Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator Episode 08

Friend (蛭魅 (フレンド) ) is the eighth episode of the Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator anime series. It was broadcast on August 30th 2019.

Adapted From

 * Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator Manga Chapter 022

Major Events

 * Flashback episode
 * Episode reveals Hirumi, Hishigata, and Esther's history together, including Esther's involvement in the experiment.
 * Hirumi is revealed to have been possessed by one of the Evil Spirits of the Numbers--Taowu.
 * Esther finishes preparing Emperor Shun's Blade.

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Hishigata Hirumi
 * Hishigata Mikihiko
 * Esther Rosenthal
 * Takada Youko (cameo)
 * Kidera Minori (cameo)
 * Nakahara Hiromi (cameo)

New Characters

 * Go Hazime

Abilities

 * Psychokinesis (assumed) - Girl in the L-type Lab Equipment, level unknown.

New Abilities

 * Emperor Shun's Blade - Esther Rosenthal

Locations

 * Academy City

New Locations

 * School District 14
 * Children's Park 5
 * Topaz Gym
 * Cafe Mimosa
 * Pricestore

Referbacks

 * After Esther strips off her clothes in public, Hirumi accuses Esther of being the Stripping Lady in the city's urban legends.

Cultural References

 * Prior to Esther Rosenthal being invited to supervise Hishigata Mikihiko's research team, several mysterious objects were taken from outside of the Academy City.


 * is used heavily during this episode. Its meaning as "friendship" according to the language of the flowers, is even shown.

Differences in Adaptation

 * Esther's past with the Hishigata siblings is considerably expanded upon, but also differs considerably from the circumstances depicted in the manga.
 * In the original manga, Esther is implied to have allowed people to die during the experiments or at the very least allowed corpses to be desecrated, their brains removed from their body. In this episode, Esther is complicit with the use of live humans, specifically, women who are so in debt they'll volunteer for it, to be used for the experiment to the point that they lose their sense of self, essentially mind broke. Esther says that she is used to tragedy as she is a necromancer, and only concerned that Hirumi might be participating in the experiment.
 * The circumstances of how exactly Hirumi died in the original manga was never explored. Here in this episode it is revealed that she committed suicide.
 * The episode takes away Esther's agency, having Taowu possess Hirumi's body on it's own without Esther performing a ritual to insert the spirit into her body, as with the case in the original manga.