Railgun finale, Kimi ni Todoke 23

The finale of Railgun is full of action, chases, explosions, and evil laughter. I appreciate all of these things; too bad it had to rush.

Never mind. It starts out great, with Kiyama racing to save the children and Telestina throwing all sorts of threat toward her, which are nullified by the girls. Lots of tanks and armored people get blown up as one after another good girl character shows up to get a moment of attention. It’s fun as hell, but there a letdown as the show continues to the place where the children are. Telestina makes her comeback, using the ability blocker, or whatever it’s called, and we get a tense moment, but it doesn’t quite compare to helicopters, armored personnel, trucks, one motorcycle, one blue car, and the girls’ abilities.

Improvised battle gear.

One of the things this episode did extremely well is use all the characters and let them play to their strengths. Sure, Misaka, Kuroko and Kongou, the most powerful, do the heavy lifting, but the other girls get their moment, too. Uiharu breaks through the computer security. And completely powerless Saten, ridiculously carrying around a baseball bat for two episodes, gets to use the damn thing against the main control panel, breaking the ability blocker and rescuing the girls. I saw it coming, but it was still satisfying to watch.

The rest is a bit messy, so much to fit in. We have to learn why Telestina is doing this, and turns out it’s for completely batshit reasons. But she’s so much fun to watch I really didn’t care too much. But the final confrontation is a letdown; Telestina has a weapon specifically designed to take down Misaka, and Misaka has … herself, only with extra-super determination. Guess who wins.

Finally, there are the kids.

They love you, Kiyama!.

The trouble is, there’s no time to do the revival scene must justice, though the show makes a good effort. There’s a lovely moment when they wake up and see Kiyama, partly responsible for what happened to them, and they’re overjoyed she’s there. (They, however don’t notice that they’re several years older) This works because we’ve seen Kiyama suffer for them. And she believed she was just a teacher who had no effect on their lives, apart from the experiment. Here we get to see how beautifully wrong she was. But beyond that, little of anything. Some thank you’s, apologies, and a plot wrap-up before we pan around the city looking at other characters. Good to see you, Touma and Index!

In the end this was a satisfying if rushed conclusion to an uneven but decent series. I hope they return to this world and do another series sometime, with more Touma.

Kimi ni Todoke has a couple episodes to go, and the big question is whether Sawako and Kazehaya are actually going to hook up or not. It gets annoying because Sawako seems to have regressed a little. Such is her lack of confidence that she’s afraid to call him, even with her brand spanking new cell phone. Actually, it’s worse than that. She still doesn’t get the idea that she can call up Yano and Yoshida and hang out with them over the long winter break. Even though they’re friends. At one point she wonders if she can call Ryou and Kazehaya friends. What’s up with this girl?

Leave it to Yano and Yoshida, evil plotters, who introduce the idea to all get together at the shrine on New Year’s Eve, which is coincidentally Sawako’s birthday. Oh, they say, and maybe they should invite Kazehaya too? What do you say, Sawako? Heh. In a devious move, they get Sawako to invite him, which not only gives her some practice on calling a boy but makes her responsible, something that doesn’t pan out until later.

Do NOT get on these girls' bad side.

I must say I’m getting tired of Sawako worrying about something, like her friends liking her, while all that time they’re loving her to death and are planning something nice for her. The more time spent on Sawako’s insecurities the more the show drags. Yano and Yoshida have more than once pulled the show out of this quicksand and livened things up, and they do so again. First, they get Sawako all dolled up before the shrine visit, then abandon her right before they reach the rendezvous point. Have fun with Kazehaya!

Kazehaya’s reaction is … subdued. Sawako fears he might be upset. She might be right. He says nothing but “Let’s go,” and the episode ends there. Next week, expect a long nervous episode with lots of struggling to say things and trying to figure out how the other one feels. It might be a long, long episode, or it might wind up like the well-done, extended talk scene between Yoshida and Tooru a few weeks ago. Either way, something better get accomplished.

Railgun 23

Railgun 23 is one of its best episodes. It manages to throw in all the strengths of the show while mostly avoiding its weaknesses.

