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「一方通行 (アクセラレータ)」 (Ippo Tsūko (Akuserareta))
“One Way (Accelerator)”
Sometimes, when enough things come together, a screw falls loose and shit hits the fan. With the Tree Diagram now destroyed and the last means to thwart the Level 6 Shift gone with it… well, that’s exactly what happens to Misaka this episode. We knew what she was capable of before, but gosh darn, that was just nothing compared to the vibes she gave of this week. And ultimately, seeing her just systematically trash yet another facility with brutal efficiency combined with her apparent decision to sacrifice herself versus Accelerator to save some of her sisters just highlights not only the power she possesses, but the mental toll it’s taken on her this entire time. Slowly but surely, we’ve been essentially watching her fall apart, and it all just comes to a head as we reach Railgun S’ halfway point.
Truly, this is one of those exceptions where knowing what is going to happen makes you feel more than you would’ve otherwise, and I found myself getting chills (at Misaka laughing hysterically while trashing the facility) and torn emotionally throughout this entire episode as a result. Indeed, all of this just goes to show how what we saw in Index was just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and it really powers both this episode and this series to heights it wouldn’t have reached otherwise. I mean, there’s just nothing like the realization that Misaka herself actually witnessed the death of the MISAKA sister live on camera, and it’s something that’s just many orders of magnitude of messed up.
At least though, the wheels of fate begin to turn as Touma stumbles upon the body of MISAKA sister 10031… and the rest of the MISAKA clones while he’s at it. Needless to say, it’s quite obvious where this is going to be headed from here, and what we’ll likely get next week is arguably the moment that many Index viewers have been waiting for this entire time.
With that said though, this episode notably gives us yet another flashback into Accelerator’s past—going back all the way to the first experiment. There have been a few such flashbacks already, but this one definitely takes the cake, as it’s vital in showing that Accelerator does at least seem to have some qualms about what he’s doing. At this point, all we’ve seen for the most part is him being insane and seemingly enjoying the killing, so this flashback really just balances things out a bit by showing he’s not just some brainless, heartless, cold-blooded killer. In many ways, one could argue it’s because he’s had to do this experiments that’s played a part in how he’s ended up, and his calling of the sisters as “mere puppets” seems more so a coping device to deal with it than anything. There’s just this additional human element added here as a result, and it’s something that readily applies to the MISAKA sister in this first experiment too.
In the end, there’s a kind of pure and innocent feel to how she acted (and how most of them act in general). One can argue they’re more robotic than anything, but I think the more apt metaphor is that they’re essentially babies/children (from a developmental standpoint) that have the knowledge of adults. She knows how to use a gun, but she doesn’t really truly understand what it means to wield it and what it means to live/kill. In this way, they’re unmistakable human in their innocence, and it’s a notion that just adds to the tragic nature of what’s happening here with the Level 6 Shift Experiment. What’s more notable though is how this demeanor has changed somewhat since then, and how this arguably mirrors Misaka’s own change as well—from someone possessing a kind of youthful innocence (and exuberance) to someone whose seen too much to fit under that definition anymore. To this end, it must be said that the MISAKA Network’s sharing of memories likely means that the moments each of them die are also shared with everyone else… and it’s just disgusting to think about.
Ultimately, what this episode brings is essentially a lot of what we’ve come to expect, and it culminates in an experience that leaves one quite emotional when it’s all said and done. With that said, it’s full steam ahead as the arc reaches its key turning point, and I gotta say: there’s nothing quite like starting the summer season with an episode like that.
Preview
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i think sister-arc in railgun just proved that even if we got spoilers, it can still be interesting
It’s definitely true in this case.
I’d be hesitant to say it’d be true for everything though. Typically it’s very dependent on what show, what kind of spoiler, etc.
I think its safe to say that it applied to fate/Zero too. For those of us who watched Fate Stay/ Night, we already had a good idea on how the story would end, but the details we got from Fate/Zero plus the result that was alluded in Fate Stay/Night created a deeper feeling of dread and tragedy. The brighter and more likeable the characters (Rider!!!) the more we dreaded the moment that we knew was coming. Its ironic that what makes some of the best prequel material happens to be based on tragic stories, even if not everyone can agree to how good the prequel was.
