A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Episodes 1-2

Note:To see commentary on episode 2, check out the the Preview Guide entry, for the first episode.

With episode 2, Railgun T fully sorties into its cross-over with A Certain Magical Index II. The overlap is only slight at this point, with this episode only referring to a brief scene at the beginning of Index 2's episode 8 (the one where Mikoto's mother saw Mikoto walking with Touma as the two discussed the challenge between them for the sports festival), but it's still enough that reviewing at least the prologue of episode 8 before watching this episode is recommended. Nothing more than that should be necessary for now, as the events in this episode do not seem to progress any further into that episode.

Whereas episode 1 was setting up for the season as a whole, this episode is setting up more specifically for events that are going to be running parallel with Touma's adventurers concerning Oriana and the Stab Sword. Some of the fare here is just early scenes from the sports festival that were skipped over by its predecessor, such as the flashy opening ceremony where Misaki gets thoroughly upstaged by the much flashier and more shonen-action-protagonist-esque Gunha (the #7 Level 5 who first appeared last episode) or scenes more specific to this branch, such as talk about Kuroko finally getting out of the hospital. It also shows one of the other early events of the sports festival not shown in Index 2, specifically the most-powers-allowed three-legged race where Mikoto teams up with Mitsuko Kongo; that composes the entirety of the action component for the episode, and it's a fun sequence watching everyone get creative with what they can do. It also demonstrates an impression that I've had before: for all Mitsuko's seeming haughtiness, she does team up well with Mikoto.

A lot of the rest of the episode is just assorted guest appearances, such as Touma's homeroom teacher Tsukuyoki in her cheerleader get-up or Mikoto's mother popping up and meeting Saten and Uiharu, who also both mistake her for Mikoto's elder sister (a running gag in this arc in Index 2). The girl whom Saten encounters and helps with her phone is an interesting appearance: the later phone conversation indicates that she must be a disguised Xochitl, the Aztec sorceress who was formerly a compatriot of Eztali and came to Academy City and pretended to be loyal to the organization MEMBER to try to kill him. Those events happened during the Battle Royale Arc (as detailed in A Certain Magical Index III), which takes place about three weeks after this point in the timeline, hence showing that she got into Academy City well ahead of time. I'm guessing that this is more a bonus cameo for those who have seen Index 3 than an indicator that she is going to be involved in the events here.

The one potentially significant development involves the other guest appearance: Misaka 10032. She gets mistaken for the real Mikoto and drafted into one of the games, which is neat since she had been pining about not getting to participate. However, I suspect that won't be without consequence, since others have been plotting something concerning Mikoto. We'll have to wait for next episode to see how that plays out.

The artistic effort seemed a little shaky at times in this episode, but for the most part maintains franchise standards. Overall, this was a mostly innocuous episode; enjoyable, but nothing special.

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A Certain Scientific Railgun T is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.