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Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen


Welcome to the thread for A Certain Scientific Railgun S.

Staff and Info

All names in Japanese order (family, given)

Director: Nagai Tatsuyuki
Series Composition: Minakami Seishi
Original creator: Kamachi Kazuma
Original Manga: Fuyukawa Motoi
Original Character Design: Haimura Kiyotaka
Character Design: Tanaka Yuichi

OP: Sister's Noise by fripSide, who also did the OPs for the OVA and first season, which are future gazer, only my railgun, and LEVEL5 -judgelight- respectively. Pretty much awesome.

ED: Grow Slowly by Iguchi Yuka, voice actress for Index herself and Bake/Nisemonogatari's Araragi Tsukihi.

The first episode will air on April 12 (exactly one week from this post). Funimation will stream the series on Sundays 11:30AM ET starting April 14.

For those new to the franchise

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S / A Certain Scientific Railgun S is the sequel to the 2009-2010 show of the same name (but missing the S). Railgun itself is a spinoff of the similarly-titled light novel series A Certain Magical Index, which has also been adapted into two seasons of anime (2008-2009, and 2010-2011 respectively). All adaptations in this franchise are done by J.C. Staff, known for Toradora! and a slew of mediocre romcoms. The plot of the parent story is not particularly important, and a good number of people watched Railgun without having seen anything of Index. I'll summarize the significant things here.

Raildex takes place in the near-future, where a region of Tokyo known as Academy City has become an autonomous city-state. Academy City is, as its name suggests, a metropolis of schooling, with over 80% of the city's 2.3 million residents being students. For unexplained reasons, the city is also extremely technologically-advanced, somewhere around 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. In addition, the city is a giant experiment ground for studying the production of psychic (a.k.a. esper) powers in children. Children are ranked in their esper abilities by six Levels, ranging from 0 (no power) to 5. There are only seven residents of the city who qualify as Level 5.

Index follows a Level 0 high school boy named Kamijou Touma who has a strange, non-esper ability to negate all esper abilities with his right arm. He's thrust into a conflict between this futuristic science and strangely-similar magic, which he can also negate with his arm. In this universe, magic is religion-themed, so the story largely revolves around secularism and technology vs. religion and the supernatural.

Railgun follows Misaka Mikoto, a middle school girl who is also the third-ranked Level 5 in Academy City. Her esper power gives her control over electromagnetism, and her title, the Railgun, comes from her signature ability to use her power to accelerate a coin to massive speeds very quickly, not unlike an actual railgun. She and her three friends spend the majority of the first season investigating intriguing mysteries or conflicts around Academy City, which serves to flesh out the setting in a way that Index couldn't due to major plot distractions.

Season two here will consist largely of the "Sisters" arc of Index, but from Misaka's perspective rather than Kamijou's. The arc was episodes 10-14 of the first season of the Index anime, for anyone who wants to watch it for perspective. Since Misaka is the focal character of the arc, we will likely see significant expansion and explanation that was not present in the original.

Viewer beware

Being an anime about middle school girls made in Japan, Railgun has more than its share of creepy sexualization and fanservice. I managed to ignore the skeevy bullshit and thought season one was a pretty entertaining show in its own right, but better people than me have less tolerance for that. This season will likely be more of the same.

Characters


Misaka Mikoto - CV: Satou Rina (Umineko's Ushiromiya Ange, Blue Exorcist's Kirigakure Shura)

The main character of Railgun and one of the major heroines of Index. As mentioned above, she is the third-ranked Level 5 esper in Academy City, with control over electromagnetism. Personality-wise, she's very headstrong and brash, and will unhesitatingly throw herself into the middle of a conflict if it has any sort of relevance to her or her goals and desires. On the other hand, she is very easily embarrassed, to the point where she wears sport shorts under her skirt because she's afraid of how short it is. Yes, this is a plot point :geno:. She also has a thing for the mascot character Gekota, a cute frog, but she's embarrassed by that too.


Shirai Kuroko - CV: Arai Satomi (Ookami-san's Narrator)

Misaka's roommate and the best character :allears:. She's a Level 4 with the power of teleportation--she can move most objects moderate distances by touching them; this includes herself. Her defining character trait is her ridiculously over-the-top lesbianism for Misaka. Sometimes creepy, mostly the funniest goddamn thing in the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4YIs4gcQ8U

She's also a member of Judgment, the student police-like force that keeps order within Academy City, supplementing the adult police force Anti-Skill.


