A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA Review

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）
A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAKuroko desperately teleports to a location, directed by Uiharu at their Judgment office, where trouble is brewing. However, Kuroko makes it there too late as Mikoto has electrocuted all of the suspects. Since there is a big, adoring crowd, Kuroko takes Mikoto into custody for her own protection while Anti-skill arrives to take charge. As she does, Mikoto has a very uncomfortable flash that she’s being watched. After she and Kuroko leave, Kuroko frees her and Mikoto tells her about the feeling. The two of them meet with Uiharu and Saten at the family restaurant, where Saten eagerly tells them the “Someone’s Watching” urban legend story going around the Internet, something Kuroko dismisses.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVALater, Mikoto runs into Touma and blames him for the feeling she had and attack him, which he repels. He asks why she would think he’s watching, flustering her. She’s about to attack again when the two Anti-skill officers from before show up and put an end to the encounter. Late that afternoon, a weary Mikoto sits with Kuroko at a cafe, revealing her worries. Kuroko thinks it is related to the events of Level Upper and the fact that Mikoto is now even more famous.  Kuroko isn’t worried, but as she speaks, Mikoto again senses the eyes and gets angry, but has no one to target as no one else is around.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAKuroko hooks up with Saten and Uiharu at Saten’s apartment to do some more research on “Someone’s Watching,” where they find a message board with posts about similar events to Mikoto’s, one by true “ojousama,” Mitsuko. Kuroko asks Saten and Uiharu to keep the investigation secret from Mikoto for now. Sometime later, Saten and the weary Mikoto are at the 177th Judgement office, only to find Uiharu and Kuroko are out. Their supervisor, Mii, decides to help Mikoto relieve her stress by taking Saten and Mikoto to the local bath house.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAMeanwhile, Kuroko speaks with Mitsuko and discovers that Mitsuko hadn’t actually experienced “Someone’s Watching,” but reported it for folks who had. While that’s going on, Saten and Mii help Mikoto to relax, but as they leave the bath house, Mikoto’s reality starts to shift and she finds that she is being plagued more and more, day by day, by “Someone’s Watching,” whether at school or at home. Kuroko and Uiharu continue their investigations when Kuroko suddenly has an idea. She has Uiharu investigate it further for her.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAOne evening, an exhausted Mikoto leaves her dorm, but Kuroko was prepared for this as Uiharu and Saten have their own “eyes” on her. Mikoto tracks the “Someone’s Watching” feeling via the effect it has on her electrical power, and flies down a back ally using electricity. She comes upon the two Anti-skill officers she’d previously met and is now confused. Kuroko teleports in, IDing the female officer as JOUNAN Asako, the former Nagatenjouki Academy Power Development Director who’s behind “Someone’s Watching.”

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAAsako throws a stun grenade up, which Mikoto destroys, but it knocks herself, Kuroko, and the male Anti-skill officer down. Asako gets away and manages to commandeer a motorboat.  However, as she makes her getaway down the canal, she comes to an overpass, where Mikoto awaits.  Before Asako can turn around, Mikoto blasts the boat with her Railgun ability, knocking the boat out of the water and onto the bridge. Kuroko teleports in with an umbrella to protect her “oneesama” from the “rain.”

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVAAs thanks, Mikoto gives a very happy Kuroko a massage while buying expensive cakes and deserts for Saten and Uiharu. While the three enjoy their rewards, Uiharu speaks praisingly of Kuroko’s dedication to Mikoto, making Mikoto realize that some of her “being watched” events were in fact Kuroko since “Someone’s Watching” wouldn’t have access to their dorm room or other private places. Thus, she has to punish Kuroko for her perversion.


I guess for those waiting for a second season of the anime, this OVA was a bone tossed to the fans.  As such, it makes sure to capture all of the elements one expects from a Railgun anime, both in comedy and in action (Kuroko’s yuri perversions, Saten checking the panties Uiharu is wearing, Mikoto using her powers, Kuroko using her powers, etc.).

