Telestina turns evil.No Kiyama-san, you are pretty, but you need to get more sleep and put on some makeup. Summary:At the Judgment office, Mikoto and friends are gathered to talk about what happened with the Child Error and Kiyama. Kuroko and Saten thinks the case is closed, but both Mikoto and Uiharu are concerned about something. Saten convinces Uiharu to go to the MAR HQ to visit Haruue, but instead Uiharu visits Kiyama first. Seeing Kiyama's sad state, Uiharu convinces Kiyama to come along to MAR with her to visit the kids and to hand over data that might be helpful to waking the kids. Uiharu and Kiyama arrive at MAR HQ, but Telestina refuses to let them see Haruue or the other Child Errors. Telestina also stomps on the data Kiyama provided, punches Kiyama in the guts, and has security escort Uiharu and Kiyama out of the building.At the Anti-Skill office, Yomikawa receives word from MAR to stop investigating the poltergeist events, and both she and Tessou wonder what's going on.Seriously, this was long overdue.Back at the Judgment office, Saten decide to call Uiharu but only hears sobbing on the other line. After bringing Uiharu back, Mikoto and friends run a background check on Telestina and learns that she is Gensei Kihara's grand-daughter. What's more, Telestina was Kihara's first subject for the abilities crystal and she willingly assisted her grandfather on the project. While Konori is doing the computer work, Uiharu is still sobbing uncontrollably, but Kuroko gets Uiharu to stop by slapping her. Uiharu then gets to work on the computer, but everyone suddenly realizes that Mikoto is gone.Look at me! I'm a Maniac, Maniac!!!!At least this suit is better looking than that horrible pink one you wore a few episodes ago.Mikoto arrives at the gates of MAR HQ just as several trucks drive out of the compound. Mikoto is met by Telestina in a purple mech suit who tells Mikoto that the kids are in the trucks that left. Mikoto accuses Telestina of various things, and Telestina belittles Mikoto while making maniacal expressions. Mikoto goes after Telestina, but Telestina turns on the Capacity Down system (she is the one who provided it to Big Spider) at the compound to stop Mikoto from using her powers. Telestina then starts shooting at Mikoto with a grenade launcher, and Mikoto is forces to scramble for her life. Telestina eventually corners Mikoto and chokes her into unconsciousness, leaving Mikoto to be picked up by her subordinates. Fortunately for Mikoto, Mitsuko is still at the compound and witnessed what happened, and she manages to rescue Mikoto before Mikoto is taken away.Round 1 goes to Telestina.The one time Mitsuko actually does something cool and we don't get to see it!? What a letdown.Mikoto wakes up in a hospital room watched over by her three friends while Mitsuko and Heaven Canceler are outside the room. Mikoto initially intends to go off on her own again, but Saten convinces her friends that they need to work as a team. The crew along with Mitsuko start their operation at the Judgment office where Uiharu phones Yomikawa for help. With satellite photos provided by Anti-Skill, Uiharu tracks down the MAR trucks carrying the kids, and the trucks are heading to District 17 where Kihara has a private lab. In the photo, Uiharu also spots Kiyama's Lamborghini following the trucks. With their plan set, Mikoto and her friends prepare themselves for combat.Who? Me? What did I do?I'm going to be the next big Major League slugger. Just watch me.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~That was easily the most entertaining Railgun episode in a long time. So Telestina was the villain as expected. It was rather abrupt how Telestina suddenly turned from a friendly, concerned adult into an evil maniacal bitch, but this was at least more exciting than any of the other episodes in the second half of this series combined. Thanks to Sayaka Ohara's voice acting and the crazy expressions on Telestina, it was if Beatrice from Umineko invaded the show. I'm not sure if we should be praising Telestina for her acting skill or make fun of J.C. Staff for the writing.Of course, none of this makes any sense whatsoever. Given how the dirt on Telestina was available for people (at least Judgment) to find, how the heck did she become the head of a rescue organization without flags being set off? Telestina's family is probably rich and in cahoots with some of the city's upper administration, but somebody should have taken note of her. Telestina being Gensei Kihara's grand-daughter does explain about why she wants the Child Errors, and that's all it takes to keep the story moving. Other details be damned.Other stuff on the episode: Saten did pretty well this episode getting her friends to work together at the end, although I question what she can do with the baseball bat. I also like the part where Kuroko slapped Uiharu, because Uiharu really needed it. In fact, it might have been better if Kuroko slapped Uiharu some more.So Telestina took off with Haruue and the coma kids probably to complete her grandpa's crazy experiments. Given how Telestina probably has a Capacity Down with her (would be dumb if she didn't), Mikoto and Kuroko would have rely on something other than brute force to rescue the Child Errors. Maybe Saten can destroy the Capacity Down with her baseball bat, or perhaps that Anti-Skill will show up to help? I'm not going to be picky about the story anymore. As long as a lot of stuff blow up in the next episode and Mikoto and friends get to kick some butts, I'll be happy.
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta
Episode: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Episode 23