Wakaranai

Rating:    

Well this is a new experience – a Railgun episode with plot! Finally an episode has come along and done the right thing by adapting a chapter faithfully with the right pace and very little padding of original content. Alongside episode 1 , this has been the most direct adaptation of the manga, and finally pushes the series into its first crucial step of actually introducing a plot. You could argue that the foundations for this ep were laid slowly in episodes prior, but this is really the first time we’ve had actual ongoing plot to sink our teeth into. Due to the frivolous tone of the earlier episodes I think you could watch this episode straight from the first ep and not notice any discontinuity (certainly you could skip straight to episode 5). Given the fact that stuff’s actually happening that qualifies as mildly exciting, combined with the absence of excesses of original content to bring it down, the show gets a significant upgrade on the ‘interest meter’. And I have to say that my faith in the show has been tentatively reignited - this might turn out to be an entertaining, dramatic and stimulating anime after all, and not just a template for cheap yuri gags. But despite steering the show in a better direction, the episode still fails to capture the magic of the manga, and stumbles on a number of nagging flaws, including subpar production quality and occasionally awkward dialogue.

✔ The episode’s action peak - that short but sharp moment of danger and panic as the bomb reaches an imminent explosion that threatens to kill Misaka, Uihara, and an innocent young girl, was executed perfectly (one of the few things that has been). The animation in this sequence was good and the timing was really effective, maximizing the alarm and drama of the girls desperately trying to save each other. Misaka fumbling with her railgun ammunition was a surprisingly tense moment. Good stuff!

✔ I noticed that the music wasn’t horribly bland this time around. This anime has very little original BGM compositions, and the better BGM tracks that crop up are just taken straight from the To Aru Majutsu no Index anime. I’m pretty disappointed by the fact that they are recycling Index music rather than creating their own. It doesn’t help shake the cheap feel the series exudes. Plus, an original selection of music would have helped give Railgun its own identity and style. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but there were a couple of good new pieces of music this time around, including the BGM behind the opening Judgement meeting which I really liked a lot. Musically, this has been the only decent episode thus far.

✘ The animation quality of Railgun continues to waver. The animation is only really good for a few key scenes, once or twice an episode if we’re lucky. But in general I feel the animation just isn’t acceptable. The movement of the characters is jerky and unnatural, the designs are often off-model and generally do not look nearly as attractive as they should. It’s sad that a manga with such great artistic flare isn’t given the care and attention in production that it deserves. Index was animated so much more smoothly and the art was generally a lot crisper and appealing. The visual production for the series is the major thing holding it back at this stage (now that it’s gained a plot).

✔ The writing in this episode was good overall, even in the areas where the script wasn’t lifted from the manga. I especially liked the conversation between Railgun and Saten. Those two, despite being opposites of a kind (the ace of Tokiwadai and a level 0), share common ground in the sense that they are probably the most down-to-earth characters in the series. Saten might go a little funny when she catches sight of Uihara’s skirt, but otherwise she is a relatively normal girl. Because of that, these two characters have a great chemistry (which is something I think the manga never really capitalized on). Kanae Itou, one of my favourite new seiyuus, proved her worth in this scene. I don’t know about you, but I think she really conveyed Saten’s sense of dejectedness over being useless.

✘ I couldn’t really put my finger on it but the scene where Misaka was checking out those peer-disapproved pyjamas wasn’t nearly as sweet as in the manga. It might be the mediocre production values of the series bringing down the win of scenes like this.

✔ Isn’t it funny how Touma seems a lot more awesome when you don’t see too much of him?

✘ I’m feeling less sure that Satomi Arai was well cast as Kuroko (which may just be part of my reservations about how her character is being portrayed this episode. Her voice is just too shrill sometimes..