The three biggest lies in this world:

  • Santa is real
  • I’ll grow up to be a successful human being
  • Kuroko saying ‘my tastes do not run that way’ when touched by Misaka on the shoulder.

I appreciate the recap of Baba in the fetal position. Solid work. This show went on break for a week due to circumstances involving the coronavirus, although I didn’t see any specifics when I searched. Am I crazy? Did the animation seem like, a lot better than usual this episode? I’ve heard a lot of animation gets exported to China and I was thinking maybe that was the delay. I don’t know. I’m probably imagining it.

I love Saten so much for piecing this theory together about her memory being tampered with. Bless her soul. I hope they get somewhat to the bottom of this. I know Kuroko was hesitant at first, and she’ll probably keep up the tsundere act for a while, but I think she’s coming around to it too.

So we finally know the relationship between Shokuhou and Baba/Purple haired girl. Basically, they’re enemies both going for the Sisters but for different reasons. As shown in the website that Biribiri recreated, it would appear Shokuhou is looking for a computer (or already has it) that uses DNA to generate abilities. If she has a sister, she’s probably trying to recreate Misaka’s abilities. Why? I have no idea. Maybe she just wants a Misaka of her own that she can control. I can’t really get a grasp of how evil her intentions are. Technically, the only thing she’s done so far is kidnap an already unconscious Sister. Baba is the one who injected her and we now know that they were not working together. But, also, Shokuhou was ransacking villas and stealing data and then blaming it on Misaka. Soooo. The preview of the next episode shows her again and it looks like there will be a confrontation with Misaka so we can just wait that one out.

As far as the purple haired girl. I think she’ll be the main villain and Shokuhou will get settled like now-ish. If her ability does let her control a liquid-y metal, then obviously the shadow metal is going to come into play and maybe that weird creature thing she had will have a perfect form. She also said, about Misaka getting mad at the City’s antics, that ‘there’s still hope.’ So we can safely assume she is going to try another emotional appeal to get Misaka to join their side. And, I mean, it’s not like she’s wrong! Just listing off those three things – Sisters, DNA, Child experimentation – is pretty fair. I respected Misaka’s argument though, a lot. Yes, I’m mad, but that’s separate from you kidnapping and hurting my friends. She always keeps her head at the right times and that’s why she’s so great. It’s also a much larger, philosophical argument of how much more quickly science and technology can advance by doing ethically questionable things. Some of the greatest feats of humanity came about from really, really fucked up shit. But I doubt y’all want to hear me talk about that on an anime blog. I like pondering stuff like this though, every once in a while.

I’m honestly just waiting for 1) the team to get back together and then 2) Touma and Sogiita (who are featured heavily in the opening) to join the fray.

Going back to it, Kuroko and Misaka’s moments this episode… just… chef’s kissSeeing Kuroko on kind of the other side of this, getting nervous and panicky when touched by Misaka, was just absolutely glorious. And Kongo is going to be ok too. Ah, what a beautiful return after a week’s absence.