To Aru Majutsu no Index II - Overall Season Impressions & Total Rating

[frubam]

Looks like I missed the party .

Anyway, I can't say I really enjoyed the story aspect of this season; it just didn't manage to capture me like the first season did. It wasn't bad, just uninteresting. Part of it was because Touma wasn't working alone most of the time. (I think) Only in the last arc(s) when he "worked" with Accel and saved Mizuru did it feel like old times again. Another reason is, yes, I gotta say it, Touma's lengthy compositions to his enemies. Again, when he saved Mizuru, he practically ran into enemy hands, kicked their asses(unknowingly with Accel's help) and saved her. He spends, like, 30 secs talking to the head thug after getting beat up a little, and Touma's proceeds to kick his ass. If more of the story was like that, it'd been far more enjoyable. The Accel story-related were great though, if not a bit too segmented at times(like jumping to Touma or whatever).

Not much to say about the art/animation. Since I was more enthralled with the comedy scenes and those were done fairly well, sometimes at top quality for the series, so I was at least glad in that regard. Some of the action scenes though looked kinda sloppy =0\.

What I DID like though, is the non-Index [romantic]comedy. For me, it clearly shows why Misaka got her own spinoff series, and it was sheer delight seeing her interact and those involved with her(Kuroko, Mizuru, Imouto(s), Last Order) with Touma. Fukiyose was also an excellent, refreshing char, not being the least bit stereotypical. Hell, even the short Kaori/Touma moment were amusingly cute X03. Of course, there were other comedic moments that didn't involve Touma at all(the girls and the washing machine, Imouto vs LO, to name the few), and those were fairly amusing as well.

Index/Touma interaction was pretty much failure though. They overdid the 'bite' thing WAY too much for my tastes. It's like she turned from moeblob(1st season) to tsundere, and that was a transition I did not find to pleasing. Oddly, I was more entertained with Index/any non-Touma char(Komoe, Accel) was more enjoyable than almost all the Touma/Index ones. I did like the one where she missed the bite and gave him a kiss. That was prob the ONLY one I liked.

Which makes me give it a score of 7/10. The comedy was far richer than the serious moments, so despite these shortcomings, I'll be coming back should a 3rd season be made.

[kyosak]

ok am i the only one who was left completely confused watching this?
there was a bunch of crap happening toward the end of this season and not much of it made sense to me.
no i didn't read the novels.
i don't really expect to look up a wiki while i'm watching a show either.
have fun with 3rd season if there is one... im not coming back
unless it's railgun...

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by kyosak

ok am i the only one who was left completely confused watching this?
there was a bunch of crap happening toward the end of this season and not much of it made sense to me.

The only Index story arc I ever fully understood was the first one from the first series, honestly... I enjoy the show, but usually only have a dim understanding of exactly what's supposed to be going on. Everyone else seems to comprehend things a lot better than I do, so I really don't know whether my poor understanding has more to do with me or the show.

[Chaos2Frozen]

I agree that it can sometimes get mess with the little details, but I refuse to believe anyone that actually turned on their brains at even 50% output wouldn't get the general idea each episode.

[Zakoo]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

I agree that it can sometimes get mess with the little details, but I refuse to believe anyone that actually turned on their brains at even 50% output wouldn't get the general idea each episode.

It's really hard to say this, because we have already read the novel so we can see and understand each hints in the episode, but for someone who didn't read it they can't see them and even if they see them they won't understand it probably.

For example, at the end of Move Point arc, Touma saves Kuroko and to do that, he climbs on some stairs. for someone who didn't read the novel, that's no sense to see him playing the ninja ( hell yeah that's what someone told me on another board ), if you have read the novel, you know it was Mikoto who by using magnetism, stuck things together. That changes a lot of things, don't you agree?

To begin with, adapting a light novel is hard because what is obvious when it's written isn't once it's animated

[Haak]

It's only volume 7 in the anime that I didn't really get. Everything else i could understand but it's no good saying you can get the general idea. You can get the general idea but it takes more than that to make you care about what's happening. You have to actually feel involved. You have to be given time for the exposition to sink in and make sense. It has to be presented in a way that you can follow. The second series wasn't completely incomprehensable but when such technobabble are important plot points in story then only having a general idea will make give the whole plot far less impact thn if you understood what was going on and could appreciate the various twists and turns.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Zakoo

It's really hard to say this, because we have already read the novel so we can see and understand each hints in the episode, but for someone who didn't read it they can't see them and even if they see them they won't understand it probably.

