A Certain Scientific Accelerator – Review – Episode 1
Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator (A Certain Scientific Accelerator) is a graphic Novel by Kazuma Kamachi that was made into an Anime by the J.C. Staff studio. It was directed by Nobuharu Kamanaka, Yohei Yaegashi designed the characters with Maiko Iuchi composing the music. As far as we are concerned, The Accelerator is meant to signify a “One-Way Road” and refers to the top-ranked and therefore the strongest esper (extra sensory perception user) residing in Academy City where the story is set.
This review took three hours to write, not just because I’m crap, but because it’s a really good anime – I honestly thought this was going to be rubbish when I saw the trailer and read about it, but I was mistaken, I really liked this and noticed that although it was a 21 minute show it felt like it was over in only 10. And, wow 3 hours to write a review! I did some time consuming research on a Friday night when I’m trying to get out to the pub! Even had to watch it again because there was a lot of story packed into the show and it wouldn’t have been fair on you to write crap and shame on me, I hadn’t read the manga.
It’s about a dude, he has powers and he’s known as The Accelerator. The espers of Academy City are classified into six levels, Level 0 lacks any power at all and Level 5 is freaky awesome! There are millions of espers in Academy City but only seven are level 5 and the best of those, the top dog, is called The Accelerator. His actual name is Toaru Kagaku and he protects the city and the inhabitants way of life. He is recovering at a hospital, but we don’t actually know what his injuries are (other than a bandage on his head).
The show opens with a pretty commander in charge of a military unit attending an air compression facility. They are heavily armed and wondering what precisely they are going to be going up against. Suddenly they see. A weapon cuts through the building like butter and the people wielding it (we didn’t see them) apparently made their escape through the underground railway.
We are then introduced to The Accelerator, a rather scruffy dude in his late teens full of attitude and a bit lazy – he;s on the top of a tall building and rather than tale the elevator down, he falls off the top and manipulates the air to cushion his landing. He has a bandage on his forehead and he nonchalantly walks through the entrance of the hosp[ital.
He is greeted by a stubborn looking little girl who insists that he come with her get checked out. His bandages are due to come of today.
The little girl called Misaka Last Order (yeah I know, fancy calling a little girl, Last Order!) and she is a clone (ooooohhhh kaaaaay), not just any old clone but clone number 20001 (jeez that’s a lot o’clones!). She is an administrator clone of the Misaka Network and is a sort of fail-safe mechanism in case the other clones Sisters (who all look the same as her except older), get out of control. last Order isn’t designed to be able to live anywhere outside the network which appears to be a close proximity to the hospital.
Her most interesting attribute, is the fact that she looks like she is 10 years old and talks of herself as a third person (yeah, really, she isn’t any more interesting that a cute sisterly 10 year old). Unlike her sisters, she is capable of showing emotions and has a close relationship with her adult mentors like the Accelerator. I had to read up about this character, it wasn’t explained in the episode.
The Accelerator goes to visit the doctor who takes his bandage off. It looks like his injury has healed. We learn that the Accelerator needs to wear a device to enable him to walk and talk normally after a mission that he was involved in went wrong.
Next the attractive lady SWAT person and her team have managed to trace the thieves of the mysterious weapon to the Hospital and we learn who they are. …… sort of, we have a pretty gratuitous introduction to the leader of the thieves as she dresses for action.
I’m sure this is a really important part of the story so, if it’s ok with you, I think we need to examine it carefully….
We learn that the leader of the thieves is either a dude that likes to wear thongs, or a lady (erm, who likes to wear thongs). And that she has red trousers……. wait….. I see….
yes, definitely red trousers. Yes, of course, and there you have it pretty conclusive proof I think. Clearly….
……. There are three baddies, not just one lady with a nice bum. One has an ability to control gasses around her, the other can carry heavy stuff (I think this must be a guy) and the third lady (the one with the nice bum that likes to wear a thong and red pants, doesn’t, strangely, have a particularly nice personality. In fact, she’s a bit of a dick!
And in the very next scene, I am proven correct! Thank you,You’re welcome!
The three baddies (including the short-ass with the nice bum) are all school pupils (eeewww!) apparently and determined to confront The Accelerator. It seems that they are after his blood or more specifically a blood sample. As the three confront The Accelerator, the roof collapses and one of the baddies, the dude, gets buried. The other two escape with a bag of cookies that Last Order had prepared for our hero. Unfortunately he bled a little on the bag from injuries caused when the roof fell in and the baddies grabbed the cookies and ran – apparently, all they needed was a blood sample.
Last Order was more worried about The Accelerators bloody forehead than the biscuits but our hero was not up for some ‘upstarts’ taking them. He chases after baddies and defeats them easily because he can manipulate loads of stuff; air, electricity, urine, eyelashes etc. and the poor baddie girls didn’t stand a chance.
He recovers his cookies and the three naughty school pupils are later arrested. Accelerator opens the bag and discovers a carefully prepared box of delightful biscuits.
And there the show ends.
I thought it was great! The voice acting was the highlight although the graphics were great too, especially the use of colour. Production values were high and the direction was very tight. The all important coolness/funniness and sexiness was very high. Next weeks episode is called Necromancer – I cant wait!
I’d rate this a very creditable 8.7. What did you think?
Discuss this in the A Certain Scientific Accelerator thread in the Anime Forum
This review is copyright Tony Fawl, not for reproduction without the authors permission.
The characters, story, pictures and design for this show are the property of J.C.Staff, AT-X, Tokyo MX, MBS, and BS11 and of course Crunchyroll. All rights reserved.