This girl's got a big mood-swing.

So let’s start with one of the weaknesses. Telestina goes from a possibly good but suspicious character into one who is stark raving mad. She spends most of the episode either being nice but threatening or distorting her face and saying evil lines. It’s like they threw a switch in her. Maybe they did, or maybe it’s the result of the experiments done to her years ago. Whatever it is, it doesn’t quite work, though I’ll say she’s quite fun when she’s in crazy-mode.

But that’s about the only weakness in this episode. Everything else they try manages to work. There’s a nice scene where Uiharu convinces Kiyama to bring her data on the kids to MAR and Telestina, and a subsequent shock when she does and Telestina shows her true colors. The Judgement investigation scene (and these scenes often fade with dull writing), is very good. It’s not just the info they find (rattled off in a hilarious “You mean to say that blah blah blah” speech by Saten, until she just bursts out “What does it mean?” out of sheer frustration. It works.), but how it affects the characters. Uiharu can’t stop crying until Kuroko slaps her. Misaka, blaming herself for the kids’ abduction, goes off on her own, which leads nicely to the other thing this show likes to do.

Misaka, as I said goes off on her own, only to get clobbered by Telestina in her battle armor, aided by the Capacity Down noise (Always troublesome to me when such a small figure gets beaten up like that). After her rescue (by Kongou, of all people, and they don’t tell us how she does it), she is admonished by Kuroko for going off half-cocked like that. Misaka’s anger is her greatest weakness (though it adds to the fun of her character), and it blinds her to the fact that she has allies who can help and dearly want to. Railgun likes to have scenes of girls bonding, though they don’t always do it well. This time they do. This theme is revisited when Kiyama is spotted chasing after the caravan–on her own.

The girls make peace with each other and prepare for a big rumble. Very good episode, though I kept wondering “Just how did Kongou get Misaka out of that jam?” I hope they won’t forget to tell us.

Ookami 9, Railgun 22, Baka to Test 9

Ookami Kakushi 9 reveals more of the towns secrets to Hiroshi and us, mainly through exposition, and I’m still not sure how wolves fit into this whole thing.

About time.

I’m also not sure about gods, and the fallen, as Nemeru says he’s one or the other. The important thing is that gods, or fallen, give off a scent irresistible to people like Nemeru, and Hiroshi freakishly gives off a scent 100,000 times stronger than your average person. Which is why she’s tied up, so she can’t give in to temptation, so to speak. This is when Hiroshi uses his knife to cut her free. I don’t get this at all. I understand why he’s freeing her, because it’s a sign of trust, but why on earth didn’t he free her before he knew the situation? They’d been in there for hours; she’s tied up, he has a knife, yet it never occurred to him to release her? Hiroshi isn’t setting any standards for logical thinking.

Kaname overhears an important conversation.

Meanwhile the intrigues between the old organization and the hospital continue, with poisoned coffee. And again I am unclear as to what the forces are supposed to represent, except it gives the impetus for the old cult to look for the kids. What’s more admirable is that Kaname has put two and two together all on her own and gets Hiroshi’s father into the search party. Kaname is the smart, resourceful character that Hiroshi should have been. She actively investigates the mystery, unlike Hiroshi who just sort of dithers around wondering what’s going on.

Still, there are some nice scenes here and here. The fathers of Hiroshi and Nemeru meet and you can immediately sense the bond of concerned fathers. Nemeru’s struggles not to ravish Hiroshi (always the victim) are well-done, too.

Speaking of exposition, Railgun 22 sets a record. We have Haruue’s talk in the beginning, then more talk with Telestina, then Judgement has some, and finally Kiyama and that doctor and Telestina. Oh, and we have Misaka musing in the tub, and Kuroko barges in on her. The thing is, somehow, it works.

Partly because the scenes vary. Haruue’s opening bit is a touching story about a girl trying to find her missing friend. The Judgement scenes work with discovery and research, and the ones where information is just being spouted work because the information is actually interesting, and so is the overall story. We’ve known about the missing, comatose kids for a long time now. Since they could set off a huge Poltergeist it’s a concern to the characters, and two of the characters have personal reasons for finding them.

