Monday, June 21, 2010

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

Description
The To Aru Kagaku no Railgun side story is based on Kamachi's original story set in Academy City, a city where about 80% of its 230,000 citizens are students. The story deals with the adventures of Misaka Mikoto, one of the Level 5 psychics in the To Aru Majutsu no Index light novels.

Action, Comedy, Science Fiction, Shoujo-Ai, Supernatural

24 episodes + 2 special (season 1)

Misaka's Superpower! Level5

Review
Story - 3 (Average)
The story takes place in Academy City where a majority of the students study to acquire their paranormal powers (they become known as Espers). Everyone has a special power of their own and they are graded on the scale of Level 1(being the weakest) - Level 5 (strongest). The main character, Misaka, is a pretty famous person in the school as she is one of the few Level 5 being able to manipulate electric current and blasting it at a high velocity which is the reason why she's acquired the nickname Railgun. The other support main character is her partner Shirai who works for an organization called Judgement, which works odd jobs in solving citizen problems to solving larger cases that are a threat to the city.

The story flow is more of a roller coaster as it switches from the everyday lives of the girl and their friends to the more exciting bit of solving cases that threat the safety of the City. The fighting scenes can be pretty cool and interesting to watch as you want to see what everyone's power is and the many ways they can manipulate it. As you get further, the story also starts to build up for the main focus in which they try to stop a serious threat... the typical end of the world kind (except in this case, the end of their city instead lol).

If you really love the characters though (as I did) then you'll mostly be hooked the whole way through.

Music/Sound - 5 (Great)
The introduction songs are great :D and so are the ending songs. Even though Shirai's voice sounds a bit weird at first.. it does seem to fit her personality. ;p

Art/Animation - 5 (Great)
The graphics look really nice, smooth, and shiny. Love it!


Character - 5 (Great)
I think they did a really good job on developing the characters. You get to learn a lot about the four friends Misaki, Shirai, Uiharu, and Saten where you'll obtain a very good sense of what they are all like, how they would probably act, or what they believe is important. Even some of the minor characters have their spotlight for one episode so you can know a bit about them too. I really enjoyed this anime because of the characters :) .. you can feel that the four friends are very close. I love the Misaka-Shirai pair too lol (yes there is yuri.. but it's not serious, as it seems to be used more for comedy than an actual romance). Oh and this anime's main cast is full of girls.. there is only one minor guy that doesn't even appear much.

Humor - 5 (Great)
I thought the comedy was very good, it made me laugh and smile a lot as I watched. Especially how Misaka is constantly fighting off Shirai's perverted advances lol. Saten and Uiharu also have funny quirks of their own, in that Saten is oddly always having to check that her friend wears her underwear everyday. Misaka seems like such a serious person and yet she loves cute/childish things. The character reactions are also incredibly funny since they use a lot of exaggerated looks and noises. I'll have to say that the most comedic character in this anime would have to be Shirai :P she is such a panther! I think Misaka puts up with Shirai because she knows that despite her perverseness, Shirai has many other good qualities that make her a great friend. So she probably just accepts Shirai the way she is, warts and all lol.

Misaka compliments Shirai.. which encourages her

Shirai unexpectedly hops onto Misaka's lap making a ruckus

Overall - 4 (Good)
It's a good anime to watch if you like to watch supernatural powers and some fight scenes! Mostly if you're interested in watching about the lives of a group of girls getting close and having fun. If you're a yuri fan you'd probably like this too. Most likely, if you enjoy the comedy in the first episode then you'll end up enjoying the series!