I drink to Burst Linkers that use their brains.

Summary:
Kuroyukihime leaves for her class trip, and Haru continues his investigation into “Nomi.” Taku explains that the accelerated actions are not the result of a “Brain Burst,” but a “Physical Burst”- it accelerates the brain and body at the cost of 5 Burst Points. Haru accidentally chases Nomi into the girl’s shower, where he encounters Chiyu. Nomi lures Haru and Chiyu further into his spider’s web, as it turns out, he’s managed to implicate Haru into a peeping tom with solid evidence and a visual masking virus on his side.

Impressions:

I enjoyed Accel World for once! Yes, this is Kaitou taking over for Vantage for this week’s episode of Accel World…I’ll try to keep down the fangirling. Please look forward to his post next week as well~

Scan your stuff before you open attachments, dammit!
Normally, I’ll just begrudgingly trudge through yet another fighting episode, but this episode was all about the details, the small tricks, and traps. Haru is not the smartest or the strongest, but he’s doing pretty well…at getting himself stuck in Nomi’s web. The joint investigation by Taku and Haru yields results about Nomi, but in the end, it just leads to Haru almost getting caught in the girl’s showers. Though, I really wish that Haru had noticed that the bathroom signs had been switched when he was tailing Nomi, as normally, the bathroom of each gender should be consistent in “direction” (left or right) throughout the school. But no, Haru blunders in, and sees Chiyu in the shower.
HURRRR.

The visual masking virus was a nice touch to the story because it employs deviousness as part of the strategy. OK, I’m not saying that I like Nomi (GOD FORBID), I’m just saying that his methods are clever, more clever than anyone else I’ve met. Unfortunately, this cleverness is misused in a twisted manner, as he’s not only over-confident and manipulative, he’s really keen on hurting other people, not in beating them. I have to point out, he talks too much, which I suspect will be his downfall.

One of the things I had to come to terms with in this episode was the shower scene, and the use of cameras. I’m one of those people that cringe at boob-grope jokes (hence my love-hate relationship with Accel World ;_;), I guess with the sexual assaults on university campuses lately, I can’t help but feel it hits a little too close to home. I was really happy that the peeping part was part of the story, and not just used for spur of the moment, haha-I-have-a-naked-wet-girl-pressed-against-me fanservice.

Is it just me, or does everything fall apart as soon as Kuroyukihime leaves them all alone? Chiyu still thinks everything is a game, which makes her more of a burden than a real asset in this fight. Something really bad has to happen before she really understands just how dangerous Burst Linkers are, especially if they abuse their powers in “unethical” ways against normal Linkers.

But, damn, Nomi is a smart bastard. @__@ How are they going to get out of this!?! I don’t want Chiyu to be his special pet, nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. D:

Oh, to answer the question of what Haru asked for as a souvenir from Kuroyukihime, he chickened out AGAIN, and asked for photos. I MEAN, COME ON!!?!

Well, Haru, enjoy your personal Kuroyukihime Instagram feed. GG. You don’t even get any real food out of this.


Kaitou, signing off~

[adsenseyu2]