とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）/Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 17 (manga review) 

–> Purchase A Certain Scientific Railgun Volume 17 from Amazon.com

NOTICE!!! In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am the adapter for the official English translation of the True Tenchi Muyo! novels, which are also published by Seven Seas.

S P O I L E R S ! ! !

The Story, in Brief  

Kimi and her companions are put into custody at Second Reformatory. The director (Ryouta) turns down a massive and favorable loan offer to repair the facility when the loan representative wants Kimi and other powerful espers in exchange. Meanwhile, Tsurigane escapes and joins a ninja from the Iga Clan, hoping to provoke Oumi. In the hospital, Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten, and Uiharu reunite while recuperating from their injuries. Mitsuko arrives with Wannai and Awatsuki.

In the past during Mikoto’s first year at Tokiwadai Middle School, a vending machine eats her money. A tanned, gyaru senpai (Ruri) educates her on how to deal with this machine. Fellow first year Kiyoshi tells Mikoto about Ruri-senpai. Further, Kiyoshi informs Mikoto about the school’s three big cliques–Sha Clique, the Mikagami Clique and the Hasekura Clique, the later which Kiyoshi belongs to.

During a friendly challenge from HASEKURA Reiri, Mikoto discovers how use her powers to fire a projectile like a railgun. Kiyoshi, Mikoto’s roommate, discovers Mikoto and Misaki do not get along. Elsewhere, a young Kuroko has a chance encounter with Sha and learns a bit about Tokiwadai. Meanwhile, clique members come under attack, causing friction between the cliques. This causes Kiyoshi to be attacked. Mikoto and Ruri show up to defuse that situation.

Unaffiliated Misaki comes under attack, leading Junko to come in for the safe. Misaki becomes angry about the situation as she’s no interest in this. Further, no one trusts her due to her Mental Out ability. Meanwhile, the clique battles start to grow.

Jailbreaker Arc Conclusion

The first order of business in A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 17 is to wrap up what is known as the Jailbreaker Arc. First up is Raifu, the esper who looks helpless, but in fact isn’t. Although short, I found it interesting that the guy who bullied her as a child now councils her, attempting to make up for what he did in the past. I don’t know if he recognizes Raifu or not, but it was a neat moment.

Next up is Director Ryouta. He was an overconfident buffoon at the start of the art. However, when the sleazy money lender attempted to bribe him to gain access to Kimi and others, he refused the money. I really liked that moment.

I feel bad for Tsurigane. The Kouga Ninja Clan sent her on a mission, but the operations on her brain have jacked her up. Now she just wants her former clan leader to behead her. Sadly, I doubt we get a conclusion to her story, which is unfortunate.

Finally, I liked the moment the girls reunited in the hospital and Mitsuko’s group showed up. It is lovely seeing how these friends of gotten closer as a result of this act.

First Year Arc

I have to say, I was a bit confused when chapter 131 of A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 17 started as it did. After realizing this arc is going to be one massive flashback, I wasn’t sure I cared about this story. After all, it introduced a TON of new characters to the mix. There are so many new characters that I was grateful they get ID’d in the omake of the volume. That aside, I had seen images of the scantily dressed Ruri-senpai. She turned out to be more interesting than gyaru fantasy material.

It was interesting to see Mikoto’s first roommate, Kiyoshi. I have to believe that by the end of this arc, she’ll either be dead or otherwise gone from Tokiwadai. And that’s a problem with doing prequel stuff. Mikoto’s never mentioned Kiyoshi before, but clearly, this girl has some impact on Mikoto. I’m curious to see where things go, but I’m also concerned about Kiyoshi being massively important to the story due to the prequel factor.

We get to see the first time Misaki and Mikoto meet in this volume. I can understand why Misaki hated Mikoto due to what happened to the first Dolly. However, since Misaki is shorter than Mikoto here, it does make their first manga appearance together in chapter 41 feel off. Back then, there was an implication that Misaki may have been older than she seemed due to her size. Now, that’s all gone.

As to this clique infighting, I can’t say I care too much about that. However, the cliques going after Mikoto and Misaki is kind of interesting. Both girls aren’t interested in cliques.

Finally, this volume shows off Mikoto’s first Railgun attack and how she came up with it. The moment fits with Mikoto’s ability to analyze things.

Omake

There’s not a lot of omake materials in A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 17. I mentioned earlier that there are pages dedicated to the cliques and the characters in said cliques who had appearances in this volume. There are also a couple of guest artwork pages. I wish I knew whom these artists were. Finally, there are ads for other Seven Seas titles.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• Kamachi-sensei figured out a way to bring in a young Kuroko into the story. But in reality, her appearance had no bearing on the story. After all, that chapter was more about looking at Cha’s character.
• Speaking of clique leaders, I just have nothing to say about them. As I previously stated, the clique fighting isn’t grabbing me at the moment.
• I also previously lamented the idea of never getting a resolution to Tsurigane’s character arc. And now that I think about that, the same can be said of Raifu. I’d like to see more of her chats with her counselor. Kimi’s arc is done, but still, she’s locked in a padded cell, which sucks. And then there’s Suzuran. Oh well.

In the end, I did like A Certain Scientific Railgun Vol. 17 a fair amount. However, there are still some loose threads from the Jailbreak Arc that I wish could get tidied. Further, a clique war in a middle school doesn’t exactly get my motor running.