The first thing one sees upon starting either of the two seasons of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a screen identifying it as an A Certain Magical Index side story. This is a massive injustice, and here's why:
As I concluded in my review, Toaru Majutsu no Index, or A Certain Magical Index in English, is a good show. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, which translates to A Certain Scientific Railgun is not a good show. It's an absolutely breathtaking masterpiece.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, which I will henceforth refer to as simply Railgun follows Misaka Mikoto, also known as The Railgun (no italics), a powerful Level 5 Esper in a few of her adventures throughout the futuristic Academy City, though it begins chronologically quite a bit before Index does. As I explained in my Index review, Espers are people with what are essentially science-based superpowers, ranked by Level from 0 (no Esper ability) to 5 (extremely powerful Esper ability), though talk of a Level 6 Esper becomes important in the second season of the show.
Something that I felt Index really squandered was the world it created. It did a good job of translating it to really entertaining battles, but we never really got to explore Academy City, the city of learning and science where most Espers congregate. Index was also a lot more focused on magic than Espers, which was another wasted opportunity. Railgun capitalizes on both of these in a big way. We not only get to explore Academy City, but Academy City becomes a major thematic force in the plot. Through the silly and fantastic concept of science-based superpowers, Railgun explores very serious and real issues of our current society. There's a lot of facets to it: The Level division is used as a metaphor for the division between the rich and poor, including the inclusion of those who are and are not able to improve their social status. Academy City itself is used to explore the impact of science on human society, in both its negatives and its positives, as well as the possible folly of good intentions, and the loss of perspective on the importance of human life.
A lot of what Railgun has to say has been said already, but its many heavy themes aren't obnoxious and in your face. In fact, at points I found myself not even sure if they were intentionally put there, since they're masterfully woven into the world, and seem like they're just a natural consequence of the way this world operates. And yet, in hindsight, I can see that that's utterly unlikely, and giving the writers of Railgun too little credit. Railgun is true sci-fi: It's using apparently ridiculous ideas to convey something really real in an organic way, and it doesn't ever grind the action to a halt to shove it in your face: The ideas are there for you to pick up on by yourself.
Another issues I had with Index was character development, in that there was barely any. The characters we got to see where very well-defined, but they didn't change at all throughout the course of the show. Railgun also nails this. Whilst it focuses on a significantly smaller cast, every single member of this cast has changed in some way by the end of the show. Admittedly, a few of these changes are a bit heavy-handed, falling in the pitfall that it so elegantly and seemingly effortlessly avoids when it comes to overarching themes of the show, but this doesn't mean they're not impactful. Railgun is centred around Misaka, her room mate Shirai, and their friends Uiharu and Saten.
Even in Index, where she got considerably less screen-time, I could tell Misaka was my favourite character, and she gets considerably better here. She is eminently likeable: short-tempered enough to be funny, noble enough to be admirable, and powerful enough to be fist-pumpingly cool. Even if Index's Touma did a surprisingly good job as protagonist, Misaka blows him out of the water. She's got plenty of character, and goes through more than one really good emotional arc, particularly the one spanning the entirety of the second season. I also like her constant appreciation of a lot of childish things, which is an extremely endearing trait, especially considering how mature she is otherwise.
Shirai, Misaka's room mate, is a powerful Level 4 Esper (fantastic control of her ability, teleportation) and works at Judgement, one of the two main policing organizations at Academy City, along with her friend Uiharu. Both of them are also in middle school. This was one of my more omnipresent issues: middle-schoolers seem to be accepted for police work for no particular reason, and don't seem to get any special education for it, outside of physical training. It doesn't seem like a particularly huge issue, but it constantly pulled me out of the show with just how little sense it makes. Sure, Shirai is shown to be a powerful Esper, but there's information that later in the show becomes vital to her survival that she only just learned in class. What if she was a year younger? It's established that she was in Judgement since elementary school, so it's lucky none of these crises came up before she'd learned about it in school or Academy City would be fucked. I just think the whole Judgement thing would work if it were portrayed as training for the other, proper, police organization, Anti-Skill, or even as a club Shirai and friends started Buffy style.
