A Certain Scientific Railgun T 19
とある科学の超電磁砲T

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Mikoto and Kuroko chat in their dorm room. Later, Kuroko needs Uiharu, forcing Uiharu to break her plans with Saten. As such, Saten goes to the store to get groceries, including a couple of cans of mackerel. Frenda arrives and is distressed about canned mackerel being sold out. When she learns Saten bought the last two cans, Frenda starts following her.

Saten takes pity on Frenda and gives her a can. However, Frenda accidentally destroys it. Saten is displeased, but ends up inviting Frenda over for dinner. Frenda is not happy that Saten is making curry with the mackerel, but after eating, she’s amazed. As such, she promises to return the favor to Saten. The two become friends and text frequently.

Sometime later, Frenda is out window shopping when she notices Saten being kidnapped by pros. She gets her associate Hamazura to drive her to intercept the kidnappers. Frenda rescues Saten and destroys the kidnappers. Yobou, who dispatched the kidnappers over Saten’s obsession for Indian Poker, contacts a shy, high school girl named Yumiya. She’s the sniper for SCHOOL, the organization trying to nab Saten.

Yumiya is upset because she was finally invited by girls from the school to have some fun, and she had to turn it down for this job. She uses her abilities to track Saten and Frenda as the pair head to have more mackerel. She covertly follows them and shoots Frenda in the shoulder.

Thoughts/Review

One thing about A Certain Scientific Railgun T 19 — having just finished reading volume 12 of the manga, the story presented here was fresh in my mind. Which is why when I started the episode, I thought, “What the heck is this?” 😅

Changes to the Source Material

Manga chapters 80 and 81. There were some modifications to the story as told in the source manga.

• The dorm room scene with Mikoto and Kuroko is anime original. I suppose it was added since the actual story is a Saten and Fenda one.
• Uiharu was not present for this part of the story in the manga. Here too, I guess that’s to give Uiharu a cameo in a story that has nothing to do with her.
• Saten’s shopping is slightly extended.
• Frenda didn’t use “foreign” words with Saten in the manga.
• The anime forgoes the flashback approach for Yumiya’s start of her hunt.

Clearly, the additions were just filler since there wasn’t quite enough material to complete the episode. So nothing objectionable there. Further, the anime’s straight forward approach to Yumiya’s hunt was something I preferred.

Saten and Frenda

As I noted in my review of volume 12 of the manga, Saten’s personality makes it so that she can pair up with pretty much anyone and be friends with them. She’s very kindhearted, so takes pity on Frenda twice. And then the two became friend. I loved that so much.

After experiencing Frenda as an enemy for Mikoto to battle, it is nice seeing her in a non-adversarial role. In many ways, this reflects the tragic, jacked up place that Academy City (and subsequently the world) is. Were it not for her esper abilities and skills she was given with explosives, she could have just been a normal, teen girl. Instead, she’s with the mercenary group ITEM, doing who knows what kind of horrible things.

Yumiya

The character of Yumiya is also a reflection of the terrible, tragic, and messed up world of Academy City. At school, she’s just a shy, lonely girl who wants friends. And just as she’s making progress there, her dark side organization, SCHOOL, has her go out on a sniper job. And when she’s on the job, she’s shown to be mentally unstable, but no longer shy. I just can’t help but pity her.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 19 is a good episode, allowing us to see a new side of the villain character Frenda as she befriends Saten.