A bit of silliness mixed in with the talk.

One thing that didn’t work so well is Telestina’s claiming of the children, well, that was all right, it was Kiyama’s reaction. She wants to wake up the kids more than anyone, and Telestina has access to data she would need to do just that, so why is Kiyama so upset about it? I can’t imagine that she would refuse such help. Perhaps she doesn’t trust Telestina (I still don’t, either). Or is she so possessive of these kids that the thought of outsiders interfering is anathema to her? Or maybe she will now be out of the loop? Possible, but I wonder that Telestina’s group would refuse the aid of someone who was there during the original experiments.

Baka to Test 9 brings us Akira, Yoshi’s weird sister, who disrobed on the train because she was hot (Kiyama’s soulmate). She alternately deducts points for his living conditions and comes on to him.

One of her rules, if he is to continue living alone, is to do well on the test, and no fraternization with girls, though he can come on to boys all he wants. Naturally this leads to a lot of scurrying around, trying to cover up past indiscretions, and studying like hell, so naturally the gang wants to have a study group at his place. The typical embarrassments and misunderstandings ensue.

Because Yoshi couldn't possibly have any female friends.

And, because he put the correct answers in the wrong spots on the test (wouldn’t the grader notice and not deduct anything?) it seems he’s stuck with Akira for a while. That would be all right, I guess. The show can always use another strange person. But I can’t say the episode interested me very much.

Railgun 21

Railgun 21 is frustrating as all get-out. It becomes obvious that sweet, innocent little Haruue is the source of the poltergeist incidents.

I mean, obvious even before this little incident.

She’s in the middle of two of them, and the place she lived before had such incidents, too. Okay, it’s circumstantial evidence, but Kuroko is right for once. It’s good enough that they should check her out. But it never occurs to any of them that she while she might not be causing them, she’s the trigger for someone else. And Uihara, who is taking on the load of “best friend” responsibilities on behalf of the new arrival, doesn’t want her examined at all (causing a rift between her and Kuroko, which for some reason I could care less about).

Tell that to Kiyama.

And when they finally do check her out they find that she’s not especially dangerous, completely disregarding the fine print in her file about her powers increasing under certain circumstances. Telestina (whom I don’t trust) is ready to drop it all. Okay, the evidence points elsewhere, but they’re just not thinking through enough. Meanwhile I’m tapping my foot and waiting. It finally takes Haruue herself to reveal that she can hear her lost friend’s voice, and that her friend was the girl who Kiyama befriended and then innocently did tests on. Why did she not say any of this before? And wouldn’t she have been in the midst of poltergeists at her old place, too? Come on, people!

On the other hand, this means they’ll probably bring Kiyama back. I like this for two reasons. First, she is a sympathetic character that got dealt a bad hand, and second, she takes her clothes off in public.

Durarara 7, Railgun 20

I am a complete moron. For seven weeks now I’ve been spelling the name wrong. It’s not Duradura, it’s Durarara!! Geez, all my tags are wrong, and the titles. Don’t know if I have the strength to fix them.

As for Duradura Durarara 7, well, no way can it top the scintillating ep6, so I wasn’t expecting it. This time they go back to focusing on one character, Shizuo, and his famous strength and anger.

… And the fact that these days something is bugging him. We get a look at his past, as a kid with his younger brother, already with the strength but with a body still too small not to take the punishment. We see him cutting loose numerous times with disasterous results, including injuring a nice shopkeeper he was trying to protect. He meets Shinra, Selty, and most importantly, Izaya, who seems to delight in setting him up for trouble, for absolutely no reason.

