A Certain Scientific Railgun T 02
とある科学の超電磁砲T

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

KONORI Mii pays Kuroko a visit in hospital as a friend and Judgement senpai. Meanwhile, Misaki gets shown up in the Daihasei Festival opening ceremonies by Gunha. Later, Saten and Uiharu are at the food stand area. Uiharu gets food while Saten talks about the latest rumor, Shadow Metal. Shadow Metal is supposedly created by so many espers using their abilities. They are joined by the wheelchair bound Kuroko, who’s not happy with Saten getting caught up in yet another wild rumor.

Back at the event, Mikoto and Mitsuko line up for the three-legged race. Since all of the participants are epsers, the pair are immediately put at a disadvantage. However, they manage to overcome this, save a child, and still win the event.

Back at the food stall area, Saten helps a young woman having phone troubles. The girl appears to recognize Saten. Saten finds the young woman familiar, but lets it go. She’s contacted and revealed to be part of MEMBER. Saten and Uiharu encounter Mikoto, who’s desperate for a change of clothing. Mikoto’s mom shows up, so naturally, Saten and Uiharu spill the beans on a boy she hangs out with.

Elsewhere, Maaya and Wannai discuss the possibility of using their powers to fight. They are impressed by Mitsuko’s ability to bravely stand up to a bunch of males. Meanwhile, Mikoto has taken off to get into a clean outfit. However, her absence has caused a stir. One of the Imouto clones is mistaken as Mikoto and given an outfit to participate in the next event. However, another member of MEMBER is on the other side, waiting to spring a trap.

Thoughts/Review

And so we come to A Certain Scientific Railgun T 02. It’s a shame that the awfulness of the subtitles kills a lot of the enjoyment of this adaptation for me.

Adaptation

Because the Railgun anime series has played fast and loose with the source materials at times, I wasn’t sure how they’d treat this new anime series. However, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 02 had a fairly accurate adaptation. There were some tiny shifts in things, such as Misaki having her purse taken at a different spot in the anime than in the manga. And at the end of the episode, Baba is immediately revealed to be part of MEMBER.

However, I found these modifications to be insignificant. Everything else was pretty spot-on, including the announcers for the three-legged race.

Although I’ve read the source manga, I don’t remember a ton of details. So though I remember some things that happen, I don’t remember everything. But I do plan to continue comparing the anime to the source manga.

FUNimation

Gotta love these stupid subtitles. In an amazing, “not at all lazy” decision, pretty much all honorifics are changed to “Miss” (or “Ms.” if they aren’t sure if the woman is married or not). That’s right, whether it is -sama, -san, -senpai, or -sensei, it’s all the same. That is, when the honorifics are acknowledged at all. And naturally, any -chan instances can be ignored and not at all be lazy. ‘Cause, these aren’t literary devices in the original Japanese. Oh wait, they are. 😑

Of course, there’s the bloody awful exception to the “Miss” rule. And that’s the “makes me want to claw my eyes out” modification of “Oneesama” to “Sissy”. 😑 It really makes me glad that the Seven Seas adaptation of the source manga was done right.

And yet for the life of me, I cannot figure out why in this bloody “localization” effort, the subtitles retain the Japanese naming conventions. I approve of that, but it makes no sense. Also, the term tsundere wasn’t translated. Again, I approve of that, but it makes the bleeding obsession to obliterate Japanese honorifics even stupider.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• I always loved Mikoto’s mom’s entrance to this story. And I will say I’m glad “Mama” wasn’t changed to something else.
• Kuroko’s wrath over Saten getting caught up in another rumor made me laugh. It was somewhat funnier in the anime adaptation than the source manga.

In the end, there’s not a lot to A Certain Scientific Railgun T 02. However, that’s because the episode is designed to set up the larger story to come. Its just a shame the subtitles are they way they are.