A Certain Scientific Railgun (To Aru Kagaku no Railgun) Preview

Misaka Mikoto finally gets her own spin-off series from sleeper hit show To Aru Majutsu no Index. In this universe, superhuman abilities are quite common place and can come from multiple sources, the most common being either genetic or magic. They are usually exclusive to each other, meaning that as a rule of thumb, you only get one kind of power. Misaka is one of the rare individuals (out of seven) in her city that ranks as a level 5 superhuman (level 6's aren't known to exist yet), and this show follows her adventures.

It's pretty questionable to me whether or not this can hold up it's own weight. I wasn't overly impressed with this first episode, but I'll have to live with it since I'm a fan of the series. The charm of its predecessor came from the intricate balance and storyline woven between all the different factions and superpowers and a multitude of characters. To isolate one of the more popular ones and expand on it might seem like a good idea at first, but has potential for backfiring. I assume this is a prequel of sorts, but might progress to coincide with events from the main story? If this show doesn't include cameos from Misaka Imouto, Last Order, or at least Accelerator, I'm going to be disappointed.

Whether or not it'll maintain the same production values that went into that first show remains to be seen as well, but at least it gives us hope for a real sequel.

Recommendation: Watch To Aru Majutsu no Index instead. Then if you like that show, this show might be more appealing. This first episode was pretty generic for me.