

In a city where 1,800,000 teenagers are struggling towards the same goal
(esper improvement), having only **seven** level 5 students would
automatically bump them into celebrity status.

Tokiwadai's uniform was always easily recognized even by Skill Outs (usually
followed by panic when they "remember" that school's top ace).

Misaka did a swimsuit modeling campaign. Hard to believe the company wouldn't
use the "Railgun wears our brand" selling point.

Misaka is also well known to jump into the fray even when the fray doesn't
want her there.

Is there any in-series explanation why doesn't everyone in Academy City know
Misaka's face? The out-of-series explanation is not of interest (e.g., "The
author wrote that way," etc).


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a-certain-magical-index a-certain-scientific-railgun
Why isn't Misaka Mikoto's face widely recognized?


In that society, they seem to not rank as famous just for their abilities.
Most of people (not all), didn't know Accelerator either. In Misaka's case,
there's also a deeper reason, Sisters. Since there would be that ammount of
clones, it would be really hard if when they released one, people noticed her.
Also, Sisters were to make Accelerator level up by murdering clones
periodically. If people knew any of them, they'd make a fuss if they spotted
them fighting, or even worse if they saw "Misaka" die, and reappear some days
later. That leads us to think that there's a missinformation campaign, that
lowers the information normal people gets from them. These also can destroy
any ads found with that information.


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**Introduction**

I'd like to make a few points on this matter. Firstly, even if her face isn't
known by everyone in Academy City, many people do recognize Misaka Mikoto.
Secondly, Academy City has the motivation and the means to keep Misaka's fame
level down. These points are partially in conflict since I'm arguing on one
hand that Misaka is famous, but on the other hand I'm saying she isn't. I
don't think these points are irreconcilable, but my goal here is mostly just
to present evidence and analysis from the light novels and manga rather than
to reconcile the two points.

**Analysis**

In the first novel, Mikoto says this on pages 6-7:

> Hey, have you heard? They're developing some military-grade little 'sisters'
> for me, based on my DNA, that they can use in the army. I guess the by-
> products were sweeter than the ultimate goal, huh?

The Railgun manga and other works in the franchise expand on this comment,
explaining that it is a rumor Mikoto has heard. Since we know from later works
in the series that this rumor is actually true, it is probable that it was
started (or at least helped along) by mysterious sightings of look-alikes of
Mikoto Misaka. In this case, people would have to have an idea of what she
looks like. The Tokiwadai uniform obviously helps a great deal at identifying
her.

Now, there are some possible reasons that Mikoto Misaka wouldn't have
celebrity status. First off, Academy City is a very secretive place, and
Mikoto Misaka is an invaluable research subject. Touma Kamijou comments
several times on how secretive and stingy the place is in protecting the
secrets of its curriculum, including in volume 4 on page 2:

> Plus in consideration of its own secrets, as well as the potential threat of
> student kidnappings (read: theft of test samples), Academy City stubbornly
> disliked allowing its students outside of its walls. Gaining permission to
> leave required three written applications, the implanting of microscopic
> devices in your bloodstream, and the arrangement of a legal guardian...

So, Academy City is very secretive and might prefer to keep their top espers
out of the public spotlight. They have the means to do so, too. The very
reason Touma is on vacation at the beach in the fourth volume is so that the
some information control can be done regarding his recent activities:

> The upper echelons of Academy City were the ones most bothered by the
> commotion. They said to him, "Hey, hey, Mr. Kamijou. We'll fix this up with
> our information control, so go away somewhere you won't cause needless
> chaos, stupid."

So, from these passages from the fourth novel, we know that Academy City is
very secretive and that it has great influence over the information released
inside and outside the city with regards to their research.

Lastly, volume 7 of the Railgun manga has a great deal to say on this issue.
_Chapter 43: Negotiation_ partly chronicles the attempts of a committee to
find a public representative for the Daihasei Festival from among the level 5
espers and they mention that the Daihasei Festival will be broadcast to the
world. The committee tries to get Mikoto Misaka as the representative, hailing
her as "the most normal level 5". When the committee representative speaks to
the headmaster of Tokiwadai, the representative comments on Misaka's past
experience performing demonstrations in Russia. The headmaster refuses the
committee member's request. The headmaster's reasoning is explained in
thoughts and flashbacks: Based on previous incidents, the headmaster thinks
putting Misaka into the limelight isn't good for her. In the flashbacks, we
see these three phone calls:

> "I witnessed your Misaka kicking the vending machine."  
>  "A person resembling Misaka was chasing a high school boy!"  
>  "A person I believe to be Misaka-san was playing some sort of survival game
> in the backstreets."

Once again, these phone calls show that Mikoto is recognized by some people.
This isn't the only point I'm trying to make here, however. The headmaster
believes the public spotlight has had negative effects on Mikoto, and has been
trying to keep her away from it. This attempt to get her away from the media
could be a reason she isn't widely recognized. Without constant attention from
the media, many people could start to forget what she looks like.

**Conclusion**

My conclusions are that Misaka is more widely recognized than the question
indicates, but at the same time, Academy City is likely to be suppressing
Misaka's fame because she is a valuable test subject and they vigilantly guard
the secrets of their curriculum, so it isn't unusual that everyone in the city
doesn't recognize her. If anyone disagrees with one or both of these
conclusions, I hope at least the passages and analysis were useful and
provided some hints as to where to look for more information.


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