To Aru Kagaku no Accelerator – 02

「死霊術師(ネクロマンサー)」 (Nekuromansa)
“Necromancer”

With introductions now out of the way and everyone’s favourite bad boy back to doing bad boy things, Accelerator has certainly returned to Index-verse form this week as the main plot was revealed and main characters displayed. Sure we may not know exactly what’s going on yet, but be honest, with smirks this good do you really care?

As mentioned last week Accelerator is going to be all about that sweet sweet science and conspiracy this season and we got the first face full of it this episode. Anti-skill members calling themselves DA (yes, it’s an acronym, because every evil group needs one) have apparently decided protecting the people isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and have decided dictation is infinitely better than maintenance. The outright cliché talk of absolute justice, doing what’s right “for the world”, and the featuring of yet another underground group is par the course of science side Index and shouldn’t prove surprising to anyone even remotely familiar with this franchise, although for all the hair pulling agony it induces (absolute justice is a contradiction FYI) you have to admit, at least the visuals revolving around the pseudoscience and technology matches up pretty damn well to what we got with Index III. It may be easy to guess where this story is going considering who Last Order is and what our new antagonists are up to at the moment, but the show is doing what it needs to keep me interested in coming back for the next episode.

Part of what helps Accelerator right now as well is its titular character who, to no surprise, is going above and beyond the call of duty. Accelerator’s cackling screech can be an acquired taste (read: divisive as hell) for example, but damn does it feel nice watching the guy go ham on some guys who somehow have no idea who the hell he is. Ever needed some quality entertainment? Just watch instantaneous physics involving cackling maniacs in action. Of course the best part is this is just a teaser for the better fights to come down the line (you know even for Accelerator there’ll be a challenge or two yet), but for the moment I dare say I’m happy with Accelerator’s approach. It may be a low bar to surpass Index III, but nothing is ever a sure thing until it transpires and Accelerator still has quite a bit to prove before those doubts start fading away. After all we still have a whole enemy organization to dig down into (if not more), one new girl needing a proper introduction, and plenty of Last Order d’awws just waiting for their time to shine.

Accelerator may be starting off on the right foot, but we have a long road ahead of us yet to see just what this series is made of.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Parole」by sajou no hana

Preview