Forum - View topicREVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun GN 1
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here-and-faraway
 Posts: 1529 Location: Sunny California |
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The story doesn't sound like my type of read, but I have to say I love the cover art's composition and colors.
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I'm sure if this had more rape then it would have merited more than a C- for story. Or maybe if Kuroko or Saten had done the same as the male lead in that manga:"Before the end of the volume he has pushed her down, locked her in the music room with him, and tried to have sex with her no fewer than three times." then you would have liked their character more, or you would have at least found it to be a "fun read".
If this were a volume later in the series (say 4 or 5) then I could understand griping about getting "side-tracked". What's the point of going full on into the story if you haven't spent a decent time fleshing out the characters or simply letting the reader know about some of the more intricate details in Railgun's Academy City that were never really given any depth or even not mentioned at all in Index. All in all, from reading those two reviews I can tell that you're simply not a reviewer for my tastes, but I'm sure you'll fit right in with the fujoshi crowd. |
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Kohii
 Posts: 428 |
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Lol. I agree. Questioning the MP3 discussion was as unnecessary as the mp3 discussion itself. Even though the technology is years ahead of the rest of the world, it's still set in present time, and those girls still come from regular homes. It's not like they were born in Academy City. What do you expect them to say? "Hey, did you download this band's latest FLAC?" "Yeah, that FLAC totally rocks!". |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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The MP3 conversation has some relevance to the plot. I don't think any writer would reveal how everything relates in the first volume.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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This does fit in with your MO of relentlessly insulting, criticizing and running down the female critics who work for this site, so I didn't really expect any *other* reaction from you. That it's so predictable at this point is kind of hilarious. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Eh? I love Bamboo's reviews. It's a shame that she can't do too many of them anymore.
And to be fair, I always use substance in my criticism, none of it is baseless. And also, nothing I said was meant as a personal insult, as I was merely exemplifying the reviewer's tastes. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Just saying, seems like you're very willing to go after the female critics here for not agreeing with your take on things and usually suggest at the very least that they're incompetent or don't understand what it is they're seeing. I could be wrong, but that's my impression. Just saying. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14893 |
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I don't see an issue. 
That's like saying the "worm's eye-view" shot is sexual harassment. People would've seen those "assets" sooner or later, with or without help from other characters, whether they like it or not! 
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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It's not quite that they're incompetent. They are very competent. It's just that their tastes are quite seclusive. I would never expect a fujoshi to like Railgun (there really aren't any hot guys). In the same vein I would never expect an otaku who likes moe stuff like railgun to like Ai Ore. They're very different works targeted to very different audiences. My comment on this thread was merely to point out (using an admittedly caustic and hyperbolic example of suggesting that if this work had more rape then it would be more in tune with the reviewer's taste) this very thought.
Basically if I had to pinpoint my issue, it would be that I see Theron getting all the shows with the boobs, and whoever the female reviewer(s) happen to be to get all the... questionable (that means rape) shoujo/josei/BL/whatever. Whereas moe stuff just seem to be sent to everyone. If that's not how the reviews are actually done, then I apologize, but that is really as it seems. I wouldn't mind something like Railgun getting panned by someone who obviously wasn't in its target audience if I could also be reading other niche stuff getting panned by other reviewers. I'd love to see another review of Ai Ore for instance, by someone who has absolutely no interest in shoujo. I babbled a bit, but I hope you can understand my intentions. |
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tuxedocat
 Posts: 2183 |
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Though I do see Key review all the boobie stuff here, i just read a review by Carl K. on Antique Bakery. He gave it about the same lackluster scores as Rebecca did for this review. I liked that show, and was sort of disappointed that he didn't like it better, but I don't see having more than one review on here. There's just too much content out there. t is not practical. I'm sure I can find a review that agrees with my "fujoshi" opinions out there on some other site if I look around.
(oh, and BTW, I didn't care much for Ai Ore, so I guess I fail at "fujoshi")
As for the moe stuff: is this really moe? or bishojou? or what? There is just so much of it. No wonder it gets passed around all over the place. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2657 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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While I appreciate your thoughts, and I knew that this review would not meet favorably with some people's opinions, I do resent the implication that I find rape an enjoyable factor in a story. I realize that you do not know me or my past experiences, but implying that any woman finds rape an acceptable or enjoyable plot device is pushing it. Ai Ore fit with the criteria of a romance novel and did it well, which merited its story grade. Perhaps I did not express that as well as I might have in the review, but I do believe that a closer examination of it will reveal that I was discussing the book as a romance novel. It is also worth mentioning that, if you pay attention, I said that it was the abusive factors in Railgun that made the fanservice so unpalatable to me. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that the term fujoshi referred to a female fan who enjoys yaoi. Unless I am very much mistaken, I have yet to review any yaoi. While I have no issue with the genre, it is not my personal favorite and I rarely, if ever, seek it out. Giving one mediocre volume a low grade does not make me anti-shounen, nor does recognizing the merits of one smutty shoujo volume make me an exclusive shoujo fan. Overall, I am perfectly happy to have people disagree with me. A review is an opinion, and we are both entitled to our own. Calling me out on lamenting a lack of cohesive plot in a first volume is very legit and you certainly may be right - I've never seen the anime and I don't read scanlations, so I'm coming in blind in that sense. It is your earlier statements about my supposed fondness for rape in romance that are uncalled for and insensitive. |
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d-_-b zzzzz
Posts: 22 |
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I find this review good for the first book. I am a fan of the whole Raildex series itself but I have to admit that this book itself wasn't "Lol super epic yo". I read the manga online so the whole itself so far is 9/10 for my tastes. Thank god the whole thing isn't like the Railgun anime and the Railgun anime itself a very poor adaptation of this book and the Railgun manga. I wish i had the pic of the Railgun manga made by fans where it goes "what i read, what i expected, what i got."
