A Certain Scientific Railgun S is the second season based upon the light novel series that is a spin-off to A Certain Magical Index. This season is 24 episodes long. The anime takes place in Academy City where espers exist, and they possess abilities. Their power is ranked from 0 to 5. Misaka is one of seven Level 5’s in the city, and has the power of electricity which she can use in a lot of interesting and varied ways. Joining her is Kuroko, a Level 4 teleporter and part of Judgment, a security force of the city; Uiharu, also a part of Judgment with a negligible ability but has great computer skills; and Saten, who has no powers.
The season starts off slowly introducing the next arc. It’s probably one of the more iconic arcs if you had watched A Certain Magical Index. It’s a slow introduction because it eases the viewers in by focusing more on the slice-of-life aspect of the characters in Academy City. Although it was neat that it showed off another Level 5 esper, just to let us know how capable and powerful that they can be.
The season soon finds its pace though once Misaka discovers the truth about the secretive experimental projects that the people in power are conducting. Whether you know what is coming or not, it’s still quite shocking when the sisters show up, and the truth of their purpose for being alive is revealed. It’s quite horrifying and there were various scenes that managed to convey the full extent of it. It took on quite a dark and violent turn so quickly that you’ll do a double take to make sure that it really was happening.
While the first season has fight scenes few and far between, this season takes a different approach. The pacing is still uneven as you’ll get episodes with little action and not much happening preceding the huge episodes where so much stuff happens. We see Misaka go all out early in the first half of the season, where she uses her electrical powers against worthy opponents. Given that she had steamrolled her opponents before this point, it’s refreshing and interesting to see her go toe to toe in battle against someone her level, and at times, above her level.
While Misaka is still strong, you’ll no longer think she is invincibly overpowered. Yes, she will overcome her opponents, but she takes damage, she gets exhausted, and her attacks are foiled. In fact, when she goes up against the Accelerator, who is touted as the most powerful Level 5, it can feel unfair given how absurdly strong Accelerator is. Nevertheless, Misaka uses her abilities in such versatile ways that it is pretty much cheating at some points. Seriously, she can shoot lightning, use magnetism to psychokinetically move metal objects and even walk on walls, it can be ridiculous.
While we were told this before on how Misaka is stubborn, often shouldering things alone and not wanting to involve her friends, we only really start to see it here. She takes on a whole organisation by herself. Yes, she is strong, but she is still one person, and you can tell that if she had just asked for her friends to help, it would have been safer and less disastrous. Then again, she is protective and not willing to put her friends in danger for something that she perceives is so personal. It’s a tough line to draw.
The arc looks to be set to take over the whole season. It does a great job at conveying the despair and hopelessness that Misaka feels. You can see her point of view, anyone can, and it’s so much bigger than her that despite all that she’s done, it’s like she still took several steps back. It has a moral and ethical feel to it that makes you invested.
Due to the terrible adaption and quality of A Certain Magical Index, you might not like Toma for his generic harem protagonist personality, but he is much more likeable here. The sisters arc felt truncated and poorly explained in that anime, but it is fully fleshed out here. It covers the events from start to finish, giving it a lot of context and most importantly, the reasons and motivations for each of the characters’ actions. We finally see why Misaka acted the way that she did, and how from her point of view, Toma managed to come in and help her.
Accelerator is seriously too overpowered so it is even more satisfying when he eventually gets his just desserts (given he is the primary antagonist this season). The pacing ramps up in the middle of the season as the arc reaches its climax, and it was emotionally charged. It conveyed all the emotions that Misaka was feeling, and the glimpse of hope provided by Toma. None of the characters felt superfluous. The only negative with this arc is how Misaka’s friends, who had such prominent screentime in the previous season, are almost nowhere to be found in this arc.
After the sisters arc, there’s a lull, as expected. It’s back to the slice-of-life stuff with plenty of foreshadowing of the next big event. Still, it can be slow until it finally picks up within the last few episodes. There are a lot of coincidences to allow Misaka to discover the perpetrators and it never reaches the emotion heights of before, but it’s more cheerful and upbeat tone gives it some much needed contrast to what was an overly depressive atmosphere until now.
One good thing is that Misaka actually learnt from her experiences and is able to rely on her friends now. This means that the final episode is feelgood episode where it everyone comes together to help out and overcome the current disaster. Naturally, with nearly all of the series’ theme songs so far being played during the sequences, it’s a visual spectacle, and you can’t help but grin as nearly all the characters that Misaka had met so far, come forward in one way or another. It’s a good season finale, even though its plot was undercooked.
Overall, A Certain Scientific Railgun S is a great anime that improves upon the first season. The rough pacing is lessened, although still present. What has been drastically improved though are the action sequences and the frequency of them. We finally get to see what a formidable force Misaka is. While the first arc can drag out at times, especially when Misaka refuses to ask for help, it is a really good alternate perspective (and expansion) of the events that we first saw in A Certain Magical Index. It is definitely much better than that anime though and it continues to be fun and exciting with plenty of emotionally charged scenes to round out the season.
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