OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Mikihito saves Hirumi’s body from being stabbed by Esther, but starts bleeding out in the process. Hirumi, much to Esther’s shock, actually seems to wake up and starts trying to catch up with events since she died, but her curiosity soon turns to horror when she sees what Esther has done. It’s then her new powers begin to awaken, seemingly gaining the powers of a Level 6 Esper. However, once she verifies that Mikihito is on death’s door, the Taowu’s façade drops completely.

Not only that, but Taowu reveals that it once heard the voice of a “devil” a long time ago, which pushed it to fulfill the Rosenthal family’s true wish: the creation of a perfect golem, started by their founder, Obed, when he first created necromancy. He was banished for this, but his descendant Isaac, traveled to Asia and combined it with Toaist reanimation spells to make the “Rosenthal Style” of magic. Later, his own heir Nathan created the talismans for the four pseudo-souls seen this season, but he was no closer to making a perfect golem. The “devil” theorized that dying ten thousand times causes men’s souls to evolve, which would also apply to pseudo-souls (because why not?), which is why Misaka’s memories of ten thousand deaths were needed to increase Taowu’s power.

But that was then and this is now, so Esther tries ordering Taowu to stop. Except you see, the “devil” was no devil at all, but Isaac’s soul transferred into Taowu!

Who is now possessing a teenage girl in her underwear being half-swallowed by tentacles?

And come to think of it, he’s also been the one giving this backstory, meaning he referred to HIMSELF as a “devil” for dramatic effect. I guess every era has edgelords. Anyway, Isaac only really became active in his plans when he learned about the Coffin experiments and the ten thousand deaths in the memories of the Misakas, so this has been HIS plan all along!

Outside, Anti-Skill finishes off the remnants of DA (which I guess still exists?) and Accelerator fights the massive tentacles sprouting out of the area, but makes it inside to save Esther, Huotou, and Mikihito before Isaac kills her. As they escape, a giant Sephiroth tree begins to form, radiating magical energy. Esther feels that everything is hopeless, so Accelerator goes in to deal with things himself.

OUR TAKE

We kick off the final quarter of the season with probably the most ludicrous episode yet, which is probably saying something for this franchise. Not only do we learn that “Hirumi” (who gets the villain section of the OP all to herself for the home stretch) is not just not Hirumi, but also not even Taowu either. No, it was actually this other bad guy from out of nowhere who no one could have possibly expected to be the real one pulling strings because it really wouldn’t have made any sense! Starting to get flashbacks from the end of Naruto.

But yeah, I can’t say I’m much of a fan of Isaac. I wasn’t crazy about Taowu being the final boss either, but a sentient artificial soul running amok sounds like it could be interesting enough, especially with a wired-in goal of becoming a perfect being that it can never truly achieve. Not the most original antagonist motivation, but there’s potential to go to interesting places. Not so with Isaac, who is just a flat, amoral mad scientist obsessed with his work of gaining more power no matter what it takes. I would take the real Hirumi back in a second before this dime-store Dr. Gero, but now we have to clean this mess up for the remaining episodes so that Esther can complete her character and hopefully just go away afterward.

Also, something that really drives me up a wall, the use of the ten thousand deaths in Misaka’s memories. Putting aside that we get NO EXPLANATION AT ALL regarding how experiencing the death that much “evolve men’s souls”, it wastes another opportunity for either 10046 or Last Order to really matter in this story, especially since THEY experienced those deaths themselves. If we’re not going to get to see how those memories actually work into this ultimate formula for a perfect golem (which I’m not sure was ever brought up prior to now, but I could be wrong), we could at least see how it affects characters that have them. Maybe show some sort of “soul evolution” between the two Misakas in how they’re becoming different people to parallel what Taowu or one of the other pseudo-souls feel about their lot in life. But…no. Last Order is there to be cute and 10046 is there to be kidnapped and saved.

And let’s not forget our “hero” of the season, who once again gets pushed out of his own show to focus on this Rosenthal plot that I’m not sure should have even been in this universe. The show is about Accelerator so how about you give him some friggin character development so this show doesn’t end up feeling like a huge waste of time?

Score 3/10