Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T - Episode 21 - 10 Second Anime

Misaki drags Mikoto into investigating a purely mechanical being who may have a soul of her own.

#21 – “Doppelganger”

Hmm.

I need to say that I did not expect Shokuhou Misaki would be a part of every story arc of Railgun T. She was an afterthought as a member of a competing clique to Mikoto’s group of friends. I’m an anime only fan of Railgun, so I don’t know the order of stories, or how they’ve been adapted to fit two anime seasons. I’ve complained enough about Railgun delaying its broadcast beyond Index III when the producers announced it first, but she’s been a good ride for three story arcs for this two cour season. I mean, her inclusion has been good for drawing out fun character moments for Biri-Biri. I have no doubt she would be a “good ride” in all interpretations of that phrase.

Speaking of which, the way Misaki drew Mikoto to her by using a small child was a genius way of taking advantage of the best big sister in all the Index universe. She does have 10,000 little sisters, after all. Mind control of a little girl is always wrong, but this little girl was so precious, and even made more precious by mouthing Misaki’s rude little digs at Mikoto. The worst insult to injury was how Misaki’s boobs in her hands disabused Mikoto of every myth concerning large breasts. Mikoto has a new respect and understanding for those in the big booby brigade. Big boobs are nice, and the flat justice side of the divide should acknowledge their positive points more often.

Heh.

Mikoto can’t say no to a cute, little girl. This girl is pushier than I remember her. Eh, only Misaki calls Mikoto “muscle-head.” If Misaki is controlling this girl, shouldn’t her eyes be full of stars? Mikoto is weak to “Bust Upper.” Well, this little girl knows lots about Indian Poker only Misaki should know, so let’s see where this little girl leads Mikoto. There it is. Little Kana has starry eyes as Misaki hides in the background. No, little girl, they are not friends, as they say that at the same time. Has Mikoto never felt anyone else’s big boobs? She received an education in the power of oppai.

Judgment’s briefing explains the danger of Indian Poker. Trading dreams was fun for a while, but like social media, the info people share in their dreams, like snapchat videos, gives away more information than the user intends. Just looking at the backgrounds of people’s dreams revealed all the security measures the Academy City uses for its students. Any reason to show Mii is a good reason.

Oh, this stripe-haired girl is the big bad of this last arc for the season. Ryoko Kuriba is a dream source for Indian Poker. Misaki doesn’t like how dream reading is competing with her mind control networking. Here’s the deal: Ryoko somehow relates to the Clone Dolly, so that’s why Misaki needs to involve herself. Mitori should show up somehow, but we need to hear about how Ryoko associates with Dolly. Ha. Misaki is so fancy she doesn’t know how to eat ramen. It’s not spaghetti, girl!

The reality and force of oppai totally broke Mikoto. She thought Misaki’s boobs only looked big from a bag strap causing an optical illusion. Putting that aside, Mikoto characterizes Misaki’s interest in Indian Poker as something taking over her brainwashing territory. She’s not wrong… So, the Doppelganger project information found its way to Misaki through a recorded dream in Indian Poker. Ryoko is the poor girl who split into two and with cyborg parts and then reassembled later. Which one of the two Ryokos had a relationship with the real parents?

The Doppelganger experiment wanted to see the effects of “creating” a duplicate soul in the reassembled robot body! Misaki wants to investigate, but if there’s a real robot in the lab, her mind control powers won’t work on it. She needs muscle. More like, a muscle-head! Misaki cajoles Mikoto into helping her by making her fear a soul generation research that would use the souls of thousands of clones, like her Sisters. Very manipulative, but we expect that from Misaki. Eh? Mitori is still around? She’s using a lot less metal these days. Mitori claims Ryoko somehow relates the Misaki and Dolly, which is the actual reason for investigation. That relationship between Misaki, Mitori, Dolly, and Ryoko will reveal itself later, I’m sure. Mitori hangs out with the new Dolly.

Time for tomboy biri-biri action. Har. She’s so flat, people used to think the flying electrical vigilante was a boy. Ryoko pops out of a pod. I have questions about her striped hair and partially tanned body. Was her hair always two-toned like that? And why did one of the Ryokos become tanned during their year apart? Was she a jock of some sort? What’s up with some of the researchers having squiggly lines for faces? Is that to show they were the staff of the other Ryoko that she only vaguely remembers? This maid didn’t show her eyes. She’ll be important. This Ryoko appears emotionless. Maybe she’s the robot with a soul? This vignette filter is suggestive of altered perceptions. Ah. This Ryoko knows things she’s supposed to know, but she only remembers things clearly from the year of the experiment. She’s the robot. And the perception overlay falls away. Metal butt competes with Mitori’s puppet.

Confirmed – That was the metal Ryoko living at the research facility. Where is the real Ryoko? Convenient. The only things damaged in the robot’s fall are her GPS and active restraints. Did the fall really break those things, or did Metal Ryoko disable them beforehand?

Metal Ryoko messes with some drunk punks at an abandoned lab. Ah, here’s the real Ryoko. Misaki brainwashing in effect. Oh! Mikoto is here too, and Ryoko recognizes the Railgun. Terrible. Ryoko knew all the sordid details right after her reassembly surgery, as if the researchers would think she’d be happy about it. Ah. Ryoko’s personality is the kuudere type, so Metal Ryoko is still acting to type. Uh, did Metal Ryoko take punks’ skin, or did she know there was artificial skin still at this facility? Okay, if she used a machine to map the original DNA and make skin for her, why would it have those surgery seams? So, she escaped. Now what?

Haha. Bringing the band back together. The group of girls who couldn’t handle Accelerator in his terrible show now competes with Railgun and needs to capture Doppelganger. They’ll have the same amount of success, I’ll wager. And boo for reminding me I watched that terrible anime adaptation.