First Impressions / To Aru Kagaku no Railgun

Summary:

Not only are Mikoto’s attacks against the fetus ineffective, it also starts to grow in size. She’s eventually forced to run from it, and it turns its attention elsewhere, continuing to grow as the Anti-Skills open fire on it. Kiyama meanwhile has regained consciousness, and after seeing what’s going on, she feels that the network is out of her hands and that she won’t be able to save those children. Uiharu, however, tells her not to give up, so Kiyama explains to the girls that they’re up against what she calls an AIM Burst where 10,000 people’s AIM dispersion fields acted as catalysts to create this subconscious monster. With Uiharu placing her faith in Kiyama, the scientist reveals that they can stop the monster by destroying the network, and Uiharu realizes that they can use the Level Upper treatment program. She thus heads to the Anti-Skills truck while Mikoto fights to keep the monster busy.

With the Anti-Skills help, Uiharu has the music file of the treatment program broadcast all over Academy City. The first noticeable effect Mikoto sees is that it stops the monster’s regeneration, so she proceeds to fry it with her electricity. To her surprise, it gets back up, and Kiyama instructs Mikoto to look for the monster’s core. At the same time, Mikoto starts to hear the voices of the 10,000, including Saten’s. After getting Kiyama to back off, Mikoto first uses her electricity to burn the monster, and she then finishes it off with a railgun blast that destroys the core. In the aftermath, Kiyama is taken into custody by the Anti-Skills, but she tells Mikoto and Uiharu that she’s not giving up on the children. Kuroko also arrives and reveals that the Level Upper users have all woken back up, so Uiharu heads to the hospital and finds Saten on the rooftop. Seeing Uiharu’s injuries, Saten apologizes and has realized that she was on the verge of losing something more important than an ability, but she proves that she’s okay now by lifting Uiharu’s skirt again.

Preview

And here I thought last week’s episode was good – this was one was even better. It almost goes without saying that the battle scenes were awesome, but you’d think that in such an action heavy conclusion episode, there wouldn’t have been as much emotion as in the Kiyama’s background story from last week. It was definitely there though: I loved how Mikoto spoke to Saten and the others in the monster right before she fired at its core, and then the slow, English version of the ED, SMILE -You & Me-, playing over the final scene made for a great end to the episode and to the story arc. The song made this feel like it could have been a series finale, and it was perfect for the Saten and Uiharu moment. I’ve even gotten it stuck in my head now.

Having said all that, I did think that using the opening song during the final part of the battle created a bit of sensory overload (in a bad way), but I guess it worked to give that battle and the episode as a whole that special feel. Their explanation for how the monster came to be also tested the limits of believability, but I think that’s partly because the whole concept of AIM dispersion fields is still kind of like voodoo to me. In any case, I’m curious now about Oohara Sayaka‘s new character since she appeared briefly after the battle. The kind of camera focus they put on her seems to imply that she’ll play a significant part in the episodes to come. Next week appears to be a swimsuit episode though, so I’m not expecting too much right away.

61 Comments

  10. As much as I love my Mikoto and Touma interactions, I have to agree with Anonymous here, it’s getting kind of annoying with people clamoring for more Touma when he’s not even the main character here. That said I don’t see JC staff withholding him much longer now with anime original content on the horizon…

    Yufankun
    Reply

  11. I don’t know why they would leave out some of the things that Kiyama said in the manga after the battle, so I will put this in spoiler. Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyways, I didn’t enjoy this episode as much as I thought I would. I guess inserting the OP during the battle was just too cheesy for me.

    pierce
    Reply

  17. That’s a good way to tie up the arc. Only bummer is Kiyama didn’t discuss how she came about her research and foreshadow things to come. Oh yeah the whole Touma AWOL during the cameo moments was kinda annoying. But hey they’re more minor plot gripes than game breakers.

    I thought Railgun was a 13 episode run, not a full season. Anyone know off hand?

    synkronized
    Reply

  18. I desagree with you OMNI putting aside that the OP as a insert song made anticlimatic the fight, not epic, they skipped some characters from the collective mind from the fetus, one of them was a LVL5!!! well nothing in special coming from someone who said that the third season of ZnT was good DX.

