Looking out for #1.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Anti-Skill, the police force of the high-tech Academy City, investigates a break-in to the “Atmospheric Continuum Mechanics Research Facility” that sells compressed air. A group has taken off with some oxygen tanks, leaving behind unconscious guards and massive frozen over holes in the wall.

Later that day, the first-ranked Level 5 Esper (basically the most powerful psychic in a city full of psychics) known only as Accelerator is just about done recovering from a gunshot to the head (long story). His sidekick, a little girl known as Last Order, berates him for being so casual about things before he goes in for his last check-up. His doctor asks for the most concise test of someone’s health: asking them to recap their backstory so the audience can catch up. Said backstory is mainly that he’s able to control vectors (meaning he can control the direction of things around him) and was involved in an experiment that required killing a lot of clones, yadda yadda yadda, and then he was shot in the head, so now he can’t control his powers as well without assistance. Or at least, that’s he gives us to work with if you haven’t seen the other two shows he came from.

Last Order, who is also one of these clones, works with other clones to prepare a surprise party for Accelerator’s recovery, but those plans are soon interrupted by Anti-Skill officer Yomikawa, arriving to talk to Yoshikawa, a former researcher with Accelerator’s previous experiment, about the recent theft of an experimental weapon from the facility. With most of Anti-Skill being assigned to protect VIPs in the city, only Yomikawa’s group is available to protect the real target: Accelerator. The thieves, led by Yoko Takata (who we are introduced to ass-first, I might add), soon arrive at the hospital to fight him, mainly to kick the former champ while he’s down. With them is the weapon, which uses liquid Nitrogen as a high-pressure water cutter made specifically to stop him. They make short work of Anti-Skill, leading to Accelerator quickly getting involved and eventually defeat these rebellious teens. In the end, Last Order is able to give him a cake she made in celebration of his recovery.

Meanwhile, a hooded girl carries a photo of Last Order in the night.

OUR TAKE

With the recent resurgence of “A Certain Magical Index” and its soon returning spin-off, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”, we now have another spin-off…that might be a spin-off OF a spin-off, depending on how you look at it. For those not in the know, the title character, Accelerator, was first introduced in the third story arc of the original Index light novel series, which also heavily involved Mikoto Misaka, who is the genetic source of the Misaka clones who were used in the experiment Accelerator was involved with, where he was made to kill over ten thousand of them in order to get stronger. So, when Mikoto got her own spin-off series, those events elaborated on from her perspective, including some further insight on how Accelerator got involved in things. After his defeat by Index’s protagonist, Toma Kamijo, the experiment was shut down and Accelerator found himself saving the final clone, Last Order, from a rogue scientist but getting seriously injured and losing solid control of his abilities in the process.

And THAT is the barest minimum of summary regarding the homework one is required to catch up on to know what’s going on with this character prior to the beginning of his own series, most of which is only briefly mentioned or alluded to in this first episode. You could argue that most people watching this particular series would only be interested in it if they had already seen the other connected shows, but I maintain that the first episode of any series should be able to stand on its own, which I’m not sure this one does.

That said, the two episodes of Index Season 1 did inadvertently working as a backdoor pilot (or at least the equivalent of one since it initially came from a book), introducing viewers to Accelerator as the character he would be for the majority of the main series going forward, as well as the makeshift family he formed with Last Order, Yomikawa, and Yoshikawa, as well as his future trajectory as a former villain who used to kill clones and now being hellbent on protecting the one he saved. That kind of dynamic and the character’s connections to the darker sides of Academy City, allows this series to potentially tap into a grittier tone that wasn’t often seen in either Index or Railgun, which I’m eager to see them do with its brief twelve episode run.

…or rather, eleven episodes, as this first one was anime original meant to set up the story. This first season looks like it will be adapting the first arc of the manga this spin-off is adapted from. That consists of 36 chapters, which was already a hefty order to fit into twelve episodes, but now that’s down to just eleven. So perhaps some wonky pacing is on the horizon, but we’ll have to see.

Score 6/10