OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Some time ago, a 16-year-old Level 2 pyrokinetic named Hasami Hitokawa attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge. However, what actually killed her were the supposed doctors, who planned to use her as a subject for “DA’s Dogma” and used her suicide attempt as cover.

Three days later, the girl from the end of the last episode, Esther Rosenthal, has just run from that same group, DA, by attacking them with zombie dogs she made with her Esper abilities. They pursue (disguised as Anti-Skill) her straight to Accelerator’s hospital (WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!). She even runs right to him, begging for his help with a picture of a naked Last Order up until they take her away, but he’s too preoccupied with his music and manga reading to notice anything, though she does leave the picture behind. He ends up following and stopping them before they take her away, forcing them to use an experimental weapon known as a “coffin”, using Hasami Hitokawa’s fire powers to fight back. But they don’t know they’re dealing with the strongest Esper in the city, so he makes short work of the coffin, forcing them to escape.

Accelerator feels pretty good about himself up until he seems Hasami’s corpse falls out of the coffin, and if there’s one thing that’ll trigger him, it’s a teenage girl’s corpse. Yomikawa arrives soon after with the real Anti-Skill, but the fire used in the attack was as strong as a Level 4, not a Level 2. The fleeing DA members report back to their superiors, but their failure and loss of Hasami lead them to be disposed of.

Accelerator returns to his room, also reporting to Last Order that he’ll really be sticking around. Once he gets there, Esther is there to introduce herself, as well as to propose that he work with her to stop DA, as she is responsible for teaching them how to use Necromancy. And their plans call for using Last Order next, which gives Accelerator all he needs to get involved.

OUR TAKE

Alrighty, now we’re finally at our PROPER first episode that introduces the season’s story arc. And surprise surprise, the villains are yet another one of dozens of mad scientist groups in Academy City that never listened to the wise words of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park. Only, instead of harvesting orphans or clones for some grand experiment like in either season of Railgun, DA (which hopefully stands for something) is taking a greener approach by using fresh corpses! Including ones that they make themselves by killing people, but it’s still cheaper than having to sew a bunch of matching outfits for 20,000 teenagers who are just going to get them bloodstained later.

The side effect of increasing the subject’s power is also recurring one in this franchise, as those familiar with the other shows and manga will know that there have been several other methods shown that have supplemented a low-level Esper’s abilities, such as the unstable Ability Crystal and the Level Upper program, both seen in Season 1 of Railgun. Now, with the Coffins, it seems there was a perfectly good procedure for increasing Esper levels this whole time, and all it took was dying! Obviously, there’s more going on with this and likely some horrible Lovecraftian side-effects because using Necromancy never ends well, but we’ll have to keep watching to find out what those are.

As for the character of Esther, she doesn’t seem all that interesting for her introduction. We’ve got at least ten more episodes to get used to her, but she seems a bit redundant as a cute hopeful face for Accelerator to sneer at while he becomes the reluctant hero again. Especially since we already have Last Order for that and she’s already a target of these DA guys, so she’ll be entering the story proper soon enough anyway. Since he already has enough role models and little siblings he has to be a good example to, I feel like a good addition to Accelerator’s Bat-family would be someone who acts like he did at the start of the Sisters Arc. Someone who is actually fine with being a villain to gain power until he shows them the way. People who have seen the third season of Index know that we get that later in the form of Misaka Worst, but this takes place before that so…maybe? Either way, let’s see how this arc plays out.

Score 7/10