    Levi
    Reply

  19. I like Touma too but he belongs in his own series. Folks should stop whining for Touma every week. This is Mikoto’s show hence the name in the title “RAILGUN”. That way when he occasionally appears its something special. Wouldn’t mind seeing Index and the other cast members from that show occasionally make an appearance but keep the focus on the 4 main girls.

    Splash
    Reply

  20. synkronized: It’s 2-cour, and based on the DVD listings of 3 episodes per volume, likely 24 episodes. Index was 24 as well.

    Levi: They’ve already shown that they’re not going to follow the manga to the letter, and looking at this episode as just an anime episode, it was very well done. I’m not going to say whether it was better or worse than the manga because a person’s judgment on this sort of thing is more often than not biased by what they viewed first. Also, I never said that ZnT’s third season was good. It had its ups and downs, and I definitely remember more downs than ups.

    Omni
    Reply

  21. Did anyone else notice the I.T.E.M. team at a diner when the anti-level-upper song was being played? The blonde girl with the berret and her friends that are appearing in the latest manga right now get a quick cameo.

    Eclipse
    Reply

  23. The only gripes I have about this and the source material are this:
    Kiyama – Regardless of how you feel about following source material, foreshadowing is always good for adding a natural flow to a story.
    In Touma’s case it’s just plain fun. Having watched Index, seeing the parallels between the series makes the whole universe feel larger and more alive. Again it’s good story telling when you can make it feel that the world exists outside these character’s experiences. That and Touma x Mikoto interactions are so fun, why not watch it?

    Thanks for the response Omni, I was puzzled by it since anime news network and the railgun site didn’t mention past 13. There’s certainly enough material to go past 13 episodes, just the whole fact this arc fit neatly in its own shell for the 12 episodes gave that vibe I guess.

    synkronized
    Reply

  26. railgun is railgun but i want touma show up once more…or maybe my guest is right he will show up in the accelerator/sisters arc since he can finish that freakish fetus right away wit his right hand.

    PS. but i cant take the image of a huge bulging body burst and every organs leak outs after being destroyed by imagine breaker

    Animeniac
    Reply

  30. Think guys…
    Why is it the number of people affected by Upper Level is exactly the same as the number of Sisters remaining? Maybe it was all a greater plan and upper level was just the beta testing?

    Airas
    Reply

  31. hmmmm, in the labs of Science City there could be paralell teams working on different approaches to AIM networking… In WW2 Manhattan project took 3 paralell paths to the bomb – 2 variants of uranium enrichement and one plutonium production…

    ewok
    Reply

  37. “Their explanation for how the monster came to be also tested the limits of believability, but I think that’s partly because the whole concept of AIM dispersion fields is still kind of like voodoo to me.”

    To put it very simply, it’s the combine power of all 10000 espers put together and given a ‘conscience’, we’ve heard of this before back in Index.

    Kiyama calls it an AIM Burst, but you might know of it as an Angel.

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  38. “What is it with people and Touma this and Touma that.” Simple. He’s supposed to be in there for short scenes, that are also relevant. Instead he’s conveniently left out, thus making this more a separate thing and less a parallel thing. Why they leave him out, I don’t know, the scenes with him that were left out were rather nice. Such as Biribiri her Touma radar picking him up and him sighing about first that magician this morning, now this.

    And yes, I frequently rewatch the last episode of the Alchemist arc because it’s totally awesome.

    Michael Chandra
    Reply

  42. Show Spoiler ▼

    Other than that, I think this really was a great episode.

