Raildex verse (A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Scientific Accelerator)

Thanks. I guess I'll skip the second season's filler and watch through at least some of the first's.

I understand she's tsundere but most tsundere at least seem consistently fiery. Misaka in contrast could almost pass as a reserved elegant big sister type when she's on her own.

I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boys

Do note that Mikoto acts in a similar manner to how she is with Touma when dealing with Kuroko's unwanted affections and when she interacts with Tokiwadai's other Level 5, so her elegant persona isn't perfect.

That said, there was a Q&A by the Railgun manga's editor that says more or less:

While he didn’t mention what specifically, fans further speculate that the main reason for the difference might be due to her position in the story. In Index, she is a junior to Touma, whereas in Railgun she is a reliable older senior for her friends.

Edited by allfictions on Mar 18th 2020 at 8:15:15 AM

ah, that makes sense

I absolutely cannot help but adore handsome 2D boys

Also Railgun is mostly written by a different person from Index iirc. I seem to recall that the Index auther hands over something of a rough outline to someone else who does the actual bulk of the writing, which probably contributes to the difference in behavior.

Kinda? Possibly? Maybe? It's not clear.

I know Fuyukawa (Railgun mangaka) came up with certain ideas, like the negotiations chapter to choose a Level 5 announcer for the festival, so Fuyukawa got an extra month to fully prepare for the Daihaseisai arc. As a result, Gunha showed up, and ended up involved in the arc which wasn't in Kamachi's original plan. Likewise, the battle producing shadow metal at the end was also an addition. But beyond that it really isn't clear how much input Kamachi or the mangaka have. Nogi (the mangaka of Astral Buddy) made similar tweets I will have to hunt down later.

Personally, considering Kamachi's monstrous writing output, I could believe he micromanages the different manga spinoffs, while still giving the mangakas some degree of freedom. But he did go completely hands off with Narita for Fanfare, so who knows really.

As for Mikoto's personality, she behaves like in the manga in the Railgun side light novels, so I am inclined to believe Kamachi is the one that writes her like that. It could be that the characterization bled over from the manga though.

Edited by allfictions on Mar 18th 2020 at 5:35:54 AM

Yeah I don't think it's that we're seeing different writing of Mikoto in the different stories, it's more that she's in different situations around different people. And also is written in the main light novels as a character that exists in relation to Touma instead of an independent character and protagonist.

And since her relationship with Touma is the most obvious tsundere, that's really most of what we see in the novels.

I really appreciate that the spinoffs give many characters a lot more room to breathe outside of the confines of the main story plot.

Dark Matter Volume 1 (160 pages) is dropping this week (spoilers trickling through today). Curious to see what's in it.

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

You mean the manga, or is that a new light novel? Because the first chapter of the manga was pretty good, but we haven't heard anything since.

The manga. For some reason they decided to release the entire volume now, rather than chapter by chapter following the first one.

Edit: The chapters are out (still waiting for translation). Souji Kihara being a Kihara, DA are mooks and in hindsight, Kakine was very...merciful in Battle Royale, compared to what he does to Souji and DA.

Edited by Sykosis on Mar 25th 2020 at 1:45:15 PM

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

Chapter 2 just got translated. This continues to be good and I’m looking forward to reading the rest.

Actually interested to see how I feel about the whole-volume-at-once thing rather than chapter-by-chapter. Might alleviate pacing issues from having to wait a month between chapters.

Ringo is cute, especially when she shows concern for Kakine.

And I like finally seeing Umidori's power in action.

Dark Matter Chapter 3 has been translated. One more to go.

Ringo flashback. Evil scientists and Kiharas doing what they do best: pissing us off. Kakine is yet another Esper basically raised in a lab (possible Child Error?).

Edited by Sykosis on Mar 27th 2020 at 2:05:21 PM

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

Was that actually said in that chapter? If so I must have missed it. I wouldn't be surprised in any case, that's pretty much been my assumption for years.

There's a few panels of a young Kakine and others wearing the same kind of 'uniform' worn by children raised in labs. Very similar to Ringo's uniform except his has a black stripe down the middle instead of buttons down the side.

Edited by Sykosis on Mar 27th 2020 at 8:57:02 PM

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

The fourth and final chapter of Dark Matter has been translated.

RIP Ringo, you will be missed. Souji, on the other hand, will not.

Kakine shows off some more abilities as well as some kindness and compassion.

---

Kakine's character entry should be updated and adjusted, in my opinion.

In terms of personality, there are three versions of Kakine: the original Kakine from NT 8, the version from NT 6, and Beetle 05. NT 6 Kakine and Beetle 05 (especially the former) are already covered somewhat under Fighting a Shadow and also were referenced at the end of NT as being similar to the incident with the two Toumas as abilities that have observed their users and gained sentience, so perhaps the three personas can get separate entries?

