To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S - Episode 18 Discussion / Poll

[GundamZZ]

Febri is an anime girl information magazine.
Maybe this Febri is telling Mikoto about her birthday.



This episode is a good news about Shinobu. Even it's an anime original story, it shows that Shinobu is not in confinement. She even has right to vote for Silent Party's decision. Maybe her punishment is her laptop has the "study" logo.

[Qilin]

Maybe I would've liked this episode more if I had seen the final arc of the first season, which I ended up dropping for one reason or another. I mean, I did think that the character moments were pretty well executed. However, it all feels undeserved since the current season hardly spent any time developing the two extras outside the main four.

Well, in any case, it looks like we'll hopefully be getting a decent conclusion to Shinobu's character arc, so that's at least one more thing to look forward to.

[leukrota]

Originally Posted by dniv

By the way, what seems so funny to me is that Mikoto has already forgotten about the darkness of Academy City. She doesn't care that it is so messed up because there exists one good person Touma... Something seems wrong to me with this

It doesn't to me, her personal feud is over and the Sisters are doing fine under the care of a good and responsible doctor.

That AC isn't the utopy she thought it was already made he suffer. but she can't stay an emo girl forever, and she won't be able to guide the Sisters if she becomes a paranoid freak or a desperate vigilante.

In a sense it's like in the real world. Plenty awful things happen in the world, as well as in my city, but I won't lose my sleep as long as it doesn't affect me directly. It's not being heartless, it's just functioning in this world without breaking down.

[Haak]

Yes but it still seems rather strange that she seemingly has no interest at all in bringing the people responsible for her Sisters' deaths to justice and prevent them from doing any more. You would think she'd at least contemplate it but no, we don't get anything at all. That's probably the most egregious plot hole to me.

[SilverTalon]

Who exactly are you saying is responsible and where should she draw the line? Remember she realized all of the AC higher ups had to be involved somewhat as there is no way they wouldn't know about it. She was willing to make the city her enemy to save the sisters, but I think it would be out of character if she was so vengeful that she set out to destroy the city that all her friends love because of the city's involvement with the level 6 shift.

[Haak]

There's nothing vengeful about trying to bring people responsible for a heinous crime to justice. The people responsible would of course be the ones who ordered it to be done. And she's already proven that she's willing to set the entire city against her so I think it would be highly out of character for her not to go after them.

At the very least, it still requires explanation which is the problem.

[Triple_R]

The impression I get of Academy City is that it's a somewhat autonomous city-state. The fact that normal police officers don't seem to exist here, and instead the city is policed by "Judgement" and "Anti-Skill" seems to point to that. There's also the fact that all of these laboratories were getting destroyed without any sort of policing authority being called in to deal with it, which is very weird if Acadamy City has anything akin to a standard police department.

The people behind the Sisters/Level 6 Experiment likely go to the very top of Academy City. To "bring them to justice", you'd probably have to throw the entire city into chaos. Which could cause a situation even worst than the corrupt one in place right now.

Mikoto wanted to stop the slaughtering of her sisters. With the help of Touma, she achieved that. She probably feels that anything beyond that would be too risky, and could destroy the city that her and her friends have come to a love at "the ground level". Academy City definitely has its crime, corruption, and bullies, but it actually functions fairly well for a city housing a lot of superhumans/metahumans. Things could definitely be much worse, and I think that Mikoto knows that.


Edit: Here's an analogy that might be persuasive to you, Haak. Mikoto's decision here is similar to Akane's decision in Psycho-Pass. "Better the Devil you know than the one you don't" is a tempting conclusion for many people to arrive at.

[Haak]

And that would be fine, if she actually made that decision. But there's nothing to suggest that she did. Whereas Psychopass spent the entire season leading up to that moment as a climax, there's nothing at all like that here. For all we know, Mikoto probably hasn't even thought about it.

