Toaru Majutsu no Index Gaiden: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
A Certain Scientific Railgun

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

I fucking hate Railgun. But not because it is “bad” in the traditional sense. I hate Railgun because it took over my life for a very long time. It was all I could think about. Every day I would go to sleep, having done nothing that day in any way related to the series. Yet, when I lay in my bed, ever hopeful that I would receive a long night’s rest, I found myself drowning in my raildex head-canons, storylines, the vast expanse of the city.

I’ve read stories with more profound themes, more interesting characters, better storylines, and even better waifus, but none, apart from ... maybe Made in Abyss, have had a more intriguing world-building and power system.

Much like Made in Abyss, Academy City is as much of a character as any of the protagonists. It is both their best friend and their worst enemy. During the day, Academy City is a bustling utopia, with scientific development miles ahead of the world. Its inhabitants make for a charming background, and lead to many dainty encounters between characters. But at night, the empty streets and cold, blue lighting make for a bleak, deprived stage for the series’ many fights. The series uses the nighttime environment of the city to its advantage, setting many of the numerous fights at night. It often feels like the city itself is rooting against the several protagonists of the series.

(By the way, this review will mention many elements of A Certain Magical Index, as many of its plot points are integral to my review)

Since this review is about the Railgun Manga, I’ll mostly be focusing on Misaka and her friends, but I’ll also include segments about the Index protagonists.

Minor spoiler warning from here on out.

As for the protagonists, Misaka is obviously the best one. While she doesn’t receive as much development as some of the Index counterparts, the development she gets is as meaningful as Touma’s or Accelerator’s. Misaka is a strong character with tight morals, which she sticks to throughout her character arc, which mostly revolves around atoning for her past mistakes, and her coming to understand her role in the eyes of her sisters. As one of the city’s strongest, she understandably relies too much on herself, and throughout the course of several important arcs, (sort of) comes to realize her flaws and values less her strength, but values more her charisma.

Which leads me to the series' biggest flaw: arcs often contradict each other, and completely undoes the previous one’s development.

For example, in the Sisters Arc, which I would consider to be the series peak as a whole and as one of the best arcs of all time, Misaka, after previously resisting it, accepts Touma’s help in an extremely powerful scene. She abandons her belief that people should solve their own problems and lets Touma help her.

Yet, in the following arcs, while we see flashes of the person we saw at the end of the sisters’ arc, Misaka still refuses to let her friends into her life, and help her with her problems.

In the doppelganger arc, Misaka once again refuses the help of Kuroko when she leaves her dorm again without telling Kuroko why. I thought the height of the Sisters Arc was Misaka accepting that she can’t just fight all by herself? While yes, Shokuhou gains a more prominent role to remedy this, what is the point of the other three leads existing if this was not the lesson Misaka learns in the Sisters Arc?

I remember finding their role to be especially minimized after the Daihasei Festival Arc. (Which was also really great) After facing potentially the destruction of the entire city, Misaka’s life temporarily returns to normal. This is an arc which introduces amazing characters such as Sogiita and Shokuhou, reminds us why Touma is the best side character in the series, and gives yet another reason for Misaka to be more trusting. Her selfishness was arguably what led to things getting that bad in the first place.

Imagine my disbelief when the following arc, focused on Judgment, ends with Kuroko saving a dog from a fire. Yes. A dog from a fire. This is the kind of the shit you see in shitty cliche American cartoons. Yeah, yeah. You have to develop the other leads at some point, and I respect the author for doing that, but why now? We just saw the emotional and climatic potential the series has to offer, so why now? Being forced to put this arc here is the fault of the author for not doing it earlier in the series, and these ten or so chapters are far too long to waste for such a boring conclusion.

Railgun has possibly the highest peaks of any series. I’d put them up there with the likes of One Piece and Berserk. But where those series have extremely high peaks just like Railgun, the rest of their arcs, while not peak per se, are solid, entertaining action. But Railgun has arcs which I would straight-up consider to be bad.

