To Aru Kagaku no Accelerator – 03

「四凶の符(ナンバーズ)」 (Nanbaazu)
“Numbers”

Somehow I never anticipated Fridays actually being a problem, but between work, after work social affairs (read: drunk and disorderly partying) and a crap ton of shows to watch, something’s got to give, and Accelerator wound up being the victim. Not that it’s a really big deal mind you (well, for yours truly), because with the wave of violent vector shenanigans about to come our way, an extra night’s wait makes the experience all the more better.

Being only a single season affair it would be easy to dismiss Accelerator as a quip blip of rushed Index goodness setting up for better things later on, but I’ll be damned if the show so far isn’t successfully holding onto the pacing reins. Much like Railgun a lot of the chopping and breakneck pacing is nonexistent, with the plot (so far) keeping to a digestible state worthy of a 30 minute segment. Sure, we may not really know what’s going on so far or exactly why our enemy of the moment is doing what they’re doing (and the longer that ambiguity goes on the worse the later info dumps become), but so long as Accelerator can keep up its current expository drip feed I have no doubts this one will firmly make up for the sins of Index III.

Helping on that front in particular as well is Accelerator’s current story, and I imagine there will be no real shockers here for any Index fan. Our new sidekick Esthelle for example is likely not entirely of the science paradigm, because geometric scribbles and outright necromancy certainly don’t lean towards that when you’re dealing with lingering memories, bodily resurrection, and the very concept of souls. Oh yes, artifical souls might have some basis in Index’s variety of science, but you can bet your Last Order that somehow, someway, magic has its fingers firmly in this pie. After all, Accelerator doesn’t later get involved with Tsuchimikado for any old reason (spoiler alert). The real fun though will be with what DA and its various form of mad scientist has planned with Esthelle’s learnings, because besides the obvious indication of using it for justice dispensing Wunderwaffen (and that stuff never gets old), we also have DA’s thorough understanding of Accelerator and their plans for Last Order.

There’s plenty of entertaining tidbits still needing to make their appearance here before the main show kicks off, and only so many ways for it to play out. We’ll just have to wait and see what Accelerator has planned for when the curtain finally rises.

Preview