[Qilin]

Mikoto always struck me as a Neutral Good sort of character in D&D alignment terms. By that, I mean that she's all about stopping the evil right in front of her and nothing more than that. She doesn't seem to be concerned with lofty things such as justice or accountability. She just wants the Sisters Project to be stopped indefinitely. She would probably be reluctant to do anything that might endanger the Academy's status quo as long as it didn't concern her personally. As such, once her objective was achieved, she could effectively go back to turning a blind eye to the Academy's dark side.

Another thing is that finding the ones responsible for the project isn't as simple as singling out a few individuals, or else stopping the project wouldn't have been such a challenge in the first place. The enemy here is nebulous and formless, as was shown throughout the arc. This is much rather a problem with how the Academy City operates as a whole, so doing anything about it would likely entail endangering the "everyday life" that she struggles to protect.

Of course, none of this is explicitly stated, but I don't think it has to be since it fits what we already know about her character.

[SilverTalon]

Originally Posted by Haak

There's nothing vengeful about trying to bring people responsible for a heinous crime to justice. The people responsible would of course be the ones who ordered it to be done. And she's already proven that she's willing to set the entire city against her so I think it would be highly out of character for her not to go after them.

At the very least, it still requires explanation which is the problem.

She was willing to set the entire city against her to save 10,000 lives. If you want out of character, I think her being fine with destroying the daily lives of 12 million people by 'bringing to justice' the people running the city is pretty out of character as I'm pretty sure there are some scenes that show she realizes how important AC is for all the people in it.

And assuming she could even do it, hold them responsible how? When she realized the people running AC were involved that means its impossible to hold them accountable within the framework of AC. So her only option is essentially to crush AC itself and drag them somewhere else to be held accountable for breaking international law.

You say she probably hasn't thought of it, but she kind of did. It was when she was despairing over her realization that the higher ups of AC were involved. Why do you think she was in such a state of despair? She realized that with the higher ups backing the experiment, there was absolutely nothing she could do... which is why she got that crazy idea about Tree Diagram and then about letting herself die to accel.

[Triple_R]

Also, I think her willingness to go against the whole city was more an emotional decision made in the heat of the situation rather than a logical one. In other words, Mikoto had snapped a bit here (I recall one scene where she descends a bit into "mentally cracked laughter", which is one reason why she reminded me of Sayaka). Mikoto hadn't snapped to the point of no return, but she had snapped to the point where she was willing to do truly insane things to stop the slaughtering of her sisters, and she truly needed Touma to bring her back from the brink.

Once Touma managed to get through to her, and help resolve the most pressing problem, Mikoto sort of snapped back into more logical lines of thinking, and basically just dismissed her earlier madness over going against the entire city.


And yeah, I agree with Qilin about Mikoto being Neutral Good. She's not Superman; she doesn't hold herself to lofty ideals and firm concepts of justice. She just stands up to evil where she happens to come across it. If Mikoto cared that much about justice, she'd probably be in Judgement, and she probably wouldn't be picking fights with Touma so much.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by SilverTalon

She was willing to set the entire city against her to save 10,000 lives. If you want out of character, I think her being fine with destroying the daily lives of 12 million people by 'bringing to justice' the people running the city is pretty out of character as I'm pretty sure there are some scenes that show she realizes how important AC is for all the people in it.

I think the first port of call would be find out if there was was a way to bring justice to those responsible without causing chaos throughout Academy city rather than assume it as a given. There's nothing to suggest it's been seriously considered. In fact there's nothing to suggest Misaka believes brining down the higher ups will cause chaos to the city.

And assuming she could even do it, hold them responsible how? When she realized the people running AC were involved that means its impossible to hold them accountable within the framework of AC. So her only option is essentially to crush AC itself and drag them somewhere else to be held accountable for breaking international law.

Okay? But seriously, the whole show has been incredibly vague on the structure of Academy City and it's inner workings, as well as it's full relationship with the outside so the author could make pretty much anything he wanted in order to make it work. Like for example, considering that Anti-Skill is a voluntary force, it turns out that they're more than capable of ensuring that there is law and order when the higher ups are arrested or something like that.

