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.
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.
12I understand where your coming from and i’m not degreed in any of these fields or have substantial knowledge of electrons and so forth. Yet I’ve been trying to study up on different esper abilities for a sci-fiction book i’m writing. Being sci-fiction i want it to be fairly accurate so I’ve been onto a few sights and been studying up on different ways one could produce these powers.
Now in my book i have it centered around the year 2031; espers are created by stimulating the brain cell activity while in the womb. Therefor espers are naturally genius’s well beyond human capabilities. Note that there is a nine percent chance the baby will develop esper powers and a thirty three percent chance of them dying due to tumors. Not only that, but a nine percent chance of the esper suffering from brain regression where the brain stops development and the subject becomes like unto a vegetable.
Now enough about that, I’ve stumbled onto a site where someone describe’s how Mikoto could produce the railgun.
1: The projectile is the coin, obviously. As it is made of conductive material, then it also serves as the armature.
2: She is the power source.
3: The rails are not really rails. Instead, she summons two (four even) parallel electrical currents going in opposite directions.
(With further investigation into the writers “Fleming Momentum” i found out the writer was referring to John Fleming’s Right Hand Rule)
-Link-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-hand_rule
Somehow she is able to control these currents perfectly such that they are traveling along the same length and are able to stay on their initial positions. No wonder she’s a Level 5 — if maintaining such conditions are easy enough, then we would be seeing at least Level 3 electromasters shooting high-velocity railguns.
-Link-
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=2689687&postcount=124
Now personally, i believe with the railgun series when she would flip the coin then use her thumb to strike the coin. I believe she used her both sides of her thumb bone as the rails. I don’t know how much electromagnetic force a level five can produce, but a fair amount i would say to shoot a railgun.
Then with the iron sand, i was very curious about this. After doing some study i would guess she would have to have the magnetic powers of “Magnito” from X-Man to produce something like this. Which also rises the question in me, “Why can’t she magnetize car’s and clearly she can make magnetic fields a fair distance from her body so show’s the picture you’ve posted. I mean the first episode i guess she could use the railgun it is her trademark, but i mean would have been cool to if she would have picked up the car and crushed parts of it to get her point across. I mean i would want to brake something not blast it away. -but thats just me-
-though during the last episode she does use magnetism for the first time that i can remember to throw the bad chick across the room-
Now to get to the electrical currents, like i said i’m no expert, but in the anime the writer stated that creating your personal reality you were able to use these powers. Through some kind of mental focus, which gets me wondering why are they only limited to one power, but meh. Anyways, being an electrokinetic i started to wonder what it meant so i was searching on the web and found this site. I must say that some of the alien crap i’ll keep out of my book >.> but still a good reference’s if i take that out.
-Link-
http://www.fantasylibrary.com/lounge/quartermain/qmespers.htm
Basically an electrokinetic can manipulate electrons, don’t ask me how, but its sci-fiction just how we didn’t know how scotty beamed people up to say. Yet i’m trying to find some kind of explanation to as much as i can so meh i’ll have to think of something. Oh also in the first episode of index misaka calls down lightning from the sky, i was wondering your opinion on that, maybe ground to sky lightning or just being able to guide such a large discharge to a close by spot meh.
——————————————————————————————
Now on to Kurako’s teleportation ability, it is true that in the anime i remember in the first episode of railgun she states. “11 dimensions are a whole different story from 3.”
-sighs- which lead me to a whole complicated read on the “String Theory” and “M-Theory.” After a lot of brain wracking and referencing words i didn’t understand i gave up on making teleportation through the “String Theory” and remembering that esper site flipped to it to find they labeled teleportation through “T-Space.”
I haven’t gone over T-Space yet, but intend on getting to it sooner or later as i write this at 11 P.M. *Yawn*
I’ll save this page and anxiously wait for a response on helping me with my theory’s or putting a dampener on them.
13Oh and sorry for my spelling, it is late and i’m falling asleep at my keyboard.
14*yawn* time to close my laptop and sleep.
I just wanted to throw this in there, but like Voxx pointed out the teacher did say that each ability user had to “create” their own “personal reality” so it kinda makes sense but only when it’s coupled with this one theory I got interested in. It’s called the Anthropic principle and from what I understood from the description it states that “All things in this universe are like they currently are because of how sentient life believes they are.” So what I’m getting at is that maybe, just in that slight probability that this theory isn’t all BS that they sorta utilize it into making their so called “personal realities” in that they believe they have abilities so they are able to use them as they please merely by believing that (not by having hope or faith but literally believing it and registering it in our minds as “what is correct”).
