Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 25 (Fin) – Another Lovely Day in Academy City

Last week ended with Mikoto firing and Doppelganger seemingly fading into white, but the Railgun missed on purpose. Mikoto wanted to give Doppel a chance to stop fighting, shed all the slime mold, and live a normal life as she is. But ultimately Doppel doesn’t want to go on living.

Her threats were just a smokescreen for her true objective. She never actually gained a soul, which makes her continued existence a torment. By destroying herself she’ll end that torment, and by destroying the dataship and killing Kuriba, she’ll prevent another her from being created.

The dataship crashes and much of Doppel’s body blasted away, but Mikoto doesn’t kill her, and Kuriba survives. The chief doesn’t believe Doppel has no soul and even pulls a gun on Kuriba, resulting in her accidentally getting shot in the gut. The chief flees, but Misaki tracks him down and “rewinds” his memories so he’ll start over from “behind square one”.

Thanks to Shirai arriving at the scene, Kuriba is poised to make a full recovery, while Doppel was allowed to die with dignity. The next day is bright and sunny and Mikoto enjoys a nice coffee al fresco with Kuroko, who can’t help but ask for a kiss in return for her help. Kuroko, in turn, is teased by Misaki, and when Saten and Uiharu show up, they are in awe of the “Queen” and Hokaze Junko.

We cut to a parting scene with the Scavengers, who learn that due to their client’s bankruptcy they won’t be paid for their work. Leader once again proves her title is well-earned by fighting to get her team’s levels increased as consolation for the cash falling through, while it’s ambiguously revealed when Naru strips him down that Seike is a boy, or the “blue” ranger of their group.

More season housekeeping ensues, including the triumphant return of a fully-recovered Kongou Mitsuko (how I’ve missed her) finally getting to (accidentally) meet Mikoto’s “sister”, whom she nicknames “Ii-chan” (after “1”0032). We also see Misaki with Mitori and Dolly, and they agree to take things slow in terms of loosening their dear friend’s training wheels of normal life.

As Kuriba convalesces in hospital, she has a dream with Doppel, who notes that her creator has always been unable to separate her research and objectives from the rest of her life. To that end, she offers Kuriba a list of issues with her present cyborg designs that she should iron out. When she wakes up, Kuriba thought at first it was her guilt causing the dreams, but admits the possibility of a part of Doppel (beyond the organs used to save her) lives on in Kuriba.

Mikoto then departs the hospital with her schoolbag behind shoulder, and back out into the lovely sunny day in Academy City. Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu are waiting up for her, eager to go someplace good to eat. Mikoto doesn’t care where, as long as they’re together.

With that, Railgun T (as in “T”hird…I can’t believe I never realized that before) comes to a pleasant and satisfying end. Well, satisfying in that everything was resolved nicely, but to be honest I’d much rather watch a fourth Railgun than a fourth Index or second Accelerator. I’m among those who watched the first Railgun prior to watching the first Index, and while Index is regarded as the flagship series, Railgun has been and always will be my number one.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 24 – Taking It Up a Notch

Once Doppelganger creates a giant concrete kaiju, my first question was “Why doesn’t Mikoto just do the same thing with metal?” She then smirks and proceeds to do just that, answering another question in the process: “What if Mikoto went pretty much ALL out?” Seeing the Railgun’s sheepish grin at the prospect of having to up her game a couple of notches, and then doing so, ranks right up there among her best and most badass moments.

Misaka Mikoto isn’t someone who isn’t sure about herself or her abilities; on the contrary, it’s almost scary how quickly she can power up to the point her colossal electro-iron-sand puppet is railgunning huge holes in Doppel’s rubble puppet (ruppet?). It’s just too bad the kaiju battle is a feint. Doppel’s true target is the stealth dataship, which she locates thanks in part to all the iron sand Mikoto sends into the atmosphere taking out all of the gas tanks Doppel tries to toss at the populated part of the city.

Things even get a bit Evangelion-esque when Doppel pulls out another party trick: the ability to spontaneously generate enormous masses of matter in a similar manner to slime molds and zombie ant parasites. She uses a gigantic clone of herself to grab hold of the airship and render it visible. At this point the real Kuriba Ryouko pleads with her mechanical double for just “two more months”, whereupon she’ll be able to eradicate her own soul and allow Doppel to take over her body fully.

The thing is, Doppel is no longer interested in Kuriba’s body, or in simply existing as an individual anymore. Kuriba falls off the airship, but the Scavengers chip in to locate and pluck her out of the air; Leader’s thank you to Mikoto for her earlier assistance. She uses her ability to serve as spotter for Mikoto as Doppel attacks her with more slime mold-esque clones.

Bottom line: Doppel wants revenge against humanity, beyond simply destroying her creator. By the way, she’s ready to do that and level the city thanks to rigging twenty huge fuel tanks in strategic locations. Having been taught emotions by the researchers, she can’t help but feel envy and hatred to humans.

