By which I mean the Index movie – I mean, what better way to display the upgraded theatrical production budget than to throw in such an obvious improvement in Touma’s living space?

Although my actual favourite background touch in Touma’s apartment is actually this –

At the opening of this particular scene, Index is seen playing the videogame Battle Snail, and obvious knock-off of the Metal Slug games. When she get’s distracted and hits a game over, however, the game kicks back to the screen above. This is actually a recreation of…

…the infamous Juggling Monkey loading screen from the Neo Geo CD. I dunno, the recreation of something so silly, as well as the implication that Touma lives in a city twenty years ahead of the technology curve yet still owns a Neo Geo CD, tickles me in a particularly amusing way.

As for the movie itself, I was inclined to say it was alright, but then I suddenly got to the movies back third – and by “suddenly”, I mean that the movie seems to be missing about ten minutes worth of content that bridges the second and final acts. It doesn’t really help that the final act itself feels like it’s missing every other cut of animation – it’s not incoherent, as such, but it somehow flows terribly, and everything ends up coming across with the sense of having no build-up and, therefore, consequence. It’s all explodey and flashy and everything, but it’s also all kind of boring.

I’m also not feeling Accelerators cameo appearance at all, either. I mean, I understand why they did it, but for what they used him for, I’d have much rather seen Anti-Skill be given the chance to actually be bad-ass for once. Anti-Skill are beaten into the ground so much that scenes of them being beating into the ground feel so free of gravitas that they’re no longer any kind of useful gauge of a villains powerlevel, even when the named characters are involved.

And, finally, I’m really not sure how I feel about Saten having a speaking role in Not-Railgun, even if she does wield her baseball bat. It just doesn’t seem right…