Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T

The Toaru franchise continues to be one of my guilty pleasures. The flaws of this show are the same as the franchise as a whole. Weird obsession with sexualization in non-diegetic spots, endless philosophizing and techno babble to make everything seem more serious than it is, and an overall lack of definitive arc for its central characters. That being said, even taking into account that Railgun has always been the strong of the two main series (at least animated), Railgun T presents the best material of the franchise so far. This is especially true in the first 15 episodes which actually manages to tell a complete story that ends in a satisfying, if not lasting, way. The animation and voice acting is solid A tier, its a shame Index does not get this level of care and patience, and the directing is a step up from what you would expect a seasonal show to have. The strength of Toaru has always been in concept and character, and both shine through in T. Mikoto, Touma, Misaki are all the best versions of themselves. Newcomers like Gunha do an excellent job establishing themselves and most of the recurring side characters are handled competently. After the unambiguous win that is the Daihaseisai, Dream Ranker feels like a let down for the final 10 episodes. A manga only arc, it hits the usual beats of a Railgun original arc. Oddly enough, the Dream aspect gets dropped fairly early on, which is sad considering how unique of a concept that was for the series. Transitioning to another "bad scientists abuse power but are souls real?" storyline really hurts the ceiling of the show. It is hard to recommend any aspect of Toaru, either its unique qualities are compelling enough for you to wade through the bullshit or they are not, but the highs presented in T make the investment feel worth it. Misaka is still best girl, although Gunha is coming for that spot. Score: Strong 7 to Light 8

After 7 long years of waiting, we finally got a new season of railgun, probably the best since the start of this series. Tl;dr: great anime, watch it. Spoilers at the end . Story 10/10: The plot is great, start out as some small fun things that eventually turn into a big scheme that shows us that dark side of this city. Although there are still some niche plot point here and there (such as the part in the park where they know that a big incident will happen but still lets people in normally) but overall the story is executed fluently, the flow of the story doesn't feel too slow or too fast, each episode has something to do with the plot no matter how small, and those small things combined help us know more about all the characters of this story. There are some mysteries that aren't developed in this story as well, i hope that means we will get a new season soon, because i've already read the manga and novel over and over so many times. Art 10/10: Great traditional anime art from the 2000s, drawn in a more careful way, animations are fluid, overall great. Sound 9/10: I rate it 9 simply cuz they always make Kuroko's voice actor use a really annoying voice for this character, always hate it since the first series. Character 9/10: All the characters in this anime is portraited really carefully, all sides of their personality is shown throughout the story, even small characters feel important enough so that we don't forget them, each and every character in this anime has some memorable part about them, even the ones that doesn't get much scene. Enjoyment 10/10: i enjoyed this a lot, recently no much anime make me cry but this one manages to make me shed a few tears, i feel happy for the characters as well. Overall 10/10: Great anime, below are some spoilers, stop reading if u dont want spoils. Basically the thing i liked the most was the humane factor of this anime, Dolly and Doppelganger are the characters i liked the most, not because their personality, but because of their story, they were created by the inhumane researchers, but they somehow never became inhumane like their creators, instead they chose different paths. The part where Dolly was reunited with her 2 friends made me cry too, it was my favorite part of this anime.

Railgun is just a fun show. There is nothing else to it really. The characters are not very deep in general but every once in a while you can see what makes them tick. The show isn't overly dramatic and its certainly got a lot of lighthearted elements that make it comfy to watch. The second season was darker and bit more exciting but this season hit a lot of the high points such as insane fights/powers and cool plot points covering the dark side of their city. The show is tightly focused on its goals and doesn't let itself get out of control with the plot or events in a way that would rely on Deus Ex Machina consistently. Railgun mostly bails herself out of situations with deliberate attempts. When people help her, its for a reason related to their background or relationship and not because they were in the right place at the right time. At the end of the day, the creators know people like it when Misaka pops off and she definitely does.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T (2020) An end to an era. I wish I had watched the entire thing in proper order but I didn't. I will watch this all again in the proper order since I enjoyed this so much with the index series together. I went into this thinking badly of Misaki Shokuhou because of a particular arc but turns out I was wrong and it all made sense. You have a fantastic set of characters in this. The story is a continuation of the previous story and sits before the ending of the index series. It is a really good flow with various arcs bringing it to a great ending. The art style is great and has top-notch performance. When it drops quality it is on purpose for a comedic purpose. The OP and ED are great, the ost is awesome and the acting is still at the high level the show has been before. This one just really pushes the boat out. The characters are awesome here. You get some of the best shown here, Misaki is awesome, Misaka is great, and the sisters maintain their fantastic stance with the amazing way of speaking and in some real heart moving scenes, especially towards the last episode. In episode 21 you get one of the funniest scenes with Misaki and Misaka. Ryouko Kuriba is an amazing character and really cute too. Lots of cute girls here. The overall ending of this is that it is a 10/10. What a show, try to watch it all in the proper order. Even if you watch index and railgun separately as I did, it is worth it still. You get a great mixture of stories. I do wish the owners would release a box set with the episodes in proper order from all parts of the franchise with all the OVAs too. 10/10.

