The success of the light novel A Certain Magical Index quickly spawned a spinoff manga, A Certain Scientific Railgun, which starts off as a prequel but soon becomes concurrent with the Index storyline. With the immense popularity of the first season of the Index anime, it’s unsurprising that J.C. STAFF would launch an anime adaptation of A Certain Scientific Railgun, especially as the manga caught fire the same way the Index light novels did. Never mind that the manga had barely gotten itself going when J.C. STAFF opted to commit to producing a A Certain Scientific Railgun season, especially as Index probably could have easily had a second season produced right away. However, this creative decision turns out to be a blessing in disguise in a lot of surprising ways.
A Certain Scientific Railgun follows the adventures of Mikoto Misaka, independent from her interactions with Toma Kamijo, the main character of Index. Joining Misaka is fellow holdover Kuruko Shirai (whose lesbian overtures towards Misaka are far more overt here) and new characters Kazari Uiharu (shy and quiet) and Ruiko Saten (the only “level 0″ Esper in Academy City; show lingo for she’s “normal”). The rest of the supporting cast is mostly original to Railgun, but does contain occasional appearances from cast members of the main series. The casting is one way the series tries to find its own identity while staying true to the mood of Index. For the most part, it manages to do that, even managing to be superior to the main series in a lot of important ways.
As I mentioned, A Certain Scientific Railgun actually starts before Index in the timeline, and an early episode revisits the first time Misaka and Toma encounter each other in the main series. This does an effective job of showing where Railgun fits in the overall universe, and the lack of Index (the character) in the story (until a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene at the end of the series) solidifies Railgun‘s status as a prequel and then a concurrent story running alongside the pre-Accelerator episodes in the main series. There’s no way to misinterpret the story and no question when the series takes place (in contrast to a host of similar stories in other multi-media projects, like, say, the latest Marvel Comics crossover).
A Certain Scientific Railgun eases you into the story. The opening episodes gently show what it’s like to live in Academy City. While a good deal of “telling” is done through the exposition of main and side characters (and a bus guide in the opening episode), the ways of “telling” are at least more creative than the old “you know this but…” dialogue trick. The end result is that I know more about Academy City and why it exists with a lot more clarity than I got out of the original Index anime. I got a sense of the society, and what it’s like to live in a city that is 20-30 years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to technology. What is it like to live in a city that is primarily composed of students? Why would such a city be built in the first place? Railgun provides answers, or at least plausible theories (and not all of them positive), in convincing ways that the main series failed to do. The feeling of missing expository prose never affects Railgun.
The expansion of Ruiko Saten from an arc character in the manga to a main character here helps as well. As the only normal” girl surrounded by people with special gifts, she adds a unique sociological perspective that powers much of the story in the first half of the season. At times, this means that the anime writers (a fairly big team led by Seishi Minakami) are clearly reaching to find ways to give Saten something to do. This is especially prevalent in the final episodes, when Saten is able to do something that she essentially should not be able to do, but the writing fumbles are comparatively minor in comparison to the main series. In a way, it’s forgivable because the way Saten is utilized in the first 13 episodes is borderline masterful in how it portrays a “powerless” character being tempted by the opportunity to become “empowered” like her friends and rivals.
The writing is strong enough that it’s easy to forget that every episode past the 15th is anime-original, aka “filler” (albeit filler that expands upon the conclusion to the canon arc). A big benefit is that Index‘s main writers; Masanao Akahoshi and Satoru Nishizono, are not involved in this production. Nishizono is best known for the plodding first 53 episodes of Naruto Shippuden and Akahoshi has mediocre ecchi anime like Ikki Tousen on his resume, and their work for Index tended to echo the quality of those series. Seishi Minakami’s pedigree as a writer is far more accomplished (No.6, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and the late Satoshi Kon’s classic Paprika), and it shows in the surprising thoughtfulness behind the sci-fi-based ideas in this series.
Minakami’s take on the main villain, Harumi Kiyama, makes her surprisingly sympathetic, as Kiyama seeks to atone for a past error that made several orphaned children she taught and cared for comatose. However, Kiyama, after being stonewalled by the brass in Academy City, is resorting to increasingly desperate actions in order to save the kids she failed. Her melancholia, bitterness, and self-loathing quietly seethes beneath her calm, exhausted surface, and Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese) and Anastasia Munoz (English) both do superb jobs of bringing out the subtle power of such a character. She is a character who means well but allows her firm belief that the ends justify the means to blind her. While A Certain Magical Index fumbled similar characters, A Certain Scientific Railgun manages to make Kiyama completely compelling. Even as she does crazy, aggressive things, you can’t help but feel sorry for her because all she wants is to save the lives of those she cares for.
Despite successes with Kiyama and Saten, A Certain Scientific Railgun‘s characters aren’t all perfect. Kuruko Shirai’s over-the-top antics towards Misaka were tolerable in the main series; but here, they get increasingly grating, to the point where fast-forwarding thru the scene starts sounding like a really good idea. The main villain of the series after Kiyama’s arc wraps up becomes hammy enough to out-ham Nicolas Cage as Castor Troy. While the results are entertaining (since when is Cage-style ham not?), it weakens what should be a dramatic, meaningful conclusion. But compared to A Certain Magical Index, these are comparatively minor quibbles. Overall, Misaka comes off superior to her incarnation in A Certain Magical Index, proving she is capable of carrying a series. The pacing of the show also feels natural and evenly-paced, gradually drawing on our ability to pay attention without needlessly dragging us for episodes on end.
