To Aru Kagaku no Railgun - Episode 22

By the end of the last episode of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Misaka's suspicions about a correlation between the Level Upper saga and the current Poltergeist incidents seems to have been confirmed as we learn that Haruue's friend is one of the "Child Errors" under Harumi Kiyama's care.

These suspicions only intensify as we learn that Kiyama has in fact been bailed and is on the loose once again... but is the cause of these incidents really that simple? Apparently not, as we also learn of the involvement of a "mad scientist" known as Gensei Kihara, whose whereabouts are unknown while his claim to fame is experiments to try and create a "level six" esper. Thus, as the episode progresses the disparate threads of the current goings-on come together, as Misaka goes solo to track down both further clues and Harumi Kiyama, before finding herself directly involved in the case in more ways than she had most probably planned.


While I praised the last episode of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun for finally bringing us away from all that filler into the realms of a proper story, this particular instalment really kicked things up a notch yet again, as it proved to be arguably one of the best efforts of the series yet. This episode managed to be engaging on many levels beyond the wider ramifications of its story arc, thanks to the creation of friction between Uihara and the rest of her friends and Misaka's confrontation with Kiyama, both of which added an extra level (a level six, you could say) to the experience as a whole. Add to that some of the best animation to come from this series of late, and a minor revelation about Uihara's esper powers (she's definitely now the anime character I'd sent to go pick up some fresh doughnuts), and you have yourself pretty much everything that is good about this franchise at its best. It took a little while to get there in the second half of the series, but it looks like we're on course for an excellent ending to this story arc.