A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16
とある科学の超電磁砲T

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Junko meets Mikoto to discuss Gekota stuff. Misaki arrives to tweak Mikoto. This leads to the pair getting into a verbal skirmish. Later, Junko comes to Mikoto and gives her an Indian Poker card as an apology. Later still, Mikoto meets with Saten, who knows all about Indian Poker. As such, the card Junko gave Mikoto should be of a good dream that Junko had.

That night, Mikoto decides to try the Indian Poker card. She has to kick Kuroko out of her bed. Mikoto’s dream from Junko starts off blissfully as the dream world is filled with Gekota characters. However, it turns into a nightmare for Mikto as she’s forced to be Misaki’s maid. Meanwhile, Kuroko is planning to sexually assault Mikoto, but Mikoto’s rejection of the nightmare is interpreted by Kuroko as a vehement rejection of her.

At school, Junko invites Mikoto for tea. However, an unamused Misaki is also there. Junko starts to talk about Indian Poker, but when Misaki tells her to tell Misaki’s clique to not use them, Junko readily agrees. Across the fence from where their tea party is being held, a high ranking Dream Ranker named BLAU is dealing with fans of his Indian Poker cards. When Misaki and Mikoto overhear that he has pornographic dreams of them, the pair team up to end BLAU’s business.

Elsewhere, Uiharu and Kuroko investigate a treasure hunting app, which accurately predicts when accidents will happen. They stake out the next accident site. Initially, it seems a bust, but then an accident happens and Kuroko has to save some folks. Kuroko teleports to a location with a vantage point of the area and finds a young boy. He (Shaei) confesses to being involved in the creation of the app, due to his abilities. He wants someone who can alter the tragedies he foresees.

Thoughts/Review

The hiatus is finally over, and so it was time for me to watch A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16, which brings us into volume 11 of the source manga material. And it was a good start.

Changes to the Source Material

For the most part, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16 was pretty faithful to the source material. The chapters used in the adaptation were 71, 72, 73, and a bit of chapter 74.

• All of chapter 73.5 was skipped. However, this was a filler chapter where MUSUJIME Awaki (the teleporter who battled Kuroko and injured her in the Index series) is hitting on Shaei, implying she’s a shoutacon. So unless it is in the BD/DVD release as an OVA, I wouldn’t expect to see this.
• Mikoto already know Junko in the manga, so there’s no official introduction as there was in the anime.
• Saten’s Indian Poker discussion with Mikoto is much longer in the manga.
• A scene depicting an accident Uiharu and Kuroko were investigating was cut from the anime.

Nothing objectionable in the changes. The one added scene was no doubt due to the hiatus. And the cut scenes were for time.

Mikoto and Misaki

I really don’t understand Misaki’s dislike of Mikoto unless she blames Mikoto for what happened to Dolly. I get that Misaki doesn’t trust people who’s mind she can’t read, but she should know Mikoto is OK. (Actually, I think she does know this, but just chooses to tweak Mikoto because it is fun.) I can understand Mikoto’s dislike of Misaki.

That said, the two really are a dynamic duo. As Junko realized in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16, when Misaki and Mikoto work together, they could be master criminals if they wanted. And it was hilarious seeing them work together to take out the Dream Ranker who was going to sell pornographic Indian Poker cards featuring Misaki and Mikoto.

A New Case

I don’t remember how Shaei’s abilities, shown in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16, fit into the overall Dream Ranker arc. But I do like how Uiharu and Kuroko work together as partners investigating things. It has to be pretty tough for Shaei to have an ability that allows him to foresee bad things that are about to happen.

Anyway, since I can’t remember how the manga story went (I haven’t reread the Railgun manga in a very long time), I’m looking forward to being reminded of how things go.

Comedy Fun

After the darkness of the Daihasei Festival Arc, it was nice to see more comedic elements in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16. Some of this was with Misaki and Mikoto, though the anime didn’t capture Misaki’s disdain for Mikoto at the tea party the way the manga did. That aside, their rivalry is still entertaining and humorous.

In addition, I did find Mikoto’s use of Junko’s Indian Poker to experience her dream to be hilarious. For Junko, the dream is a lovely one. For Mikoto, the part with Gekota was lovely, but being Misaki’s maid was a nightmare. But it made me laugh.

Finally, I got a laugh at Kuroko’s rejection.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 16 was a fun episode to start the Dream Ranker arc. I’m glad this series is back on air. I am NOT happy to have my eyeballs assaulted with bloody “Sissy” and “Miss” for every other Japanese honorific used.