Mikoto and Kuroko investigate a gang of armed Level 0s called Big Spider who have been attacking abilities users.It wouldn't be a Railgun episode without a bit of yuri fondling.Summary:In a back alley, Kuroko, Konori and Kazari are investigating an attack against Mitsuko. Mitsuko was surrounded by a gang of Level 0s and a strange headache rendered her unconscious. However, before losing consciousness, Mitsuko remembers a man with a spider tattoo on his back intervened and beat up all the thugs. While listening to Mitsuko, Kuroko notices that Konori seems to be acting weird, but Konori tells Kuroko that there's nothing wrong with her. Later back at the Judgment branch, Kuroko and company discuss the case further and they determine that a Skill Out (armed Level 0s) gang called Big Spider is responsible for the attacks. Konori, appearing to be quite familiar with the subject, states that Big Spider used to have an honor code but has become ruthless in recently.Deep down, Kazari is wondering why she hangs out with these two weirdos.Later in the day, Mikoto learns about the attacks and inserts herself into the investigation. Back at the Judgment office, Kazari tells Mikoto and Kuroko that the leader of Big Spider is a man by the name of Kurosma who has a spider tattoo on his back. After learning that Big Spider is headquartered in the 10th district nicknamed "Strange", Mikoto and Kuroko decide to go investigate. They ask if Konori want to come along, but Konori lies that she has paperwork to do. Later back in her dorm room, Konori wonders if the man with the spider tattoo is a senpai she had known before.Drink milk, kids.Because this is what can happen to you if you don't drink milk.Shortly after arriving at the rundown "Strange", Mikoto and Kuroko are approached by a gang of thugs. Mikoto and Kuroko are about to hand the thugs a beating, but suddenly a milk-drinking man intervenes and beats up the thugs. Afterwards, Mikoto and Kuroko talk with the stranger who reveals that he hasn't been to "Strange" in two years. Kuroko asks the man if he knows anything about Big Spider and Kurosma, but the man warns Kuroko and Mikoto to not mention Big Spider before wandering off. Mikoto and Kuroko think the man is rather suspicious, but they decide not to follow the man.Nice sound system, although it's a bit weird that they use big speakers to generate high frequency sound.After beating up a band of thugs from Big Spider, Mikoto and Kuroko eventually find their way to Big Spider's headquarters and are confronted more thugs and a man who claims to be Kurosma. Mikoto and Kuroko think nothing of the thugs, but suddenly both are hit with a strange headache which renders them unable to control their abilities. Kurosma points to a speaker system in a nearby van and states that the device, called Capacity Down, emits a sound that has no effect on Level 0s but messes up abilities users. Things look bad for Mikoto and Kuroko, but suddenly the milk-drinking man from before appears and pulls the plug on the speakers. The thugs recognized the man from previous beatings, and "Kurosma" looks as if he is seeing a ghost. The man refers to "Kurosma" as Hebitani, and Hebita can't believe the milk-drinking man is still alive. Hebitani orders his thugs to attack the man, but the man easily takes out all of them and Hebitani runs away with a few thugs. After the fight, Mikoto and Kuroko figure out the milk-drinking man is the real Kurosma. Suddenly, Konori appears out of nowhere, and Mikoto and Kuroko are surprised that Konori and Kurosma seem to know each other.Had to include a screen shot of Konori, but I don't really have a good caption since she didn't do anything interesting this entire episode.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Firstly, we have new OP and ED this week. The OP song is still by fripside and the ED song still by ELISA. Both are okay songs, but I think the old ones were better. Maybe the songs will grow on me later on. As for the animation sequences, the ED is just Mikoto's 4-koma playing around. The OP is more interesting in comparison. Judging by the sequence, this season of Railgun won't be covering the Misaka arc in the manga. Rather there will probably be a story arc about the evil glasses lady (not the dorm supervisor) voiced by Sayaka Ohara. It's interesting that Kiyama still received a substantial amount of screen time in the OP, so perhaps she will make a return some time during this season. Lastly, there is a brief glimpse of Index along with Touma in the OP, but I'm guessing those two will be at most making brief cameos.Moving on to the episode, it was rather mediocre. The preview from last week was misleading since it only showed the brief action scene near the end of the episode, and that was the only action scene. I was expecting more beatdowns. The Skill Outs didn't turn out to be very interesting either since they mostly relied on numbers to take down abilities users. The Capacity Down system was the only somewhat cool trump card Big Spider had, but now that Kurosma has pulled the plug on that there's not much else left in regards to the present story. Without that noise generator, Hebitani and the thugs pose zero threat to Mikoto and Kuroko. It was also disappointing that despite all the hinting about Konori's connection with Kurosma, Knonori herself ends up doing nothing until the end of the show. Next episode will probably be Kurosma moping up what's left of Big Spider and maybe a trip down memory lane about Kurosma and Konori's history, which doesn't sound too exciting. Seeing that every episode will be anime-original from now on, hopefully this episode isn't an indication for the rest of the season. I'll be satisfied if Mikoto gets to blow stuff up every so often.
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