To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Espers – How Do They Work?
Despite how much I like anime, I’ve never been a big fan of incredible events with no viable scientific explanation. This includes things like flying through the air with no apparent form of propulsion, creating vast quantities of energy from nothing, and penetrating the armour of a vehicle using a weaker material by using shear willpower. This is one of the reasons why Martian Successor Nadesico was and still is one of my favourite anime: it used the latest theories of quantum mechanics and newest technological advancements of the 90s to explain how things like instant transport and the terraforming of Mars was possible. When there was no way to explain something (like the generation of particles to perform a gravity blast), the topic was simply avoided rather than trying to make up something fake and untrue.
With that said, one of the things that have been bothering me this season are the esper powers in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun), and the general use of the term “esper” in anime. The word “esper” was derived from the acronym ESP, which stands for “extra-sensory perception.” As the name implies, someone with ESP has an extra (or 6th) sense that the rest of us don’t have, and are generally known as psychics. An esper, in this sense, does not refer to someone that can shoot lightning bolts out of their body since that’s not a sense but an an ability. To be fair though, words often change meaning when they’re introduced through a different culture or language, so the definition of an esper in Japan might be different from the rest of the world.
Now to get to the main point of my post: how do esper powers in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun work? The explanation that they gave in the anime was that espers have an AIM (An Involuntary Movement) Dispersion Field around them that allows them to use their powers. This is obviously a made-up term which doesn’t help us understand how esper powers work, so I’ve thought about how some of the esper abilities (mainly Mikoto and Kuroko’s) would be possible and explained them below:
Mikoto Misaka:
Before I try to explain how Mikoto’s powers might work, lets list all of the things that we know she can do. First off, she can deliver an electric shock to someone by touching them; secondly, she is able to shoot lightning bolts from her body; third, she can control iron sand as she wishes; and fourth, she can fire a coin like a railgun. As stated in the anime, Mikoto is also called Academy City’s “electromaster,” indicating that she is able to do all these things through electromagnetism.
The way I see it, Mikoto’s body would have to be made out of a different type of material so that she can supply electrons to run a current through herself. One type of material would be metals, but since Mikoto isn’t a robot (or at least I don’t think so), she probably has some kind of ceramic in her body where she somehow induces the electrons to move from the valence band to the conduction band. This way, she would be able to run a current through her body without too much resistance. To be able to shoot bolts of lightning from her body, Mikoto would have to be able to create a charge difference between her and her surroundings. I figure to do this, she would need to have two materials in her body rub against each other like when you rub a balloon against your hair. The next part of Mikoto’s powers, which I can’t explain, is how she as able to control the direction of her lightning bolts. When an object is discharging electrons, it’s not like the electrons will just follow someone’s orders and go in a certain direction. Instead, the electrons will always take the shortest path to neutralize the object. This is why lightning tends to strike tall towers, the electrons in the clouds only have to move the distance between the cloud and the tower rather than the cloud and the ground.
The inability to control the movement of electrons also pokes a hole into Mikoto’s other abilities: moving iron sand and firing a coin like a railgun. Moving iron sand the way Mikoto does in the anime would be possible if you could make a complicated magnetic field, but since there’s no way for Mikoto to control electrons, then there’s no way for her to use them to make several magnetic fields to control the movement of iron sand. Mikoto’s patented “railgun” move would technically be possible if her body was made out of different materials, but not in the way that they’ve shown in the anime. In simple terms, a railgun works by accelerating a ferromagnetic object through a tube by generating a magnetic field in front of it. If Mikoto’s body were vastly different from a normal human, it would be possible for her to extend her arm out, place a coin on her shoulder and shoot it wherever she’s pointing her arm because then she would be able to generated a magnetic field in front of the coin, pulling it along her arm. It would not be possible to flip a coin out and fire it once it falls back to her hand.
Kuroko Shirai:
Kuroko is my favourite character in the anime because of her hilarious Mikoto-rape moments, crazy ideas, and cute character design. Unlike Mikoto, her powers only allow her to perform one action, and that is teleportation. I’m sure all of you have been exposed to the idea since it’s so widely used in science fiction. The two most popular ways in how teleportation is explained to work is through data transfer and bending space. Kuroko obviously doesn’t use any type of device to teleport, so recording her body on a computer, then destroying it and rebuilding it someplace else obviously isn’t how she teleports, so that leaves bending space.
If you imagine that the universe is 2-dimensional like a piece of paper rather than 3-dimensional, then if you fold that piece of paper, it’s possible for something on one end of the paper to move to the other end without crossing the middle. This analogy is commonly used to explain how you can teleport someone or something from one place to another. The problem with this method is that it would require insanely huge amounts of energy to bend the universe, so how does Kuroko do it?
The only way that I could think of that would allow Kuroko to teleport from one place to another is if 4-dimensional beings existed. If they do exist, it could be possible that one of them has taken a liking to Kuroko and is bending space for her. Lets imagine for a moment that 2-dimensional beings in the shape of squares lived on a piece of paper in your hand. You would be able to see inside a square since you’re looking at it above, but the squares on the piece of paper would not be able to see inside each other since they can’t move into the 3rd dimension (above) the piece of paper. It would then be possible for you to see a set of instructions within a square explaining where it wants to go and all you would have to do is fold the piece of paper to line up the square with its destination so it can just move over. Kuroko might be like that square, where a 4-dimensional being is able to read her thoughts by watching the electrical signals in her brain. This could explain why Kuroko can only move things she’s in contact with because she would have to push it to the other side once space is bent.
