A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Episode 19

I have previously referred to Saten as the Raildex franchise's “Danger-Prone Daphne,” as she seems to have an uncanny ability to ferret out mysteries and get herself in harm's way, usually requiring other characters to come to her rescue. This episode is yet another example. The one significant difference this time is that she gets into trouble through no fault of her own, though as the end of the episode suggests, this is also a double-whammy situation.

The threat actually does not come from her villainous co-star, either. For the second straight episode, a member of Mikoto's group winds up co-starring with a member from ITEM, in this case the blonde bomb specialist Frenda. The circumstances are no less silly than with Kinuhata last episode: Frenda is practically addicted to mackerel, and Saten just happened to buy the last can a supermarket had. Various shenanigans lead to Saten giving in to Frenda's pleading and taking her home to make mackerel curry for her (is that even a thing?), which Frenda sees as sufficient reason to “friend” her. That ultimately proves to be a life-saver for Saten, as Frenda comes to her rescue when Saten gets kidnapped over the seemingly-innocent Indian Poker card she picked up.

In all likelihood, the card – from a chopsticks champion – is innocent, but for it to come up in SCHOOL's search for items related to the “tweezers” (a MacGuffin in the Battle Royale arc in A Certain Magical Index III, which chronologically takes place a few days after this) is Saten's plot device – er, bad luck, yeah. That allows for guest appearances from SCHOOL, including Banka Yobou as the guy with the wires, Kaibi Gokusai (for a long time known as just Girl in the Dress) as the blonde working behind the scenes, and the formal introduction of Rakko Yumiya, whose dream appeared last episode. Shiage also makes an appearance as well as Frenda's driver in pursuing the kidnapped Saten. All of this can happen because the events of this episode are set between September 27-29th, which means both that they overlap with what was happening in the previous two episodes and that they occur before the events of Battle Royale in Index III. That's important because at least three of the guest appearances in this episode are dead within ten days, lending a slightly morbid undertone to the episode for those fully familiar with the events of Index III.

In fact, this episode seems to be either directly or indirectly setting up some of the circumstances in play during Battle Royale. Rakko's attack on Frenda at the end of the episode is a precursor to SCHOOL's attack on ITEM in that arc, though Rakko clearly does not know about Frenda's affiliation at this point. Since the Next Episode preview shows that the confrontation between her and Frenda does not end with Frenda getting shot from behind, presumably next episode will explain why Rakko had to be replaced before Battle Royale. She is as much of a headcase as any esper, but I suspect that we shouldn't expect too much development from her.

Directorial choices here are also interesting. Rather than using date cards or subtitled dates, various camera shots were selected to highlight the dates on clocks or Academy City's news blimp. I prefer this kind of approach and absolutely think it's necessary, given the importance of understanding when these events happen. Also, has Frenda previously been established as Norwegian? (“Ha det bra” is the functional equivalent of “good-bye” in the Norwegian language.)

The episode ends with a great cliffhanger and succeeds overall despite Mikoto, Kuroko, and Uiharu all being relegated to brief appearances.

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A Certain Scientific Railgun T is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.