Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

arhra posted:

The key question of course, being whether Shiki can kill Accelerator.
This is some ultimate spear vs. ultimate shield poo poo.

Anyway, I think it's less that Accelerator is a "good" character and more that Touma is so aggressively boring that he's better by simple juxtaposition.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

fivegears4reverse
Apr 4, 2007

by R. Guyovich

arhra posted:

The key question of course, being whether Shiki can kill Accelerator.

Death is a vector :smugbert: :getin: but can Accelerator kill servants as quickly as shiki??????

I am goddamned excited for the next couple episodes. So far, this season of Railgun has pretty much blown every other animated adaptation of the franchise out of the water, and hopefully the introduction of ITEM keeps up the quality.

Wind Tempest
Oct 9, 2007

I am the culmination of all that is wrong with japan.
Accelerator was originally supposed to be a arc specific villain but since plot is a vector he changed it so he is a main character. :shepface:

Things are really picking up although I wonder aside from feeling responsible for all the dead sisters, couldn't Misaka ask her friends for help. She has pretty good connections within Judgement who would gladly help her out if she just asked.

Joshlemagne
Mar 6, 2013
All this talk about Accelerator kinda begs the question of what he actually gains if this plan succeeds and moves him up a level. I mean he's already an invincible demigod that can automatically win any fight (providing no one has dumbass protagonist powers that actually are an 'I win' button) and theoretically survive nuclear explosions, so what else is there? At least with Misaka she could make bigger lightning bolts or something.

Paracelsus
Apr 6, 2009

bless this post ~kya

Wind Tempest posted:

Things are really picking up although I wonder aside from feeling responsible for all the dead sisters, couldn't Misaka ask her friends for help. She has pretty good connections within Judgement who would gladly help her out if she just asked.
Given that the Level 6 project seems to have a lot of official backing and a lax attitude towards collateral damage and the value of human life, it's fair to say that anyone who gets involved is painting a target on themselves, especially if they do something like report what's going on through official channels, as Judgement members would be wont to do.

Blhue
Apr 22, 2008

Fallen Rib
Yeah. The events of the first season should have taught her that implicitly trusting authority figures in Academy City is a bad idea.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
Yeah the ability crystal method of getting an L6 was pretty conspiratorial and hinged upon a single catastrophic event. That meant they had to go through back channels.

The Sisters method of getting an L6 takes a ton of resources. They have a ton of backing from the City. Misaka could go public with the revelation and there'll be a lot of tut-tutting and "oh how could we let ourselves do such a thing in the pursuit of Science" but all the researchers will get sprung out of prison and relocate themselves and their facilities on a desert island.

Misaka could go full terrorist and just start leaving crispy bodies strung up on walls, but that's just inviting PR denunciations and reprisals. So this is the path of least resistance, just make it too expensive to keep going.

SatansBestBuddy
Sep 26, 2010

by FactsAreUseless

Phobophilia posted:

Yeah the ability crystal method of getting an L6 was pretty conspiratorial and hinged upon a single catastrophic event. That meant they had to go through back channels.

The Sisters method of getting an L6 takes a ton of resources. They have a ton of backing from the City. Misaka could go public with the revelation and there'll be a lot of tut-tutting and "oh how could we let ourselves do such a thing in the pursuit of Science" but all the researchers will get sprung out of prison and relocate themselves and their facilities on a desert island.

Misaka could go full terrorist and just start leaving crispy bodies strung up on walls, but that's just inviting PR denunciations and reprisals. So this is the path of least resistance, just make it too expensive to keep going.


But now we have the problem where they've already made all calculations needed to figure out how to get to Level 6, and made all the clones they need to complete the experiment, so it's all on autopilot by now. Misaka's trying so hard to stop these experiments but what is she actually accomplishing? The experiments are still going on while she's blowing up random science buildings, and any damage she does now can be repaired or outsourced when needed later. It'll be expensive, but the most expensive part, the research and calculations needed to figure out how to reach level 6, and cloning enough Sisters to do the job, is done. The rest is just data collection.

Phobophilia
Apr 26, 2008

by Hand Knit
Yeah, I can't say it's a good idea. Events are in motion, and ultimately all she can do is lash out in anger and revenge. I'd be mad as gently caress too.

blastron
Dec 11, 2007

Don't doodle on it!