He says he hates violence, that he’s driven to it and does not want to hold it in when he’s angry, and I’m guessing he feels like he’s put-upon for no reason. Izaya certainly does that to him. Others, do, sometimes by accident. But maybe he’s also angry at where he is in life, unable to keep a job, now a bodyguard prone to violence, while his brother (one of the few people he unabashedly likes) is a successful movie actor. He’s fucked up so many times there is little he can do, and very few people he can call friends. In a nice touch we see that his narration has actually been to Selty, who’s worried about him. And he temporarily feels better about talking out. But then he sees Izaya …

No real plot development this time. We see the writer-guy who was trying to talk to the girls a few episodes back (Shizuo beats him up), and we get a glimpse of the slasher, and more reports of missing people, perhaps the thing that has been bugging him. For all the violence it’s a relatively low-key episode. I’m ready for more wildness next week.

Railgun 20 finally cranks up the next story arc, and as I suspected, it has to do with the earthquakes, which might be poltergeists which are really ESP overloads, or something. We learn all this through a not very interesting sequence of events, including a briefing for Judgement and Antiskills personnel, and Konori’s snooping around on the Internet. At times like these we sit back, absorb, wait for something to happen, and grow frustrated that the show isn’t written better, especially after I’ve watched Durarara.

While the earthquakes proliferate, so do the characters. We have two newbies this time, Telestina, head of yet another scientific group (the groups proliferate, too) who fills in the Judgement and Antiskills that it is NOT, repeat, NOT a poltergeist doing this. And she somehow, mysteriously, shows up late to rescue Uihara and the other new one, Haruue. Haruue’s a new transfer student, quiet and sweet, and the other girls naturally bond to her like glue. But she’s a little strange, walking off in a daze for seemingly no reason.

Of course, there’s more to her than meets the eye. She gets one of the daze spells right before the earthquake, I mean, poltergeist, whatever it is, hits, as if she knows to walk away from the danger. But that can’t be right, since she’s nearly flattened by a falling lamppost. And she’s rescued, as I said, by Telestina, who just happens to be there. Hmm. Well, it’s an interesting start to the new arc, though I got a little tired of all the girl-bonding, including another “how to put on a yukata” scene. But this show likes to work with the character’s friendship. I don’t mind that. It’s, again, I wish they would work it in a little better …

Cross Game 44, Railgun 19

Cross Game has always excelled in weaving little scenes into a larger tapestry, but now it seems like everything that happens off-field is an annoyance. At least I thought so, until the meaning of the early parts got woven into this week’s game.

After Aoba's attempts to help.

The off-the-field part this time comes from Aoba, who we see trying to help the team staff in cooking (a disaster), sewing on buttons (which come undone the next day). She’s beginning to wonder what on earth she’s good at, besides baseball. Kou dodges the question, Azuma tells her she’s attractive, but this answer isn’t much help, and besides, the thought of it doesn’t seem to reach her noggin.

It takes the game, against Miki and his scrappy team, Sena High School, to answer the question for us, if not for her. It’s a pretty good one. Kou is almost unhittable, and Sena’s philosophy is to bend but not break, which is why, going into the ninth, it’s scoreless, Kou has a no-hitter going, and Seishuu has stranded eleven runners.

The second-years await their chance.

Now the Aoba effect happens, to her complete ignorance. The second-years are all madly in love with her (or scared of her, or both) and want to win her affections (or have her not kill them), so they manage a three-run rally. That’s nice enough, I suppose, but I can’t see that as much comfort for Aoba, even if she was aware of it.

What adds to the fun is Sena, Miki’s team, almost literally. He pretty much runs it, with his social studies teacher coach’s permission, and is the reason why they turned it around in two years. He absolutely loves baseball and is having a great time. So even though his team loses, he gets a moment of glory, a home run. Though it’s a meaningless run, he breaks up Kou’s no-hitter and shutout. So after the game it’s Kou who has to face Aoba’s fearsome disapproval. Heh. Disapproval is one of the things Aoba is terrific at.

Railgun is definitely getting on my nerves. Ep19 is the third straight filler, no-story arc episode in a row, and it’s mostly the weakest. All the time I was expecting some sort of disaster or attack to happen, but no, it’s open house at the academy. That’s about it.

Scene after scene it went like this. Misaka guides Uihara (who’s beside herself with happiness) and Saten around the school to see various exhibits. “When’s the big thing going to happen?” I kept thinking. Then they tour around some more. Minor characters show up. And we learn that Misaka is going to give a special presentation, one she doesn’t want to do.

