The long Index hate discussion above me is really funny
I didn't think anyone could actually hate Touma so far here... I guess I was wrong
He didn't even do anything wrong yet, so I don't see would anyone would be mad at him... Also, isn't any mention of future events a spoiler? I feel like there are so many spoilers in this thread it is somewhat ridiculous... You guys should tone it down. Some people still aren't sure about what is going to happen...
From the episode preview, I do know that next episode is probably going to be my favorite episode of this season though 12/10 (literally if executed perfectly).
Anyways, moving onto critiquing this episode:
I've already seen it 6 times. The stream 2 times. The raw 2 times. The subtitles 2 times. I've noticed a lot of details in this episode.
1st big comment: the scene with Mikoto's psychosis (talking to herself) was perfect. This was better than perfect. It was at the same level as Key-work if you get what I'm saying. This was perfectly done. Her despair reached a new peak and she couldn't handle it anymore and cracked under the pressure. She has slowly lost her ability to think rationally. We see this when she only talks about destroying everything related to the experiment: destruction.
Mikoto is temporarily (or longer than that) turning into an anti-hero. She's definitely not worthy of having the title of the person who destroys AC and being called perfect. This wouldn't end happily if she did things herself.
The first season of Railgun was about how Mikoto learned to rely on her friends and work together with them in order to overcome difficult challenges. This season, her friendship convinced Mikoto, not to involve her friends. This is why we can easily surmise that Mikoto needs to overcome this cherished protection of her friends in order to be able to solve the problem. This means she can either get her friends' help or Touma's help. Touma is already involved and seems to be asking her the details about the experiment next episode from the preview.
For this obvious reason, it seems good that Touma seems to be stepping in. Mikoto needs to rely on others and not do everything herself. It is bad to do everything yourself. If you do, you end up in the hospital every arc...
Mikoto is herself when she is not doing things by herself. She has a tendency to try to do things alone, but her personality "shines" when she is doing things in tandem with others. This is why she should get another persons' help whether it's Shirai's, Touma's, Kazari's, or Ruiko's help. (sorry for ranting xD)
OK:
OSTs this episode: 11/10 no joke. They had the same OST as the end of episode 5 for her crazy scene. This made that scene PERFECT 11/10.
Animation this episode: 11/10. This was significantly better than other episodes which I've already given a 10. So I'm giving this animation an 11/10. This was better than the ITEM arc and everything else in Railgun S except the opening. It's on par with the opening graphics (which says something pretty good about this episode).
Content this episode: The Touma scenes were great. Before I read all of the Touma hate... I was going to say: I like Touma here more than Index 1,2. I'm not sure what the difference is, but it's not the preaching... it's something else. (the animation quality obviously helps though
).
This episode was called One-way road which is the Japanese etymology for Accelerator. This episode was therefore about him.
I really liked the way they showed how Accelerator seemed normal when he started the experiment. He almost said he was looking forward to training with another level 5
Considering this, he really was a lot more humble and mellow. He was not so arrogant. He also seemed to be somewhat nice... I mean, he did show MISAKA 1 a thing or two, but he didn't want to kill her obviously. I think I now see that he decided to agree with the fact that the clones are dolls merely because MISAKA 1 killed herself "because of Accelerator" because his reflect is on auto-pilot when he wasn't looking, so he didn't want to accept that he had killed a person. That's kind of nice. I never actually recognized this before.... I just thought that Accelerator thought that the clones were dolls because he was told this, not because of the psychological reason that believing this fact would mean that he wasn't a killer instead of being one...
(seeing that flashback, I doubt he was a killer back then or had purposely killed anyone. I don't think he had killed anyone either. He seemed mentally stable and was shocked at MISAKA 1's death).
Going back to the MISAKA 10031 scene... this was even more emotional than expected.
Mikoto watched 10031 die. I'm not sure if she knows that the MISAKA that died was the one she told to get out of her sight. She might know... if so... that would have made it even more painful... That sight was painful... This season really is excellent.
People really should give J.C. staff more credit here, this was an excellent adaptation, top-quality.
After 6 times watching it, it only got better.
The most tantalizing part of the episode of course it how it ends: Touma going to Mikoto's room... and Mikoto recognizing how to stop the experiment after hearing the phrase: "induce a level 6 shift by killing railgun 128 times..."
It's obvious these two things are ominous. This is what I've waited for since the beginning of the season and I was not disappointed. This was simply magnificent. I hope they finish the arc this well: (no wise-cracks about whoever is involved in it). This was just good story placement.
@GoddyofAus yes