15That’s just my perspective on possible ESPer abilities, but yeah the more I think on that principle the more it sorta makes sense because we are taught in elementary up to college on what is “true” in the universe so maybe because that’s what was taught to us we all believe in it to the point where it really does become “true”. So if all we had to do was focus our minds on what we think is true then there’s the smallest chance that you could actually change the universe in a way that does create potential for abnormal abilities to exist.
Oh this is just to replace some wording:
16Wherever I used the word “believe/believing” I meant to say “observe/observed/observing”
@MyZdmNR:
17I haven’t heard of Anthropic principle before, I’ll have to look it up. It sounds like a twist on something I was taught in high school: in the 14th century the world was flat, this was an indisputable fact. In the 15th century, the world magically became round.
Yeah, it’s a very interesting theory on why things are the way they are. I myself have been trying to understand it all mainly because I still think that if you apply it correctly then we could actually change the face of the universe as we know it. That and I’ve always wanted to do superhuman feats of awesomeness so I figured hey if there’s a chance I can use this as a shortcut to getting there, then maybe it’ll actually work out. So yeah :P
18My opinion on Esper powers comes from the facts that each esper has their own unique ‘personal reality’ thus agreeing with the fact that ‘no one person can have more than one ability’. In turn, it is the strength of their faith and/or believing in that ‘personal reality’ that determines if they will be able to use whatever ability they are suited for, and how well they can use it – which, in turn, is a partial factor by which the ‘system scan’ determines what level you are (only applies from levels 1 to 5, as the ‘system’ determines Level 6 as a person who has become a ‘mortal god’ through their power).
It has a high possibility of being something like ‘altering your immediate reality’ using your imagination – something like Emiya Shiro’s ‘Unlimited Blade Works’ but does not forcefully violate reality. And so we have Kamijou Touma’s ‘Imagine Breaker’ which negates/normalizes that reality, no matter what. The fact that it works on magic spells as well probably means it is some kind of ‘abnormality cancellation program’ if you can think of spells and abilities as computer programs run on a computer-like universal control system like Yggdrasil (Ah! My Goddess).
An Involuntary Movement (AIM) is most likely leftovers of the mental projection of their personal reality, the energy of which is psychic in nature. Using brainwaves as protocol, any two people with identical bwave patterns can communicate, exchange data, etc. as seen in the ‘Level Upper’ and the ‘Sisters’ arcs. It may even allow the usage of multiple abilities, just as Kiyama Harumi demonstrated during her fight with the Anti-Skill squad. The only drawback with the Level Upper was the coma side effect due to alteration of brainwave patterns. By extension, the AIM Burst (powered by that same network), being a collective of all the network users’ imaginations, personal realities and thoughts, is able to use multiple skills as well.
The principle behind Misaka Mikoto’s ‘Railgun’ ability is actually not ‘Electromagnetism’ (that would apply to a ‘coilgun’ which is powered by electromagnet coils) but rather, an application of the so-called ‘Lorentz Force’ – the same force that makes electric arcs on a widening metal fork move upwards. Misaka’s electrical capacity is stated as being from 1 to 5 million(?) volts, with unknown amperage ratings. In the operation of a real railgun, it is the high electrical potential between two conducting rails that propels the metal projectile (once it closes that circuit by sliding between the rails) by using Lorentz Force. It IS capable of propelling projectiles at extremely high speeds, as observed from a US Navy railgun firing test.
There is a high possibility that Misaka Mikoto does this by controlling the electric potentials/currents in the air around her intended projectile to create ‘rails’ made of eletric current in the air – so any recoil will probably be gusts of wind. It can even be adjusted to accommodate the intended projectile, which can vary in size – from a mere arcade coin (burns up like a meteor due to high-speed atmospheric friction, thus resulting in the 50- meter range) to large metal slabs (the detached robot claw in Episode 24 and the manga equivalent, which resulted in a much longer range than Therestina expected, leading to her ‘first’ defeat.) My guess is that her constant use of arcade coins to limit her range to 50 meters is a self-imposed power limit, used to hide the fact that she can fire her railgun at longer ranges with better projectiles.
The reason why this marks her as a Level 5 is simple – the amount of belief in their personal reality and the concentration required to control electricity to THAT extent is quite difficult to achieve – that and the high-speed damage-dealing potential of her railgun. The fact that she was originally a Level 1, and by ‘extraordinary hard work and determination in overcoming obstacles’ became Level 5 as a consequence, leads to the conclusion that she must have worked on finding a new move using her power, basing it on personal research, found out about the principles of railgun operation (Lorentz Force), and then practiced and trained very hard to control her electricity and firing that coin.
