To Aru Kagaku no Railgun review

Railgun wasn’t originally on my list of shows to watch for the fall ’09 season, but after hearing nothing but good things about it, I decided to check it out. I’ve been marathoning it over the past month and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it…

The first thing that one notices when watching Railgun is the setting. The design of Academy City is great and students going to school to unlock or enhance their psychic powers is a fun idea to work with. It’s exciting finding out the characters’ different abilities (much like the Contractors in Darker than Black) and seeing them in action. Judgment, Anti-skill, and the like are extra elements to solidify the Academy City setting and spice up the show’s fictional world (though I still wonder why cute young girls like Kuroko and Uiharu are the ones responsible for apprehending dangerous esper gangsters). Personally, I think having at least one or two male characters in prominent roles would have made it more realistic (and not make its target audience so obvious XD) The series takes place within Academy City, so the majority of characters are high-school aged students and the fewer adults in the series are in some kind of authority position. Although Touma and Index have minor appearances in Railgun, you don’t need to have watched To Aru Majutsu no Index in order to fully enjoy Railgun.

Railgun is mostly a character-driven show – although there is an underlying story/plot, it only has significance in the midway and concluding episodes. The majority of the series is episodic and focuses on the development, relationships, and interactions of the characters. My favorite casts of characters are usually those in which we’re able to see many sides of the characters, i.e., when they’re happy, sad, angry, scared, serious, playful, brave, etc,. The Railgun characters are conveyed in such a way – with a relatively small cast of characters, each one has a chance to shine and a chance to have different sides of her personality revealed. For example, at first I thought Kuroko was “just another lesbian,” but after seeing her serious battles against rogue espers, her relationship Uiharu in Judgment, etc, I knew that she has more going for her. Similarly, Mikoto seems like a nice, normal girl who happens to have super powers, but over time we see other parts of her personality, like her obsession with Gekotan and other childish things, getting miffed at Kuroko’s flirting, and selflessly battling alone against Telestina. Uiharu, Saten, and even supporting characters like Konori and Kiyama get chances to exhibit their character development.

In addition to having a fleshed-out cast of characters, Railgun is one of those shows that has a little bit of everything – it has an interesting sci-fi setting but the characters go through many slice-of-life situations. It has cuteness and warmth, then can suddenly shift to action and violence. It has comedy but also emotion and drama. The show does a good job of never getting too dark or too light. One of the main themes in Railgun is friendship, particularly between the four main girls, and then extending it to Kiyama and the Child Errors. I’m easily moved by strong exposition of friendship in anime, and Railgun is no exception.

Railgun’s main conflict involving the Child Errors, which lurks beneath the many episodic stories involving the characters, first springs up in the middle episodes and is fully exhibited and concluded in the last few episodes. Though the conflict of “shady experiments going on behind the scenes” isn’t something we haven’t already seen in many anime, nor is the typical antagonist-turned-protagonist (Kiyama) and protagonist-turned-antagonist (Telestina), Railgun executes these elements in an enjoyable way, and that’s really all that counts for me.

The animation in Railgun is pretty good for a J.C. Staff series, with detailed setting and character designs and few instances of noticeably distorted scenes, even in the many action sequences. The series has two awesome openings by fripSide and two lovely endings by ELISA. “only my railgun” and “Dear My Friend” won’t soon be forgotten.

In conclusion, Railgun is a great series with fun, appealing characters and a variety of themes. It can be sweet and funny but also serious and action-packed. In short, it has something for everyone and I’d definitely recommend it. Hopefully there will be a second season!

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Prooof says:

    hmm I dropped index after touma got too preachy but I guess railgun might be worth a try

  2. Yumeka says:

    @ Prooof

    I’ve never seen Index but I really liked Railgun. Hope you decide to give it a try! =)

  3. Cytrus says:

    @ Prooof

    I dropped Index after the pacing became like torture, but Railgun is in a different league. Definitely recommended.

