I have seen it now 8 times and I have a lot of things I missed the first 6 times that I didn't see at all. Here is the entire episode commented on
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The start scene with Accelerator was good. The opening was great. I like how they intermesh Touma, Accelerator, MISAKAK 10032, MISAKA 10031, and Mikoto's scenes. This is making it clear that they are all main characters here.
@Mikoto attacking the robots in the laboratory... she has changed and has positively become ruthless here. I understand that she is doing it in order to stop the project and save lives. But she is doing this through fear and violent displays and mainly destruction towards the scientists, their equipment, their hopes and ambitions. It's somewhat sick. She's dishing out to them what Accelerator is dishing out to her. This isn't right. It's twisted. It's like having the bullied turn into a bully. I am not criticizing her for making this choice... all I am saying is that it is clearly wrong. She isn't even hiding her face anymore. Before she was worried that making herself as an enemy public would make her friends in trouble... well she's beyond that now. Obviously she thinks the lives of the sisters are more important than her friends' safety. Otherwise, she would at least disguise herself.
All I'm saying is that here she is too depressed, anguished to act like her normal self and consider what she is doing.
It's true that in season 1 she also attacked laboratories... but that was to save her friends... now she is attacking laboratories to destroy the dreams of the scientists working in them... 1st season= save the good. 2nd season = destroy the evil. Mikoto, as a result of this destruction, is becoming skitzophrenic, depressed, and tainted.
To put it most expressly: she is:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mugino Shizuri
sink(ing) into the depths of the darkness of Academy City.
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We should realize this sheds more light on item just by extension. They are part of the darkness of Academy City as they were introduced to us. However, Frenda asked Takitsubo Rikou or hoped that Rikou would be able to escape it some day. We should realize then that even people that powerful that still gave Mikoto lots of trouble were not able to escape their situation and they most likely knew much more of the darkness than she does now. This is partially foreboding to consider.
This hopefully answers the argument that she should destroy the entire city or its darkness. It is not only impossible, but also probably been attempted before by many people... (this is assumed by extension, but not necessarily true)...
This makes episodes 8, 9, 10 much more crucial to her development however. She is treating the scientists equipment much more cruelly than what she did in episodes 8, 9, 10. She was weak then and just wanted to do her job and go away. Now she wants to make the scientists afraid and destroy their ambitions. This is markedly different.
This makes it also important to consider about Accelerator's situation in which he seems to slide into Academy City's darkness. He seemed to be somewhat polite in the beginning with the flashback. It was brief, but it was certainly there. He said he had never fought another level 5 before and was looking for(ward to it). Accelerator might be part of the darkness of the city originally unwillingly. He only wanted to fight not to kill... This could mean that like ITEM (with the #4 included) even the #1 could not escape the city's darkness...
Mikoto's delusion out of her guilt shows that she is slowly starting to be deeply affected by the darkness's influence and she is sinking to its very depths.
Moving on:
There could be a cool factor involved with this statement but Accelerator said: "In the middle of the city, you are crazy." when she shoots (something) at Accelerator. This is somewhat hard to imagine. He is still aware of the distinction between battlefield and city-life. This means of course that he doesn't consider killing to be the only thing he does with his time. If he considers normal life as distinct from the experiments... this is certainly because of the flashback which shows he only considers the sisters to be masses of proteins. This was a nice tidbit I hadn't noticed before. Accelerator obviously treats the darkness as being separate from the city-life. This means he isn't as pessimistic as Mikoto. I'm not praising him here. I'm just noting that he can see that good things exist. Last episode he praised the silent dolls who would carry out their missions. This episode he talks about how city life is separate from the experiments. He can separate himself from the darkness. However, in Mikoto's case the darkness pervades all of her life. It's an interesting dichotomy.
Moving on:
So: for a lol comment. Since he thinks that MISAKA 10031's "ass is pretty," by extension... he thinks the same thing about...
yeah... That's kind of weird...
Moving on:
They wear the same shoes, same uniform. I wasn't sure about the shoes before, just the uniform. That's good to know.
MO:
Did they reuse the blood from MISAKA 9982's face for the one scene with MISAKA 10031's blood on her face momentarily... it looked similar. I guess that's the convenient part of animating someone and their clones. You can spend less budget and can put it to better use because a lot of your characters look the same. All you have to do is give them accessories to make them look completely different.
