A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21
とある科学の超電磁砲T

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Kuroko and Saten brief Judgement on the Indian Poker card development. Meanwhile, Misaki “hijacks” Kana-chan in order to get Mikoto’s attention. The two have tea, where Misaki informs Mikoto of a girl named KURIBA Ryoko. This girl apparently invented Indian Poker. However, she was involved in an experiment whereby her body was cut up, then the pieces attached to cyborg parts to create two people. After a time, the human pieces were put back together.

Misaki then asks what would happen if Ryoko’s soul were split when her body was. Misaki then speculates that this soul generation experiment might require Child Errors or even clones. Mikoto negatively reacts to this concept. As such, Misaki proposes Mikoto verify the information she was given. In exchange, Misaki will help protect the Sisters, Mikoto’s clones. Mikoto agrees. Mitori uses Liquid Shadow mini clone to tease Misaki, but also to tell her they’ve found Ryoko.

Ryoko heads out into the night for Misaki. Meanwhile, Ryoko finishes a medical exam and returns to her facility quarters. She’s troubled that she has no memories before her body split experiment. This causes her to blow a hole in the wall and jump out. Mikoto, who’d just arrived, fails to save her. Meanwhile, the institute’s staff are freaking out over what “Doppelganger” just did. Doppelganger heads to a ruined building.

Elsewhere, Mikoto and Misaki, via a possessed property manager, find the real Ryoko. She reveals that she warned the researches Doppelganger would do what it did after discovering it wasn’t human. Elsewhere, a dark group called Scavenger take a job to recover Doppelganger.

Thoughts/Review

Although I have a distaste for dark and depressing things these days, I am pushing ahead to review A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21, which starts a new story arc.

Changes to the Source Material

Source manga chapters 84, 85, 86, and 87 were used to create A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21. One would think that the writers using this many chapters from the manga, a lot of stuff might have to be cut. In fact, all of the manga material remained. But there were some minor modifications to the source material.

• Mitori is shown to be out with Dolly in the anime. In the manga, we only saw her liquid metal mini-clone. However, I liked this little addition as it reminds the audience about Dolly, and shows how much Mitori (and Misaki) care about her.
• The scene with Mikoto getting Kuroko to cover for her is an anime addition. Again, no objections to this addition as it is a natural fit to bridge to Mikoto hitting the town.
• The final scene with Scavenger is longer and has a direct reference to their encounter with Accelerator. In the manga, the group meets, then heads out with no longer discussion with a mystery person via the TV.

A Jacked Up Experiment

Academy City has to be one of the most jacked up places ever conceived. I mean, what kind of jacked up thinking causes a genius, young teen girl to think that cutting her body up in order to construct two, identical cyborgs was a good thing. Further to that, after a year, the body parts are reconnected and the cyborg is made to believe she is the real girl.

I remember reading this story arc in the manga, but it has been so long since I read it, everything in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21 was unexpected to me, even if I afterward went, “Oh yeah, I remember that.” So I honestly have no clue what is going to happen with Ryoko and Doppelganger. However, this notion of dividing a soul is creepy, though I think there was something like that in the Harry Potter franchise.

That aside, as dark and jacked up as this whole thing is, I am interested in seeing where things go. No doubt, Mikoto will end up battling Doppelganger or Scavenger. (Or both.)

Misaki and Mikoto

I’ve previously remarked on the strange relationship Mikoto and Misaki have. At some level, they are friends, even if they can’t admit it. That element came up in A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21. I don’t think Mikoto knows about her clone, Dolly. (Kind of a shame in some regards.) But Dolly is special to Misaki. And we’ve previously seen Misaki secretly take care of a Sister. But for whatever reason, Misaki just likes tweaking Mikoto.

I think Mitori’s assessment about things are accurate. Misaki could have had Mitori infiltrate the facility just as easily as Mikoto. Further, Misaki could have gotten Mikoto involved without mentioning the Sisters. But Misaki did want to know just how much Mikoto cared for her clones. She got her answer, along with frizzed hair.

Misaki and Mikoto work well together. Clearly, Misaki is great at gathering intel, whether through her sources, or through folks she’s controlled. And Mikoto brings the brawn to the fight. But the two like to be tsundere to each other. Also, things aren’t helped by Mikoto’s jealousy of Misaki’s breast size. 😅 However, I do look forward to their continued team up in this story arc.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, A Certain Scientific Railgun T 21 was an entertaining, interesting start to a new, jacked up story arc.