To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - Episode 16 Discussion / Poll

[Syntron]

Some of you srsly need to stop bitching about non-canon filler / boring episodes and start to appreciate the fact that Railgun works very different to Index. In Index Terms this Arc would have left us with...

...another Harem Girl (Konori) never to be utilized again
...an epic preach by Misaka, talking that Spider Leader into oblivion
...no plot hints for actual future developments, making the next arc come out of nowhere
...plot hints that make no sense and dont go anywhere this season anyway
...a Kuroko who would have molested Misaka just like usual, showing no character development

I prefer it the way they do it now, even if that means watching a somewhat slower paced show concentrating more on character interaction, rather then getting our weekly dose of "Touma Talks - The Late Night Show"

[Marcus H.]

Originally Posted by Wilfriback

It just logic, some people(like you) accepts "the author is helping to do the cannon fillers" and other people(like me) thinks "why is the author is helping to do fillers instead the current arc in the manga?".
This cannon fillers are pretty questionable cause the decision is in the hands of Geneon not the author.

I don't think he's leaving the current arc in the manga to work only on the anime-original material. Remember, there's a pretty huge time gap between the Level Upper Arc and the Sisters Arc. (And honestly, I don't want a copy-pasta adaptation. I know you don't want that either.)

Originally Posted by Joe_fh

I think it's quite clear why they're having the author help with this and not the Sisters arc.

Anyways about the episode - see the gang's plan to hunt ability users was really stupid and it was clear they'll get either busted or get their buts kicked (or both) from the start. And that phone call made it pretty clear that someone was telling them what to do and just using them. Also it was obvious that the van thing wouldn't work twice on someone who knows it's there and what it does so unless you hide it, it won't help much.

Suspension of belief still gripping? Actually, I think it's a decent plan of terrorizing ability users. It allows a continuous amount of victims within a time frame and they will have little visibility from Anti-Skill. Remember Skill Out members have Anti-Skill capability (but not in the punctuality sense :P). Also, that phone call is definitely needed to foreshadow the next major arc -- the Margery-Daw-With-A-Sweet-Tooth Arc.

So overall even if this seems like the end of a short 2 episode arc it shouldn't be since this was just the tip of the iceberg. We just got to see more of Konori's involvent in the past, the emotional impact of her relationship in the present and also the girls's point of view on this. In other words we missed, or more like JC didn't show us the actual story and the reasons behind the hunts, that device, etc.(or at least for now). With that in mind next week's episode seems laid back so I guess the events will unfold slowly and will get fillerish (for some people) episodes where nothing really happens for the most part or at least not much when it comes to plot development.

Mii is not a major character to have that much dedication to the story.

Originally Posted by Haak

It also helps if you're not dumb enough to tell them about it. The woes of shonen...

Railgun being called a Shounen anime is blasphemy.

[Joe_fh]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

I don't think he's leaving the current arc in the manga to work only on the anime-original material. Remember, there's a pretty huge time gap between the Level Upper Arc and the Sisters Arc. (And honestly, I don't want a copy-pasta adaptation. I know you don't want that either.)

And also JC's Railgun has more what some would call yuri fanservice and is focused on the lives of the 4 girls. They can't just leave 3 of them out of the picture to give us "that" arc because at this point they'll probably lose half their viewers.
And I would love it if they animate "that" arc the way it is but just expand on some of the moments - not like the LU arc where they went with all the original things and then suddenly all the major plot developments happened in a few episodes. But that's another story.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Suspension of belief still gripping? Actually, I think it's a decent plan of terrorizing ability users. It allows a continuous amount of victims within a time frame and they will have little visibility from Anti-Skill. Remember Skill Out members have Anti-Skill capability (but not in the punctuality sense :P). Also, that phone call is definitely needed to foreshadow the next major arc -- the Margery-Daw-With-A-Sweet-Tooth Arc.

Having a plan that will surely end badly for you and that is quite obvious from the start is considered stupid in my book. Skill Outs hunted ability users in large numbers every day so there's no way someone wouldn't take action against that. Well if they did it less frequently one might say that this were isolated incidents and it would have taken longer for Anti-Skill to take serious actions. Also this time A-S did something really fast unlike usual. I mean only after a few days they organaised such a huge operation to take down the gang. And also Anti-Skill have way better equipment and are well trained ulike the Skill-Outs who apperantly can't even take down one unarmed man.

Also I think that this is the same arc until the end...it's like the cases in the begining of Railgun - you might think the focus is different but actually it's all part of a bigger picture. Unlike the last one though in this arc you can pretty much guess what happens next half the time.

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

Mii is not a major character to have that much dedication to the story.

It wasn't only about her. Half the time we were shown how the girls feel about what was going on plus they used the why-Saten-used-the-level-upper
and how people have a certain limit to what they can do theme...again. In any case she appears in a lot of scenes yet we didn't know anything about her.

Originally Posted by Haak

It also helps if you're not dumb enough to tell them about it.

Haha you've got a point there.