Certainly, it has happened to all of us at least once in our lifetime and, if you are this deep into this series, it’s obvious that it’s not your first time experiencing this, as we all know what has to be known: Misaka Mikoto is the real deal.
After 7 years of drought, the third installment of the series premiered in January and neither the tremendous drop in production quality observed in JC Staff during the past few years (essentially taking Index III into consideration) nor an enormous hiatus due to a global pandemic could stop Railgun T to deliver.
The third season continues the story in a time where the Daihaisei Festival has begun, focusing as is customary by now, on the “Ace of Tokiwadai”: the one and only Misaka Mikoto, as Misaka and her friends dive deeper into the dark side of Academy City (A.C. for short), facing all kind of dangerous situations where, consequently, both the future of A.C. and their lives are at stake.
Railgun T continues with a storyline loaded with a repertoire of dark, powerful metaphysical and moral symbolism (as it was in the Sisters’ arc) but without backtracking in its goofiness and light-hearted characteristics which has made this show so enjoyable and “easy to watch” during the past years. In addition, when we add the action-packed philosophy that the Railgun franchise has had for the majority of its existence, as well as its quirky and free-spirited pace, we come up with the perfect formula that have given them great recognition over the past couple of years -taking out of the picture that Silent Party arc which was dreadful enough to leave us a sour taste for a bunch of years- and has helped the storyline of the series to get better and better with each season, making a clearer bigger picture of the Toaru universe, especially the scientific one, a.k.a, the one related to Misaka Mikoto and her endeavours.
Speaking about symbolism, Railgun never ceases to amaze me on how they’ve been able to both keep posing topics laden with meaning during the past few years and build on these topics to create an interesting and enlightening story; topics like the true meaning of humanism, the onto-epistemological dualism of body and soul or the paradigm of “the end justify the means”, all this while tempering the impact of their message, taking into consideration there position as a light-hearted show.
What I would like to point out is the subtle difference I’ve noticed in the development of the story, especially throughout the first course of the season. Up until now, I had not seen a particular interest in the writers on trying to make things a little bit more intriguing, nonetheless, this season had a more courageous approach, as they used plot devices such as foreshadowing, making a fool of the viewer (e.g: letting us think that <x> or <y> had good or bad intentions intentionally when it was the other way round) or plot twisting, making the viewer much more attached to the evolution of the story and the characters which participate in it, what, in my opinion, are enough facts to affirm that their storytelling has been taken to a whole nother level.
Another thing that this season has done great is in displaying contrasts properly. Let me explain. Do you realise how difficult is it to mesh two characters that are THAT different (Misaka and Shokuhou) and make them complement each other properly so that the series can go on? And I’m not speaking about power-related complementation, which is quite the easy task -I mean, they’re both Level 5 espers, it can’t be that difficult-, I’m talking about the fact that season T mainly revolves around their interaction, around their synergy -which, by the way, brings a little of life to the anime-, in spite of the circumstance that these two have wildly conflicting origins, personality and history. As a matter of fact, they create a proceeding where Shokuhou has no choice but to place enough trust on Mikoto in order to be able to tell her some of her secrets and indirectly ask Misaka for help.
As a result, we’ve all been witness to a much more organic show, something that was lacking on preceding jobs related to the Toaru universe, which felt much more systematic, somehow more worried on adapting correctly the source material instead of worrying on making a good, complete, entertaining show.
The main cast was as great as ever: Misaka being as badass as she has accustomed us, Kuroko not being as tiring as she is thanks to the notable decrease in “Onee-sama rants” and Saten being her usual self, giving a different point of view in a group so plunged into an atmosphere os esper powers that sometimes forget to live an “joyful, ordinary life”.
Additionally, let’s not forget about the coherent characterisation -at least for once- of side characters such as Kongo, Frenda, the Scavenger crew or even Shokuhou, giving them the proper screen-time and character development, leading to a much more complete series that uses its not-so-valuable characters for something more that comic relief gags (full-time job of Kongo-san until this season) or "damsel in distress" situations for the main cast to shine with their craftiness and might.
Backtracking a little bit, speaking about production and animation quality and knowing what studio was in charge of this season (as it was in s1 & s2), I am quite sure I wasn’t the only one who was in fear of yet again another disappointment after the embarrassing position in which the JC Staff crew have put themselves during the last few years (with magnificent works such as Index III, OPM s2 or the lately Accelerator powerpoint presentation which, as a matter of fact, was alright due to the fact that both Accel.’s character and voice actor are god-tier); however, it’s rather obvious that even JC Staff knows how important the Railgun franchise is for their survival. It's pretty clear that, due to its popularity in Japan and in the Occidental world, the studio has in mind that they are pretty much obliged to get it right, as Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is their spearhead in today’s highly competitive anime-production environment.
For that reason, JC Staff has made sure that the quality of the animation in Railgun T is off the charts, especially taking into account the expectations before the series began airing, knowing all the problems they faced with this anime due to production and pandemic reasons. Fluidity and choreography looked amazing -especially during fight scenes-, sakuga animation was carried out amazingly well (for instance, both openings and that episode 14 climax was just top-notch artwork), camera rotations and 3D movements were executed to perfection, backgrounds were depicted amazingly well, characters were drawn great...hell, even the use of CGI wasn’t creaky at all and led to one of the best animation scenes of the entire series!
By the same token, music has had a leading role in the success of this season. The sound director has done a marvelous job in both the composition -even though some tracks are not new- and the use of music throughout the season, enhancing the different emotions that were on display during different moments, whether it was hyping up the moment when a fight was taking place, magnifying the sense of urgency, intensifying the feeling of anguish...yet, one of the best part of this music section was in both the Openings and Endings (having the first OP in mind while writing this), as fripSide delivers yet again with that “final phase” banger.
Guys, spin-off’s work, and this is a good example of it; Railgun T comes up with a great mix of symbolism, light-hearted moments, great characterisation and action-packed eye-catching sequences that will not cease to amaze you during the whole course of the series; so if you’re not watching Railgun yet...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
“Someone places a hurdle in front of me, and I can’t rest until I’ve jumped over it.” – Mikoto Misaka