    @ Yumeka

    As for the question you raise in the main entry: fighting dangerous criminals is ‘not’ the responsibility of cute girls like Kuroko and Uiharu. Judgment consists of students because it’s supposed to take care of delinquent espers in schools. Beyond that, their job is mostly limited to the ‘find the kitty’ type of task showcased in some episodes. Actual conflict with esper criminals is reserved for the Anti-skills, as their name suggests. The only reason why the girls end up in all those situations is that Kuroko uses Judgment as an excuse for her private vendetta against crime (and Misaka often goes along with this). This is referenced directly a few times in the story (by Konori and Uiharu, I think), and also indirectly by Telestina when she mentions that the gang’s involvement in the Level-upper case makes their cell of Judgment notable. The manga, on the other hand, could afford a page of exposition which states this outright :p.

  4. Yumeka says:

    @ Cytrus

    Ah, I see. I knew Anti-skill does the actual combat and stuff, but I thought that Judgment had the responsibility of not only finding the crimes but also apprehending the culprits until Anti-skill arrives, which usually results in fighting anyway because the culprits aren’t going to wait quietly for Anti-skill. Thanks for the explanation. I’m terrible at remembering details like that =P

  5. Fabrice says:

    I preferef Index come to think of it..

    Railgun in whole was disapointing, too much wasted episode, and i was hoping for more touma x misaka

  6. Chrissie says:

    Hiyo! This is the first comment I’ve made on a blog entry of yours… I’m not stalking you, really I’m not! XD

    But Railgun sounds like it might be something I can get into! From what you say, it seems like it’ll be good. So I’ll give it a shot at some point this quarter. ^o^v

    I like what I see so far on your blog, so I may be popping up randomly and stuff. Thanks for sharing~

  7. Yumeka says:

    @ Chrissie

    Thanks for reading ^.^ It’s always nice to have another visitor.

    I think you’d like Railgun so I hope you decide to check it out =)

  8. I had been debating to start this anime or not and I’d say your review pushed me more towards watching it. It was a very emotional ride through the series. I liked the fact that the creators gave every main new character some screen time (obviously they didn’t give any to the main ones from Index, which I found out after I finished the series).

    I must admit that Satan and Mikoto are very wonderfully made characters that have you sympathize with their controversial actions. Uiharu was another good character, but Kuroko was not true to her namesake. She was a tad bit annoying and I do lay some of my opinion based on premonitions about her seijuu’s tone. Other than that, it was a wonderful cast and a great trip. It makes me want to go see/read Index now.

    I’m incredibly picky about OP/EDs. I like the song “Only my Railgun” (and will be purchasing it soon) as well as the opening animation. My problem is that I don’t like them together. I’m not quite sure why they (and all the other songs) don’t mesh together well for me. I’m a stickler for audio/video cues which definitely are lacking in this series. Once again, it’s only my opinion and I do like everything separately, just not together.

    If things work out, I hope that this will be my first series on Blu-Ray. The visual style is very appealing and I can tell that some hard work went into it. It’ll be a pleasure to see it again in better quality. The extras aren’t too bad either.

    I think the disc sales will bring the series a second season. The discs (combined BD/DVD) appear to be getting over 20,000 total per set; and if that holds it’ll be one of the better sale rates (definitely better than Haruhi’s doing).

  9. Yumeka says:

    @ ultimatemegax

    Glad you decided to give Railgun a try and that you liked it.

    I guess I’m not too fussy when it comes to OPs and EDs. As long as there’s a nice song with nice images, I’m satisfied ^^,,,

    Watching this series on Blue-Ray must be really cool. I watched it on mediocre quality AVI files.

  10. Cygnus says:

    Personally I find railgun, so far, to be a far more satisfying experience than Index. I guess the whole memory loss thing just turned me off in Index, especially since there was little change in that facet of the program.

    Railgun seems to avoid little landmines like that, however, which suits me just fine. I wasn’t sure if i was going to watch the entire thing, but this review has made it a lot more likely.

    Thanks,
    Cygnus

  11. Anon says:

    I remember reading Index a while back. The whole memory-loss thing was actually why I stopped (I can’t stand mid-story amnesia as a plot device, although established amnesiacs don’t seem to bother me).

    Anyway, thank you for posting this review – I think I’ll give railgun a try!

  12. Someone says:

    toaru majutsu 3 better come out soon

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