A Certain Scientific Railgun: A Tale of Which True City

Management: While my opinion of the show is generally positive overall, this essay, by no means, is meant to serve as a comprehensive review, but rather, as an articulation and analysis of some of what I feel is this series’ most integral and interesting themes. This essay covers material from the “Level Upper” and “SisterS” arcs, found in both seasons 1 and 2 of Railgun.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. She made the best of friends. She met the worst of enemies. She fought with the best of them. She was beat by the worst of them. She saw her dreams fulfilled. She watched her aspirations shatter. She experienced elation. She experienced despair. She felt powerful. She felt powerless.

She loved. She lost.

The gleaming skyscrapers that line the urban canopies. The vandalized streets that strewn the urban dirt. Where the iconic windmills turn. Where windmills still iconic don’t. A place where aspirations come true and people become extraordinary. A place where dreams die and people struggle being ordinary. It is the fount of achievement. It is the source of resentment and exploitation.

Two sides of Academy City. Which side is the true Academy City?

(Section II of) “Obedient Daughters”

Management: As a response to the few people who requested to read it, below is Section II of my first short story of “Obedient Daughters.” It’s the portion of the short story that I loathe the least after reading it over, so hopefully when you read it, if you read it, you’ll actually enjoy it. Feel free to drop any constructive criticism in the comments section.

A fold up chair, seated next to a meter long, half a meter wide table. It hurt after a while to sit on it, the chafe of metal cold on thin cloth that just barely buffered your skin. To the back of me was a brown door. I stared at the bottom half of the door. The bottom half of the door is the part no one usually pays attention to. It was marked in burns of black, born likely from those times the black tips of boots must have beat its surface over and over. To the right was this faded brick wall, dull probably from years and years of abuse. Well, probably. To the left, more brick, and a large mirror, likely a one-way glass. A camera was perched just above, a sharp red light slightly larger than a pinprick glowing, ever watchful. To the front was another window, only smaller – this time two-way – leading to the outside world. It overlooked the gray streets and cars passing by, drivers unaware of anything happening in this room. An air conditioner blasting in chilling currents lay between.

Paranoia Agent: Strongest

Management: While my opinion of the show is generally positive overall, this essay, by no means, is meant to serve as a comprehensive review, but rather, as an articulation and analysis of some of what I feel is this series’ most integral and interesting themes. This essay, in particular, is about Episode 11 of Paranoia Agent, “No Entry,” though it does contain some elements of Episode 13, “The Final Episode,” towards the end.

“Paranoia” is a term that could be described as seeing daggers in shadows where there are none. It’s a mental state where minor suspicion of the intentions of people and things, whether or not those people actually know who you are and whether or not those things are actually sentient, degrades to the point to a neurotic obsession. It becomes a plot against your life, a conspiracy where certain people, certain things, or all people and all things, are out to get you, to be cruel to you, to make you suffer.

“Agent” is a term could be described as something or someone being the perpetrator of something else.

The perpetrator of paranoia. The neurotically suspicious agent. For the first half plus of Paranoia Agent, the show plays around with who or what is beating everyone in the head with a bat. Or is there even someone out there like that? Is there a ‘lil Slugger? Is there a shounen bat? There wasn’t, and there is, and before where people were simply sent to the hospital, people are now being sent to the morgue. Shounen Bat has become the iconic equivalent to certain death in the show as the grim reaper is in pop culture (the bat’s bent in to parallel the bent nature of the scythe). It now kills everyone it ends up appearing to.

Episode 11, “No Entry” , pitches along, and it appears in the midst of this woman who you would think would be the easiest target to bludgeon into a crackly and pastey oblivion, at least compared to its previous victims. A woman with a fragile constitution and a weak heart, and yet alone she managed to survive, even when her house didn’t. It wasn’t luck though that she was able to make it out.