Episode 23 - Revolution's Dawn (Silent Party)
As the paralyzing agent takes effect, Aritomi tells Mikoto that science should reward intelligence and ingenuity above all else — but in Academy City, people are only valued according their esper abilities. He claims this is a fallacy because esper development is largely random and can't reliably be replicated. The objective of STUDY Corporation is to create a new approach: chemicaloids, artificially-created espers whose powers can be designed on demand and mass-produced. However, the city's scientific establishment refuses to take their proposal seriously... so, to prove their point, they will be launching a revolution tomorrow morning using their prototype esper, Janie. Before she loses consciousness, Mikoto guesses that STUDY is somehow using Janie's ability to remotely control their autonomous powered suits. Aritomi concedes that she's on the right track, but says she only has part of the picture.
Mikoto wakes up, still largely paralyzed, locked in a room with Nunotaba. In response to Mikoto's questions, Nunotaba explains that she was trying to sabotage Project Level 6 Shift when she was captured by an underworld organization, and subsequently sold to STUDY. Aritomi and his group had created a pair of artificial espers — the twins girls Febri and Janie — and programmed their mental patterns based on Nunotaba's old research. The sins of her past, it seems, will always catch up with her. Still, even though she failed to save the Sisters, she resolved to try to save these two girls. Janie, she says, is being kept in a state of semi-consciousness so STUDY can use her powers; Nunotaba was planning to escape with her once she obtained the toxin-neutralizing agent. Now, it seems all her plans have failed.
Interrupting Nunotaba's litany of despair, Mikoto tells her the Misaka Sisters want to convey their thanks. Then she says that she, too, ran herself in circles trying to save the Sisters — but there were people who made her realize she didn't have to do everything by herself. She tells Nunotaba that if she opens her eyes and looks around, she can see people who want to help her. Nunotaba asks bitterly what Mikoto thinks she can do, locked up and paralyzed. Instead of replying, Mikoto uses her powers to control the electrical signals in her own nervous system, enabling her to stand up as a dumbfounded Nunotaba watches.
Moments later, there is a sound of distant explosions. Mikoto reveals that before she left for District 17, she had herself injected with a subdermal tracking device — telling her friends to come after her if she didn't return. Then she says that Febri and Janie are relying on all of them, Nunotaba included. At this, Nunotaba finally breaks down and asks for Mikoto's help.
Moments later, Kuroko — having made short work of the facility's security robots — charges inside and finds Mikoto. Nunotaba opts to stay behind, saying that by remaining with STUDY she can help keep Janie safe. Before they leave, she briefly explains how Janie's ability, "Diffusion Ghost", works: using her hairs as a remote medium, she can convert AIM fields into virtual matter and control the surrounding objects. By planting programmed instructions into the AIM fields, STUDY's robots and powered suits are able to be operated autonomously in large numbers.
Returning to the Judgement office, Mikoto fills the others in on what she's learned. Putting all the pieces together, they conclude STUDY is planning to use Janie's ability to launch a major attack at the Academic Reach Assembly with their unmanned powered suits. Konori contacts Yomikawa to see if Anti-Skill has enough evidence to get involved, but Yomikawa tells them that STUDY Corporation has recently bought out their suppliers, meaning Anti-Skill is now dependent on them for their equipment. Until STUDY actually launches an attack, Anti-Skill won't be able to move against them.
Uiharu investigates STUDY's connections to the Reach Assembly, and learns they've recently delivered a very large number of equipment containers to each of the conference sites. Guessing that these contain powered suits for their attack, she tries to determine how many there might be in total. At the same time, Kongou rushes in with Wannai and Awatsuki and tells them her father's company estimates that STUDY has ordered enough material to make a huge number of suits. Uiharu confirms this from the delivery records, saying there could be as many as 20,000.
