Forum

Treeborn wrote:

Knowing the events of Index III, the ending to this week's episode has me pretty bummed... Dang it Anime cry

Since I didn't see Index S3 at all, I had to look up those events, and wow! That really made Saten's scene in the end far more bittersweet. It's also sad she may never know the truth.

darkchibi07 wrote:

Since I didn't see Index S3 at all, I had to look up those events, and wow! That really made Saten's scene in the end far more bittersweet. It's also sad she may never know the truth.

There are three things that I want too see happen in the Index universe (I stopped keeping up with the novels, so these might have already happened):

1. Misakas mom meets or is made aware of the Sisters.

2. Misaka having a lengthy interaction with Last Order.

3. As of this episode, I want to see the moment Saten discovers Frenda is dead Sad

Bonus points if Fremea is somehow involved in this moment.

Treeborn wrote:

Knowing the events of Index III, the ending to this week's episode has me pretty bummed... Dang it Anime cry

indeed! and it more or less solidify mugino's staus as the second most hated support character in the franchise with kuroko shirai as the most hated!

jr240483 wrote:

indeed! and it more or less solidify mugino's staus as the second most hated support character in the franchise with kuroko shirai as the most hated!

I would have thought that was Index.

Treeborn wrote:

Knowing the events of Index III, the ending to this week's episode has me pretty bummed... Dang it Anime cry

Tell me about it! It's doubly sad knowing that for all the characters in Index who get revived, and the generally insane amount of bodily harm people have suffered and still come back from, that Frenda is one of the few characters that (as far as I know) really, truly stays dead. I've read all the Index novels released in english (officially) so far, and Kamachi seems almost incapable of actually killing off his characters. It's a shame that one of the few that he actually kills in no uncertain terms is this cute, makarel-loving bomb maniac.

SilverTalon01 wrote:

jr240483 wrote:

indeed! and it more or less solidify mugino's staus as the second most hated support character in the franchise with kuroko shirai as the most hated!

I would have thought that was Index.

No, although the people who dislike them really dislike them, both Kuroko Shirai and Index managed to end up in the Top 10 in 2019's official Index Character Popularity Poll (above Frenda, Last Order, etc.). Pretty sure they weren't meme votes, either, since all of the "wait... what?" votes clearly went towards propelling Girl in the Dress to #4.

BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:

SilverTalon01 wrote:

jr240483 wrote:

indeed! and it more or less solidify mugino's staus as the second most hated support character in the franchise with kuroko shirai as the most hated!

I would have thought that was Index.

No, although the people who dislike them really dislike them, both Kuroko Shirai and Index managed to end up in the Top 10 in 2019's official Index Character Popularity Poll (above Frenda, Last Order, etc.). Pretty sure they weren't meme votes, either, since all of the "wait... what?" votes clearly went towards propelling Girl in the Dress to #4.

though its mainly the japanese poll. if there were a western poll, it would paint a whole other story.

Just a note, the donut eating girl is most likely Dolly, the misaka clone Misaki and Mitori rescued.

As for the episode itself, i admit as a biomedical major, i find cyborg technology interesting and the existential question about what the mechanical body is thinking is also facilitating. Still, Academy City really does feel like it really crosses several lines of ethics over and over.

As for Misaka and Misaki, i like how they interact and Misaka's complex, while it get tiring most times, is quite well done this episode.

As for Scavanger, I still love how they call the handler a teacher even though they should have had that mindset beaten out of them literally by Accelerator's beatdown

Izanagi009 wrote:

Just a note, the donut eating girl is most likely Dolly, the misaka clone Misaki and Mitori rescued.

Came to say this, but you beat me to the punch Smile

Last edited by OH&S on Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:39 am; edited 1 time in total

I’m back from hiatus but since the conversation has moved on to the core of the Dream Ranker Arc, I’ll just make some brief comments on some of the topics of the previous episodes:

Ep 16.

Hokaze Junko – The #2 of Shokuhou’s clique. She is the MC of the four volume long Astral Buddy spinoff that recently concluded. Junko is surprisingly one of the strongest espers in Academy City that isn’t a Level 5 and an all round pleasant character. She shares Misaka’s fascination with Gekota merchandise.
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki – The textbook definition of frenemies. The Level 5 pair gets pushed hard after Shokuhou’s introduction in the Daihaseisai Arc as evidenced in the Dream Ranker Arc and the latter half of the New Testament light novels onwards. So much so that the relationship overtakes that of Misaka and Shirai, if you can believe that. If you take a cursory glance of the New Testament light novel covers and illustrations (as well as the new Genesis Testament series), Misaka and Shokuhou are almost always together. Heck, just look at the most recent cover.

