This episode was a truly precarious balance between cute and traumatic. In the start of the episode we have the jersey-wearing scientist somewhat reveal himself (and probably what is the final boss), then we have the adorable tag-team duo at the family restaurant, and we ended with a corpse coming back to life.
We can see from the beginning that Esther still has some memories that need to come to light. She’s actually very similar to Accelerator in that way. They’re both examples of people who did careless things in the past that ended up bringing harm to others, who are now trying to change their ways. Esther, it seems like it was against her will judging by the chain around her ankle, ended up teaching jersey-suit scientist Ishikata Mikihiko the ins and outs about necromancy. Now they’re determined to use that technique to power robots and using espers, they are able to boost whatever level they are. That is quite annoying. The completed robot Qiongqi is fueled by a Level 3ish esper which is now boosted to a Level 5.
I wasn’t expecting this spinoff to throw us into the world of magic. Season 3 of Index is very heavy with it, but since this is before then, I was thinking it’d be more of a power-user battle. I like seeing Accelerator trying to rationalize it as an ability. He’s clearly a bit confused and can’t quite understand what’s happening, but he’s trying to make sense of it using scientific explanations. I wonder if they’ll ever clearly state what is happening or if they’ll just leave it vague on purpose. It’s also kind of interesting that they typically assign things like magic as having more of a Chinese or some sort of foreign origin. I love seeing Accelerator slowly transitioning from an unforgiving villain to becoming more and more involved with the seemingly endless amounts of plots within the city. He and Touma really aren’t that different at all which I’m sure would piss him off if he heard that.
The family restaurant scene was amazing. I don’t know where Esther is from that she doesn’t recognize curry, any rice dishes, just a regular fish head on a plate, or hamburgers, but bless her soul. I think I could watch a full 10-minute segment of Last Order ‘describing’ each dish while Accelerator just sits in the corner actually telling her what it is. The one part where Last Order reminds Esther of her friend confuses me a bit. She starts crying, but then immediately stops. It felt like they were trying to show her being strong and putting on a bravado, but it didn’t really fit? Like it was too quick. Accelerator noticed though so I think that’s all that matters. I’m sure he’ll give her some off the cuff advice later on that sounds dickish but is actually him trying to help her. Classic Accelerator.
So we did end up getting to see the backstory of the Level 2 pyrokinesis user and in a very interesting way. I’ll be the first to admit that the explanation of necromancy kind of threw me for a loop. I had no idea what she was saying by the end of it, and I ended up having to rewatch it 2 more times. All I really know is that when Accelerator grabbed her brain he was able to see basically her entire life in a flash, that she’s temporarily revived now, and without closing the… circuits… she can’t go to heaven? Well, anyway, the DA is back again and it looks like they were trying to dispose of her body with some comically purple looking acid. That one dude is wearing a metal backpack and I honest to god hope it does something cooler than what we saw it do at the end of the episode. He basically flicks it on and an arm comes out and hands him a weapon. Boy. That shit better have some lasers or AI built into it because if all it does is hand you weapons, that’s the dumbest thing. Not that it matters. I don’t think swinging a sword at Accelerator is ever going to accomplish anything. Except the guy’s death, that is. Ahh, when will they learn. Villain groups seriously just need a picture of Accelerator like on the wall. “If you see this man, just run. Please.”