is a Japanese

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa, which began serialization in the April 2007 issue of

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because o ...

' ''

Dengeki Daioh is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) under the ''Dengeki'' brand. Many manga serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh'' were later published in ''tankōbon'' volumes under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Com ...

'' magazine. The manga is a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...

of Kamachi's ''

A Certain Magical Index is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura, which has been published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint since April 2004 in a total of three sepa ...

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series, taking place before and during the events of the main story.

Seven Seas Entertainment Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...

began publishing the series in North America in June 2011. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by J.C.Staff aired in Japan between October 2009 and March 2010, followed by an

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...

released in October 2010. A second season titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun S'' aired between April and September 2013. A spin-off manga series titled '' A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy'' began serialization in ''Dengeki Daioh'' from April 2017 to July 2020. A third season titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun T'' aired between January and September 2020.

Plot

In the futuristic Academy City, which is made up of 80% students, many of whom are espers possessing unique psychic powers, Mikoto Misaka is an electromaster who is the third strongest of a mere seven espers who have been given the rank of Level 5. The series focuses on the exploits of Mikoto and her friends; Kuroko Shirai, Kazari Uiharu, and Ruiko Saten, prior to and during the events of ''A Certain Magical Index''.

Media

Manga

''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' is illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa and started serialization in the April 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' ''

''. The first volume was released on November 10, 2007 and as of February 26, 2022, 17 volumes have been published. North American publisher

began distributing the ''Railgun'' manga from June 2011.

Anime

A 24-episode anime television series adaptation that was produced by

J.C. Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was '' Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Foo ...

and directed by

Tatsuyuki Nagai is a Japanese anime storyboard artist and director. He made his full directorial debut in 2006 with '' Honey and Clover II'', after which he had directed 2007's '' Idolmaster: Xenoglossia'', 2008's ''Toradora!'', 2009's ''A Certain Scientific Rai ...

aired in Japan between October 3, 2009 and March 20, 2010. The anime was collected into eight DVD and Blu-ray Disc sets released between January 29 and August 27, 2010, with each volume containing a short story series titled ''A Certain Magical Index: Kanzaki SS''. The series was licensed in North America by

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

, who released the series on DVD on April 16, 2013. A bonus episode was included with a visual book released on July 24, 2010, and an

(OVA) was released in Japan on October 29, 2010. A 24-episode second season, also directed by Nagai, titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun S'', aired in Japan between April 12 and September 27, 2013. It was simulcast by Funimation, who released the series on DVD in North America in two parts on July 1, 2014 and August 19, 2014, respectively. Another bonus episode was released with a visual book released on March 27, 2014. A third season titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun T'' aired from January 10 to September 25, 2020. The third season ran for 25 episodes. Two bonus anime are set to be released from the third season's first and fifth Blu-Ray/DVD volumes. Unlike previous seasons, the season was simulcasted on both

and

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and t ...

, with Crunchyroll streaming the series in Japanese with English subtitles, and Funimation streaming the English dub. The three seasons, including the OVA, were released on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...

in Japan on March 24, 2022.

Music

The anime adaptation of ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' has five pieces of theme music, two opening themes and three ending themes. The first opening theme is " Only My Railgun" by

fripSide fripSide is a Japanese pop and trance duo originally formed by composer Satoshi Yaginuma (Sat) and singer Nao in February 2002. History In a 2008 interview, Satoshi said that he was a fan of TM Network and its member Tetsuya Komuro in his eleme ...

, and the first ending theme is by

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presen ...

