English Dub Review: A Certain Magical Index “Misaka Worst”

You’re the worst! Around! Nothing’s ever gonna keep you down!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Toma and his…friends(?) stare down Fiamma while Vento begins her attack, having apparently been weakened during her fight with Toma but making use of multiple advanced magical attacks. Sadly, this is nothing against Fiamma’s Holy Right, which he’s able to stabilize with the power of the device he obtained from Index, gaining the upper hand against Vento and ripping off her tongue piercing (which, let’s face it, was one bad elevator ride away from getting yanked off anyway). He explains that, while his power is unstable right now, he has complete control over it AND its use is thanks to some sort of magical fluctuations caused by recent story events. He then turns to lecturing Toma about his place in things and how the two of them are similar in their abilities and how they knock down carefully laid plans with ease before poking him about lying to Index about his memory. Fiamma then snatches Sasha and teleports away.

Meanwhile, Accelerator make short work of more French sorcerers until he’s faced with a new opponent: another Misaka clone, this time from the “Third Season” and made in order to kill him. The battle is a tough one for him, not because he couldn’t end it if he wanted to, but because he made a promise to himself to never harm one of the clones ever again. Eventually, he catches on that this is simply a ploy by the Academy City board to make him snap, so he decides to protect this Misaka at all costs.

And meanwhile, meanwhile, Hamazura waits for Takitsubo to recover, but the village is attacked by armed thugs that are eager to take the land.

OUR TAKE

The beginning of the end continues!…to begin…to end. Last week was about setting the pieces on the board, so now we get to see some move and some get taken off. Of the three main plots centering on Toma, Accelerator, and Hamazura, all three get at least some significant push forward. Accelerator’s is definitely the meatiest, so I’ll save that for last, but Hamazura’s is pretty short so I’ll cover it here. It seems like his time in the village is pointing towards him needing to face a conflict head on, as opposed to running away, despite the fact that he has no special powers. The village he and Takitsubo is equally as powerless against these incoming thugs, so they’re all in the same boat, and so that’s where I think this will end up being about his character arc in some way.

Toma’s is mainly taken up by the fight between Vento and Fiamma, but that I didn’t mind so much. Despite the importance of the group these four belong to, we’ve never seen much interaction between them, let alone confrontation (aside from Acqua’s VERY brief killing of Terra over a dozen episodes ago), so it’s cool and appropriate to see this happen around now. The constant magical jargon went over my head a lot of the time, but I think it’s allowed in this case, given how steeped in knowledge these two would be about this. I’m sure the details of what exactly Fiamma’s big ol claw is capable of will become much more apparent as we continue.

Then there’s his brief “we’re not so different” chat he has with Toma. I’m learning more and more recently how important it is to have an antagonist who ties directly to the protagonists’ own qualities, so while I may not fully see the connection between these two right now, this does pose some interesting ideas about them. Throughout the series, Toma HAS been rather cavalier about how he approaches situations if they harm people he cares about, which is an admirable impulse for a hero but a potentially lethal aspect for a villain. I appreciate the sort of “dark reflection” thing they’re going for here, even though right now Fiamma seems about as dull as dishwater.

As for Accelerator’s bit with Misaka Worst (who I’m not sure is even referred to by that name this episode), this felt a lot more earned and cumulative. Part of that might have to do with the fact that we just came off an Accelerator focused arc prior to this, so his constant self-deprecation and eagerness to overcome his villainous past are still fresh in our minds. So, what would be the perfect test of this new path he’s chosen? Well, how about someone who wears the face of the girls he slaughtered like cattle over ten thousand times, only this time she’s out to kill HIM? In addition, this is happening while he’s trying to protect another clone, Last Order, meaning that this potentially forces him to compromise his newly found ideals by killing in order protect someone he cares about. Thus, despite how easy it would be to do so, he decides NOT to kill this new clone, but instead protect her too, showing he’s really put his old ways behind him and will use his power responsibly.

This is all a very impressive resolution to what he’s been dealing with since his first defeat by Toma…but I have some issues with the execution. Particularly in how rather gruesome and physical the fight becomes. I understand this is meant to be a grizzly and visceral confrontation, but seeing Accelerator think about not fighting will continuously punching Worst in the face until his fist is bloody…well, it feels like it’s sending mixed messages on that front, especially considering he could just try flattening her with his powers and it would get the point across just fine. This is pretty minor, but it did stick out to me enough to mention it.

Also, BIG shout out to Brittany Karbowski for once again blending into a completely different type of Misaka with SHOCKING (pun intended) ease. I only learned recently that each of the Misakas (not all 10000+, but you get what I mean) in the Japanese voice cast are all voiced by different actresses, so this just makes Karbowski look even better by being able to take on all these vastly different roles that all just happen to share the same face. Well done!