Saturday 27 April 2013

A Certain Scientific Railgun S - Episode 3

Misaka might have ignored and written off the rumours swirling around a Level 5 cloning project carried out within Academy City, but the reality of the matter seems determined to meet her head-on as her chance encounter with Nunotaba Shinobu suggests that there is more than a grain of truth to the stories.

Although Shinobu refuses to say anything specific on the matter beyond the fact that her cash card deployment scheme was set up to stop some experiments, moreover suggesting that Misaka simply isn't strong enough to attempt to do anything about it, our protagonist is still determined (at least outwardly) to laugh off the ridiculous premise.  However, with her concerns nagging at her, some digging into Shinobu's background soon suggests that she's telling the truth and that there is more to this cloning "urban legend" than she might want to acknowledge.


With the location of Shinobu's former place of employment secured, it's time for a little breaking and entering for the Railgun, as she enters the laboratories where it seems that some of these experiments were taking place by using all of her skills and a little fortune to find the deserted lab at the heart of the cloning project.  Lo and behold, the documentation still stored there acknowledges that there was indeed a project to mass-produce Railgun clones - however, with none of those clones sporting anything close to Level 5 powers the project was abandoned.  This is music to Misaka's ears as she heads off home in relief, unaware that the information she has uncovered is only part of the sinister story unfolding within the city...

As its first major story arc continues to build, A Certain Scientific Railgun S certainly feels like a top-notch production - the animation quality and aesthetic of the show is a cut above the original series, and you can't help but feel the confidence of the story-telling as it builds up its premise slowly but surely.  The best is still to come, of course, but three episodes in this certainly feels like everything you could hope for from a second season of this franchise.

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