The first season of the Japanese animated television series ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'', which is based on the manga of the same name, follows the third Level 5 esper in Academy City named

Mikoto Misaka is a fictional character created by Kazuma Kamachi and first illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura. She is a major character in the ''A Certain Magical Index'' light novel series and the main protagonist of its manga spin-off series ''A Certain Scie ...

. Produced by

J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...

, the series was directed by

Tatsuyuki Nagai is a Japanese anime storyboard artist and director. He made his full directorial debut in 2006 with '' Honey and Clover II'', after which he had directed 2007's '' Idolmaster: Xenoglossia'', 2008's ''Toradora!'', 2009's ''A Certain Scientific Rai ...

from a series composition written by Seishi Minakami.

Rina Satō is a Japanese voice actress with hundreds of television and video game productions, many multi-year, and is active in film and as a singer as well. She won the Best Lead Actress Award at the 8th Seiyu Awards. Satō has been appearing since 2003, ...

stars as Misaka, the character she previously voiced from ''

A Certain Magical Index is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura, which has been published by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint since April 2004 in a total of three sepa ...

'' (2008), alongside

Satomi Arai is a Japanese voice actress from Saitama Prefecture. She married voice actor Yoshimitsu Shimoyama is a male Japanese voice actor from Kanagawa Prefecture. He revealed himself as Satomi Arai's husband, having married since 2008 and had a son in ...

Aki Toyosaki is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Tokushima (city), Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture. She had her first major voice acting roles in 2007, voicing Amuro Ninagawa in ''Kenkō Zenrakei Suieibu Umishō'' and Su (Shugo Chara!), Su in ''Shug ...

, and

Kanae Itō is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Nagano Prefecture. Biography After graduating from high school, Ito attended thAmusement Media Academyin 2007. She was a member of the groups and , before they were disbanded between December 16, 200 ...

, with

Atsushi Abe is a Japanese voice actor and narrator represented by Ken Production. Some of his major roles include Toma Kamijo in the ''A Certain Magical Index'' / ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' series, Kukai Soma in ''Shugo Chara'', Moritaka Mashiro in ' ...

reprising his role as

Toma Kamijo is a fictional character created by Kazuma Kamachi and first illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura. He is the main protagonist of the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' and a major character in its manga spin-off series ''A Certain Sci ...

. In March 2009, an anime adaptation of Motoi Fuyukawa's manga series was announced, with Nagai and Minakami joining the staff in June. ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' aired in Japan on October 2, 2009, consisting of twenty-four episodes, and concluded on March 9, 2010. A second season was announced in October 2012. __TOC__

Episode list

Production

Development and writing

In March 2009, a flyer announced the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation of Motoi Fuyukawa's

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series ''

A Certain Scientific Railgun is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Motoi Fuyukawa, which began serialization in the April 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' ''Dengeki Daioh'' magazine. The manga is a spin-off of Kamachi's ''A Certa ...

''. The final episode's ending of ''

'' (2008) confirmed that the series was greenlit. In June 2009,

joined the staff at

as the director, along with Seishi Minakami as the series composition writer and Yuichi Tanaka as the character animation designer.

, the voice of

, revealed that the series would explore her character's daily life and her interaction with other characters aside

, the main character of ''

'' franchise. The series would also explore the science side since ''Index'' mainly focused on the magic side. With the ''Railgun'' series,

, the voice of

Kuroko Shirai The following is a list of characters from ''A Certain Magical Index'' light novel, manga and anime series, and its side-story manga and anime series titled ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' and ''A Certain Scientific Accelerator''. The series pri ...

, hoped that her character and Misaka would have more interaction than what they had in ''Index''.

Casting

In June 2009, Satō, Arai, and

were confirmed to be reprising their respective roles from ''A Certain Magical Index'' as Misaka, Shirai, and Kamijo, along with

as Kazari Uiharu and

as Ruiko Saten.

