A Certain Scientific Railgun: Difference between revisions

* [[Bait the Dog]]: In the manga, two scientists are around when 9982 cleans up. They joke and laugh and 9982 criticizes the tea. All very friendly and affable. Oh, by the way 9982, don't forget to clean up the ''half dozen bloody corpses of your sisters'' before you change into the uniform, or you're just going to have to do it again. Toodles!

* [[Balloon Belly]]: Tsuduri

** Same in Liberal Arts City.

* [[Beach Episode]]: Episode 13, with holograms.

** The railgun manga has recently added many nods towards the side stories. In chapter 43 Mikoto is mentioned to have experience doing demonstations in Russia (Shopping Mall Demonstration SS), in chapter 44.5 a disguised Xochitl runs into and remember Saten from the Liberal Arts City SS, 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 SS).

* [[Cool Airship]]: The Mixcoatls in Railgun SS, made of obsidian, wood, and cloth, that can out fly fighter planes.

* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Kuroko, who threatens Touma the moment she sees him out of suspicion over his relationship with Mikoto, telling him that if he wants to make a go at Mikoto he'll have to go through ''her'' first. Though despite her jealousy, she never tries to sabotage or otherwise impede Touma's conversations with Mikoto. While clingy and jealous, Kuroko has the best interest for Mikoto at heart.

* [[Cry Cute]]: Misaka in Episode 4.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: When it comes to orphans and love, {{spoiler|the Dorm Supervisor shows a nicer and kinder side}}. Too bad the love part didn't last.

* [[Delinquents]]: They sure like to [[Too Dumb to Live|hit on Misaka]].

* [[Eagle Land]]: definitely flavor 2 in the Railgun SS: 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.

** In manga Chapter 1, Aiho Yomikawa makes a cameo appearance after the crime scene.

** In Chapter 8, you can see Stiyl passing by Uiharu.

** {{spoiler|Nope, [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Only My Railgun]] can save you now.}}

* [[Filler]]: Because there were only 4 manga volumes of Railgun at that time, with the current arc {{spoiler|The Sister 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]].

* [[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, and only answered "What are you talking about?" when someone pointed them out to her at the Tokiwadai Midsummer festival, they may be more than a headband.

** The novels state they are artificial flowers.

** It doesn't help that the {{spoiler|Academy City's Board of Directors}} allows this kind of activity.

*** It doesn't help even more that {{spoiler|Academy City is just a testing ground for them to be able to get the god-like power of a Level 6. ''Everyone'' within are guinea pigs for many kinds of experiments}}, at least that's what {{spoiler|Telestina '''Kihara''' Lifeline}} said.

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

* [[Goofy Print Underwear]]: Mikoto's so fond of bunnies and frogs it's no wonder she wears shorts under her skirt... (nervous laugh)

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: {{spoiler|Mikoto}} suffers a bad one after she failed to save {{spoiler|Misaka 9982}} from being {{spoiler|killed, and almost got killed herself by Accelerator}} and spends a night moping about it until she decides to {{spoiler|[[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|destroy the Research Centers involve in the Level 6 Experiment]]}}. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|it was all in vain when she learns [[We Have Reserves|Academy City can replace those labs as many times they want]] making her return to her BSOD state. And [[It Got Worse]] when she finds her only lead to help stop the plan, the Tree Diagram satellite, was revealed to be destroyed.}}

* [[Hero of Another Story]]: The Anti-Skills, Academy City's real police force. Despite the fact that always seem to be 10 seconds too late to help Kuroko arrest criminals, or stop Misaka from using them as a lightening rod, they really are useful at times, and actually have a bit of a [[The Cavalry|cavalry]] / [[The Rest Shall Pass]] moment when {{spoiler|they disobey orders and keep Telastina's mook army occupied during the highway duel.}}

** Kurozuma Wataru is voiced by [[Katsuyuki Konishi]], who has also voiced Kamina of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Anime)|Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''.

* [[Hive Mind]]: The true purpose of the {{spoiler|"Level Upper" is simply to harness the combined mental power of 10,000 espers as a super-computer substitute; this has the side effects of temporarily increasing the participants' powers (through leaked experiences) and granting the mastermind [[All Your Powers Combined]] but later [[Power At a Price|sends the users into a coma]]}}.

* [[Hollywood Hacking]]: Misaka Mikoto herself. Granted, she's a master of electricity, but bypassing passcard locks, hijacking security robots, erasing herself from security footage, and breaking into a secure facility's network from a phone booth can't be THAT easy, even if you can control electricity.

** Of course, she IS a Level 5, one of the strongest and most skilled Espers there is. And then there's the [[Rule of Cool]] to consider.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Kuroko berates Kiyama for undressing in public as it's immoral yet Kuroko will do the same things to Mikoto.

** Also done by Mikoto chastising Kiyama's {{spoiler|heading off into danger, alone.}} This one's lampshaded immediately by Kuroko and Saten.

* [[The Heartless]]: The [[Fetus Terrible]], above.

