To Aru Majutsu no Index - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[Syntron]

*Snipe*

Animation Quality: 8 The City looks awesome, Characters look very good, fight scenes were decent. But for a city full of superpowers, i expected at least some truly epic explosions.

Voice Actors: 8 No Character annoyed me, a good sign.

Script: 4 Short Arcs left a lot of unused characters behind, and Index herself degraded to an useless pita.

Soundtrack: 6 PSI-Missing is perfect, the other OP/ED are okayish, the OST was just epic fail. I more then once thought "this scene is very intense, but what the hell is with this elevator music?

Editing: 3 Obvious reasons are obvious. Sometimes i wondered if i had skipped a episode or two, eg. where did the 10k Misakas come from? No hints, no foreshadowing, just "plop" here we are.

Enjoyment: 6 Having watched Railgun first, i kinda felt "home" and enjoyed the scenery while trying to ignore the endless talking. Not only did Touma talk till my ears bleed, nope. I also caught Misaka babbling on and on (Bridge scene... JUST SHOOT HIM!!!), and also Kanzaki (hot...) caught the spreacheritis after meeting Touma. STOP TALKING! DO SOMETHING! YOU GOT SUPERPOWERS! USE THEM!! MAKE STUFF GO BOOM!!!!111

Emotional Involvement: 3 Index has all spells ready and Touma has reinforced plot armor and "the magic hand". They are pretty much invincible no matter what happens. Im pretty sure Touma can block a nuke going off right next to him... So why should i care?

I gave 7/10 as final grade, its not an average of the avove but my overall score.

[Accelerator]

10!!!!i could have given it 11

[roriconfan]

Next in line in my “Mediocre anime to watch just because I have watched all the goodies” was this one. Having read lots of comments about the show, I was turned away from watching more than a few episodes, as they made it look as typical and storyless. So, a year later, I finally sit down and watch the damn thing just to see if they were right. … They were.

Imagine you, wanting to write a shounen story. You will obviously take the “things that you must include even if you don’t like them” list and then build around that list in order to create something more than an archetyped story nobody will care about. So … why the makers of this didn’t even try to be a bit original or adding a couple of surprises? And I mean REALLY original or REAL surprises; not things that may feel as unexpected to the characters as to us. That would be a case of “idiots plot” and boy, do I hate being taken for an idiot. I do know this is shounen of course and being stupid is number 3 in the “must include list” right under “the lead must have spiky hair” and “girls are useless”. But it was all so generic and aimless, I just couldn’t believe this series has so many fans. But then again I don’t exactly belong to the target audience either and I do prefer substance over style in my anime. I guess random characters doing random things with poor reasoning and cheap plot twists may indeed be entertaining for many. So it was for me in the past. But then I happened to see the same things happening in most similar series and I just expected a lemon twist to my average soda thereafter. And this Index thing ended up being plain water in a fancy glass.

So what is the story about anyway? Well, it’s about the most typical looking, boring, stereotypical, predictable protagonist having a broken power he uses to protect his loved ones and save chicks. Hm, that rings some bells, doesn’t it? But hey, at least he is not wearing goggles so he is not a complete archetype. And so, this lead is accompanied by the most typical looking, boring, stereotypical, predictable damsel in distress gal, who has lots of magically compressed knowledge up her head, and uses it to cheap win enlighten the lead in every step of the way. And it’s also about a world full of randomly placed weirdoes based on stereotypes and poorly explained scientific power clashing with magic, which is taken as seriously as science and thus both are equally unbelievable.

So the plot is about talking about stuff that don’t matter, fighting in predictable ways and collecting girls for a harem, while giving you the illusion that amongst all those maids, vampires, schoolgirls, aliens and wizards, there is a mystery hiding somewhere. And it’s so damn well hidden, it is not even revealed in the end. Yes, by the end of the series the lead has his own very harem and nothing else. No revelations, no conclusions, no nothing. Not to mention how the characters don’t even pile up. Most are present for one arc only and then are never seen, heard, or spoken again.

I could give a cookie if the plot was interesting but its breakdown is 40% talking about irrelevant and uninteresting things, 20% fighting in a predictable manner, 20% talking WHILE fighting, 10% doing comedy and 10% talking WHILE doing comedy. Yes, lots of talking there. And I wouldn’t mind if they were talking about deep philosophy or analyzed the fringe science of superpowers. But it was just typical BS about corny drama, superficial morality, and macho one-liners during battles. And even then, they still weren’t of the good kind.

Bottom line, story gets a 2.

Now let’s go a bit more over the clichéd pile of random stereotypes cast. They clearly don’t look or act special in the least, but perhaps they worth something based on how much they developed or changed or matured, or learned throughout the course of the series. And they didn’t do any of the above. Stand alone missions, characters mentioning their corny past and disappearing from the story, undeveloped romance, stale main characters and lots of talking about poorly excused magic, disguised as science. Nothing at all to care about them.

Bottom line, cast gets a 2.

