Ranked #3134

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Specials

The four girls of Academy City are back for a few short episodes, and if their personalities and interactions played any sizable role in your enjoyment of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, the specials are simply a must watch.

Do the specials further the plot, or provide us with a serious, well thought out, side story? No, in fact the specials don’t take themselves seriously in the slightest, and if you let your critical gaze soften in return, you might just find two comedy gems.

Essentially, both episodes are filled to the brim with parody of other anime and references to Japanese pop-culture in general, as employed by the main cast. The dialogue is a mess, an utterly hilarious mess, whose use of repetition and spontaneity is likely to induce laughter on many an occasion. Most of the scenes are reworked versions of original scenes from the series, like humorous ‘outtakes’ or ‘deleted scenes’. Combine this with the characters, almost obnoxiously, shoving their defining traits in our face and the specials also become a sort of self-parody. The reworked scenes provide more than enough nostalgia, bringing back many fond memories of the series. The animation is as clean and crisp as ever, although that and the soundtrack are not memorable aspects of the specials.

Parody, satire, and a touch of irony are combined in all the right ways, resulting in comedic specials that are nothing short of a blast to watch.
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Like Index-tan and Shana-tan, this omake has nothing to do with the storyline and simply a way... for the studio to get creative I guess? What goes on in these two episode is crazily random and the characters talk as if they're on high. Of course, most of what they're talking about have reference to the main storyline so you'll still "get it". The way they poke fun the certain character's particular traits is also pretty funny.

I'll say it's worth taking a look if you don't mind watching the little extras that always comes with the DVD/Blu-rays.