A Certain Scientific Railgun is one of those anime that has gained a bit of cult status when it comes to the medium. This series, in many's opinions, surpassed the quality of its predecessor A Certain Magical Index. This quality, of course, includes the great characters that appear in Scientific Railgun.
One of those characters is the once side character and now major character in Railgun, Shirai Kuroko. The spinoff series gives this esper a lot of spotlight and shows a lot about her, but there may still be a bit that some don't know about her. This list will be taking a closer look at things that may have been missed.
10 SHE HELPED HER VOICE ACTOR WIN AN AWARD
Satomi Arai has never been a slouch when it comes to the world of voice acting. This amazing actress has made countless appearances in different anime and videogames. She's even voiced over four characters in different live-action television shows such as All That and The Sweet Life of Zack and Cody.
Her role as Kuroko won her a major award for Best Supporting Actress during the Annual Voice Actor Awards in 2010, which is no small feat for any voice actor.
9 SHE'S A CHARACTER WITH FEW DESIGN CHANGES
Kuroko is a character of the series that doesn't change much. In fact, Haimura was said to have "simply read her character description and drew her without any real influence in her design," according to hero.fandom.com. Her role in volume 8 of the series led to her change being slightly changed to reflect her higher importance in the series.
It is said by Haimura that Kuroko was the simplest character to transfer into manga format in the A Certain Scientific Railgun manga adaptation.
8 SHE IS MENTIONED IN ANOTHER ANIME
The second season of the anime Haiyore! Nyaruko-San W or Nyaruko-San: Another Crawling Chaos Kurokois actually mentioned. In this mentioning, it is teased who her unofficial parents are in a bit of a joke.
The character Cthugian Kuuko of the series says that they plan to have a baby with the male main character of the series who's name is Mahiro. When thinking of the baby's name she comes with Kuroko and even says that if it's a girl they'll enroll her in Academy City, which is where A Certain Scientific Railgun takes place.
7 SHE APPEARS IN A FIGHTING GAME
Kuroko actually appears as a character in the fighting game Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax: Ignition. In this game, she utilizes her martial arts skills, steel darts, and teleportation techniques in a very unique fighting style.
Her climax art has her use a large belt of darts and finishes things off with a teleportation dropkick. Her other climax art has her teleport her and her opponent inside a building before destroying the support pillars to destroy the building. Of course, she teleports out in time to just have her opponent get hit.
6 SHE SHOWS UP IN OOKAMI-SAN
Another anime that features a bit of an appearance from Kuroko is the series Ookami-san and her Seven Companions. She shows up in this anime flashing a mischievous smile at the viewers while she is playing the role of a potential bride for the character of the series, Nezumi Chuutaro.
She also sort of makes an appearance as the narrator of the series due to the fact that her voice actor is also the narrator's voice and uses her Kuroko voice for the part.
5 SHE HAS A SPECIAL LINGUAL TICK IN JAPANESE
One thing that those that watched the series in English dub may have missed is Kuroko's little verbal tick that she was given in Japanese. While it is normal for characters to end determinative sentences with the word "desu", in Japanese Kuroko ends her determinative sentences with the word "desu-no".
This is her unique label in the Index series and even makes an appearance in her signature catchphrase which is pronounced, "Jajjimento desu-no!".
4 SHE WAS CREATED AS A GIRL LIVING IN THE FUTURE
Kuroko was designed on the basis of being a girl living in the future. She is completely ignorant of everything that the present-day Japanese customs entail. This is seen many times throughout the series with a big example being her reaction to the "love umbrella" and other technology outside of Academy City.
She is a girl with a very modernistic outlook and is very oblivious when it comes to things of the past. This is one of the things that makes her such an iconic character of the series.
3 HER NAME HAS A DEEPER MEANING IN JAPANESE
The name Shirai Kuroko actually has two meanings attached to it which actually reflects on a few different aspects of the character. Kuroko's family name, Shirai, actually can be read as "white" and "water well".
Her name Kuroko can be seen as meaning "black" due to its stem "Kuro" and its suffix "ko". Kuro translates to black and ko is a suffix seen in Japanese female names. The term kuroko usually means stagehands. These Japanese theater members are usually seen dressed in all black.
2 HER NAME IS REFLECTED IN MAGIC INDEX
In the prequel series A Certain Magical Index there is a shadowy figure that appears dressed in all black that carries Index into the scene. This shadowy figure is a reference to the stagehands "kuroko".
It is also a reference to the actual Kuroko Shirai of the series due to the two ponytails that are coming from the sides of this kuroko's head. This figure is obviously another pun on Kuroko's name.
1 HER NAME IS SOMEWHAT REFLECTED IN HER FAMILY COMPANY
While not much is known about Kuroko's past, it is apparent that her family ran the White Spring Holdings company. This company owns many convenience stores and import supermarkets.
As said earlier, a part of her name can translate to "White Well" which is somewhat reflected by the piece of the company name "White Spring". Her being connected to the company through her family makes this connection even more apparent.