OP Sequence

OP: 「LEVEL5 -judgelight-」 by fripSide
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

Summary:

There have recently been several attacks on espers by a group dubbed Skill-Out, and even Kongou Mitsuko is a victim. She, however, is saved by a stranger wearing a leather jacket who also has a spider tattoo on his back. This leads Judgment to suspect a group called Big Spider which has been procuring illegal weapons and has been growing for the past two years. Their leader is supposedly a man named Kurozuma Wataru who also has a spider tattoo on his back, and Mikoto and Kuroko decide to go investigate. In the run-down part of town, they encounter a bunch of thugs, but they are then helped by a man in a leather jacket who’s also carrying a carton of milk. After he beats up all the thugs, the two girls follow him to a quiet rooftop with a good view of the city, and he reveals that he hasn’t been here for two years. He also explains that, for the Skill-Outs, a special ability is like the blue sky that they can’t reach.

Kuroko and Mikoto aren’t able to get anything out of him though about Big Spider or Kurozuma Wataru, and so they decide to look around some more. By chance, they come across some thugs beating up another kid, and this time they use their own powers to win the fight. They’re able to subsequently use one of the thugs to find the Big Spider base and meet the man who calls himself Kurozuma Wataru, but he uses a special sound system against them which plays a noise that disrupts the use of their abilities. Luckily for them, the man with the milk carton from before shows up again and unplugs the sound system. He recognizes the leader of the thugs as Hebitani and proceeds to beat up all the men, though Hebitani himself escapes. In the aftermath, Mikoto and Kuroko figure out that the milk carton man is the real Kurozuma Wataru, and to their shock, Konori Mii arrives on the scene and is well-acquainted with him.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Real Force」 by ELISA
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

This new fripSide song isn’t quite as catchy as only my railgun, but it’s still a pretty good, super fast-paced song. The ED is also a fast-paced song and is still growing on me, but my first impression of it wasn’t as favorable as it was for Dear My Friend. At least the images that went with it were nice, and the expression on Mikoto’s face on this one reminded me of the same cuteness of Last Order. Speaking of which, the opening sequence had a lot of interesting stuff in it, including an Index sighting, Konori using her power, and the lady I assume to be the villain for the final story arc.

Preview

I didn’t expect much of this episode, and it turned out a little better than I thought it’d be. Certainly it doesn’t match up to the scope of the previous arc yet, nor the emotional impact, but it still had a decent amount of mystery, action, and interesting characters. I’m mainly intrigued by how this all involves Konori Mii because I’ve been curious about her ever since episode five several months ago, and the real Kurozuma seems to be the big brother type who used to take care of her when she was younger. This episode also had a few nice moments, in particular the scene that contrasted Saten and the Skill-Outs (she seems to be getting all the good scenes lately), and I had chuckled too at how surprised Mikoto and Kuroko were at the very end. All in all, it was a decently entertaining episode, and I’m really hoping they do something good with Konori’s character.

45 Comments

  1. 4th!
    The new Op is nice though somewhat lacking compared to “only my railgun”…. The story somewhat slowed down too…. This arc isn’t in the manga I was reading yet so I’m interested in this too….

    The Return of the Enigmatic Moonsdoggiebuiscuit
  2. I also like only my railgun better, but this one is good too. And the action in there is promising 🙂 I wonder if we’re going to see Index in the story itself, I’d be already happy with a short appearance like Shana had in the first episode ^^

    Jurkasz
  3. wow… 2 straight eps without touma… and i noticed index in OP so do that mean she will have an appearance? on contrary (?) having touma not on OP might mean he will not appear for a while?

    Animeniac
  4. “having touma not on OP might mean he will not appear for a while?”

    God I hope so, because to HELL with Touma and to HELL with the whiners who keep complaining week after week. IT’S NOT ABOUT HIM. GET OVER IT.

    Anonymous
  5. @Animeniac
    Touma might not appear(or may not have any major part) at all in this second half of the season if u based it on the op.

    Also from the new op(i like the old one better)there is no indication of the sister arc starting soon at least they are developing the minor characters..

    Orphen
  6. I prefer them to actually follow the current route they seem to be heading. Doing the sister arc means pushing off the entire supporting cast for a new one, which is terrible story telling given their timeline; the episodes Railgun has released and has left. Better to take another light novel from Index and use that material to build on the current cast than tossing it out the window.