Well, I think we are confusing “spoilers” with “prequels”. Spoilers are always bad, as they make you know something that the authors don’t want you to know yet. That was not intended, and the story may loose some of its key points, if it’s based for instance on unexpected turn of events.
On the other hand, when the authors themselfs have already presented to you some of the facts yet to come (in whatever form), you can be sure they are willing to make good use of that, using it to enrich the story, like in this case. The story is written taking into account what you know.
Index is not technically a prequel for this series, but you get the point.
It really depends on what is spoiled and how it is spoiled, sometimes spoilers are leaked to build hype for a series while othertimes spoilers are malicious like snake kills …
The way this series handled accelerator’s flashback of his first “kill” regarding the misaka sister was brilliant; it wasnt some over-dramatic massacre of the clone, just a purely accidental kill on accelerator’s part, who just stared in silence as he watched the life fade away from a living being (It really is a shame that the index/railgun series can’t be this good all the time like this season of railgun has). And while this does show that accelerator had some qualms with taking a life, he still relishes in tormenting his opponents and does go as far as to kill them sometimes so he’s still a scumbag to me.
You do make a very good point though zephyr: when did accelerator lose all apathy for death and not care about taking the life off his opponents? Was it that he started getting use to killing the sisters to the point that it didnt matter to him if he took life in general? Or has he always had it in him to take a life? Anywho props to Rina Sato for another great demonstration of her voice-acting skills this episode. By the way what was up with the “body discovery scene? Toma mentioned a body being there but all i saw was a coat of blood on the ground and a bone…was this because the scene was censored or something? I could imagine that misaka imoto’s body looking like an exploded hot pocket wouldnt bode well on tv…
Gory Discretion Shot. Adds horror and suspense without the need to show it to the audience or break censorship laws.
If you keep watching, and I know you will, you’ll learn why he still relishes in tormenting his opponents.
Oh im aware of why he still torments his opponents, but it doesnt change the way i feel about him. See, im one of those people who, although likes having accelerator around because of the dark tone he brings to the series, I cant fully like him as a character; I can only tolerate accelerator.
Good, you’re not supposed to fully like him. Hell, he doesn’t even like himself.
The only thing I don’t like about Accelerator is his 12-year-old-on-caffeine sounding high pitched laugh. The voice suits him and his personality really well….until he starts laughing.
Since all the Misaka clones share a collective memory, this first accidental “kill” is probably the rationale Last Order (being the main recepient of Shinobu’s final upgrade on the Sisters’ emotions) later on used to deduce that there is still some good in Accelerator (much to his discomfort and denial), enough for her to “forgive” him for the seemingly mindless massacre of her sisters, and compelled her to ask him of all people to help her in her time of need.
While Accelerator is still a bastard, this flashback just makes him slightly more human. He knows he’s become a demonic bastard himself, that he cannot go back now that he has blood on his hands. In a way, one can even argue that Touma “saved” him from going deeper.
Well, the Persons in Control, just said “please, get rid of our Bio Production Bodys. They are all Trash, not even Humans”
So, how is the real villain here?
I imagine that Accelerator simply got used to killing.
Try to imagine from his perspective: there are thousands of identical girls who are devoted to killing you one at a time. None of them ever seem to show any fear, hesitation, remorse, or any other human emotion. As far as you have seen from killing 10,000+ of them, they’re just like machines.
What Accelerator does IS terrible, but I can see why desensitization sets in. Even the sadism, because it can get boring.
And from there, it’s a short jump to “if I have no problems killing these clones which want to kill me but have no desire to, it’s not a problem to kill those that WANT to kill me.”
“if I have no problems killing these clones which want to kill me but have no desire to, it’s not a problem to kill those that WANT to kill me.”
you make a good point because in the previous episode when he was dealing with those thugs, he makes a remark about how the sisters accept their death without a peep so the thug should as well. Some people say that accelerator is not a villain because he was just doing what he was told to do. I disagree with that because accelerator is not dumb; from the moment he walked into that lab, he felt something was wrong and rightfully so. With his power, nobody should be telling him what to do; if he didnt like what he was doing he should have just stopped, but the call of absolute power was too much for him to resist.