But no pressure ...

This is the big dramatic thing, a Misaka presentation. I thought “Okay, cool, she’s going to blow something up. Maybe part of the school.” This would certainly liven up the episode. And she’s nervous about it, which means maybe she’ll screw up and blow up too much!

No! The show won’t even give us that! Her big presentation is a goddamn violin solo! When did she learn to play violin? And who cares? Blow something up! But the closest we get to that is backstage, where stage fright is getting the better of her, until she meets someone unexpected.

She feels much better after chasing Touma with a chair, she does her solo, everyone’s enchanted by it. The End.

Aw, please! Look, I don’t mind a filler episode or two, but three in a row is too much! Well, next episode I think we’re getting some action again. Please!

Railgun 18, Durarara 5

No new story arc for Railgun. (We’re getting a lot of filler episodes these days. I wonder why?) What’s more, it’s not a very good episode. You can predict each scene minutes before it happens.

The girls’ slightly sadistic dorm supervisor is spotted dressed differently, and Misaka and Kuroko follow her to get blackmail information (Well, Kuroko does. Misaka is dragged along). Kuroko has a complete change of heart when they discover she volunteers at a orphanage, and swears to help her win the affections of Daigo, another teacher who volunteers there. So we get the inevitable “get the two together” scenes, which work as predicted (the supervisor is too lovestruck to do anything), but it’s when she acts heroically during an earthquake that Daigo seems to take an interest in her.

We can see the disappointment scene from a mile away. Daigo only wanted her advice because there’s another woman he wanted to propose to, but I must say he’s certainly clueless about it. He even shows her the engagement ring as if he’s presenting it to her. If I were the supervisor I’d smack him around a bit like she does the girls in her dorm when they miss curfew.

Only two interesting things happen. One, there’s the earthquake. One character mentions that they’ve been having a lot of them recently, which suggests something of a new story arc, or I could be imagining things. The other is Misaka playing with the children, suddenly recalling Kihara’s pain over what had been done to other orphans. That was a nice touch. Otherwise, a completely forgettable episode.

Durarara 5 is up to its narrative tricks again, tossing in bits of scenes and revisiting them later from a different perspective. And now we have EVEN MORE characters to figure out! The ep5 narrator is Masaomi, and most of the episode deals with his current, apparently carefree state, his friendship with Mikado and his crush on Anri, but he crushes a lot, so it doesn’t really matter much.

Because he’s interested in Anri, and is jealous of Midado’s interest in her, they spend time defending her against sleazy teachers and listening to her wondering what happened to her friend, Mika. Being heroic boys they decide to find out. Of course, things get in the way, like the Yellow Scarf gang, a slasher we haven’t seen before (who attacks Selty), and the fact that the girl may or may not be the one with the scar on her neck (which would perhaps interest Selty). Oh, it gets so confusing!

We turn aside for some Selty-stuff. After she gets slashed and her wound heals, it cries out “Monster!” which isn’t a nice thing for a wound to do under any circumstances. Not to mention it’s another mystery we have to figure out. And when we flash back to the scene later there’s no time to show it again, since we’re more interested in the slasher getting distracted by the Yellows that had cornered Masaomi, discovered by Mikado, as he tried to chase down who he thought was Mika but was actually scar-girl. As I said, confusing.

But it’s Masaomi’s story, and we learn some things about him, how he perhaps depends on Mikado, like Anri depended on Mika, that he might have been in a gang in the past, and had gone through a depression. It works, and allows us to view him as not just a pain-in-the-ass side character, but one with his own needs and vulnerabilities.

Oh, to complicate it further he loves a bedridden girl (who’s friends with Izaya), and there’s another, a creepy girl who invades chatrooms babbling about love. As usual, we have no clue what the hell they’re doing in this story. Whee!