    How long is Railgun going to be? Only 13 episodes? I was looking a bit forward to her point of view of the Sisters arc and Accelerator but I guess it isnt even finished in the manga yet…

    akani
    Reply

  43. The ending scared me it really felt like the end, glad is still going up to 24!!!
    The scrolling cast while the girls greet each other kills some of the passion.
    Kiyama should escape if she gets into the hands that blocked her access to three diagram; they are going to fry her brain.
    Is too easy no one got side effect from using lever upper I wanted Saten to have something else to lift Uiharu skirt. Another unsolved mystery Uiharu’s flowers. Give me more railgun

    Island Esper
    Reply

  44. Okay, now in my case. A lot of people wanted to see Touma in this episode, I for one wanted to as well. Maybe come out of nowhere and save Uiharu perhaps from those attacks but he would also say “You think I wouldn’t come and help you guys? Now finish that thing off!”. To me, that would make it so much more kick ass having someone give off a boost of morale haha. Either way, the OP for the battle scene against that monstrous fetus was awesome.

    Jason Isenberg
    Reply

  45. Don’t know if anyone noticed this but I think Kiyama did tell Misaka the hint about the sisters, but it was off screen. During the ending credits Misaka looks pre occupied by something. Add to that the sudden scene jump from her KO’ing the beast to Kiyama being lead off, it’d make sense they’re holding off this detail till after the fanservice episode to keep a solid pace.

    synkronized
    Reply

  50. @Synkronized
    Maybe, but I’m not getting my hopes up too much… Though who’s to say that even if the next arc is anime original it’ll be bad, the original author is involved after all

    Yufankun
    Reply

  51. Great acoustic version of the ED, and in English to boot.

    Uiharu and Saten sure has grown considerably in my eyes, they certainly have earned their right to be main characters besides the two original Index-verse characters Mikoto and Kuroko.

    Chaos2Frozen, you think the same as I do. 🙂 As I remarked last week, the angel halo reminded me of Evangelion’s Angels, and now with a core as its weakness, the resemblance goes even further.

    An excellent end to the Level Upper arc. Though it remains to be seen whether they’ll maintain such standards as they enter the next manga arc after a few originals, starting with bikini episode next episode. (Very looking forward to drooling at Saten-san’s bikini. 🙂 )

    (BTW, does anyone know whether the series going to take a Christmas/New Year break for now and resume in January?)

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  52. Man, I got to watch the episode only now. I’m not so against the OP song playing at the climax, but I am slightly disappointed to note that the song didn’t increase in volume as the fight ended. But if what I know is right, the song ‘only my railgun’ was composed for the anime exclusively, correct? The lyrics playing at the part fit the current situation almost too, too well. I loved that part.

    Having said that, I’m still disappointed that the animators continued to remove fascinating references to A Certain Magical Index and to the Sisters’ arc. Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t mean the anime lacks or something (though I do like the manga better, partially because of the drawing style), but you know. Inserting those stuff would have made a nice touch. See, they connected the Index opening and the Railgun opening by using the footage where Touma passes behind Mikoto, right? I was expecting to see a lot of such references, but I got the opposite result.:P

    Looking forward to this anime continuing, but I have to say, what a pity that the anime is now halfway over.T^T I wish they could make it some six arcs or something. Speaking about that, is there no plan to continue animating Index again? The storyline has progressed much further. I wanted to see Accelerator return and the second-level and so on.

    Starshade
    Reply

  53. @viral: Ah, I see. I didn’t know Railgun started off as a light novel series, I just thought it was manga only and the manga wasn’t finished with the Sisters arc yet as far as I could tell.

    So, how many episodes is the anime going to be? 13 or 26? Because if it’s 26 I will be very very happy. 😀

    akani
    Reply

  55. @Jason
    Touma is busy getting his ass kicked by Kanzaki right about now.

    @viral
    Railgun is a manga. There are a few light novels, but they come much, much later in the timeline; you’re thinking of Index.

    khalis
    Reply

  56. That was a very good episode. I liked the opening song being played during the Mikoto’s big fight; even though I had a feeling that if it was going to be used, this fight would be the one. I liked how Kiyama was surprised at how much Mikoto held back her power in their fight. It showed that Mikoto doesn’t have the desire to kill to take control (well, maybe with Touma it’s different). I hope Kiyama escapes too, since the old doctor and his cronies would torture/kill her to obtain the information to recreate the level upper. And the acoustic ending song was cool; a fitting conclusion to this arc.

    samu
    Reply

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