Stupid, non-sensical police organizations aside, Shirai is a fairly decent character. The running joke with her is that she's very infatuated with Misaka, and will often display her affection. Outside a few choice situations, it's not very funny, and often drags on for too long. Still, when things get serious Shirai is shown to be a very dependable and kind, if stubborn person. Her character arcs aren't particularly interesting, but they do have a couple very cathartic moments at the end which made me shed a few tears.
The weakest character of the main four is likely Uiharu, Shirai's companion at Judgement, and a weak Level 1 (Has power, but can barely use it) Esper. There's just not much to her. She's kind of bland: She's shy-ish... and very understanding? Also a hard worker and a bit of an idealist, I guess? To be fair, the show doesn't often really focus on her that much, and when it does it tends to work surprisingly well, often centred around her wish to help those who are vulnerable. It's a good thing, too, because I feel that any more Uiharu-centred content than we get would get quite old.
Last but definitely not least out of the main cast is Saten. I have trouble deciding whether Saten or Misaka is my favourite character in the Academy City universe. Saten is a Level 0 Esper, having absolutely no ability. She's an energetic and somewhat goofy girl, but is shown to be a very understanding person. She's got an absolutely brilliant arc in Season 1, but unfortunately falls to the wayside in this respect in Season 2, acting mostly as just a supporting character. Still, there's such a sense of benevolence emanating from her that I can't help but like her. She's a very human character, smart in many ways, stupid in many others.
Accompanying them is a fairly large set of side characters, though nowhere near the size of that in Index, meaning each side character also gets a fair amount of development. There's some really fantastic ones here: I really like the pompous but ultimately good-natured Kongou, as well as Shirai and Uiharu's boss Konori. To put the nail in the coffin, several of these side-characters randomly get an episode dedicated to them where the main cast take a backseat role, and these are some of the best episodes in the series. There's a few guest appearances by characters from Index, most notably Touma (who admittedly is way too important to be just a guest halfway through Season 2), though these usually feel pretty hollow and a bit pointless.
Both the characters and the world would go to waste without at least a decent story to back them up, and Railgun's story is more than decent. Both seasons are comprised of two arcs, each spanning about half the season. In Season 1, both these arcs eventually make up a complete story in two parts, whereas in Season 2 the connection between the arcs is more thematic than anything. This lends the story a much more coherent feel than Index's three bajillion arcs, and helps keep momentum throughout. Even more so, the way each arc is built is absolutely phenomenal, typically starting with the gang going on several seemingly disconnected adventures throughout their daily lives that ultimately turn out to be connected to a larger plot, eventually building to a climatic battle. These small adventures provide the down-time in between important plot bits: They range everywhere from having a hot pot to helping a woman find where she parked her car to catching a small-time criminal.
This kind of stuff was sorely missing from Index, and lent its version of Academy City a bit of hollowness. It seemed like a nice place, but we never spent much time just enjoying it. With Railgun, it's occasionally easy to forget you're watching an anime about people with super powers, with a few episodes feeling a lot more like something out of Katawa Shoujo than Index. It's fluff, pure and simple, and it's what lets us feel comfortable around the main characters, and what leads us to love Academy City and its people.
These disconnected adventures typically do have some amount of overall significance, though. Little plot threads are planted throughout each adventure, either small discrepancies that the characters notice or apparently irrelevant rumours, which helps keep a sense of momentum going. Once the larger story of the arc has kicked in, they'll become apparent as consequences of whatever mysterious plot is going on in Academy City. Things escalate very smoothly, and soon the stakes are extremely high, but it's never as jarring as it was in Index since this escalation is taking place across ten or so episodes, rather than one or two. By the end of each arc, things feel important, damnit, and the inevitable final showdown between Misaka and company and the villain dejour has a lot riding on it.