Hopefully, this encourages J.C. in terms of their budget for the animation quality of the rest of the season from here on out as well. The animation has improved each episode bit by bit.
MO:
The expression on MISAKA 10031's face is painful. She even gritted her teeth... that's very different from most of the clones we've seen so far. It's even girly...
MO:
She also seems to be smarter: she guesses reflection at the riddle... Here Accelerator finally explains his ability at least somewhat.
He usually leaves his ability on reflect (meaning he makes it work 100% of the time. The amount of effort to do this is pretty amazing. If you think about other shows where characters train a lot to make their ability work 100% of the time, this means that Accelerator is very strong. Mikoto's ability works through her skin all of the time. But is only sensed by animals. I think that's slightly different though because even the clones can do that... I think using his ability 100% of the time is more impressive.
Also, being able to transform any vector means that he is very capable. Anything with a direction can be transformed by vector transformation and then turned into something else. I'm guessing the limit of his vector transformation is with physical entities or of vectors relating to physics. The ability to affect ideas (abstract vectors) would be a little unsettling if he could do so.
He can affect momentum, heat flux, and electricity. This makes it clear that Mikoto probably wouldn't be able to do anything to him by using electricity directly. However, I'm not sure that this means that if her electricity is strong enough (beyond his level of ability), she would be able to beat him by using it directly.
Another note: in episode 6 everyone was wondering why he didn't kill her. Right, everyone was being all skeptical to this. I have two interesting comments to point out here. If the experiments started not to long ago (he kills them very quickly... it went from 9982 to 10031 pretty fast in only a few days)... this could mean two things.
1) Accelerator hadn't fought another level 5 before when he fought Mikoto then. This means he might not actually know how strong the other level 5's are. I originally thought he was taunting her by acting all powerful because he already knew he was much stronger than her... I don't think he did. I think he actually didn't know he was that much stronger than any of the other level 5's... especially than the #3... hmmmm.... This season Mikoto also fought a level 5 for the first time fully: Mugino Shizuri...
2) Accelerator doesn't want to kill humans. He just wanted to fight with Mikoto. He automatically reflects vectors, but he didn't want to kill her. He wanted to continue the fight with her. I find this interesting because he could have probably killed her with the railgun. I think he knows by now though to be careful enough not to kill people by using it. He went to the lengths of using vector transformation in order not to kill her. This might mean that the only people he cares to hurt are "evil" people that attack him in alleys... He showed this vigilante justice last episode as well... This makes me wonder about him being totally evil. I think he really thinks the clones are dolls and doesn't believe he is killing them (where killing is the same killing as that of a human...)
That's rather fascinating to me.
MO:
The echoing of the voice inside her made this absolutely amazing. Mikoto don't listen to the voice.
That is still painful to watch.... but not really. It's more like amazing to see happen. I mean I feel bad for her, but at this point I just can't help but notice each time how well J.C. staff did this. This, rather than anything else, catches my attention most with her delusions. She tells the voice inside her to shut up. This, by anime standards, is one of the closest to real examples I've seen of them referencing real skitzophrenia by hearing voices. Most anime use hearing voices as a joke or something... not raildex...
I note that here they put in the same OST from episode 5. I think I know the reason. (It's slightly different here). It was ominous and depressing then... now it is... This was brilliant. It's called Synesthesia: when you associate sounds or senses with events... J.C. staff is impressing me; they are doing their homework I see
. They have the same music every time she sees a clone die. This of course makes us subconsciously think of episode 5 when we're seeing her have that skitzophrenia and despair at seeing the clone die. This is used to make the episode more epic. I didn't notice this the first time I saw it (I noticed the OST was the same though). I liked the music both times. I like how they put Touma running towards the site. It makes it awesome.
I do have to say that Touma running towards violence makes him have an interesting character. You can hate Touma all you want, but would you run towards gun violence in order to help someone you know possibly in trouble? I'm not sure I would (honestly assessing my fears), if you would that's great. But he can: this is very commendable. Recognizing that this show is making character's emotions/actions realistic/explainable, this means Touma is the type of person who would do this. Those people are very rare. It makes me appreciate him all the more here... You should realize he barely even knows MISAKA 10032 (who he thinks it is originally). They just met and he already is going to save her. That is something I find very admirable.
