To Aru Kagaku no Accelerator – 09

「10031回の死(メモリーオブデス)」 (Memorii obu Desu)
“Memory of Death”

From flashbacks to flash bangs Accelerator certainly returned to form this week as emotional Esther got replaced by a cornucopia of cackling crazy. It’s pretty clear that Accelerator won’t be winning any great style or substance awards anytime soon, but it’s hard denying now that the shows knows how to make the most of its material and maximize on its strengths. Simplicity or not, things are getting fun.

Considering who Accelerator is and all his exploits—both current and future—no one should really be surprised the events of this episode turned out the way they did this week. Superpowered, evil pseudo-souls trapped in robotic shells powered up to level 6 (supposedly) meeting their match in a level 5 fire tornado? Completely realistic—after all, the cackle doesn’t lie. It was always the case that Accelerator was going to win that fight (well, fights), although its trappings and manner of victory were quite entertaining nonetheless. It really points to the albino terror’s state of mind for example that he gently rescues the Sister and gets her to leave (in the tried and true Accelerator fashion) before going wild on the robots. Cliché? Certainly. True to form? Most definitely. Accelerator may ultimately be a paint by numbers Index-verse experience, but it’s nice seeing its main characters take the steps required to develop into the known personalities we’ve already learned about. After all, just imagine what cutesy Last Order schemes are in store for us once the fighting is all finished.

The real fun of this arc however is going to come with the final boss fight, and of this I’m Hirumi likely won’t disappoint. I’m still of the frame of mind that the girl is still alive somewhere in her half-dead body (because big brother crying at sight of little sister dying after evil spirit is exorcized is just too tantalizing a prospect for the series to pass up), but how we get there is obviously up in the air. Esther may have poked our mad scientist, but there’s no way she’ll be doing the same to a Sister-enhanced soul with some seriously unknown firepower hiding under the hood—especially after Hirumi (or the spirit occupying Hirumi’s body) finally drops the act before all our major players. One way or another it’s going to come down to Accelerator to again put the crazy back in its place and prove to the world why trying to compete against him is a fool’s errand. Plus he’s got to do it for the sake of keeping his newfound master title, because goddammit I demand more adorable Esther and her begging shenanigans—they’re just too great to pass up that easily.

No matter the path taken, next week is going to be wild.

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