English Dub Season Review: A Certain Scientific Railgun T

The last of the recent batch of “A Certain Magical Index” shows and spin-offs has come to an end and with it probably the last we’ll see of this surprisingly fleshed out world for the foreseeable future. All in all, it has been quite the mixed bag. The third season of the main series, Index, ended up a certified hatchet job of nine light novels, while the first season of a new spin-off based on the character Accelerator ended up stretched out and a different sort of mess. But the third season of A Certain Scientific Railgun has definitely proven to be the strongest in both production value and writing. Maybe it was from hindsight of seeing how Index 3 and Accelerator were received or maybe having over an extra year of prep time allowed them to polish things more, but for whatever reason, Railgun T, ended this string of new installments with a bang.

Whereas the previous two seasons would opt to adapt one manga arc and then spend the rest of their time on filler, this season adapts two: the Daihasei Festival arc, which acts as an alternate perspective of an arc in Index (much like the Sisters arc last season), and the Dream Ranker arc, which is a completely unique idea for the spin-off but overlaps with other Index arcs here and there. Of the two, I would say the Daihasei half is the stronger one and may actually surpass the arc from Index. While both begin with sports festival shenanigans, Railgun’s side of it quickly unfolds into numerous twists, turns, and conspiracies, all of which keep the viewer on their toes and culminates in several awesome battles that showcase the strengths of everyone involved. The Dream Ranker arc, while not terrible by any means, ends up feeling very scattershot with its focus, beginning with a few fun vignettes having unlikely pairs of characters looking for cards…until that’s basically jettisoned for a rogue AI story that’s only tangentially related. It still caps off the season with a cool battle against a monster robot though, so I can’t complain there.

It’s also been a bit of extra fun watching it as a spin-off, though that may just be a personal thing I like. I have this thing where I like to watch big franchises in chronological order, so it was neat watching episodes of this and Index and seeing how they intersect in the timeline. Though that brings to mind what the exact purpose of a spin-off is meant to be. Arguably, it is to expand on things that the main installment is not as interested in going into or tapping into a popular character and/or concept that is in high demand. Railgun definitely meets these requirements, though as with the inherent downsides of being reliant on outside material, a lot of it only really makes sense by understanding things introduced in Index. And while knowing exactly what some Railgun characters who overlap with Index were doing in the in between pockets of time, I can’t imagine that enhances the experience for many other than weirdos like me.

Still though, it’s a sad feeling thinking about how this might be the last time I talk about something from the Raildex universe for a long time. I was introduced to it back in 2008 back when the first season of Index was just airing and have followed its animated installments ever since, flaws and all. It was exciting to learn there would be more on the way after an eight year wait, but even though it took a little longer than expected and lasted a surprising just about two years to finish, it is now finished. Heck, it’s stunning to think about how much the world has changed in just the year that this season of Railgun began, which made it a real trip to blast through the season again when it took nine months to put it all out. I sincerely hope we see production of either a fourth season of Index or one of its many spin-offs, but it’s been an electric experience following Misaka Mikoto as well. Whether it’s the long awaited New Testament or Railgun F or even Accelerator Season 2, more of this universe couldn’t come fast enough.