I've always wanted to like this series so much. I liked the world and the scientific lore of Raildex series, but there are many problems for me with the previous installments. Both Index and Railgun had always had pacing issues with one being too fast and the other being awfully slow. Except this season, which is probably the highest point the Anime franchise has ever come to, so far. When compared to other seasons, the animation is improved which shouldn't be a surprise considering it took 7 years to get a third season but still, much better. The plot & the consistency of it got really better, unlike other seasons where we got some moe SoL moments spread across all over the plot. Now to the main thing. The series still follows same pattern as the previous seasons during their main events. 1. You get introduced to a new character; 2. The new character introduces to the main conflict of the arc; 3. The pre established characters, both main and side characters gets involved in the conflict; 4. Final PayOff. This formula repeats throughout the franchise but each & every arc adds layer after layer which rewards with this intriguing and interesting world, which is the main reason I like this series. The World Building. The series, especially the spinoff Railgun series not only adds characters just for the sake of it but also expands the world with these characters. It's always a delight to watch when such an enormous cast of characters often clash with each other, whether it be coincidental or not. But the main reason previous seasons or entries, while does the same thing they also take too much time to f*ck around with these characters in an SoL setting which isn't bad but it breaks the immersion in the seriousness of the story and characters, which thankfully this season, don't have that much of a problem and gives a full-on ride. One main thing that's different from the previous seasons with this season is that; The characters in previous Railgun series, *blend in* different settings, once being a sci-fi/thriller and other being a comfy SoL but in this season, the characters *drives the plot* instead of blending into a different setting which gives it a lot more consistency and better flow which wasn't achieved in previous seasons and adds a much more serious tone to it. With our usual group of Misaka, Kuruko, Saten & Uriharu, we also got a small introduction to the all the Level 5s. Gunha really stole the screentime as small as it might be and Shokuho cemented herself as the Level 5 Queen, during the Festival Arc. After the Festival Arc, we got some nice interactions between different characters, like the ITEM girls and the main gang, one being the "Bust Upper" episode which was dumb, overused but pretty hilarious with it's own twist. The newly introduced characters also had their fair share of impact. While Kuroko got a good screentime as Judgement, she still felt as annoying as ever. Misaka continued to prove why she works better as a protagonist than Touma, and the rest of the cast are all well explored. The conflict in each arc was very immersive but the highlight of this season is definitely the Festival Arc. The Festival Arc, which started as a small missing case build up into something a lot more and unexpected than it's initial setting was. This arc merged like nearly 15 different characters into one coherent plot with giving enough screentime and development to each of those characters. All other arcs are pretty well rounded too, even if it's just one or two episodes it slowly build each character and make them not just side characters but "memorable" side characters. The final arc also had some interesting philosophy regarding "soul" & "human" with a sci-fi conflict. This is just a nitpick, but while there are like 4 different arcs and the flow of each arc might be smooth but sometimes some arcs don't end properly. The Anime left a few things open without proper explanation even though enough consideration was given and some payoffs like the final "Dream Ranker" arc of the season might have had a spectacular ending but the initial Festival Arc falls in a few places like character resolution and grand finale kinda felt flat and just ended up as a "secret power got revealed" kinda thing (kinda like Episode 19 of Demon Slayer but without the flashback scenes). As I said, I really wished I liked this series because of the interesting world and power mechanics (Science side) it had but couldn't because of how boring the previous installments were. While this season isn't perfect, this is my favorite season in the entrie franchise.