A Certain Scientific Railgun is a J.C. Staff (of Shakugan no Shana, Shigofumi, and Toradora! fame) anime adaptation of a manga of the same name conceived by manga artist Motoi Fuyukama and light novel author Kazuma Kamachi. With direction by Tatsuyuki Nagai, script by Miya Asakawa and Michiko Ito, and character designs, original and anime, by Kiyotaka Haimura and Yuichi Tanaka, respectively, we follow the adventures of Misaka, an important supporting character in the series' parent, Kamachi's A Certain Magical Index (which later became its own anime and manga), the most powerful electromaster as well as one of the strongest espers in Academy City, and her friends, Kuroko Shirai, Kazari Uiharu, and Ruiko Saten. Emphasis on her companions, being that while the show is named after Misaka's nicknames, it covers them quite a bit as well, who they are, what they're feeling, and the bonds of friendship they strike. Nevertheless, the show doesn't forget its roots, making numerous references and cameos to people and events from Index itself. Touma Kamijou, Index's main protagonist, takes the similar role as Misaka did in his series by makes his recurring rounds as support. And to be perfectly honest, I like how he's shown here rather than there, where his goofiness doesn't seem so exclusive from his solid moral stances.
The story is divided into one portion directly from the source, the Level Upper Arc, and anime original stuff, the Big Spider Arc, the Poltergeist Arc, and all the character specific episodes in between, to provide some breathing room for the next big arc in the manga, presumably to prevent an exhaustion of future adaptive material while leaving enough time to give the existing unadapted print some justice on screen, among other things. Particularly notable of this series is its constant use of foreshadow to create a sense of escalating tension and commitment to every character introduced. Minor, yet deliberate details, seemingly out-of-place snapshots, suspicious after-thought abnormalities, throwaway characters that don't seem all that throw away, develop to become something major in the future. Speaking of throwaways, aside for child errors, this show has few, if any. Many a side character is given a considerable degree of spotlight despite their status and are either retired properly, rather than abruptly, or go on to become relevant in future events, laying the groundwork for an overwhelming amount of potential and immersion. The backgrounds are beautiful to look at and contribute a necessary sense of scale to the world building that's evidently being sought for, but also adding a personal note, localized enough to be able to share, in sincerity and intimacy, the experiences of our main heroines. The animation is solid, funny in that exaggerated sort of way when a joke or gag is being played, and thrilling when the story calls for it.
The likelihood of whether or not you'll like this show will probably weigh heavily on whether or not you are able to enjoy slice of life and its slow paced nature. Railgun is both important parts this and action, the latter more saturated in Index. If you don't find slice of life in general boring, if you're dispositionally inclined in taste or open-minded enough to enjoy it, the next issue that needs to be addressed with this show before taking the next step forward to actually watching it is whether or not the everyday feel of these segments have a purpose. The more famous and infamous instances of slice of life in this medium fall under the category of “cute girls doing cute things,” and while it may be alright for those shows to feature such, it isn't for Railgun. It presents itself as something more. The purpose is to show characterization taking place, not tell, from how it is to how it evolves, something that sees the main cast, plus much of the supporting cast, as persons, instead of one word to one sentence stereotypes, something that Index, the anime and the character, has trouble illustrating properly. In spite of their abilities, espers are people too, with all their flaws.
Same goes with this show's namesake Misaka, who, in addition to being the Railgun, the 3rd ranked Level 5, and yes, tsundere, is also very much a person of many facets: independent, proud, sometimes to the point of headstrong and hot-tempered, child-like in her tastes, yet fussily contrarian when she's called on it, and fiercely loyal. She has a heart of gold and lightening, but foremost, she's a girl who wants nothing more than a relatively normal life (as normal as it can get for someone with esper powers) with the people she treasures. These traits of hers slowly, but surely, are put inside a crucible and put to the flame as much as they are gradually built up as the city's darkness becomes more and more manifest. A similarly impressive level of characterization occurs with Saten, who happens to be Level 0.
Then there's the city itself, the show's setting, which is a character in and of itself, its breathtakingly advanced central core and its seedier outliers and underbellies that mirror the metropolis' own host of social successes and failures as well as science's accolades and excesses. Evident, for example, is Academy City's own brand of class discrimination and human experimentation. It's a utopia and dystopia, all in one... never a dull moment in this city, to say the least.
Aside for a slice of life, which is more or less you have to take or leave, the issue I have with Railgun is the disparity in the quality of the script. While it may be said that Kamachi had a hand in creating every story angle, it's evident that the writing that is “direct from source” is stronger and more confident than the writing that is “anime original” or, using a more connotationally derogatory term, “filler,” often relying on the aforementioned numerous Index cameos to carry it through at times. It's always welcome, but its never a substitute for decent storytelling, though it doesn't go overboard. However, the main problem lies in the anime original plot threads rather than the episodic pieces. A lot of interesting ideas are juggled, to be sure, using the universe and previous happenings to its advantage, but the content, probably a mixture of time restraints and less talented authors, are unquestionably more straightforward and convenient in its execution and conclusions compared to the manga material, to the point not capitalizing on the potential of certain aspects of the story and overlooking others in spite of the show's diligence in keeping everything tight and focused, examples being the identity and backstory of Poltergeist arc's major antagonist and the functionality of a railgun. A railgun isn't a particle beam cannon. A particle accelerator, on the other hand, can... no, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The OPs “only my railgun” and “Level 5 -judgelight-” follows Index's lead of techno inspired music, electronic embellishments and synthetics to complement the melody which, this time around, is fist-pumping awesome... I mean, upbeat, and band, this time around by J-Pop group fripSide, who made their debut and fame with this anime. The audible transitions synchronize perfectly with the animation sequences, which always seem to be bustling with activity and energy as scene after scene, flipping character, setting, and plot device, saying so much about everyone and everything shown without a need for a single word. Noteworthy in some positive ways is the musical introduction to OP1 and the scene with Misaka firing her Railgun. For the former when the noise drops for suspense and black turns to a vibrant, electric color before the music kicks into full throttle. For the latter, when it mirrors her mixture of concentration and confidence at performing her signature move. Noteworthy in a negative way is the spoiler for the villain of the final arc.
The EDs “Dear My Friend -Mada Minu Mirai He-” or “Dear My Friend -Towards an Unseen Future-” and “Real Force,” the latter more upbeat than the other, by one of my favorite Japanese singers, ELISA, in my opinion, an amazing singer who with an equally amazing sense of range. My only contention about her at times is that she likes a lot of Engrish in her songs, which shake me up whenever she puts it as a point for emphasis. The exception is a special insert ending song also performed by ELISA, “SMILE -You & Me-” re-purposes ED1's melody while replacing the original lyrics entirely with English while discarding all the extra background music for a soul crushing classic guitar, soul suspending cello, and soul sublimating keyboard accompaniment with an equally impressive vocal. Never mind the heavy Japanese accent (the words are still pretty comprehensible by ear regardless), this level of elegant, yet evocative expression is exactly why I'm such a fan.
Overall, if you don't mind watching girls living their lives while being badass to the side, then by all means, watch it. There's that aspect, the wonderfully thorough characterization, Academy City, and whole lot more to conceivably enjoy. And while it helps, as it does its best to come off as its own tale (the cameos, save Kamijou, are mostly just cameos, a superficial bit of appreciation for people in the know) you don't need to watch Index to understand the substantial bits of it. It just adds some extra world building, scale, immersion... what have you.
I give A Certain Scientific Railgun an 8 out of 10.