Uiharu Kazari - CV: Toyosaki Aki (K-On!'s Hirasawa Yui, Kokoro Connect's Nagase Iori)

Kuroko's partner in Judgment, of similar age. She's a Level 1 whose power was revealed in the first season to be the ability to keep the temperature of anything she touches constant. Fan theories that go way too far have suggested that this generalizes to control over all thermodynamics at higher Levels, but her power is really completely irrelevant to the story so who cares. She is very shy and humble, with virtually no extravert tendencies at all. Fittingly, she's also probably the best computer user and hacker in the entire city, regularly accessing secret city databases and camera feeds that only upper echelons should have access to.


Saten Ruiko - CV: Itou Kanae (The World God Only Knows's Elsie, Hanasaku Iroha's Matsumae Ohana)

Uiharu's best friend and a Level 0. In the first season, she used a device leveraging a network of latent psychic energy to boost her own abilities and was able to levitate some leaves or something, but whether or not this was her own power or just an aspect of the network is unclear, and like with Uiharu it really doesn't matter at all. She's similar to Misaka in personality, but has a bit of a complex about her lack of esper power. She largely plays the role of the "normal" in the plot. Her one real hobby is flipping Uiharu's skirt to check what color underwear she's wearing. Woohoo, good job Japan and all that :geno:


Kamijou Touma - CV: Atsushi Abe (Another's Sakakibara Kouichi, Bakuman's Mashiro Moritaka)

I'm throwing Touma in here because he'll probably be showing up a lot. As mentioned above, he is the protagonist of Index, a Level 0 with the mysterious ability to negate esper and magical powers with his right hand. After meeting an Anglican nun a few apparent years younger than him named Index (yep, that's where the title comes from), he became involved in the ongoing conflict between religious magic and technological science. Shortly into Index he suffered severe permanent memory loss, but that turned out to mostly not matter.

He's extremely idealistic and about as brash as Misaka, so he involves himself in anything that bugs his morals. A recurring theme from Index is villains trying to rant philosophically at him and him just not giving a poo poo because the villain made a girl cry or is trying to take the easy way out of a problem or something.

I'm not sure how much Index herself will appear so I'll leave her out for now.

Spoiler note

Relambrien posted:

Okay guys I'm gonna make the spoiler rule more explicit for the benefit of everyone here who skipped Index:

Do not talk about anything that happened in Index without spoiler-tagging it and labeling it as an Index spoiler. The same goes for anything from the Railgun manga that hasn't happened yet. Anything from season 1 of Railgun is fair game.

That said, it is expected that the viewer knows the outcome of this arc going into it. For those who were spoiled, sucks for you, but now you know some of what the target audience knows. This is, effectively, a sequel of sorts to Index and so it's not really anyone's fault that you didn't watch what you're expected to have watched. It is exceedingly likely that, even if everyone follows this new spoiler rule to the letter, you will end up spoiled on something that you didn't already know, so read this thread at your own risk.

So yeah, if something is marked as an Index spoiler, just assume it's related to plot that you don't know about yet. This story is from Mikoto's perspective, and she doesn't know poo poo about Index, so if you didn't watch the show then neither do you. Decide whether or not to read spoilers with that in mind.

Promotional Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yef5i7oDI

Here have some gifs



Outer Science fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Apr 21, 2013

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pezzie
Apr 11, 2003

everytime someone says a seasonal anime is GOAT

Just watch the best anime ever
I'm excited. The "Sisters" arc is probably the best thing to come out of this series, and the expanded story from the Railgun manga made it way better.

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD
Hell yeah, I'm pretty excited too!

There's apparently an anime-only character being introduced this season - Nenotaba Shinobu. There's really only speculation to be had as to what role she'll have or how far JC Staff plans to deviate from the light novels*. I know Saten was a lot more prominent in the Railgun anime as opposed to the books and in spite of that turned out she fit in well, so I'm thinking it's probably safe to assume this Shinobu character's presence in the cast won't take the story way off course either.



e: * Apparently she has a significant role in the manga (which I haven't read yet either) but does not appear in the the LNs. At any rate, it's not an anime-only thing after all and this season looks like it might be sourcing its material primarily from the manga.

Parpy fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Apr 6, 2013

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen

Parpy posted:

e: * Apparently she has a significant role in the manga (which I haven't read yet either) but does not appear in the the LNs. At any rate, it's not an anime-only thing after all and this season looks like it might be sourcing its material primarily from the manga.

Yeah, Railgun's source material is a manga, not a light novel. The anime is an adaptation of the manga, which is a spinoff of the Index light novels. There are some side story LNs involving the Railgun cast, however.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Parpy posted:

Hell yeah, I'm pretty excited too!

