Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

A Certain Scientific Railgun Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 19, 2015

Spin-offs can typically have a hard time outshining their progenitors, or even maintaining the same general level of quality as whatever original property sparked their creation. The history of film and television is littered with spin-offs that either sputtered or only fitfully lived up to the potential of their “parent.” Television has never been very shy about offering near rabbit levels of procreation when it comes to spin- offs. The small screen is such a brutal marketplace that whenever anything hits big time, often the first thought of producers or network honchos is, “How can we parlay this into something else?” Warner Brothers had a virtual assembly line of spin-offs when it first broke into television in the late fifties, with both westerns and private eye shows, some hardly discernable from each other, populating the airwaves. CBS filled much of its mid-sixties schedule with shows that had at least a tangential relationship to one of its oddest hits, The Beverly Hillbillies. A couple of decades later, NBC didn’t want to let the cash cow that was Cheers simply fade into the sunset, and so gave birth to Frasier. Arguably, only a few shows, like Hillbillies “Bizarro world” outing Green Acres and Frasier itself were able to match (and perhaps even top) the creativity of whatever show inspired their births. Anime is a somewhat different territory, of course, and it’s a genre that tends to often play like an animated version of one of those stereotypical menus from a Chinese restaurant of yesteryear, where you’re urged to “take one from Column A, one from Column B,” and so on. There are a number of (sometimes patently odd) subgenres within anime, and the resulting labyrinth has led to a rather large number of similar properties through the years, including both traditional spin-offs and shows that may feel like spin-offs due to so much shared content, even if they’re not officially linked to another series. A Certain Scientific Railgun labels itself as a so-called “side story” to A Certain Magical Index, but in many ways it’s a more involving, complex achievement than its sibling (and/or parent).

For those wanting a bit of information on A Certain Scientific Railgun's anime sibling, information can be found in our A Certain Magical Index: Season One Blu-ray review and A Certain Magical Index II: Part 1 Blu-ray review .

As with A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun is largely built around student life in Academy City, a high tech wonderland where Roomba like robots sweep the city streets, windmills provide electricity and so-called “espers” zip about the metropolis using their often psychokinetic powers to dispatch bad guys. Kuroko Shirai thinks she’s hot on the trail of some of these vandals, but she finds to her consternation that Mikoto Misaka has already “taken care of business.”

Mikoto, whose less prominent (if still notable) role in A Certain Magical Index perhaps inaccurately pigeonholed her as a tsundere more or less, is fleshed out considerably in A Certain Scientific Railgun, promoted here to “star” status and at the helm of a coterie of young girls, all of whom have at least a semblance of esper powers. Few rise to Mikoto’s abilities, however, and in fact part of what works so winningly in A Certain Scientific Railgun is a more traditional shōnen aspect where even “level 0” (i.e., pretty powerless) espers have a chance to interact with their betters and grow their abilities through that interaction.

One of the really interesting things about A Certain Scientific Railgun is its portrayal of the relationship between Mikoto and her roommate, Kuroko. Kuroko isn’t quite at Mikoto’s esper level, but does well enough to be a major player in Judgment, a kind of authorized vigilante group that attempts to keep the streets of Academy City free of ne’er-do-wells. While all of that is playing out in the background of many episodes, what’s really on Kuroko’s mind is getting close to Mikoto—as in intimately close. The series is surprisingly straightforward (no pun intended) in detailing these lesbian proclivities on the part of Kuroko, and it gives the anime a distinctive edge.

While A Certain Scientific Railgun does tend to pad some episodes with rote battles and even smaller scale skirmishes between various students and their competing interests, the series remains generally very tightly focused, though that may come at the expense of a completely satisfying through line. Instead the series tends to work better taken almost as a succession of vignettes, though in the final handful or so of this collection’s 24 episodes a surprising weaving of various story strands is accomplished. The series can be somewhat over convoluted at times, relying on a dizzying array of powers and arcane terminology, but the characters—chief among them, Mikoto—are what drive this series and make it such an entertaining roller coaster ride.

A Certain Scientific Railgun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Certain Scientific Railgun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Funimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The design aesthetic of this series is very much in line with what I described in the A Certain Magical Index: Season One Blu-ray review, with a kind of minimalist approach the keeps the show from ever popping in any over the top way. Instead, a decently sharp image is helped by largely consistent line detail and good character designs (though Mikoto and Kuroko are virtually interchangeable from a facial standpoint, with only their hairstyles providing an easy differentiating point). As with its parent series, A Certain Scientific Railgun exploits shades of blue very well, and moves slightly beyond that end of the spectrum to delve into purplish tones quite a bit of the time as well. Somewhat soft looking at times (in much the same way that A Certain Magical Index was), A Certain Scientific Railgun is solid but a bit modest looking.

A Certain Scientific Railgun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Again as with A Certain Magical Index , A Certain Scientific Railgun offers both an English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the original Japanese language track in Dolby TrueHD 2.0, and again as with its progenitor, the 5.1 track significantly improves the immersion in battle scenes, with things like the crackle of electricity or the rush of Mikoto's "railgun" projectiles being much more vividly presented. Voice work in both versions is excellent. Fidelity is excellent as well, and dynamic range is very wide. There are no issues with dropouts, pops or other damage.

A Certain Scientific Railgun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One:

• Episode 3 Commentary features Brina Palencia and Cherami Leigh.


• Episode 6 Commentary features Brittney Karbowski and Alison Viktorin.

Disc Two:

• Episode 17 Commentary features Jad Saxton, Martha Harms and Kara Edwards.

Disc Three:

• Episode 24 Commentary features Zach Bolton, Colleen Clinkenbeard and Anastasia Munoz.


• Textless Opening Songs:

  Only My Railgun (1080p; 1:32)

  Level 5 (1080p; 1:32)

• Textless Closing Songs:

  Dear My Friend (1080p; 1:32)

  Real Force (1080p; 1:32)

• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:02)

A Certain Scientific Railgun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It may be "only" anime, but A Certain Scientific Railgun proves that spin-offs don't necessarily need to be only a faded carbon copy of their original. This kind of prequel (albeit one that spills over into the main timeframe of A Certain Magical Index) nicely mixes more traditional shōnen elements with the somewhat complex mythology of Academy City and its esper powered students. The interplay between Mikoto and Kuroko provides some of this series' most outré elements, but there's some more down to earth butt kicking on display as well. Technical merits are very strong, and A Certain Scientific Railgun comes Recommended.