Title: A Certain Scientific Railgun
Alternate Title: Toaru Kagaku no Rērugan | とある科学の超電磁砲
Encompasses: 24 episode series over two parts
Published by: USPHE (Australia and New Zealand) / Funimation (North America)
Based on: Spin-off to A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Action, Drama, Science Fantasy
Audio: Hybrid Dub
Subtitles: English
Classification: M for Fantasy Themes, Animated Violence and Sexual References
Special Thanks: Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for providing me with a copy of this release to review!
Powerful electro-manipulator, Misaka Mikoto, one of the most loved characters in A Certain Magical Index, is back starring in A Certain Scientific Railgun Season 1. Tenacious and feisty, she will knock your socks off with her abilities and attitude. In the futuristic metropolis of Academy City she fights extraordinary people and bizarre monsters in a non-stop battle that has you gripping the edge of your seat.
Misaka’s skills in electro-manipulation and destructive “Railgun projectile” manoeuvre gives her rock-star status in Academy City. The techno-metropolis is packed with supernaturally powered students known as espers, including Misaka’s flirty friend and roommate, Kuroko. Misaka uses her teleportation skills fighting crime alongside her fellow agent Uiharu, as part of the judgment law enforcement team. Joined by their friend Saten, a spunky Level O esper, Misaka, Kuroko and Uiharu have a blast taking on danger whenever and wherever it arises.
Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia are pretty much the newcomers to the anime industry in Australia, but while they may not be releasing every month like the other three major anime publishers in the market they have over their last two release slates published some interesting titles. In their very first release slate back in April they released two half-season volumes of A Certain Magical Index which in my review walked away with a solid B score. Last month the company finally managed to get their second release slate out to market which included the spin-off title A Certain Scientific Railgun.
Given the wait in between releases was it worth the wait? Did the spin-off fare well in comparison to the original series? Was it worth delving into the realms of a spin-off title which not every series has able to emerge successful? Read more to find out in my review of A Certain Scientific Railgun Parts 1 and 2.
Storyline
Serving as a canon side story to the main series, A Certain Scientific Railgun draws the attention to Mikoto Misaka whose electromaster esper abilities ranks her as the third most powerful “Level 5” in Academy City – with her signature attack netting her the title “Railgun”. She makes for an interesting protagonist and despite her abilities and standing it is interesting to see the many sides of her multifaceted personality outside the initial serious facade.
Rather than overuse old characters the main character cast is split up half-and-half with old and new characters, with the other returning character being Misaka’s roommate and best friend Shirai Kuroko who despite only being in middle school is a member of Academy City’s disciplinary committee Judgement and often makes romantic advances against her.
Despite being one of the higher ranked espers and initial perceptions of her personality, Misaka maintains friendships with two other girls not only not of her ability level but due to events in the first episode not even within the same school. This is where newcomers Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko come in. Both of these girls have their eccentricities and different mannerisms but despite their lack of battle-oriented esper abilities (With Saten not having any at all), their role quickly goes from being surprised at everything new they experience to key characters in the events that unfold and contribute in their own ways. Outside of these two several other new and crossover characters have roles in the plot to some degree.
The plot progression of Scientific Railgun is also notably different. It is more episodic than the mini-arc formula more frequently used in Magical Index, therefore it takes the time to highlight a bit more of the “everyday life” one would expect to see in Academy City and in turn provides a greater chance to see the development and backstories of the main characters as well as a number of secondary characters. Of course there are still the more suspenseful and action-packed moments within the episodes such as the tasks of Judgement to the mystery of the illusive “Level Upper” so there is no need to worry about this being a normal slice-of-life / school-life series.
Despite being less plot intense, as the episodes continue on they slowly taunt a notable pattern of occurances which leads into the overarching storyline for the entire season. The season was split up into two separate arcs that while being enjoyable separate were both interconnected through the sharing of key events and characters. While I won’t spoil any specific elements of it, it was an enjoyable and well thought out series of events.