* [[Hand Wave]]: In the first Railgun DVD extra, Mikoto wonders why there are so many windmills in Academy City and wonders whether [[Fridge Logic|there are really enough to power the city]] before the whole cast agrees that [[Hand Wave|anything is possible in Academy City and they should stop talking about it.]]

** On a more general note, any time a Level 5 doesn't instantly vaporize their enemy, they were holding back.

* [[I Just Want to Be Special]]: A large part of Ruiko's angst, as she has absolutely no potential in Esper ability, in a city full of people training to be Espers. {{spoiler|Then she gets her hands on the [[Brown Note|Level]] [[Power At a Price|Upper]]...}}

** However, [[Badass Normal|Kurozuma]], a badass guy is introduced in episode 15... just to be [[Put On a Bus]] at the end of the next episode.

** Accelerator also makes an appearance as the main villain of the Sisters arc.

* [[Serious Business]]: In Railgun, a team of top scientists spending an entire omake chapter speculating on what kind of panties Mikoto wears under her shorts, even sending a special ops team in a (thwarted) attempt to steal them.

* [[Shock and Awe]]: Mikoto has power over electricity, which she exploits in her signature railgun attack, accelerating a coin to multiple times the speed of sound. She also uses it to materialize a ''[[Chainsaw Good|chainsaw ]][[Whip Sword|whip]]'' out of nearby iron particles in ''Railgun''. Whatever else you say about her, she certainly is creative as a Level 5.

** Another one to [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s A Space Odyssey featuring [[The Monolith]] (and bone) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q78mwlIKMeE appearing in episode 13 of Railgun.]

** Episode 14 has Kuroko referring to an ''exact'' replica of the "Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable kissing 1939 poster for ''[[Gone With the Wind]]'' in a supposed ''21st-century teens'' pop-culture magazine.

** A screamingly funny one occurs in an Extra of the First Railgun DVD, wherein the Dorm Supervisor breaks Kuroko's neck ''thrice in a row'', and the poor [[Psycho Lesbian|Kuroko]] screams "Abeshi!! Hidebu!! Tawaba!!" each time like the [[Your Head Asplode|villains whose heads Kenshiro detonates with Hokuto Shinken]] in ''[[Fist of the North Star]].''

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: Delivered by both Saten AND Mikoto to {{spoiler|Telestina's}} hateful declaration of the worthlessness of human life. Saten {{spoiler|takes a firm grip of her aluminum baseball bat, shouts "Whatever Levels we are, we're not garbage. [[You Leave Him Alone|YOU LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!!]]" and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|SMASHES the console controlling the Capacity-Down device that paralyze her superpowered friends.]] }} Mikoto then shoves the rest of {{spoiler|Telestina's hatefully delivered [[Hannibal Lecture]] right back in her big ugly mouth... with her railgun.}}

* [[Skirt Over Slacks]]: Misaka.

* [[Spontaneous Weapon Creation]]: Misaka uses electromagnetism on the sand and dirt around her to create a [[Whip Sword]] out of iron sand.

* [[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.

* [[Teleporters and Transporters]]: Kuroko can teleport herself or anything she comes in contact with as long as it weighs 137kg. The higher concentration required relative to other types of powers prevents her from using it if she can't stay focused.

** {{spoiler|Consider Uiharu is only Level 1. Now, consider the deeper physical implications of keeping an object's temperature "at will". Put in other words, this is "negation of entropy". This might be what allows her to keep the flowerbed on her head always fresh, and if she had as much creative spirit as Mikoto with electricity, [[Playing With Fire|think of]] [[An Ice Person|the possibilities]].}}

** {{spoiler|Of course, that's only looking at the most obvious uses. Picture sending her to the sun(which she can do, because temperature control, remember?) and then she takes a plastic ball out, and fills it up with sun(which she can do because she controls temperature, remember?) and then return her to earth. Suddenly she has a 10 million degree bomb sitting in her pocket. Kill her, the power stops, the bomb goes off. Hmm.}}

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: {{spoiler|Kiyama-sensei and her Level Upper plot. A little less extreme than most, since she does have a way to reverse the effects of the Level Upper-induced comas once she's done.}}

* [[Wisdom From the Gutter]]: Subverted horribly. Mikoto gives some advice to {{spoiler|Saten}} telling her Level's aren't important in life yet she is quietly offended by this since Mikoto's a Level 5 while she's a Level 0. Mikoto realizes the consequence of what she said when she learns {{spoiler|Saten fell into a coma using Level Upper and the AIM Burst begins broadcasting the collective thoughts of all 10,000 Level Upper users: [[I Just Want to Be Special]].}}

** Episode 20 {{spoiler|reveals that her power lets her [[Blessed With Suck|keep things at a constant temperature]]. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Cool.]]}}

*** {{spoiler|Negating one of the most basic and important laws of thermodynamics at will is "blessed with suck?" Wow. I'd hate to see the uber powerful in THAT handbook.}}