Bryce's Blog

I know, I was supposed to cover the last of the four books I ordered, but I got another book in the mean time, increasing the total from four to five. Today, I will be reviewing the newest title, which is called A Certain Scientific Railgun Volume 7 by Kazuma Kamachi.

As I have given a series synopsis in an earlier post, I will not go over it again.

The fight between Touma and Accelerator continues and things are not looking too good.

However, Misaka may have something up sleeve to finally put an end to the Level 6 Shift project.

Afterwards, things seem to have become peaceful again, but that does not mean Misaka has enough time to relax, as the Daihasei Festival is about to start.

I enjoyed this volume. Seeing how the Sisters arc ends again was quite nice, especially since this is pretty much where off in the manga. I liked how Misaka actually wanted to protect one of clones. This certainly is a change from how she felt when she and Kuroko originally discussed the matter of the clones. Of course, I think that could be because the death of Misaka 9982, which happened in Railgun S episode 6, affected her. I also liked the humor present here. The funniest, however, was the fact that she felt indebted to Touma for his help. Pretty much every time they encounter each other, at least in the first Railgun anime, Misaka wants to beat him, but here, she actually made effort to bake something for him, and became nervous. Although she claims to be indebted to him, I really doubt that Misaka would be acting this if she hated him. I also liked the confrontation between Misaka and Misaki, which also happened in the first episode of Railgun S. As good as the scene was in the anime, I liked it better here, mainly because I was not confused about what was going on. After all, I did say in my review of that episode that my confusion was caused because I had read the manga prior to watching Railgun S. What has me curious though, which not even the latest chapters of the manga have answered yet, is what exactly is going on, since we see somebody talking on phone. After all, if something was not about to happen, there would no reason to show somebody on a phone. Outside of that, I cannot really think of anything else that caught my eye. The fact that Misaka wanted to protect clones and that the confrontation between Misaka and Misaki was less confusing than the anime, as well as the fact that there are signs that something about to begin, certainly made this interesting.

Although I liked the volume, there were certainly some issues. First, there was no Table of Content. Yes, a TOC is not necessarily required in printed works, since none of my own books have one, but it is useful. A Table of Contents tells me what to expect in a book by listing the chapters. As a result, one can determine what book to buy, in order to pick up where one left off. However, without it I had to read the entire book just to find out what was contained, especially since a synopsis may not do it alone. However, considering that this is my first title from Seven Seas, I cannot really complain that much about it, like I can about what Kodansha does to the Negima! manga, as I am not familiar with how they do things. Because of that fact, I am willing to label this as annoyance, since Yen Press, Viz, and Kodansha/Del Rey Manga have spoiled me with such a luxury. Next, there was text that was repeated inside the bubbles. In chapter 40, after Mitsuko Kongo transfers into Tokiwadai, some fellow students suggest that she join a faction and go into explaining about them. However, only moments after saying that there were some groups that had influence outside school, it is stated yet again, word for word. I am not sure about you guys, but I do not see that a reason why two characters should be saying the exact same thing on the same page. In other English translations, however, only one of the two characters that Kongo meets on her first day mentions that detail, while the other talks about the various kinds of factions that exist. It is like Seven Seas does not even think that its readers have very good memories. This is a big error to make for my first experience with the publisher. Hopefully, this kind of thing is not common among Seven Seas titles. Other than those, the only other thing that I thought I saw was a minor typo, but nothing else too bad. While a missing Table of Contents may not be a big deal, the fact that Seven Seas had two characters say the same thing is what caused the most damage to the volume.

Despite the fact that text was repeated unnecessarily, I think that this was definitely worth reading. I recommend this to fans of A Certain Scientific Railgun. As for everyone else, I only recommend reading this particular volume after reading the entire Sisters arc, as this volume ends it.

What are your thoughts on A Certain Scientific Railgun Volume 7? Do you agree or disagree with my views? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment.