Greetings! Well after 9 months and multiple (understandable) delays the third season of A Certain Scientific Railgun is now complete. It has been one heck of a ride getting to this point with 25 great episodes of one of my favorite anime franchises. I already discussed Railgun T’s 1st arc after it finished airing so if you want my thoughts on that check out the post which is linked. However, I do have some unfinished business with the season’s final arc. The Dream Ranker Arc had a tough task in following up with the superb Daihassei festival arc. Can the second half of the series ride the high from the 1st half? Does the ending of the season stick the landing? Well I am about to share my thoughts on the final arc. This won’t be a hugely in depth analysis like I did for the first arc, just some general thought about the final arc. I will likely tackle a more in depth look when I do my series retrospective.

Before I go any further I will say that the Dream Ranker Arc was actually quite enjoyable. The events of the arc felt like a natural continuation of the events of the 1st half. It was to see some subtle changes to the status quo for the characters. Misaki continues to be important to the story and you can definitely see that her relationship with Mikoto has certainly evolved since the start of the season as they find themselves working together again. And while they still have disagreements you can see more comradery than you did at the start of the season. I was also happy to see the plot threads from the previous arc addressed at various points of this story. The pace and tone of the arc is different in the arc as is standard for the series up to this point. And that is fine with me. I love that the series shifts tone a bit after it concludes a central arc. It allows for more fun episodes and character interactions. What is great is that these tonal shifts are not so jarring that it ruins the narrative.

The arc is structured a bit differently that other arcs. It features multiple mini mini narratives at different points for the entire main cast all of which culminate into the arc’s climax. While I love Mikoto as a character it was nice to see the other cast members take the spotlight at different points of the arc. Railgun’s cast of characters is so strong that sidelining the main character for a few episodes doesn’t hurt it at all. In fact, it strengthens the narrative by allowing for increased world building and characterization for the other members of it’s cast. It is a great reminder that our cast is not in an exclusive bubble and the core characters can have adventures on their own. It really was a nice touch. This is all packed into an arc that is only 9 episodes long or a little over a third of the season’s length. Sure it helped that we were already following well established characters at this point but it is still quite impressive. In addition the series does a great job in ensuring that any loose threads from the first arc are tied up by the end of the season.

As usual, the visuals and audio for the series are top notch. Academy City looks as great as ever, the action sequences are well choreographed, the soundtack is as awesome as ever, and the voice cast for both the Japanese and English versions did an amazing job. Considering the additional hurdles needed to get out productions the fact that they quality of the work is so great is really quite impressive.

If I had one minor nitpick concerning the arc it would be that it needed to be longer. There are a lot of great things presented in this story. There are so many components that could honestly have been an arc in itself and it would have been great if we got to spend more time with them. I would have been excited to see Saten and Frenda hang out for a few more episodes or letting Uiharu and Kuroko spend a little more time figuring out the mystery that they were addressing. This is a minor nitpik as the threads were all handled quite well and with a satisfying conclusion. I just felt that there was enough there to give us a longer arc in the line of the Sisters or Daihassei festival arcs.

After the high stakes drama and action of the Daihessei festival, the Dream Ranker story arc is a nice tonal shift. And while there is not nearly as much to talk about with this final arc considering the arc’s structure and length, I still had a great time with watching this story. And while I feel satisfied with the ending to a spectacular 3rd season, I am hopeful that we will see season 4 sooner rather than later. Fans waited a long time for season 3 and the wait was certainly worth it. let’s just hope we don’t have to wait as long to return to Academy City and watch Misaka and friends in action.

And that concludes my thoughts on the final arc of Railgun T. What did you think of the arc? Please comment below or on Twitter (@Railgunfan75). I apologize for the inactivity the last few weeks as free time as come at a premium for me. I hope to be posting regularly again at some point but exactly when that will happen is unknown. I have some ideas in mind such as full series retrospective for Railgun, it is just a question of finding the time to get them done. So until next time this is railgunfan75 signing off. Stay safe, stay respectful, and stay geeky my friends!