Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S Episode 01

"Railgun" (超電磁砲（レールガン）) is the first episode of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S anime series, the second season of the anime series adaptation of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga series. It will be first broadcast on April 13, 2013, and was written by Seishi Minakami and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai.

Over 1.8 million students are gathered in Academy City to develop psychic powers. Some delinquent students acting in secret in the back alleys are wiped out by a single line of electric light. There stands Academy City's strongest electric princess, the Railgun Misaka Mikoto!

Major events

 * Edasaki Banri is confirmed to be enrolled in Sakugawa Middle School.

Adapted From
The library scene is lifted from the 41st Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga chapter, otherwise all the content is an anime original.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Saten Ruiko
 * Uiharu Kazari
 * Shirai Kuroko
 * Haruue Erii
 * Kongou Mitsuko
 * Awatsuki Maaya
 * Wannai Kinuho
 * Yomikawa Aiho
 * Tessou Tsuzuri
 * Edasaki Banri
 * Kamijou Touma

New Characters

 * Shokuhou Misaki

Locations

 * Academy City
 * Tokiwadai Middle School
 * School Garden
 * Heaven Canceller's Hospital

New locations
No new locations were introduced during this episode

Abilities

 * Teleport - Shirai Kuroko, Level 4
 * Electromaster - Misaka Mikoto, Level 5
 * Railgun

New Abilities

 * Mental Out - Shokuhou Misaki, Level 5

Trivia

 * Despite the last episode of the first season ends with a date indicating that the day is before the first day of the Sisters Arc in the manga, the episode implies that a new day has started and that the Sisters Arc hasn't even begun yet and the timeline of the Sisters Arc is moved further in the anime.
 * The railings that Mikoto waits on with her phone is similar to one that starts and ends the first season of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime.
 * A "blink and you will miss" scene occurs during the part where Mikoto tries to take an arcade coin from her skirt while falling in the sky. The space elevator Endymion, a very thin part of it, appears briefly.
 * Touma referencing on how there is not a dull moment in the city mirrors Mikoto's last words from the final episode of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun anime's first season.

Referbacks

 * The scene where a bunch of students play ball using their powers is the same location where Ruiko shows Mikoto her good luck charm back in episode 8.
 * The scene where Mikoto sees children getting rehabilitation and then getting a flashback is a reference to episode 12 of the first season of Toaru Majutsu no Index.

Cultural References

 * Two students shown in the episode have a striking resemblance to Ichika Takatsuki and Kanna Tanigawa from Ano Natsu de Matteru, although with different hair color. Both Ano Natsu de Matteru and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun are both productions by J.C. Staff, sharing a similar series director (Tatsuyuki Nagai) and background music composer (Maiko Iuchi).
 * The Anti-Skill who is deployed to look over the detainee in the hospital room is reading Volume 1 of the Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai light novel series.
 * The submachine gun that is used by the thug in the stretcher is similar to a Heckler &amp; Koch MP7, while the pistol that is used on Erii looks like a variant of Beretta 92F. Meanwhile, Yomikawa Aiho wields a M1911 pistol.

Animation Trivia

 * Saten Ruiko running in the alleyway with the point-of-view from below her is similar to the first episode of the first season of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, where the thug is running away from Kuroko.
 * At the start of the librabry scene, the point-of-view pans downwards, one can see that doing so shows that the scene has jagged edges, indicating that the objects are not properly anti-aliased.
 * A small picture of a young Kiyama Harumi shows up in Banri's stand.
 * The scene where Mikoto raises her hand as she proceeds to explain what to do with the flowers from the gift shop for Banri's surprise, Mikoto momentarily gains six digits on her right hand.

Unanswered Questions

 * What did Misaki mean when she mentioned the possibility of her ability tampering with the fact that she is a middle school student?
 * What happened to the thugs' guns?

Quotes

 * Misaki: "Of course, a one-on-one battle would be too difficult. But if you had to face all of these Tokiwadai students alone... I think it'd be a little challenging." — Misaki's warning to Mikoto as she activates her ability on all of the students of Tokiwadai in the library
 * Mikoto: "Are you really a middle school student?" — To Misaki.
 * Kamijou Touma: "There's never a dull moment in this city." — A certain unfortunate boy, commenting on Academy City as one of the witnesses of the helicopter crash earlier