Mikoto, Kuroko and friends beat up some thugs.Warning: some images not safe for work (lol). The yuri is strong with this show.Summary:Somewhere within Academy City, Kuroko is chasing some thugs but discovers they've all been beaten up by Mikoto. Afterwards, Mikoto and Kuroko hang out at a park. Mikoto kicks a vending machine to get a free drink, but Kuroko has to teleport her away when cleaning robots come investigating. Mikoto and Kuroko then return to school for a "System Scan" (physical examination). The System Scan measures each student's special abilities to see if they've improved. Kuroko's test involves teleporting a package a certain distance, and her performance was average and so she's still a level 4. Kuroko is made fun of by a second year student named Mitsuko who states that she'll become Level 5 before Kuroko. Suddenly a big explosion rings out from the nearby pool and this causes Mistuko to fall on her bum. It turns out that Mikoto is doing her test at the pool by shooting railgun coins into the water. After the test in the shower room, Kuroko tries to violate Mikoto and receives a beating for her indiscretions.Kuroko has been used and tossed.This is Kuroko's plans for world domination.At another school, good friends Kazari Uiharu and Ruiko Saiten meet up after classes end. Kazari, a level 1, is a member of Judgement who provides communications support for Kuroko, and Kuroko has arranged for Kazari to meet Mikoto. Kazari is looking forward to meeting the Level 5, and Ruiko, a level 0, is dragged along by Kazari to the meeting. At the restaurant where the meeting is to take place, Kuroko explains that Kazari is a big fan of Mikoto's. Kuroko then tries to go over the plans for the day, but Mikoto grabs Kuroko's notepad and learns that Kuroko plans to eventually drug her and take her to a love hotel. After pinching Kuroko as punishment, Mikoto agrees to meet Kazari. Kuroko teleports into Misaka's lap in celebration just as Kazari and Ruiko arrive outside the restaurant.Even Mikoto has weaknesses.The four girls meet up and Kazari and Ruiko are surprised that Mikoto is rather down-to-earth instead of being haughty and arrogant. The group pick up some flyers about a crepes shop handing out a cute gecko merchandise to the first 100 customers. The other three girls can see that Mikoto is interested and they go to that crepes stand with Mikoto and Ruiko standing in the line-up while Kazari and Kuroko grab seats. It comes to Ruiko's turn at the stand and she happens to get the last gecko merchandise. Mikoto is disappointed, but the disappointment soon turns to happniness as Ruiko gives her the gecko merchandise.Want to try out some acupuncture?While the girls are enjoying crepes, Kazari notices that a nearby bank has its security shutters on. Kuroko and Kazari springs into action, and Kuroko tells Mikoto to let her handle things. A group of three robbers escape from the bank but they are confronted by Kuroko. Kuroko quickly trips up one of the robbers and pins another one to the ground with some spikes, but the third robber manages to run off. Meanwhile, Mikoto and Ruiko are helping a tour guide look for a little boy that has gone missing. Ruiko spots the little boy running into the robber and the robber tries to kidnap the boy. Ruiko runs to the boy's rescue and gets kicked in the face, and that pisses off Mikoto. The robber gets in his vehicle and charges right at Mikoto, but Mikoto sends the car flying with a railgun coin. The robbers are eventually taken away by the Anti-Skills, and Ruiko is praised for her bravery by the tour guide, the little boy's mom, and Mikoto.Yeah, let's cause as much collateral damage as possible.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The denizens of Academy City are back, but of course this is with Mikoto and Kuroko smack dab front and center while Touma and Index are somewhere far off in the background. This is just the intro episode to set up the four important female character, and that's probably why there wasn't much of a plot. The episode was basically a mix of day to day activities by the characters with some random ass-kicking thrown in between, which is not formula for success despite Biri-biri's awesomeness. Hopefully the story will get going in the next episode. There was also a bit much too much of Kuroko's yuri antics in this episode. Once in a while is funny; once every 2 minutes is too much. Besides, I rather see Kuroko kicking ass than trying to molest Mikoto. As for the new characters Kazari and Ruiko, they'll play significant roles in the story, but Mikoto and Kuroko are going hog most of the spotlight regardless. Neither seem to have any cool abilities, but I know that's something that'll play into the first story arc.Overall, the first episode of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun was merely okay as Biri-biri's awesomeness was canceled out by a lack of plot and too much Kuroko. The production quality seems on par with what we've seen from To Aru Majutsu no Index, so the special effects should be pretty decent. I did peek at the first arc of the manga and found the action to be pretty good, so hopefully the anime version will do a good job putting that action on screen. Without Touma and his ridiculous hero speeches, Railgun certainly has the potential to be better than Index, but it's of course way too early to judge right now... unless you are fangzhao.
Read the rest of this entry Entry meta