Letter Bee 16, Railgun 17, Fairy Tail 15

Letter Bee 16, like many of the others, has a routine story with a couple twists in the end. Joey is a fan of pianist Matilda Rain, and his fan letters are the only ones she reads. One thing leads to another and, through the mail service, he asks her out. Lag and Niche are, as usual along for the ride.

Lag and Niche never quite understand what's going on.

We learn that Matilda’s gruff manager, Belrsh, actually wrote the letters on Joey’s behalf, in other words, we’re doing Cyrano de Bergerac here, and it will all come out in the end, and indeed it does, alas, with the help of Lag’s spirit amber, revealing the truth for Matilda (Letter Bee is really overusing this gimmick). Like last week, there’s nowhere to go for this story after the truth comes out. Belrsh tries to leave town but finds he just can’t, and returns to her. And Joey, of course, is left out of the mix, which is all right because he comes off as an irresponsible playboy anyway. Ah, but in a nice turn, that’s exactly what he wanted.

So the proper couple team up in the end. But the Belrsh/Matilda relationship shifts right back to manager and protegee. Is this the happy ending? I’m not sure, and Lag and Niche, even taking their ages and experience into the matter, don’t seem convinced either. Like last week, the show ends with them trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Maybe Lag ought to take Joey up on his pub invitation; he might learn a few things.

Railgun17 is an interlude episode starring teacher Tessou. Not only is she a full-time teacher she patrols for the Anti-Skills, basically cops. And she’s getting burned out.

The show gives us this information by watching her for a couple days, where she works, patrols (badly), then is forced out to a hot bath and then drinking by her friends. Over and over. Sadly, it doesn’t work so well. It starts to drag, and the second time around it began to feel a little like we were getting into “Endless Eight” territory.

And it’s not like we don’t know what’s going to happen. She loves video games and bonds with a quiet, moody student over an old one. Having a fresh outlet cheers her up. The end. The rest is all adventures while patrolling and putting up with Yomikawa and Konoe. Bring on the next arc, please. Well, there WAS this bit:

Good to see you, Index! Bring Touma along next time, will you?

My old brain can’t quite take in the twists and turns in Fairy Tail 15, at least not the ones in Leon’s head. It starts out predictably, with a prolonged flashback learning about the truth of Ul, Gray and Leon’s former master.

We learn why Gray disrobes all the time.

The young Gray, too impatient to learn the strong magic so he could fight the demon, goes off in a huff to confront Deliora himself. Naturally Ul is forced to come along, and Leon does too. This is all predictable, even if Leon hadn’t been blabbing the same stuff for two episodes now. But the show does a nice job embellishing. Yes, Gray was responsible for roping Ul into this whole mess, but Leon’s motives aren’t pure as the driven snow either. Though the show makes his motives confusing to understand.

Let’s see. He wants to destroy Deliora to show he’s greater than Ul, though the young Leon shows nothing but hero-worship for her, and disbelief when she says there are stronger mages than her out there. What’s more, he’d been impatient for the strong magic too, and had been reading her books. I can’t figure him out. Let’s just call him an idiot.

In the present day we get a nice irony. Ul is actually alive, the ice used to encase Deliora (so if they manage to melt it will she come back to life?). Leon doesn’t know this. Gray does. And when Gray confronts Leon the second time, what does he do? He starts to use the same spell that turned Ul into ice, guaranteeing that he will be suffer the same fate.

Kudos to Fairy Tail. While most of the flashback was what I expected, it was put together into quite a moving episode. Ul’s “demise” was lovely and sad. The final scenes worked well, too. Some of the trademark comedy was gone, but I can live without that for a little while.

Sora no Woto 3, Qwaser is done, Railgun 16

I still don’t know what kind of show Sora no Woto will be. The military trappings and the tank suggest we’re going to get some sort of fighting eventually, it doesn’t mesh with the girls who run the base and the lives they’re living. I’m rather liking the contrast, especially when the show is this good to look at.

Ep3 is supposed to be a “day in the life” sort of thing, and it starts that way, but instead it turns to a crisis when Kanata collapses with only Rio on hand to help her.

The episode title is 'Rio Runs.' Here's the proof.

