To Aru Majutsu no Index - Favourite Character(s) Poll

[Miraluka]

I doubt 1 & 2 are the reason.

[LevelSeven]

it is colorful again :/

Spoiler for fizix:

Originally Posted by Fizix

2. Her interactions and relationship with Touma is believable, develops over time and they question each other's characters, this makes their relationship interesting.

?? how? touma saved her and her sisters in Vol.3 and she is in love with him since that day, isnt different than Index/himegami

3. Sisters arc and everything that's spun off the back of it; it (and the arcs that follow it) are easily amongst the most interesting and well written in the series, they are also very coherent and take the time to explore the characters involved.

THIS!
nah, if it comes down to writing, all volumes are equal
aside from "once used throw away chars"(the russia magician of NT3, or most of gremlin) and many many other chars, the MC's gain the attention most of the time...
well, if the side-chars are explored to their fullest is a different question :/

4. The romantic element (with Misaka herself) is a develop over time thing as opposed to a shallow "you saved me therefore I love you", it grows and she tries to make sense of it which adds depth to her. The clone side of this is also interesting, seeing a clone make sense of their feelings.

?? she fell in love after she was saved
he saved them... they fall for him.... common harem-story logic :/

Its all down to character development,

in more than 10 years of telling a story, most of the chars didnt gain any growth

same goes for Accelerator;

one of the few who had the privilege of being "developed"

I don't think its any coincidence that the more popular characters are the ones who are explored beyond just their purpose to the plot.

i think you used a wrong connection, everything, including char-development is for the plot, a char not growing (touma) is because of the plot, and a char suddenly changing his ways (accel) is also for the plot...
i cant even think of a way how a char could grow "beyond" the plot (maybe if he breaks the 4th wall )

As an aside, I feel this series has too many characters;

THIS!!

so many just aren't developed at all

THHIIIIIIIIISSS!!!!!

but take up a lot of screen/page time which leads to several potentially interesting characters not being developed as much as they could be.

THIS, million times THIS!!!!! i still feel the urge to destroy something if i remember the mess of NT8 and his "other battle fields" -_-

[Miraluka]

↑

Spoiler:

Only First chapter and the parts with Sargasso were memorable(where is Fiamma!?) the rest was meh imho.

[LevelSeven]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

↑

Spoiler:

Only First chapter and the parts with Sargasso were memorable(where is Fiamma!?) the rest was meh imho.

exatcly... half of a volume wasted for fanservice stuff at the airplane but fiamma was hidden, this was why he wasnt mentioned

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

it is colorful again :/

How so? Not sure I'm following, I think I gave a reasoned response as to why certain characters are popular.

Spoiler for for LevelSeven:

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

?? how? touma saved her and her sisters in Vol.3 and she is in love with him since that day, isnt different than Index/himegami

Hmm...

When and whether she loved him isn't really what I was getting at though, development isn't one dimensional; her feelings for him causing her to be somewhat hostile, her not admitting her feelings for him, her feelings for him being realised, her feelings for him influencing her actions, her feelings for him causing conflict between them (which it does, to an extent) is all development.

My point was that their relationship as a whole and her feelings towards Touma are more complicated than most others and is developed over time.

I also did not get the impression that she was in love with Touma after he helped her, nor that she instantly liked him (their relationship is more complex than that). She certainly began to like him after he helped her (I think she probably liked him before then actually), but I don't think I would use the word love; love is almost certainly something that came later down the line.


As an aside, I am not pro Misaka x Touma, I'm not bothered whether Misaka and Touma end up together, I would like to see closure to it though (simply because I like to see closure to things that have time invested in them).

Spoiler for for LevelSeven:

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

THIS!
nah, if it comes down to writing, all volumes are equal
aside from "once used throw away chars"(the russia magician of NT3, or most of gremlin) and many many other chars, the MC's gain the attention most of the time...
well, if the side-chars are explored to their fullest is a different question :/

Firstly, I don't think all volumes are equal at all. I think the science side is structured and flows better. It has less characters (which allows the main ones to be developed more) and is more structured; it links together and flows in a clearer manner. The magic side is very erratic with character overload, I personally didn't feel that I really knew where I was with the magic side until the latter half of the OT novels.

I don't think I've seen many reviews or critiques that don't recognise this.

On character development, there are a number of characters who are developed far beyond the others. You see their names constantly; here and elsewhere, discussion and interest revolve around these characters; they are highlighted in this poll and appear at the business end of other polls.

