To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - Episode 14 Discussion / Poll

[Kairin]

Welcome to the discussion thread for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Episode 14.

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NOTE: Japanese channel CBC ran a double-feature this week with episodes 13 & 14, so from now on we can assume that new episodes will appear first on Thursdays at 1:29am JST. Or maybe not, but somehow the episode aired earlier than planned. We'll see what happens...

[Haak]

Yay! The wait is over!

[cubicjack]

Originally Posted by Kairin

NOTE: Japanese channel CBC ran a double-feature this week with episodes 13 & 14, so from now on we can assume that new episodes will appear first on Thursdays at 1:29am JST.

Are you sure about that? I thought their 13~14 double feature is next week.

[serenade_beta]

I heard that it was a mistake?


But anyways, great episode. And lots of Ruiko. d(^_^)b
It might have fit more before the previous swimsuit episode though, considering this felt like an epilogue to all of the level-upper business.
Laughed a lot on the eyebrow girl being so... yuri to Ruiko.
And Ruiko = Flag Master?! As a hilarious romance flag appears between her and the fat guy! ...I'm joking... I hope.

Anyways, nice epilogue. Komoe also finally appeared. That Jyanjyanjyan person from the oh-so-powerful Anti-Skill (*laughs*) also got a reappearance. Lots of reappearances.

Next time is... A group called Skill-Out?

[Shinji103]

Mmmeh, as serenade said, this would have been much better placed before the swimsuit episode as an epilogue to the Level-Upper arc. Besides that, it felt just a bit redundant; I would've thought being knocked into a coma, temporary or not, and having taken your friends with you on the trip would have knocked some sense into Saten and she wouldn't still be moping about it, especially since she seemed exceptionally fine at the end of episode 12.

7/10 for redundancy and misplacement.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by cubicjack

Are you sure about that? I thought their 13~14 double feature is next week.

Actually, now that you mention it, I'm not sure about it anymore. It seemed to fit the evidence, but you're right that it was slated on the schedule for next week. But as far as I can see, they're the only station that would air the show in that timeframe. So, what happened...?

Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens next week...

[darkchibi07]

So I'm assuming no new OP and ED sequences yet, right?

[babohtea]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

MI would've thought being knocked into a coma, temporary or not, and having taken your friends with you on the trip would have knocked some sense into Saten and she wouldn't still be moping about it, especially since she seemed exceptionally fine at the end of episode 12.

Mm, I thought the point of the fetus battle was that her moping was justified somewhat.

[Inconvenient]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

So I'm assuming no new OP and ED sequences yet, right?

Negative. I was going to bid OMR (Most catchy tune ever) goodbye, but I guess not this week :P

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

I would've thought being knocked into a coma, temporary or not, and having taken your friends with you on the trip would have knocked some sense into Saten and she wouldn't still be moping about it, especially since she seemed exceptionally fine at the end of episode 12.

Epiphany Therapy doesn't always work. Psychological problems are a little more complex then that.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Haak

Epiphany Therapy doesn't always work. Psychological problems are a little more complex then that.

In real life, maybe. In anime.....well, in many cases things as severe as near-mental breakdowns or desires for world domination tend to be solved with as little as a simple slap and/or a good speech.

Either way, she was obviously perfectly fine after she woke up and all throughout last episode, so it's a bit odd and inconsistent to see her suddenly back to moping about it now.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Either way, she was obviously perfectly fine after she woke up and all throughout last episode, so it's a bit odd and inconsistent to see her suddenly back to moping about it now.

Sure, she may seem fine but that doesn't mean she's perfectly fine. It's not like you're either black or white. I don't think you can possibly have any indication for that unless we actually see her in the same situation again and she acts and thinks (we never really got to see what she thought after she woke up) completely differently. I think the only thing the ending of episode 12 was meant to show was that she's better.

And the last episode was anime-original and for all we know it might not have even been in the same timeline. And plus it was a beach episode and was meant to be taken as a sort of breather episode, I think. Even then, i don't think it's that inconsistent. She simply may not have thought about it that much but did now. Like I said, it's not black and white. She doesn't have to be moping about it every episode.

[Marcus H.]

Episode 13 could have happened at any point in time, not necessarily after Episode 12 and before Episode 14. Just my guess; I didn't remember anything connecting Episode 13 to the Level Upper, so possibly it's not chronologically sequential to the plot.