And the episode turns into a bonding session, much like Kureha and Kanata last week. And through it we learn interesting things about both. Rio mistrusts any sort of superstition (yet is forced to turn to a healer in order to help Kanata, though the medicine used might well have a good scientific basis). Also, she’s not as aloof as she would like you to believe. As for Kanata, she seems to suffer from low self-esteem.

This leads to a pep talk or two from Rio about messing up and learning. And we learn some more about this odd world they live in. You can’t help but make connections based on the characters flashbacks that something in the country’s history is repeating, like it’s working on some cosmic cycle.

Not only that, we have the mysterious use of “Amazing Grace,” the song Kanata remembers the trumpeter playing years ago. Rio hums it at Kanata’s sickbed, and in a bit of weirdness, the tank plays it too. Why a tank would play any tune, let alone that one, is beyond me, and Rio using the orchestral version as a metaphor for teamwork doesn’t make me less confused. What’s more, Rio apparently had never wanted to hear that song again, so why she hums it ..? What is the significance of this piece?

Well, this is an odd show, but its oddities are interesting, not idiotic, and as I said before, it’s good to look at.

As for Seiton no Qwaser, the boob shots, the asshole kid, Tomo’s voice … I can’t take anymore …

Railgun 16 brings the flipside of the issue. If you can’t be one of the skilled people, where do you belong? In doing so this episode avoids the social issues raised by the previous and other episodes and concentrates on where people ought to be by assuming there’s no prejudice between groups. Which I don’t buy, but it made for a decent episode.

We learn why Konori used to spend her time hanging out with skill-outs when she was younger: it was a place where she could be herself. Instead of being frustrated with her current position as a level two she got to be with people who didn’t care either way … no, that’s not right. The gang didn’t know she was a level two. Maybe she just wanted a change? Maybe she thought being in a gang was cool. Or she had fallen in love with Kurozuna. At any rate, she joined the gang, wearing red.

But there was always the assumption, even by Kurazuna, that she would leave that life, and she seemed happy enough to be a member of Judgement, a place worthy of her abilities. Then Kurozuna returns, the love thing kicks in, and it gets complicated.

Kurozuna, upon seeing Konori wearing her gang jacket with Judgement armband.

It boils down to the question of where you ought to be and where you came from. She once was a gang member, now she’s Judgement. She’s the product of her experiences. That still does not deny the unfairness of the situation for the people without skills. Kurozuna was a benign thug, he still is, probably that’s all he’ll ever be. Now he’s heading back to jail. The fact that he accepts the situation doesn’t change the fact that he was not allowed to be more.

Well, there was a nice fight scene where the psychopath gets beat up good …

Railgun 15

Railgun 15 finally gives us a new story arc. Too bad it is, in itself, not very interesting. Another gang, calling itself “Big Spider,” is raising havoc, and seems to have a weapon which negates the powers of ability users. Kongou is the first of the main characters to encounter this. She’s rescued by another guy, and he’s got a big spider tattoo on his back, which makes Konori gasp in that plot-development kind of way.

What’s more interesting is the underlying causes for the friction. We’ve seen it before in this series, in fact it’s one of the main themes: those with no powers often envy and resent those that do, and that turns them against society. Here we get a better idea of how this society works. When Kuroko confronts the gang leader she arrests him for crimes against ability users, making me wonder if this is a separate law than any where the powerless is a victim. The Big Spider gang and other so-called “skill-outs” live in a slum, and while Misaka wonders why the city permits such squalor, the fact is the slum is indeed there, and it’s where the outcasts go.

And it’s easy for those with skills, i.e. those on a higher level of society, to simply say that these angry powerless people are just scum and rabble. It’s way too easy to come to this conclusion, Kuroko seems to be thinking this way, and a little frightening, too. We see the Spider gang (which is, albeit, commanded by a psychopath) attack more and more skilled people, some of which try to use their powers only to be overwhelmed by force. It’s an ugly society to live in. We’ll see what they do with this theme in later episodes. Oh, there’s probably a love interest thing going on, too, but I really can’t get up any enthusiasm for it.