Thoughts on Railgun S’s “Summer Vacation” TV-Only Upcoming Episodes

I meant to include this in my episode 12 post, but it got pretty long, so I threw it into it’s own post.

A lot of people were causing a fuss over a recent announcement of upcoming episodes being more laidback, lighthearted, and going back to the feel of season 1 of Railgun. Luckily I’ve seen a lot of people agreeing with me on this (not directly TO me, but I read a lot of people with the same thoughts), but at the same time I see a lot of complaints. So for those complaining; stop. Railgun’s anime is not the manga, nor is it Index, and no – it’s not the novels either. I hear a lot of “B-b-b-b-but i wanted to see the next arc! this is so stupid!” kind of lines – if you want to see the next arc then go read the fucking manga again.

Railgun VASTLY OUTSOLD every single other JC Staff series to-date (INCLUDING INDEX) aside Azumanga Daioh.It’s THE SECOND MOST POPULAR THING they’ve ever created – and do you know why? BECAUSE it doesn’t 100% follow the manga, BECAUSE it’s got the perfect mix of serious, action, excitement, drama, AND slice-of-life fun. The chemistry between the characters is crafted and handled better than almost any other and it’s just so enjoyable watching this group of friends go through their lives – the exciting story-focused days and just hanging out or going shopping. It’s this incredibly handled balance that gave Railgun such an incredibly unique feeling to it and such a fucking massive fanbase – not Index and not Index’s fans coming to it (as proven by the sales numbers and other demographic and popularity statistics – Railgun actually brought fans into Index, surprisingly enough, but Index didn’t bring in even a quarter of the fans Railgun got on it’s own). So hey, if you complain about this season having slice of life stuff in it then you’re objectively a dipshit and your opinion is factually fucking stupid.

The point being, indexfan, railgunfan, fan of both – irrelevant. The point I’m trying to get to and doing a poor job of it is this; Railgun’s anime has been out for two fucking seasons. If you’re suddenly upset NOW that the show isn’t sticking to it’s pretty bland-in-comparison manga (still great, but not nearly as good as the show) then you should have quit watching Railgun WAY BACK IN SEASON 1. You should be fucking ecstatic that season 2 managed to stick almost 100% verbatim to the manga frame-for-frame for the past, what, like 12 episodes? Season 1 kept the story elements spot on aside Saten, but half of every episode was light hearted made up stuff thrown in. Stop being such whiny little shitheads and go READ THE MANGA if that’s what you want. The anime WILL get to this arc and that arc – there’s no way this, along with index, will not continue getting season after season for a long time into the future.

By now you should know that the anime is not for the fans of the manga – it’s for the fans of the SHOW. Railgun has a massive following in both anime and manga, but both are treated entirely differently and are not the same thing – Railgun’s TV series is not supposed to be a copy paste of the manga. THANKS to it putting in all that original content in the TV show it got as big as it did, and JC Staff should never fucking forget what makes this show so incredibly special compared to everything else; the character chemistry and the mix of SoL and action. Without those changes Railgun would be missing core elements into making it as good as it is, you’d destroy the cast, you’d destroy their chemistry, you’d make every serious moment of the show worthless because that’s all the show would be, making every horrible thing that does happen not really matter because that’s “the norm”, and so on. It’s all bad. The manga is fine, but without those changes it really does feel, aside the writing being better and Mikoto being such an incredible lead, a lot more “pretty good” and something you can easily compare with other manga rather than “fucking outstanding” and extremely unique.

All I’m trying to say is shut the fuck up. If you don’t like how the TV show handles things then you should have hated season 1, fucking abhorred it, so you shouldn’t even be WATCHING season 2 – fuck off back to index and the manga. Am I saying you shouldn’t be allowed to voice your opinion if you disagree with me? No. I’m saying you shouldn’t be allowed an opinion to begin with if you’ve stuck with the show through a full fucking 26 episode season of 80% tv-only content and now are somehow acting surprised and upset when season 2 is going to add some of the same. You’re clearly fucking retarded. It’s like eating cake and being shocked that the second piece has the same fucking taste as the first.

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As for my personal feelings on the specials – the director mentioned it’ll focus on their Summer vacation and have fanservice. I was a little worried about that last part at first, but thinking about it now I’m not at all. This team making the show has shown that they know the characters very well and are NOT willing to break their personalities for anything. Even in season 1 they managed fanservice filled beach episodes without making it jarringly ecchi or remotely out of character. Biribiri was exactly as you’d expect in the situation, not running around like some of her promo art or recent figures show her – but as the real Mikoto Misaka with her childish tastes and constant avoidance of giving anyone even a small pantyshot. I trust this team greatly for how amazingly they’ve handled both Railgun as a whole AND managing to never let anything slip through that might not be believable for a character, and I doubt they will stop that now.

Of course, we have the clones now – so chances are high that just like in Index they will get molested and show their bodies off just for a cheap way of getting Biribiri ecchi to disgusting fucks who want that, but the actual real deal I’m not worried about. The same goes for the rest of the cast, I highly doubt they will mess this up, they never have in the past. They love these characters as much as the audience does and they handle them with care.

This bikini would be fine for the obligatory beach episode, it’s tasteful and very cute on her – it also suits her character and her personal fashion tastes.

Plus, it’s very worth mentioning to remind people that “fanservice” does NOT mean ecchi shit. Fanservice can mean anything from bikinis to cosplay to wearing glasses when a character usually doesn’t, all the way to meaning things like simply showing a character acting cuter than usual or just seeing more of that group chemistry and development. “Fanservice” is exactly what it sounds like – service for fans, it doesn’t necessitate being fap fodder, hell, even the fact that they mentioned some character “who only appeared in one frame in the manga showing up in the show” IS FANSERVICE because that character BEING here is. Even Misaki in episode 1 was fanservice just by her BEING there.

Chances are we’ll have one beach episode, one festival episode, and after that just the usual day-by-day like in season 1, all of which can be called fanservice, especially when this whole season so far has been so dark and heavy. Seeing the characters being happy and relaxed again would totally be something you could call fanservice.

I’ll be looking forward to it. Episode 1 of this season and that episode of Biribiri playing with the kids and hunting the Gekota pin were two of my FAVORITE episodes in the ENTIRETY of Railgun, including season 1, so I’m actually excited to see more of the fun stuff with this beautiful new art and the incredible directing being shown this season, along with the much more personality-filled and lively Biribiri that we’ve got the lucky chance to see a few times.