Along with the previously mentioned dog rescue arc, the most recent flashback arc is just painful to sit through. I would consider Index’s largest flaw to be its egregious amount of fan service. While this is bad in every way possible (there are only so many times you can find a dude walking in on girls changing to be “funny”), the Kamachi at least knows his audience: teenage boys.

While writing Railgun, it’s like he forgot his audience all together. Railgun had effectively turned into a middle school drama, complete with bitch slaps, clique conflict, and overall superficial drama that I would equate to something like Mean Girls. Look. I have no problem with watching two chicks fight; it’s pretty hot. But if this is what I wanted, I’d go watch fucking Euphoria (not the hentai) or some shit. I came to this series for its clever and intelligent use of its masterful world building, not this. This is just one example, but others such as the level 6 upper arc, first half of the doppelganger arc, (while admittedly quite funny) and the anime-only arcs are just awful, and I struggled to get through them. I won’t fault the anime-only arcs though, since this is for the manga. Still. There are some serious stinkers in this one.

But what about those peaks though?

The Sisters arc and conclusion of the Daihasei Festival arc are peak fiction. I’d personally consider the Sisters arc to be my favourite story arc in any form of media.

I honestly have nothing bad to say about the Sisters arc, since this is the arc where Misaka realizes she is directly responsible for the bad things that happen to her. While Misaka’s selfishness becomes a problem for me later down the line, it is justified here. She hasn’t learned why her morals are a bad thing, and is humbled by her inability to change her situation. Until now, Misaka has been able to solve everything on her own and has developed this obnoxious sense of noblesse oblige.

It’s the Sisters arc’s bleak tone that acknowledges how fucked Academy City is. Like any metropolis, there are more working parts than one can actually see. Academy City, while seemingly a utopia, is a corrupt, power-centric dictatorship, where anyone will do anything they can to take advantage of you.

And the antagonists of this arc fit perfectly into that narrative. While they are admittedly pretty sadistic for no reason, they all have their reasons for contesting Misaka’s goals, and are quintessential products of the Academy City system.

So the lesson that Misaka learns is that the city is bigger than she thinks, and she can rely on others. Pretty wholesome.

Touma is the one she leans on. Let me just say that Touma is a very good character in Railgun. I find him to be kind of a weak character in Index, as they took his “unluckiness” to an obnoxious extent, effectively making him a generic harem protagonist.

He works better as a side character for two reasons. In Index, we understand Touma’s powers, and there’s pretty much always a way for him to overcome adversity. This is not so in Railgun. His ability is left unexplained, making him sort of mysterious. He is a sort of rival to Misaka, appearing only when she can’t do things on her own. His fights with Accelerator and level 6 Misaka are miles better than anything in Index, because we don’t know the extent of his powers, and whether or not he will actually win.

A lesser reason, but the element that makes him more likable is Railgun’s concentration of romance on Touma and Misaka. Touma isn’t forced to walk in on big titty nuns and look at loli panties in Railgun. Every moment that he has with Misaka feels like he actually earned it.

Anyways, this is three pages on my Google doc, so I guess I’ll finish it up here. (even though I have a lot more to say) So yeah. I feel like a 7 is actually a pretty generous rating, in the face of its appalling flaws. In the end, Raildex is something special. We’ll never see anything like it again, which is why it's a shame that Kamachi will never see to its full potential.

I guess I’m glad I found something to haunt my daydreams for awhile.

Hello everyone, since you're reading this, you wanna hear my opinion and review of this, so let's just get right into it!

The Story, (8/10)

The story is fairy unique if you compare it to other shounen manga, if you read the story description it takes place in a scientific city that is far ahead of the rest of the world technology-wise and the only place in the world that has people with abilities. I personally enjoy the story because it touches upon many scientific themes (that are actually interesting) than it's main counterpart, Toaru Majutsu no Index. Mind you that Railgun is actually a spin off ... of that series, and is usually regarded as better than it's main counterpart.

The Art, (8/10)

I especially love the art, how it is simple-ish yet very appealing to me. I myself have included certain parts of the art into my own drawing style (eyes and nose) and overall Motoi Fuyukawa does a very good job portraying the scenes in the manga. Now of course the art would never be up there like the artists of Berserk and Vagabond, but for what the manga is in a whole, it fits it perfectly.

