Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T Episode 03

Balloon Hunter (バルーンハンタ) is the 3rd episode of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T. It was broadcast on January 24th 2020. The episode was directed by Onoda Yuusuke, the screenplay written by Yasukawa Shogo, and storyboarded by Yuki Shingo.

Mistaken for Mikoto, Misaka's clone joins the Balloon Hunter event as a participant. Tokiwadai Middle School, which triumphs when it comes to the quality of their abilities, thought that the conservative strategy employed by the opposing school at the start of the match meant an easy victory for them. But, for some reason, they became eliminated one by one. This was the clever scheme of Baba, the brains of the opposing school. This boy, who actually belongs to the Dark Side organization MEMBER, gathered data from the players of Tokiwadai Middle School and developed countermeasures against them for the sake of a particular mission.

Amidst all this, the Misaka clone makes a steady advance, putting her experience from "a certain" experiment to good use. On the other hand, Baba makes a move, reaching his original target so that he can follow through his plan to incapacitate "Misaka Mikoto".

Adapted From

 * Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 045
 * Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 046
 * Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 047

Major Events

 * The Balloon Hunter event between Tokiwadai Middle School and an unnamed school where Baba Yoshio stands as a participant. Due to the extensive data about the personality and weaknesses of the participants of Tokiwadai, the prestigious school loses in the event. This loss was later set up by key members of the Tokiwadai faculty to teach a lesson to its students.
 * Baba Yoshio carries out the plan to incapacitate Misaka Mikoto. Unaware that the Original was "replaced" by a clone, Baba targets the "Mikoto" and renders her unconscious using a mosquito-like device he operates remotely.


 * Kamijou Touma meets Shokuhou Misaki for the first time since his memory loss.

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Hazamaya Kana
 * Misaka 10032
 * Kongou Mitsuko
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Kirifu Megumi
 * Kobayashi Satori
 * Baba Yoshio
 * Shokuhou Misaki
 * Misaka 10032's cat
 * Accelerator (referenced-only)
 * Wannai Kinuho
 * Awatsuki Maaya
 * Ekaterina (referenced-only)
 * Shirai Kuroko
 * Watanabe
 * Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor
 * Misaka Misuzu
 * Kamijou Touma
 * Kamijou Shiina (referenced-only)
 * Keitz Nokleben

New Characters

 * Omoshi

Abilities

 * Telekinesis
 * Kirifu Megumi, Level 4
 * Unnamed esper from Baba Yoshio's school, Level 2
 * Telepathy - Kobayashi Satori, Level 3
 * Teleport - Shirai Kuroko, Level 4
 * Mental Out - Shokuhou Misaki, Level 5 (referenced)
 * Electromaster (Railgun-variant) - Misaka Mikoto, Level 5
 * Imagine Breaker - Kamijou Touma

Locations

 * Academy City
 * School District 7
 * School Garden
 * Tokiwadai Middle School
 * Judgment 177 Branch Office

Trivia

 * Three unnamed students of Tokiwadai Middle School are voiced by Kubota Yukari, Kuroki Juri, and Sasaki Hitomi.
 * Eight unnamed students of opponent school are voiced by Ishi Takayuki, Satou Gen, Kobayashi Chiaki, Ishikari Yuuki, Nemoto Miyari, Motomiya Kana, Fukuhara Katsumi, and Matsuoka Youhei.
 * Because of this episode, the 11th Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index light novel, featuring Shokuhou Misaki and Kamijou Touma's past, was out of stock as of writing (January 26, 2020) in Kadokawa's website.

Referbacks

 * With a cut on the right side of his cheek, the events of this episode has already passed the events of episode 10 of Toaru Majutsu no Index II and most of the first half of episode 11.

Differences in Adaptation

 * Kongou Mitsuko is referred to as a transfer student, despite the chapter where she debuts in the manga not being adapted due to her being introduced in the anime in episode 1 instead (she was even referred as a transfer student by Kuroko in the aforementioned episode).
 * The restaurant Mikoto and her mother is in features the same tileset as the one they and Touma's family were in Index II but features different furniture.
 * Index and Oriana Thomson's cameos are removed in this adaptation.

Animation Trivia

 * Both Baba's Type: Mosquito and the Homing Cameras are all rendered in CGI.
 * A new sound effect was used for the activation of Imagine Breaker in this episode.

Unanswered Questions

 * How will Misaki and Keitz deal with the unconcious Misaka 10032?