A Certain Magical Index III

Episode 6

The rushed and chaotic feeling of last episode fully continues into this one, which rounds out the current story arc. This episode alone should have been at least half an episode longer, and overall this arc could have probably used another full episode. It's pretty bad when even someone who hasn't read the source novels can point out where content is being skipped. At least they skipped out on the opener and closer to allow more time.

That being said, this episode is the opportunity for two characters to shine. One of those is definitely not Mugino, who has now twice chickened out on carrying out a battle against Kakine Tetoku. Being on offense or defense doesn't seem to matter in that match-up; she's now failed on both. This leads to her taking her anger out on Frenda, who Mugino (rightly) suspects betrayed their hideout to SCHOOL; Frenda doing this on pain of death is irrelevant to Mugino. Based on what's shown of Frenda in Railgun S, deliberately betraying Mugino even under duress seems out of character for her, but she was never that well-developed so it's hard to be certain. That's all hypothetical now though, as she clearly did not survive her punishment. (Mild censoring seems to be disguising that she was torn in half around the waist, presumably by Mugino's power.)

It just isn't Mugino's day in general. Her group's hideout gets raided, leaving one subordinate dead and Saiai's fate uncertain, and she gets taken out by her LEVEL 0 subordinate because she relies too much on intimidation, forgetting one of the cardinal rules of super-powered battles: ranged specialists should never get into melee. Shiage steps up in a big way this episode, not only carrying away the girl (Rikou) and successfully defying Mugino, but also doing his best Touma impression by proving that even a great power disparity doesn't mean you'll lose. For the first time, he comes into his own as an heroic figure, providing the foundation for him joining Touma, Index, Mikoto, and Accelerator as co-protagonists as the story progresses forward. His position on the promotional art for the series wasn't for nothing, it would seem.

The other star performance is Accelerator, who essentially gets called out by Kakine when he wants his spot as #1 amongst the Level 5s. The script is reaching even more than normal to define Kakine's Dark Matter power, and while it is impressive, he also seems to be forgetting that there's a reason why Accelerator is #1, and it's not just because of his potent ability. The manifestation of Accelerator's vector manipulation is visually different than in previous incarnations (unless I'm forgetting something?) and not for the better; the wing-like effects look corny. Having Last Order step in to calm him down at the end was a nice touch and a reaffirmation of the bond that's grown between the two. The action scene between them definitely wasn't a disappointment, and seeing Kakine get taken out was satisfying, but the trimming necessary to get this scene into this episode somewhat dampens its full dramatic effect.

The fallout from this is certain to be extensive, as three entire groups have been busted up and a new reference is tossed out to a mysterious group or individual called DRAGON. (The fallout should have been much more devastating, as Mugino carting around half a girl's corpse should have attracted attention, but hey, Academy City, right?) The next episode preview indicates that the story is shifting back to focus on the core group of Touma, Index, and Mikoto, so we'll have to see if any of these consequences have immediate impact. I still feel a need to rate this episode lower despite some cool scenes, because of how the haphazard rush is affecting the story's execution.

Rating: B-

A Certain Magical Index III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.