An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Awesome Testament – A Certain Scientific Railgun (Seasons 1-3) Spoiler Review

So, A Certain Magical Index is the kind of series you don’t expect a consensus on. Some people are going to hate that it’s the type of show you can turn your brain off for, others will love it. Some people are going to hate how much effort it goes through to explain every spell and power, others will enjoy the technobabble and mythical references. Some will love the main character as a comedy victim and appreciate his ability to be a badass despite also being kind of a moron, others will despise how he always gets into contrived situations and never understands anything. One thing that most people seem to agree on, though, is this: Mikoto Misaka, aka Railgun? She was pretty cool. Not only is she a spunky, sporty, tsundere middle-schooler with top-tier power (making her fun), she’s also got one of the best and deepest emotional arcs in all of Index with the Sisters arc. And, for her well-deserved popularity, she was granted her own spinoff: A Certain Scientific Railgun.

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Academy City Testament – A Certain Magical Index (Seasons 1 & 2) Spoiler Review

Well, it’s back-to-school time again, and this year we’re going to be looking at one of the biggest schools in Anime, Academy City.

In terms of what’s got shows, Academy City is the setting for three separate shows with seven seasons of material between them: three seasons of A Certain Magical Index, three seasons of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and one season of A Certain Scientific Accelerator. The series as a whole is typically referred to either as RailDex (after Railgun and Index) or Toaru (after the common word translated as “A Certain” in the titles), but it’s also easy to think of them by their common setting.

So, what is the setting and, for A Certain Magical Index, what is the story?

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The Ecchi We’ve All Been Waiting For – Trinity Seven Spoiler Review

So, the “School for supers” archetype that we’ve been looking at this month has a few common elements. For one, the vast majority of them (including shows of the type I’ve looked at before, such as Hundred) have some degree of Harem elements. In a lot of ways, it’s very similar to what you see in the Isekai genre, where the same basic principles that are known to work are remixed in new ways with different trappings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but in the end they develop a long set of expectations and turn out a lot of crowd-pleasing junk food, a good few generally disliked flops, and at least a couple gems at various stages in the genre’s popularity life-cycle.

One of the ways in which these shows distinct themselves from others of their type (if they’re smart enough to do that) is to focus on a different element of the formula. For Trinity Seven, the Harem and Ecchi elements that appear in other “Battle School” affairs are turned up to eleven. I said that Anti-Magic Academy worked better as a Harem show than it did as an action show, but its ambition was still firmly a hybrid, and given the dark tone and feel probably leaned more towards the weaker action side. Trinity Seven, by contrast, is all about that steamy Harem goodness, with some action and drama thrown in for good measure.

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Darker and Grittier Battle Harem – Anti-Magic Academy Spoiler Review

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon is the story of Takeru Kusanagi and his misfit friends, a team of trainee witch hunters who may not assess well, but who end up thrown into harrowing situations where they can prove themselves. They’re students at the titular academy, where they learn and apply techniques to fight witches, people who use magic to threaten humanity. It’s a sometimes bizarre and usually dark take on the super-power battle-school scenario with a hearty side-helping of Harem elements. In some ways, there’s fairly little to talk about, while in others it’s absolutely worth a lengthy analysis, if for no other reason than to pick apart the underlying structure of its genre, and how its elements blend or don’t.

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Yes, I know – RWBY (Seasons 1-3/Beacon Arc) Spoiler Review

Many of you may be thinking something very particular right now. Specifically, something along the lines of “Wait, RWBY’s not an anime, it’s made in Texas!” And you’re right. By the technical definition used in the West of “Anime” being Japanese Animation, RWBY is not an Anime. However, even if you don’t take into account the massive amounts of merch and even the dedicated cosplay gathering for RWBY that would have been found at Anime Expo (in 2019), it’s undeniable that it’s appealing to a crowd that has a huge overlap with anime fans… and anyway, this is my blog, and I’m making up the rules for what I can or can’t write about. I’ll try to not bend the idea too often, but I think one moment to talk about the first few seasons of RWBY can be forgiven.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

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Undead Robot Yandere – Unbreakable Machine-Doll Spoiler Review

It’s September, and you know what that means! It’s Back to School time! … er, at least it’s time for going back to school in Anime land (though for the same year) and other media, where schools neither obnoxiously start in August nor have the looming threat of a pandemic modifying their opening plans. In any case, I’ll be looking at some shows with school settings and themes this month. But, it won’t just be any schools: rather, I’d like to take a look at schools for superpowers, fighting, or otherwise protagonist badassery. And while I have a wealth of options, I might as well start with the Walpurgis Academy of Machinart and the show it appears in, Unbreakable Machine-Doll.

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