Which is why it's good that the action is so damn awesome. I did praise Index for its action scenes, but Railgun blows them out of the water. Misaka's powers are used in extremely creative ways, and she comes across more than one villain with really cool gimmicks. Despite her being established as the 3rd most powerful Esper in Academy City, and as such the world, Misaka's opponents never fail to pose a challenge, and it's often tough to see ways for her to defeat them. Fights here are more about out-thinking your opponent and exploiting holes in their defensive capability than about constant offence, which makes them very entertaining, and they often end in unexpected ways. However, the highlights of the action scenes are undoubtedly the end-of-arc scenes, often Misaka using her power in extremely visually impressive and creative ways, whilst the theme music for that arc blares in the background. I honestly couldn't help myself from cheering during these (or, in one occasion, shedding a few manly tears), since they often build on all the character development done throughout the arc, as well.
There are a few flaws in the story, however, the major one happening in Season 1: Between the two major arcs, there are a good few episodes where nothing really seems to be happening. They're enjoyable enough by themselves, but they don't have any of the foreshadowing that's usually cleverly implanted in the show, and as such feel a bit pointless. I'd typically enjoy these scenes (Hell, I praised the hell out of Katawa Shoujo whenever it did that sort of thing), but since Railgun had proven to me it could do better with the same kind of material, it felt a bit disappointing. The four or five episodes after the end of the first arc of the first season are by far the weakest part of the show. The second flaw stems from being based on Index: The first arc of the second season ends kind of abruptly, because it was originally an Index storyline. As such, a lot of great build up is wasted on a payoff that's ultimately centred around Touma and not the characters that we've been watching the whole thing happen through. Fortunately, this is actually really cleverly used to push Misaka's development further along in the second arc of the season, which ultimately results in an absolutely stellar climax.
Character and World Building: 10/10
Jesus Christ, it's good at this. The entire cast is endearing as hell, and goes through large amounts of juicy character development. We get to spend both fun and hard times around them, which helps us love them even more. Not only this, but we get to see Academy City developed to its fullest, in both its light and dark sides, and it's glorious. Aside from a few very mildly annoying character traits, and one or two bland people, there's very little to dislike here.
Story: 8.5/10
Every single arc is brilliantly built, with a smooth progression from beginning to middle to end. We start small, and get big, and it all feels perfectly natural and logical. There's a few unfortunate flaws here and there, but these are largely hidden from view by how great the rest of the story elements are. The show does climaxes particularly well, with the end of every arc being an extremely cathartic experience.
Presentation: 4.5/5
It looks a lot like Index, for obvious reasons. However, fight scenes look a lot more visually impressive, and have a lot more creativity on display. The soundtrack, which I really enjoyed in Index, also feels quite a bit better this time around. We also get to see Academy City at day a lot more, which I feel just makes the show more pleasing to look at.
Enjoyment: 15/15
Railgun is an absolute blast to watch. There's ups and downs, there's highs and lows, and you feel for the characters the whole way through. You spend your time being silly with them, but when the situation gets serious you're still with them 100% of the way. The end-of-arc climaxes feel great, and the more sombre moments pack quite a bit of a punch. There's simply not a lot to complain about.
Overall: 10+8.5+4.5+15/40
38/40
(Simplifies to 9.5/10)
I guess I scored Railgun higher than I did Mirai Nikki, which I considered my favourite anime up until now. I'm not sure whether that's changed - scoring is a tricky beast that doesn't 100% reflect opinion - but the fact that I'm seriously considering that possibility should tell you all you need to know. Railgun is absolutely phenomenal, blowing its more than competent parent show completely out of the water. To put it plain and simple, there's very little that Railgun gets wrong: It nails characters, it does a fantastic job on its story, and it's set in an amazingly realized world. Railgun has the highest rating that I've given out on this blog so far, and it deserves every little bit of it.