Mikoto’s answer to this threat is to fire her Railgun directly at Doppel’s core body, but Leader ominously warns Mikoto—albeit too late—that there’s a problem with her line of fire. Doppel is consumed by the light from the railgun blast…but that’s as far as the episode takes us.

With a preview full of Railgun’s friends and frenemies, I imagine Doppel is either destroyed or otherwise neutralized—but we’ll see what cost is incurred as a result. Until then, this will go down in the annals of all-time best-looking duels, and as always it’s an absolute delight to watch Mikoto do her stuff.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 23 – Koncrete Kaiju

Leader is Leader of Scavenger for a reason: not only is she smart as a whip and good at thinking on her feet, she’s also pragmatic. When the Railgun arrives, she knows there’s no use fighting her or getting on her bad side. Leader has a mission that needs accomplishing, so she tells Mikoto she’s an  undercover member of Judgment tasked with retrieving the doppelganger.

It’s fun to watch Leader navigate a virtual minefield with her subterfuge, not knowing how the Railgun will respond to what she says. Luckily for her, she can relate to Seike as a fellow “civilian” aiding Judgment since she does that for Kuroko and Uiharu all the time. Leader also lucks out when she learns Mikoto is big Gekota fan…but is less enamored of Leader’s praise for fellow Level 5 Shokuhou Misaki.

Leader is ultimately successful in getting Mikoto to help her, and it’s a good thing she does, because the doppelganger is far, far beyond the talents of the members of Scavenger alone. She also gets to watch firsthand just how much of a badass the third-ranked Railgun is against such a foe. The doppel, for her part, wants to “level up” some more before properly fighting her.

Leader has Mikoto lure the doppel to a district of abandoned warehouses. It makes sense to Mikoto because that area will result in the fewest casualties, but she asks Leader to evacuate the district of all Skill Out members. Leader wants the doppel in that district because that’s where Scavenger’s contract says to make the exchange with the lab coats. Yakumaru performs a lovely bit of theater convincing a bunch of punks to be chivalrous for a change, helping her warn others to evacuate.

As Mikoto pokes, prods, and analyzes the doppel while air-boarding on a scrap of metal, Leader makes contact with the researchers, and when they quibble about the details, Leader loses her patience. She and her comrades have almost died five times over trying to capture this subject, and their client’s van isn’t going anywhere (thanks to Seike) until their Joan Hancock is on the bottom line of that contract.

But while Leader and crew escapes with the signed contract, their reputation on the mend, Mikoto’s left holding the doppel bag, her sparking hands having become decidedly fuller as the doppel grows to the size of a kaiju.  It’s also the case that Leader feels kinda bad about deceiving the kind and well-meaning Railgun, but she’s not loyal to Judgment; she’s loyal to the Dark Side, and to her organization.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 22 – A Run of Bad Luck

When Scavenger is hired to recover Kuriba Ryouko’s doppelganger, they’re upbeat confident they can get the job done, despite having suffered a humiliating defeat in the Accelerator spin-off that I ended up skipping. In fact, Naru (the one with pink hair) sees this “small” job as a stepping stone to regaining credibility among the Dark Side organizations.

The real Ryouko tells Mikoto and Misaki about the dangers of an “untethered soul” of the kind residing within her doppel. It can possess and control any material it pleases and even spread across all of Academy City if left unchecked. She also started the Dream Poker fad as a kind of crowdsourcing for a solution to dealing with the doppel’s soul.

When Ryouko leaves, there’s a bit of tension, as she urges Mikoto not to get involved, but she soon wonders if turning away the Railgun was the right move. In fact, she immediately regrets that when the doppel confronts her, easily chases her down, and promises to erase her existence; clearly the doppel wants to be the only Kuriba Ryouko left standing.

Ryouko is able to use a stun grenade-like device to break Ryouko’s hold and create a smokescreen that allows her to flee. Ryouko would have surely given chase immediately provided she knew which way to go, but she is confronted by Scavenger, who keep her occupied for the rest of the episode.

I’ll give this to the members of Scavenger: they seem an organizaed and competent team under usual circumstances; unfortunately for them there is nothing usual about the doppel. Leader is able to locate the doppel with the Predator skill, while Seike (who is apparently a boy) is able to manipulate friction; between him and the doppel it’s an all-barefoot fight.

Rounding out the group is Yakumaru (an expert in various chemical and explosive agents) and Naru (who can manipulate paper). The four are able to not only stop the doppel in her tracks but restrain her as well. When Leader noticed a second Ryouko flee the area, she sends Seike after her, wrongly assuming the doppel is under control.

The doppel grabs Leader and twists and breaks her wrist. This leads Naru to enter her next-stage “rabbit mecha” form (in which she’d be buck naked but for a few scraps of paper) to separate the two.

The doppel is damaged (which wasn’t part of the job) but unfazed, and uses the power of the soul within her to basically steal Naru’s paper, ripping off an arm of her rabbit mecha and grafting it onto her damaged area.