There's apparently an anime-only character being introduced this season - Nenotaba Shinobu. There's really only speculation to be had as to what role she'll have or how far JC Staff plans to deviate from the light novels*. I know Saten was a lot more prominent in the Railgun anime as opposed to the books and in spite of that turned out she fit in well, so I'm thinking it's probably safe to assume this Shinobu character's presence in the cast won't take the story way off course either.



e: * Apparently she has a significant role in the manga (which I haven't read yet either) but does not appear in the the LNs. At any rate, it's not an anime-only thing after all and this season looks like it might be sourcing its material primarily from the manga.

Oddly enough she looks just like Shinobu from Chihayafuru.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Apparently, JC Staff has made it sort of a rule to have "No uggos" on the Raildex world. :haw:

Roflfox
Jan 29, 2008

Your one and only, scorching laser light

Relambrien posted:

I'm not sure how much Index herself will appear so I'll leave her out for now.

Hopefully none. I stand by my stance that Index was absolute garbage and Railgun was surprisingly entertaining if only because it had barely anything to do with the former. I'm cool with Touma in small doses but everything else about the Index series can gently caress off forever.

AnacondaHL
Feb 15, 2009

I'm the lead trumpet player, playing loud and high is all I know how to do.

Roflfox posted:

Hopefully none. I stand by my stance that Index was absolute garbage and Railgun was surprisingly entertaining if only because it had barely anything to do with the former. I'm cool with Touma in small doses but everything else about the Index series can gently caress off forever.

Ah, now I remember. Railgun is the one with Kuroko being cray, Index is the one with punching girls in the face.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen

AnacondaHL posted:

Ah, now I remember. Railgun is the one with Kuroko being cray, Index is the one with punching girls in the face.

Yeah this is an apt description.

Oh Snapalope
Aug 17, 2009
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1y8hgEVobg

AtomikKrab
Jul 17, 2010

Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

I watched index, guiltily... it seemed wrong somehow but I couldn't stop.


Why is teleport girl getting her neck snapped?

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


AtomikKrab posted:

I watched index, guiltily... it seemed wrong somehow but I couldn't stop.


Why is teleport girl getting her neck snapped?

No fighting in the dormitory!!!

Kuroko is indeed the best. She is also almost as badass as Mikoto.

lodoubt
Apr 9, 2012

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Roflfox posted:

Hopefully none. I stand by my stance that Index was absolute garbage and Railgun was surprisingly entertaining if only because it had barely anything to do with the former.

That is almost my stance on the matter. Almost. I really like the Raildex setting as a whole, but SciRailgun is such a better perspective to view the it from than MagIndex. They both feature exceptional protagonists, but Railgun at least has peers and indeed there are plenty of people who, in a setting sense, are much more unique, powerful or important than her. Also it helps that Academy City is literally the most important place in the setting and SciRailgun is just about sort of hanging out there, whereas Touma is constantly recruited to deal with problems that originate outside of it.

I actually really liked Touma pre-memory wipe, though we barely knew him, but post-memory wipe he just became some kind of mad libbing Paladin rather than a believable college student kind of person who just happens to have an amusing power. Also I can't stand Index. Not important enough to the plot to justify being the title character, and actually just brought down my enjoyment of the whole series because of her characterisation and actions.

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


B-but Index is Ika Musume! :(

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD
Index is a sweetheart. I know you can't, but if you could wipe every instance of JC Staff's lovely, unfunny, repetitive portrayals of Index as a headcrab from your memory, I think you'd find she's actually a pretty fantastic character bursting with kindness, selflessness and strength (not to mention the earth-shattering power potential tucked away in her head). The bottomless stomach thing, while also overplayed for "comedic" effect, is attributable to a constant need of food to keep her mana lifeblood topped up. In regards to her childlike mentality, she has had her mind completely wiped on a yearly basis until meeting Touma (which hasn't been quite a full schoolyear ago, canonically), so she has been reverting to the same mental age as when the Vatican crammed her head full of those 103,000 grimoires alongside John's Pen, which was god knows how long ago. The mindwipe thing behind her, she's free to grow up now, and I hope that JC Staff realize that their portrayal of her character was very poorly received and significantly tone down the one-trick headbiting tantrum crap in the future. I'd love to see an Index III, honestly. One without Index forced into an overplayed lovely joke role.

pezzie
Apr 11, 2003

everytime someone says a seasonal anime is GOAT

Just watch the best anime ever
All the actually interesting stuff from Index comes from the stuff that hasn't been animated yet. Season 2 of Index in particular are probably some of the more dull books getting animated, I thought season 1 was pretty strong.

Light novel spoilers: The British Civil War, the fight with Aqua, and god drat World War 3 would be incredible if it ever gets animated.

