even in the city of science, people still treated Touma differently due to his terrible luck.

According to Tsukuyomi Komoe, Touma used to be a "naughty boy" in the past. It is also during this time that Touma discovered that his right hand can somehow dispel supernatural powers, specifically the psychic powers used by the students of Academy City. This power, named Imagine Breaker, was only known by a few of Academy city's high-ups, especially by Aleister Crowley and Heaven Canceller. Since then, Imagine Breaker was secretly held as a power of great importance, despite Touma himself being officially classified as a Level 0.

Touma is treated as a precious person by his current high school classmates due to all their bad luck being attracted to him, as shown when they rejoiced upon hearing that Touma forgot his homework. Because of him, they get off lightly from things such as the teachers being annoyed at them for not submitting homework. This is unlike how Touma's life was before he entered Academy City, raising the question of whether Imagine Breaker's power was sealed away sometime between him entering Academy City and the present day, seeing how the bad luck affects Touma alone instead of before when it also influenced the people around him.

However, Touma's classmates, mainly the male students, *do* resent Touma for one thing – his impossibly good luck at getting girls' attention. This is due to many girls sympathizing with Touma's bad luck, and has gotten to the point where Fukiyose Seiri, the only one who is critical of Touma's lazy attitude to life, is called the 'Girl of Steel Walls' and 'the Girl who is completely wary of Touma'. Many of Touma's classmates say, "Though Touma keeps saying he's unlucky, he has the best position," and joke about if nobody can stop Touma, humanity will end due to him taking all the girls. Surprisingly, Touma still hasn't gotten into a serious romantic relationship even with this kind of female attention. This is possibly due to his friendship with Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami Pierce, the latter often joking of supporting Touma to build a harem that covers every type of fetish imaginable. Touma said he'd break Aogami and Motoharu's fantasies on this topic using his Imagine Breaker. Motoharu has named Touma's 'ability' to get girls chasing after him without much effort as the *Kami-yan disease*, and applied this to Stiyl Magnus after hearing about how Stiyl got chased by Tsukuyomi Komoe and couldn't even throw her off easily using the 'Opila' runes. Komoe also once half-seriously said he might have an esper ability (AIM diffusion field) that causes girls to trickle down to him. Most people around him, such as Index and Misaka Mikoto, consider it "normal" for him to have girls around him and are usually quick to jump to conclusions about what he's doing (or done).

Due to Touma being a Level 0, he has to take even more make-up lessons than usual as he does not have the required academic achievements. This does not mean that Touma is unintelligent, as in many occasions he has shown quick thinking in combat. Lessar even outright stated that Touma is extremely smart in some aspects but not others. It is also shown that Touma at least has a good grasp of physics, being able to calculate the flight path of an HsB-02.

Even before the start of the series, Touma could not ignore someone in trouble and would help people regardless of who they are. Indeed, this is how his life is intertwined with Mitsuari Ayu and Shokuhou Misaki. Mitsuari is a girl who was at an impasse in her development as an esper and attempted to commit suicide in Ground Geo on the same day as Touma met Misaki. He would've been able to save her if not for him dropping his cellphone when he ran into Misaki. Touma would later visit Ground Geo as it was the sight of Mitsuari's suicide attempt and there he met Misaki again, inadvertently preventing her from erasing her own memories out of depression. They would later meet up several times, with Touma giving her a cheap whistle. Their relationship could be compared to that which later developed between Touma and Mikoto — acquaintances that often run into each other in the city.

Touma later protected Misaki from Deadlock by using his own body as a shield. The result of this encounter is also quite similar to that of Touma and Index, ending with Touma losing his memories of Misaki, though this case is different in that Touma also received anterograde amnesia specific to her (any new memories he forms of Misaki are soon forgotten).

As for Mikoto, Touma first meets her when she was being harassed by thugs. At first, she was impressed that he was the only one who was willing to come to her aid (even though she could have handled the thugs all by herself). She then became annoyed by him after he accidentally insulted her, resulting in her discharging a powerful amount of electricity at the thugs as well as Touma, though he was unaffected because he used his right hand. This became the catalyst that made her consider him someone she must beat. For some time, Mikoto continually stalked Touma demanding him to fight her, even though she was still unaware of the power of his right hand.

Touma lives on the seventh floor of his apartment building.

### Regarding his memory loss

So far, only a few people know the truth about Touma's memory loss. They are Heaven Canceller (who took care of Touma after the incident in which he suffered it), Terra of the Left (deduced it from Touma's lack of knowledge about Imagine Breaker), Misaka Mikoto (overheard the conversation between Touma and Terra), Fiamma of the Right, Index (from Fiamma telling her), Kumokawa Seria (she implies this in the Love Letter SS, but it's unclear how she learned of this) and Mitsuari Ayu (she tells Misaki that Touma's memories have been lost beyond their powers, but it's unclear how she learned of this). Shokuhou Misaki also knows about Touma's memory loss, but only about the one he suffered after he saved her in the past. Whether she is aware of his last one or not is unknown.

## Character Art Designs

### Design Evolution

The preliminary design for Touma had looked more adult, but was changed later on to fit the story and because his size would not fit the light novel illustrations. This would be a common problem for Haimura, who redrew Touma several times to change his head-size ratio. Even until volume 2 he was still not satisfied with the design and kept changing Touma's design to a more deformed look that would be apparent in the later novels.

By volume 12, with the change of the season in the setting, as well as the change of clothes, the shift in style has become more apparent, with characters getting even more deformed, having bigger heads and shorter limbs.

### Gallery

Character design by Haimura Kiyotaka for Volume 1.Face and shoe design for Volume 1.This is a modified image that included a Stiyl Magnus's face design for Volume 1.Character design for Volume 1.Character design with height by Haimura Kiyotaka for Volume 2.First design of the Dragon Strike by Haimura Kiyotaka for Volume 2.Design of Touma with winter uniform for Volume 12.Post-Timeskip Design by Haimura Kiyotaka, later debuting in the *6th Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index* light novel.Touma's dragon arm and dragon form by Haimura Kiyotaka for *Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 22 Reverse*.Touma's design, while in hospital clothes and sharing his body with St. Germain, for *Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 02*.Touma's winter clothing design for *Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 04*. (right)Touma's winter clothing design for *Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 08*