「予知」 (Yochi)
“Precognition”

Ahh Railgun; if there’s one thing you can be sure on it’s this series spending come quality time with every character big and small, and this was another episode performing that honest work. It may be filler-ish in a way, it may be disliked, but there’s always some method to the madness here. After all, there’s no misunderstanding what next week’s events are going to be about.

After all the teasing last episode with Dream Ranker and Shaei’s precognition you could be forgiven for thinking we’d get their synthesis this week. It’s usual Railgun to throw everything including the kitchen sink in the blender before delving into the arc’s main premise after all, and in a sense we did get that, just not as fast as may be remembered. Sure, the main thing here was Shaei’s backstory and his little runaround to save Doge a stray Shiba Ibu (which if you’ve ever owned a dog you know is something you’d do in a heartbeat), but there were some portents of things to come amidst all the fluff. The ampules of fertilizer; the tying back of said fertilizer to Indian Poker; Shaei’s recovery which you know will just so happen to finish in time for him to help out in whatever threat is about to appear; it’s pretty easy to see how these pieces tie together, even while the overall picture remains just out of sight.

And it’s not as though everything was about one elementary schooler using words far outside his age group. Besides showing Kuroko as more than a hyperactive connoisseur of all things tsundere biribiri (something often easily forgotten given how often that mode pops up over the other), Uiharu was also back to doing Hollywood hacking shenanigans while the less featured (yet still equally fun) Konori Mii also deigned to make a surprise appearance. Is it enough to overcome the B-team feel? Not that much, but at least it’s nice knowing no one (and no character aspect) truly stays forgotten once they’ve been properly introduced.

Still cannot deny I’m more looking forward to what’s coming next week though. When it comes to Railgun, nothing is better than watching its titular character in action.

 

Preview

14 Comments

  1. When it comes to Railgun, nothing is better than watching its titular character in action.

    I digress, if only slightly. Having focus episodes on other characters prevent it from getting stale. Last season’s Sisters Arc felt a few episodes too long, and definitely dampened my enjoyment of it. Seeing more of Kuroko not in CPL (Crazy Psycho Lesbian) mode is most welcome. TBH sometimes I wonder about the stories we could have gotten if Biribiri didn’t become wildly popular and Kuroko got her spinoff as the author originally intended…

    BTW you seemed to be in a hurry writing this post and missed some glaring typos like “Uihara” (it’s UihaRUUU 😛 ) and “shina inu” (IIRC that type of dog is “shiba inu”).

    Magnus Tancred
    1. Ugh, not so much rushing to write as failing to properly proofread XD – thanks for the catch haha

      It’s also kind of hard to see a Kuroko-focused side-story, but then again Misaka has dominated so much it’s understandable.
      I think it’s what makes the Index-verse so damned persistent; the author’s willingness to explore the intricacies of so many characters ensures there’s always something to talk about and new material to feature. Of course this requires a good degree of control with pacing, but at least Railgun has shown what’s possible with the right amount of money and direction.

  2. For anyone who missed it, this episode basically crosses the threshold of the end of Index II and heads into the territory of Index III. Kuroko switches to her winter uniform in the middle of the crime solving montage, and she makes a reference to Vento’s actions at the end of Index II.

    oranges
    1. I hope you don’t mean, ‘into the ditch’ when you say Index III territory.

      I guess that those are Uiharu’s and Saten-san’s winter uniforms then as well. When I saw the date in the opening frames I was thinking of where it was in relation to previous seasons, which mostly seemed to be in the heat of summer (and with the air conditioning continually on the blink) and I guess Daihasesai would have been earlier in September.

      Mockman
      1. The Daihaseisai started on the 19th of Sept and ran an entire week, though the events covered in Index and Railgun focus on the first two days for the most part. At the start of this episode of railgun, which is the 27th of Sept.,Touma is still in Italy dealing with ice boats. Vento’s attack on Academy city happens on the 30th of Sept. And that takes place in the middle of Kuroko’s montage. The “mass unconsciousness incident” is Vento’s doing. Shiage and the skill outs kidnapping Misuzu and Touma punching him happens like the day before the park fire in this episode iirc. So that’s the end of Index season II right there.

        oranges
    1. It helps that his power and his request help bring out the rarer side of Kuroko which makes things more interesting. A lot of the time Kuroko is relegated to comedy so giving her a means to stand out in a Misaka-less capacity keeps her complex.

  3. This was a fine episode highlightning some less flashy aspects of Kuroko and her personality….
    Also, next episode title preview made me laugh. That’s one ability or item that certainly would pick biribiri interest….

    Ewok40k

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