SatansBestBuddy posted:

But now we have the problem where they've already made all calculations needed to figure out how to get to Level 6, and made all the clones they need to complete the experiment, so it's all on autopilot by now. Misaka's trying so hard to stop these experiments but what is she actually accomplishing? The experiments are still going on while she's blowing up random science buildings, and any damage she does now can be repaired or outsourced when needed later. It'll be expensive, but the most expensive part, the research and calculations needed to figure out how to reach level 6, and cloning enough Sisters to do the job, is done. The rest is just data collection.

Aren't the Sisters coming off of the assembly line as-needed? Sure, we've seen a lot of them on-screen at once, but we've also seen new clones coming out of the tubes while experiments are still going on, so maybe there's only a few dozen of them actually finished at a particular time. So, sure, Mikasa may not be 100% effective at shutting down the experiments by blowing everything up, but she might actually make it inconvenient enough to put it on hold. Plus, it's entirely possible that the calculations for the experiment are super-specific: not only were the Sisters very concerned that the experiment would be ruined if Accelerator killed Mikasa, but the experiments themselves take place at pre-specified times and places. If this is the case, even just significantly delaying the plan might be enough to stop it.

Not that Misaka's actually putting that much thought into it.

SatansBestBuddy
Sep 26, 2010

by FactsAreUseless

blastron posted:

Aren't the Sisters coming off of the assembly line as-needed?

The two creepy scientists in episode 4 said they were doing the rest all at once.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos
As a bonus, the science people can't actually do anything about the Railgun going on a rampage with official resources. As a level 5, she is more valuable to the city than the scientists and their projects, they can't do anything to her without reprisals, and unless she gets more inconvenient than she is now, they don't want to up the stakes and threaten her friends either, not when she's mostly been doing data and property damage with no loss of personnel. If she brings her friends in, THEY are wholly replaceable as far as the city is concerned. Level 4s are hard to find, but they aren't exactly unique.
A level 5 performing sabotage is something entirely different from a level 5 fully intent on destroying as much of the city as she can.


Next Episode Stuff
Hence, Meltdowner. As another level 5, she is free of reprisals from actually fighting a level 5, and has good odds of winning besides.

And a minor tidbit from the novels
Besides, they can't do much about Uiharu, she's the one who's been countering Misaka's cyberattacks early on.

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


I love it how people mix up Mikasa/Misaka all the time.

Bakanogami
Dec 31, 2004


Grimey Drawer

blastron posted:

Aren't the Sisters coming off of the assembly line as-needed?

SatansBestBuddy posted:

The two creepy scientists in episode 4 said they were doing the rest all at once.

I don't think it'll come up within the scope of Railgun, but just be assured that their printing them out all at once instead of as-needed isn't an oversight and is explained somewhat in the Index novels (though IIRC there were hints in season 2). It's somewhat spoilery for the next arc, though, so I won't say now.

McDragon
Sep 11, 2007

Wind Tempest posted:

Things are really picking up although I wonder aside from feeling responsible for all the dead sisters, couldn't Misaka ask her friends for help. She has pretty good connections within Judgement who would gladly help her out if she just asked.

I think part of that is she doesn't want to get her friends into danger. It comes up sometimes.


Lucy Heartfilia posted:

I love it how people mix up Mikasa/Misaka all the time.

I wonder how much damage a railgun would do to a Titan? I bet a well-aimed hit to the weak spot would be pretty damaging.

ChronoReverse
Oct 1, 2009
Her coins aren't even Misaka's full power. Remember first season when she said she could railgun any old metal lump?

Superuser008
Feb 7, 2011

ChronoReverse posted:

Her coins aren't even Misaka's full power. Remember first season when she said she could railgun any old metal lump?

I've always wondered why she doesn't dump the coins and get some lead coated DU balls or something like that.

ChronoReverse
Oct 1, 2009

Superuser008 posted:

I've always wondered why she doesn't dump the coins and get some lead coated DU balls or something like that.

The coins are self-limiting. They don't go very far before completely disappearing (from the heat) so if she fires her railgun using them and misses (or over-penetrates), they don't keep going on until it ruins someone's day.

VictualSquid
Feb 29, 2012

Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.

Superuser008 posted:

I've always wondered why she doesn't dump the coins and get some lead coated DU balls or something like that.
Coins are found everywhere and don't raise much suspicion. Not so much with DU.

