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「竜王の顎 (ドラゴンストライク)」 (Doragon Sutoraiku)
“Dragon Strike (Jaw of the Dragon King)”
It’s been a wild ride for Railgun of late, but it seems some sense of normality is returning to the series. Now I’m not going to triumphantly state back to back episodes means consistent biribiri for the remaining part of the season, but with the world still crazy and this season equally erratic, any chance of guaranteed Railgun is happy times indeed.
While Railgun is undeniably science-side Index through and through, there’s still room for magic here and there are Touma’s latest fist to the face shows. Or rather lack of it. Imagine Breaker is one of the franchise’s greatest and most enduring mysteries, and as dragons from the void indicate, the mystery won’t be solved anytime soon. Want a proper explanation? Go read Index! No really, because this is about as far as any answer will be forthcoming in terms of Railgun. At least we got one hell of a spectacle for this scene though, as I’m fairly certain no one expected 2D, hand drawn animation for this degree of action. Probably just down to the investment disparity between Railgun and Index mind you (no need to beat on Index III right now, that horse is thoroughly dead), but hard to deny the inkling of hope arising for future Indexverse adaptations. We’ll just have to see if J.C. Staff’s attention to detail carries over into future Index.
As for the conclusion to this arc, there was definitely something for everyone. While Kongou went full embarrassed yet happy cutie pie (with some interesting remarks on Misaka’s virtue to boot), everyone’s favourite amphibian doctor returns for some quick screen time while Misaki reverts her memory changes, albeit with some hilarious side effects. As for Mitori I’m pretty sure no one is surprised she got away from Kuroko (even if Misaki’s appearance was a little unexpected), because hey, cannot let that uniform and esper ability simply go to waste—especially when her reasons are still not explicitly stated. And then comes the most anticipated reunion of Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten with Misaka—with some Touma shenanigans for spice. Never thought for a second Saten and Uiharu would pick up on the tomboy crush so damn fast, but god bless both for providing some choice biribiri expressions (*cries in reaction folder size increase*). Move over Kuroko, this is the pairing I signed up for. We likely won’t see anymore on this front for the rest of the season (Touma is a nonfactor in the upcoming arc), but this left a good place to continue in upcoming seasons.
Right after we get through the fun and games of Dream Ranker of course!
Preview
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Honestly, if Touma can summon monsters, at will, then he would easily become the most powerful character
You mean he’s not already? XD
I’ll say it upfront. The mystery of what’s going on with Kamijou Touma’s right arm is the biggest mystery of the franchise. Don’t expect to get to the heart of the matter any time soon, even with several more seasons of Index, assuming they get made. And as for what Touma did in this episode, just remember that actions have consequences, even if they aren’t immediately apparent.
With that said, I love the hospital scene with Kongou Mitsuko, but I’m still so sad they were unable to adapt her introductory chapters. That scene is the end cap that was set up by those chapters where she meets Mikoto, Wannai, and Awatsuki for the first time and shows how she became friends with them along with the mistakes she makes along the way. Something she alludes to in the hospital scene.
Saten has suspected Mikoto’s feelings every since she borrowed her kitchen to make the cookies for Touma at the end of the sister’s arc. The conversation with Misuzu earlier this season about Touma, only made her and Uiharu even more interested. So when they saw how differently Mikoto acted when she showed up, things clicked into place.
Next ep will finish off this arc, and thankfully, it’s scheduled for next week. It’s somewhat of a tearjerker too.
Heh well that answers why Saten’s and Uiharu’s actions seemed spontaneous for me at the time. I haven’t re-watched the previous seasons for a few years so the memory has grown a little hazy 😛
The best parts are normally docile Uiharu gagging Kuroko, which almost looked like a sleeper hold, and Saten’s “don’tchu”. LOL
Uiharu killed me, her facial expression while smothering Kuroko was hilariously top notch.
I already expected that this type of things would come out of Touma’s arm, it is basically a mysterious box, although I do not know at what exact moment I change the configuration of the show, this type of resources allow the author to invent he wants in order to solve an impossible problem.
But… Do you know what is really disappointing about this?
Misaka, when she tries to do something alone, fails and is to blame for the disaster for not asking her friends for help.
Did you know this is the Misaka show? really suddenly the whole series conspired against she turning her into a useless pathetic, dragged and ridiculous weak damsel in distress without a reason for this to happen.
It felt like it went backwards on Mikoto’s character. None of this experience seems useful to the character, he simply became the girl who must be rescued so that the true protagonist can shine.
To be fair Misaka wasn’t really the focus of this arc, it was more on Misaki and providing a better answer for the origins of the Sisters compared to what we already know – Misaka just happened to be along for the ride. While Railgun is primarily centered on Misaka, I wouldn’t say it’s always supposed to be about her considering how built up the other Railgun characters are as well; like Index proper others will wind up claiming the spotlight. Cannot disagree regarding Touma though, his character, actions, and plot armour do have an uncanny habit of making situations a little too simple.
