What better way to spend a day than by having fun with your sister clone?
What They Say:
Misaka Mikoto, known as the Railgun, is one of the top level espers in Academy City. A City that is considered to be a highly developed place in terms of technology. It is said to be 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world.
The Review:
Finding herself face-to-face with a clone of herself, Misaka ends up helping her get a cat out of a tree, sharing ice cream cones, and having tea with her. Not what you might expect from a day out with your close ‘sister’ – and clone-Misaka steadfastly refuses to talk about her origins. It isn’t until later that Misaka discovers the true, sinister project that calls for her clones…
As Misaka has already discovered, the plan to clone more powerful versions of herself failed, and that project was shut down. But there seems to have been a Plan B, which is seeing her clones retasked for altogether more…. sickening reasons, once you realise what’s going on. That’s a feeling that Misaka clearly shares.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here, as the Big Reveal only comes in the second half of the episode. The first half is all about sisters bonding, seeing in which ways they’re different and which ways they’re the same, and it’s great fun to watch. Clone-Misaka is adept at trolling her ‘big sister’, and the banter between the two as they spend the day together is hugely entertaining. But you know as it goes on that it’s the calm before a gathering storm – a storm that breaks in the second half of the episode, with a turn of events that might seem more appropriate in a Gen Urobuchi series. Mood whiplash? We have it.
That said, given Misaka’s investigations so far, there’s nothing here that’s really surprising – you might not have seen the specifics coming, but the series has been fairly unsubtle about there being a bad fate in store for the clones. That leaves the climax of the episode feeling a little forced, a little underwhelming, when it was likely aiming for more of a gut punch.
In Summary:
Still, I enjoyed this episode, both for the happy sisters aspect, and for the descent into darkness as the episode goes on. Now to wait for next week and see just how over the edge Misaka goes, now that she knows what’s really going on…
Content Grade: B+
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 32GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.3