A Certain Scientific Railgun: Difference between revisions

''ToaruA KagakuCertain noScientific Railgun'' (とある科学の超電磁砲 , Toaru Kagaku no Rērugan) is a manga spin-off and [[All There in the Manual|supplementary reading]] to the ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' [[Light Novel]] series. Similar to the original, it has received an [[Animated Adaptation]] courtesy of [[J.C.Staff]], which covers the first major arc of the manga as well as some anime-original material penned by the author. In addition, there are side-story novels which involve the protagonists with the Magic side.

This series shares a [[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index/Characters|character sheet]] with ''[[To AruA MajutsuCertain noMagical Index]]''.

The anime ishas beingbeen licensed and released by [[FUNimation]] entertainment, along with theboth firstseasons seasonand the movie of ''[[To AruA MajutsuCertain noMagical Index]]''.

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]] In the manga, Saten was shorter than Mikoto and had a flat chest. In the anime her height is sometimes the same as Mikoto's; she was finally officially established as being 11 cm shorter than Mikoto during ''Railgun T''. Her bust in some official art (when she is in a bikini) is increased to a C cup. JC Staff really likes her (Director's Pet).

** The entire series is essentially this, especially ''Railgun''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s version of the {{spoiler|the Sisters}} arc}}, which explains Mikoto's struggles against {{spoiler|the Level 6 experiment}} in more detail compared to the ''Index'' version. It also shows a more introspective side of Accelerator, {{spoiler|which makes his [[Face Heel Turn]] more understandable}}.

** Averted with Mikoto whomwho, despite coming from a rich family, grew up like a normal girl thanks to her mother and acts kind and friendly to all people, no matter what social class they come from.

*** Just so you know, there's a couple of reason why she is very scary. She's in charge of a Girls Dormitory who students are mostly Level 3 or 4 psychics {{spoiler|including two Level 5's}}, is quick enough to {{spoiler|[[Oh Crap|break Kuroko's neck before she can teleport]]}}, defeat {{spoiler|the [[Elite Mooks|Hound Dogs, a Black Ops team]] [[Badass|all by herself without any weapons]]}} and has [[Scary Shiny Glasses]] too. (Did i forget to mention she also voiced by [[Hitomi Nabatame]] too?) With the things she does, it's no wonder why Mikoto, Kuroko and the rest of Tokidwai are scared of her and [[Mugging the Monster|haven't been abusing their powers or breaking the rules]] in the first place. But what's more scary is the fact there's [https://web.archive.org/web/20141230145512/http://i.imagehost.org/view/0127/snapshotRailgun_Supervisor not one] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103194037/http://i.imagehost.org/view/0482/snapshotIndex_Supervisor but two of them!] God help us if the other one is scary like her too.

** The AIM Burst in episode 11/12 is a more subtle [[Call Forward]]. Notice that halo on top of its head? Notice the shape of its core? Now fast forward to the Academy City Invasion arc. That's right, the AIM Burst is a forerunner of {{spoiler|Fuse FUSE/Kazakiri}}.

** Kuroko's catchphrase: "''Judgment desu nodesuno!''".

* [[Character Development]]: Mikoto started as an idealist but later becomes an understanding realist when she learns not everyone has the will and effort to become a higher level esper and learns to respect and be sensitive to other people's feelings especially {{spoiler|the Level Upper users like Saten.}} But {{spoiler|then it gets bad when she becomes a unbalanceunbalanced, cynical, [[Stepford Smiler]] during the Sister arc. [[It Got Worse]], [[Death Seeker|very worse]], and then she got better.}}

* [[Character Exaggeration]]: Yes J.C. Staff, we know Kuroko [[Clingy Jealous Girl|is madly in love]] with Mikoto, but was it necessary to make it over the top in the ''Railgun'' anime?

