OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With a Sephiroth shaped tower sucking away all the color in the city and getting everyone’s attention, Isaac gloats over his (her?) victory in obtaining his current power, but credits Accelerator for being the one who provided the 10,031 deaths. Still, he isn’t fully powered up yet, so he flees for the moment. Esther is still reeling at the part she had to play, but Accelerator gives her a pep talk in his own way to keep going. Together with Huotou, a dying Mikihito, and Misaka 10046, they make their way into the base that’s been overtaken by Isaac’s massive body with the intent of taking him down before he attains his “perfect form”. To slow them down, Isaac swallows up nearby DA agents (right in front of Yomikawa’s group) and turns them into zombies to put into their path, which temporarily slows them down until Accelerator notes that they’re not human anymore. But as they approach Issac’s core, Accelerator notices that his battery for controlling his powers is running low.

OUR TAKE

We reach the penultimate episode of the season, which is mainly set up for the finale. That makes sense of course, but usually, that comes with some sort of noticeable plot progression. THIS feels more like they’re belaboring the point. When I found out that the first episode of this twelve episode season was going to be completely original, I was pretty nervous that they wouldn’t be able to fit the whole first arc into the remaining eleven. NOW I’m wondering if he even needed that many because this episode pretty much finishes all its real development before the halfway point and fills the rest with half-assed fight scenes that apparently weren’t even in the manga. It’s basically the Dark Night of the Soul moment that is quickly gotten over and followed by tons of padding.

Our main villain, Isaac, has basically turned into just a stock scientist themed bad guy who has completely lost touch with reality and focuses solely on completing their “perfect” form…so basically a version of Perfect Cell but with the upper torso of a half-naked teenage girl. It’s also a type of villain this franchise is pretty familiar with, the most prominent coming to mind being the two filler villains from both seasons of A Certain Scientific Railgun. Essentially, when in doubt, make an immoral scientist who has put their work over the lives of others and you have a safe but confusing option for your next “Certain” antagonist. Though what I want to know is, since this takes place around the end of the first season of “Index”, how is it that no one thought to bring up the giant glowing tree that sucked up all the color so long ago?

And sadly, our boy Accelerator is still basically taking a backseat for Esther’s own growth. There’s mention of how he provided the deaths that helped Isaac gain power (still no explanation for how that works) and that pisses him off, but it’s basically lip service at this point. There were several ways they could have better incorporated an arc for him in this, but all of them are pretty much tossed aside in favor of how we’re handling things now. Not that I’m opposed to other characters getting their own arcs in this show, but is it really that hard to give one to the guy in the title? I feel like I’m repeating myself on that point, but I really think it bears repeating. Anyway, we’re down to the season finale, so let’s see how they hastily wrap this up.

Score 4/10