Alternative title(s): To aru Kagaku no Accelerator
Manga Adaptation by J.C. Staff
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Accelerator has recovered from his injuries, albeit with his powers now severely limited. Before he can leave the hospital, he’s attacked by a new enemy trying to obtain his DNA.

Jel’s verdict: The Best is actually the Worst

Let’s get this out of the way: this series plays as a sequel to A Certain Magical Index and provides zero context or explanation for what is going on. In fact, it picks up almost immediately after episode 20 of the original series, making specific references that even I barely remembered. There is no point to watching this if you haven’t watched any Index before.

That said, if you are familiar with this series your opinion will probably rest on how much you like Accelerator. Personally I loved him as Touma’s greatest villain but I’ve hated his rehabilitation. I’m not buying someone who murdered that many people and enjoyed it as someone who can just flip a switch and work for the good guys now. I feel zero motivation to cheer for him as the hero, which is what we are being asked to do. Touma may be an idiot and Mikoto may be too perfect, but their selfless heroism is badly missed here.

Aside from that, the shift in writing and anime staff makes this feel like a cheap knock off. The ridiculous super powers and over the top camp that make the original fun are not up to par here. Making the main villain say “radical” all the time is not enough to add personality. On top of that, the art and animation are below average most of the time. The Index anime looks competent on its best days, and this was consistently worse than that.

I mostly wanted to watch this out of curiosity, to see if they would take Accelerator in a different direction or approach his story with a different tone. The answer is no, and they are telling it in a lower quality way than before. Considering I still haven’t found time to finish season 3 of the main Index series, I don’t foresee myself watching any more of this.