I think there's been a misconception that Kakine is jealous of Accel for his position/rank. Maybe he is, to an extent, but his main goal was negotiating with Aleister (presumably to change the way the city is run), while killing Accel was a stepping stone to that goal (he even tells Accel during their first fight that it wasn't about their ranks), and even then, that was only plan B after his initial plans didn't work out. Also, the fact that he spent most of his time in the spin-off trying to gather data on Accel's calculation patterns puts his confidence in thinking he could beat Accel in a fight in a new light. He's been making preparations for the fight. They just weren't enough in the end. So while Kakine is indeed arrogant, he's not overly so. He's a complete dick, but he's still capable of compassion and kindness, as shown with Ringo.

In terms of his abilities, he has displayed:

Gravity Master: Not sure if it's actual gravity control or some other kind of pressure ability, but he attempted to crush Souji and DA from a distance (in a focused area). It's (presumably) the same kind of ability he used to torture Yomikawa after stabbing her during Battle Royale arc.

Intangibility: He can make his Dark Matter selectively phase through the DA mooks' shields to stab only them.

Reduced to Dust: He turns Souji to sand.

Some of the other things he's shown is melting that one DA member's arm and vaporising the other arm (in chapter 1), generating fire and ice and a bunch of other phenomena. He also destroys an underground lab by blasting/launching everything above it (an entire building) straight into the air. Might fall under Stuff Blowing Up. He also splits a building in two during his fight with Accel. Perhaps he can get an entry for Made of Iron regarding him shrugging off getting telekinetically slammed face-first into the ground so hard it tore up the ground, as well as Major Injury Underreaction for shrugging off getting impaled by his own wings.

And I think he can get an entry for Pet the Dog or something. He made an effort to prevent Ringo from (accidentally) killing innocent people, such as when DA stormed their base, and also (presumably) turned Souji to sand specifically to give him a bloodless death (the sight of blood is quite traumatic for Ringo, due to her past). There's probably more from the Dark Matter spin-off that I've missed that can be added.

Most of these are just suggestions.

What was in your right hand is hope; And in another hand is something else to fade.

I don't think there's anything like inconsistent personalities between each appearance of Kakine, it's just we weren't ever really shown any of his motivations for doing the things he was doing so we only got the one perspective.

The thing that interests me about the powers he had on display here is that we have confirmation that Kimi's (the current antagonist in Railgun) powers are related to his in some way. And when the thing in Touma's right arm showed up in Railgun, the way it was drawn was really similar to the physical appearance of all these related powers.

Divine stuff is always drawn in that semi-organic angel way, right? That's why the Level-Upper monster looked like an angel, it's why Accelerator sprouts wings at full power, and it's why Mikoto changed appearance when she forcibly underwent the Level 6 Shift.

Railgun chapter 123 updated. The fight continues, but Mikoto has her priorities in order: Get her friends out of the way. I also like how she doesn't bother wondering how the magic angel thing works, she just pays attention to the tactical implications of a laser that can turn things to sand.

Astral Body chapter 27 updated. Gunha shows up, throwing everyone's plans out of the water like usual. And maybe some Ship Tease? It's hard to tell with him.

So I've been interested in this series for a while but I've never watched anything beyond Crunchyoll clips, some highlights of Kuroko, Misaka, some amvs, and the openings. So from looking up all these pages on tv tropes,

1. Touma's Imagine Breaker is OP but doesn't make him completely invunerable, but he's got street smarts to handle himself in a fight and can take down multiple Squishy Wizard (s). He also can't make any new memories after that first arc with Index or the Misaki girl, so he has to bluff his way through conversations or will he just forget certain memories he made after a while?

2. There's like 7 Level 5 Espers, Accelerator, Misaka, the guy from season 3 who has Dark Matter but not the actual Dark Matter, Misaki, that girl that Shiage guy eventually falls in love with, a sixth person who's never shown up..yet, and Gunha...GUTS...the guy from Railgun T's opening with does the Back to Back Badass thing with Touma and helps him fight Misaka Level 6...right?

3. Index is still a main character, but doesn't really do all that much after season 1 up until World War III?

4. Season 2 of Index/Railgun...I think Index...has some filler but is still watchable?

5. Season 3 was enjoyable but rushed since they had to compress a lot. From the little I got, its Accelrator vs Misaka Worst, Touma and Itsuki/Itsuwa? (the purple haired girl with the spear) fighting the members of God's Hand, the guy named Aqucos who doesn't use any water abilties but was able to manhandle everyone except Kaori, the Terra guy with flour, a wind girl, and Fire Lord Ozai...Fiamma?

6. Kaori and the fire old dude were Anti Villains because someone lied to them about Index having memory loss...who was that...and Touma fixed it at the cost of losing his memory.

7. Kuroko really needs to get laid by one of those Misaka clones.

8. Railgun mostly focuses on Misaka battling the dark side of Academy Side who are connected to her clones and the level project? Or at least on the science side of the show.