But not all is lost as looks and hearings are actually damn good, with rather high fluent animation, nice color palette, and catchy BMG. That still does not excuse the completely generic looks of the characters or the endless talking about things that don’t matter at all that may lead you to mute the damn thing and skip that part. Action scenes are very good if all you want is fancy lights and big explosions but they are otherwise following a very standard formula that makes them uninteresting in the long run. You know the drill, they macho talk, the lead gets trashed, they macho talk, the lead gets up full of resolve to protect his friends, they macho talk, the lead wins. Thank you very much; I am watching this since Hokuto no Ken came out. And I ensure you Hokuto has far more exciting action, despite being downright clichéd as heck. There is also a rather low amount of fan service in it for the virgins amongst us, but even that feels completely lukewarm with the shit they put on today in anime. Thus, not even some bare skin manages to attract your eye on this series.

Bottom line, stuff you see and hear get a 7.

And we are now down to enjoyment and overall value of this anime. … You can’t expect good words after all the things I wrote so far. There is no replay value in this series. There are no memorable characters, or fights, or comedy, or dialogues, or drama or anything else you can think of. If you have watched more than three well made anime, it is a complete waste of time. Do you believe I recommend Naruto over this? I hate Naruto yet I admit it has more to offer than Index. Just imagine that!

Bottom line, Index hits rock bottom. Well, 3.5 to be exact.

[Marcus H.]

How dare you compare Hokuto no Ken AND Naruto to this.
This review is just unacceptable and mostly contains unfulfilled expectations and downright overexaggeration.

Even an Index fanboy can write something like this.

[MeisterBabylon]

Er... Don't feed the troll?

Superbole aside, we did pan Index anime. I still recall the Installation jokes. But now that the anime's catching up with the awesome bits in the novel, hopefully JCStaff won't stray too off the mark; the fact that they decided to stick close to the novel bodes well for coming seasons.

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

How dare you compare Hokuto no Ken AND Naruto to this.

Why not?

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

This review is just unacceptable and mostly contains unfulfilled expectations and downright overexaggeration.

Oh so expecting an overall story ans some basic reasoning to a series is bad now? The only overexaggeration I see here is the average rating of an anime that is both incomplete and episodic, with udeveloped main characters and random battle choreography. And that is no exaggeration.

[Xenosnake]

You've left your opinion, but now you're just coming back to troll on other people's reaction. Cut it out son.

[Akka]

Well, so I finished Toaru Majutsu no Index a while ago.
So after some time to digest it all and think about it, I'm going to write my review.

At first, when I started to watch it, the serie felt like having lots of potential. The hero seemed interesting (nice but in a rather "blasé" way, making him able to make deadpan jokes) and the world had interesting twists (psychic powers enabled by science, city built around it and the like, magic entering in the equation, the hero having a mysterious, powerful but yet hardly unmanageable power...).
I was thinking "hey, it seems a great start !".

Well, sadly, it was about as far as it got.

This serie suffer from horrible, glaring, terrible flaws that destroy all the potential it could have had. Nearly everything that could go wrong, went wrong. It seems like the author had some good world-building and general ideas, but broke it all when trying to make it a shônen.

First, it seems that, as okay as the author can be in overarching plans and the whole setting, he's MUCH less convincing when it comes to actual arcs plot and details.
Be it giving insane powers that are used only at a tiny fraction of their potential (what's the point making them so powerful in the first place then ? Would have been much better to have them quite a bit less potent, but their owner smarter), missing and mixing the "science vs magic" part by making the magic like a computer program and science like some kind of random babble that actually doesn't feel like science at all, or, worst of all, the completely broken (and sometime frankly ridiculous) plots, twists and "reveal", the whole writing is just a disaster. Inconsistencies, plothole and just raw stupid, idiotic plots waste all the potential that could have been.

The formulaic and repetitive pattern for the arcs with the new harem girl has already been complained about to death, but well, there is a reason for that. Same with the repeated "I've talked to this new girl twenty seconds, so now she's a lifetime friend I would risk everything for" which is supposed to be poignant, but just fall flat and feels ridiculous and forced.

Speaking of it, one of the particularly grating point - and a pet peeve of mine, making it particularly bothersome for me - is how often the show creates a dilemma between "let this person in front of you die or several thousands others will die elsewhere", and makes the character actually risks it all to save this person, putting the lives of all the others in jeopardy if he ever fails. And of course, as it's a simplistic shônen, the good guy manages to save the day and it's all right.
Once again, it could have been an actual good idea, having an obviously very idealist but short-sighted Touma thinking along these lines, and possibly showing the consequences, problems and real dilemma of such an approach - could have caused lots of character development, in a way or another.
But no, the show makes it clear that the obnoxious and short-sighted guy is in the right, and reality remodels itself just so the most childish and irresponsible method was actually the best and most moral one !

As we're talking about problem with characters, here is another serious flaw of the show. There is no character development. There is the pointless harem that doesn't go (and most probably will never go) anywhere. There is Index, who is described by many as useless, childish and annoying, and I totally share this feeling and think that the less she is on-screen, the better (or at least, the less worse) the show is.
Sad fact is, most of the characters are rather sympathetic, but they are as a general rule shallow and generic.