After their meeting with Real!Ryouko, Misaki shows Mikoto the girl’s memories, and Mikoto learns that she was both researcher and subject in being cut in half as part of her lifelong effort to save her mother, who took a turn for the worse after donating a lung to Ryouko.

With a better understanding of Ryouko’s intentions and motivations, she ends up tracking Ryouko down again, which is fortunate for Ryouko, as Seike tracks her down first and roughs her up a little, just because he can. Enter Mikoto, whom Seike initially doesn’t recognize as the Railgun due to her a sorta-disguise.

It doesn’t take long for him to learn who he’s dealing with, and before sending Ryouko off to safety, Mikoto officially offers to help her with her problem, and Ryouko accepts, thus righting the wrong of their first meeting.

Now armed with part of Naru’s mecha, doppel prepares to crush Yakumaru’s head, but Naru is able to regain control of enough of her paper to stop Ryouko in her tracks, enabling Yakumaru to toss an explodey device that allows Scavenger to flee and regroup, battered but alive.

After making quick work of Seike, Mikoto proceeds to confront Leader, Naru, and Yakumaru. Considering this group already had an ill-fated encounter with the Accelerator, Leader was sure the chances of them coming afoul of another top-ranked esper to be infinitesimal.

Alas, now they have to deal with the Railgun. My advice to them is to surrender peacefully and avoid the same unpleasantness Seike endured. Perhaps they’ll end up joining forces to restrain the doppel…or perhaps the doppel, like Mikoto, is simply out of Scavenger’s league.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 21 – 21 Artificial Grams

For two people who claim not to be anything like friends, Mikoto and Misaki sure are hanging out a lot this season. I guess it’s more a matter of circumstances continuing to bring them together, as they do here when Misaki learns the inventor of Dream Poker is a very interesting person named Kuriba Ryouko.

Initially carved up like a spiral ham and augmented with cybernetics to create two separate bodies, Ryouko was a test subject to gauge the limits of cyborg technology. But when all of her organic parts were back together, the “Ryouko” with the machine parts had  retained a soul. Misaki wants Mikoto to break into the facility where Machine Ryouko resides and verify the experiment.

While Misaki’s talk with Mikoto is very expository, the scene is given room to breath by being bookended by the clever manner in which Misaki gets Mikoto’s attention (brainwashing a random girl) and the fact Mitori and Dolly aren’t far away observing Misaki’s movements. So happy to see Dolly out in the world.

Misaki and Mikoto are never not fun to watch bounce off each other and try to deflect their chemistry with the facade of pure practical necessity. That is, Misaki needs a “muscle-head” for the op lest her brainwashing not work on cyborgs. Misaki also makes it a square deal: if Mikoto helps her out here, she’ll use her skills to help get the Sisters something closer to a normal life.

After assuring Kuroko she’s not going out to cheat on her, Mikoto heads into the night to the facility, where she’s just in time to watch MechaRyouko explosively escape, taking out a chunk of the building and all of the lab data in the process.

In the facility, MechaRyouko had just had an epiphany, in which she recognized the mug her mom gave her, but suddenly couldn’t remember anyone or anything prior to arriving in Academy City—or afterwards. Clearly distressed by the fact she thinks she’s the real Kuriba Ryouko, it’s no wonder she sought freedom. And she’s a tough customer, having no problem beating up some thugs before securing a hideout and some cool backless black top that exposes her tattooed back.

Mikoto and Misaki (disguised as the third brainwashed person in the episode) pay the real Ryouko a visit and report her cyborg counterpart’s escape. Ryouko informs them in no uncertain terms that this could spell big, big trouble. Whether that means the cyborg will seek to destroy her and claim the mantle of One and Only Ryouko, to a whole host of other threats.

As the episode ends, we’re quickly introduced to a new underground org that has been tasked with retrieving the cyborg (after they recently failed in a mission involving Accelerator, which is probably more Index III stuff I vaguely remember). This group is called Scavenger, and it looks like next week will focus on their retrieval mission.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 19 – New Friends, Good Fish, and Foul Play

While Kuroko and Uiharu are busy using the pre-cog app to prevent accidents, Ruiko ends up making an unexpected friend at the supermarket. Due to a fad going around claiming the fish helps increase good looks, Ruiko buys the last two cans, and Frenda Seivelun hounds her until she gives her one. When she accidentally blows it up trying to open it on the spot, she worms her way into dinner.

Ruiko is initially bemused by this odd, haughty foreigner, but the two end up becoming fast friends and message each other regularly. It’s strange having Frenda show up in a mostly comedic role considering we know she died a grisly death in the Index show, but to enjoy this episode you have to put her impending doom out of your head.

Things actually take a dark turn as Ruiko’s purchasing of a Dream Poker card that makes you an expert at “picking things up with chopsticks”, raises a flag with a member of SCHOOL, who believes it relates to the “Tweezers” their underground group is trying to acquire. The hacker kid has Ruiko abducted, not knowing she has absolutely nothing to do with the Tweezers. This franchise certainly asks its audience to remember a lot of parallel storylines.

