Toaru Kagaku no Railgun

[David75]

Mikoto isn't nearly as good at fighting strong espers as she is at giving the random punks and other weaklings a hard lesson. I guess it's mainly due to lacking the will to really fight till the end. She can dispose of weak opponents being sure not to cause any permanent damage, but there's no such luxury in a fight against genuinely strong opponents, so she's at a loss and fights below her level. That's quite a deadly sin when the enemy has no such reservations. Well, she will always have the main character shield, so I guess she'll be alright no matter what happens.

It's only partially true, because Mikoto is fighting 1 against 3. And a team that is used to fight strong espers, has experience, no reservations (as you said), and seem to really work well together.

[shinta|hikari]

I actually think Mikoto fought fine this time around. She attacked immediately, but that got deflected, so she opted for escape. She wasn't getting away so she figured out that they have a tracking esper. She also managed to use her spider powers to its fullest, all while sensing the attacks, even deflecting one using her powers (wall climb, spider sense, {electric} web grab of objects and walls, yeah that cannot be a coincidence).

She did well surviving until now, even forcing Takitsubo to burn out on drugs. She just wasted energy on a stupid battle with Frenda after all (and she is fully to blame for that), and even then she managed to elude 3 espers, one of which is the 4th ranked level 5, technically rated only weaker than her by a step.

In terms of pure destructive power, her railgun looks like crap to the meltdowner (stupid name, but that's the toaru series trademark). It is simply an unstoppable laser cannon. It's good that she is able to deflect it though. Mikoto wins hands down in terms of versatility though. If they had started fresh one on one, I'm pretty sure Mikoto will win against Mugino, especially if Mikoto had access to the iron sand (which she does not in this scenario).

Why the hell is Kinuhata wearing shorts?? It may be canon for Railgun (I don't know), but I really wanted to see her in her trademark Am I Wearing Anything Down There Wool Sweater.

[Kraco]

Tactically speaking she should have wiped out the small fries first, leaving the actually dangerous Meltdowner for later. Like you said yourself, Mikoto's power is far more versatile and it would be a breeze to defeat an opponent without any defenses against electricity. However, despite the fact she has made a hobby out of hanging in dark alleys in the hopes of cooking fried punks, she doesn't possess the mentality of a fighter (yet). Not that I'd be really complaining as I'll rather take the cute tsundere Mikoto than a battle scarred veteran with dead eyes. But nevertheless in serious battles like this she is selling herself short.

Well, to keep things in a proper perspective, for a middle schooler she is definitely doing great simply by staying alive.

[shinta|hikari]

She didn't think that Takitsubo was a small fry. She felt something dangerous from her, so she ran, which is the best tactical decision at that time because trying to attack 2 espers with unknown powers (one of which erased huge metal objects and shot beams) and another esper that had bombs all over the place alone is just stupid.

After she ran, she had her hands full just not getting melted. I don't really see how she can take care of the other two first, especially because Mugino will protect them, as she said so herself in this episode, even if it is just for the sake of keeping her tools safe.

[Kraco]

Yes, it was the best tactical decision considering she was never interested in the slightest in defeating these people. Her objective is to disable the facility. Maybe I left it too ambiguous in my previous posts, but I was merely theorising what would have been the most effective way if she wanted to get rid of these people for good.

[NeoCybercoin]

I find it funny how all of the level 5 have no idea what the others look like.

[Ryllharu]

I assume that Mikoto is rank 3 and Mugino rank 4 because she can pseudo-fly and Mugino can't. Mugino's power seems much stronger than Mikoto's in terms of pure destructive capability. Mikoto's railgun does about the same amount of damage, but Mugino can do it all the time and doesn't need anything ferro-magnetic to fire. It kind of bothers me that flight seems to be the deciding factor when someone's rank is considered increased. Accelerator was perceived to have powered up after he started making those tornado wings, when he could have always just altered his own vectors and jumped as far as he wanted. Mugino doesn't appear to be able to fly, so she's weaker...riiiight. :/
Guess that's another so-called toaru trademark, arbitrary rankings.

There was also the line about how the two can defend or deflect each other's powers, so they operate on the same basic principles. I suppose where Mikoto moves electrons to create and manipulate electric fields, Mugino brings them to an extremely excited state to make free-electron lasers. Looking forward to their fight.