You say she probably hasn't thought of it, but she kind of did. It was when she was despairing over her realization that the higher ups of AC were involved. Why do you think she was in such a state of despair? She realized that with the higher ups backing the experiment, there was absolutely nothing she could do... which is why she got that crazy idea about Tree Diagram and then about letting herself die to accel.

She never said there was nothing she could do but she certainly believed the odds were against her. And in the end she still set herself out to go against Academy City anyway, hence her conversation with Kuroko. It's not hard to imagine that she'd heavily contemplate the same thing here. It may not be logical but she was clearly never all that logical to begin with. It's certainly in character though.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Also, I think her willingness to go against the whole city was more an emotional decision made in the heat of the situation rather than a logical one. In other words, Mikoto had snapped a bit here (I recall one scene where she descends a bit into "mentally cracked laughter", which is one reason why she reminded me of Sayaka). Mikoto hadn't snapped to the point of no return, but she had snapped to the point where she was willing to do truly insane things to stop the slaughtering of her sisters, and she truly needed Touma to bring her back from the brink.

Once Touma managed to get through to her, and help resolve the most pressing problem, Mikoto sort of snapped back into more logical lines of thinking, and basically just dismissed her earlier madness over going against the entire city.

I'd like to know which scene you heard that in because I don't remember that.

And yeah, I agree with Qilin about Mikoto being Neutral Good. She's not Superman; she doesn't hold herself to lofty ideals and firm concepts of justice. She just stands up to evil where she happens to come across it. If Mikoto cared that much about justice, she'd probably be in Judgement, and she probably wouldn't be picking fights with Touma so much.

Which would still be the case here.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Haak

I'd like to know which scene you heard that in because I don't remember that.

I never heard that. But I think that Mikoto's actions and words in this episode and the two before it kind of imply it.

Would it have been better if we had a brief bit of Mikoto dialogue or inner monologuing that would make it clear that she's changed her mind here? Yes, that would have been better. The writing here is not perfect. But I've certainly seen far, far worse. At least the show did have some follow-up on the Sisters, as well as Mikoto's continuing embarrassment over the cookies.

Also, at a meta-level, I'm not sure if Mikoto playing detective and hunting down random politicians, scientists, managers, and bureaucrats would be terribly entertaining. So I'm not sure if the show having her do that would have been the best way to go anyway.

Finally, I've read this is an anime-original arc that we're into now. Perhaps if/when the anime gets back to source material we'll get more follow-up to the Sisters arc. Maybe an evil mastermind or two will come to the fore, and Mikoto will then get to bring them to justice.

[Qilin]

Originally Posted by Haak

Which would still be the case here.

You might have the means and the end switched around here. The objective is question here is stopping the Sisters Project, and going after the perpetrators was just a means for achieving that goal. Once she achieved that, there was no longer any good reason for her to sustain her resistance.

Like for example, considering that Anti-Skill is a voluntary force, it turns out that they're more than capable of ensuring that there is law and order when the higher ups are arrested or something like that.

Even if she does manage to pinpoint the individuals responsible, which is hard to imagine even for her, there would be nobody to arrest them. If the arc was any indication, Anti-Skill is pretty much powerless when it comes to stopping the higher-ups when experiments are involved. More so than justice, Anti-Skill's purpose is more geared towards maintaining order throughout the city.

There is always that air of willful ignorance whenever the inner workings of Academy City are involved, especially when it comes to the higher level espers. They practically live side-to-side with the Academy's darker side, so if anything, they're probably the very first ones who would learn to accept and turn a blind eye to such things.

[Triple_R]

The fact that Anti-Skill is nowhere to be seen while numerous laboratories get totally destroyed all over the city makes it clear that Anti-Skill is in the back pocket of higher-ups that are acting "extra-legally".

The way I see it, one of two things are probably true:

1) The Scientist class (for lack of a better term, perhaps) basically run the city. It's even possible that other nations secretly want Academy City to be a grand, unrestrained laboratory for studying and developing Esper powers. The Scientist class can do whatever it wants to do, and when something terribly unethical/illegal could be revealed, Anti-Skill and Judgement are told to turn the other way.