All in all i can agree with this review considering it's for the book itself. |
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MrTerrorist
Posts: 1348 |
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I'll help explain it to you. Adam Arnold from Seven Seas explained that the manga was supposed to be release at the same time Funimation release the A Certain Magical Index DVDs in North America. But Funimation unexpectedly pushed the release date. Not wanting to wait that long for the DVD release, Seven Seas decide to release the Railgun manga anyway. Of course you might be also wondering then why didn't Seven Seas just release the A Certain Magical Index light novels and manga so it might help explain some things in Railgun? Unfortunately there are two reasons: business and licensing rights. Seven Seas light novels have not been doing so well and with the Index novels currently about 24 volumes, Adam felt it wasn't worth to invest that much if they was little profit to gain. As the for the Index manga, Seven Seas is unable to obtain it's licensing rights because unlike the Railgun manga which is published by ASCII Media Works in Japan, the Index manga is published by Square Enix which Yen Press has the licensing rights to release their titles in North America. So unless Yen Press decides to release the Index manga, you might just have to wait for Funimation to release the Index DVDs which i recommend since the Index manga skips certain story arcs from the novels while the anime doesn't. I hope that explains everything. |
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Banken
Posts: 1281 |
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She doesn't fire an energy blast through the coins, she uses electricity to fire them at very high velocities...hence her codename Railgun. It's a projectile weapon, although not particularly accurately portrayed.
The velocity was quoted as being something like 2,200 meters per second, which is the same velocity as one of the Navy's experimental railguns. Firing a coin that size at that sort of velocity would be enough to shoot satellites out of orbit or destroy tanks in single shots... |
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thewizardninja
Posts: 43 |
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First thing's first, I don't see the point in putting down a spin-off for treating itself like a spin-off. That's like condemning an action movie for having too much action. Yes, there are definitely examples of spin-offs that don't require any knowledge of the original work to understand but there are just as many that do, so why should one be more acceptable than the other? Railgun is very closely tied to Index. Now, I'm going to assume that you haven't read the Index novels or seen the first season of their anime adaption here, so I apologize in advance if you were merely looking at this first volume as if you hadn't. The story of Railgun is actually running parallel to that of Index, in fact, the scene where Mikoto is talking to the thugs about Level Upper leading to her fighting Touma on the bridge is actually the prologue of the first novel. It's quite clear that the very intention of the Railgun manga is to build upon the original work rather than pull away from it but why should it be criticised for doing so?
As for why Seven Seas is doing Railgun first, despite Funimation licensing the previous series, it was actually BECAUSE Funimation had licensed the previous series. It was intended to run alongside the Index anime but that didn't exactly happen as planned. Aside from that, Seven Seas don't actually have the rights to publish the Index manga anyway - that would fall to Yen Press. Not to mention that Funimation has licensed the Railgun anime as well. The fanservice? I can't help but agree. Although I certainly welcome it (being the healthy young male I am) I do often find that kind of thing wholly unnecessary. Although, Kuroko's rampant enthusiasm does seem to make her antics more enjoyable. Also, your comment about the fight scenes disturbs me. They were hardly unnecessary, the fights were quite obviously there to show the more interesting applications of her powers, rather than her just throwing lightning bolts all the time. Also, you can't say you weren't expecting fight scenes when the main character has super powers. In that situation it would be stranger if there weren't any fights. As for Mikoto coming off as irritating and you feeling sorry for Touma? That's exactly what you were meant to feel. Their encounters aren't usually any different from this in Index, why should you feel differently about these encounters just because it's from her point of view instead of his? The mp3 and the synesthesia segments are both incredibly important. Even though they seem out of place now, I can assure you that they most certainly aren't (although I won't spoil it for you). As for it being a futuristic setting, common speculation places the year as being 2015, based on dates given in the Index novels. Even though AC is supposed to contain technology that's 20 or 30 years ahead of the rest of the world, I doubt the researchers there were spending their time developing completely new music formats. Even today, mp3s are still widely used and I don't see something else taking over in popularity any time soon. All I can say is that it was pretty silly giving this review to somebody who seems to have no knowledge of Index, although I do have to admit that it was interesting to see a review of it from the point of view of somebody like that. Also, there should be nothing wrong with a spin-off relying on it's original, especially when their stories overlap like they do in this case. I suppose that's really all I have to say. About the scores you've given, I actually don't disagree. As a single volume, there really isn't much to it, however, it's a good set-up for everything that comes later. As a last thing, if you still want to see some of that background information that Railgun decides not to delve into, I suggest you look around for the fan-translated Index novels and look through the first volume. You might understand what I'm trying to say here a little better if you do. Sorry for that wall of text, by the way. Last edited by thewizardninja on Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:58 am; edited 2 times in total |
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