For example, at the end of Move Point arc, Touma saves Kuroko and to do that, he climbs on some stairs. for someone who didn't read the novel, that's no sense to see him playing the ninja ( hell yeah that's what someone told me on another board ), if you have read the novel, you know it was Mikoto who by using magnetism, stuck things together. That changes a lot of things, don't you agree?

To begin with, adapting a light novel is hard because what is obvious when it's written isn't once it's animated

I disagree; while having background knowledge does help connect the dots easier, the show itself have not reached End-of-Eva class of utter incomprehension. The general idea has always been within grasp of people who just pay it the slightest attention.

If they want to get deeper into the details then I agree that they won't find all the answers in the anime.

Originally Posted by Haak

It's only volume 7 in the anime that I didn't really get. Everything else i could understand but it's no good saying you can get the general idea. You can get the general idea but it takes more than that to make you care about what's happening. You have to actually feel involved. You have to be given time for the exposition to sink in and make sense. It has to be presented in a way that you can follow. The second series wasn't completely incomprehensable but when such technobabble are important plot points in story then only having a general idea will make give the whole plot far less impact thn if you understood what was going on and could appreciate the various twists and turns.

Actually, I agree with you. My one true disappointment is that certain scenes just aren't as impactful as I had felt reading the novel. There's just a lack of 'feeling' behind them. Normally I just suck it up, but in the 0930 invasion arc, they wasted a perfectly good chance to capture Accelerator's despair from not being able to save Last Order and Index's desperation to stop Touma from 'killing' Hyouka.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

they wasted a perfectly good chance to capture Accelerator's despair from not being able to save Last Order and Index's desperation to stop Touma from 'killing' Hyouka.

Disappointment on this part.

This scenes where left bland for my taste. Specially the part where Index is running over and shouting don't kill houka. The novel give emphasis on it but the anime leaves it just like an ordinary conversation between touma and index.

[I_am_Kami]

Hopefully they don't mess S3 up whenever it comes out or I just wont know what to do.

[Bonta Kun]

I think the best I can muster for this season is a 6 or maybe a 7, on the whole very meh which is a rather big disappoint considering I really liked the 1st season.

My main problem stems from how they handled certain scenes or just scenes in generally.
I know you kinda have to swtcih off a wee bit to get past the simple stuff but when it's so blatant like it is here at times it's hard to ignore.

I was pumped when Kihara showed up, real bad ass bad guy but then what was it ep 22 theres a scene with Index shows up and she talking on the phone with Kihara beating up Accel in the background. I just facepalmed at it and it completely ruined Kihara as a bad ass bad guy for me.
I would have expected him to take a sec to get Aceel away from himself then take care of Index in such a situation but obviously that wasn't meant to be

Animation was pretty good for some ep but then not so good with others at times, they really let slip at times but that goes without saying with every anime series.

Music wasn't so bad either, 1st OP was the only one that interested me but I think thats only cause of teh Iku-musume vers of it.

A little nit picky here but I think dialogue for Touma and maybe for the series(in general) is handled abit on the poor side. While I don't mind Touma's speeches to a certain degree, it's the little stuff in between that kinda irk me.
He seems he needs to say stuff all the time when really theres no need to and messes with the mood
Also I guess I still find it a little hard to accept all the name calling that happens in anime, is there really a need a to say a persons name after every 2nd sentence?
Yes I know after all this time you would think I would have gotten past that but seems I haven't-__-

My favorite eps were 17 and 18 and with that I think this series probably would have done better as a sorta slice of life with the magic, science and whatnot as backdrop
Episode 17 had the best moment of this series when Touma and co burst into the classroom looking for Fukiyose, somehow despite what I said before Touma's line "Is Fukiyose there?" makes me chuckle greatly.