Still, Index as a whole focuses a little too much on magicians and not enough on espers, and the espers are probably a lot more intersting, so that's why Railgun is more entertaining I think.

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009
Having had to go through Index 1 after enjoying Railgun (I have a thing for Procedurals), I have high hopes with this.

Really, Misaka is just a far more interesting character than Touma is.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen
Yeah Index III would start to cover the parts where the series just goes straight off the rails into awesometown. Ideally we'll get an announcement for it as Railgun S ends, but we can only hope.

vvvv You're in for a ride.

Sidesaddle Cavalry
Mar 15, 2013

Oh Boy Desert Map
More related to the thread title than the thread itself, I did a double-take when I found out fripSide's current vocalist is a voice actress, and a good one at that.

But yes, count me in as another one who was introduced into this universe through Railgun first. What is there left for the cast to have in terms of character development, though? I mean, we've already gotten Saten's crowning moment of bat-driven awesome, some exploration done for Kuroko's backstory, and a lot of mind-screwing disaster for Mikoto to tackle. I'm either overthinking what needs to happen this season or I'm setting the bar up high for what this ride has in store for me.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

Lucy Heartfilia posted:

B-but Index is Ika Musume! :(

What? No. Ika-musume is voiced by Kanemoto Hisako. I guess the two characters look somewhat similar, but that's about it.

Harettazetta
Jul 22, 2006

"Well, what choice do I have!? Trust is for fools! Fear is the only reliable way!"
Everything in Index is literally poo poo minus the nun-punching and the characters that already feature extensively in Railgun.

Personally, I encourage everyone that hasn't seen Index to skip it. You're not missing out on anything, minus the least believable semi-love-interest plot ever between the respective lead characters of both series.

XboxPants
Jan 30, 2006

Steven doesn't want me watching him sleep anymore.

Relambrien posted:

Yeah Index III would start to cover the parts where the series just goes straight off the rails into awesometown. Ideally we'll get an announcement for it as Railgun S ends, but we can only hope.

vvvv You're in for a ride.

Fantastic, I liked Index best (though I've only watched S1) and haven't watched much Railgun. I found Touma's "powers" way more interesting than "shootin' lightning & stuff". I really like interesting abilities/uses of powers - any opinions on whether I should try out the Railgun series?

pezzie
Apr 11, 2003

everytime someone says a seasonal anime is GOAT

Just watch the best anime ever
Basically if you liked episodes 10-14 of Index Season 1 (with the MISAKA network "sisters"), you'll probably love this season.

They go into way more depth of all the behind the scenes stuff dealing with those episodes, leading up to the climax you saw in Index S1.

Otherwise, Railgun (at least the first season) is less overarching epic battles (though there are a few of those) and more slice of life with special powers.

ChronoReverse
Oct 1, 2009
I hope there's less Kuro-onee-sama and more Misaka-biri-biri this season.

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD
I personally can't get enough of Kuroko's berserk lust frenzy. Her voice actor is the greatest thing ever and frequently makes me laugh myself hoarse.

Parpy fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Apr 7, 2013

Redcrimson
Mar 3, 2008

Second-stage Midboss Syndrome

XboxPants posted:

I found Touma's "powers" way more interesting than "shootin' lightning & stuff". I really like interesting abilities/uses of powers - any opinions on whether I should try out the Railgun series?

I think you'd be surprised just how many uses you can get out of a little electricity. After all, she isn't called "The Railgun" because she just electrocutes people all the time.

Personally, I like to pretend that Railgun is the main story, and Index is the spin-off.

ConanThe3rd
Mar 27, 2009
The problem is that the magicians in Index are just so boring and Index herself only got the one instance where she did anything but be the annoying loli side character (the golem fight).

That and Touma's power is boring too as it basically exists to stop the fizz bang whooshy magic/science from happening.

boom boom boom
Jun 28, 2012

by Shine
I couldn't get into Index. I really liked that in Railgun, Misaka seemed to genuinely not like Touma. She just found him super irritating and his Biri-biri thing was overly familiar and obnoxious. But the bit of Index I saw treated her like just another tsundere.

Myurton
Jan 2, 2004

I <3 Asuka,
omg anime fag

boom boom boom posted:

I couldn't get into Index. I really liked that in Railgun, Misaka seemed to genuinely not like Touma. She just found him super irritating and his Biri-biri thing was overly familiar and obnoxious. But the bit of Index I saw treated her like just another tsundere.

