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REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun S DVD


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MaxSouth



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
Posts: 1363
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:32 pm Reply with quote
Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:18 pm Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.


Or, ignoring the idea that Index had the actual story and Railgun had to ruin everything it had going from the first season in order to tell the same story.

Less Kuroko is a minus, Kuroko respecting Mikoto's privacy is out of character and expanding a story well beyond the scope of its cast is...

No, they had to remove the cast because Mikoto was going it alone, not because it made sense but because of the Index version; Not just because of its resolution but because that spoiler[one guy had to come to one girl's rescue] {spoiler for what, I don't know}. None of the characters were part of that series so couldn't one of them taken an interest in their friend's pain and confronted her on it? Even if Kuroko couldn't learn about the real story, they could have come up with a reason {a subplot! You know, that gang that wasn't part of the Index version either? Send Judgment after them!}, umm, why.

And that's where everything falls apart: Why. It works as part of Index, kind of, but as part of the themes and characters of Railgun, it fails miserably. Teamwork? Please. Power of the weak having meaning? Not really. Being good is awesome and anyone can be awesome doing good {I loved, just loved the story arc of the villain from the first season}? Naw, we got to dwell in the town of misery, population... dwindling.

This "story" made me hate the part of the franchise I liked, ironically by retelling the part of the main franchise which got me to like it... before I saw the rest of it.

And this isn't even getting to the flaws of main story, namely "power levels".

Rating... can I give an F? I always wanted to hand out one of those. Most series I don't like bore me, this one infuriated me.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit, and the different perspective on the Sisters arc was interesting. However, since it was ultimately a story we had seen once before, I do feel like it could have been shorter. It started to feel like the show was losing run time for something where the outcome was already known.
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leeoflittlefaith



Joined: 08 Apr 2012
Posts: 104
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:19 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
MaxSouth wrote:
Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.


Or, ignoring the idea that Index had the actual story and Railgun had to ruin everything it had going from the first season in order to tell the same story.

Less Kuroko is a minus, Kuroko respecting Mikoto's privacy is out of character and expanding a story well beyond the scope of its cast is...

No, they had to remove the cast because Mikoto was going it alone, not because it made sense but because of the Index version; Not just because of its resolution but because that spoiler[one guy had to come to one girl's rescue] {spoiler for what, I don't know}. None of the characters were part of that series so couldn't one of them taken an interest in their friend's pain and confronted her on it? Even if Kuroko couldn't learn about the real story, they could have come up with a reason {a subplot! You know, that gang that wasn't part of the Index version either? Send Judgment after them!}, umm, why.

And that's where everything falls apart: Why. It works as part of Index, kind of, but as part of the themes and characters of Railgun, it fails miserably. Teamwork? Please. Power of the weak having meaning? Not really. Being good is awesome and anyone can be awesome doing good {I loved, just loved the story arc of the villain from the first season}? Naw, we got to dwell in the town of misery, population... dwindling.

This "story" made me hate the part of the franchise I liked, ironically by retelling the part of the main franchise which got me to like it... before I saw the rest of it.

And this isn't even getting to the flaws of main story, namely "power levels".

Rating... can I give an F? I always wanted to hand out one of those. Most series I don't like bore me, this one infuriated me.


As much as I enjoyed the first season for its teamwork themes and so on, probably more than this season...personally I'm glad that Railgun S's first half retold Index's story...mostly because it was told far, far better, and we had much more reason to be interested.

Misaka's tireless struggle, seeing countless lives lost and attempted complete self-sacrifice makes a far better story and makes far more sense than Index's side, which is basically 'Accelerator was stupid and let himself get punched a lot'. With Touma you work out pretty quickly that he's a living deus ex machina, and while this IS the point of him, it makes it difficult to get behind him as a character. Yes, it's a bit of a shame that Misaka has to be weakened so a guy can save her...but this series shows a clear reason why she has to be saved...why anyone would need saving in that position, man or woman.

Kuroko respecting Misaka's privacy is well within character; Kuroko is affectionate and crazy about Misaka but she's a loyal friend. You say none of them took an interest in her friend's pain and didn't want to confront her? Um, they kind of had a whole episode surrounding that, where they went looking for four-leaf clovers...The series made it VERY clear that it was important for Misaka's friends to support her passively.

Feel free to dislike this season's first half because it's darker and doesn't follow the themes of the first- I missed them too, I can see where you're coming from. The rest of your complaints don't really make sense to me though.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:29 pm Reply with quote
MaxSouth wrote:
Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.


What deeply flawed, plot-hole rigged storyline? Care to explain because that doesn't seem to really apply at all.

Animegomaniac wrote:
Or, ignoring the idea that Index had the actual story and Railgun had to ruin everything it had going from the first season in order to tell the same story.

Less Kuroko is a minus, Kuroko respecting Mikoto's privacy is out of character and expanding a story well beyond the scope of its cast is...


