Well thank god the election season is over, now we can focus on the real issues. Like how can a city that is 80% students run normally when they have students with esper powers running amok on a daily basis? I mean what is the police force Anti-Skill doing? It seems like they let the student run investigative force Judgement do all of the legwork which makes things worse. And I know this is s scientifically advanced city designed to study these espers and rank them with numbers 1-5 but what is up with all of those shady experiments? I mean damn, every couple of weeks it’s either a rogue AIM Beast or a sadistic mad scientist in a Power Suit. Is there ever a normal day in Academy City?
I guess that’s what we would be saying if any of that were real, it’s really just the
plot of A Certain Magical Railgun. It’s the story of Esper and Middle School Student Misaka Mikoto as she and her friends go about their day-to-day lives being dragged into the dark mysteries of Academy City. It’s a city decades ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technological advancement where 80% of the population are students attending the academies and schools about the city. Many of these students are Espers, people with special abilities that allow them to control different aspects of matter and physics. All of the student’s powers are ranked from 1 being the weakest to 5 being the best of the best. Misaka is the 3rd strongest Esper of only 7 Level 5 Espers in the city. Her Powers to manipulate electrical current and magnetism earned her the designation “Railgun”.
With her title of Railgun though she attracts a lot of friends and despite her refusal to join the student-run security force “Judgement” she also attracts a lot of trouble. Being able to turn a coin into a high-powered projectile using electro-magnetism can’t solve all of life’s problems and Misaka quickly finds her unwitting role in the dark side of the cities experiments.
Her hot temper doesn’t help her much nor does her obsession with beating Toma Kamijo.
Luckily she isn’t alone, she has friends of all esper powers. There is, of course, her roommate Kuroko.
Kuroko along with being a member of Judgement is also a Level 4 esper, her power is teleportation. She is powerful enough to travel by teleporting herself from place to place within her line of sight or in a combat situation she can use her ability to turn objects into weapons and projectiles. She also happens to be an aggressive sexual deviant in love with Misaka. XD
Speaking of sexual deviancy there is also their friend Ruiko Saten. She may be a Level 0, or a student who exhibits no power whatsoever but she helps Misaka out a lot. Well, that is when she isn’t flipping Uiharu’s skirt to see what color her panties are and gossiping about the cities urban legends.
And who could forget sweet Uiharu? A fellow member of Judgement and Level 1 esper, Uiharu is soft-spoken and often a pushover. She carries a huge amount of responsibility though and helps out more with her computer skills than her “Thermal Hand” ability that she is too embarrassed to share with her friends.
In stories like this with a mix of comedy and action, of course, you must have the teenage boy who the main character likes. Or doesn’t like? Or is just friends with?
Toma is a wild card, he doesn’t appear a lot but when he does he and Mikasa fight, which enrages Misaka. Toma is recorded as Level 0 but he does have a power in his right hand that nullifies other abilities. Love burns hottest in the sparks of battle and what is sometimes a rivalry between these two is other times a partnership or even a date.
Now what I like most about this anime is how diverse it is. It’s technically Shojo but is has so many elements of Shonen all audiences can enjoy it. There are elements of action and comedy that delightfully intertwine, but some episodes take on the feel of the Slice-Of-Life Genre of Anime. It’s a good feel really and gives the whole show and its characters almost real life human feel despite all the electrical shocks and people appearing and disappearing in an instant. All in all, it is a top-notch anime with 2 seasons covering 4 very compelling story arcs.
You can buy both seasons here directly from Funimation
Don’t be shocked when you love it. 😉
C-Gaymer 
The set up for this show (and Index) is kind of ridiculous with a city that is 80% students and the number of times various people run amok but it is such a great show and as long as you don’t poke too many holes in the actual setting everything else kind of makes sense given the context. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the series.
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Yes. What I like in particular though is the theory behind the formation of Esper Powers, their “Personal Reality”. Its interesting. 🙂
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