Hello,
Today we'll talk about the 15th episode of the spring season 2012 anime series Accel World that, just like predicted, focused this episode around overblown drama.
The main purpose of this episode was clear and was all about destroying everything that Haru built in the previous story arcs. He lost his powers, his friends and he thinks that he'll lose Kuroyukihime as well..
That's, of course, just a trial in order to make him grow stronger. We just need to see how they'll manage to go around Noumi's overpowered ability-stealing power...
I have to say that it was really irritating to watch Haru complain all the time that it wasn't "his fault" for that dire situation. Yes, of course, it wasn't his fault (Noumi is the only culprit here), but that doesn't give him rights to attack and insult Taku.
Noumi, on the other end, looks like a mono-dimensional minor villain without any kind of character development. Hey, I can sort of imagine him shouting "Yes, I'm evil inside!™" too!
By the way, I speculate that Noumi is going to be used as a "sacrifice" in order to find out what happens when a player loses the game.
And here we get the introduction of the new supporter character named Skyraker (Ash's parent in the accelerated world). I'm quite curious to know more about her abilities, especially after Ash's remark...
I'm speculating that she will teach Haru a new way to fight even without his wings and maybe give him some extra "strength-of-will" to face such situations in the future.
If we give a look at the OP, Skyraker is the avatar of an extremely beautiful girl, and I really wonder if she'll become (together with Yuniko, Aqua Current, etc...) part of the main supporting cast.
Judging from the preview, next episode will be focused on the training (done by Skyraker) in order to give Haru enough power to face Noumi without his flying ability.
I think that this is an important step in Haru's character development, especially because he was growing more and more reliant on his ability to fly and less on his skills as a player.
It's also going to be interesting to see how Taku and Chiyuri will react to the grave situation, especially after Haru's self-centered rant in front of Taku...
Concluding, while this episode was mostly a pointless and boring drama-trap, I think that Accel World has still a lot of chances to shine in the next episodes.
I'm going to keep watching and blogging this in the future.
See you soon,
feal87