9. The Mugino girl has a fan/member who's a blonde chick that uses a crap ton of explosives...but died later so the anime gave her a bit more to do.

10. The Index manga's on Accelerator vs that other Level 5 esper who wants him dead?

11. Necessarius is Index's faction...protectors...but they've also attempted to hurt/kill her...why?

12. For like every opening, I keep getting Shiage confused with this spiky blonde guy with shades who uses paper or something as a weapon. He helped out Touma and Itsuma against some drones but I have no idea who he is and I'm not sure who's side he's on.

13. Besdes Kuroko, Misaka's other friends are the girl who can alter people's tempeature levels (that seemed way more powerful and unique than watchmojo implied) and...another black haired girl who helped her make cookies for Touma?

14. Alesiter is techincally the Big Bad since he's in charge of Academy City, but he hates magic, is one of the most powerful espers, and sorta cares for humanity so he teams up with Touma against some villains only in the light novel?

15. Group and ITEM are Anti-Hero (es) and the other factions are villains or borderline psychos?

16. The Pope isn't evil...but the God Hand group under him is?

17. There's two Gremlins one blames Touma for losing III's World War...III and have a fetish for kidnapping people and killing their henchmen, while the other aren't really evil and just want to use Touma as a human liason?

That's the jist of it??

Edited by STRX on Apr 17th 2020 at 9:54:39 AM

Imagine Breaker isn't OP. His plot armor is OP. He only forgot his memories up to that point but can form new ones still.

They weren't trying to kill or hurt Index. The organization wanted her more easily controlled so they lied about her condition. Kaori and Stiyl hurt her on accident: Touma broke a defensive spell on her clothing.

Oh okay. So who's technically in charge of the organization then?

I forget her name because she isn't actually relevant until like 35 volumes into the story and I didn't get that far. She has really long blond hair. Laura Stewart? That sounds right but iono.

Edited by Arha on Apr 15th 2020 at 10:20:16 AM

...it's pretty fascinating to see someone trying to understand the series without actually reading/watching it and doing the equivalent of Chinese telephone. That makes for very unique interpretation:

IB isn't really OP. Also, he is amnesiac, but not making new memories applies only to him interacting with Misaki. Otherwise, fairly accurate. If you mean Mugino by "girl Shiage falls in love with", that's wrong. Takitsubo is who he falls in love with. Arguably, you can say Mugino falls in love with him later, not the other way around. Other than that, correct list, even if it is not done in the correct ranking. She has a major role in the first arc of season 2, and has supporting roles in some magic arcs, so no. Railgun is the one with the infamous fillers, Index adapts the story as is (but whether it does it well is another story). Season 3 was rushed so I can understand mixing things up. Season 3 is basically two plotlines: Touma facing up against each individual member of God's Right Seat, Accelerator and Hamazura doing dirty work for the dark side of Academy City while they try to find ways to get out of that life. Meanwhile, the world is heading to a war. That's it in broad strokes. Accelerator vs. Misaka Worst is one episode of the WWIII arc, while Touma and Itsuwa team up to fight against Terra and Acqua in separate instances. Points 6 through 10 are broadly correct. Tsuchimikado Motoharu is a spy for Necessarius (and also a spy for Aleister, so a double-triple agent) and a classmate of Touma, a magician who became an esper and so the only living example of a Magician-Esper hybrid. As the two powers are fundamentally incompatible, using magic makes his blood vessels explode, but thankfully his esper power is a weak version of Healing Factor. Uiharu Kaizari and Saten Ruiko respectively. Aleister isn't an esper, he is still a magician even if he hates magic. It's not that he cares for humanity as such, Touma fought and defeated him, and then a worse enemy showed up that wanted to control both sides/destroy the world, and Aleister thought it was his daughter, so they allied out of convenience. Acqua is the only good one among them, yeah. Yes and no. The Gremlin seeking revenge for WWIII was a font, the real one was a Norse cabal trying to give to Othinus back her full powers as a Magic God. The other Gremlin was a group of Magic Gods, with the goal you described. I find it weird you spoiled the Gremlins, but not Misaki's relationship with Touma with Touma or Aleister allying with Touma against a greater enemy, which are far more recent plot elements.

Edited by allfictions on Apr 19th 2020 at 8:33:00 AM

Yeah, its a series that definitely has my attention…I’ll just edit the spoilers as spoilers.

Oh..Mugino’s her name. Thanks. Yeah, I remember Dark Matter guy was number two, Misaka number 3, Accelerator 1, Gunha 7 because they don’t understand his powers or something…..

I had a feeling Gremlin was sort of a big deal, if a character page on tv tropes has an entire organization as a list, they’re most likely a big deal.

Thanks a bunch, this clears things up. Should I just start from the episode 1 and then just Railgun>II>S>III>T?

Put Accelerator in there somewhere after watching Index I and you're golden.

Edited by allfictions on Apr 18th 2020 at 2:30:18 PM