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Episode 4: {{spoiler|in a list of "urban legends", the Level Upper is mentioned.}} Similarly, closeups of a pair of headphones playing some music, {{spoiler|eventually it is eventually revealed that the Level Upper is actually a sound file that one can listen to.}}

** Episode 12: The camera focuses to a group of 4four girls at a restaurant (who we'll see again in season 2) and a mysterious lady who likes [[Shakugan no Shana|Margery Daw]] at the nuclear power plant (who we'll see again in a few episodes).

** Remember episode 17? The one featuring a mysterious girl whose pendant has a picture {{spoiler|of a certain scientist's student}} and the earthquake that happen in that episode? Guess who's the new transfer student at Uiharu's school, and what the Anti-skillsAntiskill and Judgment are talking about in episode 20?

** Remember the [[Anti-Magic|Capacity Down]]? Yeah, we get to knowsee who built it, and see it in use again.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Saten Ruiko is a Level Zero, so even with an aluminum baseball bat she can't do much in a battle {{spoiler|with a giant mech}}, yet {{spoiler|she proves instrumental in the final battle in episode 24 as she was the only one Telestina didn't detect, and the only girl in the group aside from Kiyama not being affected by [[Brown Note|Capacity-Down]] and manages to destroy it!}}

* [[Continuity Nod]]: ''Railgun'' is filled with nods to the Torest Aruof the series if you look closely.

** Episode 20 shows Mii on the computer, and next to it is a bin, overflowing with milk cartons. Remember that? "If it's milk, it has to be Musashino!"

** Episode 19 helps explainexplains why the Tokiwadai Dorm supervisor in ''Index'' is different from the one in ''Railgun'', explaining there are in fact 2two Tokiwadai dorms.

** Remember episode 18 when Uiharu's &and Saten's teacher wanted to propose {{spoiler|to the teacher from Cypress Park?}} Guess what's on his hand in episode 20.

** Several characters from the ''Railgun'' anime appeared in the manga like Erii and that female gangster Mikoto fought.

** The railgun''Railgun'' manga has recently added many nods towardsto the side stories. In chapter 43 Mikoto is mentioned to have experience doing demonstationsdemonstrations in Russia (Shopping Mall Demonstration SSside story), in chapter 44.5 a disguised Xochitl runs into and remember Saten from the Liberal Arts City SSside story, and even more subtly, in chapter 42 Saten makes an offhand comment about how the jeans she ordered from England haven't arrived yet (Norse Mythology SSside story).

* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: Esper powers affect reality based on their users' internal reality. According to the pseudoscience of the series, if a [[wikipedia:SchrodingersSchrödinger's cat|Schrödinger's cat]] experiment was set up, espers would find the cat in the state that they believed it to be, because they believed strongly enough that the cat was that way. Hypnosis, brainwashing and drugs are used to throw the subjects' internal reality out of whack. So, it might be argued that the strongest espers like Mikoto and Accelerator are the most stubbornly out of touch with the reality normal people live in.

* [[Cutting the Knot]]: Averted with Touma. A lot of ''Railgun''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s plots could have been solved in about three seconds if he were there.

* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: Episode 17 is about the teacher and Anti-skillAntiskill officer Tsuzuri Tessou.

* [[Eagle Land]]: definitely flavor 2 in the ''Railgun'' SSside story: Liberal Arts City, almost to the point of being anvilicious; the author sees America (in a very stereotypically Japanese way) as the movie-obsessed land of women with huge breasts, overly large vehicles and people toting guns everywhere.

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: The ''Railgun'' manga and it'sits anime adaptation has characters from the later novels appearing much earlier.

** In Chapter 11, Mikoto &and Kuroko meets a certain Frog"frog-face doctor".

** In Chapter 15, the {{spoiler|"Shonen Hero" in one of the Level Upper user's memories is none other than Gunha Sogiita, the seventh Level 5 esper}}, and in the same chapter we have the appearance of a group of girls hanging out. Those girls {{spoiler|are none other than the members of ITEM}}, ledlead by {{spoiler|the fourth Level 5 esper, Shizuri Mugino.}}

* [[Epic Fail]]: Episode 17 makes very clear Tessou is the resident [[Butt Monkey]]., ''Inin one-and-a-half minuteminutes''.