And there’s a reason why he wanted that absolute power and it’s not because he’s a villain. There’s a difference between being the “strongest” and being “invincible”. Refer back to that part when he was offered to participate in the Level 6 Shift project and think about it from another angle.
I believe this was already covered in Index season 1.
@belatkuro
Accelerator isnt naturally a villain but he has put himself in a position where he has become a villain (so yes, in this case, he is a villain). Perspective or not, there is no justification for what accelerator has been doing and what it has made him become. He isnt doing this to survive or protect anybody; he’s doing this for absolute power, something that he has the power to achieve on his own if he changed his perspective on life and his view on reality.
I don’t think there should be any question about Accelerator being a villain. Even he thinks so himself. But he’s a villain with a code. He doesn’t go around killing people at random, he only attacks those who attack him. (Though his level of retaliation goes WAY above eye for an eye)
But also, consider the rate at which he has been killing the clones. How many years has he been doing this? 1, 2, 3? That means around 1000 days, which works out to an average of 10 kills a day, close to a kill every 2 hours.
He’s probably killed more than entire Army divisions in their entire careers. Fatigue, boredom, and desensitization to violence would set in FAST. Especially since most of the victims don’t react like human beings(like polite Terminators on a schedule).
As for Accelerator’s motivations, it’s been all twisted up, but
Show Spoiler ▼
Actually, come to think of it, Accelerator probably didn’t even kill the first few clones. Like the first experiment demonstrated, they are willing to keep on attacking until they’re dead.
At some point, Accelerator probably thought “Hey, if they don’t care about their lives, why should I?”
Of course, there is still that small grain of humanity left in him
Show Spoiler ▼
Even if he does try to intimidate the sisters to get a human response, he shows enjoyment in torturing his victims; regardless of how bad he’s trying to traumatize his victims, that aint right. Not to mention he’s killed other people besides sisters. Im well aware of accelerators motivations, but he went about them completely the wrong way, which turned him into something ugly. I dont see him as a victim fo circumstance because he is clearly a smart guy and has enough power to pull his own weight and make good decisions. There is no reason for a person to be chewing on flesh if he wants to get a human response from his victims.
Early on that’s true. But once he was desensitized to killing the Sisters, or even seeing them as anything other than flesh machines, it’s really easy to see that as when sadism sets in.
Also, Accelerator seems to stop trying to get human responses once he’s decided to end the current experiment. As for the flesh-chewing bit, I don’t know if he decided to take a bite before or after the Sister was dead. It makes a slight, but significant difference.
None of this is an excuse for what Accelerator has done. I’m just saying how about we try to judge how much of it was due to his born-tendencies, and how much was induced by outside forces. (Reason being, if it’s a born characteristic, that’s his problem. But if it was induced, I can see a situation where others turn out similarly)
Oh and why does every mad scientist seem to have a gold tooth in anime?
He bears a striking resemblance to the Nazi leader in Hellsing.
Personally I thought he more resembled the gold-toothed doctor from Fullmetal Alchemist.
So they can melt it down for money later. :3
ahhhhhhh…suddenly i can see the world so clearly now…
-Great directing
-Great use of music
-Great voice acting from Touma and Mikoto
-Great episode
One thing I really liked about this episode was how they portrayed Misaka as she mechanically demolished the lab step by step. Unlike before, she didn’t even bother to hide her identity. You easily got a sense of someone who’s been pushed to the point of being emotionally spent or even emotionally dead.
Yet even in that state, watching Misaka-Imouto 10031 killed in such a gruesome manner was too much to bear, bringing her to new depths of despair. Overall, an impressively realistic portrayal and an excellently produced episode IMO.
This may be “old material”, but for me episodes like this illustrate exactly why it is sometimes well worth creating a new version based on upon a different perspective. Very much looking forward to next week.