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Haak

Sure, she may seem fine but that doesn't mean she's perfectly fine. It's not like you're either black or white. I don't think you can possibly have any indication for that unless we actually see her in the same situation again and she acts and thinks (we never really got to see what she thought after she woke up) completely differently. I think the only thing the ending of episode 12 was meant to show was that she's better.

If she wasn't perfectly fine, it was a mistake to have a whole episode following the Level-Upper arc showing she's perfectly fine.
The end of episode 12 showed she's better and back to her old skirt-lifting self. What's the point of following that up with her normal genki self in the next episode if they're just going to pull a 180 and have her mope all of a sudden? And I think you have some examples and correlations mixed up; we're not talking about "black or white" here. A person's personality/mood doesn't just shift around left and right out of nowhere, barring personality disorders and such, which I'm sure we can agree Saten doesn't have those.

And the last episode was anime-original and for all we know it might not have even been in the same timeline. And plus it was a beach episode and was meant to be taken as a sort of breather episode, I think. Even then, i don't think it's that inconsistent. She simply may not have thought about it that much but did now. Like I said, it's not black and white. She doesn't have to be moping about it every episode.

And thus you have illustrated my other point on the misplacement of this episode.
It is inconsistent because she's fine for a whole episode, then switches to mope-mode out of the blue. As I said, this episode should have been before the beach episode.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Episode 13 could have happened at any point in time, not necessarily after Episode 12 and before Episode 14. Just my guess; I didn't remember anything connecting Episode 13 to the Level Upper, so possibly it's not chronologically sequential to the plot.

Which just goes to show that this episode suffers from bad placement at the very least. If episode 13 doesn't happen before episode 14, don't place it before episode 14. We're not dealing with time travel or flashbacks here, after all. You don't just randomly place whatever episode anywhere in the series.
But I actually think that's a bit of a lame excuse (for lack of a more polite term), no offense; if JC Staff didn't want us to think the beach episode takes place before this episode, then why is the beach episode before this episode? This just sounds too much like an attempt at rationalizing the bad episode placement and inconsistencies that resulted. If nobody said there are inconsistencies, then nobody would be going "maybe the beach episode didn't actually happen then".

[Marcus H.]

Let's just say it's a filler episode. Actually I have no qualms about the placement of this. Actually, since they say in the future ep summary that

Spoiler for future event:

Mitsuko Kongou will be kidnapped,

I think the reason why the swimsuit episode was shown was to create a social bond between Mitsuko and Biribiri which will justify her actions in the upcoming arc.

[BlueDo]

It was pretty enjoyable for a filler episode.
Saten got some spotlight.

Usually don't really care for slice-of-life stuff, so I have no idea why I liked it.

[Miraluka]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

I heard that it was a mistake?
Anyways, nice epilogue. Komoe also finally appeared. That Jyanjyanjyan person from the oh-so-powerful Anti-Skill (*laughs*) also got a reappearance. Lots of reappearances.

Poor pacifists teachers looks like nobody respects them. Reminds me the anbus from eh... er.... which was the name of that series??? I can't recall it.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Let's just say it's a filler episode. Actually I have no qualms about the placement of this. Actually, since they say in the future ep summary that

Spoiler for future event:

Mitsuko Kongou will be kidnapped,

I think the reason why the swimsuit episode was shown was to create a social bond between Mitsuko and Biribiri which will justify her actions in the upcoming arc.

The little(?) problem is... Kongo interacted more with Kuroko classmates rather than Mikoto

[babohtea]

Well at least Kongou and Mikoto know each other now, right?

Also, I agree that it's fine that Saten-san isn't instantly "genkii-mode". I mean, you saw her skirt flipping, but that definitely doesn't mean she's okay. How many times have you seen people try to fake happiness in order to avoid getting their friends to worry?

Not only that, but remember that the Saten you knew from the beginning was all smiles and skirt-flipping, but she was hiding her true feelings regarding her lack of power under it all. If she goes on to skirt flip after waking up from a coma, you can't just assume that she was "as happy as ever" if she was never really happy in the first place.

Anyhow, I think J.C. Staff is going to focus more on Saten than the manga did (she kind of disappeared). I'm hoping that J.C. Staff chooses to let Saten eventually develop powers on her own. Same goes for Uiharu too. Assuming that Uiharu = plants and Saten = wind/air pressure, I'm looking forward to some serious RAZOR LEAF.

[SwiftStrike]

spiderman next?

glad it was made past 14eps

[Clarste]

I like the idea of the researchers doing a follow-up study on the possible after-effects of the Level Upper. That's... pretty much my only reaction this episode. It was decent.