While sometimes in more of a comedic role in other installments of the series, P.E. teacher and Anti-Skill member Aiho Yomikawa was given a lot of chances to show off her combat ability in A Certain Scientific Accelerator and we think this scene from episode 5 takes the cake. Being boosted up for a high jump by her teammate Alto, Aiho bravely chases after DA soldiers, taking them on while outnumbered. Using her shield to plow through them while reflecting bullets was exciting and showed that she can be badass even without esper or magical powers.

Sakuragi Naruha, or Naru to her teammates, is a newly-introduced character in Accelerator who is a member of the mercenary group Scavenger. With the ability to form and control paper with extremely powerful psychokinesis, her fight with Esther, Huotou, and Accelerator was a highlight for the series for us. Her bizarre bear-suit transformation and drill arms to fight Huotou’s earth armor was really exciting, even more so when Accelerator comes into the picture and survives their deadly team attacks. The iron maiden-like trap was particularly cool and one of the most badass moments for Accelerator when it comes out unharmed.

Speaking of Hasami/Huotou, her “reactivation” was one of the most interesting scenes in the early part of the series. This was made all the more impactful after we saw her troubled life and terrifying death at the hands of DA beforehand through Accelerator’s vision. Seeing her ‘reborn’ with the Huotou implanted in her by Esther and almost immediately unleashing her new strength against the DA agents sent to destroy her body was a memorable moment, full of both sadness at Hasami’s fate and a sort of righteous vengeance carried out against her attackers.

While this series was full of some fun lines and monologues, one that stood out the most to us was Accelerator’s speech to Esther as they are preparing to take on the horrifically transformed perfect golem Hirumi. Comforting her, he says "A hero is someone who doesn't hesitate to stretch out their hands and run as fast as they can toward what they're trying to save. What is it that you want to save with your hands?" Esther remembers the promise she made with Hirumi in the past, knowing now what she wants to protect. The focus on hands and Esther and Hirumi’s pinky promise was a nice touch and the triumphant “Let’s kick that monster’s ass!” was a solid lead-up to the final fight.

Obviously, for a grand finale, you’ve got to pull out all the stops if possible so this last episode had a lot to live up to. We’ll cheat a little bit and include two climaxes from the last episode here. The first one being Esther running up the side of Hirumi’s transformed body with Emperor Shun's Blade and delivering the final blow with help from Huotou, Misaka 10046, and Accelerator. We finally got to see her resolve bear fruit and the final meeting with Hirumi afterward was both touching and tragic.

The other climax being Accelerator absorbing and deflecting the immense energy explosion from the golem’s corpse, nearly killing himself in the process to protect Last Order. You’ve got to love Accelerator’s black tornado wings and resulting crazy laser blast! While we never really thought he had died, it made for a satisfying conclusion made more exciting by the false resolution beforehand. Ultimately seeing Accelerator act heroically in the end takes the cake for us, making it our top moment of the series.