2) An Evil Mastermind runs the city. Somebody Lex Luthor-esque. This individual is extremely powerful and extremely wealthy, and this individual pulls the strings from behind the scenes. This individual has the creation of a Level 6 Esper as a top goal.


If the first is true, then Mikoto is up against a frightening number of people. If the latter is true, then this Evil Mastermind might be the main reason this city is as orderly and secure as it is.

[Darthtabby]

There are certainly reasons why one might choose to accept the status quo rather than try to find a way to go after the powers that be in Academy City. But Misaka is not Mr. Spock. She's a middle schooler, and not a particularly calm or logical middle schooler at that. Does she strike you as the sort of person who is going to be thinking in high level terms like "what will happen to my daily life in this city if I try to expose these people's crimes?" in a situation like this?

Then again I'm probably more bothered by the ease with which Misaka is able to put everything behind her and slip back into her old routine in general. You'd think what she'd just been through would have some lingering psychological aftereffects.

[Ilidsor]

Well I finally worked up the motivation to watch this and... meh. I'm really upset about Shinobu apparently being fine (which ruins the scene where she lost and got dragged away to a dark fate) but other than that... meh. I just don't really care about the slice of life.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

The fact that Anti-Skill is nowhere to be seen while numerous laboratories get totally destroyed all over the city makes it clear that Anti-Skill is in the back pocket of higher-ups that are acting "extra-legally".

The way I see it, one of two things are probably true:

1) The Scientist class (for lack of a better term, perhaps) basically run the city. It's even possible that other nations secretly want Academy City to be a grand, unrestrained laboratory for studying and developing Esper powers. The Scientist class can do whatever it wants to do, and when something terribly unethical/illegal could be revealed, Anti-Skill and Judgement are told to turn the other way.

2) An Evil Mastermind runs the city. Somebody Lex Luthor-esque. This individual is extremely powerful and extremely wealthy, and this individual pulls the strings from behind the scenes. This individual has the creation of a Level 6 Esper as a top goal.


If the first is true, then Mikoto is up against a frightening number of people. If the latter is true, then this Evil Mastermind might be the main reason this city is as orderly and secure as it is.

Lol it just hit me how little Railgun-only watchers must know about Academy City's leadership . I can't tell you in the thread but I'll be happy to PM you the answer if you want me to.

[Marcus H.]

Darthtabby: If that concerns you, you have to think of the multitudes of people in Academy City who have been experiencing a lot, from preparing for the next System Scan to getting mugged by Skill-Outs.

Well I finally worked up the motivation to watch this and... meh. I'm really upset about Shinobu apparently being fine (which ruins the scene where she lost and got dragged away to a dark fate) but other than that... meh. I just don't really care about the slice of life.

It's just the first episode of the Silent Party Arc. We still don't know why is she with STUDY, and if this is actually a "fate worse than death". (I do think that STUDYing may be a fate worse than death to some. )

[Marina2]

I always find it amazing to see someone in AC try to commit a crime.

I mean if these guy even know they have a low chance to get away if they choose the wrong target (esper).

The similar goes for Skill-out as well, if they feel [Unfair] for being level 0 in the city full of esper, why don't they just leave the city/transfer to study somewhere else and stay in an outside world where normal people like them live.

[Ilidsor]

Originally Posted by Marina2

I always find it amazing to see someone in AC try to commit a crime.

I mean if these guy even know they have a low chance to get away if they choose the wrong target (esper).

Well the higher ups are generally in on the crimes like in the sisters arc. The dark side in AC has a lot of resources.

The similar goes Skill-out as well, if they feel [Unfair] in the city full of esper, why don't they just leave the city/transfer to study somewhere else and stay in an outside world where normal people like them live.

That's not really an option. For one thing in AC to leave even for a vacation you have to go through a ton of paperwork and testing. For another the Skillout members are generally poor and can't afford to leave even if it was an option.