Aogami Pierce – People have already brought up the fan favourite, zero evidence theory that Aogami is secretly the #6 Level 5 Aihana Etsu (which I also brought up earlier in the thread). I personally believed that there was a 50% chance this was the case (with the alternative being that Kamachi is purposely trolling the theorists). After the most recent novel, the odds are now 2:1 that this is the case. Still no direct evidence; but you can make a stronger theory now. As an aside, I came across this gem while re-reading the series:

Quote:

OT Volume 6 Chapter 1 Part 4
Aogami Pierce sat in the seat next to him, and they started to talk.

“So this so-called well-informed guy, right? He says that manga nerds are right up there with video game nerds. I think he’s a moron. If manga altered your brain, esper development would be cake! It’d be totally sweet if we had a manga instead of a curriculum textbook, you know?”

“Yeah, but the kind of manga they’d use in place of a textbook would probably be really boring. Like, the color pages would be full of teaching stuff.”

“You idiot! That’s what the whole concept of hidden moe is all about, bro! Why don’t you realize the destructive power unexpectedly included in children’s anime and tokusatsu? My fist will tell you all about it!!”

“Why are you so mad about this? I don’t know if I’d trust someone who got to Level 5 like that!”

Ep 17.

Shirai Kuroko – When you take away her crazy horniness, Shirai has always been a good character; and this episode was a great showing for her. That being said, I can’t help but feel that there’s a bit of a double standard going on here. I thought this when reading the manga as well but the scenario which shows Shirai Kuroko’s character at her best is when she’s imitating Kamijou Touma. Shirai wanting to be a hero makes the comparison obvious considering Kamijou’s own gigantic hero complex. In fact, I swear that this moment in the manga was actually taken as fuel for Kamijou-Shirai shippers; yes, they exist and on rare occasions they are given a bone to chew on.

Ep 18.

Dreams – Some of the dreams showcased in this episode are anime-original with some manga ones being cut out. The manga editor mentioned some difficulty in coming up with the scenarios and there was even a portion that was cut from the published manga volume. So, we ended up missing out on Hattori Hanzou, Fusou Ayame, Himegami Aisa and a crossdressing/female version of Kamijou Touma. That said, the replacements in the anime were acceptable.

Ep 19-20.

Yumiya Rakko – student at the Shidarezakura Academy in the School Garden (same as Tokiwadai) and sniper for the dark side operative team, SCHOOL. Her backstory is told in the Astral Buddy spinoff. Because of the result of her fight with Frenda, she is out of commission for the events of the Battle Royale Arc (which is why they have Sunazara Chimitsu instead). I’m actually not sure whether she’s dead or alive in the series since the Battle Royale Arc which was published before the Dream Ranker Arc suggested that the sniper was dead; but here, she is alive.
Frenda Seivelun – Frenda is one of the most bizarre characters in the entirety of Index. Her introduction in the main series was fairly limited before she was killed off in the same arc. The thing is, this arc was published before her appearance in the Railgun manga. In other words, its not that Frenda was introduced in Railgun and then killed off in Index. From the very beginning, Frenda is a character defined by the fact that she’s going to die; everything about her character afterwards is a posthumous expansion. I’m talking Sisters Arc in Railgun S onwards as well as some stuff that happens in the New Testament series. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, go and rewatch/read the ITEM battle in Railgun S’ Sisters Arc. The whole Frenda portion is filled with hilarious call forwards to how she specifically dies (if you find that stuff hilarious). Additionally, eagle eyed LN readers should have figured out what Frenda was doing just before Saten got kidnapped; a nice call forward to New Testament considering its one of her final acts before her death. Lastly, Frenda mentioned her little sister. You actually get a glimpse of her in the final episode of Index II. Where you catch this glimpse ends up being pretty important for the beginning of New Testament.
Gokusai Kaibi aka the Girl in the Dress aka Measure Heart – For a whole decade we had no idea what her real name was; and considering how she never appears after OT Volume 19 (Index III) we thought we’d never find out. But then Kamachi surprised us when she appeared in the Biohacker SS which was bundled with the Accelerator anime. Not only was she given a name, she has sisters (one older and one younger) also working in the dark side. It was a surprise to see her interact with pre-memory loss Kamijou Touma.
Kakine Teitoku – #2 Level 5 Dark Matter. Probably won’t see him again in Railgun.
Uiharu’s Right Arm – Injured after her confrontation with Kakine Teitoku in the Battle Royale Arc. Neither the anime nor manga adaptation could capture just how badass she was in the face of his threat. Also, the Index novel and manga have Kakine stepping on her right arm. The Railgun manga and anime have her right arm in a cast. The Index III anime has Kakine stepping on her left arm... God I hate Index III.
Tweezers – I want to push back against Theron’s statement that the Tweezers were a McGuffin. The Battle Royale Arc is the single densest arc in the Old Testament (which sucks when it was only given 3 episodes in the anime; easily could have been 6-8) and the Tweezers are only a small part of that. It did however reveal something very important about Academy City: that there is a network of millions of nano devices called Underline (or UNDER_LINE) spread throughout Academy City that provide the sole direct line of information to the Windowless Building where Aleister Crowley resides (the one which Kouzaku Mitori wanted to destroy). The surveillance offered by Underline completely dwarfs that of all of the security cameras, robots and Academy City satellites. Essentially, whenever you've seen the main characters sneaking about at night in secret (like in the Sisters Arc), Aleister has most definitely been watching them. Most importantly, the Tweezers were used to access the information gathered by Underline and reveal the existence of DRAGON. So definitely not a McGuffin.

