Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S Episode 17
とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）S
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mikoto finishes the grinding paperwork required to get permission to be out of her dorm past curfew when the dorm supervisor signs off on it, as she had done for Kuroko earlier. Meanwhile, Saten prepares her apartment for her guest and takes a call from Uiharu, where she remembers helping Mikoto make cookies for what she presumes is Mikoto’s boyfriend.  Mikoto has breakfast in the dorm before heading out while Kuroko does some patrolling for Judgement, encountering Minori-chan and her friends by the river, collecting four leaf clovers. Uiharu heads into Judgement, where Konori learns that Uiharu has set up a trap server to catch some hackers attempting to access a school newspaper server.

Kuroko is going to buy food items for the party at Saten’s when Mitsuko joins her, even getting her to come with her to a pet shop to buy vacuum packed rats for her pet snake. Meanwhile, Mikoto visits the hospital where Misaka-10032 is recovering from her injuries. Speaking with the “frog-faced doctor”, Mikoto is horrified to learn that the Sisters only have a year or two to live thanks to their rapid growth, but she’s relieved to hear that treatments are being done to extend their life, and that the Sisters are being sent to various places to live their lives. As Mikoto heads to her next location, Saten continues her apartment cleaning.

Mikoto arrives at a family restaurant to meet Kuroko when she sees Shizuri and Frenda at a table. Shizuri is irritated and Frenda tells Mikoto that she would have won their fight if she’d known that Mikoto was the Railgun. An angry Shizuri reminds Frenda that their loss was also due to Frenda not cleaning up her bombs and such. Kuroko arrives and hearing raised, angry voices, she puts on her Judgement sleeve badge to stop the fight. She’s shocked that Mikoto is there, but is soon dragged into an argument with Frenda over who is the best — Shizuri or Mikoto. When the argument degenerates into a bust comparison of the two girls, punishment ensues, followed by an embarrassed Shizuri storming out of the place with Frenda racing to keep up.

Mikoto and Kuroko arrive at Saten’s apartment where Saten reveals a nice, clay nabe pot for them to make nabe in. Kuroko wants to know what everyone brought, so Mikoto reveals several boxes of high grade beef, causing Uiharu and Saten to bliss out for a moment. Uiharu has brought a variety of vegetables. Kuroko is excited because she thinks her offering is best – a suppon (soft-shelled turtle) nabe package, since it is supposed to be good for the skin. She also has a glass of suppon blood mixed with juice to “energize” Mikoto, who refuses the beverage. The party starts and Saten takes a moment to make a comment on cookies, causing Mikoto to get flustered. Haruue arrives late with udon, so the party continues. That night, Mikoto and Kuroko walk home where Mikoto wants to do that again sometime.

Thoughts/Review:

Although this is mostly an anime-original story, four pages were picked up from manga chapter 39 (Mikoto and Saten making cookies).  Kuroko’s pet shop experience with Mitsuko is very similar to Mikoto’s experience in chapter 40 of the manga, but I won’t say that’s an adaptation. The argument between Frenda and Kuroko is taken from two 4-koma omake comic strips at the end of volume 5 of the manga.

I really hope that Mitsuko’s introduction story from the manga gets adapted. Since the anime has been so good about adapting things from the manga, it could be done in this series, though it would have to be a flashback since Mitsuko was introduced at a regular character in the first Railgun anime whereas in the manga, she didn’t transfer to Tokiwadai until just after the Sister’s arc.

I’m really glad that J.C. Staff adapted the 4-koma argument between Frenda and Kuroko. It was humorous enough as a couple of comic strips. Fleshing that out so that this is set in a family restaurant, complete with a natural way for Frenda and Kuroko to meet and argue while still keeping Kuroko ignorant that Mikoto had battled both of them was awesome.

I also really appreciate the continued aftermath elements from the Sisters arc. Sadly, when the Sisters arc concluded in the manga, we skip forward in time to just before the Daihasei Festival arc.  That arc starts in volume 9 of the Index light novels. The Sisters arc happens in volume 3 of the Index light novels. As such, there’s no time spent checking in on the Sisters or what they are doing in the manga. In this episode, we not only get to see Misaka-10032, but we learn what is being done with the clones now that the experiments are over.

It is a shame that the manga skipped the Tree Diagram Remanent arc from Index. I’m guessing that since this arc was covered in the Index II anime, it won’t be touched in the Railgun anime either.  If I’m right, that would be unfortunate going into the Daihasei Festival arc, which is clearly being saved for the next Railgun anime series.

As to the girl’s having their study/nabe party at Saten’s place, there was a lot of fun there. I liked how Mikoto got to be a rich ojousama by buying all that expensive beef, yet she didn’t do it to show off or the like. Indeed, she comes off as naive, wondering if what she’d bought (and clearly, she thought nothing of the expense of what she purchased) was actually good enough.

Kuroko’s unexpected purchase of a suppon nabe package and Uiharu’s protest about this not being a yaminabe (surprise ingredient nabe) party made me laugh. Saten, Uiharu, and Haruue score like bandits with Kuroko and Mikoto buying super expensive food items.

I’m glad the scene with Saten and Mikoto baking cookies made it in as a flashback. The scene and subsequent scenes inside Saten’s place made me realize that she’s pretty well off financially. After all, she has a decent sized apartment for Japan, complete with not only a small kitchen, but an oven too.  Not only that, she’s in middle school and living on her own.  Of course, that’s one of those fantasy, escapist elements for the kids watching, many of whom are starting to want more independence.

Finally, I couldn’t help but smile at Uiharu’s cheering on the hackers attempting to force their way into her trap server. Goalie indeed. ^_^

Anyway, the bottom line here is that I just rather enjoyed the fun, lighthearted elements of this episode.  I guess next week is a preview for the new Index movie so until the next episode…