anime/light novels: A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun

[meganbmoore]

A Certain Magical Index is a multimedia franchise based on the lightnovels by Kazuma Kamachi. Between the original series, the sequel series, and "side story" collections, there are I think 35 volumes of the light novel series. There's also a manga adaptation, and two spinoff manga series about supporting characters. The first 13 volumes of the

Comments

[chomiji]

I had to give up on Railgun after vol. 4. I was tempted to give up earlier, actually, but I try to give manga series four volumes to get going. This is a result of my experience with Samurai Deeper Kyo, which alternately bored and annoyed me until Yukimura showed up at the end of vol. 3. Although the main characters of Railgun are girls, everything that happens to them is pretty much geared toward a male audience, and a pretty immature (albeit sexually aware) one at that. (And hey, this is me talking: the one who often prefers books with male protagonists, remember? In contrast, I loved Bamboo Blade, which was about a girls' high school kendo team but aimed at a seinen audience.)

I also had a really hard time telling many of the characters apart from each other.

[meganbmoore]

The anime is aggravating in that way as well, but based on tumblr comments, not nearly to the extent the manga is, which is why I'm not in a huge hurry to get to it.