I don't know where you got that idea but considering that most of the railgun anime takes place before the events of the Index anime obviously Misaka is not gonna like Toma immediately. If for instance you watch episode 19 where Misaka's school is having a culture festival it's pretty obvious that she is beginning to like him after her short interaction with him. This by the way takes place before he meets her again in episode 10 of the Index anime. The entire Railgun anime chronologically ends at the events of about episode 9 or so of the Index anime so of course she isn't gonna like him to the same extent by that point as he hasn't saved her. The OVA on the other hand takes place after he fights Accelerator since she's all blushy and flustered when she interacts with him at the beginning of it.

TL:DR Rewatch episode 19 and the OVA as it's obvious that she is beginning to like him.

fivegears4reverse
Apr 4, 2007

by R. Guyovich
I can put up with Index because any time I get a bug up my rear end to watch any of it, I skip to the episodes where Accelerator is going COMPLETELY BATSHIT INSANE and feel like I get my fill. Seriously, his japanese voice actor has "crazy" down to an artform, I'm amazed that person can still do work because it sounds like he's destroying his vocal cords faster than David Hayter trying to do the Old Snake voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8PEqI-YVvw

Raenir Salazar
Nov 5, 2010

"According to Wikipedia" there is a black hole that emits zionist hawking radiation where my brain should have been

I really should just shut the fuck up and stop posting forever
College Slice
I like Index a lot because its pretty much the only thing outside of Marvel Comics that scratches my itch for Magic Vs. Science stuff.

I also like Railgun a lot because its kind of like Anime!NBCHeroes in its focus, plus the sort of an attempt at a shared universe between the two even if it isn't as large as the Nasuverse.

Then there's the varied and interesting characters (Last Order :3: and Accelerator :black101:) and the fact that there's virtually no powercreep which is amazing in of itself which I think should make up for the more "anime" aspects of the show that may turn people off from it.

And Misaka's and Kuroko's powersets are just awesome in their implementation. Seconding Teleport girl's voice actress as also pretty good to listen to.

Wark Say
Feb 22, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

fivegears4reverse posted:

I can put up with Index because any time I get a bug up my rear end to watch any of it, I skip to the episodes where Accelerator is going COMPLETELY BATSHIT INSANE and feel like I get my fill. Seriously, his japanese voice actor has "crazy" down to an artform, I'm amazed that person can still do work because it sounds like he's destroying his vocal cords faster than David Hayter trying to do the Old Snake voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8PEqI-YVvw

Oh, that's nothing. Nobuhiko Okamoto has comical throat stylings down to a science. While dude normally plays standard shounen/shoujo heroes, his inner crazy always brings a smile to my face.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen
Someone managed a radio rip of the new OP:

edit: No longer relevant now that the entire OP is in a PV.

Outer Science fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Apr 9, 2013

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Speaking of Arai, the characters Naomi and Seiko from Corpse Party have an almost identical relationship and personalities, even having the same voice actors as Misaka and Kuroko, respectively. I thought that was pretty funny, and if you like Arai, she's just as hilarious in this as she is in Railgun.

The downside is that it's Corpse Party v:v:v So like the OP mentions, beware of creepy.

Parpy
Oct 23, 2009

Ducklings have been known to imprint on, and imitate, species in close vicinity -- especially cats and dogs.

~SMcD
UTW-Mazui will be subbing this. Apparently they are having a dilemma with whether or not to translate the Japanese onomatopoeia "biribiri" because they feel it is their job as translators to translate. They don't want to have to add translators notes, and I can see how the nickname could be confusing so they're bandying about ideas like 'bugzapper', 'microwave', 'sparkplug', etc. That said, I don't think I'd be comfortable with anything but Biribiri and I'll be a bit miffed if they change it. Yeah, it may sound foreign but onomatopoeia works if you think about it.

Srice
Sep 11, 2011

Since Railgun has been licensed and is up on Hulu and such, I think the easy answer to that problem is whatever the official translation is using.

Outer Science
Dec 21, 2008

Daisangen
I don't remember where I read this, but someone once suggested the nickname "Sparky" and I think it's pretty much perfect.

Lucy Heartfilia
May 31, 2012


Relambrien posted:

I don't remember where I read this, but someone once suggested the nickname "Sparky" and I think it's pretty much perfect.

Yes! Sparky is perfect!

Redcrimson
Mar 3, 2008

Second-stage Midboss Syndrome

Srice posted:

Since Railgun has been licensed and is up on Hulu and such, I think the easy answer to that problem is whatever the official translation is using.

The official translations are kinda terrible, if you ask me. Biribiri is translated as "bugzapper", onee-sama is translated as "sissy".

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Polsy
Mar 23, 2007

Relambrien posted:

I don't remember where I read this, but someone once suggested the nickname "Sparky" and I think it's pretty much perfect.

UTW used it and made a point of using it so I'm not sure why they're being indecisive now.

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