As I concluded in my review, Toaru Majutsu no Index, or A Certain Magical Index in English, is a good show. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, which translates to A Certain Scientific Railgun is not a good show. It's an absolutely breathtaking masterpiece.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, which I will henceforth refer to as simply Railgun follows Misaka Mikoto, also known as The Railgun (no italics), a powerful Level 5 Esper in a few of her adventures throughout the futuristic Academy City, though it begins chronologically quite a bit before Index does. As I explained in my Index review, Espers are people with what are essentially science-based superpowers, ranked by Level from 0 (no Esper ability) to 5 (extremely powerful Esper ability), though talk of a Level 6 Esper becomes important in the second season of the show.
Something that I felt Index really squandered was the world it created. It did a good job of translating it to really entertaining battles, but we never really got to explore Academy City, the city of learning and science where most Espers congregate. Index was also a lot more focused on magic than Espers, which was another wasted opportunity. Railgun capitalizes on both of these in a big way. We not only get to explore Academy City, but Academy City becomes a major thematic force in the plot. Through the silly and fantastic concept of science-based superpowers, Railgun explores very serious and real issues of our current society. There's a lot of facets to it: The Level division is used as a metaphor for the division between the rich and poor, including the inclusion of those who are and are not able to improve their social status. Academy City itself is used to explore the impact of science on human society, in both its negatives and its positives, as well as the possible folly of good intentions, and the loss of perspective on the importance of human life.
A lot of what Railgun has to say has been said already, but its many heavy themes aren't obnoxious and in your face. In fact, at points I found myself not even sure if they were intentionally put there, since they're masterfully woven into the world, and seem like they're just a natural consequence of the way this world operates. And yet, in hindsight, I can see that that's utterly unlikely, and giving the writers of Railgun too little credit. Railgun is true sci-fi: It's using apparently ridiculous ideas to convey something really real in an organic way, and it doesn't ever grind the action to a halt to shove it in your face: The ideas are there for you to pick up on by yourself.
Another issues I had with Index was character development, in that there was barely any. The characters we got to see where very well-defined, but they didn't change at all throughout the course of the show. Railgun also nails this. Whilst it focuses on a significantly smaller cast, every single member of this cast has changed in some way by the end of the show. Admittedly, a few of these changes are a bit heavy-handed, falling in the pitfall that it so elegantly and seemingly effortlessly avoids when it comes to overarching themes of the show, but this doesn't mean they're not impactful. Railgun is centred around Misaka, her room mate Shirai, and their friends Uiharu and Saten.
Even in Index, where she got considerably less screen-time, I could tell Misaka was my favourite character, and she gets considerably better here. She is eminently likeable: short-tempered enough to be funny, noble enough to be admirable, and powerful enough to be fist-pumpingly cool. Even if Index's Touma did a surprisingly good job as protagonist, Misaka blows him out of the water. She's got plenty of character, and goes through more than one really good emotional arc, particularly the one spanning the entirety of the second season. I also like her constant appreciation of a lot of childish things, which is an extremely endearing trait, especially considering how mature she is otherwise.
Shirai, Misaka's room mate, is a powerful Level 4 Esper (fantastic control of her ability, teleportation) and works at Judgement, one of the two main policing organizations at Academy City, along with her friend Uiharu. Both of them are also in middle school. This was one of my more omnipresent issues: middle-schoolers seem to be accepted for police work for no particular reason, and don't seem to get any special education for it, outside of physical training. It doesn't seem like a particularly huge issue, but it constantly pulled me out of the show with just how little sense it makes. Sure, Shirai is shown to be a powerful Esper, but there's information that later in the show becomes vital to her survival that she only just learned in class. What if she was a year younger? It's established that she was in Judgement since elementary school, so it's lucky none of these crises came up before she'd learned about it in school or Academy City would be fucked. I just think the whole Judgement thing would work if it were portrayed as training for the other, proper, police organization, Anti-Skill, or even as a club Shirai and friends started Buffy style.