MO:
Here, the Mikoto scene ended with sobbing... Her resolve to end the experiment seems to have been washed away temporarily. She just watched "herself" and her ideal to save all of the clones both die a second time after all...
I think Accelerator gave hints to the clones about his powers because he wants better sparring matches. He knows that there are 9979 of them left at this point before MISAKA serial # 10031's death, but he wants a better challenge because he actually wants to have good fights... I think this also explains why in episode 5 he killed MISAKA 9982 quickly after she lost her leg. He wanted to end the fight quickly to end her suffering... and because she couldn't fight him anymore. I'm not sure whether this is a twisted form of compassion or something else. I feel like it could be partly compassion and partly because he thought she wouldn't be able to give him a good fight anymore.
I want to also note that since MISAKA 10031 dies from having her blood twisted so much: it's clear from what he says he hasn't done that to
people/clones before. This means he is also technically heading further into the darkness with each battle. Away from where he once was at the beginning before the first experiment, before he had ever "killed" a clone (from his mentality).
I don't think he liked that the experiment was being recorded either... The only reason I think he would feel this way would be that he would think it is sick to watch something like this happen... That's weird to imagine since he's the one doing it...
I don't think he would be perturbed at being watched otherwise... (interesting fact).
MO:
So that was a bone... I didn't notice the first few times... That's painful. But then again: "it's just a mass of flesh, bones, and proteins" nothing to worry about... there's no existential meaning in any of them for him to worry about...
MO:
The flashback with Accelerator:
This episode is called Accelerator so... this is supposed to really be about him. (I like how J.C. staff is not ashamed to make him a main character here). This is gratifying and it helps with understanding that his character development here is pretty important to think about if you want to get the most out of this show (no matter how much you hate him).
He also feels that the gun is out of place. He wants to fight another level 5 and was polite/respectable about it...
When Accelerator attacked her: I think he was angry because MISAKA 1 was using a gun and not fighting him with level 5 powers. I think he was mad because she was underestimating him... hmmmm... He also is surprised that she lost so easily... this is probably because he was expecting her to be a challenge to him... In this way of wanting to fight strong people... this is actually similar to Mikoto wanting to fight Touma
... an interesting parallel there. Considering that they are both level 5's, it's nice to see that similarity. I'm guessing all or most of the level 5's are like that... wanting to fight strong opponents 1 v 1. Mugino Shizuri was like that too in episode 10 if you all remember.
Accelerator says: "What a letdown" this means he was obviously expecting a challenging fight. Maybe this is part of the reason he is so emotionless in the experiments. He
doesn't even see them as a challenge.
MISAKA 1 was described as someone not ceasing operation like a robot. This makes he death to Accelerator seem like the death of a robot... not like that of a person... even though she acted like that... it is important for the viewer to be able to forget what they already know and be able to think exactly like Accelerator does given what he does know. It makes his actions/views much more understandable. MISAKA 1 obeying her orders and fighting to the death for the experiment didn't exactly help him with his thoughts. She was
eager to die. Mikoto herself said earlier in episode 6 that she didn't want to help people who didn't want to even stay alive. However, Nunotaba Shinobu's story had an effect on her. Nunotaba even seemed to think during episodes 8,9 that her attempt to give the clones fake emotions might work on Accelerator. That actually makes the amount of attention they gave to that attempt make a lot more sense. Considering that Accelerator has never seen the clones actually trying to survive and not fight in the experiments... this is interesting to think about.
MO:
Accelerator was thinking: "Cease operation... does that mean? Then, MISAKA 1 killed herself using Accelerator when he wasn't looking... because his ability is set on reflect if he isn't paying attention....................................... She didn't even seem to know what death was... this made her humanity seem even more removed....
Also, with Accelerator's comments about how the clones look. If he thinks of them like objects, it would make sense why he would talk about them like that. People do this all the time-- treating objects badly and sometimes animals as well. You aren't polite to mosquitoes, are you? Well he's not polite to synthesized masses of proteins. There have been enough times where I have shouted bloody murder at mosquitoes because they've bitten me all night. This, I'm guessing is somewhat similar. It makes him much more believable as a character and much more human if you think about it. It makes pretty much
every wrong he did disappear from what he believes to be true. This means he wasn't making any bad decisions given what he thought was true. This makes it hard to fault him for anything. You shouldn't be expected to do better if you don't know any better... That's an important fact of life. You can't and should not expect someone to do better unless they know that they should.
