A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18
とある科学の超電磁砲T

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Saten shows Mikoto the kendama skills she learned from Indian Poker. Meanwhile at ITEM HQ, Saiai is unhappy with her breast size being the smallest of all the girls. She gets angry with male member HAMAZURA Shiage when she things his buying her milk is a jab at her small chest size. As such, she uses her day off to head into town and examine the Indian Poker cards from a Trader.

Mikoto shows up and talks with the Trader. She asks about S-Ranked cards, so he produces one that is supposed to provide a Bust Upper boost to girls. She and Saiai go after the card and accidentally scatter the Trader’s cards so that he doesn’t know what’s what. The two girls agree to split the costs and buy his entire stock. They then head to an Internet Cafe’s nap room for two to try to find the Bust Upper card.

The pair have different bust-related dreams, but find them nightmarish in various ways. As such, they end up making a lot of noise and get kicked out. Mikoto takes Saiai to a classy hotel she’s used, but there are no rooms. However, the girls are allowed to be in the outdoor lounge by the pool. The two continue to use the Indian Poker cards for dreaming, unaware a crow steals one. Mikoto has a strange dream about a weird girl.

After going through all the cards, Mikoto and Saiai are disappointed. Saiai returns to her HQ, where she learns Shiage gave her milk ’cause she’d been complaining about not being taller. Mikoto heads home, but because she slept all afternoon, she keeps Kuroko up all night. The next day, Saten and Uiharu see the girl who got the Bust Upper card, and she has a larger chest.

Thoughts/Review

And so we get a fluffy but fun story for A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18.

Changes from the Source Material

A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18 was adapted from source manga chapters 77 (the second half of the chapter), all of chapter 78, and all of chapter 79.

• Saten has a much longer discussion with Mikoto about Indian Poker in the anime than in the manga.
• The scene with the members of ITEM are depicted as a flashback in the manga rather than a current event, as in the manga.
• The ponytail girl is much more obvious in the anime than the manga.
• Mikoto and Saiai’s scene with the Trader is longer in the anime.
• Mikoto’s dream of being seeing an idol scout is an anime exclusive, sans her having a guitar. I hated this change because it was a way for the writers to have Mitsuko behave in the STUPID fashion they crafted for her in the first Railgun anime. They’ve been forced to do her properly of late, and I guess they hate that.
• Mikoto’s post-festival dream is anime-only.
• In the manga, Mikoto dreamed of being a musician who admired another performer. This was cut from the anime. Further, the anime cut Mikoto’s dream of being a student from the Index side.
• Ponytail Girl’s reaction to getting a fourth card is cut, as is Index’s cameo.
• Mikoto and Saiai have a longer post-dream discussion.
• Kuroko and Mikoto have a longer scene in the anime.

On the whole, I guess I was OK with the episode. But I saw no reason to make the changes that were made.

KINUHATA Saiai

During the Sisters arc in the Railgun manga, I always liked Saiai. I think it was the way she was always SUPER this or SUPER that at things. And while the manga kept the word “super” as the translation for her catchword term “chou” (超), FUNimation/Crunchyroll inexplicably decided to change this to “ultra” ’cause “reasons.” I think the term “super” works better as it adds sass, whereas “ultra” is…whatever.

Nevertheless, I was glad to see Saiai again in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18. I had to look to see why Mikoto didn’t recognize her from the Sisters arc. But it was because the other three female members of ITEM went after Mikoto, leaving Saiai to do other things. So even though Saiai knows Mikoto, the desire to get Bust Upper, combined with it being her day off, meant that what happened in the past stays in the past…for now.

I can’t remember if ITEM shows up again or not in this arc. I’ve purposely avoided going to the manga until after watching an episode, and that’s just for comparison’s sake. Nevertheless, it could be fun seeing other item members interact with Mikoto. And I was glad to see the whole crew get a cameo.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18 with some final thoughts.

• I did remember seeing the weird girl from Mikoto’s dream. Not sure if she’s part of this arc or not.
• I’ve refrained from saying much about FUNimation/Crunchyroll’s craptacular subtitles. While I’ve no problem with some Japanese terms being left untranslated, why couldn’t they leave the bloody Japanese honorifics in? It makes no sense to me.

In the end, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 18 is a fun episode despite some of the changes made to the source material.