In fact I'll go with a 7 simply cause I remembered the "YES!" from episode 17

Kuroko-sama~

[Ilidsor]

This thread is dead but I didn't write one of these back when it came out, so I'm going to write one now having just rewatched it.

Index Kidnapped Arc: This arc was good, although not really all that interesting. It was short but it was written as a 1/4th of a book so it's not like they cut stuff out or anything. There isn't really much to say about the arc I think it was just used as a way to introduce new people to the characters, and reestablish the characters for people who haven't seen it in a while. 7/10

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc:The first major arc of the season. All around a very good arc, I likes that there was a full scale battle going on which was a first at this point, I like the added background on Kanzaki, it showed off Touma's heroism, and it introduced the Amakusa who I love. The ending where Laura told us that she had manipulated the entire event in order to get a stronger hold on Kanzaki, not even caring if Orsola lived or died was also done well. It's important for us to remember that as funny and carefree as Laura presents herself she is still heartless bitch. 8/10

Remnant Arc: This arc was just simply far too short. A meager two episodes is too small to fit an entire arc into. I supposed I could have lived with that if it didn't leave out two very important things that just drove me crazy. First of all it didn't reveal that Last Order had all of her memories with Accelerator – which we had been told were erased when Accelerator removed the virus– backed up on the Misaka network. I can't think of any reason that they would have to not put this into the story. The second thing it left out was Misaka building a staircase with electricity for Touma to climb up. They replaced it with him running up a collapsing building, which just completely threw me out of the scene it was so ridiculous. On the plus side Accelerator's comeback fight was awesome. 6/10

The Daihasei Arc: I enjoyed this arc much more than the last one. It had a good mix of serious moments along with comedic ones. The villains plot was very clever, and if it hadn't been for pure luck (although personally I'm guessing that Aliester had a hand in it) then the heroes would have lost. It was nice to be see Touma's parents again, and Misaka's mom was hilarious. 8/10

Queen of The Adriatic Sea Arc: Not a bad arc, but not really much of a good one either. The big issue with this one was that while it had a battle going on between the Amakusa and the Roman Catholic Church members again, there was no combat. In the background of the Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc all of the people were engaged in a fight for the most part while in this one everybody just seems to be posing threateningly at each other. My other issue was that Biagio's crosses looked stupid in combat. However this is the arc that gave us the first glimpse of Kanzaki in her maid costume so it's not a complete waste. 7/10

Invasion of Academy City Arc: This one was probably my favorite arc that has been animated so far. Accelerator's part of the story was very touching, and I enjoyed it more than Touma's part. Not to say that Touma's part wasn't good though; his fight with Vento in a crater created by an angel was very epic. In fact the entire storyline was epic, and I really liked how the tension was kept up by showing people all around the city collapse from Vento's extremely powerful magic. I do have one problem with this arc though; that Vento's motivation was just plain stupid. It was a sad story and all but it doesn't really justify her trying to kill everybody in the city. 9/10

Skill Out Uprising Arc: This arc was short like the Remnant Arc but it was just wrapping up the story and setting up next season so here I am happy with it. I like this arc because it gave us the first glimpse of GROUP which I love, snd it showed the opinions of Academy City about the war including the Recovery Movement which I thought was a nice touch. The moral greyness of the Skill Outs trying to take down the security system was also done well, on one hand they are fighting to protect the weak, while on the other they are damaging the defenses of the city in a time of war. It could have made it a little more clear that Accelerator left in order to go take out the people on Komaba's list but that was probably just me not realizing it from stupidity . 8/10

Overall: 7.5/10

[Gintokifan22]

I don't read the light novels so maybe thats why I'm not beat up about the series as much as some people on here are :P

I've seen worst animation in other shows, so it didn't bother me really. The action gets better and better as arcs go on, love the cute fluffy romance scenes. Over all, I'd say it was above season 1, give it an 9.

[Mokkori-kun]

Just recently I re-watched all the series and I have read the novel up to volume 4 of NT.Now my question is since the novel is popular and also they judged that was ok for a movie, how come there no discussion for a third season.

[GoddyofAus]

THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...r-2018/.122108

Yes indeed, you read that correctly. Praise the Railgun