Misaka Mikoto mouse pads for the desk

Here are Padrift's Misaka Mikoto mouse pads and desk mats, original designs inspired by the electric heroine of A Certain Scientific Railgun and A Certain Magical Index, printed edge to edge on 3 mm neoprene with a fabric top, a non-slip base and stitched edges. Eight footprints are on offer, the narrowest 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) and the widest 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm), and your pad only goes to print once your order comes in.

Neither Railgun nor Index has a series page in the shop, so Mikoto's page takes in her whole world: Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten, Tōma Kamijō, the Sisters and Academy City itself. Everything else from anime is on the Anime Mouse Pads page.

Two series, one city

Kazuma Kamachi's light novel series A Certain Magical Index began in 2004 with illustrations by Kiyotaka Haimura, and Mikoto first appeared there as a rival to its hero. In 2007 she got her own manga, A Certain Scientific Railgun, drawn by Motoi Fuyukawa, and J.C.Staff adapted both for television, Index from 2008 and Railgun from 2009. Railgun centers on Mikoto and her friends; Index follows Tōma, a boy whose right hand cancels any supernatural power, and Mikoto keeps crossing his path.

Academy City and the Level 5s

Both stories take place in Academy City, a walled city in western Tokyo where most residents are students and science is used to develop psychic abilities. Every student is ranked from Level 0, with no measurable power, to Level 5, and only seven people in the city hold the top rank. Mikoto is third among them, the strongest electromaster in Academy City and something of a celebrity at Tokiwadai Middle School, an elite girls' academy.

That setting gives designs a clean, futuristic backdrop: wind turbines on the rooftops, glass towers, drum-shaped cleaning robots and airships carrying giant news screens. It suits a modern desk with aluminum stands, monitor arms and white or silver peripherals.

The coin that gave her the name

Mikoto's signature move is the railgun. She flicks an arcade token into the air, accelerates it with electromagnetism and fires it at about three times the speed of sound, leaving a glowing orange streak behind it. Her nickname, Railgun, comes from the move, and so does the title of her series.

The shot is a perfect straight line, and a line is ideal for a long mat. On the M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm), or the L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm), Mikoto can stand at one end with her arm outstretched while the streak runs the full width above the keys. On the small pad, a single token with a spark at its rim is enough to tell the whole story.

Blue-white sparks and RGB

When Mikoto is angry, or embarrassed, which happens a lot, electricity crackles from her bangs in blue-white arcs. Tōma calls her Biribiri, a Japanese sound word for an electric jolt, which only makes things worse. Those sparks are the visual heart of most Mikoto art.

They also make her an easy character to light. Cool white or icy blue LEDs extend the glow of the sparks past the edges of the mat, and a black keyboard with blue backlighting looks like part of the same picture. Warm amber lighting dulls the arcs, so if your room runs on yellow bulbs, choose a daylight scene of Mikoto in uniform instead.

The Tokiwadai uniform

Mikoto is usually drawn in her school uniform: a white blouse under a cream sweater vest and a pleated skirt, with a small flower clip in her short light brown hair. For a girl who can black out a building when she loses her temper, it's a surprisingly modest look.

Uniform designs are the most office-friendly Mikoto option. Cream, white and gray sit quietly next to beige or white peripherals, and a calm everyday portrait reads very differently from a battle scene. They suit a study desk too, given how much of Railgun takes place between classes, in family restaurants and on the walk home.

Gekota and the frog collection

Under the tough exterior, Mikoto adores cute things, above all Gekota, a green frog mascot she collects in every form she can find, from keychains to phone straps. She is also embarrassed by it, since most people at Tokiwadai treat Gekota as something for small children.

A Gekota pattern is the most playful Mikoto design and a good fit for a small pad: little green frogs on a cream ground, perhaps with a single spark in the corner. It suits a pastel desk, a younger fan or anyone who prefers a quiet in-joke to a full portrait.

The vending machine kick

A vending machine in one of Academy City's parks swallows coins, and Mikoto has her own fix for it: a well-aimed kick that knocks a free can loose. It has become one of her trademark habits and a recurring gag across both series.

A kick-and-can design has a lot of motion, so give it space. On the 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm) size, the machine can stand at one side with Mikoto mid-kick and a can flying toward the center, a lively picture beside a laptop that doesn't need a large desk.

Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten

Railgun is a friendship story at heart. Kuroko Shirai, Mikoto's roommate and a teleporter, idolizes her to an embarrassing degree and calls her Onee-sama. Kazari Uiharu, recognizable by the band of flowers in her hair, is a gifted hacker, and with Kuroko she belongs to Judgment, the student disciplinary committee. Ruiko Saten is a cheerful Level 0 with no power at all who fits into the group anyway.