I could continue about the ranting over the big flaws and the nitpicking over the small ones, but I think you got the picture. It's a serie that, despite having a lot of potential, both in its premisses and its means, was just a bore - and sometimes a pain - to watch. The only part that was genuinely fun was the first episode of the Angel Fall arc, and the Accelerator parts were watchable (despite the first being among the most stupid plots and plot resolution I've ever seen).
The second arc was dreadful, and the last one purely atrocious ; I had to force-feed myself to finish it, through determination alone and taking it by bits of two or three minutes at a time (seriously, no lie and no exageration). Only my misplaced stubborness about finishing a serie I've started kept me for the last three or four episodes.

In the end, it may be a little above "bad", but it's clearly below "poor", so I'm giving it a 3. With better writing and just a tiny bit smarter, or even just "less stupid" plots, it could easily have become an enjoyable passtime and got a 6 or 7, but the author clearly bite more than he could chewed, and the bits are falling all over the place.

[mark1246]

Originally Posted by Akka

Well, so I finished Toaru Majutsu no Index a while ago.
So after some time to digest it all and think about it, I'm going to write my review.

At first, when I started to watch it, the serie felt like having lots of potential. The hero seemed interesting (nice but in a rather "blasé" way, making him able to make deadpan jokes) and the world had interesting twists (psychic powers enabled by science, city built around it and the like, magic entering in the equation, the hero having a mysterious, powerful but yet hardly unmanageable power...).
I was thinking "hey, it seems a great start !".

Well, sadly, it was about as far as it got.

This serie suffer from horrible, glaring, terrible flaws that destroy all the potential it could have had. Nearly everything that could go wrong, went wrong. It seems like the author had some good world-building and general ideas, but broke it all when trying to make it a shônen.

First, it seems that, as okay as the author can be in overarching plans and the whole setting, he's MUCH less convincing when it comes to actual arcs plot and details.
Be it giving insane powers that are used only at a tiny fraction of their potential (what's the point making them so powerful in the first place then ? Would have been much better to have them quite a bit less potent, but their owner smarter), missing and mixing the "science vs magic" part by making the magic like a computer program and science like some kind of random babble that actually doesn't feel like science at all, or, worst of all, the completely broken (and sometime frankly ridiculous) plots, twists and "reveal", the whole writing is just a disaster. Inconsistencies, plothole and just raw stupid, idiotic plots waste all the potential that could have been.

The formulaic and repetitive pattern for the arcs with the new harem girl has already been complained about to death, but well, there is a reason for that. Same with the repeated "I've talked to this new girl twenty seconds, so now she's a lifetime friend I would risk everything for" which is supposed to be poignant, but just fall flat and feels ridiculous and forced.

Speaking of it, one of the particularly grating point - and a pet peeve of mine, making it particularly bothersome for me - is how often the show creates a dilemma between "let this person in front of you die or several thousands others will die elsewhere", and makes the character actually risks it all to save this person, putting the lives of all the others in jeopardy if he ever fails. And of course, as it's a simplistic shônen, the good guy manages to save the day and it's all right.
Once again, it could have been an actual good idea, having an obviously very idealist but short-sighted Touma thinking along these lines, and possibly showing the consequences, problems and real dilemma of such an approach - could have caused lots of character development, in a way or another.
But no, the show makes it clear that the obnoxious and short-sighted guy is in the right, and reality remodels itself just so the most childish and irresponsible method was actually the best and most moral one !

As we're talking about problem with characters, here is another serious flaw of the show. There is no character development. There is the pointless harem that doesn't go (and most probably will never go) anywhere. There is Index, who is described by many as useless, childish and annoying, and I totally share this feeling and think that the less she is on-screen, the better (or at least, the less worse) the show is.
Sad fact is, most of the characters are rather sympathetic, but they are as a general rule shallow and generic.

I could continue about the ranting over the big flaws and the nitpicking over the small ones, but I think you got the picture. It's a serie that, despite having a lot of potential, both in its premisses and its means, was just a bore - and sometimes a pain - to watch. The only part that was genuinely fun was the first episode of the Angel Fall arc, and the Accelerator parts were watchable (despite the first being among the most stupid plots and plot resolution I've ever seen).
The second arc was dreadful, and the last one purely atrocious ; I had to force-feed myself to finish it, through determination alone and taking it by bits of two or three minutes at a time (seriously, no lie and no exageration). Only my misplaced stubborness about finishing a serie I've started kept me for the last three or four episodes.

In the end, it may be a little above "bad", but it's clearly below "poor", so I'm giving it a 3. With better writing and just a tiny bit smarter, or even just "less stupid" plots, it could easily have become an enjoyable passtime and got a 6 or 7, but the author clearly bite more than he could chewed, and the bits are falling all over the place.

Now you have season 2 to watch then !!!!!!!!!