    That being said I’d like to see the sister arc from Mikoto’s perspective. The arc builds on one of the main events in Index, which I think’s pretty sweet. It manages to show everything that happened behind the scenes to put Mikoto where she was in the main story. Maybe they’ll do a 2nd run or OVA

    synkronized
  7. Sigh, occasionally they stretch my suspension of disbelief. Mikoto was able to hold off 10,000 with multiple abilities, yet a simple sound system renders her ineffective(not to mention Kuroko)? I would think that something that simple would have been used by criminals before. I generally really like railgun, but come on, kryptonite?

    Dagmar
  8. They’re wasting it by doing all this filler/minor character development. I understand the manga doesn’t have that much story, what with only 5 volumes or so, but hell, if you don’t have enough for a full 26eps don’t force it with all this boring side crap. Just do 13eps with some plot.

    *sigh*

    Just give me index s2 please.

    GP
  9. @Dagmar

    It’s not like the bad guys with no powers wou;d use something like this have the brains, money and ability to make it. They only got this sound system (which like the level upper before it) from sone one else, probably the new chick in the OP? As some sorta open test case.

    The system itself makes sense, the right sound having the effect in the brain of espers messing up their powers. At least it’s not way the hell out there and is, in a way, logical.

    GP
  10. probably index is juz a ‘ passby ‘ character only which only appear 2-3 second +_+” .. hope they put more of her involvement or continue the the 2nd index, well franky speaking i kinda wan to watch that rather than this,,, too much lesbian show..

    furinyue
  11. @ GP – My opinion of following the original material relies on execution. So far Railgun’s done a pretty good job, if they make the whole series enjoyable I could care less if the anime plotline doesn’t follow the source material rigidly. One other thing to note is most of the Index anime was based off the original light novels. Both mangas and the anime are actually a spin off of those works. Food for thought if you’re wondering where they may take Railgun.

    synkronized
  12. Ironic.

    Everyone complains about Bleach fillers(anime originals) yet for this one they are welcomed.

    Not that Bleach animation producers aren’t horrifyingly terrible at making a good story though.

    Starshade
  13. Kiyama’s in the OP, so she’s gonna return? Kid teacher driving! A woman who has a sweet tooth is the new villain?
    I think if Mikoto gets pissed enough, she can overcome that “capacity down” and kick some ass. Speaking of kicking ass, that Kurozama can brawl! Heh, a badass that drinks milk! Underlying message much?
    I wonder if dorm enforcer lady(also in the OP) who cracked Kuroko’s neck before, could give him a run for his money. And Konori used to run with a gang? Very interesting start to a new arc! Oh, and nice Index chasing Touma catch!
    Damn, is Mitsuko ever going to show us why she’s a level 4?

    samu
  14. So many things going on in this episode so in no particular order. The opening music wise I still like only my railgun, visual wise is better lots of goodies, my evil stripper scientific genius is there so maybe she comes back to save her kids, loli sensei yay! ( She does have a car in index;nothing like ultra high heels to reach down); Also I’m glad this is not a yuri show because 99% of that opening is girl candy. The ED almost the same sound wise need to get used to it, visual wise seeing the girls being girls is so sweet aawwhh! As for the plot it seem that espers are vulnerable (positive and negative) by sound so that is consistent. The “bad” side of the city didn’t fit for me, isn’t this supposed to be a model city (with cleaning robot and all); why allow that building abandonment? That felt weird; having gangs taking a portion of the city. Unless this is done to develop th conspiracy theory from the city rulers.
    Finally Saten is the queen I can’t get enough of her…. give me merchandise need to buy lots of Saten stuff!!!!

    Island Esper
  15. “Big brother type who used to take care of her when she was younger.”

    Actually, I think they might have been in a relationship at some point, as well. The scene on the rooftop ends with one of those “name-under-umbrella” things that was scratched into (then scratched out) the railing. I didn’t get a good look at it, but I think one of the names was “Mii”.

    And I’ve only just noticed Konori’s first name is super cute.

    Wannabe_Otaku
  16. I too like the original OP and ED much better then the new ones. Still time moves on and things change. Obviously those morons did not create the device to block esper powers. Its a very intersting concept and I’m sure we are going to be seeing alot more of it in the rest of the season. I also thought it was the Margery Dawes lookalike that would be the villian and most likely she is the one that made the device.

