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EP. REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun T


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steelmirror



Joined: 22 Oct 2015
Posts: 342
PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 12:05 am Reply with quote
Stiles wrote:
Another good episode, but I'd like to take a minute to tear down this series' worst character.

Saten's only talents include distributing PED's (the level upper), acting as a vehicle to move the plot along, and getting her friends into undeserved trouble due to her largely irresponsible behavior. Now, I don't necessarily hate Saten, but she is a stupid character, one who would be better served in a true slice-of-life anime and not a battle-action series like To Aru.
I'm not necessarily trying to change your mind here, because this is the internet and nobody ever convinces anyone of anything. Wink But Saten is far and away my favorite character in the franchise, and it isn't even close. She's relatable because she ISN'T special like everyone else, but she tries hard anyway. She had a great character arc in the first season of Railgun, and while she's been basically static since then, that arc was enough to sell me on her character completely.

Like the superhero comic series that seem to have influenced it, the Raildex canon is full of larger-than-life icons who never really feel real or believable to me, usually consisting of a major quirk, a moe charm point, a set of superpowers, and some sort of personal damage that drives their melodrama. Oh, and usually a pretty awesome character design.

That's not really a bad thing, superhero comics are a multibillion dollar industry for a reason. But Saten is a relatively grounded character by those standards, and one whose insecurities and struggles really resonate with me, personally. Sure she isn't in the same weight class as other major characters in the franchise, she isn't even playing the same sport. But she shows up every time to help her friends out anyway, and fanboy that I am I love rooting for her every time.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 5:57 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
(anime-original?)

Yes. Railgun S only had Sisters as canon material, and even then one of the episodes in the middle was filler too.
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Stiles



Joined: 21 Oct 2014
Posts: 105
PostPosted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 6:55 pm Reply with quote
steelmirror wrote:
I'm not necessarily trying to change your mind here, because this is the internet and nobody ever convinces anyone of anything. Wink But Saten is far and away my favorite character in the franchise, and it isn't even close. She's relatable because she ISN'T special like everyone else, but she tries hard anyway. She had a great character arc in the first season of Railgun, and while she's been basically static since then, that arc was enough to sell me on her character completely.

No worries, if anything I'm sure more people will resonate with your assessment rather than mine. For what it's worth, Saten is showing some growth in the current Railgun arc (the manga, not Railgun T), so judging her on outdated material is a little unfair. I just happen to think that the 'level zero in Academy City' is portrayed more effectively through Hamazura. Kamijou too, but there's something a little not normal about him, so maybe he doesn't fit?

So about that episode six. Wannai and Awatsuki vs. Baba was pretty good, but the scenes with Misaka left something to be desired. I'm not a fan of their decision to play Judgelight as she's creeping up on Baba, I think it betrays the tone of that encounter and makes her seem like some weird superhero rather than a pissed off level five. Baba is sufficiently freaked out, as he should be, but J-pop is playing in the background. Not very subtle there, Nagai.

Kouzaku has finally appeared as more than just a voice, having a curious exchange with Xochitl after Baba is retired. I wonder what this new girl could be scheming...
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:18 pm Reply with quote
killjoy_the wrote:
Quote:
(anime-original?)

Yes. Railgun S only had Sisters as canon material, and even then one of the episodes in the middle was filler too.


Those aren't mutually exclusive. The anime only parts are canon and have had references made in the novels.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2857
PostPosted: Sun Feb 16, 2020 8:56 pm Reply with quote
yup, the ,manga times of poitnless filler are now over, a pretty popular LN even ahd the anime filler-derail arc/season added later to the light novel and had a special one that had a character timetraveling to fix the timeline back to the novel's original.
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HandofBobb



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:06 am Reply with quote
Shouldn't the authorities be responding to the fact the someone ripped an entire parabolic antenna out of the ground? I know it's Academy City, but that cant be the sort of thing that happens every day, you'd think they would want to get someone on that pronto...

For that matter, just how far away did Baba lure Kongou that neither Saten or her friends notice that disturbance?
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The Scream Man



Joined: 01 Mar 2020
Posts: 148
Location: Sydney, Australia
PostPosted: Sun Mar 01, 2020 1:54 am Reply with quote
i just assume people are either used to colossal destruction, gun battles and massive amounts of damage and explosions. i mean either Academy City is even bigger than it looks, or just about everyone has to have seen SOMETHING by this point.