[Buffalobiian]

I assume that Mikoto is rank 3 and Mugino rank 4 because she can pseudo-fly and Mugino can't. Mugino's power seems much stronger than Mikoto's in terms of pure destructive capability. It kind of bothers me that flight seems to be the deciding factor when someone's rank is considered increased. Accelerator was perceived to have powered up after he started making those tornado wings, when he could have always just altered his own vectors and jumped as far as he wanted. Mugino doesn't appear to be able to fly, so she's weaker...riiiight. :/
Guess that's another so-called toaru trademark, arbitrary rankings.

Or it's based on power output.

Do you mean that Accel was "powered up" in that he had a cool-factor? Or did someone from Academy city actually say that he became stronger?

[Ryllharu]

The whole series gives the impression off that Accelerator reached a new apex once he could fly about, mostly in tone. The characters responded to it that way, though I don't remember if anything explicit was said. Dramatic power up music, that sort of thing.

His lame-ass flying is definitely not cool in any way. It's such a hack job, but they made a big deal out of it every time he did it. Flying or levitation in Index just isn't cool for some reason. Mikoto's spider powers are much more creative and interesting to watch. Or Kuroko's teleporting and even Sherry getting a lift from golems.

[Marik]

[UTW-Mazui] Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S - 10 [720p][5011AD87].mkv

[Buffalobiian]

ITEM would be no fun without Frenda. That much is evident.

And... rankings are based on profit??? I've never seen Mikoto do anything profitable other than being an unofficial member of Judgement.

[Kraco]

And... rankings are based on profit??? I've never seen Mikoto do anything profitable other than being an unofficial member of Judgement.

She gave her genome to the level 6 project. That seems profitable enough - if you are a fool like the involved scientists and those in power, considering the project is pure bullshit. But I'm sure there's an equipment manufacturer or whatever somewhere out there who made a fortune out of it.

Anyway, don't be like Mikoto and believe everything you hear or read. Why would this Meltdowner know any better what's the real situation? She's nothing but a tool used to do dirty deeds and clean up the mess. A mercenary. It's quite natural she thinks the ranking is something based on profit, since she obviously does anything for the right price.

It's quite evident Mikoto has skipped her Combat 101 if she hasn't been eating much during the past days. I thought everybody knows the old saying an army marches on its stomach. You'd think she would have had the wits to at least get chocolate bars if nothing else.

[David75]

I kept reading the numbers, but really under 2 grands for a Mikoto clone... Geez, that's dirt cheap.

[Ryllharu]

I kept reading the numbers, but really under 2 grands for a Mikoto clone... Geez, that's dirt cheap.

No that's SCIENCE!

[Kraco]

It's probably the cost of the growth medium, drugs, and electricity running the equipment. If the process is extremely streamlined, like it should be considering they make thousands of clones, then around 2000 is quite realistic for the organic and inorganic matter needed to compose a human. The price cannot include development costs, general facility costs, wages of the mad scientists, equipment, or anything of that sort. Just the gun the clones are usually carrying, FN F2000, would eat most of the price of ~2000.

[David75]

It's probably the cost of the growth medium, drugs, and electricity running the equipment. If the process is extremely streamlined, like it should be considering they make thousands of clones, then around 2000 is quite realistic for the organic and inorganic matter needed to compose a human. The price cannot include development costs, general facility costs, wages of the mad scientists, equipment, or anything of that sort. Just the gun the clones are usually carrying, FN F2000, would eat most of the price of ~2000.

Yup my thoughts...
When I was searching for a specific cat, getting a little one was at least double that price. And it wasn't even the most expensive one...
Here, it was just my hentai otaku side talking

[NeoCybercoin]

And finally we see Touma. If you are up against Espers. Get Touma. If you need help, get Touma. If you need to force someone, force Touma. Poor guy.

[Buffalobiian]

I kept reading the numbers, but really under 2 grands for a Mikoto clone... Geez, that's dirt cheap.

So where can I buy a grid-computer Mikoto clone?

[Archangel]

And... rankings are based on profit??? I've never seen Mikoto do anything profitable other than being an unofficial member of Judgement.

Potential profit, manipulating electricity seems much more versatile than shooting death rays.

TouMan has returned, time to punch bitches and melt tsunderes.

[David75]

Potential profit, manipulating electricity seems much more versatile than shooting death rays.

TouMan has returned, time to punch bitches and melt tsunderes.

Meltdowner power would be awesome in destruction work (buildings for example?), escavating, drilling, and so on.
Since she trully vaporises the matter, rather than just displacing it, that would save even more ressources.

But Mikoto's power is a lot more versatile as she can use it from fine manipulations like server hacking to moving tons of metal scrapes, weapons, walking on walls and so on. Her range of possible is clearly vastly superior to what Meltdowner showed us.