MO:
I really appreciate them throwing around the word puppets/ dolls... This is very nice... This makes me appreciate Railgun S even more for those of you who understand what I mean by this.
MO:
Accelerator's private life is separate from the experiment. He is still able to get food normally and think about it normally. He waits for streetlights to turn from red to green. That's law-abiding. That's weird to see though. He's strong enough to do a lot of cool things and yet he waits for streetlights. This in itself is interesting and helps emphasize my point that he separates the experiments from his private life. This is in contrast to my earlier view that he only thought about food because he didn't want to think about other intellectual things. At this point he seems to be in denial with relation to the experiment as soon as MISAKA 1's death happened. We can see that he doesn't want to think of them as humans and therefore is able to carry on with life pretty well. In terms of behavorial psychology, this is considered to be neurotic, but an ok defense against the insanity/absurdity of some things in life. It's worse than acceptance in terms of mental health, but is a tool used by people to cope against horrible situations/truths.
MO:
That frame of the picture when Touma sees MISAKA 10031 is intense. The amount of blood he is seeing is unbelievable. That's scarred him surely... I really feel bad for him here. He saw the death, was unable to do anything about it, and then heard about the situation... this was intense..., and then he yelled as loud as Mikoto did (not quite) the first time she saw a death. This is a parallel between the two of them I am noting here. Mikoto's was a yell of vengeance. Touma's was of concern... they were obviously both concerned... but Touma's I am pointing out didn't have the vengeance mixed in... Interesting thing to note.
MO:
It seems the sisters erased all of the evidence. At least he didn't get in trouble. I can't believe they didn't believe him... That's pretty horrible... he must have thought he was going crazy... or was crazy... I would see why... That makes it even worse.
MISAKA 10032 is casually talking about the death. This obviously freaks Touma out. He hasn't found out about the experiment yet and seems to be living a pretty normal life right now... This obviously makes what is happening all the more intense and strange to him. This points out the fact that for pretty much anyone who sees the death and destruction of the experiment, it is hard to act humanely towards those who are involved in it... this cites that even Touma is human
BTW: I'm just curious... why doesn't Mikoto hack the passcode (like Uiharu told her to) and actually read more about the experiment. She doesn't seem to know that much about it... she could be informed about it 100% of the time. The papers she has, I'm sure, are not up to date (they might not be). This would explain why she didn't know about the data transfer with that other laboratory. She probably would have known if she had hacked the system once again from the other laboratory before she destroyed it. They had cancelled outside communications, but not the internal communications networks. I don't see why she wouldn't look at the data again in the new laboratory especially after new labs with new procedures (most likely) probably got the data. The main explanation would be her depression and psychosis.
It's hard to think straight when you are depressed and psychotic because you are racked with guilt.
The MISAKA clones talk in unison here to Touma... I'm pretty sure this crept Touma out as well. It makes sense why Accelerator would call it creepy. If he's disconnected from the events of the experiment he could still think rationally while involved in it and find them talking in unison like some army of robots (one large brain) as creepy...
MO:
The MISAKA's all seem to understand worry as of now. They apologize for the unnecessary worry Touma has... They are developing as a network, but still don't value their lives yet... something else obviously has to happen if that were to become true.
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Originally Posted by Touma
What are you doing?
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by MISAKA 10032
Just an experiment.
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They are apologizing to Touma... this really is interesting. It's like when MISAKA 10031 apologized to Accelerator for the confusion last episode. They are starting to develop more emotions.
And Touma was speechless here. This time I don't mind
It makes sense I guess. Even Touma's human
Touma now isn't sure about Mikoto's role in this. This makes sense I guess.
MO:
Now Touma is suspicious of Mikoto... Things are just devolving more and more...
He wonders if she knows about this.... I wonder how he feels about her knowing or not knowing. He obviously feels like it's an awkward topic to talk about... This makes their friendship at least somewhat strained obviously.
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Originally Posted by Mikoto
Level 6 shift project, by killing railgun 128 times, Accelerator can reach level 6. (Eyes open wide and she she sighs) I see. (stands up) So that's what I should do...
