English Dub Season Review: A Certain Scientific Accelerator Season One

The “A Certain Magical Index” franchise branches out into its second spin-off (and kind of a spin-off) with the first season of A Certain Scientific Accelerator. Taking place near the end of the first season of the main series, this centers around the efforts of the show’s strongest Esper, Accelerator, as he makes his next steps towards redemption after being used as a dangerous lab rat. To that end, he acts as a guardian to one of the test subjects he was trained to kill, but also gets wrapped up in a plot to resurrect the dead by a runaway necromancer and those who would manipulate her power for their own ends. Now the would-be villain sees another chance to test his changing morality and protect his new life and friends.

Along with a long-awaited third season of Index, this series acts as the second step in the franchise’s recent resurgence into animation after lying dormant for almost a decade. It also potentially provides a unique perspective into the show’s world, as where Index mostly shows the growing magical conflict and the first spin-off Railgun gives more focus to the scientific, Accelerator gives us a peek at the darker side of Academy City that those familiar with the other two shows have seen glimpses at. Or, you MIGHT say that if the villain plans seen here weren’t basically the same level of the dark as the other shows, but I guess the main difference between this and Railgun is that those plans are made more upfront instead of hidden in the shadows. Or at the very least, we are given a bit more insight into the shadows themselves and how they cover their tracks.

Though it should be pointed out that the aforementioned third season of Index was met with a pretty mixed reception at best by fans, which meant this really needed to help carry some of the momentum lost by that. And I’m sorry to say that this might not have helped in that. It doesn’t seem to have the same pacing problems Index III did, but the issues it does have come from its source material, mainly in how our title character gets pretty much nudged out of his own story in order to play second banana to his co-star Esther Rosenthal. Due to Accelerator’s unique relationship between science and magic, it does make sense that his story would delve into some magic related plots, but instead of using that to elaborate on his goals at this point in the timeline, it basically hands the keys to Esther’s own story. Not that she shouldn’t get some focus, but I feel like there were plenty of ways to balance the two instead of choosing one over the other. Plus, I know that those watching this will already know where Accelerator is headed in his character arc, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to show here.

I don’t think I can say this is as much of a letdown as Index III, but that’s probably only by virtue of it being so disposable that it was difficult to expect much in the first place. It’s cool enough to see one of the franchise’s most powerful characters kick ass for several episodes while growing endearing in his quest to become a hero, but you have to justify it as its own story at some point instead of simply another tangent of an already pretty big franchise. Next time we cover something from this world will be in 2020 with the third season of A Certain Scientific Railgun, which will hopefully be a good enough way to cap off this trilogy of new projects and ignite enough interest to see things continue beyond them.