Nothing about this arc ruins anything from the first season whether you like it or not. And everything railgun had going for it? Railgun has always been about Mikoto and then just whoever happens to be with her. Sometimes that is Kuroko, Saten, and Uiharu, but other times it isn't.

You may think less Kuroko is a minus, and you're entitles to your opinion. Don't act like that makes it objectively worse. And Kuroko respecting her mental privacy isn't out of character. When has Kuroko ever pried into Mikoto's secrets? Index SII Spoiler: spoiler[Even when Kuroko does find out about part of her secret, she never ever talks to Mikoto about it or asks for more information, so her not doing it in this arc is completely in charater.] Now sure Kuroko never respected her physical privacy... but that doesn't mean she shouldn't be able to read the mood.

Animegomaniac wrote:
No, they had to remove the cast because Mikoto was going it alone, not because it made sense but because of the Index version; Not just because of its resolution but because that spoiler[one guy had to come to one girl's rescue] {spoiler for what, I don't know}. None of the characters were part of that series so couldn't one of them taken an interest in their friend's pain and confronted her on it? Even if Kuroko couldn't learn about the real story, they could have come up with a reason {a subplot! You know, that gang that wasn't part of the Index version either? Send Judgment after them!}, umm, why.


You were earlier talking about out of character, why are you asking for Mikoto to go out of character? She just watched Accel brutally dismember and murder her clone. You think with how much she treasures and wants to protect her friends, that she would involve them? Or even strangers... Send judgement in when she knows they could never stop him and probably assumes he would massacre them like he does her clones? Accel could take on every esper in the city at once and only one of them could ever even scratch him. She knows its hopeless. And judgement? Really? There aren't even any level 5s in judgement. The only people viable to beat Accel for her are those with non scientific powers like Touma or some one from the magic side. Touma actually is a railgun character, and did appear in S1.

Animegomaniac wrote:
And that's where everything falls apart: Why. It works as part of Index, kind of, but as part of the themes and characters of Railgun, it fails miserably. Teamwork? Please. Power of the weak having meaning? Not really. Being good is awesome and anyone can be awesome doing good {I loved, just loved the story arc of the villain from the first season}? Naw, we got to dwell in the town of misery, population... dwindling.


Why it works in railgun is because this arc pretty much defines her character and introduces her connection to the dark side of the city. It is probably the single most important arc she has been a part of for her character in either railgun or index.

You want the teamwork theme? How about Accel only lost due to team work. Touma would have lost on his own. Power of the weak having meaning? The clones who did nothing but get massacred provided Touma with the key to victory.
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1790
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:52 pm Reply with quote
In spite of the fact that I don't like Railgun as much as everyone else does I have to admit I really liked the episodes that focused on the sisters experiment, and as far as I'm concerned the less Kuroko the better. Laughing

If anything I think the entire reason I like this to begin with is that it really shows how much Kamachi put into his world and how the characters interact with in it, and as a nerd who loves world building with overlapping interactions and alternate perspectives it's a real treat. I never consider the stuff in this series masterpiece level writing o characterization but for me at least it still manages to be entertaining and solid. Now to get out of here before the eventual wars break out.
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:16 pm Reply with quote
This S season of the franchise is all about watching Misaka. She is not only a awesome superhero but also an awesome character. She's a magical girl that actually makes sense if any of them can. She makes the audience care about what she cares about. She has gravitas in spite of being a skinny 14-year-old. She is fun to watch.

Missing from the review is the understated sense of humor the story manages to thread into any interval it can.

Any story about why this was released as DVD only and not BD? Were there any extra scenes? It is one of the few series I would buy the media for in spite of having seen it streaming.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:07 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
This S season of the franchise is all about watching Misaka. She is not only a awesome superhero but also an awesome character. She's a magical girl that actually makes sense if any of them can. She makes the audience care about what she cares about. She has gravitas in spite of being a skinny 14-year-old. She is fun to watch.


The only parts of railgun that aren't all about her are really the anime only parts. Really, the way Railgun is done is exacty like Index. You have your MC and then each arc the MC gets involved with some other characters. For the manga: arc 1 is Mikoto + Kuroko/Uiharu/Saten, arc 2 is Mikoto + Shinobu/Touma, arc 3 is spoiler[Mikoto + Misaki/Touma/Kongou and friends/Gunha/Kuroko]. For the two novels it is Mikoto + spoiler[Kuroko/Uiharu/Saten] and Mikoto + spoiler[New Light]. It is really just anime only watchers misunderstanding the overall importance of some of the characters because the anime original content offers a more slice of life perspective around those 4 girls.

And they will probably do a bluray later. For some reason none of the Raildex series got bluray releases here originally and are only now starting to come out.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:42 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
Any story about why this was released as DVD only and not BD? Were there any extra scenes? It is one of the few series I would buy the media for in spite of having seen it streaming.
Probably just the usual reverse-importation paranoia causing the Japanese licensors to sabotage the North American release and make it compete with rips of the Japanese Blu-Rays with the English audio added in, once again. I would blame Kadokawa, but they're not in on this one.