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Most ominous quote of the whole episode. It was excellent. I want to briefly make a remark about the crosswalk and the traffic light going from red to green. This episode is Accelerator and also one way road (two possible translations). This episode is symbolically talking about how the clones and everyone involved in the experiment is following down this road. There is only one place it can go and it isn't exactly happy... The symbolism is really very much appreciated. They also use the traffic light doing this when Touma is on the bus on the way to Mikoto's dorm to ask her about the traffic light. This is very good symbolism. I really am appreciating J.C. staff's depth in this production. This level of professional animation is way beyond anything else I have seen them animate. Having a week to spend on appreciating each episode helps see this though (It's the first time I've watched a series as it came out each week. I really appreciate it.)
Touma is still also human and doesn't think about the death of MISAKA 10031 in his spare time. He is keeping the cat warm. Another parallel to Mikoto when she thought about her friends after the experiment in episode 6. Touma is still keeping his promise to take care of the cat. That's interesting to see especially after what he saw and what MISAKA 10032 said/told him. He obviously is a kind person here. That he would go that far after finding out this truth. He even takes the cat with him to see Mikoto. I see that Touma is steeling himself up to get ready to talk to her. I wonder what school district Touma was in before with MISAKA 10032...
They have their last names on the room #'s (is this for privacy reasons). They made the dorm look beautiful. I am guessing having multiple animation directors really helps with the quality of this show. This lets them work on many different aspects of what is going on. I am really appreciating all of this work they have put into this. This makes it absolute that I will buy this when it comes to America (in the original Japanese if I have to)
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Touma feels bad about the experiment. Mikoto cried all night after it... this is a contrast between Mikoto and Touma... He keeps on moving forward apparently no matter what happens. (he is dumbstruck sometimes though I guess
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This is really well done here.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!
The windmills are moving in the ending. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It took me seven views to notice lololololol. Now this: I give J.C. staff a 12/10 for. This little thing here really makes me give them credit where credit is due. They even made the windmills spin at the beginning of the ending (beginning of the ending hehehe (MISAKA 9982 & MISAKA 10032's faces)
) . I am appreciating this a lot. This is better than episode 5, for sure. This was just amazing. This was also better than episode 10. This is my favorite episode so far all season. I am really pleased with this.
The windmills were moving for the entire ending. I am pleased
The ending lyrics now make sense to me:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ending
Looking up at a sky I didn't know (the clones).
Always, always, I was walking with you (the clones).
I thought I caught a glimpse of a future different from our past. (hmmm)
So I looked for it.
Everything looked so blurry in my eyes. (hmmm)
I thought that I was wandering lost. (Mikoto obviously after this episode).
But when I touched your heart everything changed. (each individual clone).
I've counted the clouds so much, I'm tired of it. (each individual clone).
And they keep drifting into the distance. (each individual clone).
I chased after them and found it. (guess who).
My dream for tomorrow. (guess who).
This moment will never come again. (yes)
I thought it over, and I understood.
Your feelings. (hmmmm).
I know, one day, I'll give you mine too. (hmmm).
Drifting like a cloud, softly, softly. (Mikoto)
Wherever I go, always, always, forward (Mikoto obviously)
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Now that I can mostly guess what the ending lyrics refer to completely, I rate the ending as good as the opening. The opening refers to the action side of all the events of each episode. The ending refers to all of the character development throughout the sisters arc of Railgun S. This was a very good stylistic technique. I am wowed by J.C. staff's planning for this. This is the deepest anime have seen so far. If this continues on like it is now, I will say that this will even beat Clannad After Story in terms of not only action, but in its S of L part as well. This is really amazing. Kamachi: thank you for writing. Please don't change your vocation ever.
Finally, episode preview:
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Originally Posted by Mikoto
It was all for naught. Everything. It's all my fault. And now, the only way I can save them is...
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That's the most depressing line of this whole season so far. Wow. That's unlike her. This foreshadowing for the next episode: PROMISE is making me ecstatic. I want next episode already. It's been 13 weeks already. People say 13 is an unlucky number. It seems to be lucky here. hopefully since 13, an unlucky number was so good, 14 will be even better
Also, if you guys notice. That last scene from the preview... it's on a bridge.
That was my episode review. This was an 11/10 episode. It had some 12/10 scenes in it though. Good job J.C. staff!!!
If anyone wants to beat this wall of text: try it.
Author
I agree with your last statement though. Once she realised none of her plans were working (i.e. tree diagram failure) and fell into desperation, I guess any sense of rationality flew out of the window.
