To Aru Majutsu no Index 2018 Project - News & Speculation

[Kuroageha]

Originally Posted by Haak

In the filler?

The whole.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by EasyGo-er

With colour.

All I need is DMCV to be announced at this E3 and I would have gotten everything I wanted out of 2018.

Including my graduation of course.

[Natsurin]

It's kinda funny how so many people are complaining that Mikoto's in the centre of the promotional art. Guys, this isn't new; they did this with the Index movie too, you know. And it wasn't just Mikoto but Accelerator as well when both of them had fuck all relevance to the plot or screentime (for the latter) at all.

This has nothing to do with Miki or whatever, it's just a very logical marketing strategy to appeal with characters they know are loved by the fanbase.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

The whole.

If you're that determined to avoid any elaboration then why even bother in the first place? Whatever, I'll just assume you're complaining about the filler.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Heh, I see some things still hasn't changed in my time gone.

[OH&S]

Originally Posted by Haak

If you're that determined to avoid any elaboration then why even bother in the first place? Whatever, I'll just assume you're complaining about the filler.

That's what its starting to sound like to me. The adaptation of the Sisters Arc in Railgun S was perfect. But I absolutely detest the Silent Party Arc which came right after from a writing perspective; animation-wise it was fantastic.

There's definitely something to say about the first season of Railgun. But it was a simpler time back then and I can generally commend Nagai's work there even though I skipped a few of the episodes in the latter half due to how boring it was (read-as too much focus on slice-of-life).

[bakato]

I found the silent party arc necessary purely for shedding light on Nunotaba's fate.

[Chosen_Hero]

Don't know why people are complaining, all of the characters featured in the poster are important to the story.

If you are anime only fans, there are very clear reasons why these characters are front and center. As for those of you that read the LN, you should know better by now why all of them matter and that all of them are very important no matter where your bias falls.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by EasyGo-er

With colour.

Misaka looks so good. Also, Hamazura looks good. Okay. My hopes are going higher

[RPG_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

All I need is DMCV to be announced at this E3 and I would have gotten everything I wanted out of 2018.

Including my graduation of course.

I guess you are getting everything you wanted out of 2018 then.

[The One Above God]

Touma looking like he's about to punch some old man .

[Hiss13]

Originally Posted by OH&S

That's what its starting to sound like to me. The adaptation of the Sisters Arc in Railgun S was perfect. But I absolutely detest the Silent Party Arc which came right after from a writing perspective; animation-wise it was fantastic.

There's definitely something to say about the first season of Railgun. But it was a simpler time back then and I can generally commend Nagai's work there even though I skipped a few of the episodes in the latter half due to how boring it was (read-as too much focus on slice-of-life).

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to agree with kuroageha. Nagai seems to have this tendency to whitewash Mikoto (and her brigade) as this shining figure of justice where in actuality, she is quite the entitled and somewhat bratty teenager at that stage in the story. At the same time, he also tends to mudsling anyone even slightly antagonistic towards her by trying to remove their humanity.

Beyond his flanderization of Kuroko, his poisoning the well with Kongou (caused by the latter as mentioned above), he removes the bratty aspects from Mikoto quite a bit. Take the very first episode of Railgun for example. The reason Mikoto railguns the bank robbers is completely different between the anime and the manga. In the anime, she's a paragon who does it because blah blah blah boring (ironically, the things people dislike about anime Touma but seem to give a pass for her) while in the manga, she gets pissed because the robber bumped into her and smeared her crepe over her clothes.

On the mudsling side, Accelerator's finger eating scene and its placement. Completely the opposite of what it was meant to be in the original novels.

Not to mention all the filler and changes from the manga peppered throughout the adaptation of the Level Upper Arc (and to a lesser extent, the Sisters Arc).

Originally Posted by bakato

I found the silent party arc necessary purely for shedding light on Nunotaba's fate.