SilverTalon01 wrote:
And they will probably do a bluray later. For some reason none of the Raildex series got bluray releases here originally and are only now starting to come out.
Index II is getting a Blu-Ray and DVD combo release right out of the gate. The first seasons' DVD-only releases have been chalked up to Blu-Ray being not quite so big when Funi initially licensed them in July 2010, followed by several lengthy delays caused by the Geneon Japan / Universal Pictures merger in Japan. When they finally came out in late '12 / mid-'13, the absence of Blu-Ray became much more glaring. And given the quality of JC Staff's animation and authoring at the time, maybe it wasn't such a big loss. But this season of Railgun has been hailed as the point when JC Staff finally got things together, so the lack of Blu-Ray here after Index II got it is doubly disappointing and frustrating. For those who care about it, anyway.
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HaruhiToy



Joined: 15 Apr 2008
Posts: 4118
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:44 pm Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:
It is really just anime only watchers misunderstanding the overall importance of some of the characters because the anime original content offers a more slice of life perspective around those 4 girls.

Good point but in all fairness I think it is up to the anime producers to make a production that stands on its own without requiring reference materials to appreciate the story. I think I am up to date on the manga so maybe I am not seeing the lack some other viewers are seeing.

Of course the other girls are important to the story and this gets more so as the story goes on. But there is something about Misaka that I could watch all day. It isn't like she is drawn real sexy or anything but she is undeniably somehow a girl and I can totally relate to Kuruko not being able to keep her hands to herself around her. Given what I see around the 'net I am not alone.
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Barbobot



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 460
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:51 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:

Any story about why this was released as DVD only and not BD? Were there any extra scenes? It is one of the few series I would buy the media for in spite of having seen it streaming.


It's only relatively recently that Funimation announced they'd be finally releasing the rest of the Raildex series on Blu-ray, but that announcement for whatever reason left out Railgun S and only included Index 1, Index 2, and Railgun. I assume Railgun S will be coming eventually to Blu-ray which is why I haven't bought this on DVD yet (that plus they aren't doing a LE box for Railgun S like they did with season 1). Railgun Season 1 is finally being released on Blu-ray in January.
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lemurs



Joined: 01 Aug 2012
Posts: 101
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:15 pm Reply with quote
I appreciate how Railgun S's arcs do stick to a consistent theme. After Misaka learns that doing everything herself doesn't work (which seems like a bad idea from the moment she says it) and asks for help from the Little Sisters to save the day (and Touma), things go a lot smoother on the back half of the show when she applies that lesson learned to a new problem.
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malvarez1



Joined: 17 Nov 2008
Posts: 1628
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 6:27 pm Reply with quote
I loved Railgun S (well, the first arc) much more than the first season, but I'm more of an action fan.

I didn't mind less Kuroko, Uiharu, etc. Misaka is my favorite character anyway, and seeing her in some really cool fight scenes was enough for me!

Railgun 1 was cute fun, but this felt like the real deal. Better plot, better animation, a really good music score, more stakes, etc.

And the Sister arc also let the show feature some heavy emotion. I haven't heard the dub, but the Japanese voice acting is great on the emotional front. Really good stuff.

And Accelerator and Toma are both pretty hardcore, when they appear. If Railgun 3 is like S, I hope it comes out very soon!
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:17 pm Reply with quote
lemurs wrote:
I appreciate how Railgun S's arcs do stick to a consistent theme. After Misaka learns that doing everything herself doesn't work (which seems like a bad idea from the moment she says it) and asks for help from the Little Sisters to save the day (and Touma), things go a lot smoother on the back half of the show when she applies that lesson learned to a new problem.


Agreed. I was pretty happy about that, too. It was pretty evident that keeping her friends in the dark was a bigger strain on their friendship than anything else.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:28 pm Reply with quote
HaruhiToy wrote:
Good point but in all fairness I think it is up to the anime producers to make a production that stands on its own without requiring reference materials to appreciate the story. I think I am up to date on the manga so maybe I am not seeing the lack some other viewers are seeing.


I don't really see how that is related. Yes, an anime adaption needs to stand on its own without requiring referencing the source. Railgun S did that with the sisters arc.

That really has nothing to do with this anime being an adaption at all. You can even see that in original content, and my example in this case would be Index's significance in the main series. Important, yes. One of the main characters, yes. However, she is even the title character and is involved in a smaller percentage of the Index arcs than Kuroko is in the Railgun arcs.

This is simply just people making an assumption about how the story will go and then being cranky that it didn't go their way. The only part where this being an adaption matters is that being familiar with the source should have tipped people off way faster that it was a bad assumption where as people who only watched the Railgun anime were left with that assumption still holding for years due to how much content 2 cours can cover while they waited for another season.
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