That’s right, also how he drains Misaka of her personality at times, both here and in the sisters arc it is always she who needs help, she is a level 5 of the strongest espers in the academic city, but it is Touma who always get away with it. Touma being harmful to Misaka Character. He has no clue about Misaka’s feelings and Misaka at times feels like it’s a one sided tsundere crush without much further attraction to Touma as a person rather than the ideal. when have Touma and Misaka had an actual moment outside of combat that revolves around personality and character traits and not some odd story contrivance?
Dragged-out romances are so annoying, even Kaguya-sama & RikeKoi are annoying despite being clever about it.
it’s almost the same situation with SAO. asuna is a good character when she’s away from Kirito, but when he shows up… she just can’t shine
It feels painful not seeing the show evolve past the tropes of 2004
@it is always she who needs help, she is a level 5 of the strongest espers in the academic city
To be fair, the Sisters project was a sinister behind the scenes experiment and she did a great job of burning their facilities to the ground and fighting off ITEM. She only struggled when facing Accelerator, who made her abilities seem like nothing.
I don’t think accepting help against the strongest leveled guy in the City is a sign of weakness. Accelerator would pretty much destroy anyone not named Toma of the current characters introduced in Railgun.
Good Job Saten-san
I just really don’t feel this season. I don’t like Misaka being the damsel in distress and the dragon fist and such was cool and all but I feel like other characters took over the show. It doesn’t have remotely the seem feeling as the first two seasons and overall felt very blah and anticlimatic
Probably down to this arc serving to more fill in the blanks vis a vis Index and the Sisters than actually build up any of fan favourites IMO. Next arc should be better on this front as it returns to the more “traditional” Railgun themes and sticks with the Railgun cast.
Yeah I hate that they use this series to be a fill in the blanks. I don’t particularly like the main series, I have always preferred railgun. I was so excited to get a new season and now I feel pretty bitter because this is “not my railgun”. This is all of the reasons I don’t watch the main series and I feel like it’s pretty much a big advertisement/fillin for the other.
Misaka is railgun. I don’t care about the other series, I don’t want to watch a whole season of RAILGUN that is focused on being a fillin for its sister series. What a terrible waste of animation. I wouldn’t be surprised if some fans of the series drop it after this because it is so out of left field. If we didn’t know about the other series, we’d be rating this as a 2/5.
Railgun has really, really disappointed me. I came into this expecting it to be the best of the season but now I would not recommend it to anyone and honestly I regret the time and disappointment I wasted on it.
I can understand the points you are making, but as someone who consumes most of the To Aru franchise it feels incredible rewarding to get these fillins in the Side Story, which Railgun is. I mean every season does start with the words “A Certain Magical Index – Side Story”, so I don’t feel the same way towards it.
It is just that the fillins to this point were minor, like exploring Brain Wave conection, Scientific Angels, the Sisters Arc & ITEM more, Yes, ITEMs first appearance was in Index, ITEM was populare. So the Autor included them in the Railgun Manga he just started at that point in time.
Even the next Arcs will give tidbits here and there to complement the Main Story of Index.
And as Misaka is a populare character even in the Main Story, she will inevitably get involved in some magic shenanigans going forward. And ignoring those wouldn’t fit in with the overall story, (The Railgun Manga didn’t reach that point yet)
I can see where you’re coming from, but personally I don’t see this arc as a disappointment as much as natural development. Anyone familiar with the Indexverse or Kamachi Kazuma’s writing in general should expect arcs like this; the guy loves building up all the characters he introduces and often slots in their spotlight moments within the Indexverse parts he feels works best for them (e.g. Railgun, Index, Accelerator).
It can prove frustrating when you’re eager to see your favourite characters in action as you say, but for me I like this more than how Index III handled the format because we are getting a faithful adaptation without any rushing – and in that scenario I guarantee we would’ve seen even less of Misaka and the damsel in distress situation would’ve been significantly worse. It may not be perfect, but I wouldn’t write off this whole season yet, there’s still over a third of the show to go!
This isn’t index though. It is Railgun. I don’t want to deal with deus ex touma in Railgun. It’s boring, repetitive, and completely assassinates Misaka’s character. She’s a level 5 esper with incredible abilities… always in need of Touma’s rescue. Gotta get that dumb punch gag in there somehow.
Index feels like a chaotic mess slapped together. Like if you took one of everything out of your fridge and put it in a pot and tried to make it work. Railgun is smaller in focus with a more narrow cast and more specific goals. I don’t watch Index, I don’t care about Index. I really hate seeing that sloppy mess bleed over into this show.
Let Index be whatever hot mess with stupid hand gags it wants to be, but Railgun is supposed to be about Misaka and all she did this season is get sidelined for main boy Touma. If they wanted to do this, it should’ve been an INDEX season.
But it is only a deus ex machina if you consume Railgun only. But Railgun just isn’t a stand alone project. It a child born out of Index. It just took a part from Index and flashed it out more. It is just not meant to be consumed without any knowledge of the main series.
