A Certain Scientific Railgun

This is a rare occasion where I find myself actually preferring the spinoff over the original. In this version you don't have the mandated minutes-long scene every episode where Toma Kamijo lectures the villain of the week on how what they're doing is wrong, while you're rolling your eyes and wishing he would just shut up.

The tradeoff is Kuroko Shirai freaking out and screaming at you about once or twice an episode, and the drama is a bunch of high school girls instead of a 14-year-old boy whining about morality. Railgun tends to be more direct and less philosophical, as the titular character usually just blasts stuff instead of talking her enemies to death...but that's understandable given their difference in powers.

There's some plot problems later on where you wonder where the heck Railgun's parents are, that she's being asked to make ethical decisions for herself as an 8-year-old in flashbacks, too, but maybe that's just an anime thing? The plot arc enemies they fight can also strain suspension of disbelief at times (especially considering this is supposed to be the more scientific and less fantasy of the two shows), but if you've watched Index already, that's old hat.

Still a fun show if you're willing to wobble over and back across that line of whether you should take it halfway seriously, or just sit back and enjoy the nonsense.

Disclaimer: Oh, apparently there's a third season now. I've only seen the first 2 so far.

Season 1 is a solid, well-made magic academy anime. Fan service right off the bat. Maybe that was a good decision. Skip the modeling episode (E13). Kuroka has other great (fight) scenes early on but underutilized thereafter; Misaka is pretty much center stage. Cheesy ending boss. 7.5/10

Season 2 is that much better. Darker, much darker. Blood and gore too. More intense and drawn-out battles. As Misaka becomes more exposed to Academy City's underworld, the baddies become stronger and she realizes she can't go it alone. 10032 is a scene-stealer every time she's on; was disappointed the Sisters didn't have a bigger role during the revolution. Kamijo fans will be delighted he fulfills his mission. 9.5/10

I would really like to give this show a perfect 10. There are a number of elements that make A Certain Scientific Railgun an excellent viewing experience. Everything from all that is Academy City, the characters and supporting cast, (English dub) voice acting, soundtrack/score, character design, animation and the lore are all fantastic. I really love the script & the way it's written, there are just so many lines and moments that stick with you. Similarly, I love the characters and the strong convictions they hold, they have such strong wills, it's impressive.

There *really* aren't a lot of things I can complain about when it comes to this show. With that being said, making your way through the series can get confusing.

First off, being someone that watched the other shows based in Academy City, there are episodic storylines that are revisited and almost copied completely. Second, season two almost takes the way of loosely rebooting. I'm not too sure why the show was written in this way. I understand wanting to explain Mikoto's hardships, because when we met her in A Certain Magical Index, it was almost at the climax of her complication. But with creating the sister series, was it not decided to do backstory initially? It feels a lot like backtracking, or like someone wrote an entire story and got a lot of pages mixed up.

All in all, even with the timeline choppiness, I would still recommend this show to anyone that was looking for a good anime. It checks a lot of boxes in terms of genre in my opinion, and it's a good time, genuinely. I'm looking forward to more Railgun.

It was an amazing anime, the characters were good, animation and the plot talks about Misaka Mikoto a 14 year old girl in a school of espers and she is ranked third in the strongest esper in town, I was not bored in any part amazing anime recommends watching!

Its very good job design character! ! Very Very good story line ! Every scene of this animate best on large Screen ! Just finish watch its season 3 on 2/10/2020 , i wish they made it to season 4 !