Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S Episode 03
とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）S

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Shinobu’s remark on Mikoto being the “original” causes Mikoto to recall the rumors going around about a cloning project as well as Saten’s remarks on having seen someone who looked exactly like Mikoto. After Shinobu punishes Mikoto for not using proper respect to a high school student, Shinobu explains that her scattering money cards was to try to bring some experiments on Mikoto’s clones to a halt by having areas not covered by cameras filled with civilians. Shinobu decides to destroy the evidence she has in this abandoned building by burning it, which starts a greater fire. She leaves Mikoto to save the unconscious Skill-Out persons before fleeing the scene herself.

Mikoto decides to investigate this herself and hacks into Shinobu’s school records, discovering Shinobu was a genius in biopsychology and even at a young age, worked at Yamashita University Hospital, where Mikoto had her DNA mapped as a child. Mikoto buys some civilian clothing and checks into a nice hotel to change before doing more investigating. Meanwhile, Erii depresses Saten by revealing that she’s found more money cards than Saten had. Uiharu returns to the room, where they then have a late night snack, during which Saten talks about having met someone that looked like Mikoto.

Elsewhere, Kuroko has had to cover for Mikoto’s absence, so to reward herself, she has her way with her “oneesama’s” giant teddy bear. While this is going one, Mikoto heads to Higuchi Pharmacology, where this clone research is supposedly going on. Using her abilities, Mikoto is easily able to sneak in and make sure security cameras and sensors don’t detect her. A guard on patrol nearly catches her, but Mikoto uses her abilities on a security bot to make it go haywire, distracting the guard. The alarm goes off, panicking Mikoto, who leaves the scene.  While she frets, the patrolling guard learns that the alarm going off was an accident, caused by an authorized visitor who’s there to delete data.

Mikoto accesses a terminal and is able to restore some previously deleted data to discover that in fact, her DNA was used in the hopes of creating a clone force of level five Electromasters identical to Mikoto. However, the project was deemed a failure since most of the clones could only reach level two and only a few could reach level three, but no further as confirmed by the orbiting supercomputer Tree Diagram.  Relieved to learn the the program was canceled, Mikoto decides that what was done was done and returns to her dorm. However, a clone of Mikoto, calling herself Misaka, shows up with the guard to delete the data in the computers.

Thoughts/Review:

For the record, this episode adapted chapter 19 of volume 4, with the stuff regarding Kuroko, Saten, Uiharu, and Erii being the extra material added.

I love how this anime is being faithfully adapted from the manga, at least so far. One of my problems with some anime adaptations is that the anime production team feels a desperate need to put their own stamp on things. So, stories get modified a bit which makes them weaker than their manga sources. Thus far, that hasn’t happened yet.

To fill out the episode, having Kuroko “assault” Mikoto’s giant teddy bear while crying, “ONEESAMA!” was wrong, but I couldn’t help but laugh just the same.  While this is an addition to the original manga story, it doesn’t change the manga story. Instead, it just puts in an element to let us know what Kuroko was doing to cover for Mikoto’s unauthorized absence and Kuroko’s subsequent “reward” for herself.

As to the late night get together at Uiharu’s and Erii’s room, again, this was not in the original manga, but it doesn’t change the manga’s story. Oddly enough, despite the fact that it too is a side tale and changes nothing to the main story, I liked it. Maybe it was Uiharu’s purchasing Strawberry Oden. *lol* It was a nice way of giving Uiharu and Saten face time, since they are mostly absent from the Sister’s arc in the manga.

One thing I did notice was that in the anime, Mikoto never addresses Shinobu as “senpai” as she does in the official English version of the manga. It is possible that Seven Seas added “senpai” to reflect Mikoto’s politeness, since in the anime, all Mikoto did was change her form of speech. It is also possible that the original manga had Mikoto use “senpai”, which would be proper to show respect to the older Shinobu.

Normally, I don’t associate the Railgun anime with parodies. As such, it was a pleasant surprise to see a nod to Ashita no Joe when Saten discovered that she wasn’t the best at finding the money cards. I’ve never read that manga nor watched the anime, but the reference has shown up enough in anime and manga that I am quite familiar with it.

Since I already know how this story arc goes, I’ll just wrap this up by saying that I loved the episode. I will discuss the story for those who wish in the comments section. ^_^