is a Japanese

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written by

Kazuma Kamachi is the pen name of a Japanese author who has published over 100 light novel volumes. He is best known for the creation of the ''A Certain Magical Index'' franchise which, as of 2019, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has been licensed ...

and illustrated by Arata Yamaji. It is a

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

of ''

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 sep ...

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

series, which focuses on Academy City's most powerful Level 5 esper named Accelerator. The manga was serialized by

ASCII Media Works , formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...

through their monthly magazine ''

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 Comi ...

'' from December 2013 to July 2020 and published in English by

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 ...

. Kamachi and Teto Tachitsu wrote and illustrated its manga spin-off titled ''A Certain Idol Accelerator-sama'', which was published from October 2015 to November 2018. An

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

television series adaptation 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 '' Aria ...

aired from July 12 to September 27, 2019.

Plot

After protecting Last Order at the cost of much of his power, Accelerator now finds himself dragged into a new conflict in the form of a sinister organization called Disciplinary Action which plots to use Last Order for a dangerous mission. Now that they have set their plan into motion and are in pursuit of the young girl, it is up to the world's most powerful esper and his newfound companion, Esther Rosenthal, to protect Last Order and defend Academy City in the process.

Media

Manga

The October 2013 issue of ''

'' magazine announced a manga spin-off of ''

'' series to be written by

and illustrated by Arata Yamaji and

Kiyotaka Haimura is a Japanese game character designer and manga style artist best known for his work on the ''A Certain Magical Index'' series. Works Illustration *''A Certain Magical Index'' *'' Sprite Spiegel'' *'' Maid Deka'' *'' Is It Wrong to Try to Pic ...

, which began serialization in the magazine's February 2014 issue on December 27, 2013. On March 25, 2015,

announced the English publication of ''A Certain Scientific Accelerator'' in North America. The manga concluded in the September issue of ''Dengeki Daioh'' on July 27, 2020.

Spin-off

A four-panel

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

manga spin-off of the series written by Kamachi and illustrated by Teto Tachitsu, titled , began serialization in ''Dengeki Daioh'' from October 27, 2015 to November 27, 2018. It focuses on Accelerator's career as an

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...

, along with other Level 5 espers.

Anime

In October 2018, an

television series adaptation of ''A Certain Scientific Accelerator'' was announced. The anime series is produced by

and directed by , with Kenji Sugihara handling series composition and Yohei Yaegashi designing the characters.

Maiko Iuchi is a Japanese composer and arranger. Much of her work is for video games and anime. Biography Iuchi was born in Hiroshima. She learned piano and percussion from a young age. As a high school student, she performed as a drummer in various bands. ...

, the

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of ''A Certain Magical Index'' and ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'', was confirmed in March 2019 to be composing the series. The Sixth Lie and Sajou no Hana performed the opening and ending

theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

titled "Shadow is the Light" and "Parole", respectively. Twelve episodes were aired in Japan on AT-X,

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

, BS11, and

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed Ben Sulayem (born 1961), president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepales ...

from July 12 to September 27, 2019. The first

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

volumes of the series were published on October 30, 2019, followed by the second and final volumes on December 25, and February 28, 2020.

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

streamed the series worldwide outside of Asia beginning July 12, 2019, while

Muse Communication Muse Communication Co., Ltd. (also known simply as Muse) is a Taiwanese distributor and licensor that specializes in the distribution of Japanese animation. Based in Xinzhuang District, New Taipei City, the company also distributes Asian and E ...

began distributing it on their Muse Asia

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel on the same date.

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

streamed the series in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand with an English dub beginning July 26, 2019, and

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

released it in India on September 1, 2020. The series was released on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

in Japan on March 24, 2022.

Episodes

Reception

Sales

The first volume of ''A Certain Scientific Accelerator'' sold 39,039 copies in the first week of its release, ranking 27th behind ''

Kuroko's Basketball is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2008 to September 2014, with its chapters collected in 30 volumes. ...

'', and 54,093 copies in the second week, coming in twelfth.

Critical response

Evan Minto of ''

Otaku USA ''Otaku USA'' is a bimonthly magazine published by Sovereign Media, which covers various elements of the "otaku" lifestyle (such as anime, manga, video games, cosplay and Japanese popular music) from an American perspective. The issues were acc ...

'' found ''A Certain Scientific Accelerator'' lacking an "establishing exposition" and noted its "confusing starting point" but commended Yamaji's "comfortable" handling of action scenes. Theron Martin of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

rated the first episode of the series' anime adaptation 4 out of 5 stars, describing the overall production "at least... impressive" despite his concerns with Kamanaka and Sugihara due to their previous works and the show a "sharp enough addition to the franchise that... should not disappoint any established fan of the franchise".

Notes

References

External links

* at

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Certain Scientific Accelerator 2019 anime television series debuts A Certain Magical Index Anime spin-offs ASCII Media Works manga Comics spinoffs Crunchyroll anime Dengeki Daioh Funimation J.C.Staff Kadokawa Corporation franchises Muse Communication NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan Seven Seas Entertainment titles Shōnen manga Works published under a pseudonym Yonkoma