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REVIEW: A Certain Scientific Railgun S DVD

Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.

MaxSouth wrote:

Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.

Or, ignoring the idea that Index had the actual story and Railgun had to ruin everything it had going from the first season in order to tell the same story.

Less Kuroko is a minus, Kuroko respecting Mikoto's privacy is out of character and expanding a story well beyond the scope of its cast is...

No, they had to remove the cast because Mikoto was going it alone, not because it made sense but because of the Index version; Not just because of its resolution but because that spoiler[one guy had to come to one girl's rescue] {spoiler for what, I don't know}. None of the characters were part of that series so couldn't one of them taken an interest in their friend's pain and confronted her on it? Even if Kuroko couldn't learn about the real story, they could have come up with a reason {a subplot! You know, that gang that wasn't part of the Index version either? Send Judgment after them!}, umm, why.

And that's where everything falls apart: Why. It works as part of Index, kind of, but as part of the themes and characters of Railgun, it fails miserably. Teamwork? Please. Power of the weak having meaning? Not really. Being good is awesome and anyone can be awesome doing good {I loved, just loved the story arc of the villain from the first season}? Naw, we got to dwell in the town of misery, population... dwindling.

This "story" made me hate the part of the franchise I liked, ironically by retelling the part of the main franchise which got me to like it... before I saw the rest of it.

And this isn't even getting to the flaws of main story, namely "power levels".

Rating... can I give an F? I always wanted to hand out one of those. Most series I don't like bore me, this one infuriated me.

Deeply flawed, plot-whole rigged storyline, cheap, childish style in some of ways the story is shown. The story does not deserve better than "C". But overall, due to some other parts of the project being better, it is still a "Good" rating show. For those who can ignore storytelling, there is a lot to like.

Or, ignoring the idea that Index had the actual story and Railgun had to ruin everything it had going from the first season in order to tell the same story.

Less Kuroko is a minus, Kuroko respecting Mikoto's privacy is out of character and expanding a story well beyond the scope of its cast is...

No, they had to remove the cast because Mikoto was going it alone, not because it made sense but because of the Index version; Not just because of its resolution but because that spoiler[one guy had to come to one girl's rescue] {spoiler for what, I don't know}. None of the characters were part of that series so couldn't one of them taken an interest in their friend's pain and confronted her on it? Even if Kuroko couldn't learn about the real story, they could have come up with a reason {a subplot! You know, that gang that wasn't part of the Index version either? Send Judgment after them!}, umm, why.

And that's where everything falls apart: Why. It works as part of Index, kind of, but as part of the themes and characters of Railgun, it fails miserably. Teamwork? Please. Power of the weak having meaning? Not really. Being good is awesome and anyone can be awesome doing good {I loved, just loved the story arc of the villain from the first season}? Naw, we got to dwell in the town of misery, population... dwindling.

This S season of the franchise is all about watching Misaka. She is not only a awesome superhero but also an awesome character. She's a magical girl that actually makes sense if any of them can. She makes the audience care about what she cares about. She has gravitas in spite of being a skinny 14-year-old. She is fun to watch.

Any story about why this was released as DVD only and not BD? Were there any extra scenes? It is one of the few series I would buy the media for in spite of having seen it streaming.

And they will probably do a bluray later. For some reason none of the Raildex series got bluray releases here originally and are only now starting to come out.

It is really just anime only watchers misunderstanding the overall importance of some of the characters because the anime original content offers a more slice of life perspective around those 4 girls.

Any story about why this was released as DVD only and not BD? Were there any extra scenes? It is one of the few series I would buy the media for in spite of having seen it streaming.

I appreciate how Railgun S's arcs do stick to a consistent theme. After Misaka learns that doing everything herself doesn't work (which seems like a bad idea from the moment she says it) and asks for help from the Little Sisters to save the day (and Touma), things go a lot smoother on the back half of the show when she applies that lesson learned to a new problem.

Good point but in all fairness I think it is up to the anime producers to make a production that stands on its own without requiring reference materials to appreciate the story. I think I am up to date on the manga so maybe I am not seeing the lack some other viewers are seeing.