** Another was when Mikoto tries to blow away the graviton bomb with her railgun, but drops her coin. {{spoiler|But thankfullyHowever, Touma was ablethere to protect everyone from the explosion}}.

* [[Evil Laugh]]: [[Trailers Always Spoil|The opening credits already mark]] {{spoiler|Telestina}} out as an obvious bad guy, but she invokes this trope in Episode 23 with such furious insanity that [[Nightmare Fuel|it is utterly scary.]]

* [[Every Girl Is Cuter With Hair Decs]]: All the main characters have some form of hair decsdecorations, but Uiharu is definitely overdoing it with the flower bouquet on her head. The four main girls' accessories are highlighted in the first ending.

** What's worse is [[It Runs in The Family]], as his {{spoiler|his son Amata Kihara}} is an evil bastard just like {{spoiler|like his father, as Amata was the one who [[Training Fromfrom Hell|"raised"]] [[Complete Monster|Accelerator.]]}} Add {{spoiler|Telestina Kihara Lifeline, Gensei's granddaughter to the list of evil (and mentally fucked up).}}

* [[Fandom Nod]]/[[Sure Why Not]]: A minor one. The Tokiwadai Dorm supervisor's appearance changes [https://web.archive.org/web/20150103194037/http://i.imagehost.org/view/0482/snapshotIndex_Supervisor from the Index anime] to the [https://web.archive.org/web/20141230145512/http://i.imagehost.org/view/0127/snapshotRailgun_Supervisor Railgun anime]. Some fans think it was change to match her looks in the manga while others think they are just two different people with the same job. Along came episode 19, which mentions there are two Tokiwadai Dorms, which suggest there are indeed two different dorm supervisors.

* [[Fantastic Racism]]:* Though everyone in Academy city is treated with equal rights ''in theory'', in ''practice'' your chances of getting passed over for jobs, universities and all other opportunities in life steadily increases the lower your [[Power Level]] gets. Well -meaning Level 55s<ref>Considering there are only seven Level 5s in Academy City and most of them aren'st suchvery asnice, "Well-meaning Level 5s" is for all intents and purposes synonymous with "Mikoto".</ref> try to reassure their "lesser" peers with ultimately hollow mantras of "Do your best!! Your power level doesn't matter!!" oblivious to the fact that certain people are simply ''born'' incapable of crossing certain hurdles no matter ''how'' hard they try. Naturally, this breeds '''intensely''' bitter resentment, especially amongst the Level 0's of the city's population; ripe for exploitation by people like {{spoiler|like Professor Kiyama Harumi}} through schemes like the "Level Upper" incident... Scientists such as {{spoiler|Telestina and the rest of the Kihara family}} don't even treat ''espers'' as humans; merely test subjects for their experiments.

* [[Filler]]: Because there were only 4four manga volumes of ''Railgun'' at that time, with the then-current arc ({{spoiler|The SisterSisters arc}}) still ongoing, filler episodes were created after the first arc in the ''Railgun'' anime to fill in its 24 -episode slot. Thankfully, most of the filler episodes and the characters introduced in the anime were written by the author of the novels so it's [[Canon]] - and some is referenced in later works. The arc that wasn't finished during the production of the first season of the anime would be adapted to fill the first 15 episodes of the 24-episode second season of the anime.

* [[Flip-Flop of God]]: In the beginning of the ''Index'' novel and anime, Mikoto fires a railgun which passes by Touma but in the ''Railgun'' manga drawn by Motoi Fukuyama, she fires the Railgun at him whichwhen he stops using Imagine Breaker. Unfortunately, this caused some [[Internet Backdraft|backlash with fans since it is contested by the fandom if this is possible]]. To avoid this contradiction, the ''Railgun'' anime has the events that lead to the Railgun incident [[Retcon]] to an earlier date before the time of the first ''Index'' arc.