    If nothing else I want to know whats the deal with the flower in her hair girl? Why is she in judgement? We have never seen her use her powers or even been told what her power is. I’m wondering if her ability is to control plants similar to Kuue (sp) in Seikrei? In flashback scenes we see her with a couple flowers in her hair and now she has much more and I swear every few episodes it seems like they add another. Has the manga revealed her ability yet?

    Splash
  17. Judgement is such a shitty organization. I can’t wrap my head around it. Also some of the espers deserved a beating, they all have this pompous are you sure you want to take on a lvl x.

    outcast
  18. @samu
    The Milkman showed us he can brawl, but he has a yet to impress me. He’s going to have to show he can do a lot more if he’s going stand a chance against the dorm manager.
    @splash
    Uiharu is level 1. Whatever her power is, related to her flowers or not, you know it’s not going to matter at that level. Uiharu knows too, that’s why she doesn’t use it. You saw Saten twirl some leaves in episode 10. That is level 1.

    Yufan-kun
  19. Still is nice to see… that both OP’s in this series turned out to be good.
    And the animation and storyline of the first part of the series are quite good…
    …hope that JC Staff end redeeming themselves for what happened on Index.

    Xanathos
  20. Ability vs Ability because they don’t know about magic. Even in index, they never figure out what magic is. Both worlds still being separate it would make sense not to have any magic in railgun yet.

    As for Saten, I remember someone saying she could get magic. I say nay to this after actually watching index since learning about abilities can destroy you(as with that magic spy dude)

    ninji
  21. I like the new opening and ending sequences very much, but going by them it really looks like the Sisters arc isn’t going to be animated. Which is a disappointment because I was looking forward to Accelerator showing up again…

    I wonder if Capacity Down is related to the Level Upper in any way.

    I generally don’t like fillers but I hope they make the rest of Railgun interesting.

    akani
  22. lilakou… I like both series but I would say I actually like this series better then Index. I loved the way Index and Touma interacted (she was way too cute) and they had some great stuff going on but all too often they got bogged down in technobabble and explaining what was going to happen and it was boring. I think with Railgun they toned the technobabble down some leaving more time in the episodes for actual plot development. Railgun’s weakness as a series is that it spends too much time and resources on making everything Moe.

    Splash
  23. To lilakou – Take the good parts of Index, leave most of the bad stuff behind and focus on the Esper side of the Index. That pretty much sums up Railgun. If you liked Misaka’s character and the Touma x Misaka chemistry you’ll love this.

    @ splash – Lol I love the Moe factor. Do agree though with what you said, that and Touma’s preachy little sermons were pretty annoying to listen to. He’s a lot funner in small doses when adding to the hilarity between him and Biri Biri.

    synkronized
  24. @ninji: The issue of the inability of espers to use magic is never made entirely clear when dealing with Level 0’s. Tsuchimikado in Index apparently couldn’t continue to use his magic after going through ability training, even though he’s still a Level 0 (and it has been mentioned that Level 0 is used to describe a person whose ability has not yet manifested). But although he says he’s a Level 0, he’s capable of using his auto-regeneration ability.

    Also note that Komoe says that she also went through some of the ability training, but only ended up being a Level 0. Yet she was capable of using magic. So by my judgment it seems that people can still use magic up until their ability appears. Though again, this whole issue has never been made entirely clear. It’s up to the author to decide whether he ever wants to expand on this. Until he does, I’m going to keep on hoping that Saten is made into a magic user. If there were any possibility of that, though, first she would have to become important enough to make a full appearance in the Index light novel (I wish).

    TRS
  25. Splash- Uiharu’s ability remains a mystery. It’s commonly joked that her ability is to ‘control the “person underneath(下の人)”‘ though. ….Get what that means? (Okay. The flower crown is the real Uiharu, according to those jokes.)

    Starshade
  26. Even if you say that Railgun is for another kind of public and market, just watch animesuki forum and compare how many people watched it in the begining and how many people still keeps watching it.

    Wilfriback
  27. i enjoyed watching the esper getting beaten up… he was acting all smug about his weak ability >:) either way, misaka saved his ass. like everything 🙂 however, the OP is still a step down.

    brianleung8912

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