A Certain Scientific Railgun [Anime Review]

Many apologies.

I watched this series a few weeks ago, but put off my review. I was too involved in another series and working on painting up loads of miniatures. So now, I'll take a few minutes and quickly give a review.

Our four main heroines.

 

The series takes place in Academy City, a center of advanced learning and a place where 'esper' abilities are researched and improved. Our main character is a special 'Level 5,' one of a small number in the series.






Railgun takes place in the same world as A Certain Magical Index, and probably a few other series/manga as well. Which threw me for a few curve balls because, since I've read the manga, I was expecting certain scenes to be shown Railgun that were in fact not shown at all. Instead they were included in Index.

Keitai of the future? Or of 1999?

 The other big downer is that they spend a very long time on the first story arc - which is a good story arc. Then they move on to others, skipping the one I was expecting. I would have been satisfied with just a nod to the arc from the other series. You actually want to watch the first half of Railgun, pause and watch all of Index, then return to Railgun. And then curse because like so many anime... it had so much more story to tell, but because the manga was still ongoing, the series just stops. It also either skips or ignores another arc in the manga, and moves onto one I've never read (which was good, but unexpected).

Not seen in this anime... see Index.

I mean I liked it, there was enough humor and action to satisfy. It just did not fully live up to my expectations on its own. It requires the support of Index to be close to complete.
 
Now saying that I do realize that right now in Japan they are showing A Certain Scientific Railgun S. Sadly this means I'll be waiting a while to see further in this series... unless its a remake like Full Metal Alchemist did with Brotherhood.



I've given my opinion on the series, and now all that is left is to give my rating.

The good parts were good, and the first arc was excellent. My major misgivings are from what was not even included... something I can't help but hold against the series even though I shouldn't.

A Certain Scientific Railgun

3.0 Stars

Scenes from a Service Episode.