The lack of the Misaka-clones, an endless source of confusion for me in the main series, is also a plus.
The animation, in both fluidity and direction, is an improvement over the main series as well. Like Minakami, A Certain Scientific Railgun’s director, Tatsuyuki Nagai, is more accomplished over his predecessor, Hiroshi Nishikori. Nagai has directed cathartic material full of mood swings like Anohana, Toradora, and multiple episodes of Mushi-Shi and he has a good grasp of using his budget and framing the many action sequences for maximum impact. Nagai does not shy away from some hard-hitting blows. I’d say that you feel the blows even harder than you do in Index. Every moment just feels more alive, more intense, and less by-the-numbers. This even translates to the comedic moments, where elements including creative character positioning, smash cuts, and chibi facial expressions manage to make the silly scenes more memorable than in the main series.
The only true staff holdover other than members of the voice cast is music composer Maiko Iuchi. While some new music is used (mostly string quartet stuff for outdoors and school scenes), a lot of the music utilized here is left over from A Certain Magical Index. That means the music is predominantly electronica with electric guitar occasionally dubbed over the beats; if you watched Index first, then you’ve heard most of it before. The score is used with a bit more skill than in the main series, and the intense electronic beats and snarling, rapid-fire guitar bursts remain an effective, if familiar, way to score action scenes. Much like the main series, however, the music used for sad scenes is lacking. Iuchi did compose a few simple piano pieces for A Certain Scientific Railgun and they do help the sad scenes better than the ambient music did in A Certain Magical Index, but the flaw is that they are too simple. They manage to support the scenes, but a little more effort or inspiration would’ve made the scenes resonate more, especially in scenes of regret or grief. Overall, though, the new music shows growth in Iuchi’s skill as a composer, and hopefully future seasons of Index and Railgun will showcase this.
Much like Index, four pieces of theme music are used, all of which clearly written with this series in mind. fripSide’s two opening songs, “only my railgun” (episodes 2-14) and “LEVEL5-Judgment” (15-23) use house electronica as a backdrop to kick some serious ass, and they are effective in preparing the viewer when episodes get action-oriented. Superb animation for these two openings don’t hurt either. ELISA’s two endings, “Dear My Friend” and “Real Force”, are far more pedestrian, but they fit the series well. A variation of “Dear My Friend” played in episode 13, called “Smile-You & Me”, has surprisingly good English making up a lot of the lyrics.
Zack Bolton returns from the main series to direct this English dub, with Bonny Clinkenbeard also returning to write the dub scripts. Clinkenbeard generally keeps his scripts tighter than the majority of FUNimation’s dub writers, but his scripting gets a bit sloppy by the end of the series, resulting in awkward, overly wordy lines that no actor or director would be able to save. Bolton continues his practice of casting the characters as if they are American, resulting in some casting choices wildly divergent from the Japanese version. The only voice close to the Japanese is Cherami Leigh’s Uiharu. At least this time, most of the pronunciation issues that plagued the dub for first season of A Certain Magical Index are gone.
For the most part, Bolton’s approach works. A big challenge for a series like this is to find unique, convincing voices for a lot of teenage girls and women, and Bolton manages to find them. Brina Palencia’s Saten is much deeper than Kanae Itou’s, but considering that Brittany Karbowski (Misaka), Alison Viktorin (Kuruko), and Cherami Leigh all speak with higher voices here, Palencia was likely cast so Saten could stand out more, and she certainly does in the English version. Anastasia Munoz’s Kiyama also has a much different cadence than Atsuko Tanaka’s, but Munoz does a better job showing the weariness weighing Kiyama down. Unfortunately, Munoz is not convincing at all playing Kiyama’s younger self in flashbacks, while Tanaka is. VR Trooper fans will notice Brad Hawkins popping up for a couple of episodes as arc character Wataru Kurozuma, and he fits his character well, sounding like a veteran at this anime dubbing thing. In general, the dub makes for a good substitute for the subtitled version. If you can’t stand Satomi Arai’s Kuruko, Alison Viktorin’s take on the character is nowhere near as squeaky, which might be the deciding factor right then and there.
The extras are several episode commentaries (the most entertaining one is the one for the last episode with Bolton and Colleen Clinkenbeard), along with clean openings and closings. The 5.1 audio and visuals sound and look quite good and modern, though not as crisp as you might expect from a series coming out today. Considering this anime originally came out in Japan during the HD-DVD/Blu-ray wars, this is probably understandable.
Overall, A Certain Scientific Railgun proves to be a superior, if not perfect, product compared to the series it spun off from. Ultimately, it proves to be a better entry point for the Index mythos than the main series itself. Whether that is a compliment or a condemnation, I don’t know yet. But I suggest you watch and decide for yourself.
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