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

The story itself is an interesting, psychological thriller to some degree, with Mikoto sure she is being closely watched, but unable to find the people responsible, much less stop them. Just goes to show that despite her enormous powers and often cocky attitude that comes with it, there are things out of her control, thus her fear felt very real to me. Kudo’s to the writers for bringing this off.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

I was struck by the scene in this OVA where Mikoto was actually shown in class.  I think the closest the anime (and first two volumes of the manga) came was Mikoto having her powers tested at the pool (and in the anime, Mikoto and Kuroko having the clean said pool as punishment).  Not sure why that aspect never came up before since she is a school girl.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

You know, as I see Touma in his cameo role in this episode, I’m reminded that he’s the male lead of A Certain Magical Index, which focuses on the magical aspects of Academy City. While I know that the focus of the Railgun side of things are espers, shouldn’t magic still show up to one degree or other?  After all, both Mikoto and Kuroko (and I think Uiharu and Saten, but I’m not 100% sure about that) show up in Index, so it seems to me that there should be a few meaningful reverse crossovers in future. Just saying.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

Finally, I just wanted to briefly touch on something that I meant to mention in my review of the Railgun TV series, and that’s the not so subtle “green” message here.  Seriously, I laughed out loud when I saw these wind turbines because for a city as massive as Academy City, a few wind turbines mean nothing (to say nothing of how unreliable they are).  Then, there’s the convenience store Mikoto pops into, which is named “Green Mart,” because being “green” is cool and shows you TRULY care (even if you don’t). *_*  But enough of that.

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

In the end, I like the fun of the episode as well as the psychological aspects of the episode, even if it did put Rockwell’s 80s song “Somebody’s Watching Me” in my head. ^_^

A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA

3 Responses to “A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA Review”

  1. I’m glad to see you are looking at this series which I have found along with Index to be quite enjoyable.
    I figured I might answer some of your questions you posed here.

    Firstly, the reason why nobody is in school is because the story takes place for the most part in July (I believe the first few chapters are supposed to take place in the last few days of school before summer break). We see some more school scenes when school restarts in vol 7 of the railgun manga.

    Secondly, one of the main reasons that there isn’t any magic showing up in the Railgun series is that there just aren’t a lot of Magicians in Academy city for various reasons (plus the existence of magic is supposed to be a secret). That said Mikoto does run across a couple magicians over the course of the 25+ volumes of the Index series and does again in two fairly long Railgun ‘side stories’ written by the author and translated online at baka-tsuki (Railgun SS1 and Railgun SS2, which I’m pretty sure you don’t need to have read the index series to read ).

    Additionally there are far fewer Railgun references in Index than vice versa for some reason (Saten hasn’t even made an appearance yet in Index), and Mikoto appears far less than the official artwork would suggest.
    On the other hand reader railgun gets a bit harder from this point without having read the Index series (Volume 4-6 of the railgun manga is basically a big extension of Volume 3 of the Index light novels, but from Mikoto’s perspective)

    Sorry this post is so long! Have a nice day!

  2. Random_Passerby_Number_612 says:

    Actually, Ruiko has appeared quite a few times in Index. The issue is, she only appeared in the illustrations, not the story itself.

    Also, despite having run into several magicians, and even having cooperated with a magic cabal recently, Mikoto still doesn’t believe in something as unscientific as “magic”. She thinks of it as some kind of an advanced technology akin to Academy City’s ESPers.

  3. AstroNerdBoy says:

    I’m glad to see you are looking at this series which I have found along with Index to be quite enjoyable. I figured I might answer some of your questions you posed here.

    Thanks for that. Because of your answers, I decided to go ahead and watch Index. Like Railgun, it will be a series review (I, then II as well as the Index-tan stuff).



    Well, I’m looking forward to watching it. ^_^



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