It's snowing in the summer courtesy of Biri-biri and the AIM monster.
Summary:
The giant monster baby emerges from Kiyama's head and lets out a shockwave. Mikoto blocks the shockwave and hits the monster with lightning, but the monster quickly regenerates from the damage and grows even larger. The monster retaliates by firing ice spikes at Mikoto, but after that it just hovers in the air and ignores Mikoto. The monster is spotted the surviving Anti-Skill who open fire with their assault rifles, but all that does is make the monster grow even bigger. Back in the hospital, all of Level-Upper victims start struggling as if they were trapped in a nightmare, and the doctors and nurses wonder what's going on.
Back at the bridge, Kiyama wakes up and realizes that she has lost control of the Level Upper network to the monster. Kiyama states to herself that it's over, but she's approached by Kazari and Mikoto for help. Kiyama is is initially reluctant to help since Mikoto beat her up, but she was eventually convinced by Kazari's googly eyes to help. Kiyama explains that the monster is an amalgamation of the AIM (
I guess the Anti-Skill aren't completely useless, just mostly useless.
Back on top the bridge, the AIM monster grows tired of being shot by the Anti-Skills and it sends Yomikawa flying with a tentacle. The monster then tries to kill the other bespectacled Anti-Skill, but Mikoto arrives in time to save the Anti-Skill. Now that the Anti-Skills have stopped shooting, the AIM monster turns its attention towards a nearby nuclear facility, and Mikoto tells the Anti-Skill to help Kazari while she deals with the monster. Mikoto catches up with the monster and starts attacking it, and this causes the monster to haul attacks in all directions, some of them nearly hitting Kazari she is running towards the Anti-Skill. Mikoto is unable to stop the monster's progress and the monster reaches the nuclear facility. However at this moment the Anti-Skill and Kazari starts broadcasting the Level Upper antidote software all over the city, and this stops the AIM monster from regenerating with Mikoto's attacks and also calms down all the Level Upper victims in the hospital. Mikoto seizes the opportunity and fries the monster all the way through with a powerful lightning strike.
Mikoto wears shorts underneath her skirt because she knows she's going to be tossed around.
Biri-biri starts off the pwnage with a lightning strike...
... follows up with an iron sand blast...
... and delivers the knockout blow with the patented railgun coin!
Mikoto thinks the battle is over, but Kiyama arrives and states that Mikoto must destroy the core of the monster in order to defeat it for good. The monster regenerates and Mikoto can hear the voices of disillusionment from various Level Upper users including Ruiko. The monster attacks of all the tricks it has, but Mikoto turns up the voltage and slices, fries and blasts the monster with one powerful attack after another and finally destroys the monster's core with a railgun coin.
Kuroko gives Mikoto some much needed after-battle lovin'.
Back to normal.
After the battle, Kiyama is taken into custody by the Anti-Skills but she tells Mikoto and Kazari that she isn't giving up on her goal to save the orphans. Mikoto is then greeted by the worried Kuroko, while Kazari rushes to the hospital to check on Ruiko. Kazari finds Ruiko on the roof where Ruiko notes that her abilities are gone. After seeing Kazari all battered and bruised, Ruiko gives Kazari a hug and apologizes for making everyone worry and get into a dangerous situation. To show that she's completely recovered, Ruiko flips up Kazari's skirt, and the two friends play around as Mikoto and Kuroko watch from nearby.
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I was underwhelmed by this episode. It just wasn't as good as I though it would be. The special effects were nice as usual, but the fight was too drawn out and broken up. They spent too long on the AIM monster broadcasting the disillusionment and disappointments of the Level Upper users. I have a feeling that stuff was just tossed in so the episode reaches the required 24 minute run time. Inserting the OP song into the climax of the battle also wasn't a good choice. "Only My Railgun" is not exactly what I had in mind when it comes to battle music, even if this is Miss Railgun's show. They also never explained why the AIM monster was heading for the nuclear facility which was a notable oversight. The battle with the AIM monster would have been pretty exciting if it was more tightly coupled, but the way it was presented in this episode didn't work very well.
There was also some events that didn't make any sense, and after a quick flip through the manga I realized the culprits were the animators. In the manga, Mikoto and Kazari never met up during the battle, and it was only Kazari who talked to Kiyama when Kiyama woke up while Mikoto saved the bespectacled Anti-Skill from the AIM monster. This set of events is perfectly fine. In the anime however, both Mikoto and Kazari talked to Kiyama when she woke up. You would think that both Mikoto and Kazari would act simultaneously given that they were together, but that wasn't the way it happened. Mikoto went on to save the Anti-Skill and battle the AIM monster on the way to the nuclear facility, but it was only after that did we see Kazari heading towards the Anti-Skill which doesn't make sense. Kazari might not be the fittest girl out there, but I'm sure it doesn't take her five minutes to run up three flights of stairs. Why J.C. Staff decided to change these scenes from something that made sense to something that didn't make sense is beyond me.
Overall, the ending to the Level Upper arc was okay, but not as good as it could have been. At least it wasn't as disappointing as some of the arc conclusions from Index, and there was plenty of Biri-biri pwnage. In the end, Mikoto and Kazari save the day; Kiyama is arrested; and all is well. Hopefully Ruiko and the other Level Upper users have learned their lessons about the evils of performance enhancing music/drugs. Looking back at the whole story arc, the Level Upper arc was decent. It had drama, action, and comedy, some of which worked well and some of which didn't work as well, but as a whole it was somewhat enjoyable. Looks like the next episode is going to be an anime-only filler. I look forward to the episode where the Misaka-arc starts.
Last note: who was the lady at the nuclear facility? I didn't see her in the manga so it could be another anime original character.
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