. The song "Smile (You & Me)" by Elisa, which uses the same tune as "Dear My Friend (Mada Minu Mirai e)", is featured as the ending theme for episode twelve. The second opening theme is " Level 5 Judgelight" by fripSide and the third ending theme is "Real Force" by Elisa. "Only My Railgun" appears in Konami's

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

music games '' Pop'n Music 20: Fantasia'', '' Dance Dance Revolution X2'' and '' Jubeat Knit''. For the OVA, the opening theme music is "Future Gazer" by fripSide, the single of which was released on October 13, 2010, while the ending theme is "Special One" by Elisa, the single of which was released on October 27, 2010. The opening theme for the ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' PSP game is "Way to answer" by fripSide. For ''A Certain Scientific Railgun S'', it has six pieces of theme music, two opening themes and four ending themes. The first opening theme is "Sister's Noise" by fripSide and the first ending theme is "Grow Slowly" by Yuka Iguchi, the latter of which was released on May 15, 2013. The song "stand still" by Iguchi is featured as the second ending theme for episodes 11 and 14. The second opening theme is "Eternal Reality" by fripSide and the third ending theme is "Links" by Sachika Misawa. The song "Infinia" by Misawa is featured as the fourth ending theme for episode 23. For ''A Certain Scientific Railgun T'', the first opening theme is "final phase" by fripSide and the first ending theme is "nameless story" by

Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets is a Japanese rock band currently signed to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan. Beginning in 2004 as a one-man unit covering songs from different series, more members joined in 2007, and in 2010 the band made th ...

. The second opening theme is "dual existence" by fripSide, and the second ending theme is "Aoarashi no Ato de" (lit. "After the summer storm") by sajou no hana.

Video games

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

based on ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' for the PSP was released on December 8, 2011 after facing several delays, and comes in a special edition which includes a Kuroko Shirai Figma figure. Fuji Shoji released a

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

based on the series, titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun P'', on January 24, 2022.

Light novel

A light novel consisting of four stories about Mikoto, Kuroko, Kazari, and Ruiko was released in Japan on June 10, 2022. It is written by Kamachi and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura, Fuyukawa, Chuya Kogino, Arata Yamaji, Yasuhito Nogi, Teto Tachitsu, and Nankyoku Kisaragi.

Reception

Four manga volumes distributed by Seven Seas Entertainment have been featured on

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

manga bestsellers list, with the most frequently listed (''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' vol. 7) staying on the list for 4 weeks. The opening theme music for the first season of '' A Certain Scientific Railgun'', "Only My Railgun", won Best Theme Song at the 2010

Animation Kobe The was an event established by Kobe in 1996 to promote anime and other visual media. The were given annually until 2015 by Kobe and the Organising Committee to creators and creations. Event Animation Kobe has been held annually in Kobe since 1 ...

Awards. In September 2020, the anime series garnered over 300 million views in China through the Chinese streaming platform

Bilibili Bilibili (stylized bilibili), nicknamed B Site, is a video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view and add overlaid commentary on videos. Since the mid-2010s, Bilibili began to expand to a broader audience from its ori ...

. Nicoletta Christina Browne of ''

THEM Anime Reviews THEM Anime Reviews, otherwise known as THEM or T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, is an anime review website that writes about current and past anime in any form, including OVAs and ONAs. The website offers reviews, editorial content and hosts forums. ...

'' had mixed feelings on the first season of the series. Comparing the series to ''

Aoi Hana is a Japanese yuri manga series written and illustrated by Takako Shimura. It was serialized between November 2004 and July 2013 in Ohta Publishing's manga magazine ''Manga Erotics F'', with its chapters collected in eight ''tankōbon'' volum ...

'', '' Bodacious Space Pirates'', and '' Inari Kon Kon'', she criticized the relationships between the characters but praised the narrative it adds to the ''

Index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

'' franchise.

Notes

References

External links

''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' official website

''A Certain Scientific Railgun''
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Certain Scientific Railgun A Certain Magical Index 2007 manga 2009 anime television series debuts 2010 anime OVAs 2013 anime television series debuts 2020 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Anime series based on manga ASCII Media Works games ASCII Media Works manga Dengeki Daioh Fiction about psychic powers Funimation Japan-exclusive video games J.C.Staff Kadokawa Dwango franchises NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Portable-only games Science fiction anime and manga Seven Seas Entertainment titles Shōnen manga Video games developed in Japan Works published under a pseudonym Muse Communication