Looking forward to the up coming episodes…
Now I understand the bridge scene better and also the Show Spoiler ▼
I do like how Touma is easing into the story, doing so of his own experiences instead of just appearing and solving everything.
“instead of just appearing and solving everything”
That might be sort of the point.
Touma is the miraculous hero that suddenly comes in and saves the day. I think this was supposed to mesh in with the hero theme that the main story established.
Still, reanimating Touma’s scenes in Index isn’t a bad thing though it messed a bit with the pacing, in my honest opinion.
I see where you’re coming from but id argue that the pacing was actually better this time around; How toma discovered the clone’s body this time around fits within the context of the scenes slightly better than it did in Index I
Although I will really miss this season when its over, I definitely will not miss seeing thousands of dead Misakas.
I’ve always thought that the Sisters came out that episode because they’ve already known they couldn’t do anything against Accelerator. I would hazard a guess that the Sisters were quite tired of dying over and over again and I would say that having witnessed and experienced the death of 10,031 of their own, they’ve already calculated the likelihood of them achieving this Level 6 project.
I mean, that gold toothed guy said it right? They should have powered up enough to offer Accelerator a challenge after 10,000 deaths. But simply put, they posed the same amount of danger as the first one did.
All in all, this episode really drove home the point that the real culprits of the project got away in the end. One can also note that we’ve not seen Metldowner and her group yet not did we see the black-haird girl too….
JC Staff please animate Index III with the same quality as u have with this show. And goddamn Misaka should’ve harmed those damned researchers instead of letting them run away.
Well. At least I understand why they need to do Railgun S2 before Index S3. Showing Accelerator’s side of the sister’s arc really helps explain a lot of his motivations during the plot of WW3. I wish they’d show more of his internal monologue though.
And here I thought the show was merely a device to introduce ITEM before battle royale.
As much as Accelerator is painted ina little better light, I was not sold on him until later when Show Spoiler ▼
. That aside, it is even more awful that save Shinobu no one of the scientists had ever any second thought about the experiment… Speaking of Shinobu, I’d like to see some happy ending for her, too, since she went missing earlier when detained at the lab.
I think, i can read Misakas thoughts right now. How to end the Experiment. But, it is a real cruel decision
Well, Accelerator needs to kill 128 more to Shift to Level 6…. So, what if there are not 128 Misaka Clones anymore? You got my Gist? Just Hope that the Boy can change her Mind in this. It is like killing your own Sister… no Way
If there would be Real Clones, they dont have the same Memories. Because you get them with your Lifetime (Sad and Happy ones). But the Body are the same, would you kill a Biological Twin of you? A Mirror?
they’re not sharing memories because they’re clones.
they’re sharing memories BECAUSE they’re all electromasters that has the same wavelength.
I wonder, if there is a Way to share the Original Memories through this Connection, with the Clones. Or at Last See could use this as some kind of Sonar, if any of her Clones are nearby
No .. he would have to kill 128 real Misaka’s (which you cant have as there is only one of her) or 20,000 clones of her. What Misaka is intending to do is die and make it look like she is not as strong as they calculated.
That and at least if she dies, she’d theoretically save 20000/128 = ~156 sisters.
Ah okay, self sacrifice. But death was included in both ways.. So my guess was not that amiss
Reading this arc was one thing, but having it animated is another. Having a real voice(VA) to impart emotion takes it to another level. You can hear just how much pain Mikoto is in, especially when she sees her sister killed on camera.
And Mikoto really is a good girl. No matter what happens she doesn’t try to kill anyone even those after her life.
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20S%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
You can’t sit there and tell me you didn’t jump and say “WOAH!” when this part came up.
All in all this episode was hard to watch for many reasons. These past few episodes have been hard to watch for their reasons. Mainly because each episode gets darker and darker. And Misaka just suffers more and more :(.
This episode she really fuckin lost it. For good reason too.
the Animes slowly became more adulthood. They are evolving, with the Spectators. It is a good thing
Anime has been quite adult for years. Its just rare to see a heroine that is so associated with moe tropes and more light hearted stuff go through this. The Sisters Arc in Railgun was always a question mark of how far would they go and deviate from the standard Railgun S1/Index formula. Needless to say they went all in and its turning out great.