* [[Flower in Her Hair]]: Uiharu practically wears a ''flowerbed'' on her head, while Saten wears a lone white flower. As Uiharu has both refused to answer Kiyama about what they are (or answer any other questions at the time), and only answered "What are you talking about?" when someone pointed them outcomplimented totheir herappearance at the Tokiwadai Midsummer festival, they may be more than a headband.

** Remember some of those Urban Legends the girls were talking at episode 4? {{spoiler|TheyOther than the ones directly addressed in the Level Upper story arc, all of them hint about what'sthings going tothat happen in the ''Index'' anime.}}

* [[For Great Justice]]: The Liberal Arts City {{spoiler|had been implied to have captured espers and experiment on them, as well as get rid of people who snoop using [[Secret Police]], control information, and other various things to create their own espers using a different method from Academy City, based off the magicians attacking them for this reason. They claim it's so they wouldn't be behind the times as the "World Police" since it's possible that espers would become common placecommonplace in the future, but they were just as bad as Academy City's [[For Science!]]!}}

** {{spoiler|Frenda, Mugino, Rikou and Saiai}} can count as a Four-Girl Ensemble, too, despite being, {{spoiler|well [[Affably Evil|villains?]] [[Rule of Cool|Nah, who cares!]]}}

** For the Railgun DVDs, the limited editions contains an 8-part Index side story mini novel staring Kaori Kanzaki, written by the author of the novels, Kazuma Kamachi and art drawn by Kiyotaka Haimura of Toaru[[A MajutsuCertain noMagical Index]] light novels in each DVD. So what's it's about?:

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: It's [[Hand Wave|stated]] in Railgun that Tokiwadai requires its students to wear their uniforms at all times when out in public. This becomes a plot point twice.

** {{spoiler|Mikoto fights against Telestina [[Humongous Mecha|Giant Mech]]. When coins can't penetrate the mech's armor, she summons Kuroko to send one of the mech's fistfists to her and use it to blow the mech to smithereens!}}

* [[Not So Different]]: {{spoiler|Kiyama and Mikoto. Both of them are good people who became cynical due to the fact those they care and loved were screwed by the corrupt Academy City administration (for Kiyama is was her students, for Mikoto her clone sisters) and both of them could not fight them as they were powerless against the administration. Though as shown in the "sequel" ''Index'', Mikoto eventually grows out of said-bitterness. And thankfully both of them [[Earn Your Happy Ending|got their Happy EndingEndings]]}}.

** On a similar note chapter 43 of the Railgun manga [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s Mikoto as "the only sane level 5".

** They also play [[To Love LOVE-Ru|Nana and Momo]] respectively, twin sisters.

* [[Schrödinger's Cat|Schrodingers Cat]]: Used to explain why Espers are able to use their abilities.

* [[Stock Footage]]: Averted, making it difficult to determine when events are occurring compared to [[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index|Index]].

* [[Tele Frag]]: Kuroko's teleportation ability displaces anything in the target area, so she can use it to stick metal needles directly into a person's body... or use plate glass windows to topple a building by slicing all the support beams.

{{quote|'''Harumi:''' [[Unknown Rival|You]] uh... You like [[The Dulcinea Effect|him]]?

'''Mikoto:''' W-What?

'''Harumi:''' You know, when a girl behaves all cold towards the guy she likes. It was popular a while back... Tsun... Tsun... Tsundara? No... Tsunjire?

** Except for thoseUndressing twoWoman and {{spoiler|Level Upper}}, every urban legend listed (in the subtitled version) is shown in the first season of ''[[To AruA MajutsuCertain noMagical Index]]''.

* [[You Leave Him Alone|You Leave Them Alone]]: Invoked by Saten {{spoiler|in the Final Episode of the first season as she smashes the device that paralyzed her superpowered friends and left them at the mercy of [[Complete Monster|Telestina]], the [[Big Bad]]}}.