Manga Spoiler : I think she starts carrying iron dust later. In the three legged race for example. But I am not really sure if she hadn't found it on the scene when she used it.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos

ChronoReverse posted:

The coins are self-limiting. They don't go very far before completely disappearing (from the heat) so if she fires her railgun using them and misses (or over-penetrates), they don't keep going on until it ruins someone's day.

Yeah, mainly the coins cap the maximum energy she can slug someone with, so she doesn't accidentally kill too many people. But ALSO because she's had a lot of practice with the coins, she knows how much power translates to what trajectory instinctively, whereas with other projectiles she'd need to recompute.

legoman727
Mar 13, 2010

by exmarx

Nate RFB posted:

Anyway, I think it's less that Accelerator is a "good" character and more that Touma is so aggressively boring that he's better by simple juxtaposition.

My friend's favorite gripe about Touma is the fact the fact that he suffered such severe memory loss, tries to hide it, and not even his own parents notice because Touma is that loving boring.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

McDragon posted:

I wonder how much damage a railgun would do to a Titan? I bet a well-aimed hit to the weak spot would be pretty damaging.
Behold the end of mankind.

Kalion
Jul 23, 2004

:gifttank:
Panzer vor!
Well according to the figures given out in the manga/anime, Misaka's Railgun is actually less powerful than a modern railgun. Though the show is pretty inconsistent with how much damage she is shown to be doing with those coins :v:.

http://anime.scripts.mit.edu/miteiru/a-certain-scientific-analysis/

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD
For what it's worth, in Railgun season 1 Misaka took out Therestina by railgunning an engine block-sized lump of metal through her mobile suit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmX2fLZTE28&t=130s

ChronoReverse
Oct 1, 2009
Badass Mikoto wins even when she's tired and had fallen for a bluff. I like the shrapnel guard part.


Frenda is a prick.

JosephWongKS
Apr 4, 2009

by Nyc_Tattoo
The latest episode is super-worth all the earlier build-up episodes.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen

JosephWongKS posted:

The latest episode is super-worth all the earlier build-up episodes.

Yeah, in the end, this was exactly the sort of thing I was waiting for.

Zettace
Nov 30, 2009
I wonder if Item is strictly a contract group or do they have direct connections to the head of Academy City like GROUP. For those that don't know, GROUP was a group of espers in Index who were blackmailed into following the orders of Academy City and had a similar structure to how Item worked in this episode (middle man gives the orders and they do it). And yes, it is a really unoriginal name.

JosephWongKS
Apr 4, 2009

by Nyc_Tattoo
Not sure if this is a spoiler but spoilering just in case: I've seen "Frenda" spent as "Fre|nda" or "Fre_nda" on other anime forums. Is this just a disagreement about the canon spelling of the character, or is there a deeper significance to the variations in the spelling of her name?

Zettace
Nov 30, 2009

JosephWongKS posted:

Not sure if this is a spoiler but spoilering just in case: I've seen "Frenda" spent as "Fre|nda" or "Fre_nda" on other anime forums. Is this just a disagreement about the canon spelling of the character, or is there a deeper significance to the variations in the spelling of her name?
This was spoiled to me and the reason behind that naming is a spoiler. The reason will become clear in the next season of Index probably.

Clarste
Apr 15, 2013

Just how many mistakes have you suffered on the way here?

An uncountable number, to be sure.

JosephWongKS posted:

Not sure if this is a spoiler but spoilering just in case: I've seen "Frenda" spent as "Fre|nda" or "Fre_nda" on other anime forums. Is this just a disagreement about the canon spelling of the character, or is there a deeper significance to the variations in the spelling of her name?

It's basically a joke based on something that happens later. Don't worry about it too much.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos

Zettace posted:

I wonder if Item is strictly a contract group or do they have direct connections to the head of Academy City like GROUP. For those that don't know, GROUP was a group of espers in Index who were blackmailed into following the orders of Academy City and had a similar structure to how Item worked in this episode (middle man gives the orders and they do it). And yes, it is a really unoriginal name.

Pretty much all of them have connections to the Academy City leaders. Naturally said leaders are kind of a bunch of backstabbing bastards and the various groups also take freelance work as well..

Bakanogami
Dec 31, 2004


Grimey Drawer
According to an interview with the director of the show, (Possible future content light spoilers) Shokuhou Misaki's appearance in episode 1 was the only one she's getting in Railgun season 2. GROUP also is probably not going to have any appearances in the second half of the show after the sisters arc ends. Meanwhile because they wanted to answer fans of the first season, they're putting in appearances of Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu, etc as much as they can.

