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Consider this a review of all 3 Toaru series that are out so far. I’m not willing to make different reviews around the same setting.
The Toaru trilogy is a typical shonen adventure with a nice presentation. It doesn’t fair much next to the higher ups such as One Piece or Full Metal Alchemist but at least has a nice way to show everything… half of the time.
The story for example is quite average and never plays out in any special way. There is a world where magic and science are at war and some teenagers are fighting in it. There is a lot more that just that but, seriously, the scriptwriters hardly try to offer anything more than the basic. Sometimes even less than that.
- Toaru 1 had little to no overall plot amongst its story arcs. Some excuse it as the introduction to the setting and the cast but story-wise it is still pretty much a disjoined series of almost stand-alone missions.
- Railgun was just a storyless spin-off just for kicks, done to please the Misaka fans / Index haters. It is considered far more enjoyable that Toaru 1 but still has zero story to tell.
- Toaru 2 does a much better job at having a better overall plot but then again the transition from one segment to another happens in a rushed and poor way that confuses anyone not aware of the novels. Plus, it leaves most older characters as background decoration and ends openly at a point that is almost a major cliffhanger. There is a lot more to show in a, supposed, upcoming Toaru 3 series.
In all cases, the story is nothing but a sort of excuse for stuff to happen that never seems to always tie in an event that followed or preceded other events. Some may be content with just that but I don’t; I like tight storytelling and good pacing. Some actually love how the author did a lot of research in order to explain the various magical and scientific powers that many characters possess, but it’s not like that makes the actual story any more creditable. It is still to the most part improbable physics canceled with a broken power.
In a similar fashion, the cast is a colorful bunch of stereotypes that hardly develop in any significant way. Most are in fact given some attention and are then thrown in the background.
- The most prominent example of this is the lead girl Index, whose name is even in the title. Although she is supposed to be the key character in the war because of her hidden knowledge, she is offered some immersion and drama before she becomes nothing but a platonic lover to the lead character. Not only that, but as the girls who like the lead male keep increasing, her role becomes even less and less important to the show in general. Some say this is good because she is very annoying and the less air-time she gets, the better the show is. Well in that case, she sounds like a very bad choice for a lead character to begin with.
- The lead male Touma, ain’t exactly any better. He is the stereotypical shonen protagonist, predictably owning a broken power with which he uses it to protect his loved ones and save chicks. Make a check on the list of clichés at how he also keeps shouting morality speeches all the time. He always does the exact same thing; cancels the powers of his opponent, lash out a monologue about how wrong he or she is, do a punch to the face and then goes to heal in the hospital.
- The support characters seem to have even less importance in the plot. Each arc usually ends with Touma saving one girl and adding it to his personal harem, which gets more and more nude as the episodes go on. Most girls are treated as nothing but harem material, existing in the show just to play it tsundere to Touma and cook stuff just for the heck of it. They otherwise hardly develop or matter. Hell, the show goes as far as to clone them in order for more mass produced zero- depth girls to frown over Touma.
- The only villain most care about is this psychotic guy named Accelerator, but even he seems like a crazy dude and nothing more. Big deal.
The production values are of rather high budget but even those get various ups and downs throughout the anime. There is rather high fluent animation, nice color palette, and catchy BMG but that still does not cover for the completely generic looks of the characters or the forgettable songs. And they are still talking so much during battles that become ridiculous. I wouldn’t mind if they were about deep philosophy or the fringe science of superpowers but it was just typical moral speeches around superficial morality, and macho one-liners.
Action scenes are very good if all you want is fancy lights and big explosions but they are otherwise following a very standard and repetitive 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 fan service in it for the roneries amongst us, which is low on Toaru 1 but gets rather overboard on Toaru 2. Most were displeased with how degrading the show became with its females and it is even weirder how the producers themselves demanded more of it because they though it would increase sales. That feels plain distasteful to me. but I guess that is the normal thing to do with characters you have no idea how to maintain them interesting to the viewers.
Now about the enjoyment part. I sure wasn’t amused much but I am aware how it ranks great for many out there. I will just say that I have seen far better shonen than this one, with far better handling of its story and characters.
It is as I said, a typical shonen adventure with a nice presentation. The nice part is relevant of course; personally it strikes me as very bad to treat characters as ecchi material and have the plot being so loose and repetitive. I guess generic characters doing generic things with poor reasoning and cheap plot twists may indeed be entertaining for many. I just expected a lemon twist to my average soda thereafter. And Toaru is down to it plain water in a fancy glass.
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