So to sum things up, Mikoto would have to be some kind of monster do be able to do the things in the anime, and even then she wouldn’t be able to perform some of her moves. Four dimensional beings would also have to exist for Kuroko to be able to teleport the way she does without an energy source. Basically, the esper powers in To Aru Kagaku no Railgun do not work except under very extreme assumptions, and even then some of them still don’t work. I guess it’s a good thing that the target audience is too caught up fantasizing about biribiri to care if she could technically exist or not.
If you have other ideas on how esper powers might work, feel free to share. Any nerds reading this can also point out any mistakes I’ve made since this is mostly stuff I remember from school.
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Hm I know what you mean. But I don’t think that “hard” at Railgun Anime.
And since I’m not that much in science things I don’t care.
But you can see them also as an “failure of being human”.
Kinda mutants if you want it to put it like this.
May the cells have other structre or more/different data of that of an normal human.
And I think they are all at this “academic place” is because they want use them as soldier or copy the nature to make weapon from them.
1Kind was confused in that all scientist talk so I needed to reread post once again =P
I look at this problem like this: Anime exists for people to escape from reality so why not there shouldn’t be some thing’s that can’t be explained by science.
X-men and Superman for example use some unexplainable powers (com’ on shooting laser from your eyes is only possible if you exchange your eye’s for a pair of uber lasers).
2for esper hmmm even in reality a lot of esper lol
well kinda need to continue watch this anime ^^;; I stop at eps 2
3Wow great post! seems you put a lot of time into it. I like this show just wish they would focus more on Misaka and less on the others but I suppose you have to, I always think of heros when i see any anime that deals with superpowers lol..
4@GREW:
They could be mutants, but there’s still a limit to what a mutant can do.
@Ripaz:
The problem I have is that it tries to explain stuff using this “AIM Dispersion Field” and try to make it scientific, which I don’t particularly like. I’d prefer either seeing actual science, or just avoid the topic.
@moemoekyun:
Some of the episodes aren’t that great, but if you do continue, definitely watch episode 12.
@foshizzel:
5Yea, the episodes on all the side characters got kinda boring.
personally i didnt like that arc, all that science that, mutent monster, meh looks weird,
6meh prefer the comedy side for railgun.
@Fabrice:
7I like the comedy side too.
Wow i really need to watch the anime!! It really seems very interesting, i also agree with the character design of Shirar is very cute!
8If you remember also the AIM classes talk about each person creating or finding their own personal reality. Those that have…develope or show powers.
In modern Quantum Nerological Studies they are trying to figure out how neurons and such work and fire. This works at both the conscience level and involuntary level, yet it is this involuntary level that we do not totally undestand today. We know if you shut down the involuntary neural motor for your heart you die.
For example we use more of our brains power when we sleep than when we are awake. What would happen if this percentage increased in people?
Do we create our own personal reality at an involuntary level? Is a person successful because they believe it and make it so? What part of their mental outlook made it so?
The whole AIM science could be seen as a part of that research?
I mean I could talk for hours about this science being fake or real? Parts of it being taken from idea’s or theories expressed in the neurlogical field for ages.
9If you google (AIM “An Involuntary Movement”) and look through the pages of stuff you get you may find some interesting stuff. In the show they can shut down the powers of espers. Does this mean that their powers are a mental involuntary response and therefore maybe a mental disease? There is a theory about the mind-brain-body triad.
Remember even V’GER needed the human mind, that can move beyond logic…to that which science cannot explain right now.
I understand what you mean about Kuroko. Her powers are very impossible. I mean, if she was teleporting through space without the said possibilities she could be creating holes in space, but that would mean some sort of vacuum effect. Other than that I have no clue how she would be able to do it. Still Railgun is an awesome anime, and even though it’s confusing, it doesn’t have to make sense to be awesome.
10@Lipumira:
I agree and like your approach to the problem.
@Nopy:
You either do or don’t like the anime, you do not need to understand it. Move on.
As I see it Nopy, you are trying to over-analyse the situation. These problems are impossible to awnser because they involve instances that vastly exceed our understanding and comphrehension. I must express my feelings about your approach, you analyse the situation in a somewhat close-minded fashion which is not the methods of a modern scientist.
To elaborate: You only believe in what we ‘know, IS’ which leaves you cut off from the idea to explore the unkown.
You argue the legitimacy in the scientific nature of the anime, and the reason why I like Lipumira’s approach is in what i think is the true nature of the scientific aspect in the show. I believe that Railgun explores these theories and possibilites where we cannot comfirm nor deny them and that allows us to essentialy “open our minds” to new ways of thinking. If you think of it this way, Railgun is very scientific.
In the end it really doesn’t matter in my opinion because I choose not to partake in questions like this, why? I find it rather depressing trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe and find myself wasting away or questioning my own existance when there are far more pleasurable things to do with ones life. Mindless folly and jolly good fun are remedies for the tattered souls in everyday modern society which is why I also like Ripaz’s response below…
@Ripaz:
“Anime exists for people to escape from reality so why not there shouldn’t be some thing’s that can’t be explained by science.”
= Fun, you should try fun i hear it’s ‘dope’. XD
11@Exacta:
You might find it depressing to wonder how things work, but I actually enjoy thinking about stuff like that.
As for your comment about being close-minded and not using the methods of a modern scientist, I’d have to disagree. A modern scientist basis his/her theories on what they know as fact. From there, they aim to prove the ligitimacy of their theories through experimentation. The results of their experiments will either prove their theories true or false. Very rarely will something taken as fact be proven false, especially if it’s widely accepted by the scientific community.
I have come across several people who have opened up their minds to so-called new ways of thinking and totally ignore the laws of physics. Most of them think they can come up with some kind of machine that will make them rich. Needless to say, I’ve never heard from or of any of them again.
Of course, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy the anime. I loved the fight scene between Misaka and Touma, and the episode when Misaka fought the fetus.
12