Thankfully, Frenda spotted the toughs approaching Ruiko’s position, and tossed a tracking device on their clothes. Hamazura picks her up in his Mini and they catch up to the vans. Then Frenda uses explosives to block the vans and takes out the goons, thus rescuing Ruiko. SCHOOL hacker guy then contacts sniper Yumiya Rakko, who was about to hang out with her school friends when she was called away.

Yumiya’s persona changes drastically from shy and stuttering at school to a focused, sadistic killer in hunter mode. And make no mistake, she’s going to hunt Frenda to blow off the steam from missing out on her crucial social gathering.

If you ask me, Academy City has way too many crazed teenagers working for what amount to criminal gangs, whether ITEM or SCHOOL. It’s why poor civilians like Ruiko always end up in the middle of trouble not of their making.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 18 – The Legend of Bust Upper

When Ruiko proudly, flamboyantly shows Mikoto how much her kendama skills have improved (showing off like nunchaku) through Dream Poker, its to encourage her friend not to give up on the fad just because she had a bad first experience. Meanwhile, Kinuhata Saiai of ITEM (this arc takes place before the group was destroyed) has discovered that of the four female members she has the smallest bust, and is not okay with that.

Saiai and Mikoto, two young women overly self-conscious about their size, end up crossing paths at a street poker card street dealer. The one S-Class card in his stock happens to be the dream of a “long-lost but brilliant scientist” researching a certain matter near and dear to them. When the two learn it is called Bust Upper, they’re both on the cusp of starting an esper brawl when the dealer breaks them up and all the cards scatter.

Rather than fight, Mikoto and Saiai decide to each buy up half the cards and try them all out until they find the Bust Upper, which got lost in the pile. Yet neither end up dreaming with that card, only finding themselves in scenarios in which society and the world persecutes them due to their modest natural bust sizes. Both get so frustrated they end up waking up loudly ranting in the napping center, and are politely kicked out.

They continue searching the cards poolside (though not in swimsuits), and aside from an extremely cryptic, abstract dream involving a mysterious black-and-white-haired woman (of whom we certainly haven’t seen the last), they come up empty again. They part ways “ultra”-disappointed, but the Railgun and ITEM having enjoyed a truce over a shared lack of a burden (on their shoulders), and believing the dealer was simply telling tall tales.

However, the real Bust Upper card ended up snatched up by a crow while both were napping. When a cat startles the crow, it drops the card near the hand of a girl in the park with a modest bust of her own. The next day, as Rikou is showing Uiharu her new master pen-spinning skills (love her trend of only mastering useless skills), they unwittingly witness the results of Bust Upper, tying the episode up with a neat bow.

As far as Railgun filler goes, it rarely gets as filler-y as this, and takes the patently silly bust complex comedy about as far as it can go. But it’s nevertheless a fun time because it’s bursting (busting?) with Railgun charm straight out of the gate. It’s great to Mikoto enjoying some ordinary days before the next threat shows up, and especially nice to see ITEM during better days.

P.S. Considering how hard she worked the past two weeks, it’s understandable that Kuroko just wants to get some shut-eye when Mikoto, who is overly rested from all the napping, talks about her day. Kuroko doesn’t even react to the mention of Missy in a revealing outfit!

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 17 – Miyama-ty Report

This episode considerably scales back the complexity of last week’s outing and focuses on the precognitive abilities of Miyama Shaei, and their role in transforming Kuroko into even more capable and efficient Judgment Officer.

He starts by predicting a girl falling into the water—Chisa, whom I believe injected an ampule of fertilizer into a tree last week. Where before Kuroko would not have learned of her predicament until after it happened and it was reported, thanks to Miyama’s prediction she can rescue Chisa seconds after she falls in.

One after the other, Miyama predicts mishaps and Kuroko is able to teleport in the nick of time to save the would-be victims. Be it a girlfriend with a knife, a falling sign, or bullies, Kuroko is on the scene and Getting Shit Done.

Like the previous arc where she lost her memories, it’s never not great to see Kuroko operating in fully bad-ass non-comic relief mode. Mikoto and Saten don’t even appear this week, but I didn’t miss them because Kuroko can carry an episode any time she wants.

With the combined help of Miyama’s ability and Uiharu’s handy hacker skillz, a pattern of incidents are predicted in a public park, and the imagery points to a raging fire, so the girls recruit their superior Konori Mii and other members of Judgment to lock the park down and prepare for anything.

Since Kuroko has been at the center of so many incidents with happy endings, the other Judgment members don’t bristle at the odd request. However, Miyama eventually reaches his physical limit and has to be hospitalized with blood cell damage from ability overuse.

While there, he dreams of how he was ostracized at school by popular girls lke Okawachi Megumi for having such a “creepy” ability. She changes her tune when he predicts she’ll fall victim to a mishap, and promises her he’ll try to prevent it. Of course, since this was well before he met Kuroko—the only person who can change the fates he sees—Okawachi is badly injured and curses the day she met him.

