He's begun watching Railgun.

I hope he'll stick it out at least past episode 3. Episode 2 is my least favorite ep of the entire series, and when I rewatch I always skip it. But I like ep 3 a great deal.

UPDATE:

L0 is no power. What is she doing in Ac.City, then?

(Referring to Saten.) Anyone who can afford it can go to school there. Many people who have no power attend in hopes of finding one. Some of them succeed. Many don't. Among those who don't, a lot become bitter. A few become violent.

Saten is more complex and interesting than she first seems -- but that applies to all four of the major characters. In too many series, a given character is defined by a single characteristic, but that's not the case here. Saten isn't defined by her tendency to flip Uiharu's skirt. (Which happens twice in the first two episodes, and I think only about twice more in the entire series.) Kuroko isn't defined by lesbian hots for Mikoto.

Uiharu in turn isn't defined by being a fangrrl of the rich and powerful. Initially she wants to meet Mikoto because Mikoto is the legendary "Railgun", but it doesn't take her long to get past the legend and to become friends with Mikoto, the rather ordinary girl. That transition pretty much happens in ep 3. Up to that point, getting the four of them together is a matter of chance or rare action, but after ep 3 all four of them come to think of each other as friends, and it becomes routine for them all to hang out together. Part of the reason that works is because Mikoto isn't pretentious, even though her parents are rich and she attends a ritzy school, and of course is the third strongest ability user in the entire city. Indeed, part of why Mikoto likes hanging out with Saten and Uiharu is because they don't idolize her. They call her Misaka-san, not Misaka-sama, and that's their attitude towards her. For someone immersed in notoriety, it's nice to be with people who don't put her on a pedestal.

There's more to Saten's harassment of Uiharu than meets the eye. Uiharu is a nerd, and initially she was withdrawn, shy, and lacking in self confidence. Saten is something of a sosh, but she felt sorry for Uiharu. The real reason she flips Uiharu's skirt is to get a rise out of Uiharu -- as part of a process of getting Uiharu to come out of her shell. It's hazing, but hazing as a form of social acceptance. Saten isn't doing it to be cruel.

Some of that doesn't really get explicated until ep 20, in flashbacks. Saten isn't the only one who's been hazing Uiharu, though she's done a lot more of it than anyone else. (And the others are not trying to be cruel, either.)

A different point: Saten is, to some extent, the audience-viewpoint character. We're all level 0, right? None of us are espers. (I assume. I sure am not.) So part of the story is to show what it's like for a level 0 to hang around with people like Kuroko and Mikoto who have truly extraordinary abilities and are very adept at using them. How would you react to being around such people, becoming friends with them? Would you be afraid? Could you think of them as just people? Would you be resentful?

Saten goes through a lot of that over the course of the series; it's one of the major plot lines the series presents. Even with Uiharu. Uiharu's power (once it's revealed) is really not very useful, and Uiharu is only level 1. But she has a power, nonetheless. She's in the club, even if only as a very junior member. Uiharu's power is utterly useless for police work, but it still qualifies her to become a member of Judgement, where she's done very well.

Saten doesn't seem to really want to join, but it doesn't matter. She can't; they won't accept a level 0. She's on the outside, looking in.

There's also a feeling of helplessness to being a level 0 in a place like Academy City. There are so many powerful people around, and some of them are rather ruthless and are willing to use their powers to victimize others. Saten herself does become a victim of such a power user at one point. It's more humilitating than damaging, but it may have left her with a residual fear: what if someone like that had really wanted to harm me? What could I have done? Nothing! I'd have been completely helpless.

In some ways, Saten's story is the most important in the series. And she eventually finds out a lot about herself, and becomes strong in ways which are important, and gets a moment of glory because of what she is, rather than what she might dream of herself becoming. (Actually, she gets two.)

There are a lot of happy endings in this series, but I think hers is the best.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:01 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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