To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - Anime-Only Q & A
 

This thread is for those of you with questions about the To Aru Kagaku no Railgun anime or manga. There are many questions that don't need a whole thread to discuss them. A simple practical answer straight from the anime or manga without any speculation can solve these connundrums. If someone has such a question about To Aru Majutsu no Index which can be solved by answering with facts from an official source, then please ask that question here.

Please don't post in this thread unless you are asking a question or answering one. Please remember that it only takes 1 person to answer a question. And don't speculate! You can only reply with cold, hard, merciliessly unforgivable facts. If you have to speculate, then please just tell the querrant that no answer is known, but here are some facts that might help him make up his own mind.


If you have a question about the Railgun manga, please go here instead

---

Make sure you use spoiler tags if your question is about the anime, manga, or any non-anime source. Untagged spoilers are risking a ban. There are two ways to create clearly marked spoiler tags, as shown in the following:

The easy way: By simply clicking on this icon which can be found in the Quick Reply or Reply to Thread template. This is how I create spoiler tags.

or

The macho way: By using those uber vB codes as shown in the following...

Spoiler Tag Example

[spoiler=title, i.e. your reason for the spoiler tag]Don't forget to use a title for the spoiler![/spoiler]

...becomes...

Spoiler for title:

Don't forget to use a title for the spoiler!

The anime is going to follow the manga, which is the spin-off of the novel focusing on Mikoto. The story is based off the novels a bit, but there is a lot of original material.

So presuming that the show is going to follow the manga, will a potential viewer need to know stuff from Index to follow Railgun?

Reading Index can get you familiar with Mikoto, her science side of the city, and a few other characters; however, it's not necessary to read Index just to fully understand Railgun.

Really? I don't think you'll need to have read any Index at all to understand Mikoto... now Touma, on the other hand, may have some things happening which might be slightly confusing for those who haven't watched Index.

just wondering what the word biri biri means in japanese

im under the impression it means shock(er), but is it an actual noun kind of deal? or like how people go 'moo' for a cow kind of deal (forgot what this type of word is called when it mimics a sound)

It's not really a word per se, its more of a sound effect for electricity. So it's kind of like our 'bzzt.' Though since 'That bzzt bzzt girl' sounds silly, the subbers and scanlators take a bit of liberty with the translation.

ah that makes sense thanks

also, just wondering how imagine breaker is able to stop a rail-gun type attack:

firstly touma has to be able to see and react to the attack to counter it right? (else would lose his arm like with the alchemist dude) so how is he able to defend against an attack that moves at the speed of light. i guess he can guess to trajectory but i mean, misaka could like pretend to aim for his face, then aim at his foot or something

second, i get that touma is able to counter anything magic and scientific, but the 'scientific' part of railgun's attack is the actual acceleration, so him being able to stop an attack is no more different than stopping a bullet from a gun (which i think he can't do). can someone explain this? iirc railgun likes to accelerate coins as an attack too

^ Spoiler
That needs to go in the Index Q&A.
You can also read the discussion http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=80605

Edit: Keroko beat me to it...
Spoiler regardless

Tagged for spoilers, thanks Blue.

ah that's cool, never noticed that thread, thanks for the help

Ah yes i remember that debate.
There were a lot of Bad memories & arguments that i just want to forget.....Let's us never mention this again.



But the bigger question is if Railgun will animate that scene just like it was in Index or in the Railgun manga.

Whatever happens, there's going to be a huge debate on how they animate that particular scene in Railgun.

My opinion is going to be quite simple: If they animate that scene, then obviously it wasn't a 'mistake' and the author of Index agrees its possible.

So this isn't the beginning of the series, but a spinoff? Ok, then, what's the beginning, or, where should I start with this series?

Yeah it's a "spin-off", but it's completely independent from the original Index, meaning you don't really need to watch anything prior to this one to enjoy or understand it. This show is connected with Index only via the characters and settings, but there are no real plot points tying the two together; however, if you really want to start from the beginning, then you can start with To Aru Majutsu no Index..

There are some bits that won't make sense (mostly Touma wandering around talking about what's going on with him at the time), but they won't make sense to Mikoto either so it's not really relevant to the plot.

And it's only one or two scenes anyway, so there really is no 'right' series to begin with.

Alrighty...i remember watching like 3 episodes of to aru majutsu no index...and then i stopepd watching. People said it kept getting worse and worse?

Anyway, how is this new season/how is it connected to the previous one? And do i need to watch the first one to watch this one? Was the first one even enjoyable?