Though June is a little slow for me as a TV aficionado - let's ignore the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield teaming up in Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield - I am even giddier for the new season of A Certain Scientific Railgun due to be released at the very start of July. I've been ever since I heard that Japan already did it by the time I sat down for the first season.
Those of you who still don't know about Raildex, it follows Touma Kamijou, a student living in Academy City. This city is state-of-the-art city and dedicated to the scientific study of humans with Psychic Powers.
Every single student is given an "Esper Rank" to indicate their power, yet Touma is bundled together with the lowest of the low: a Level 0 with no psychic talent
whatsoever. The only thing he has going for him is his right hand: the
Imagine Breaker, which has the ability to dispel any and all supernatural phenomenon.
His
misfortune filled existence in Academy City takes a turn for the worse
when a strange nun ends up on his apartment balcony: Index, a girl with the contents of over 103,000 forbidden magical grimoires locked away in her memories.
She's on the run from a secret sect of sorcerers who want the
information in her head, and drags Touma into the conflict between the
magical and scientific factions of Academy City as well. Along the way, Touma meets Mikoto Misaka, who is the star of A Certain Scientific Railgun and is the third most powerful Level-5 Esper who's psychic powers allow her to manipulate and control electromagnetism: the best of the best, an electromaster with the nickname of "The Railgun". While Touma mainly (but not exclusively) comes into conflict with the magical side of things, Misaka fights the scientific side as the two sides are waging a 'secret' war.
The Raildex series is one of my favorite shows yet. There is just so much going on. Multiple novels, four seasons, two diverging storylines with another being added though it'll be years before we even see anything on television. Plus a movie! It's freaking huge and the timeline these shows take place in is one hell of a timey-wimey ball. However, as I understand it, the general order goes something like this: A Scientific Railgun, A Scientific Railgun S, A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Magical Index Movie, A Certain Magical Index II. Now it's screwy because Index is the parent series and Railgun is the spin-off, but the writers just went with 'screw that, this is how shit takes place'. Frankly - I agree! It's awesome!
The plot of Railgun S (2nd season) revolves around Misaka going up against a new conspiracy that involves cloning her 10 000 times over. The duplicates are real, and are
being mass-produced from Misaka's DNA, making each one of them a little
piece of her. These clones—her sisters—are being
systematically murdered in a series of experiments designed to turn a
sadistic killer into the strongest esper in history - Accelerator! Misaka vows to save
her copies and destroy the project, but this might be one fight she
can't win alone as Accelerator's power to manipulate any vector he comes into contact with renders everything anyone throws at him useless.
As I mentioned before, this series has a weird timeline. Episodes 1-16 deal with Misaka going head to head with Accelerator as he massacres her sisters one by one, but the resolution has already been shown in the first season of Index which features Touma learning about the Level-6 experiments. This is confusing as we only sort of see things from Touma's perspective which is the end of the arc really while here we'll get to see the lead up to that arc from Misaka's POV. Disorientating, but enjoyable!
As I said - CAN'T WAIT!
As I said - CAN'T WAIT!
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