To Aru Majutsu no Index III – 06 – Well, That Accelerated Quickly

To defeat Kakine and SCHOOL, an increasingly unhinged Mugino is willing to sacrifice all of her ITEM subordinates, from Frenda to Takitsubo, who eats an Ability Crystal in order to hold off Kakine long enough for Hamazura to escape. She believes that despite having zero esper power, he has to survive. Hamazura tries to have it both ways, leaving the injured Takitsubo to a still mostly out-of-the-loop Yomikawa.

That leaves Hamazura to face Mugino, who really wants to kill him. The thing is, she never quite drops all the theatrics and does something she says she could do without batting an eyelid. Hamazura exploits her posturing by stabbing her in the eye with the ability crystal box, riddling her with bullets, and knocking her out cold before she can kill him. It’s a stunning upset for the Level 0, who can stand proud knowing he protected his colleagues from their psycho boss.

That leaves Accelerator, who gets a phone call warning him that Last Order is in danger, followed by Kakine assaulting Uiharu when she doesn’t tell him where the little one is. Uiharu is saved by Accelerator, and an epic duel between the two Level 5s ensues.

Kakine claims his abilities “don’t actually exist” and thus are ruled by laws that also don’t exist, making it tricky at first for Accelerator to deflect his attacks. However, Accelerator’s sheer advantage in power wins the day…at least until Yomikawa shows up to stop him.

She’s stabbed in the back by Kakine, and Accelerator goes berserk. That’s when Last Order arrives, the only person who can stop him. And she does, without any problems, dispersing his cyclones and calming him down with a hug.

The MacGuffin Tweezers are recovered by GROUP, and revealed as a tool to read data from the “Underline”, a nanodevice dispersed throughout the air by Aleister that gives info on all of the various underground organizations in Academy City.

Tsuchikimado notes the name of one group we haven’t yet heard (at least not in the anime): DRAGON. Oh, and Etzali managed to save Xochitl. Good for them! All’s mostly well that ends mostly well, though I have to say, it was wrapped up a bit too neatly. Such, I suppose, is the curse of an anime adaptation that apparently has a lot of ground to cover.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S – 09

The Level 5/4 duo of Mugino Shizuri and Takisubo Rikou relieve Frenda. Mikoto flees, but Takisubo uses AIM Stalker to locate her as Mugino sends Meltdowner beam attacks her way. The chase gradually wears Mikoto down. Meanwhile, Nunotaba aims to install emotions into the clones, so they might fight for their lives. She is thwarted by Kinuhata Saiai who was guarding the other lab in case Mikoto was only a diversion. When Mikoto deflects Mugino’s Meltdowner, Mugino realizes that her target could only be Tokiwadai’s Railgun.

This has been a rough couple of weeks for poor Miss “Clean Up My Own Messes Made Inadvertently When I Was A Toddler.” Just when she had Frenda where she wanted her, Frenda’s stronger, more tenacious, esper comrades arrive and make life a living hell for Mikoto. She seriously can’t stop to catch her breath, lest she get blasted into dust by Mugino. And just when we thought all of the Railgun’s suffering wouldn’t be in vain because Shinobu is at the other facility, making her move, Shinobu is also thwarted. Her plans to give all of the Sisters emotions apparently fails…but maybe not all the way.

Aside from that one glimmer of hope, the bad guys run this episode. Which is okay; the entire franchise has always had a problem with idiotic, over-boasting adult villains, and it’s good that this ITEM group is not only extremely confident, but also relatively likable. They’re all so different, they won’t be easily caught off guard at the same time, and what’s more, even if Mikoto is a stronger esper than all of them, it’s still four-against-one…at least until the end, when Mugino perhaps makes her first mistake: deciding to go one-on-one against a winded Mikoto.

Rating:7 (Very Good)

Stray Observations:

• Shinobu knows her limitations and is aware of the possibility the Level 6 program will never be totally defeated…but she still decides to do what she can for the clones, as she couldn’t ignore the glimmer of emotion she felt from one.
• Esper breakdown: Mugino has a lightning-esque Meltdowner ability; Takisubo has the AIM Stalker tracking ability, but only when she takes a drug that sends her into overload; and Kinuhata has super-strong bulletproof esper armor (and tries to say super in every sentence).
• Mikoto’s goal is to destroy the facility…isn’t that exactly what’s been happening the last two weeks? Place looks pretty destroyed already to us…maybe there’s still some vital part she hasn’t gotten to yet; but as Shinobu points out, even destroying all the facilities won’t end the experiment.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S – 08

A group of cleaners called ITEM is hired to protect the two remaining labs running the Sisters experiments. Three of the four members stake out one lab, while the fourth, Frenda, covers the second lab on her own, hoping for a bonus. Mikoto attacks this lab, and Frenda has placed explosive booby traps everywhere. Mikoto barrels through them all and corners Frenda in a small room, and Frenda tries to stay a step ahead, but ends up on the wrong end of Mikoto’s electricity. Before she can get any info out of her, the rest of ITEM bursts through the wall to bail Frenda out.

Hopefully this goes down without a hitch.

Well, thankfully, it didn’t, or we wouldn’t have had a very eventful episode! Mikoto would have destroyed the last two labs, completed her mission, and, I dunno, gone underwear shopping with Kuroko or something. Instead, she has to deal with one tough customer in Frenda Seivelun, a tiny, blonde ball of energy who may not be an esper, but is a magician with both explosives, traps, hand-to-hand combat, and nearly inexhaustible supply of counterattacks, feints, and bluffs. She and Mikoto fight for most of the episode, and it’s incredibly fun to watch the more direct Mikoto constantly run into a trap, only to overcome because she’s Level 5. You get the idea that if ITEM knew that little nugget of information, they never would have split their forces. But even so, Mikoto takes a beating before getting the upper hand.

ITEM is kind of a parallel to Mikoto’s group of four friends: imagine that instead of solving crime and protecting the weak and innocent from baddies, they start their own cleaning business. Lord knows there are plenty of labs out there doing awful shit that need protection. And Frenda makes it clear to Mikoto she doesn’t care what the client is up to (technically her client is a middleman) or whose cause is just or right. That’s not how things work for ITEM. They were paid to do a job, Mikoto’s the target, they eliminate the target and get paid. That’s it. Their casual, “another day at the office” repartee (the hallmark of Jormungand, for better or worse) in the cold open is proof they’ve been doing this a long time and they’re good at it. Which means Mikoto is in serious trouble, and in need of an ally or two of her own…

Rating: 8 (Great)

Stray Observations:

• ITEM breakdown: the leader is Mugino Shizuri, voiced by Koshimizu Ami (AKA Holo/Maou), who is an esper. Her three underlings are Frenda (a very florid Uchida Maaya), Kinuhata Saiai (Akasaki Chinatsu), and Takitsubo Rikou (Suzaki Aya). It’s a nice mix of voices we know well, and they’re all good additions to the cast.
• Great battle action this week, something Railgun does better than random slice-of-life, IMO (not to say they’re bad at SoL; Mikoto’s day with MISAKA was wonderful).
• While Maaya’s voice is a bit grating at times, she gets a few deliciously dark and evil things to say to Mikoto as they duel.
• About that ally: the next-ep preview makes it plain, but Nunotaba Shinobu is tired of sitting on the sidelines. She pays a visit to the other lab, and while Mikoto distracts ITEM and the lab admins, she’ll be doing her part to stop the experiments and help Mikoto.