The four of them make a natural wide layout. On an XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm), they can stand in a row across the top half of the mat, Kuroko and Mikoto toward one end and Uiharu and Saten toward the other, with every face above the keyboard.

Iron sand and magnetism

Mikoto's power isn't limited to lightning. She can magnetize metal, cling to steel walls and pull iron sand out of the ground, shaping it into a vibrating blade or a whip. Iron sand designs are drawn in black and charcoal, gritty and dark, with lightning picking out the edges.

That texture suits a dark gaming desk. A field of black iron sand behind Mikoto hides wear well, and the grainy surface makes a good backdrop for a white or silver mouse. Keep the brighter lightning toward the top of the mat so it doesn't get lost under your hand.

Tōma Kamijō

Tōma is the one person in the city Mikoto can't beat. His right hand, Imagine Breaker, cancels her lightning on contact, which infuriates her, and her irritation slowly turns into a crush she would never admit to. Their arguments are one of the lighter running threads across both series.

A Mikoto-and-Tōma design works well as a split: sparks and blue on her side, his spiky black hair and plain clothes on the other, the keyboard in between. It suits a desk shared by two people who argue more than they let on, or anyone who watches Index for the episodes where she turns up.

The Sisters

Spoilers for the Sisters arc: Mikoto discovers that a research project has produced thousands of clones of her, the Sisters, for a secret experiment, and the arc is the most serious stretch of Railgun. The clones look identical to her except for the military goggles they wear on their foreheads and their flat, formal way of speaking, and the last and smallest of them, Last Order, becomes a character in her own right.

The Sisters give designers a striking repeat pattern: the same face again and again, goggles on, in a line that can run the length of a long mat. On the 3XL, 19.7″ × 39.4″ (50 × 100 cm), a row like that stretches across the top edge with Mikoto at one end, a bold, poster-like composition.

Mikoto on the gaming desk

A character who fires coins at three times the speed of sound belongs on a desk built for fast games. Lightning designs on black suit shooters and action games, and they look sharp under blue key lighting. The fabric top gives the mouse a quick, even glide, the non-slip base keeps the mat from shifting when you flick, and the stitched edges hold up under a forearm that rests on the front all evening.

Mikoto at mouse-pad scale

On the 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm) pad, your hand covers most of the surface, so pick a shape that reads in a single glance: the arcade token, a crackle of blue lightning, her flower hair clip or one Gekota. Place it in the top corner opposite your thumb, and keep the rest of the pad to a plain color that matches your desk.

Sizes for a Mikoto desk

Which sizes a design comes in depends on the design itself, and its product page spells them out. These suit Mikoto art.

Setup	Size	Good for
Mouse only	S, 11.8″ × 15.7″ (30 × 40 cm)	A single token or one Gekota
Laptop desk	TCG Mat, 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm)	The vending machine kick
Compact keyboard	M, 11.8″ × 27.6″ (30 × 70 cm)	The railgun shot across the top
Keyboard and mouse	XL, 15.7″ × 35.4″ (40 × 90 cm)	Mikoto, Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten
Deep desk	XXL, 23.6″ × 35.4″ (60 × 90 cm)	Iron sand rising behind her
The whole desk	4XL, 23.6″ × 47.2″ (60 × 120 cm)	Mikoto and Tōma, lightning against Imagine Breaker

Two further options suit long desks with limited depth: the L, 11.8″ × 31.5″ (30 × 80 cm), and the 3XL, 19.7″ × 39.4″ (50 × 100 cm).

Gifts for a Railgun fan

A Mikoto pad suits someone who started with Index and stayed for Railgun, a friend who collects frog merchandise without explanation or a gamer who already runs blue lighting. Choose lightning for a gaming desk, the uniform for a study desk and Gekota for someone with a soft spot for cute things. For a desk you've never seen, a TCG Mat at 14″ × 24″ (35.5 × 61 cm) fits beside a keyboard, a laptop or a tablet without anyone having to measure.

From order to doorstep, think of it as two stages: 1–3 business days to print the pad, then the trip from Turkey, which usually takes 2–5 business days to the US.

Keeping lightning crisp

Fine sparks and thin lines lose their snap when grime builds up, so wipe the pad with a lightly damp cloth once a week. For deeper cleaning, soak it briefly in lukewarm water with a few drops of mild soap and rub gently by hand. Rinse it well, squeeze the water out by pressing a towel against both sides and let it dry flat. A washing machine, a tumble dryer or an iron would damage it, so none of them should be part of the routine.

A note on names

Misaka Mikoto, A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Magical Index and the related names on this page only describe the inspiration for our designs. Padrift is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Kazuma Kamachi, Motoi Fuyukawa, Kiyotaka Haimura, Kadokawa or J.C.Staff.