When he predicts the first and earliest of the incidents to occur in the park, it involves a stray dog with whom he is close, and starts to wonder if Okawachi is right—if bad things happen to people who know him like her and Perro—as a result of his ability, a chicken-and-egg dilemma that would be stressful for an adult, let alone a grade-schooler.

Night comes, and with them predicted raging fires, an extremely clever and complex sequence of events involving both the park’s vending machine (which may have a frayed power cable due to Mikoto having always zapped it) throwing a short that ignites dry leaves and grass and eventually causes Chisa’s ampules to violently detonate.

Of course, Kuroko, Uiharu, and Judgment don’t panic; they planned for this, and Kuroko is outfitted with both a HUD monocle and breathing tube for a sequence of quick teleports into and out of the fire, rescuing imperiled parkgoers each time. Again, I cannot underscore how much enjoyment I get out of Kuroko simply hunkering down and doing her job extremely well.

A panicked Miyama races to the park to try to rescue Perro on his own, but in his childishness (he is still just a kid after all) he wrongly assumed Judgment wouldn’t bother saving a random stray dog. Kuroko heads back into the inferno with Konori and her X-ray vision and eventually find the dog, a bit limpy but none the worse for wear. Miyama can’t help but blush and tear up, and Kuroko tells him its okay.

Later, we learn that Miyama has arranged for Okawachi to adopt Perro, and that she’s ready to apologize for how she treated him. In a chat with Kuroko, he worries his predictions will only involve those close to him, but she doubts that will be the case, since he’s like her: devoted to peace and justice for all.

She also believes that in time his power will grow to the point he can use it more often without risking his health. And when he does, she’ll be ready and willing to receive more intel so she can do some more rescuing. I love how Kuroko faces away from him to hide her blushing, no doubt a bit embarrassed she shares the same values as a little kid, while also casually mentioning a certain “champion of justice” she looks up to.

The big question last week was if and how the shared dream fad and Miyama’s mishap prediction plot would connect, and the answer comes in a very small detail at the very end: those ridiculously hazardous nutrient ampules that Chisa used? They were meant to allow the cherry blossoms to bloom year-round.

Chisa and her friends got idea to use the ampules…in a shared dream. With the additional brief mention of a “mass unconsciousness outbreak” this week, is it possible Chisa was unknowingly directed to plant explosives, or was it an innocent accident? Considering the potential for abuse of the shared dream system and the large number of troublemakers populating Academy City, I’m not ruling anything out.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 16 – Swapped Dreams and Foretold Trouble

Railgun is back…again…AGAIN again…and it’s lost none of its charm. With the Level 6 unpleasantness behind her for now, Mikoto is approached by Misaki’s lieutenant Hokaze Junko, who might just have the best hair of any Raildex character. Junko, who wrongly assumes her Queen and Mikoto are friends, just wants to be friends with Mikoto as well. It’s very sweet.

Like Mikoto, Junko is on the swim club, so has a chance to approach Mikoto about something else they have in common: they’re both Gekoers. While a bicker-session between Mikoto and Misaki erupts, Junko eventually gets a word in and offers Mikoto an “Indian Poker” card. Saten informs Mikoto of a new underground trend of recording dreams and sharing them like baseball cards.

The color of the card Junko gave Mikoto suggests a happy, pleasant dream, and that is indeed the case when Mikoto is approached by all of her favorite Gekota characters. However, the dream takes a turn when Mikoto is led to the castle to meet the queen…Misaki.

While I’ve no doubt Junko finds the prospect of a dream in which she gets to serve and pamper her queen extremely appealing, it amounts to a goosebump-inducing nightmare for Mikoto, who wakes up more exhausted than when she went to bed.

Junko invites Mikoto and Misaki to tea in an ill-advised effort to help the two become closer friends (something they’d never admit they were, even if they actually were). She hopes to use the poker cards to facilitate this, but Misaki shuts Junko down, telling her to stop playing with the cards and to tell her other followers to stop too.

Junko obeys without argument, irking Mikoto. Despite her own feelings about the cards, she doesn’t think it’s fair for Misaki to lord over people like Junko. But Misaki’s claims about the game being childish are put in stark relief when the three women overhear three fanboys worshiping the S-ranked “Dream Ranker” BLAU for his dreams involving real-life women they’d never normally be able to…er…interact.

When BLAU mentions how he has dreams available involving the two Level 5s from Tokiwadai, Mikoto and Misaki are suddenly allied in a way Junko couldn’t have forseen, though it does dawn on her how powerful the two would be if they combined their forces of destruction, coersion, and memory alteration. Maybe one day we’ll get a spin-off to this Index spin-off about the two doing perfect crimes!

They do just that when Mikoto zaps BLAU’s dream cards and Misaki alters the boys’ memories. She doesn’t mind a boy dreaming about a girl he fancies, but passing those dreams around for others is where she draws the line. Mikoto, meanwhile, is simply against all of it. When the wonderfully oblivious Junko asks what the two are on about, they both make excuses to take their leave.