Find me a person who can flick a coin up in the air and flick it again with their thumb the same way she does, as if it were second nature/instinct – it is harder than it seems. Though, directly firing it from her hand without the aerial coin flick is also possible – and both of them do the same thing – shoot the coin on the electric rails to fire it as a railgun round. (even a real railgun requires the projectile to be moving when it hits the rails, otherwise it will arc weld itself stuck on the rails)
btw, Kazari Uiharu’s power is quite nice to have for PC overclocking. Negation of entropy or maintenance of current temperature is pretty good at Level 1 that i can only imagine what she can do with higher levels.
If she were paired with A Certain Legendary species as her pet, and given a Gracidea Flower with a gatituous feeling, i think she might turn into Thermomaster Forme Uiharu and maybe gain a level or two..
I have only watched A Certain Scientific Railgun, so i dont really know about the Index side of things, but that is my thoughts on the principles of operation there.
19Simple, simple explanation.
In the world of To Aru, where MAGIC exists, the development of ESPer abilities is thus: people who are unaffiliated with the use of magic must conceptualize themselves having powers. Now, people can’t just CHOOSE whatever powers they want, they must find what sort of power that they themselves can develop.
Thus, statistically speaking, there will be a hodgepodge of different REALITIES that exist and only one that a person can apply to themselves. Along with the help of varying exercises and treatments, those powers are developed in a way that is more and more applicable to real life. Essentially, the strength, speed, what-have you, can only become more prevalent based on an ESPer’s mindset and self conceptualization of being in possession of abilities.
That is why they are ESPers and simply not people with abilities.
NEXT! Those abilities, as they are developed from one’s Personal Reality, must at the same time adhere to varying physical rules in order to exist. So, understanding of properties is important to the handling of abilities once they have taken form.
THEN! An Involuntary Movement is not used directly with the concept of ESPer abilities, but is a result of an ESPer’s abilities. All ESPers give off very very faint but just barely traceable forms of radiation/energy, which like an ESPer’s fingerprint in regards to their ability.
Putting this all together, it isn’t a matter that Misaka herself is creating electromagnetism by purely physical means, but she has mastered her conceptualization of her powers, and as a Level 5, showed how applicable her abilities are to further research in Academy City. The electricity itself does need to follow normal physics once it materializes, but there is of course exaggeration of its properties for story’s sake, such as a coin’s ability to retain its form after being imbued with billions of volts of electricity, flying at supersonic speeds.
This view of ESP as described by To Aru Majutsu no Index hopefully answers the primary complaints brought up by your blog, Nopy.
20@Zedrich:
I think you hit the nail on the head with how espers work in the anime. Within the framework of the story, all of their powers make sense and should work, but I wanted to apply the known laws of the universe to the series. As far as I know, a ‘personal reality’ as it’s described in the anime doesn’t exist in the real world, so I thought it’d be interesting to think of other ways in which the characters could’ve gotten their powers.
@Typewriterman:
21Thanks, that does answer my questions about how their abilities work in the anime. Building on that though, as I mentioned here in reply to Zedrich, I wanted to consider how the espers in Railgun/Index would be able to use their powers in the real world using known physical laws and properties.
Watch the whole anime again, watch To Aru Kagaku no Railgun and To Aru Majutsu No index I and II. Once you’ve watch them all, and listen closely, you’ll see that their “esper” powers come from thinking of their own reality and making them reality. Short version: Make up something in you head and make it real. Simple? No, the way some people use their mind to bend spoons, yes this is not a easy! Just takes brain power. Out of the whole world only a few are able to do such a impossible thing. Now back to the esper part. If esper were to use their minds the same way to bend a spoon they can even change the direction of things and how they work. Such as lightning, and teleporting. Change the direction of the space and you make teleporting. Change the direction in flow of energy and you get lightning. Though, you are right about lightning hiting the closest thing, then that means you must change the direction of it’s target to hit the farthest thing. But if she can change two directions (lightnings direction and the target) it’d be true she was a multi-epser, not just a epser with one power.
22http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/mental-superpowers-how-to-unleash-the-full-potential-of-your-mind/
23Just to tell u, i have just figured out how the railgun works..its very simple..
24as u see..these are the steps when she performs the railgun
-she takes the coin and toss it into the air
-Then as the coin is dropping,she aims her thumb and flicks the coin towards the diirection..
so…
as her body generates electricity at about 1000volts/sec,as she flicks the coin,she discharges the electricity from her thumb at that very moment,thus causing the electricity discharged to shoot the coin at lighting speed while conducting the electricity..causing a “railgun”:)
@Logicalpopz:
25You know, this whole time I’ve been thinking of a conventional railgun that it never occured to me that she could simply be using a discharge of electricity to shoot the coin. Her nickname really threw me off. Nice observation!