Spoiler for for LevelSeven:

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

?? she fell in love after she was saved
he saved them... they fall for him.... common harem-story logic :/

I don't think she fell in love with him, I didn't get that impression. Incidentally I got the impression that she liked him before he helped her. I also got the impression that her feelings grew from liking him a bit, to a crush and then to love. Of couse you are free to disagree with that but that is the impression I got.

See my first points response though, by develops over time and isn't as shallow as most others in the harem, I am talking about the way it affects the characters, the way it affects their behaviour. There is more invested in the writing into that relationship and her feelings than others.

Spoiler for for LevelSeven:

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

in more than 10 years of telling a story, most of the chars didnt gain any growth

I agree, and it's a shame and is likely due to the bloated cast. Characters such Misaka and Accelerator are the ones who have had more development. I wish they were more developed and a few others too.

Spoiler for for LevelSeven:

Originally Posted by LevelSeven

i think you used a wrong connection, everything, including char-development is for the plot, a char not growing (touma) is because of the plot, and a char suddenly changing his ways (accel) is also for the plot...
i cant even think of a way how a char could grow "beyond" the plot (maybe if he breaks the 4th wall )

I didn't really mean it like that. A lot of characters exist only as far as their role in the plot in the strictest possible sense; like they are plot devices or exist to carry out some kind of task or role as opposed to a developed character.

I guess though, the science side being as it is, it may follow that the characters on that side will generally be more developed.

You may disagree with all of this, but those are my feelings on the series as a whole. In short, I think the science side is far better written and the characters that it presents are more developed and interesting. My focus on Misaka was simply as I was responding to a point about her popularity, the general points here extend to several characters, mainly on the science side.

[Miraluka]

You said 'their' but so far you talked about her only. That's pretty much one sided lol.

Aniways, the answer to popularity is: Tsundere archetype.
Those type characters always have an automatic fandom because they're easier to write and simpleminded characters to read so a fandom easily will choose them over the others from the get go.

[Ravagerblade]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

You said 'their' but so far you talked about her only. That's pretty much one sided lol.

Aniways, the answer to popularity is: Tsundere archetype.
Those type characters always have an automatic fandom because they're easier to write and simpleminded characters to read so a fandom easily will choose them over the others from the get go.

I find the tsundere archetype to be overused and bland.

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

You said 'their' but so far you talked about her only. That's pretty much one sided lol.

Aniways, the answer to popularity is: Tsundere archetype.
Those type characters always have an automatic fandom because they're easier to write and simpleminded characters to read so a fandom easily will choose them over the others from the get go.

BIB: That is because I was replying to a post about her in the first place. The discussion rolled from that.

The reason I said 'their' is because the points I was making, (character development), can be applied to most of the characters that are favoured. It was "they" as in those characters who are developed are favoured by fans.

And I disagree that it is the Tsundere archetype, it's the development and involvement of the character in the plot. It's that the character is multi-faceted, their emotions are expolored and they are involved in plots that are interesting. I also don't care for applying labels to characters (whether they adhere or not). A character is either well written and interesting or they aren't.

But then I don't over consume anime, I casually watch stuff here and there, so maybe I've not been quite so affected by it. As an aside, I think a character who isn't entirely warm or entirely cold towards the MC is more interesting than one who is. That might be because that kind of character is easier to write, as a non writer I don't know, I'd imagine any interesting character is difficult to write.

[Miraluka]

I have blogs on my yet to clean historial from years ago(yeah my poor pc hates me) making reviews about volume 1. Way before this series became popular on the Western side, guess who was the most talked character despite being featured on one chapter? She.
Did she have involvement or development at that time? Absolutely not and even now her relevance is more about her character around Touma rather than the plot itself.


And on volume.2 the reviews about her missing.

See?
And the came volume.3 where her popularity grew even more as it was her arc like Himegami had.

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

I have blogs on my yet to clean historial from years ago(yeah my poor pc hates me) making reviews about volume 1. Way before this series became popular on the Western side, guess who was the most talked character despite being featured on one chapter? She.
Did she have involvement or development at that time? Absolutely not
And on volume.2 the reviews about her missing.

See?
And the came volume.3 where her popularity grew even more.

I can't really comment on that, but with volume 3, that was one of the most interesting arcs in the first series and setup the Accelerator stuff (also a very interesting arc). So I can definitely see why she became popular there.

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

even now her relevance is more about her character around Touma rather than the plot itself.

And that in itself is a shame IMO, the sisters arc and the underworld of Academy City has a lot of milage in it.

[Miraluka]

Yeah but AC's side, specially its dark side is more explored trough Accelerator and Shi age.

