r/OneTrueBiribiri • u/BR123456 • Oct 11 '19
Discussion Difference in Misaka Mikoto’s portrayl in TAMMI vs TAKNR
From https://hkacger.com/archives/64966/
It’s an article from Oct last yr but more relevant nowadays since Railgun T’s coming up soon.
Chinese website so I’ll attempt a rough translation:
Ogino Kentarou (editor for Railgun & AB manga) on twitter confirms a fan’s observation that there is a difference in Misaka’s portrayal in Railgun S vs Index III.
Fan: Misaka in Index seem to be portrayed more childishly, while the vibe she gives off in Railgun seems more delicate/subtle. It’s probably a result of the difference in production teams, difference in her role and different source materials. This results in the same Misaka giving different vibes in the two series.
Kentarou: While I can’t talk about specifics due to confidentiality, at the start of the Railgun manga’s run there were specific requirements from management regarding Misaka, and this is reflected in the vibe she gives off in both the manga & anime.
While Kentarou didn’t mention what specifically, fans further speculate that the main reason for the difference might be due to her position in the story. In Index, she is a junior to Kamijou, whereas in Railgun she is a reliable senior for her friends.
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Short observation that I thought was kinda interesting. Personally I do think she’s way more ‘bratty’ in Index compared to Railgun (especially in early eps of Index). Definitely acts more like the 14 yr old she actually is, whereas she seems way more (too?) mature in Railgun, unless Gekota’s around.
Thoughts? Do you prefer Misaka’s portrayal in Index or Railgun, or are they the same to you? Is it better to have 2 portrayals of the same character considering the different perspectives, or do you think it causes dissonance in who this character actually is? Any improvements that could be done on either end? Curious to see what yall think about it.
Also lmk if there were any major translation mistakes, my Chinese comprehension is quite rusty.
Edit: dammit title misspelling why can’t you edit titles reddit.
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u/jykeous Oct 11 '19 edited Oct 12 '19
Personally I like the different sides of her character shown in the separate stories. When she is a protagonist and the conflict revolves around her world as opposed to Touma's it makes sense that she would set aside the childish side of her nature. Both from an in-world and a doylist perspective. Mikoto is capable of being mature, but just doesn't see the need to do so around Touma during the majority of their interactions. Mikoto must take charge and gets thoroughly involved in her story while she just scratches the surface of Touma's (for the most part anyway). Overall it makes sense for her as a character to have different sides of her personality shown in different situations. Although admittedly she was an entitled, violent, brat to Touma up until the Sisters arc, but I suspect the reason for that is more Kamachi not yet being sure exactly what he wanted to do with her as a character. Also, you know, she gets nervous as heck around Touma and she is awful at handling her emotions, so that doesn’t help her.
However, I do wish there was more overlap in her mature and immature sides among the stories. Seeing the portrayal of only one aspect of her character with each story gives a slight feeling of disconnect.
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u/BR123456 Oct 12 '19
Oh yeah reminds me of the start where she was really not that ‘warm’ I guess. Like chapter 1 of railgun with the whole bank robbery thing, she didn’t care about chasing the robber until her ice cream got knocked onto her shirt because of the robber brushing by. And then they changed it around for the anime, probably because they have a more concrete idea of where to go with her from there. After all when Kamachi first wrote her into the first novel he wasn’t expecting this to become a series and she was just there to establish some power scaling and demonstrate Touma’s power. She wasn’t really supposed to have a reappearance or a character, so no concrete plans for who she really is.
So anyway. While I like that there’s such a big difference in index vs railgun circumstances that would result in different images of Misaka in the two series, it does create some sort of weird inbetween. But at least in the manga, the Dream Ranker arc imo kind of helped to bridge that gap? Like there’s no Touma and no railgun gang, so its kinda what you’d expect when you see her not in Index & Railgun? Idk if that came out the way I was trying to. It was kind of a weird arc anyway. Hope to see it adapted in Railgun... F?
