A Certain Scientific Railgun/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • So, with my usual slowness, I just realized that Level Upper functions rather similarly to programs like Folding@Home. No big deal, seeing as how that was basically outright stated in the series. But, what struck me on the way to the fridge was the reason why everyone was going into those comas after using it - the program itself was using up too many resources in the 'processors,' which led the user's bodies to shut down higher brain functions in order to avoid damage to their 'hardware' (which, in this analogy would be analogous to a computer overheating and burning out the motherboard). As such, if Kiyama Harumi had written the program to use less resources, people may not have collapsed and brought up suspicion from Judgement and Anti-skill, meaning she would have had a much greater access to more processing power for a longer period of time, with Level Upper potentially even going viral like Folding@Home did. Or, I guess she could have been upfront about it from the beginning and tell people she was using it to find a cure to cancer or something. Or maybe I'm just really overthinking this. -Farsinian
  • Similar to a bit of Fridge Brilliance I had regarding the Sisters, I had something similar regarding Harumi Kiyama. Her running gag/oddbal; quirk in her first episodes was her Ditzy Genius tendency to go straight to the simplest solution. She gets hot, or her clothes get messed up, the obvious thing to do is strip. Her brain doesn't consider the middle grounds at all. That very same quirk is what leads her to her Well Intentioned Extremism. She initially went for the most obvious solution, get permission to use Tree Diagram. When that ultimately failed, she took matters into her own hands and went for the plan most likely to succeed: Level Upper. The manga even lampshades this a bit when Uiharu points out things Harumi failed to consider (such as the possibility of its victims not being found or falling comatose in a place where they could be hurt). -- Sgamer 82
  • Capacity Down is a sonic phenomenon, correct? It's an esper-crippling Brown Note. Why didn't any of the brilliant espers involved ever buy ear plugs after their first run-in?
    • Sound can transmit through your entire body, ear plugs wouldn't do jack if the volume was loud enough. You can easily test this by putting your fingers into your ears, and turning up your speakers. Get sound loud enough, and you can feel it thudding in your chest, since we're all basically bags of mostly water.
  • Fridge Horror: Imagine yourself in Saten's position, being one of the few in the entire city who doesn't have an ability. It's somewhat of a surprise the suicide rate of the city is never mentioned...
    • It's actually stated that the majority of the students in Academy City are Level 0, so she's in good company. It just so happens that this is one of those cases where being in the majority sucks.
  • Does anyone else find the closing sequence creepy? Mikoto wakes up to a grinning Kuroko while the lyrics describe a promise (or threat) to "always be with you" day or night. Aren't we really just hearing Kuroko's inner thoughts?
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