Ep 21.

Scavenger – Since ITEM is out of commission, the Scavengers are here to steal their screen time. I swear, the fact that they appear in this arc is the only valid reason for why they had to animate the Accelerator anime beforehand. This arc is still perfectly consumable without knowing about the Necromancer Arc.

That’s that. I won’t spoil how I feel about the Dream Ranker Arc as a whole until the anime concludes so I hope everyone enjoys the main phase of it. There are some great action set pieces incoming.

^ I think "imitating Touma" is a bit too reductive - Kuroko acts heroic, because that's what she is/wants to be. Just like half of the chuuni living in that city. (spoilers for New Testament) spoiler[It's all because of Touma being the centerpiece of AC, sure, but still. It's not as direct of an origin as you make it seem]

^I won't deny that I'm being reductive but I maintain that there's a double standard at play when comparing the anime fan reception of each one's heroic acts. Also wasn't implying anything from NT18.

OH&S wrote:

[*]Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki – The textbook definition of frenemies. The Level 5 pair gets pushed hard after Shokuhou’s introduction in the Daihaseisai Arc as evidenced in the Dream Ranker Arc and the latter half of the New Testament light novels onwards. So much so that the relationship overtakes that of Misaka and Shirai, if you can believe that. If you take a cursory glance of the New Testament light novel covers and illustrations (as well as the new Genesis Testament series), Misaka and Shokuhou are almost always together. Heck, just look at the most recent cover.

Their interactions are always fun. I think Kamachi struck gold pairing them together, and I think Mikoto's scenes with Misaki are far superior to her scenes with Touma or Kuroko.

The breast envy jokes in this last episode were great. I laughed a lot harder reading it in the manga, but I'm going to chalk that up to knowing it was coming this time because the delivery here seemed well done. NTR soured me on Misaki as a character, but Railgun 3 and the last LN are making her grow on me. I guess I can sort of forgive her for being unhinged in the moment, but everyone else involved is still dead to me.

Quote:

That also feels like a teaser for future story content, given that only one episode remains.

There are two episodes left.

Seagloom wrote:

Quote:

That also feels like a teaser for future story content, given that only one episode remains.

There are two episodes left.

So glad you corrected that. I was worried after reading the ep 23 review that there was no way in hell they could cover everything in 1 more episode.

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Wonderful Precure! Episodes 1-12 Anime Review

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: The Ways of Monster Nation Manga Ends Due to Artist's Health

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Dips to #3 in 4th Weekend, SPY×FAMILY Film Debuts at #5 at U.S. Box Office

Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction Part 1 Anime Film Review

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Game Review

The ANN Aftershow - What Anime Should You Watch Part 2 (Spring 2024)

Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Forum

Forum - View topic
EP. REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun T