A Certain Scientific Railgun - Reviews

The manga storyline was very slightly, and I do mean very, intriguing, and since the anime is rated so highly, I decided to give it a chance and hope the animation would not be the typical fake glossy stuff we get now, the voice acting would not be shrill typical moe quality, and that the promised added details and stories would be interesting. Unfortunately, every one of those hopes was failed.

First of all, the art and animation is mostly terrible. Sure some of the movement is "slick", but the animation is always glossy, the character art is as bad as you would expect from the manga made worse with coloring, and the awkward zooms and movement during action scenes ruins any hope of excitement. This is definitely not enjoyable to look at any time in the episodes I watched, and was cringe inducing with the bigger mistakes (like during the first episode with the first time she fires lightning, and her face practically melts).

The voice acting is terrible shrill typical bad moe stuff. Not a single character sounded good, and even as someone who hates this type of fake "cute" voice acting I usually find that some will sound good. Furthermore, the sparkly sound effects are again cringe inducing.

The added details in the story so far involve more bad gags (like HRHR LOOK AT ALL MY SEXY PANTIES or THE STRIPPER LADY!!) and not much else. Yeah, some extra "depth" to the characters was added in like episode 6, but the additions were not interesting because the characters were not interesting. For the first couple of episodes, the extra slice of life storylines might be nice for some people, but I spent the first two episodes skipping to the action after a few exasperated minutes.

All I can say is that this seems to be an already extremely typical manga made into a typical anime that was very poorly executed. The action scenes I skipped to hoping for something to salvage matters were really bland...just nothing worthwhile here as far as I can see.

I am posting this general review across :

1. to aru majutsu no index 1 and 2

2. to aru kagaku no railgun

This is one of my favorite series. I havnt read any books, as I normally dont, so I cant comment on how it justifies the transition from book form to animation form. Quite frankly I dont care either.

This series is probably so good because of its setting and its characters. The story isnt that wonderful because half of the time, I dont really get the "religious" stuff they talk about. Even if I was religious (which i used to be), I wouldnt fully understand what they are talking about sometimes.

The setting is in a big city, which is... I think basically a big school and dorm that is at the peak of scientific progress. So, you have cleaning robots that go around, wind mills, etc. There are students in the city that have powers that were indouwed upon them somehow. They have potential to have a certain power (teleportation for example), and this city brings out that potential. They use the powers through imagination/projection of thoughts. Mixed among all the science/technology, you have religious groups from there and around the world that seem to clash there often. Railgun is basically a close up on the daily lives of the girls. kuroko shirai, misaka mikoto (biri biri as touma calls her (or her power name: railgun, since she can control electricity, she can launch objects electromagnetically/ or w/e) for example. Touma and index are the main highlights of the regular series.

I like the setting (city) that things take place in. Its a great view. Some people like old timy settings with horses and carages. Some like settings with villages, or small towns, etc. I like settings with technology around. That falls in line with the things i like. I may be talking a lot about what "I" like, but you can judge whether you are like me or not, and whether you will like such a thing.

What really makes this series shine though... is the CHARACTERS. One of my favorite characters of all time is Shirai Kuroko. She is either lesbian or bisexual... or something like that lol. but she is hallarious. Her personality is amazing. The voice actor for her is my favorite voice-to-character match up. I like misaka a lot too, but everybody likes her lol, so ill just say one reason why i like her. She wears shorts under her skirt. so when she is violent and kicks something or wind blows or w/e, you dont see her panties. personally i think its amazingly cute and awesome. Its not only unique, but it shows a certain depth to her personality. The way the characters in this anime play off of each other is great too. Index is  somehow not annoying. She is not like the little sister that constantly annoys big brother, and makes you wana say "shut the fuck up you stupid whiney bitch." Of course touma isnt her brother, but hopefully you get my point. No characters in this anime make me want to punch the computer screen. At least not the ones you see often.

For the morals. I suppose it supports the whole "keep your spirits up and do your best" motto that most other animes support, but its not so bad. I hardly notice it, since im absorbed in the characters. This anime puts science and religion together. It doesnt really offend or support either side, so  I dont think you should shy away from it if your either atheist or religious (chrisitianity mainly).

My verdict in the end: The story is a bit lacking in explaination, so you dont really "get" what is happening all the time (although there may be some out there that do), BUT!!! since the characters are so wonderful, it makes the story aspect less relevant. an explaination of what i mean: The characters themselves, when going through a crisis in the city, (by the way: there is a lot of action), dont really understand why things are crap all the time either. They just know that perhaps their friend is in trouble, and they are going to go save them... or the city is about to get pulvarized by a giant religious spell, and they need to do w/e to stop it. You get enough of whats going on to get by, and then you watch how the characters deal with the problems and each other along the way. Its an enjoyable ride. The story overall isnt completely incomprehensible. Its just hard to explain I guess.

If anyone cares to add a comment in relation to my points, whether you agree or disagree, or perhaps its not a matter of agreement, but just a different perspective, please leave a comment, so that others can get some various information on this series.

Peace yall :)

I remember when I first watched To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (I will be calling it "Railgun" for the rest of this review). The only animes that I had watched beforehand were Pokemon, Code Geass, Mirai Nikki, and Helsing Ultimate. I will just say that I loved pretty much every moment of it! So now, I will review each point that I have rated:

Story- Initially, I wasn't sure where things were going or what was happening. However, after a few episodes, I was able to see where the story arc was goin and how the previous episodes led up to that arc of the story. The overall plot line was amazing and kept me not wanting to wait to see the next episode. And with the comedic elements involved, the story and character development is enhanced even more!

Animation- I will skip the basic animation and go onto the effects included in the animation. Having watched every Pokemon season, I knew about where the basic parts of the animation would be, but I also had seen a lot of great animation effects in many Pokemon episodes and movies. What stood out to me was the excellent quality of not just various scenes (i.e. Misaka using her power with iron filaments), but that there were very realistic effects in the anime's content.

Sound- The background music is always very important, since despite not always conciously hearing it, the music is essental to making the anime more than just people talking and taking certain actions. The openings, "Only My Railgun" and "Judgelight" (FripSide) as well as the endings "Dear My Friend" and "Real Force" (ELISA) were so good that I found it worth watching through both the openings and ending, and I have tended to skip through those since back when I started watchign Pokemon.

Characters- When I look at a character in an analytical way, I look not just at whether they are on the protagonist's side, the antagonist(s)' side, or neutral, but also at how well they are portrayed and act, which is up to the producers of the anime. I was incredibly impressed. As the story progresses, one will find that each character is very complex and that many minor characters, who may even have a single appearance, have a pivotal role in the progression of the story.

Overall- 10/10. I have watched this 3 times, and I started watching Railgun back in September of last year, so you can get an idea that between all of the anime that I'm watching as well as a very busy schedule (I have an incredibly busy one), I have made special time to watch Railgun. This is one of my absolute favorites, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch an excellent anime.

Why the heck does the series have no male main characters? It makes no sense at all that there are only psychic girls. It would be a much better and enjoyable anime if the authur added some males to balance the content and atmosphere.

This anime is painfully underrated to me. The animation isn't incredibly creative, or even all that good, but when the action scenes get it right, they get it right. Some of the fighting in this anime comes off as "too flashy" for some, but it didn't bother me personally... But the thing that really hit me the hardest with this anime were the characters. There are four mains, and they're all well balanced throughout the first season. Each of their roles matter, and each one of them connected with me in some way. It's not like one of these mains just got a single episode of importance and then never mattered again (Looking at you, Silica and Lisbeth...). The way the four girls interact is something that I'll never forget, and that first ED... Damn, I love it too much.