Misaka Mikoto Maniax! [Artbook]

Dengeki put out a special magazine styled artbook of 100 pages entirely dedicated to my only railgun, Mikoto Misaka! My copy finally showed up, so I figured I’d make a short post about this must-have for Biribiri lovers and wonderful addition to my growing selection of magazines with her on the cover. I also really like the “magazine” style they did this in, it’s much more fun and crazy than what you’d get from a normal artbook – it comes off like stuff you’d find in Newtype but 100 fucking pages of it all about one character, and it’s great for that.

It’s got all sorts of stuff at the start that involves me having no clue what’s happening. It’s got lots of text, screenshots all over, and little “points” about her it looks like. I really wish I could read all this, there’s just so much that I’d love to know what it says on every single page. So, this part I can’t really comment on, it is whatever it is.

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As for stuff I DO understand – most of it:

After the start there’s a few pages about Biribiri and Kuroko’s dorm room! It talks about the style of it and shows some full images so you can get a feel of the entirety of the room, rather than just one angle or two. We also see the bathroom the same way – and it’s got a cute little Gekota floating in the tub and her Gekota shampoo and hair treatment.

Previous page has a focus on the room, but I liked this spread for the blueprint.

What’s really cool though is that they give you the blueprint of the whole room, including the bathroom and closets (I forgot they even had a closet) as well! It’s interesting to see the whole layout when we usually only see it from that doorway view or very close on a bed. I’m sure if there weren’t strict Tokiwadai rules, Biribiri’s side of the room would be covered in Gekota stuff.  Oddly, they don’t show the toilet. I’m not into “that” stuff, but I have a feeling there’d be a lot of unexpected Gekota in there – like toilet paper and seat cover and whatnot, but I suppose if they aren’t showing it it’s probably not like that.

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Next we get a spread showcasing what she carries around with her on a daily basis, which includes some girly stuff you wouldn’t expect…and a lot of Gekota you would. It also lists prices, and it’s a quick reminder of just how fucking rich she is because almost all of it is incredibly expensive, just like her $50 boxers. Such an ojou.

-A little folding hair brush : 25,500 yen
– lip balm : 20,000 yen
-Girly mirror : 50,000 yen
-handkerchief : 35,000 yen
-little purse thing full of candies and gekota treats : 70,000 yen and 500 yen for the candies
-Gekota tissue packet : 980 yen
-Gekota bandages : 0 yen
-Gekota coin purse : 1,500 yen
-Gekota phone (her favorite thing of hers, mine too – just after her hair clip) : 50,000 yen
-hairclip : 20,000 yen
-Railgun coins : from arcade
-PDA : 45,000 yen

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After that, we’ve got the Road of Mikoto! I love the way Japan makes everything sound really cute.

Blurring intensifies.

I believe it shows the chronological order of her appearances or what she was doing throughout certain times in Index and Railgun. Kinda cool, better if I understood, as I don’t know a lot about Index or the full universe so it’d be informative for me. Sorry for the bad picture, it’s crystal clear in the book obviously, this was just me moving slightly right as it took the pic.

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Animation Story Digest which is a pretty hefty summary of what’s happened in seasons 1 and 2, lots of text and pics.

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Next up, Mikoto Style, which shows some of her in different outfits and nice artbook style images.

Most of them I have as posters, clear files, and so on. I think the cover art’s full version is especially cute. As much as I feel the Tokiwadai uniform was designed almost entirely to look good on her, she always is so cute without that brown top part and just the white button-up shirt (and untucked!). The only times we really see her in this style that are early on in season 1, while cleaning the pool (also one of the only times she’s shown without her socks in that outfit. Well, really it’s just nice seeing her look any different from her uniform at all, even if only that much, because she’s great in it but it’s always refreshing seeing her in something different.

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We’ve gotten to the best part: the Q&A answered by Mikoto herself, along with cute little reactions from her shown in little bubbles next to her answers!

You can find a full translation of every question here and I’d say it’s very worth reading if you’re a Railgun fan.

I loved all of the Q&A but I’m by far the happiest about finding out her birthday. This is something that’s bothered me for awhile, and I’m glad we finally found it out! May 2nd. I also like that she knows English. It’s full of funny, cute, and interesting stuff about her in all sorts of areas of her life, from questions about Touma (oh no!) to things like how her Railgun works, what age she became a Level 5, and things like if she misses her father and mother! I very highly recommend reading through all the questions and answers to any fans! I was planning on putting and commenting on some of my favorites, but this post actually ended up much longer than I anticipated.

It’s MUCH more fun going through the translated questions AND being able to see her little facial expression for each answer, so you’ll miss out on that for everything but the numbers above unless you buy it.

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Following that we get a look at some upcoming merch, which I have a lot of already preordered. The prior two pages was a big spread of the hose figure as well.

There are some things I haven’t seen up for sale at all though that I’d really like, such as this smaller dakimakura of her in her Gekota pajamas (in part C) along with A which is a cute figure of her and her bag, not incredibly high quality or anything, but very cute. I really wish that shirt was available though, and in a size for someone fat like me, but it never will be. It’s really nice though and an actual shirt rather than a t-shirt, plus has some nice typography on it.

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Lastly there are two full-color pieces of manga.

One seems to be from early season 1 when Kuroko and Biribiri have to clean the pool and Kuroko tries to give her the aphrodisiac, the next is silly about the researchers trying to figure out about her chest and how she’d look in panties. I don’t entirely remember what I’ve read of the manga, I know this scene existed but I feel it was skimmed over and now we get a much more tv-version fleshed out chapter of it, and i feel the panty thing was also there as small jokes somewhere, or maybe it was in an unofficial work I saw them. Anyway, HUGE A4 size and in color! Cute and awesome!

Then there’s a third manga part that’s black and white, done by a different artist that was all silly about Kuroko and Mikoto. The art was familiar, but I’m not sure why.

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Overall, definitely something you should get without any hesitation or worry if you’re a fan of the one and only electric princess.

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