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Originally Posted by Mentar
A pretty silly way to summarize the episode, sorry. Have to disagree entirely. The talk before the fight was quite relevant in explaining several issues (origin of Index and her abilities, reasong why she is hunted). During the fight itself there was almost no typical shounen boasting, rather Index's computerized explanation of Stiyl's powers (also relevant). There was a proper explanation on why the fight ended the way it did other than the typical-shounen mystical powerup. Post-fight, we got more explanations about the differences between magic and esper abilities. And where you have the so-called "shallowness" is a mystery to me too - since it's already clear that Stiyl isn't a run-the-mill badguy at all.
I mean, I know that you have the tendency to go a bit overboard when feel like dissing, but this time I'd say you're simply factually off. I for one have to say that I can remember no show in this season with higher production values - and Shakugan no Shana's fighting scenes were probably among the most popular and watched (and downloaded) shows of their respective seasons. So that's not too bad in my book 
In a nutshell, Index is no shounen action. Treating it as such is oversimplifying things tremensously. |
If it's not a shounen action, then what is it? A mystery series? All of it is pretty straightforward. We already know about Index's power and why she'd be highly sought after. They spent close to ten minutes in this episode with Touma avoiding fire monsters and Stiyl throwing flashy blasts of fire across the screen. So what if we don't get powerups and obnoxious, conceited exchanges of dialogue, they still have the fantastic powers and lengthy fight sequences that are a hallmark of shounen action series. Add in hot-headed, temperamental, violently-inclined characters and pointless lolis and you have another two characteristics common to some (not all) shounen action series.
An anime doesn't have to resemble DBZ or Naruto to be a shounen action series. Claymore, My-HiME and Idolm@ster Xenoglossia are all shounen action, the difference is that they're good shounen action because they actually bother adding a past, a set of motivations, and an intricate web of relationships to their characters. That's what makes their stories so involving... you actually come to care about what's going to happen to these characters. How can I bring myself to care about this lot:
Touma: "I have no idea what's going on around me but I'm just hot-headed enough to not back down."
Index: Two personalities, one a happy loli, the other a robotic loli with a library in her head.
Komoe: Moe-blob psuedo-loli.
Stiyl: Has fire magic powers and crap. Same evil smile on his face for the entire episode.
When they weren't fighting, the other half of the episode was spent with them talking about the rules of the universe. It was basically a lecture to the audience. I'm not interested in that crap, I don't watch anime to get lengthy lectures about the magic systems of a fictional universe. Yes, they had to explain things, but couldn't they have figured out a more interesting way to do so than have two people, two very boring characters, no less, stand there and talk?
I can only assume that this gets better once it gets out of its "set up" phase, because it can't get much more boring than that. I don't know why people are going nuts for it, though, since the episode can be easily split into long-winded explanations of the rules and a lengthy fight sequence which is all flash and just about zero in the way of genuine drama and suspense. Between this and the popularity of Shakugan no Shana, it makes me think you can just about forgo characterization and storytelling and still quell the audience with well-animated flashes of fire. Yes, popular anime are often crap. Don't worry, this doesn't keep me up at night anymore.