Music

Maiko Iuchi is a Japanese composer and arranger. Much of her work is for video games and anime. Biography Iuchi was born in Hiroshima. She learned piano and percussion from a young age. As a high school student, she performed as a drummer in various band ...

was revealed to be composing the series in August 2009, after previously doing so for ''A Certain Magical Index'' (2008). For the first fourteen episodes, the opening

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

is " Only My Railgun" by

fripSide fripSide is a Japanese pop and trance duo originally formed by composer Satoshi Yaginuma (Sat) and singer Nao in February 2002. History In a 2008 interview, Satoshi said that he was a fan of TM Network and its member Tetsuya Komuro in his elem ...

, while the ending theme music is by

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence ...

. A special ending theme music, titled "Smile: You & Me" by Elisa, was aired on episode 12. From episodes 15 onwards, the opening theme music is "

Level 5 Judgelight "Level 5 Judgelight" (stylized as "LEVEL5 -judgelight-") is a Japanese single by the pop and trance duo fripSide, which was released by Geneon Universal Entertainment on February 17, 2010. It is used as the second opening theme music for J.C.Staff ...

" by fripSide, while the ending theme music is "Real Force" by Elisa.

Marketing

In August 2009, the official website of ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' was launched, and a promotional video for the series was released. Satō, Arai, Toyosaki, and Itō attended a stage event at in October to promote the series.

Release

Broadcast

''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' began airing in Japan on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

on October 2, 2009, on

Teletama abbreviated TVS, doing business as is a Japanese fee-free terrestrial commercial television broadcasting company headquartered in Urawa-ku, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Its intended coverage is Saitama Prefecture but with some s ...

Chiba TV , doing business as , is a Japanese commercial terrestrial television broadcasting company headquartered at 11-25 Miyako-chō 1-chōme, Chūō-ku, Chiba serving Chiba Prefecture but spill-over is received in the neighbouring prefectures. It is a mem ...

MBS MBS may refer for: People * Mohammed bin Salman (born 1985), crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia * Mohan Bikram Singh (born 1935), Nepalese politician Places * MBS International Airport (IATA code: MBS), Freeland, Michigan, US * Mari ...

, and tvk on October 3, on AT-X on October 5, and on CBC on October 7. The season was also broadcast on

Funimation Channel Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

in the United States in 2013.

Home media

Geneon Universal Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. Th ...

released eight

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

volumes of the series in Japan starting January 29, 2010. Each volume contains a bonus novel written by

Kazuma Kamachi is the pen name of a Japanese author who has published over 100 light novel volumes. He is best known for the creation of the ''A Certain Magical Index'' franchise which, as of 2019, has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has been licensed ...

titled ''A Certain Magical Index SS: Kaori Kanzaki'', which follows one of the most powerful Saint named Kaori Kanzaki. The fifth volume is bundled with an episode of the bonus anime ''Much More Railgun''. In December 2016,

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

added the series to their catalog.

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

released the series in Japan on March 24, 2022, while Muse Asia began streaming it on their official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel on May 13.

Reception

Critical response

Theron Martin of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

graded ''A Certain Scientific Railgun'' 'B', feeling that it was a "fun and engaging series that effectively mixes comedy, action, and some more serious elements and can stand plenty well on its own". He lauded the cast and lack of "preachiness" that ''A Certain Magical Index'' became the "biggest downfall". Ian Wolf of ''Anime UK News'' gave the series 8 out of 10, finding it "funnier" than ''Index''. Despite praising the creative team for getting the right balance of humor, he criticized the music, "badly written" plots, and villain that was "stereotypically evil rather than anything more subtle".

Accolade

Satomi Arai was nominated for Best Actress in Supporting Roles at the

5th Seiyu Awards The 5th Seiyu Awards ceremony was held on March 5, 2011 in Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan a ...

for her role as Kuroko Shirai.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Certain Scientific Railgun (season 1), A 2009 Japanese television seasons A Certain Magical Index A Certain Magical Index episode lists