Stupid, non-sensical police organizations aside, Shirai is a fairly decent character. The running joke with her is that she's very infatuated with Misaka, and will often display her affection. Outside a few choice situations, it's not very funny, and often drags on for too long. Still, when things get serious Shirai is shown to be a very dependable and kind, if stubborn person. Her character arcs aren't particularly interesting, but they do have a couple very cathartic moments at the end which made me shed a few tears.
The weakest character of the main four is likely Uiharu, Shirai's companion at Judgement, and a weak Level 1 (Has power, but can barely use it) Esper. There's just not much to her. She's kind of bland: She's shy-ish... and very understanding? Also a hard worker and a bit of an idealist, I guess? To be fair, the show doesn't often really focus on her that much, and when it does it tends to work surprisingly well, often centred around her wish to help those who are vulnerable. It's a good thing, too, because I feel that any more Uiharu-centred content than we get would get quite old.
Last but definitely not least out of the main cast is Saten. I have trouble deciding whether Saten or Misaka is my favourite character in the Academy City universe. Saten is a Level 0 Esper, having absolutely no ability. She's an energetic and somewhat goofy girl, but is shown to be a very understanding person. She's got an absolutely brilliant arc in Season 1, but unfortunately falls to the wayside in this respect in Season 2, acting mostly as just a supporting character. Still, there's such a sense of benevolence emanating from her that I can't help but like her. She's a very human character, smart in many ways, stupid in many others.
Accompanying them is a fairly large set of side characters, though nowhere near the size of that in Index, meaning each side character also gets a fair amount of development. There's some really fantastic ones here: I really like the pompous but ultimately good-natured Kongou, as well as Shirai and Uiharu's boss Konori. To put the nail in the coffin, several of these side-characters randomly get an episode dedicated to them where the main cast take a backseat role, and these are some of the best episodes in the series. There's a few guest appearances by characters from Index, most notably Touma (who admittedly is way too important to be just a guest halfway through Season 2), though these usually feel pretty hollow and a bit pointless.
Both the characters and the world would go to waste without at least a decent story to back them up, and Railgun's story is more than decent. Both seasons are comprised of two arcs, each spanning about half the season. In Season 1, both these arcs eventually make up a complete story in two parts, whereas in Season 2 the connection between the arcs is more thematic than anything. This lends the story a much more coherent feel than Index's three bajillion arcs, and helps keep momentum throughout. Even more so, the way each arc is built is absolutely phenomenal, typically starting with the gang going on several seemingly disconnected adventures throughout their daily lives that ultimately turn out to be connected to a larger plot, eventually building to a climatic battle. These small adventures provide the down-time in between important plot bits: They range everywhere from having a hot pot to helping a woman find where she parked her car to catching a small-time criminal.
This kind of stuff was sorely missing from Index, and lent its version of Academy City a bit of hollowness. It seemed like a nice place, but we never spent much time just enjoying it. With Railgun, it's occasionally easy to forget you're watching an anime about people with super powers, with a few episodes feeling a lot more like something out of Katawa Shoujo than Index. It's fluff, pure and simple, and it's what lets us feel comfortable around the main characters, and what leads us to love Academy City and its people.
These disconnected adventures typically do have some amount of overall significance, though. Little plot threads are planted throughout each adventure, either small discrepancies that the characters notice or apparently irrelevant rumours, which helps keep a sense of momentum going. Once the larger story of the arc has kicked in, they'll become apparent as consequences of whatever mysterious plot is going on in Academy City. Things escalate very smoothly, and soon the stakes are extremely high, but it's never as jarring as it was in Index since this escalation is taking place across ten or so episodes, rather than one or two. By the end of each arc, things feel important, damnit, and the inevitable final showdown between Misaka and company and the villain dejour has a lot riding on it.
