とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 11 (manga review) 

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:  

Mikoto’s feud with Misaki continues. One of Misaki’s followers (Harusaki), who also likes Gekota, gives Mikoto an Indian Poker card as a thanks an apology for recent events. Using the card, Mikoto is able to have Harusaki’s dream about Gekota critters, but the dream soon turns into a nightmare where she’s a servant of Misaki. Harusaki arranges for Mikoto and Misaki to have tea together. However, the two still bicker, though their discovery of a black market Indian Poker seller with porn cards of Mikoto and Misaki causes them to ally once more.

Uiharu informs Kuroko about an app that has predictions and recordings of places where accidents are going to happen. Their investigation leads to MIYAMA Shaei, a young boy precognitive who’s abilities can cause blurred images of bad things yet to appear from his camera. Shaei has come to believe that Kuroko’s teleportation ability can interfere with his ability, thus allowing him to save people. Kuroko is able to do just that and begins to work hard saving people from sometimes fatal events. The boy’s abilities are harming his health, but when Kuroko is able to overcome his prediction about the death of his dog, he improves.

Mikoto is shopping for Indian Poker cards with a street vendor. Also there is Kinuhata, who recognizes Mikoto from the time ITEM was sent to stop her. Since Mikoto never met Kinuhata and doesn’t recognize her, Kinuhata decides to not do anything since this is her day off. When the two hear about the Bust Upper card to increase breast size, both grab the card and won’t give it up. When the vendor realizes the two are about to fight, he warns them that damaging the card will cause it to not work.

The girls drop the valuable card, but as the vendor tries to grab it, he messes up his display. They can’t find the card since none are labeled, so Mikoto decides to buy his entire stock. Kinuhata decides to pay for half, so the two go to an Internet/Manga Cafe and crash at the facility’s nap room. However, their Indian Poker dreams end up causing them to angrily make noises and get booted out. They head to a hotel and use the outdoor lounge to sleep. A crow makes off with the Bust Upper card while the girls sleep. Mikoto dreams of a girl who has a strange message and splits in half.

Thoughts/Review:

A Certain Scientific Railgun vol. 11 is mostly a lighthearted, filler volume. However, I get the feeling that the Indian Poker thing may play a larger role in the story to come.

The Indian Poker card that Harusaki gave to Mikoto is the funniest part of the manga to me. Harusaki clearly likes Mikoto as a friend and the two share a love of Gekota. So her gift of the Indian Poker card had no malice. And until Misaki showed up in the dream, Mikoto had the time of her life. So it is funny to see Mikoto forced to serve Misaki as a maid.

On the other hand, it is kind of sad that Harusaki would be happy with that kind of life. But, to each their own I guess.

Another nice humor moment is the tea party with Mikoto, Misaki, and Harusaki. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Misaki with such a dour look before. 😆

Still, despite their rivalry, the two really are a good team, as witnessed again when they combined their powers to take down the Indian Poker dealer with pornographic dreams of Mikoto and Misaki.

It is also humorous to see Mikoto pair up with the super Kinuhata. Until now, we haven’t seen members of ITEM not at work, outside of some of the 4-koma comic strips from an earlier volume. So until this volume, Kinuhata was just a girl who could take a bullet without being hurt and said “super” a lot as part of her normal conversation. So I like that we get to see a more human side to the character.

Also thanks to Kinuhata’s part in the manga, we got to get a glimpse into life at ITEM. We get to see they have a male member who acts as errand boy (or so it seems). A conversation Kinuhata has with Frenda about Frenda’s growing bust size has Frenda mention a sister. And though we already knew that Shizuri is a sadistic so-and-so, the fact that she beats targets to a bloody pulp death gives her an even scarier personality.

While Mikoto and Kinuhata pursued Indian Poker cards to no success, I found it interesting that Misaki told Harusaki to not use them. She seems to know more about these cards than she’s letting on.

Add to this that Mikoto’s final dream with an Indian Poker card caused her to not become someone else, but rather be visited by a strange girl. I’m not sure what the girl is attempting to communicate to Mikoto. I don’t know what the symbolism is about the girl tearing in half. That certainly was freaky.

The Indian Poker stories were broken up by Kuroko’s and Uiharu’s adventure with the precognitive kid. I’m not sure if he’ll have some greater role in the story or not, but I’m glad Kuroko was able to help him.

The second funniest moment of the manga came from a filler chapter (73.5) about Shaei. This brought in A Certain Magical Index character MUSUJIME Awaki to the Railgun manga, though she’s unnamed. I kinda remembered her from the Index anime, so I looked up her name. She’s the one who severely injured Kuroko and caused her to be in a wheelchair.

Regardless, Awaki being revealed to be a shoutacon just cracked me up for some reason.

There were a number of Index characters that made cameos in this volume of the Railgun manga, including Index. Sadly, though I recognized many, I couldn’t name them without looking them up.

One thing that is clear from A Certain Scientific Railgun vol. 11 is the growing need to know what is going on at the same time in the Index side of the story. The Railgun manga may focus on Mikoto and company, but it is still just used to fill in gaps from the main Index story (such as happened in the Sisters arc) or tell other stories that have no real impact on the Index story. As such, I’m getting the Index manga (I have reasons I won’t buy the Index light novels) and see how much of the gap I can bridge.

I am struck by the lack of 4-koma comic strips in this volume. I need to reread the other manga volumes, but I seem to recall some volumes having quite a few of these comic strips at the end of chapters. There was one at the end of this volume, giving Harusaki her name and explaining her hairdo.

On the Seven Seas side of things, there are a couple of color pages at the front of this volume. Japanese honorifics are used, including sister ones that Shaei uses. I got a chuckle out of his not addressing Kuroko and Uiharu with honorifics after they introduced themselves to him. Kuroko’s reaction is awesome. My point is that the joke wouldn’t really work if full Japanese honorifics weren’t used all the time.

In the end, A Certain Scientific Railgun vol. 11 is an enjoyable volume that is devoid of the darkness that has become common recently in the Railgun manga.