So she is just a human Pikachu?

Hopefully you can tell that I am being completely sarcastic about my title. However, on my real point of this, I just finished watching "To Aru Kagaku no Railgun." Little to my knowledge though, I was unaware that this is simply a branch off of "To Aru Majustsu no Index" which I now feel compelled to watch.

Fortunately, I have high hopes for the actual anime itself that this series is based. After watching this anime, I found that it was very interesting and definitely had a plot that was worth sticking around for. I fell in love with each of the characters and felt that you really got a grasp for each of them.


For those unknowing of what I am speaking of, "To Aru Kagaku no Railgun" (Translated into English as "A Certain Scientific Railgun") is based off of the anime, "To Aru Majustsu no Index" (Translated into English as "A Certain Magical Index") in which it follows the character Misaka Mikoto to whom which is a level 5 esper.

She, along with other students reside in a city called, "Academy City" which is comprised of 80% students and is said to have technologies approximately 20 to 30 years beyond modern society. This city was built to help children essentially better their esper abilities. The students are based on a level of 0 to 5 as to how well they can use their abilites, 0 being a non-ability user and 5 being a very advanced ability user. Clearly however, there are not many who are level 5s, so that is what makes the main character, Misaka, ever so popular and praised.

Which ties in to my reasoning for the title. I believe this was actually mentioned in one of the specials. Anywho, Misaka's ability is essentially to control electricity. Now, I don't mean to demean her in any way considering I loved her character, but she really looks like a Pikachu when she uses her abilities for most of the series.

On a different note though, I must say that they do a good job at create epic scenes. At the mid-season battle, you really got a feel for the character, Harumi and it led to a great weave of the plot that would soon be carried out into the actual finale. You essentially get to know that she is considered a "good evil" in a way. She in turn is bad by her actions, but they are for a legitimately good purpose.

Upon which I must comment that the finale of Railgun made me feel such an array of emotions. The creators really knew how to pull out every bit of emotion you could feel. During a huge battle in which Misaka was fighting on a car made me incredibly pumped and super excited, then the next scene made me want to claw my desk and jump in the anime itself and take out the character leading to a scene that had me sobbing that all led up to a spectacular ending in which I felt satisfied. This anime really knows how to pull it's audience in and let them feel completely like the characters feel.

But the fan service! Not that I object to it, but my goodness it appeared as if they had no clue what to do next. After the mid-season battle between Harumi and Misaka, it appeared as they thought, "What do we do next?" "Until we come up with something, let's just put them in swimsuits and let them prance around for an episode. That won't lose us any ratings." And my goodness, it surely could not. Why? It essentially became this:

Two girls from the swim team whose names I never learned: "Hey, we need some people to pose for swimsuit modeling."

Misaka and Kuroko: "Sure."

And then it somehow turned into eight or so girls running around in swimsuits for about twenty minutes. But wow, they could not have made it any better. Seeing a Tsundere prance around in a ruffled bikini is one of the cutest things I have ever laid eyes on. However, they even still had that appeal to an older audience in which Mii came out in this swimsuit with her amazing body to comment, "There aren't any larger ones, but this will do" and a swim team girl states, "Must be nice..." Yes, men all around Japan were dropping their jaws at that moment.

However, it isn't the only bit of fan service that this anime contained. There was in fact an entire episode in which Misaka was a maid, and then in a dress playing violin. But that is a completely other story.

When I got to the specials however, I couldn't help but think that the writers thought this: "We are out of ideas and they want some specials out of us...what do we do?" "Why don't we call up the animators and voice actors and just let them...improvise?" And thus, the animators and voice actors just kind of derped around for eight minutes at a time. They were funny, but it was obvious that they just needed something to fill the time.

Aside from it's flaws however, "To Aru Kagaku no Railgun" definitely was an interesting and very funny experience. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to essentially get worked up in an anime and see school girls essentially be school girls that from time to time actually serve a purpose. However, it does contain a great amount of side stories that weave excellently into the plot which allow for some good character development.