After dragging it out for a two months, I finally put a stake through this affair. So, was the horror realized? No, it wasn't. Railgun is nowhere as disturbing as original Nanoha and all the apprehension was for nothing. There wasn't anything in it for me to like, but it's ridiculous what circus I made from it. Usually lesser bloggers use the epithet "forgettable" in such cases.
Poor Mitsuko Kongo (CV: Minako Kotobuki): she is not a main character.
Just one more thing. At CJ's one "lvlln" proclaims:
The Railgun side show failed just as hard, except that it mainly consisted of a poorly conceived and executed story of friendship.
I beg to differ, as Railgun's story of friendship was quite well executed, for generic anime. It has no subtlety of Azumanga, power of Gurren-Lagann, or tragedy of Figure 17, but it is competently made. A little too by the numbers, perhaps. If this is a hard failure, what is left to say about actual failures?
If I wanted to make grand pronouncements, I would aim for something like this:
<Kurogane> i wouldn't say Railgun was on the level of torture.
<Kurogane> it was mediocre but it had some moments.
But mostly I just want to move on.
UPDATE: No way, I did not agree to any OVAs. Steven definitely was the decisive influence, as he edged me on with special posts... The honor that not even President Obama receives often. But in the end it is what it is. BTW, I addressed his question of "too much lesbian jokes" directly in the opening bracket.
UPDATE: Aside from the friendship angle, I particulary noted the way Railgun saved Kiyama from the self-destructive spiral of "ends-justify-means" evil, from which usually there is no exit. It was just as well-presented as the friendship, only not realized by the bloggers.