Juding from the OP, the poker cards and Dream Rankers will play a far larger role, but this is a useful introduction to how the process works and how it can be used for nefarious purposes. From there the episode transitions to Uiharu and Kuroko’s Judgment duties, and Uiharu informs Kuroko of a new “treasure hunt” style app that uses augmented reality to show not just where accidents have occurred, but where they will occur.

Six out of six such “foretold” accidents ended up happening, leading Kuroko to suspect an esper with precognitive abilites is behind the app. The pair decide to stake out the site of a seventh future accident. A boy is nearly run over by a truck, but the boy is missed. A different car has to avoid the truck and almost hits a girl, and she’s the one Kuroko saves. Had she not been anticipating something to happen, she might’ve made the wrong move and things could have gone far worse.

Kuroko suspects someone was watching things from a high vantage point, and sure enough, she encounters a 10-year-old fourth-grader named Li Syaoran Miyama Shaei, and takes him back to the Judgment office. Miyama tells them the app was developed to analyze psychic photography espers like him, as he’s able to use a camera to take pictures that eventually develop into future events…but only accidents, in his case.

The app is a means of him concealing his identity, since like the poker cards his ability can be hazardous in the wrong hands—and we know there are a whole mess of underground groups in Academy City eager to be those hands. Miyama was actually hoping to gain the attention of an esper capable of altering the fates his abilities predict. Judging on how she handled the latest incident, he believes Kuroko is that esper.

This first episode back since Spring may have been absolutely stuffed with new plot points, they were all handled carefully and in the context of the characters we know and love. I think it was kinda the point to overwhelm us a bit with new information, but it was still all clearly laid out. There isn’t yet a concrete threat for this new arc, but all the elements and players are present for some mischief. I’m mostly just glad Mikoto is back on the board, stamping out dirty boys’ dreams.

Extra Stuff in No Particular Order:

• I love how Mikoto doesn’t recognize Junko, who I don’t believe had been formally named yet, until she removes her swim cap to reveal those luxurious lilac locks. Junko is the undisputed Hair Queen.
• Kuroko gives the first long-winded bedroom monologue in a long time as Mikoto sleeps, offering her body to her as she has so many times before. Unfortunately, when Mikoto yells “NEVER” in response to her Misaki-infected dream, Kuroko misinterprets it as a rejection, and is down in the dumps until the precog stuff surfaces.
• Saten is the useful voice of explaining the “Indian Poker” cards, which I’ll be referring to as “poker cards” or “dream cards” going forward.
• Saten also does a patented Uiharu skirt flip, but it happens entirely off-camera.
• BLAU’s *bleep* laden description of his dreams involving Mikoto and Misaki make what he’s talking about sound much dirtier than if nothing had been bleeped…which works in the scene’s favor!
• Preston is deep into OG Cardcaptor Sakura, hence me likening Miyama to fellow precocious fourth grader Li Syaoran.
• I love how much Uiharu is looking forward to finally having someone in the office who will call her senpai. Kuroko is just worried she’ll dote on the rookie too much.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 15 – Clones Aren’t Just People…They’re Some of the Best

Suck up to the researchers. Words Kozaku Mitori lived by while she was at the facility. Put on a happy face, be chipper, never show them you actually hate their guts and everything they’re doing. But even if it was an act, her secret rebelliousness was futile. As long as she was cooperating, she was giving in to their control.

This became untenable when her chipper attitude led the researchers to pairing her up with Dolly. Like Misaki after her, Mitori initially found the lonely sick girl to be a pain in the rear, but Dolly’s sad, beautiful soul eventually wore her down, until she was looking forward to their visits. More importantly, her smiles were always genuine.

More than anything, Mitori saw Dolly as neither a clone nor a lab rat, but above all, a human being, deserving of rights and care. So when she saw the condition of Dolly’s body as a result of the researchers’ merciless experiments, she used her ability to learn more about her, and became even more outraged.

Sadly, nearly every adult in a white lab coat is a psychopathic, redeemable monster who tortures and murders children without blinking an eye. So it’s no surprise that her protests don’t just fall on deaf ears, but mocking laughter, which fuel a smoldering fire of hatred for The System in Mitori’s heart.

For dropping the nice girl act and breaking the rules, Mitori is held in solitary for months, never getting to see Dolly again. But one day her cell door is unlocked and she finds the place deserted. She vows to wage a one-woman campaign of vengeance against the Governing Board who approved what was happening to Dolly.

Her attempts ended in failure, mostly because she was acting alone and even 10,000 of her wouldn’t be enough to tough the bigwigs. Enter Kihara Gensei, who puts his trust in hatred and thus in their aligned desire to bring Academy City to its knees. Again Mitori picked the losing side and lost, this time to the good guys”.

