Toaru Kagaku no Railgun

Title: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Genre: Action, Comedy, Science Fiction Rating: 7/10

Summary: Academy City is a highly developed place in terms of technology. It is said to be 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. 80% of it's 2.3 million residents are students. The focus of all studies here is directed towards esper powers. Misaka Mikoto, one of the top level espers in town, shares a room with Kuroko Shirai, another high level esper who is a member of Judgement, a law enforcing agency composed of students. Both attend to Tokiwadai, a private school reserved for the high-leveled and the rich. Kuroko's partner at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, is a low level esper who studies at Sakugawa middle school. Her best friend and classmate there is Ruiko Saten, a level zero (no esper powers). Together, the four encounter several adventures in the exciting scientific town.

Review: Alright guys and gals, the season has finally ended and I believe a review is in need! Before starting this review I do know that this anime is meant to be a side-story for Toaru Majutsu no Index. I did like how they tied in Toaru Majutsu no Index into the series. For all of you who don’t know anything about Toaru Majutsu no Index I suggest watching it first because trust me when I tell you this: you will feel like Toaru Kagaku no Railgun was incomplete if you don’t. I wanted to start this review with the art style, which was very well done. Although it may seem standard at first, the fight scenes really do bring out the best aspects. The series itself seems rather kiddish with 4 middle school girls as the main characters having all sorts of wacky fun in Academy City. However, when these girls get serious they really take it all the way. Seeing the electricity wrapped around Mikoto’s railgun, piercing and sending small bits of shrapnel everywhere was very entertaining to watch. They had great scenes with gunfire, explosions, and fast pace music… occasionally. This small problem brings us to the next topic: storyline. The series is meant to be a side story for Toaru Majutsu no Index, but they really could have done a better job. The series had two main story arcs, but it feels like they ended as soon as they began. Fillers were not a good idea for a 24 episode, two story arc anime. I did find it kind of neat how they tied everything together in the end, making fillers seem less filler-ish, but I rather they make it clear what the storyline is going to be about. As I said before, the main arc seemed to have ended as quick as it started. The series spent roughly 4/5 episodes (maybe) on heavy storyline. The arcs were really interesting and caught my attention, but the rest of the series was a bit of a bore. I didn’t really care much for the other stories and zoned out from time to time, but man can this series make up a wicked climax.  I’m a big fan of finding out the backgrounds of different characters, and even that had problems. I couldn’t stand most of the characters in the first place! Listening to junior high girls whine and complain really gets tiresome after a while. Despite their kick-butt attitudes during the main event, all of them were kiddish and irritating. The directors did a great job giving every character their time to shine and for that I tip my hat, because I cannot tell you how often awesome side characters get left in the dust. The soundtrack for this anime was good, as expected. I enjoyed the opening theme quite a bit, which was reused during climactic fight scenes. The series as a whole had a grand total of only 5 songs, but they used them rather well.

Final statements: The series as a whole felt mediocre, and didn’t have anything  jaw-dropping. The main storylines were interesting, and they did a great job keeping it related to Toaru Majutsu no Index while still giving it a stand-alone series feeling. After seeing Mikoto’s side of Academy City, the characters were decent at best. Low priority watch.