Although watch out for narrative mood whiplash the next arc is supposed to be fun in the sun with “more fanservice”.
It’s just horrifying every time I see another Misaka clone get killed D:
Damn, second time I felt sad for a MISAKA clone. All innocent was she as if she was just going to play with Accelerator then she gets shot with her bullet. How she looked when the realizes she got shot was like “Crap! I’m bleeding.” And the way she described how her death was coming is just emotional.
If you think about it, this is truly a living nightmare for Accelerator. It’s like something out of a horror movie. A cute girl shows up and tries to kill him, and he kills her. He sees her dead body lying on the ground. And then she shows up again, and tries to kill him again. Over and over, again and again, never ending. Stephen King couldn’t design a worse thing.
It’s driven him insane, I think. The only way he can cope with the horror is to give in to it and become sadistic, because otherwise it would break him.
Except, She would not Kill him in Surprise. The Fights was always in Hidden, when both was ready. So… His Crazy has limits…
Leave my Sisters aloooooone!
*preparing to give a standing applause for J.C and Nagai after this arc ends*
Actually, Nagai himself said he wants to end this arc and start with the original(fillers) episode because he likes more the feeling of the first season rather than this one.
I can understand that, this is probably an emotionally tiring arc for them to do.
And the last season was so happy go luck, even in the darker parts there was always hope.
Random thought: earlier in the season, the Railgun group were out for tea and I was thinking “If Misaka didn’t have all these dark problems, this would be another cute girls doing cute things series.”
The Sisters Arc in general shows why Touma really is the man for doing what he does both here and later…
Another fantastic episode. I don’t know what it is, but JC Staff seem to be going far and beyond in this adaption. I like Index, but it’s had it’s problem and often I couldn’t help but get bored at times during some of their arcs. Or felt that they were dragging. But this arc has been really long but I haven’t gotten bored once.
They really seem to be taking great care of this. The action, the plot, the dialogue, the animation, etc. It’s all been amazing and I hope they keep up this quality well into the next arcs and Index III.
hold up…let me get this straight…after over 10000 runs, misaka imouto JUST now got the idea that accelerator can deflect bullets by default?…wasn’t that demonstrated in the first experiment?…i thought they are supposed to be adapting to combat…why are they still using guns ffs…is this a requirement? and why the fuck would this be a requirement…’hey we know guns are completely useless against this dude and won’t help in any way shape or form…but be sure to bring one anyway’…
and did they spout all that controversial, potentially incriminating info to toma just cuz he asked? even though he didn’t have a passcode? ‘hey, don’t mind the 200 other clones standing behind me here, we are just cleaning up after one of us who just got MURDERED…and yeah don’t let the whole mass cloning of a lvl5 for combat part get to you…and i won’t tell you ANY MORE than what i already did since you’re a COMPLETE STRANGER…so just walk along…’
…they must’ve forgotten to put points in INT when they designed these clones…
I was wondering about that myself. That being said, there’re at least a few explanations for why they continued to use guns.
They could be testing out variables like how many can he reflect in a short period of time, if there are limits to the mass/speed he reflects, etc…Note the change in gun types: pistol, sniper rifle (anti-tank rifle?), submachine gun….
Most people wouldn’t take 10,000 trials to exhaustively test a theory, but the clones don’t have much in the way of self-worth, so instead of moving onto entirely different approaches, I think they chose instead to exhaustively test the limits of Accelerator’s abilities.
they did not say about the Level 6 Shift Project because Touma doesn’t have a passcode, what they revealed is the radio noise project
Is it just me or is she the real goal of the project, not accelerator. It seems like their actually trying to turn her into the level 6, not him, and using her clones to do it by how it is effecting her psychologically.
Accelerator becoming the level 6 is starting to unveil perhaps as just a ploy but ultimately, it seems like it may have been about her from the very beginning.
That was a theory that popped to mind when the guy said the thing about MISAKA’s receiving the combat knowledge from the precious ones (ala Naruto).
Also Show Spoiler ▼