Which is why it's good that the action is so damn awesome. I did praise Index for its action scenes, but Railgun blows them out of the water. Misaka's powers are used in extremely creative ways, and she comes across more than one villain with really cool gimmicks. Despite her being established as the 3rd most powerful Esper in Academy City, and as such the world, Misaka's opponents never fail to pose a challenge, and it's often tough to see ways for her to defeat them. Fights here are more about out-thinking your opponent and exploiting holes in their defensive capability than about constant offence, which makes them very entertaining, and they often end in unexpected ways. However, the highlights of the action scenes are undoubtedly the end-of-arc scenes, often Misaka using her power in extremely visually impressive and creative ways, whilst the theme music for that arc blares in the background. I honestly couldn't help myself from cheering during these (or, in one occasion, shedding a few manly tears), since they often build on all the character development done throughout the arc, as well.
There are a few flaws in the story, however, the major one happening in Season 1: Between the two major arcs, there are a good few episodes where nothing really seems to be happening. They're enjoyable enough by themselves, but they don't have any of the foreshadowing that's usually cleverly implanted in the show, and as such feel a bit pointless. I'd typically enjoy these scenes (Hell, I praised the hell out of Katawa Shoujo whenever it did that sort of thing), but since Railgun had proven to me it could do better with the same kind of material, it felt a bit disappointing. The four or five episodes after the end of the first arc of the first season are by far the weakest part of the show. The second flaw stems from being based on Index: The first arc of the second season ends kind of abruptly, because it was originally an Index storyline. As such, a lot of great build up is wasted on a payoff that's ultimately centred around Touma and not the characters that we've been watching the whole thing happen through. Fortunately, this is actually really cleverly used to push Misaka's development further along in the second arc of the season, which ultimately results in an absolutely stellar climax.
Character and World Building: 10/10
Jesus Christ, it's good at this. The entire cast is endearing as hell, and goes through large amounts of juicy character development. We get to spend both fun and hard times around them, which helps us love them even more. Not only this, but we get to see Academy City developed to its fullest, in both its light and dark sides, and it's glorious. Aside from a few very mildly annoying character traits, and one or two bland people, there's very little to dislike here.
Story: 8.5/10
Every single arc is brilliantly built, with a smooth progression from beginning to middle to end. We start small, and get big, and it all feels perfectly natural and logical. There's a few unfortunate flaws here and there, but these are largely hidden from view by how great the rest of the story elements are. The show does climaxes particularly well, with the end of every arc being an extremely cathartic experience.
Presentation: 4.5/5
It looks a lot like Index, for obvious reasons. However, fight scenes look a lot more visually impressive, and have a lot more creativity on display. The soundtrack, which I really enjoyed in Index, also feels quite a bit better this time around. We also get to see Academy City at day a lot more, which I feel just makes the show more pleasing to look at.
Enjoyment: 15/15
Railgun is an absolute blast to watch. There's ups and downs, there's highs and lows, and you feel for the characters the whole way through. You spend your time being silly with them, but when the situation gets serious you're still with them 100% of the way. The end-of-arc climaxes feel great, and the more sombre moments pack quite a bit of a punch. There's simply not a lot to complain about.
Overall: 10+8.5+4.5+15/40
38/40
(Simplifies to 9.5/10)
I guess I scored Railgun higher than I did Mirai Nikki, which I considered my favourite anime up until now. I'm not sure whether that's changed - scoring is a tricky beast that doesn't 100% reflect opinion - but the fact that I'm seriously considering that possibility should tell you all you need to know. Railgun is absolutely phenomenal, blowing its more than competent parent show completely out of the water. To put it plain and simple, there's very little that Railgun gets wrong: It nails characters, it does a fantastic job on its story, and it's set in an amazingly realized world. Railgun has the highest rating that I've given out on this blog so far, and it deserves every little bit of it.
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