The strength of the weak prevails. I was initially so dumbfounded that the school’s entire plan was to try not to have anyone get out and make it a tie. Turns out, they had some pretty decent strats. Most of that is from Baba though, so it feels a bit wrong but, hey, a victory is a victory! I was actually not expecting Tokiwadai to lose so even if it was close, the fact that they lost is a surprise. The headmasters watching from the office kind of insinuated that maybe a minor ulterior motive of the festival games are to put some of the students in their place. Walking around as level 3’s and above, I can’t imagine the cockiness that comes with that. It’s such a quantifiable measurement of how much better you are than everyone else. It’s pretty benign in most cases, but just looking at that level 4 esper in the beginning who got so shook when she lost her balloon, oh that was a sweet feeling. The enemy school’s strategy kept reminding me of the speech that Shiro gives in No Game No Life (obligatory, season two when?!) about Imanity being the strongest because they’re so weak.

So the Sister did about as well as I expected. Her diminished esper levels were pretty balanced out by her combat skills. Listen, if she died 10,000 times and gained combat experience each time and her choice to run is the Naruto run, isn’t that the ultimate proof that it’s the most efficient running choice? I think soooo~. Misaka, watching from the stadium, seemed a bit bummed that no one noticed it wasn’t her, but it looks like at least two people did. I’m sure Kuroko would’ve noticed too but she didn’t get to see the screen at all. Mental Out definitely noticed, judging by her brief talk on the phone and then the scene at the end. Kongo also seemed at least somewhat aware of the fact that Misaka was different. Speaking of Kongo, in small doses, I love how extra she is. When she got out and was making a final speech to her classmates before being asking to move to the sidelines was amazing. Then the students from the other school wondering how she was already so pompous after only just transferring in.

Can’t forget Uiharu and Saten this episode. Uiharu casually taking out 3 semi-pro cyber attacks, a failed skirt flipping, and now it looks like the two are going to research the Shadow Metal more closely. It seems like Uiharu is just humoring Saten right now since she has nothing else to do, but I’m sure this information will be preeeetty important later on. Maybe Uiharu’s hacker skills will reveal classified files and such.

Anyway, the most important thing this episode is very clearly that Mental Out has a Sister now. That mosquito robot, mosquitobot, that Baba was controlling injected her with something. Maybe this was obvious already, but I guess that means Baba’s team MEMBER and Mental Out are working together? I didn’t recognize the man standing with her at the end over the body, but that is also probably 100% my brain being an idiot.

OH, and Touma’s first appearance!! How could I forget. I ship the shit out of them, as I’m sure most people do. He is in the opening too, so I’m sure he’ll play a role later on but it was nice to see him. I would love Index if it weren’t for… Index so seeing him crossover is admittedly one of my favorite themes of Railgun.