Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S Episode 01
とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Mikoto is waiting for her friends and takes off to find them while one of them, Saten, is being chased by a group of older guys trying to hook up with her. Uiharu gets called by Saten, who subsequently tracks Saten by GPS. The level 4 teleporter, Kuroko, then teleports herself and Uiharu to Saten’s location, where Kuroko reveals she’s with Judgement and is going to make an arrest. The leader of the guys isn’t worried since there are more of them than the Judgement girls, but then Mikoto comes, walking through the middle of the guys, talking to her friends. They guys challenge her, so she fries them all and the girls leave.

Sometime later, Uiharu, Saten, and Erii are on the bus headed to Tokiwadai Middle School to meet Mikoto and Kuroko. Saten recounts the story of Mikoto taking out all those guys. Uiharu attributes Saten getting into trouble being caused by her taking the narrow alleyways between buildings.  Meanwhile, Mikoto is waiting in the library for Kuroko when some of Kuroko’s classmates Mikoto is friendly with show up. They notice Misaki, a level 5 telepath with her clique. When Mikoto is alone, Misaki comes to her table, issuing the annoyed Mikoto a polite warning about not challenging Misaki’s title as “Queen” with her own clique. To back her point, Misaki briefly takes control over everyone in the library save Mikoto, who’s ability shields her.

After Kuroko arrives and the two meet the other three girls outside the school grounds, they head to the hospital where Erii’s childhood friend and Child Error student of of Kiyama-sensei, Banri, is still rehabilitating. They meet Anti-Skill cops Yomikawa and Tessou-sensei, who are there to transfer a rather nasty esper to an Anti-Skill hospital. The girls visit the elated Banri, bringing cakes and such. Banri speaks of the difficulties of rehab, but says these visits give her strength. Mikoto has an idea, so getting Kuroko to go along, they invent an excuse to go get drinks and usher a confused Uiharu and Saten out the door, leaving Banri and Erii confused as well.

The girls pass an observation area to the rehab room, where many of Banri’s fellow classmates are working on regaining the ability to walk and such. Mikoto has a brief flashback to her own childhood, then tells the others her plan to give Erii a present in a bouquet of flowers. However, she left the present in the hospital room. Realizing this, she panics and wants Kuroko to use her abilities to help get the gift back. At the same time, Yomikawa and Tessou head up to the prisoner’s room, only to discover that two others, dressed as hospital workers, have smuggled him out, thus starting a firefight.

The alarm in the hospital sounds, so Kuroko and Uiharu go to investigate it, but not before Kuroko asks Mikoto to not get involved. Meanwhile, the men have taken Erii hostage to try to escape to the roof. Mikoto and Saten return to Eri’s room, where they discover Yomikawa with a drawn weapon. After learning of Eri’s abduction, Mikoto uses her power to head to the roof and prevents them from escaping in a helicopter. The thugs throw Eri out, so Saten and Mikoto have to rescue her, then have to be helped by Kuroko. After learning that Eri’s present is on the helicopter, Kuroko teleports to a spot in the path of the helicopter, where she blows the main rotor off, causing the helicopter to crash. However, Kuroko teleport all off for arrest before it crashes. Afterward, the girls regroup in Banri’s room, where her gift is the sailor uniform of Uiharu’s and Saten’s school.

Thoughts/Review:

Ah, Railgun is back, meaning more awesomeness from Mikoto and even Kuroko as well as the others. ^_^

The first Railgun anime took the opportunity of not only adapting the Level Upper story arc from the original manga, but also saw Kamachi-sensei draft stories to expand and provide additional stories for that anime series (thus making them canon). What was avoided was the Sister’s arc, which I understood at the time was due to the fact that this story had not been completed in the manga. I’m told that it is now, so I’m REALLY hoping that this series does cover that story arc and leaves plenty of time to do so. Considering the OP played at the end, I think that will happen, though possibly changed so that Kuroko and the others play a bigger role rather than Mikoto doing things solo, as she did in the manga.

Misaki’s star eyes harken back to Asuka from the classic Urusei Yatsura. While I’ve seen the effect used to accentuate an emotional response, I really haven’t seen it used as a permanent eye fixture except in Urusei Yatsura (I’m sure there are other anime/manga titles with star-eyed characters but I haven’t seen/read them).

Mental Out is a weird but dangerous ability that Misaki has. Telepathy at that level can be quite dangerous, as one who followed the X-Men comic book many, many moons ago knows.  The weird part is that she seems to need a remote control in order to control other people. Surely, she wouldn’t need such crutch, but who knows. I don’t remember her being seen in the manga yet, but then the U.S. version is still in the middle of the Sister’s arc.

(As an aside, I’m informed that this confrontation between Misaki and Mikoto is in the manga in volume 7.)

I like the continuing story of Banri, whom the manga dropped after the Level Upper story (in a desire to keep the main story moving ahead). The fact that she’s going to be eventually attending Sakugawa Middle School is pretty cool. ^_^

Aside from the obligatory character re-introductions, the story of the criminals busting out one of their own from the hospital also allowed for the re-introduction of Mikoto’s signature attack. Doing a free fall and nailing the main rotor while upside-down may be a tad bit much, but this is Mikoto, who’s cute and awesome, so I (and I’m sure most other fans) let it slide. ^_^

So, a fun re-introduction into the ESP half of Academy City (which is the more interesting side than the magic half) and our main characters.  I’m looking forward to more.