Following Kuroko’s beatdown, Mitori lies in the sewer having utterly given up…until Misaki pays her a visit. She still has every intention of turning her over to Judgment, but before that, she has a personal matter to attend to and could use Mitori’s assistance. You see, the Dolly they know may be gone, but her memories were transferred to her clone sister, who is still alive…and they’re going to free her.

Where as everything involving her researcher handlers at the facility was about bending to their physical and psychological control, Misaki spares the Mental Out remote and plainly asks Mitori if she’ll accompany her. Aside from Mitori not having much else going on, Misaki knows that if Mitori felt the same way about Dolly as she did, she’ll gladly tag alone of her own free will.

Thanks to Misaki’s ability, the pair are able to easily infiltrate the facility and remove “Dolly II” from her stasis tube. A tearful reunion ensues, where again Mitori doesn’t have to put on any act; she’s overwhelmed by emotion upon finding this girl who is for all intents and purposes the same Dolly who knew and loved her, and whom she knew and loved.

This episode and scene in particular are the perfect way to wrap up the arc of Kozaku Mitori, who started out as a shadowy, one-dimensional baddie but soon evolved into a full-fledged character beyond black-and-white labels. Her alliance with the geezer and resulting actions may have been misguided, but everything she did was out of a desire to hurt those who hurt Dolly, and you can’t argue with that.

Misaki too, gets a nice catharsis in this reunion scene. At first she’s so guilty about misleading Dolly and failing to learn the whole picture before it was to late, and feels like she’s not entitled to forgiveness or affection. Dolly, of course doesn’t care about what happened in the past; what matters is that she, Misaki, and Mi-chan are together again. It’s what she’d been dreaming about in that tube, and now it’s a reality.

Thanks to Dolly, and her clone, Misaki and Mitori not only became strong individuals capable of setting their own courses in life, but were able to endure the cynicism and cruelty of the villainous scientific complex and retain their humanity. As Mitori tried to make clear to one of those villains, Dolly is a person, not a clone of fodder.

She also happens to be one of the best people, with a warm and kind soul. But even she wouldn’t be who she was (not to mention free of captivity) without her two friends. Hopefully they’ll never be separated again.

In other housecleaning, Mikoto’s circle of friends celebrates Kuroko finally being 100% and out of her wheelchair, and then Mikoto visits a recovering MISAKA in the hospital. But Mitori, Misaki, and Dolly were the refreshing narrative and emotional core of this epilogue, and I was more than fine with that.

The effects of their reunion seemingly carries across the network of Sisters, as MISAKA has a vague sense of deja vu and a sudden desire to visit the ocean. She’s most likely glimpsing Dolly’s beautiful dreams—which can now be a reality.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 14 – Here There Be Dragons (and Dancing)

With all other conflicts resolved, all that’s left is for Touma to capitalize on all of the breaks his allies have given him, charge in, and break that nasty shell around Mikoto once and for all. When he does so, his arm flies off from the impact, but a veritable novelty nuts can full of multicolored frikkin’ dragons erupts and attacks the shell from every angle until it finally shatters. Even Sogiita is impressed by such a grand display of Guts.

Since her Level 6 pupa destroyed her clothes, Mikoto ends up naked once the remnants of the shell crumble from her body, but Touma is ready to cover her up with his big jacket. He could sense she was mulling some kind of suicide tactic that would purge all the sinister elite forces of Academy City all by her lonesome.

But if there’s anything he learned from this arc, and which she can impart from her eventual rescue, is that nothing can be done about that all at once, or by just one person. Little by little, they’ll change things and shine light on the dark corners together. Before leaving the site of their battle, Sogiita notices the strange metal residue that wasn’t there before, and is likely similar to the material Saten was investigating before everything went nuts.

With that, Mikoto makes her rounds, starting with MISAKA, who is on the mend thanks to Heaven Canceller’s ministrations and the elimination of the virus affecting the Sisters as a whole. But the real treat is when she visits a recovering Mitsuko in the hospital. She offers her heartfelt apologies, but Mitsuko offers her own for not following through on her big words. Mikoto is someone she and others will always naturally gravitate toward.

By watching so many be inspired to action on Mikoto’s behalf, Mitsuko herself has become more compassionate towards others, especially when she learns what Wannai and Akatsuki did on her behalf. Mikoto thinks she’s “not that great” a person, but that’s for others to decide—and they’ve long since decided she is great, and worth putting their lives on the line to aid.

In the aftermath of their epic sub-boss battle, a depleted Kuroko simply left a handcuffed Mitori in the sewers for others to pick up later. As Mitori resigns herself to becoming rat food after realizing the mission has failed if she’s still breathing, she’s visited not by a member of Judgment, but by Misaki. Will she free Mitori as a fellow friend of the dearly departed Dolly? Is there something else afoot for the scheming-yet-slow sparkly-eyed beauty?

Only time will tell, but having learned of all Misaki did to protect the city, Mikoto is committed to seeking common ground with Misaki in future endeavors, citing “her own brand of justice and convictions.” Of course, once Mikoto learns that the memories Misaki implanted in her friends involved her gastrointestinal distress the whole damn school knows about, Mikoto immediately reconsiders simply killing Misaki the next chance she gets.