While I don’t think A Certain Scientific Railgun was as enjoyable as the main series with the individual episodes being hit or miss and may be conceived by some to be filler content, I can certainly see the charm of this series and the potential it has unlocked for the world it is set in. In Index you never really got to appreciate Academy City too much before you were shoved into the next arc whereas you can begin to appreciate the world building and its characters a bit more with time being dedicated to character development and smaller events not related to the field of Magic.
Do note that you can watch the series in either order as aside from a few references neither step on the toes of the other too heavily and there are no major crossovers (At least until Railgun S which focuses on the shared “Sisters Arc”).
Design
Due to there not being much of a gap in time since the first season of Index and the first season of Railgun being release, there is very little improvement in the visual quality that in my first review I described as being varied – truly shining when there is something action oriented taking place and not going so well when there is nothing that warranted there to be any fancy visuals.
Taking that into account there is nothing particularly bad about it and given the opportunity to look around Academy City a bit more it is safe to say that if there is one thing the design team did right with the design – it was presenting Academy City to be a perfect example of what I would expect a futuristic-modern city to look like.
Given the age of A Certain Scientific Railgun it does the job alright, but I have higher expectations for A Certain Scientific Railgun S which as of this post is still airing in Japan.
Music / Voice Acting
A Certain Scientific Railgun comes with a grand total of two opening and two ending sequences. fripSide provide both of the opening sequences titled “only my railgun” and “LEVEL5-judgelight“, both of which were energetic songs similar to what you would expect based on the original themes provided by Mami Kawada and were coupled with equally good animations that highlighted the wealth of characters in the series. The two main ending themes by ELISA “Dear My Friend—Mada Minu Mirai e” and “Real Force” may not have hit the same mark as the openings but still did a decent job overall.
While there was little that stood out from the crowd in terms of background music, it complemented the scenes they were used in well enough.
As this is a Funimation Entertainment title in North America this means there was an English dub that was included in this release. Brittney Karbowski (Too many roles to pick one) and Alison Viktorin (Tomoko – Heaven’s Lost Property) reprise their roles as Mikoto Misaka and Kuroko Shirai respectively and do a good enough job of their roles. New to the protagonist seats are Cherami Leigh (Cecily Campbell – The Sacred Blacksmith) as Kazari Uiharu and Brina Palencia (Ciel Phantomhive – Black Butler) as Ruiko Saten.
All four of these voice actresses did their characters justice, although perhaps my favorite voice role was Anastasia Munoz as Harumi Kiyama. Given her role in part as the “stripping scientist” / recurring character with plenty of emotional backstory, she managed to deliver perhaps not the best voice role but in my opinion the most suitable role.
Extra Content
As with all their releases, Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia have produced special flip-out slipcases for both installments of A Certain Scientific Railgun. While I don’t actually have them on my person at this time, I will direct you to my earlier article detailing them if you are interested: Packaging Mini-Review – The First Six Anime Titles of Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia. The general design of the packaging I don’t believe has changed between release slates.
In terms of on-disc content, other than the omission of trailers I don’t believe they have been any other changes. Part 1 comes with two voice actress commentaries – the first for episode 3 featuring Brina Palencia and Cherami Leigh and episode 6 that features Brittney Karbowski and Alison Viktorin – as well as clean opening and ending sequences.
Part 2 only comes with the single voice actress commentary for Episode 17 starring Jad Saxton (Komoe Tsukuyomi), Martha Harms (Aiho Yomikawa) and Kara Edwards (Tsuduri Tesso). Other on-disc extras include both opening and ending sequences for the series and a U.S. trailer.
Personal Opinion / Final Words
I have a funny feeling that in some cases, ones preference towards the direction of storytelling will gauge whether A Certain Magical Index or A Certain Scientific Railgun would shine greater than the other. Personally I didn’t enjoy this season as much however aside from a few episodes that felt like they were progressing at a snails pace – the character development, their use as well as the overarching purpose of the season worked well for me.
It was good to see the world of Science and Magic from a different perspective and in this case… having a spin-off I think was a great idea.