I mean the entire Index/Railgun Franchise happens in less than a year (I think?) so if no one has noticed or heard about ALL of the stuff thats happened, they have their heads in the sand.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:07 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
What's more interesting is that Mitori seems to believe, based on eyewitness accounts, that Mikoto attacked “their villas” and stole information. I'm pretty sure that the animated content hasn't explained what this is referring to, so perhaps it's some detail from the manga or books?
From the episode, it seemed like Nurse Girl's organization got sacked while Mikoto was blowing up labs during Sisters, so she figured known building-blower-upper Mikoto did it.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:43 am Reply with quote
Ep 7 review wrote:
The most ironic line in the episode is Kuroko's claim when interacting with Mikoto that she doesn't swing “that way,” when everything in previous installments of the franchise has made it quite clear that she actively lusts after Mikoto.


Yeah, I remember when that scene came out in the manga and people was surprised saying she was just Mikotosexual since she apparently isn't a lesbian. I just assumed it was because she was dead set on Mikoto which was why she didn't show interest in other girls.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 7:59 am Reply with quote
The Scream Man wrote:
i just assume people are either used to colossal destruction, gun battles and massive amounts of damage and explosions. i mean either Academy City is even bigger than it looks, or just about everyone has to have seen SOMETHING by this point.


The novels consistently describe it as being a hefty chunk of west tokyo (tokyo-to). The wiki has a map, which eyeballing it has is as a circle of 30km diameter with a centre east of hachiouji and south of tachikawa. 700km^2, essentially the size of singapore.
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Izanagi009



Joined: 20 Oct 2014
Posts: 464
Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 5:50 pm Reply with quote
nargun wrote:
The Scream Man wrote:
i just assume people are either used to colossal destruction, gun battles and massive amounts of damage and explosions. i mean either Academy City is even bigger than it looks, or just about everyone has to have seen SOMETHING by this point.


The novels consistently describe it as being a hefty chunk of west tokyo (tokyo-to). The wiki has a map, which eyeballing it has is as a circle of 30km diameter with a centre east of hachiouji and south of tachikawa. 700km^2, essentially the size of singapore.


So it's a region of Japan the size of Singapore with enough technology and power to bypass nations by several decades. This seems very unusualy and diffiuclt to justify but then again, i'm sure the author didn't think about this

Regardless, this recent episode of Railgun T was pretty fun from a character viewpoint and an action standpoint. This is the sort of thing i miss and what i don't usually get out of normal Index
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:46 pm Reply with quote
Izanagi009 wrote:
So it's a region of Japan the size of Singapore with enough technology and power to bypass nations by several decades. This seems very unusualy and diffiuclt to justify but then again, i'm sure the author didn't think about this


Based on light novel material that was left out of the Index anime's first three seasons:

Academy City is largely funded by over two-dozen distinct international organizations, as well as a variety of foreign powers that have off-the-books interests in the development of psychic powers research. During post-World War II reconstruction, Japan was "convinced" to cede a significant portion of Tokyo over to Aleister Crowley, under the auspices of education reform. In-universe, the Japanese treat it the same way they do any other lingering post-War foreign interference, and globally a lot of people are very suspicious of where Academy City gets its money and what that means for its supposedly benevolent agenda.

There's a lot more I could say about this, but I'm going to stop before I veer into spoiler territory for New Testament. If you're still interested, but don't care to delve into the non-Railgun corners of the franchise, the English-language Index/Railgun fan-wiki is absolutely fantastic.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18135
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:46 pm Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
There's a lot more I could say about this, but I'm going to stop before I veer into spoiler territory for New Testament. If you're still interested, but don't care to delve into the non-Railgun corners of the franchise, the English-language Index/Railgun fan-wiki is absolutely fantastic.

Oh, absolutely! I reference that for nearly every review I've written about one of the franchise's titles over the past couple of years.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4369
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 11:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:


What's more interesting is that Mitori seems to believe, based on eyewitness accounts, that Mikoto attacked “their villas” and stole information. I'm pretty sure that the animated content hasn't explained what this is referring to, so perhaps it's some detail from the manga or books?


my guess for that is that its either, A) she indirectly attacked them indirectly when she was getting info during the sisters arc, or B) it was one of the clones that attacked them! (probably misaka worst) unfortunately its only a theory at this point since currently right now, both index and railgun are on hiatus due to the health of the author!
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:57 am Reply with quote
Quote:

So it's a region of Japan the size of Singapore with enough technology and power to bypass nations by several decades. This seems very unusualy and diffiuclt to justify but then again, i'm sure the author didn't think about this


... A wizard did it.
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