Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun)

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Alternative Titles

English: A Certain Scientific Railgun

Synonyms: Toaru Kagaku no Choudenjihou

Japanese: とある科学の超電磁砲

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 24

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 3, 2009 to Mar 20, 2010

Premiered: Fall 2009

Broadcast: Saturdays at 01:30 (JST)

Producers: Geneon Universal Entertainment, Movic, AT-X, ASCII Media Works

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: J.C.Staff

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Super Power

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.71¹ (scored by 225,403 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1000²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #284

Members: 478,696

Favorites: 10,610

7.71

Ranked #1000Popularity #284Members 478,696

Fall 2009TVJ.C.Staff

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Episodes: /24

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Synopsis

The student-filled Academy City is at the forefront of scientific advancement and home to the esper development program. The seven "Level 5" espers are the most powerful in Academy City, and ranked third among them is middle schooler Mikoto Misaka, an electricity manipulator known as "The Railgun."

When strange incidents begin occurring throughout the city, she finds each crime to be connected to the elusive "Level Upper," a legendary device that allegedly increases the esper level of its user. As the situation escalates, it becomes apparent that there is more to the Level Upper than meets the eye, and that Academy City may be a far more twisted place than the glamorous utopia it appears to be.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun focuses on Mikoto and her friends—and the dangerous situations they find themselves in—as they get caught up in the matter of the Level Upper. As Mikoto says, "There's never a dull moment in this city."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

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Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Toaru Majutsu no Index Gaiden: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Parent story:	Toaru Majutsu no Index
Spin-off:	Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Motto Marutto Railgun
Side story:	Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Misaka-san wa Ima Chuumoku no Mato Desu kara, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Entenka no Satsuei Model mo Raku Ja Arimasen wa ne.
Sequel:	Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
Character:	Toaru Majutsu no Index 10th Anniversary PV, Toaru Kagaku no Suzushina Yuriko

Noto, Mamiko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kawase, Kouhei

Producer

Nakayama, Nobuhiro

Producer

Nagai, Tatsuyuki

Director

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

#1: "only my railgun" by fripSide (eps 2-14)
#2: "LEVEL 5 -judgelight-" by fripSide (eps 15-23)

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Ending Theme

#1: "only my railgun" by fripSide (ep 1)
#2: "Dear My Friend -Mada Minu Mirai he-" by ELISA (eps 2-11, 13-14, 24)
#3: "Smile -You and Me-" by ELISA (eps 12)
#4: "Real Force" by ELISA (eps 15-23)

More reviews

Reviews

Mar 31, 2010

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Archaeon (All reviews)

386 people found this review helpful

If ever there was a word in visual media that the general public immediately distrusted, it's "spinoff". Experience has proven to many that a show, comic or novel that is derivative of a popular series is rarely as good as the original work, and the DVD bargain basement is littered with titles that were designed with one thing in mind - to cash in on the original work's popularity due to the lack of a valid sequel. Shows like Crusade (Babylon 5), Joey (Friends), Highlander: The TV series, Robocop: The TV series, the horrendous Baywatch titles, and a horde of others all attempted to milk read more

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Mar 19, 2010

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Spookt (All reviews)

327 people found this review helpful

Are the burdens of being special greater or lesser than the burdens of being ordinary?

Academy City is a city that thrives on those who are espers -- who are special -- whether they already have powers or are trying to attain them. Everyone is reaching towards their ideal self, but some people don’t care what methods get used. The pursuit of the “next level” is absolute. If our limitations only exist so we can surpass them, should there be a limit to how far we can go to get there?

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, or A Certain Scientific Railgun, follows the events around Misaka Mikoto read more

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Sep 5, 2015

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

bolito566 (All reviews)

197 people found this review helpful

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun is a show that I was pretty hyped to start watching after ending Majutsu no Index, as I thought it would be cool to get some insight on Misaka's life as a Level 5 and get to know better the world the esper's live in. What I got was nothing like that, at all.

The story is nothing new. At all. There are people who can use powers and this time a whole city is there to develop these. Even though everyone's already full of that premise, doesn't mean you don't have to explain the world build, writers. We only got a glance at what its like living in Academy City. The world was never explained. Why the magic users don't appear was never explained. The "Level" system was never fully explained. We saw everything but knew nothing.

This show uses a specific formula to get its story arcs going, usually introducing a new character that has nothing to do with the conflict at the start, and then starts slowly revealing why this one character in fact has everything to do with the conflict. The wrong in the execution of the show is its constant failures to try to hide it. The episode itself tries to be too unpredictable and almost becomes too predictable, you see. It’s funny how this show tries to pretend it’s not based on arcs by constantly remembering you of what happened in the past. These ‘flashbacks’ are unneeded and they only serve to take more screentime.

The story contains many trivial episodes (which is also a screentime problem, like the festival, the visit to the girls dorm, the Judgement investigation episodes of things we already know about etc.) and recycles alot of jokes (like Shirai worshipping Misaka). Not only that, but the filler episodes and the jokes are misplaced, which completely ruins the dramatic mood it tries to develop (just like it happened in the end of episode 22).

The story ends up having too many mishaps and too little reconnaissances. There are twists and turns on the story but it is never truly developed since the end of every conflict has little impact on the characters themselves (like it was all 'just another adventure'). There was never a climax. There was never a point where I was worried any of the characters would get hurt. There was never an experience that involved the viewers worrying or even caring for the characters. I just accepted eveything that happened and moved on, knowing that in the end everything would go well. And it did. That's why I didn't enjoy watching this series.

We got more development to the side characters than to the main cast of girls, while Uiharu was the most developed and by far the worst character of the show. We still know nothing about Misaka's past, which is a shame since she has the most screentime of the entire series, and it feels dull to watch her kicking ass without knowing the conflicts she had to pass to obtain such power. The villains are are absolutely horrible. This is another anime that explains the bad guy's actions by the insanity of their minds, like a human can only be mean if they are out of it. It's cringe-worthy, I'm telling ya.

The art is nothing special. I've seen this style many times, and I don't like the side faces. This is not a judging point, though, I'm just pointing it out, alright?
Animation is okay. Nothing much to complain about.

The sound work is bad. While the fights are going the same singing tune keeps on repeating undefinitely until it's over. The episodes always start with the same calm soundtrack. Each part always has its own music. This show is so preditable that you can even predict which soundtrack is going to play for each scene, and It's not like they are good at all. The music should help the show by adding another feel to the scenes, and not help you to know what's coming up next, lmao.

There are shows with no story that can be enjoyable with good characters. There are shows with bad characters that can be enjoyable with a good story.
But there are no shows with bad stories and bad characters that can be enjoyable. See you in the sequel, Kagaku no Railgun. I hope you learn.

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Jan 4, 2015

24 of 24 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

Quan_ (All reviews)

85 people found this review helpful

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

You know, I'm always down for an average anime series. Yes, I admit I have high standards, very few anime even reach an 8 out of 10 for me, but I have absolutely no problem sitting down and watching a show I have every inclination will be just "kind of alright". It makes me feel like I get a bigger scope of things in the anime world when I watch these shows, so that includes watching those anime that have made it onto my Plan to Watch list for the sole purpose that for some reason, they have been able to read more

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