Misaki also restored the memories of Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu, which almost felt like a bittersweet, almost cruel move, since it meant the off-camera demise of the more nuanced Amnesia!Kuroko, truly one of this arc’s MVPs. I for one would have liked to see her give Mikoto a proper goodbye, even though that would have been tricky as a practical matter.

Aside from Sogiita’s mention of the metal at the battle site and Misaki locating Mitori, this episode doesn’t provide a lot of hints about what future threats are to come, and that’s a good thing; especially after all the episode delays, I was looking for closure on the arc and an opportunity for everyone to kick back, relax, and celebrate their victory, even if none of the city will ever know what transpired.

That means fireworks, festival stall foods…and a positively adorkable folk dance between Mikoto and Touma, set up beautifully by Saten and Uiharu. Kuroko may have her objections to sharing her onee-sama, but the other two acknowledge what Touma did for Mikoto, not to mention how Mikoto acts all flustered whenever he’s around. Of course, Mikoto manages to make herself turn beet red when she also acknowledges she treasures Touma by dint of saying she treasured everyone who helped her this time.

Of course, Saten and Uiharu can only keep Kuroko at bay so long, as she eventually teleport-kicks Touma to the side in order to claim Mikoto for herself, citing “time’s up!” Similarly, while this was a much needed episode to wrap up the arc and provide closure and a period of relief, the preview for the next episode indicates we’ll be getting right back down to business (Edit: it will be an epilogue episode after all…but I don’t mind). All I know is, this was one of if not the best arcs of the entire Index/Railgun franchise, and it will be hard to top.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T – 13 – Wagering to Lose

After a week-long postponement, followed by roughly 8 minutes (or a full third of the episode) of Kuroko recapping events so far, events finally, finally take a turn in the good guys’ favor.

There may not be a full episode of full content here, but what we do get is just so goddamn good—not to mention perfectly set up by the events previous episodes—I can’t hold back my “9” rating rubber stamp, which will simply keep coming out as long as Railgun continues to be this compelling and satisfying.

For one thing, even a recap is a delight if narrated by Arai Satomi, including her flowery fluster when mentioning Mikoto’s intoxicatingly trusting smile. The recap is also plot-appropriate, as Kuroko is “calmly reassessing the facts” in real time prior to taking decisive action against Kozaku Mitori.

When Kuroko finally appears in the sewer just as Mitori is about to celebrate her win, it’s not only a great moment (one forgets how much Kuroko can bring the pain), but the culmination of a logical string of events.

Mitori is ultimately undone not just by Kuroko’s constant countermoves, but by the simple fact that she’s operating all on her own (Kihara is obviously indisposed), while Kuroko has the trusty pair of Ruiko and Uiharu back at the Judgment office.

Uiharu is able to isolate the one festival relay camera Mitori hacked out of the thousands and manipulate it so Mitori loses her tactical advantage…at the height of her confidence in said advantage. A proud Ruiko fanning an exhausted Uiharu is the cherry on top.

Over at Exterior HQ, Kihara uses the code he forcibly extracted from the asphyxiating Misaki…only for the giant brain to self-destruct, rendering Kihara unconscious.

We backtrack to when Misaki first considered how she’d use the gravitron panels against Kihara.  Like Kuroko, she’s calmly assessing her options until the only one that gives her the best chance of winning is…to bet on losing.

In a stunning gamble, she turns her Mental Out remote on herself, switching the limit release code with the self-destruct code then erasing her memory of doing it. Kihara assumed from her body language she was out of options…but only because she herself forgot she had one more option. Just smart, competent writing.

With both Kuroko and Misaki scoring victories, it was inevitable the good guys wouldn’t come out on top in every situation, and so it is with Mikoto, who remains on the way to Level 6.

Even when Kihara goes down and she regains her self-awareness, she remains trapped in the slowly-developing star that is her berserk mode. Sogiita is bloodied and gassed, and all Touma can seem to do is defend from intermittent attacks.

But as he says before the credits roll, this isn’t over. I’m sure Sogiita has a second or third wind in him, and he and Touma no longer have to deal with this alone; Kuroko and Misaki are now free to assist. Even if Misaki is adamant that she doesn’t care what happens to Mikoto, like Mitori she doesn’t like how things ended with Dolly.

Railgun T Episode 13 Delayed Indefinitely (Updating)

Bummer…

Who’s going to step up and stop the out-of-control Mikoto from becoming a supernova (or white dwarf)? Who is going to punch Gensei in his smug cyborg face and foil his plans? Will Kuroko ever get her memories of onee-sama back?

Uh…dunno. We’re seemingly almost at the end of what has so far been the best Toaru arc yet (only five chapters remain to be adapted, apparently), but this week’s episode has been postponed.

UPDATE: Episode 13 will air May 1. We’ll have a review soon after we’ve watched it!