Bit disappointed because even though they didn't have many parts in this arc in the novels/manga, original stories like episode 7 feel like they're kind of being shoehorned in to cater to the moeblob fans that liked the first season.

Also, IIRC, isn't the next part after the sisters arc the Daihaseisai arc where Misaki has a rather large role? If she's not showing up again and the sisters arc is going to wrap up around the midpoint of the series, does that mean that the second half of the season is going to be entirely original?

unseenlibrarian
Jun 4, 2012

There's only one thing in the mountains that leaves a track like this. The creature of legend that roams the Timberline. My people named him Sasquatch. You call him... Bigfoot.

Bakanogami posted:

According to an interview with the director of the show, (Possible future content light spoilers) Shokuhou Misaki's appearance in episode 1 was the only one she's getting in Railgun season 2. GROUP also is probably not going to have any appearances in the second half of the show after the sisters arc ends. Meanwhile because they wanted to answer fans of the first season, they're putting in appearances of Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu, etc as much as they can.

Bit disappointed because even though they didn't have many parts in this arc in the novels/manga, original stories like episode 7 feel like they're kind of being shoehorned in to cater to the moeblob fans that liked the first season.

Also, IIRC, isn't the next part after the sisters arc the Daihaseisai arc where Misaki has a rather large role? If she's not showing up again and the sisters arc is going to wrap up around the midpoint of the series, does that mean that the second half of the season is going to be entirely original?

The first arc after Sisters in the manga was the intro for Kongou Mitsuko, who's already appeared in the anime. Some references dropped in an earlier ep suggest they're instead going to animate one of the Railgun light novels that came out with the Index BDs- One of them was about a big trip to "Liberal Arts City", and it got specifically namechecked, so...

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009
Pretty good episode and the animation quality seems to be better than most of the other episodes so far.

I thought ITEM would be all espers but as far as I can tell the blond girl isn't one?

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD

Centzon Totochtin posted:

Pretty good episode and the animation quality seems to be better than most of the other episodes so far.

I thought ITEM would be all espers but as far as I can tell the blond girl isn't one?

Frenda (the blond girl) is not an esper. She's just very talented with explosives and demolition.

e:

Bakanogami posted:

Shokuhou Misaki's appearance in episode 1 was the only one she's getting in Railgun season 2. GROUP also is probably not going to have any appearances in the second half of the show after the sisters arc ends. Meanwhile because they wanted to answer fans of the first season, they're putting in appearances of Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu, etc as much as they can.

I don't dislike them but, ugh. So much good material to work with in volumes 6 and 7 and yet we're getting more of them? Goddammit. That was my biggest gripe about season 1.

Parpy fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Jun 2, 2013

Zettace
Nov 30, 2009
They can't really go against what sells.

veekie
Dec 25, 2007

Dice of Chaos

Parpy posted:

I don't dislike them but, ugh. So much good material to work with in volumes 6 and 7 and yet we're getting more of them? Goddammit. That was my biggest gripe about season 1.

Don't worry too much, Liberal Arts City is more action packed than the school festival arc. It'd do pretty well animated.


Plus plenty of fanservice to boot, so it's a twofer.

fivegears4reverse
Apr 4, 2007

by R. Guyovich

Parpy posted:

I don't dislike them but, ugh. So much good material to work with in volumes 6 and 7 and yet we're getting more of them? Goddammit. That was my biggest gripe about season 1.

The thing about the brat pack that follows Misaka around is that they provide the Railgun series its own set of consistent side characters. One of the advantages of Railgun compared to the Index shows is that we get some time to actually flesh out characters besides out main heroine. To me they make the show more interesting by acting as a part of the overall world-building, and hey if you have a thing for moe that's being served up too.

Railgun is generally superior to Index to me because I think it does a better job at presenting Academy City to the viewer. Index is just all over the goddamn place. I rewatched S1 of Index after picking up the DVDs, and its astounding how fast the show's pace is. Outside of the Sisters arc and Accelerator, it's hard to get invested in the events of the show because it always feels like I'm getting the cliff's notes of some already very short light novels.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

VictualSquid
Feb 29, 2012

Gently enveloping the target with indiscriminate love.
I would prefer if they went slice of life rather than dragging out Touma's part.
There are some very nice break chapters between the sisters and the school festival. And the first chapters of the school festival also seem like light slice of live stuff.
But maybe they will do some nice anime original work.

  • Locked thread