A certain Scientific review. (Part 1)

A Certain Scientific Railgun

The Breakdown

Wouldn’t it be great to have special powers? Or would it cause more problems for you than you had already? Academy City is a place for those with such powers. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun or, A Certain Scientific Railgun, follows the events around Misaka Mikoto and her core group of friends and their adventures within the City. They are students aiming to better their powers as espers through attending school. The show takes place within a city that is shaped through peoples powers and using those powers to usurp fame and riches. So in such a city of course, there are going to be people using their powers criminally or just plain deviously. Two of Misaka’s friends belong to a group called judgment, which acts as a police force to keep others in line. The group of four stop many unscrupulous folk, and also deal with their own problems along the way. The show is a spin off of the popular Toaru Majutsu no index.  The show highlights the struggle between good and evil and the consequences of exploiting your powers.

Characters

left to right: Uiharu, Misaka, Kuroko, Saten-san

Misaka, the railgun, electric princess, biri biri, Tokiwadai’s Ace (yes she has a lot of nicknames for good reason). She has her own brand of vigilantly justice which she backs up using her level five ability, which is the highest level, to generate electricity and manipulate current. Her trade mark, ace in the hole ability, is to fire a coin using her rail gun which accelerates a coin into a laser 3 times the speed of sound. The prize student of Tokiwadai’s Middle school, she is both intelligent and powerful. You don’t want to piss her off or pick on someone weaker than you, because she will stop at nothing to find you. Her favorite thing of all time is a frog toy character named Gekota. If you have one of those toys then the end result for you may be the same as picking a fight. This quirky, bashful, fierce chick is the show stopper and main character of the series. It’s nice to see a strong independent female as a lead of the show.

Misaka prepping the rail gun, both cute and deadly.

Shirai Kuroko is a level 4 esper with the ability to teleport and is the affectionate roommate of Misaka. They both attend middle school and Kuroko “highly admires” Misaka to say the least, referring to her as Onee-sama (older sister). Kuroko works for Judgment and spends her time out of school fighting crime. She must balance her duties of fighting crime while keeping a leash on Misaka. She wants the criminals behind bars instead of smoldering pieces of char after being rail gunned. Kuroko adds a lot of humor to the series whether it’s when her advances are stopped cold by Misaka, or when she gives some funny perspective on their past.

Uiharu Kazari, is the girly friend (highlighted by the fact she wears flowers on her head) that attends the same school as Saten Ruiko. She is only a level 1 esper but she works on the same team of judgment as Kuroko does. She has a great sense of duty and loyalty to her friends and the city she works for. I found her character to be the least interesting but she grounds the four member group to a reality that is more relatable to us viewers than that of Academy City.

Ruiko Saten is the unfortunate powerless esper in the group, a level zero, or ugly duckling in the eyes of the City. For the most part, this doesn't keep her down though because she loves having a great group of friends and living in Academy City. Like all people especially teenagers, she isn't perfect. When rumors of a special tool that increases psychic powers called the "Level Upper" are spread, she considers obtaining it out of envy as she does not have any apparent powers. I liked her character as she provided a good foil to the people with powers, and how the problems she faces are just as real as the higher level espers.

Stay Tuned

Next to come is my review of the art, sound, and my overall impression of Railgun. Also, my column on “Who Cares?”  ties the show to other examples, be it in anime or elsewhere.

PS:

Several people suggested the pacing of my first review was far too quick and left out too many details. So this review will be done in multiple blog entries. This may have taken it too far in the long direction, please leave comments with your opinions and follow me on twitter xD thx.