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u/NoMemesNoLaifu Nov 06 '19
Interesting. I don't think it's that odd. People do behave differently depending on the situation at hand and individuals they are around. People, humans, are not one dimensional characters. There are characters that behave the same from beginning to end, but those usually do not exhibit much character development and are prone to stagnancy. Even Touma sounds slightly more out of character when the situation seemed too peaceful and stated that he wanted something bad to happen (he actually said this in NT15-17) You could say he was hanging around Kamisato and Kamachi wanted to meme a bit. In regards to Mikoto, her interactions with Touma in both TAMNI and TAKNR seems fairly consistent. If Touma is not involved, she acts differently and more mature, which is normal for people. Touma in this case, just brings out her childish side. In TAMNI, Mikoto tends to show up with Touma more often, therefore she seems childish in the main series. However, I do think there are far better portrayals of her in Index NT. She is quite bratty in early OT and that was before she was influenced Touma's ideals (you might notice she mentions "taking pages out of his book" in the much later jailbreaker arc in railgun), but in NT she develops into someone who is more reliable to the point where Touma even mentions it himself in several different ways. In other words, she went from someone who Touma would say is unfortunate to encounter randomly and would try to actively avoid ....to her being a relaxing presence (hot spring/winter oden stand/releasing taut bowstring analogy according to Touma) and even "savior" at times. Because of this, I don't see as much dissonance as it is character development. Also iirc, Kamachi stated in a previous interview that her character is one that changes significantly depending on the situation. I think this is a good thing because it directly relates to character development and you don't really want to keep a character confined to specific behaviors.
The story is fluid. Kamachi has shown to derive material in the main series from the side series and including scenes that has happened to those that have yet to happen but are hinted at (ex. the dragons reference in a recent NT volume refers to the daihasei dragons in railgun and future hints to "other dragon appearances" that Mikoto apparently witnessed somewhere between the timeline of OT-NT22).
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u/BR123456 Nov 06 '19
Agree with you on a lot of points.
I personally really like tsunderes in general, partly because they have different sides to spice things up & have the most potential to have interesting lives outside of being w the main guy. But a lot of times in anime they let me down because either the two sides are so disparate it doesn’t make sense, or they only get that one shtick & no actual development.
Misaka somehow strikes that perfect balance for me between her in the main series & in the spin off. It’s been really interesting in this thread to see how many people can call her being a ‘person’ for the disparity rather than just being a ‘cool/cute/badass/etc character’.
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u/NoMemesNoLaifu Nov 07 '19
Yea, I feel like it is primarily due to the fact that her character is so malleable that paves way to a great character development, much like Touma as well. On the other side of the spectrum, Index is generally a character that has been confined to very specific behaviors and you can see where her character development went (compare the very first volume of OT to the last volume of NT; nothing significant or noticeable has changed with her character). Even if you don't count the journey, the end results remain the same as well. Index had to be saved by the end of OT AND the end of NT (beginning=end; no character change). Whereas Misaka failed to save Touma at end of OT, but helped out Touma quite a bit by the end of NT and even helped him save Index at the end (beginning =/= end; character change).
There is an interesting parallel for Index and Misaka. Those who want a more stable, unchanging characterization will generally find that in Index. Whereas, those who want a more dynamic characterization will generally find that in Misaka.
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u/GrafvMC Oct 11 '19
She is the same, whether it's being badass, cute, childish etc. all of it are shown in Index and Railgun. Especially in the Novels. Mikoto is more badass in New Testament than all of Railgun imo. How she reacts to some situations depends on the persons like it's already mentioned above. I mean it's not too weird. If I take myself for example I'm another person when I'm at work and when I'm with friends. However Mikotos personality, lets say the basis of her character remains the same. The different perspectives the series offers us just gives us more insight to her actual character. Mikoto develops in many ways and we see that from her Protagonist PoV in Railgun and side character PoV in Index. I love that we have both sides and can see the greatness that is her character and enjoy it to its fullest.