Not necessarily. Some things are better left in the dark. The whole thing kinda just removed any meaning to her even being captured in so many ways.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Hiss13

Beyond his flanderization of Kuroko, his poisoning the well with Kongou (caused by the latter as mentioned above), he removes the bratty aspects from Mikoto quite a bit. Take the very first episode of Railgun for example. The reason Mikoto railguns the bank robbers is completely different between the anime and the manga. In the anime, she's a paragon who does it because blah blah blah boring (ironically, the things people dislike about anime Touma but seem to give a pass for her) while in the manga, she gets pissed because the robber bumped into her and smeared her crepe over her clothes.

Sorry but that sounds like a very minor change and really for the better. You don't have to be a paragon of justice to want to stop a bank robber when you have the powers she has. I'm not a fan of that kind of edgelordism. And it served as a better basis for Saten's character drama where her first impression of Mikoto played a fundamental role.

On the mudsling side, Accelerator's finger eating scene and its placement. Completely the opposite of what it was meant to be in the original novels.

Again, that sounds like such a minor change to me. And again, it's probably for the best too. As interesting as Accelerator is after the incident, the forced manor in which the franchise has tried to redeem Accelerator by forcing his killing of 10,000 Misaka clones in a different context has been one of the more retarded aspects of the franchise, imo. And for the record, that's my opinion based off the Index adaptation.

Besides, these are all writing issues. You can't pin all that on the director unless you're 100% sure it was him. Getting upset over such minor changes that you aren't even sure are from the director or not really does prove that the hate was overblown.

[dniv]

Originally Posted by Hiss13

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to agree with kuroageha. Nagai seems to have this tendency to whitewash Mikoto (and her brigade) as this shining figure of justice where in actuality, she is quite the entitled and somewhat bratty teenager at that stage in the story. At the same time, he also tends to mudsling anyone even slightly antagonistic towards her by trying to remove their humanity.

Beyond his flanderization of Kuroko, his poisoning the well with Kongou (caused by the latter as mentioned above), he removes the bratty aspects from Mikoto quite a bit. Take the very first episode of Railgun for example. The reason Mikoto railguns the bank robbers is completely different between the anime and the manga. In the anime, she's a paragon who does it because blah blah blah boring (ironically, the things people dislike about anime Touma but seem to give a pass for her) while in the manga, she gets pissed because the robber bumped into her and smeared her crepe over her clothes.

On the mudsling side, Accelerator's finger eating scene and its placement. Completely the opposite of what it was meant to be in the original novels.

Not to mention all the filler and changes from the manga peppered throughout the adaptation of the Level Upper Arc (and to a lesser extent, the Sisters Arc).



Not necessarily. Some things are better left in the dark. The whole thing kinda just removed any meaning to her even being captured in so many ways.

Don’t get me wrong, I like mikoto and get annoyed at the animosity towards her popularity that surfaces in these forums, but Hiss made some great points. Those two points are excellent reasons why anime Mikoto is less good than manga or novel Mikoto. I’d say one of the most interesting things about the level 5’s is that they’re all psychopaths or psychologically damaged to an extent and the anime tones that down quite a bit. I think the first half of season 2 handled that pretty well though.

[Haak]

I guess I'll just never see what the fuss is. Mikoto being slightly less bratty in one particular moment or Accelerator having a slightly less fucked up reason for chewing a finger isn't something I'd ever get hung up about in the grander scheme of things. I can only assume those were the best examples he could think of and it just comes across as being picky to me. We're not talking major plot moments where they acted differently. Just little throw away moments you'd barely remember. I definitely wouldn't use it as ammunition to hate on a director who no doubt put a lot of effort into the adaptation regardless.

[Seafoam]

The problem is if it becomes a trend in future Railgun seasons. What's happening on the Index side of things would never happen if Mikoto remains as such a paragon of justice. It will eventually create a dissonance between the anime depiction and the original. And if it leads to that, then criticism is warranted, whether it looks pretty in the process or not.

[Haak]

For the record, Mikoto has never come across as some sort of paragon of justice to me. I think that's just hyperbole.

[Chosen_Hero]

I definitely don't see the problem with Mikoto, so with her friends she acts differently than when she is around Touma... Isn't that part of the point of her side of the story? To show us how she spends her time when she isn't around Touma... Am I missing something?

