A Certain Magical Index II #19 — The 500 Yard Child Toss

February 18th, 2011

 

This hasn’t been a good week for anime physics.

Impressions:

I’d like to be happy about things actually going somewhere again, but the problem is that they’re kind of not and it was made worse by an extremely lame fight. Accelerator wrecked a car, tore it apart, then stood there and got beat up while some random guy lectured him about why and how, neither of which are particularly interesting questions since there’s only ever one reason the science side does anything and even less variation when Accel and LO are involved. He may as well have just been a really strong mugger. You’d think after dealing with Touma, he’d at least have a clue about how to fight against people who can nullify/’jam’ his abilities at close range. I did both enjoy him somehow harmlessly blasting an unconscious Last Order into the air away apparently as well as the fact that they actually had to freeze part of the ‘fight’ at one point mid punch just to get all the talking in. And by enjoy, I mean died a little more inside.

Unfortunately, after that little bout of wailing on Accel was finished, the episode basically stopped. Or at least, the animators stopped working on it. The last four minutes or so was seriously almost nothing more than an audio stream. Here’s a picture of the city. Here’s another picture of the city. Here’s a walky talky. Here’s the other side of the walky talky. Here’s the mayor floating upside down in his jar from 500 feet away. Fantastic. This is exactly how you keep people visually engaged. I’m so glad they had the dual cliffhangers of swapping Index and Last Order again just to follow it with… that.

Preview:

One of these things is not like the others.

Posted in Index | 19 Comments »

19 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Tsuki says:
    February 18, 2011 at 10:03 am

    I wonder how the whole Index x Last order mix up will change things…though more likely than not they’ll end up being virtually useless in the fights as usual. No surprise there :P

    • CarVac says:
      February 18, 2011 at 10:28 am

      In the fights, yes useless. Overall? Not necessarily.

      • Tsuki says:
        February 18, 2011 at 12:23 pm

        Well overall they do hold tremendous significance to both Touma and Accelerator as their companions, it’s just that in battles they tend to be useless or the “damsel in distress”, so to speak.

        Index has been playing a bigger role lately, though, with her spell intercept and such, so I guess I’m being a little too harsh here.

  • Eirias says:
    February 18, 2011 at 10:21 am

    Accelerator and Last Order do nothing for me as characters.

    • Lero says:
      February 18, 2011 at 10:59 am

      The same think other about Mikoto being a good for nothing.

    • Amyable says:
      February 18, 2011 at 12:20 pm

      That’s problematic, seeing as how Accelerator is basically the protagonist of the science side. Then, again, Index does nothing for me, and she’s the namesake of the entire series. Eh.

      • Nanaya says:
        February 18, 2011 at 12:51 pm

        I heard the author actually wanted to name each volume differently or something, but they had to group the entire series by one name for recognition.

      • Wilfriback says:
        February 18, 2011 at 5:56 pm

        Yeah, but Index isn’t overrated as the other girl and she just makes the link between Touma and the whole magic side adventures.

  • Nanaya says:
    February 18, 2011 at 12:54 pm

    What the guy does is actually pretty smart for an anime villain, if stupidly impractical. Accelerator has any vector that gets near him reverse direction, so the guy has the distance analyzed then learns to pull his fist back just when it hits that distance. Cue fist zooming into Accelerator.

    • Wilfriback says:
      February 18, 2011 at 5:55 pm

      The guy did his homework.

    • Kironide says:
      February 19, 2011 at 1:49 am

      No, that’s just about one of the most retarded things I’ve ever heard, actually. If his fist enters the field, then it has to be moving towards Accelerator; it’s physically impossible for him to pull his fist back and into the reflection field. Since the reflection is instant, it doesn’t make any sense for him to “reverse” the direction of his punch instantly; he shouldn’t be able to do that. The moment it intersects with the field it should be reflected, and it must be moving towards Accelerator if it intersects the field. I don’t even know how you would move backwards into something in front of you.

      • Wilfriback says:
        February 19, 2011 at 9:24 am

        No, the most retarded thing is me reading your post.

        Did you know to begin why Accelerator’s power is called REDIRECTION?

      • EXM says:
        February 20, 2011 at 5:08 am

        The rate at which he pulls back shouldn’t be equal to the rate at which it comes in, so I’m finding it baffling that they’re treating it as the same.

    • Yue says:
      February 21, 2011 at 6:11 pm

      Villain is a mad scientist. Of course he’ll come up with many counters against Accelerator. With theories, research, and anti-Personal Reality inventions like those in Railgun, espers are defenseless.

      Rock, Paper, Scissors.

      Our heroes should swap villains then.

  • Solaris-broken-engrisch-on-the-white-horse says:
    February 19, 2011 at 3:14 am

    Index does nothing else than (just) saving Last Order with that spell intercept of hers. After all she’s useless as ever. yeah… right…
    And unfortunately the awesome fight between Accelerator and Kihara was interrupted by talking heads for the sake of letting people know wtf was happening. How boring!
    Well that applies to those who were watching the show with their eyes and not with their ass as half of the people here usually do.
    For them let’s say that Kihara mentions the radio noise project and the fact Last Order is the console of a big esper net.
    Add Aleister (re)ordering Kihara to retrieve the Kid safely and naming … Kazakiri by chance means probably they need the kid to use the great power of Kazakiri (no, not her boobs) by controlling it by the misaka net.
    But that’s all useless to the dumb mocking, so forgive me and enjoy the crap.

    • Amyable says:
      February 19, 2011 at 9:21 am

      FYI, when people say, “So and so character does nothing for me,” it doesn’t mean that the character literally does nothing in the story; it means that, subjectively speaking, they don’t find the character appealing.

      P.S. Thanks for the comic relief. I know you think you’re being a an epicly kewl troll right now, but it’s not trolling when you actually believe what you’re saying–it’s being a 16-year-old fanboy. There’s nothing wrong with that, but please don’t think that anything you have ever said is remotely witty, insightful, or intentionally humorous.

      • Wilfriback says:
        February 19, 2011 at 9:26 am

        Unsuccesful troll is unsuccesful.

        Just don’t pay him attention trolls are just attention whores.

        BTW, if you recall, just look how much worships railgun crappy anime.

  • Rednal says:
    February 21, 2011 at 9:06 am

    So, why can’t Accelerator shift attacks to the side instead of straight back and forth? Unless he was damaged enough to only do that? I mean, doing an effectively random redirection would remove that weakness…

    • Yue says:
      February 21, 2011 at 5:48 pm

      Accelerator’s been nerfed. His brain damage has been cured 100% by Doctor Godheal but…

      …Accel’s accumulated Personal Reality capacity (mana pool + skillset) was irrecoverable. That’s why he’s using the radio-collar (Misaka Network Processor) as a limited makeshift substitute.

      It explains how and why Accel’s fighting inefficiently. He can’t vector steel beams as projectiles or make plasma balls. He said it himself, he’s not the ranked Number One in Academy City anymore… it’s someone else.