[Hiss13]

With Mikoto, it is definitely the tsundere archetype that made her popular. (Sadly, she has progressed from the 'Meh, tsundere' phase to the 'violent tsundere' phase)

Anime Mikoto made it even worse as now she's a delusional girl in denial who refuses to acknowledge how dark Academy City is outside of the Sisters Arc...and people LIKE that.

Originally Posted by Fizix

I can't really comment on that, but with volume 3, that was one of the most interesting arcs in the first series and setup the Accelerator stuff (also a very interesting arc). So I can definitely see why she became popular there.

I'd have to disagree. Volumes 1 and 2 were fantastic. Volume 3 was actually a step-down from those two. Volumes 1 and 2 were great character pieces for Touma (among other things) while Volume 3 sort of stepped away from that and there is where the drop came from. Sure, it actually gave Mikoto a character independent from Touma and introduced Accelerator but that really isn't enough from where I stand.

[Miraluka]

Indeed, if you care enough to reread volume.1&2 most of the stuff addressed there about Touma had been reused, developed and expanded on WWIII and NT Series.

[Hiss13]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

Indeed, if you care enough to reread volume.1&2 most of the stuff addressed there about Touma had been reused or expanded on WWIII and NT Serbia.

To be fair, a lot of character development Touma receives comes in the form of re-establishing his character in some way after he, himself, starts to question himself and I personally really like that. The fact that he strays and wavers and has to actually undergo some stimulus to actually realize that he is deluding himself in one way or another gives him a sense of realism and allows him to have his own illusions broken (ironically) by the people who he is trying to do the same to.

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

Yeah but AC's side, specially its dark side is more explored trough Accelerator and Shi age.

True, and I for one would like more of it. I prefer the AC stuff and that comes from both of them. I find Misaka, Accelerator and the clones to be more interesting characters with more depth.

They all, including Toama, adhere to general archetypes so I'm not sure why archetypes are the sticking point for people. Well, if I were to guess, I'd say the archetype matters if you just don't like a character, its an easy bolt on to explain why. If you do like a character then it doesn't matter.

I personally favour characters like Misaka, #'32, Accelerator and Shiage as they have more depth and are explored more on an emotional level. The arcs they are involved in are more interesting and the ones I tend to pay more attention to. But then as I favour the science side I guess that's to be expected.

[Miraluka]

Not Accelerator, he's another beast and to begin with he earned quite the bitchy hatedom because you know... He made Mikoto suffer, some were very intolerant about him even after the novels went past volume.13.

However by that Tim he had enough fans earned on the way.

[Hiss13]

Originally Posted by Fizix

True, and I for one would like more of it. I prefer the AC stuff and that comes from both of them. I find Misaka, Accelerator and the clones to be more interesting characters with more depth.

They all, including Toama, adhere to general archetypes so I'm not sure why archetypes are the sticking point for people. Well, if I were to guess, I'd say the archetype matters if you just don't like a character, its an easy bolt on to explain why. If you do like a character then it doesn't matter.

What Archetype would you put Touma in because he sure as hell isn't a stereotypical shonen hero. That's for sure.

Originally Posted by Miraluka

Not Accelerator, he's another beast and to begin with he earned quite the bitchy hatedom because you know... He made Mikoto suffer, some were very intolerant about him even after the novels went past volume.13.

However by that Tim he had enough fans earned on the way.

Even now, he still has quite the hatedom. There are some who reasonably can't forgive him for the Level 6 Shift Experiment. The rest are people who are just butthurt because he made their waifu suffer.

[Miraluka]

I'm on a very good mood guys, I have free time, no gastritis and just beat a cultist on an argument hours ago.... So take this:

[Fizix]

Originally Posted by Hiss13

What Archetype would you put Touma in because he sure as hell isn't a stereotypical shonen hero. That's for sure.

Really?

Nice guy who fights and gets involved in battles because he just wants to help people and doesn't want anyone to get hurt.

Refuses outside help as they don't want anyone to get involved.

Largely following other people battles rather than his own.

Attempts to save antagonists by talking them around.

Largely blind to the emotions and or capabilities of those around him. Even when its patently obvious how they feel or how they can be of use.

Lost his memory

No overused archetypes at play there at all.

And the idea that he is a normal guy (ergo unique) is false, his power is by definition immensely powerful and makes him far from a normal guy.


On accelerator hate, I largely ignore extreme fans, they exist for any major character and are insufferable. They are also the loudest and aren't necesarilly representative of overall sentiment. The fact that Accelerator is an immensely popular character kind of speaks for itself really.

The characters aren't good because they do or do not adhere to archetypes. They are good because they just are good characters.