You have to remember that Railgun is far more tame than Index is (as difficult as that maybe to believe) and is supposed to be a kind of slice of life anime with cute girls doing... Whatever they do in AC, so Mikoto being shown in a slightly better light isn't exactly as dissonant as some make it.

The thing is she IS a goody two shoes just like how Touma is selfless to a fault. Both of them are similar in this aspect, they are trouble makers in their own right but when it comes to it they are probably the most selfless people in all of AC (as fucked up as AC is that is a miracle in and of itself), especially after learning of the Darkside of Academy City.

I feel like some of you just see her interactions with characters like Misaki who are really good at bringing out the brat in her, or just saw the first episode of Index and thought that she actively looks for fights and trouble and just decided that that was her default mode. She is as much of a pure ojou-sama as Misaki, Kongou and the other girls from the Garden, the only difference being that Mikoto is a little more street savvy and rebellious than the majority of them. And just like Touma, she is prone to get involved in situations where her moral compass and the fucked up antagonist makes her into the "paragon of justice"

As for taking out scenes like Accelerators finger chewing, I am totally ok with it's omission seeing as those kind of scenes add nothing to the characters development or narrative.

[Hiss13]

Originally Posted by Haak

Sorry but that sounds like a very minor change and really for the better. You don't have to be a paragon of justice to want to stop a bank robber when you have the powers she has. I'm not a fan of that kind of edgelordism. And it served as a better basis for Saten's character drama where her first impression of Mikoto played a fundamental role.

1. That adaptation change literally throws away three important points about her. Her bratty nature, her entitled nature, and her abuse and absurd reliance on her power are all part of her character arc and the manga establishes all in this scene while reinforcing it with others. But they're all thrown away because...can't make everyone's waifu FLAWED, right?
2. The fun part is that I don't think Saten was even there in the manga. The manga served to create a solid basis for her character drama without creating an OOC moment.
3. The idea that a teenager wouldn't really get involved in something unless it pissed her off is not 'edgelordism'.
4. You claim it's a minor change, but these 'minor' changes add up and turn the series and its characters into something entirely different. Replacing and changing the order of events does that to the point where the manga and anime feel completely different. I know too many people who watched the anime first and read the manga and felt that.

Here's another example. At the end of the Seventh Mist incident, Mikoto is the one who proudly proclaims her spiel about hard work and tells of how she rose from Level 1 in the manga, showing a bit of that pride and her own entrenched belief in a just-world fallacy as opposed to Kuroko being the one to give the spiel in the anime. Said belief is toned down heavily as it's a character flaw.

Originally Posted by Haak

Again, that sounds like such a minor change to me. And again, it's probably for the best too. As interesting as Accelerator is after the incident, the forced manor in which the franchise has tried to redeem Accelerator by forcing his killing of 10,000 Misaka clones in a different context has been one of the more retarded aspects of the franchise, imo. And for the record, that's my opinion based off the Index adaptation.

It really isn't minor. It contradicts everything established about his character. It paints him in a darker light than the one in which he actually is. He's not a morally upright character (he's definitely not right in the head in the Sisters Arc), but the placement of his finger chewing scene in the novels feeds in very well to both his motives and his cognitive dissonance that became a part of his character. In the anime it's 'Look how fucking crazy and evil he is. He chews the flesh of his enemies and treats them as lower than gum on the sidewalk.' So, yes. That one scene is not minor. It's actually quite a major fuck-up. And that's just a small number of his screw-ups. I have a super comprehensive list (not made by me) that goes through a number of them for the non-filler arcs.

Originally Posted by Haak

Besides, these are all writing issues. You can't pin all that on the director unless you're 100% sure it was him. Getting upset over such minor changes that you aren't even sure are from the director or not really does prove that the hate was overblown.

Yet all of this gets past him. He is responsible. As the one in probably the highest position, if he doesn't have the sagacity to put his foot down, he is responsible. If he was the one who did it, he's responsible. No matter what, responsibility lies with him.

Everything you said seems to be trying to deflect or dismiss criticism as 'minor' or 'overblown'.

[OH&S]

Wow. This became a lot bigger than expected...

But at the very least, Hiss13, I would like to read that list you have and ponder on it for a bit.