The Characters, (6/10)

Now the characters aren't anything amazing, you have Misaka Mikoto the 3rd ranked level 5 in academy city, she has her tsundere persona only around her, I guess you could say crush, but she also has a kiddie tomboyish side that most people do not know about, since if they do not know her personally, they generally view her as a prim and proper girl, especially if you consider she goes to a prestigious all-girls school, Tokiwadai. Then you have Shirai Kuroko, Misaka's partner, she is generally a pervy lesbian (only to Misaka) but has a strong sense of justice and is part of Judgement, academy city's form of police. Then you also have their friends Uiharu and Saten, which both are not too special, but they have their odd quirks. Uiharu is shy, but has a strange thing with flowers on her head, (which you may think might grow out of her head at some point) and Saten which has a strange thing for flipping only Uiharu's skirt, and she loves urban legends.

MY OFFICIAL OPINION:

The Good,

Now I originally watched the anime series, which became my favorite, which led me to the manga.
But since I've read the manga, I actually dislike the anime more since I've seen the original content now. I mainly dislike the anime for it's filler arcs and strange change of personas of the characters sometimes, but I'm not here to rant on the anime.

Now the good, is the art, Motoi-san draws the action scenes very well and they are definitely unique.
I also like the arcs better in the manga then the filler ones in the anime. The only arcs in the anime and manga that relate is the Level Upper arc and the Sister's arc. But there are basically 2 arcs in the manga not in the anime, and three arcs in the anime that are not in the manga.

I also like the development of certain characters in the manga. While Shirai, Uiharu and Saten get much less development, you see more development especially with Shokuhou and Kongou (if you've watched the anime)
While in the anime you get so little development of Shokuhou in the anime you're left saying,"Shokuhou Misaki? Hmph, she's a bitch" But in the manga you get much more insight into her and her sense of purpose and justice.
With Kongou, you're left with a rich girl who is very prideful and stubborn but is actually kind of humble with praise, but in the manga, you get to see just how much she can be humbled, and how much she cares for her friends and respects people.

Also, as the series goes on, the volumes gradually get larger, which I find awesome.

The Bad,

Now, as much as I'd like to fangirl because this is my favorite manga (I have not read much)
I have to reveal it's bad points. Now I have read all 11 volumes that are out right now. And in volume 11 they begin a new strange arc, which I don't find very promising. At the end of volume 11 you're literally left with a stupid mystery that is very opposite of all the other arcs you have seen before in the manga. But granted volume 11 is pretty funny and maybe a new fresh lighter-hearted take than the other arcs.

But still you will definitely be left wondering, "What?"
Another thing that I don't quite like is multiple plot conviniences that kind of annoy me, (I'm talking about Uiharu's ridiculous hacking skills) But other than that, not much more to say until the series continues.

So, why should you read it?

If you want a fresh take on the shounen genre definitely give this a go, considering 90% of the characters are girls. Also if you like sci-fi, but not too much sci-fi like space and gundams this is a good read too. Also read this if you want better development of the characters and hate those filler arcs like I do!

So yeah, that's my review!

Attention, English is not my first language.

This manga is already bad in its concept. this universe makes no sense. Why would the government allow such a school to exist? these experiments were to be carried out in top secret military bases; they are developing super fucking human weapons.

if two students clash, they could end up destroying the school! how did the author not think of this? how did the author not realize that this idea of students acting like police is stupid? Teenagers don't have the maturity or intelligence to act like agents of the law. power should not have the main indicator. And there ... are all the moral problems of allowing minors to risk their lives.

This is one of the most poorly designed universes I've ever seen.

and all the rest of the artwork is the same shit you see in other shounem. It's just another collection of generic tropes.
Enemy turned friend. enemy who is a horrible person but has a sad past, so he is automatically excused after regretting. Maybe he doesn't even have a sad past, but he regretted it, so everything he did is automatically excused. harassment=comedy. shallow characters who are always overreacting because... comedy?

the art is the simplest you can imagine. if it simplifies further it would become a sketch.