Your point with the “chaotic mess slapped together” isn’t entirely true either. It might seem like that at the beginning but Kamachi has structured his series as long term storytelling, foreshadowing and worldbuilding. The Anime maybe doesn’t do as good of a job portraing it in comparison with the LN and also the large gap between season doesn’t help either. But if you would go back now and re-watched or read the LN again (after seeing everything until now) you would see how much of the current Index events were teased. So I take a little offense with that statement, because Touma is the enigma of the series. In a world were everything has an explanation, be it from Real Life Mythology or science Toumas Imagine Breaker somehow doesn’t seem to really fit in either category. And this Railgun Arc confirmed a theory fans had over 10 years scince his fight with the Alchemist (2004 Index LN, 2014 Railgun Manga)
And I don’t think the focus was on Touma in this Arc, he really had only a minor role and the focus was more on Misaki and Kuroko in the conclusion of the Events and he just took the last hit to end it all, but without the other two this wouldn’t have stopped there.
At least I can say the next Arc will not have Touma in it, he will be talked about because in Railgun Touma is the “ultimate personification of all that is good”, which is not true for his role in Index. But you will not see him and I think only 2-3 Index charactere make an short appearance but don’t play a bigger role in it.
@ completely assassinates Misaka’s character.
Nonsense, Misaka has proven to be a strong protagonist. The situation she found herself in was completely out of her control. She went to that rooftop attempting to end things but instead got some funky mind control and level boosting thing thrown at her. Its not something anyone could have really saw coming and doesn’t make her look weak.
Flame of Recca
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun/To%20Aru%20Kagaku%20no%20Railgun%20T%20-%2014%20-%2011.jpg
And we’re back! (Back again…)
Based on that tweet, I’m guessing J.C. Staff finally got their new work arrangements down pat. While it’s regrettable that the rest of Shokugeki no Souma‘s final season will be delayed to July, I’m kinda relieved to see the studio’s priority at the moment is finishing Railgun T. Anyway…
– Suddenly, Touma’s arm has more dragons. Thank goodness I still (sort of) remember Touma’s fight with Aureolus Izzard (way back in Index season 1) where one of those dragons first manifested. (That said, I would have gone “Oh, crap” if I heard a faint “BIDIBIDIBIDI” in there somewhere…)
– “Miss Saten? We’ve found that ‘Shadow Metal’ you were looking for…” (One heck of a brick joke if I’ve ever seen one.)
– Misaki and Mitori silently(?) negotiating some kind of deal. I wonder what that’s about? Information on Dolly’s whereabouts? Hope this won’t be the last we’ll see of the cosplaying Level 4 esper.
– Good to see Misaki returning Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu’s memories of Mikoto (I almost assumed she didn’t until Kuroko called Mikoto “onee-sama” once again). Though Misaki had one last prank…
– Gotta love Saten and Uiharu (nice assist!) being shippers on deck for Mikoto x Touma.
– “Kuroko-chan dropkick!“
The real problem with this touma power is not the fact that it lacks explanation, but the nature of it is not delimited and is unpredictable, does’t it seem to have a risk of use, nor does it seem to be uncontrollable since it was able to controled dragons to destroy the sphere without damaging misaka, it is exactly the same problem that the sharingan had in naruto or Ichigo in bleach with multiple DNA, the author can inventing new things according to the need of the script and that really destroys any type of tension, but of course that is an index problem where Touma is the protagonist, this is Railgun and Misaka seems more incompetent than ever.
IMO it’s part of the problem when writing stories without any clear endpoint. When the plot and its progression is uncertain, powers like Touma’s become narrative crutches serving to advance things at the expense of logic and suspending disbelief. You don’t want to constrict the power because that would potentially eliminate future options, but you also want to try and keep it somewhat believable to avoid future backbreaking logical contortions that only turn off the readers (e.g. Dragon Ball’s Saiyan transformations). Inevitably both points cannot be balanced, so it turns into a choice of what to sacrifice to keep the story running.
It’s arguably pronounced for something like Railgun because the author doesn’t really treat it like a individual series as much as a complement to the overall Indexverse; each part is meant to accentuate each other so key characters can often wind up grabbing the short straw. The difference is quite pronounced when you compare it to something like Kimetsu no Yaiba that had the courage and control to conclude right when it meant to.
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One interesting point to note is that according to the editor of the manga, the first three arcs: level upper, the sisters arc, and the daihaseisai, were written as a trilogy. If you paid close attention you can see the common threads and build up that’s applied throughout the three of them to tie them together, and I don’t just mean Kihara Gensei and brainwave networks, though, that’s certainly part of it.
Supposedly the next three arcs will also be connected similarly, though since we are still only approaching the end of the second one of those in the manga, I can’t really say how. The first of those arcs, Dreamranker, will be the backend of Railgun T though, and said arc is also the one that spins off into Railgun’s own spinoff, Astral Buddy.