Yes. She is.
Garrick: Well, I’m quite happy with the way this anime is taking us. It seems as if we’ve hit the actual story, since all the episodes seem to follow one another in plot and stuff. So, after the whole graviton incident, and upon realizing that something isn’t right, they search for a… level upper.
Garrick: This all coming after Kuroko realizing that a Level Two psychic, the perpetrator of the Graviton incident… created explosions of a level Four caliber. So, uh… that means that something is up with his powers, and, well… Kuroko and Mikoto are out to figure out what it is, and get information on it.
Garrick: By any means possible.
Don't cry...
Garrick: And, well, if that means that Mikoto has to act like a little girl, pretend to cry, and talk with a really cute voice in order to get information out of a group of guys that apparently know what the Level Upper is… then it’ll happen. And… well… it did.
Garrick: Meanwhile, Saten is nursing a sick Uiharu, and the whole idea of their being low levels (Saten being Level Zero, and Uihari being Level One), and their problems with it. Of course, they don’t mind it too much, but there’s a certain feeling of incompleteness and… well… especially compared to Level Four Kuroko, and Level Five Mikoto. Oh. And certain cute scenes between the two.
Yay?
Garrick: So… Back to Mikoto. After luring out a group of the guys to a dark alleyway… in order to pay them money to get information about Level Upper… She finally breaks. No more cute adorable Mikoto. Now we just have awesome ‘BiriBiri’ Mikoto. And within seconds, these “Level Upped” thugs get fried. Electrically.
Fried hand?
Garrick: And then their “boss” comes out, and, after getting the thugs to apologize for teaming up on a little girl… decides to fight her herself. And… uh….
Wheeeeee.
Garrick: Yes. Big boom. And oh… it just so happens that there’s a power station right behind them. Blackout? Yep. Go Mikoto.
Oops.
Garrick: And then, our Graviton incident perpetrator falls unconscious. Along with a few other people… one of looks familiar. It’s the weird-eyebrows girl in the case earlier. And who appears to settle things and investigate the problems with the two cases? Ah, yes. Miss-Undressing-Lady. Or… should I say.. Doctor Miss-Undressing-Lady?
Garrick’s Rating for Episode Eight: 9/10
Garrick’s Anticipation Scale: 10/10
I liked how the boss got her thugs to politely apologize. Such a nice scene — and probably especially poignant for them — after they had already been trounced by our Electric Princess. LOL.
And while I crave the Big Boom, I thought it was a nice touch that Mikoto was also able to use her wiles when approaching her targets in the restaurant — rather than just going in with guns blazing. Much more dynamic range for our main character.
It does feel like we’ve locked in the main arc now with the level-upper story and the Undressing Lady coming together. It’s cool that the writers have already introduced Mikoto and Touma to the expected antagonist. Also we get a tantalizing introduction in the school lesson at the beginning on “personal reality.” Later, we also get Uiharu’s confident explanation of this as something like delusion or belief. So this all makes level-upper is a very attractive plot device. Can’t wait.
That scene w/ the thugs was way more epic in the manga, cause not only was Mikoto more out of character, Touma showed up with his magnificent fail aura and everything turned to epic lulz. Of course, it wouldn’t be as awesome as blacking out the entire city, but it would be way more funny. The blackout was also from a Mikoto/Touma battle in the manga too, so no major plot changes here.
manga version of the scene(s) in question: http://www.onemanga.com/To_Aru_Kagaku_no_Choudenjibou/6/13/