The only practical way to stop the attack is to find Janie and free her, which would shut down all the suits she's controlling. Unfortunately, Nunotaba didn't know where Janie is currently being held. She did advise Mikoto that Febri would be able to sense Janie's location once the latter starts using her powers — the problem is, that will only work once STUDY has already begun their attack.
With no better plan, they start making frantic preparations to prevent STUDY's powered suits from overrunning Academy City before they can find and reach Janie. Konori contacts other members of Judgement, starting with her roommate Aomi. Meanwhile, Kongou talks to her father and requests some special assistance; he issues some instructions in response.
That evening, Uiharu and Febri make Japanese-style rice balls together while Saten pores over some technical manuals. At their own dormitory, Mikoto and Kuroko make their own last-minute preparations. Kuroko gives Mikoto a four-leaf clover for a good luck charm, then asks who Mikoto was just calling. Mikoto avoids answering, but in another location several Misaka Sisters are gathered around a telephone wearing meaningful expressions.
As the sun rises the next morning, the members of STUDY stand ready in their secret headquarters. They take a final vote on proceeding, while Nunotaba anxiously monitors Janie's vitals. The vote passes unanimously, and Aritomi proclaims the launch of their "silent party''.
At each of the Reach Assembly sites, hidden containers open in unison, disgorging hordes of powered suits which head towards the campus gates. Before they can move out into the city, however, they find each of the four gates blocked by a handful of middle school girls: Konori, Kuroko, Uiharu with Saten, and Kongou with Wannai and Awatsuki. Outnumbered as they are, they all have the same message for STUDY: they shall not pass.
Looking out over the city from a rooftop, Mikoto waiting beside her, Febri points into the distance and says she can sense Janie. Telling the girl to hold on, Mikoto picks her up, leaps off the building, and charges off towards their destination.
Tropes
- All of the Other Reindeer: Aritomi and the other members of STUDY feel they've been treated this way. No matter how brilliant their academic accomplishments, because they are neither espers nor contributing to the esper development system, Academy City basically treats them as worthless.
- Call-Back: Mikoto's pep talk to Nunotaba once again echoes Saten's point about looking around to see that you're not alone.
- Cliffhanger: STUDY launches their revolution, as the girls defiantly stand in their way.
- Continuity Nod: When Yomikawa is in Komoe's apartment, a tarp can be seen covering the ceiling. Apparently the hole in her roof hasn't been fixed yet.
- Dawn Attack: As the episode's title implies, STUDY plans to launch their revolution this way.
- Flash Back: Parts of Aritomi's backstory are told like this. Nunotaba has a couple as well, showing how she ended up working for STUDY.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The computer screen Aritomi is looking at near the end shows the schematic of an unusual-looking building. Those familiar with The Movie may recognize it as the base of the Endymion Space Elevator.
- Motive Rant: The episode opens with Aritomi giving Mikoto and Nunotaba a very long and detailed one.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Mikoto realizes that Nunotaba's hopeless determination to try and save Febri and Janie all alone is the same misguided logic that she herself applied to the Sisters. This leads to her You Are Not Alone speech (below).
- Not So Stoic: The previously stoic Nunotaba breaks down in tears when she asks Mikoto to help her save Febri and Janie.
- The Cameo: Gensei Kihara appears in flashback, disparaging STUDY's proposal as a "summer vacation arts and crafts project". This is his only appearance this season, although it turns out his influence has been felt already; see The Reveal, below.
- The Reveal: In Aritomi's flashback, the "underworld-connected" organization he pitched his ideas to was involved with Project Level Six Shift... and Gensei Kihara was working with them on it. This is the first time Kihara is revealed to have been connected to that project, although given what we already know of him it's hardly a surprise.
- You Are Not Alone: Mikoto to Nunotaba:I've finally started to understand recently... you count on someone, and someone counts on you. And just like that, people can achieve more strength than they would all by themselves.
- You Shall Not Pass!: The episode ends with the main characters standing at the campus gates, prepared to block STUDY's forces from breaking out into the city.
