First Impressions: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Posted by: Noirsword in Anime, First Impressions
Railgun go boom.
Two Episode Impression
So… Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a spin-off of Toaru Majutsu no Index focusing on the less interesting members of the cast er… The scientific side of Academy City. As much as I loved Biribiri-chan in Index, an entire spin-off revolving around her and the super annoying Kuroko is suspect. Index itself was a snooze fest at times, which doesn’t bode well for the spin-off. I want to like it. There’s plenty of silliness, shoujo-ai elements and Large Hadron Collider Tsundere Rail Gun action, but the show’s been fairly blah in the first two episodes. Newcomers Saten and Uihara don’t help matters much as they don’t have much personality so far either.
Touma and the eponymous Index are what made the first show interesting. They were interesting on their own, but they had a special chemistry when they were together. Mikoto and Kuroko… Not so much. Though it seems Touma will be featured every now and then, his involvement will probably be minimal to give more screen time to the all-girl cast and the many moe-moe/fanservice moments.
The budget has been decent enough, about on par with Index in every area. Animation’s smooth, the music fits, and voices are spot on with Rina Satou and Satomi Arai reprising their respective roles as Mikoto and Kuroko. Kanae Itou and Aki Toyosaki (who is quickly becoming one of my fav female seiyuu) admirably play second fiddle as Saten and Uihara. The action sequwences as expected are spot-on and don’t disappoint. Watching Mikoto wreak havoc by shooting a coin out of her hand never gets old. The comedy elements have been abundant, though it does fall heavily into the fanservice side of things. Maybe that’s just me getting tired of boob groping and panty jokes. Now there’s something I never thought I’d say…
I know I’m being unduly harsh on Railgun. I’m not really disappointed in it per se, but it hasn’t really entertained me as much as I thought it would, but I probably will end up liking the series more as it goes on. Maybe the brunt of my disdain stems from Kuroko, whose voice makes dogs howl in pain. Her voice literally makes my soul weep. I’ve built up a tolerance to Japanese voices that ordinary people would find annoying over the years, but even I will wave the white flag once in a while. In the interest of fairness, it’s still a must watch for Index fans, especially those that lust after ye olde tsundere railgun and can stand Kuroko’s voice for more than five minutes.
Entries (RSS)
Ehh, no wonder you found large portions of Toaru Majutsu no Index a snoozefest, since Index after a very early point barely shows up.
So if you liked the original, you liked it mostly because of Touma, cause there weren’t nearly enough Touma-Index interaction bits to keep you with it till the end.
Guy´s last blog ..MegaHouse Shizuka from Queen’s Blade Review.
So far with both episode 2 and the op Touma appears in railgun when Mikoto appears in index. Not so much a spinoff more than a crossover. In the opening when touma walks by is identical to touma walking by Mikoto in the first index opening with kuroko tping on to her, albeit at a different angle.
“a spin-off of Toaru Majutsu no Index”
I’m already done with this series, say no more, maybe someday I’ll watch it but there are a lot of great older series I need to watch before I risk wasting my time on this series. If I were rich and unemployed oh man…I’d watch so much anime it would be amazing.
lovelyduckie´s last blog ..Collecting Figures: Fun and Profitable
Ducky, I think we’ve discussed this
Index becomes a minor character, and aside from biting Touma now and then we don’t see her too much. Index lovers don’t get enough of her, and Index haters get to watch the series.
Guy´s last blog ..MegaHouse Shizuka from Queen’s Blade Review.
Kuroko totally ruins the show. Don’t lose hope, she almost dies in episode 2!
Seinime´s last blog ..Kobato 2: Bite-sized Happiness
eponymous, heh.
@ Guy – Regardless this series isn’t high on my “to watch” list. If I had more free time I’d probably go after it sooner but as it stands now it’s in an area of my “to watch” list that is buried by other series that I’m far more determined to watch. Index present or not.
lovelyduckie´s last blog ..Collecting Figures: Fun and Profitable