Sounds like a horrible Anime o.0
Thanks for the review :P This ought to help me improve my own XD
To Aru Majutsu no Index tv Review
Touma Kamijou is a student in Academy City with seemingly no luck at all; one day he meets a strange girl dressed in a nun outfit named Index. His encounter with her leads him to meet many other people all with strange powers of their own. Now Touma is out to solve my mysteries behind Index and the city itself.
Credit: MisaSasekage
Story & Characters
So while I have this series fresh in my mind, I decided I should review it. I just finished watching this 24 episode series the other day. Anyhow here we go:
SHOCKER! BIRI! RANDOM VIOLENCE! I WIN! Thats how this series felt to me. Very spontaneous, very random. As a viewer you're given a cast of several characters with not much plot development for the true main character that this series is named for (Index). By the first episode we're introduced to Sister Index (yes she's a "nun-in-training" of sorts) who happens to fall from a roof onto Kamijo Touma's deck. Following about 5 minutes after this we're thrusted into a life or death situation for Index in which Touma (without much hesitation) throws himself in to protect her. For the next 3 episodes spans this, what I refer to as, "mini-arc". Thats literally how this series is split up into but I'll talk more about that in the final section of the review. This series speeds these characters along hoping you would get attach without so much of a moment to digest who they are. Something I forgot to mention is that technically meeting Index wasn't the first sequence of the first episode. We're technically introduced to Misaka Mikoto first in a random, totally unnecessary sequence (I won't spoil exactly what the scene entails). I will say that this scene introduces a "power", but this "power" was going to be shown later any way. Actually it would've worked alot better had they just gone with the flow and showed it later and not sooner. Now past the random first sequence, past the first episode entirely, we're introduced to several other characters that are not really unique in any which way. Some of them include Kanzaki Kaori (your typical big-breasted, jeans wearing, samurai girl/magician) or Himegami Aisa (your emotionless, strong, priestess-type girl). Funny enough Himegami makes more of a personality change than anyone else in this entire series and she's not really show too often. Kanzaki is like a mass ball of other types of characters from other anime just thrown together hoping to get something original. You can call her the "Super Character", but again totally unoriginal.
This series brings nothing new to the table that we haven't seen at some point in another anime. Most notably the whole Church versus Science deal was brought up in Full Metal Alchemist (which I'm sure most of you have either heard of, if not seen all the way through). Even more painful was the fact it gives us no real reason to be attached to the characters like Index, considering Index should be the main character of this story, she wasn't used much. I was hoping to see more of this "103,000 Grimoires" and what type of abilities and spells that is contained in them, but they failed to do anything about it. I thought thats what the story was suppose to be about... guess I was wrong.
Rating:
Art
I will say now that this art style wasn't unique in any sense either. Even more disappointing is that alot of animation styles are starting to run together and blend together. I don't even think they used any CG cuts (though I could be wrong on this). Where's the testing of new technology or expanding the fight scenes with said technology to make them look better. I did like how this series was directed, but alas that has really no bearing on the art style. The art was average. It didn't make my eyes bleed when I looked at it but it sure didn't make me "ooo" and "ahh" in amazement either. I did like some of the backgrounds though.
Rating:
Sound
I couldn't stand listening to the opening and endings all the way through. I've always been very good at listening through all openings and endings at least once but just like "Wings of Words" by Chemistry that was used in Gundam Seed Destiny, I found myself skipping the opening and endings. I've been interested in Kawada Mami's music for quite some time, so I was looking forward to hearing some more of her songs, but the song "PSI-Missing" and "Masterpiece" that she did for this series, just felt like it had no excitement to it (to me at least). I liked her "Hishoku no Sora" song she did for Shakugan no Shana, but she couldn't bring the same electricity of that song back. IKU's endings just felt like they didn't fit the series. I'm not talking lyric-wise, I'm refering to the melody of the songs. Again I refer back to "Wing of Words" (for those who know what I'm talking about, if not skip ahead). The two insert songs we had a chance to listen to slightly were okay, but the issue with those is they were badly placed. When inserting a song or bgm (background music), its suppose to enhance the scene and draw out the already existing anticipation and excitement (or sadness) the viewer has during the time, but with the poor placement and bad timing of the songs, I, personally, had none.
On the other hand, the BGMs themselves (not the insert songs), were correctly places (at least during the "battle sequences"). The BGMs did enough to slightly enhance my emotions during the scenes and weren't poorly placed. Thats to be expected from any decent composer.
The Japanese VAs were pretty good surprisingly (but again I haven't really ran into any really terrible VAs... at least not yet). They played their parts good enough but it wasn't enough to draw any real emotions towards their characters. I say if I didn't have to split this section into "Voice Acting" and "Music", this section would've had a lower rating, but the VAs and the BGMs kept the rating from falling to the pits.
Rating:
Presentation
Wow, 24 episodes and they couldn't keep it at one continous story. Whats with new anime these days in either being in "mini-arc" or "episodic" formats. Now I mentioned "Mini-arc" at the beginning and I said I would elaborate. Well to me any plot-line or story within the main story that lasts 3 episodes or more is (by my personal opinion and definition) a "mini-arc". Let me say there's quite a number of them in this series. When you look back at the Clannad anime (for those who have seen it), it was the same. However Clannad had a true purpose for it that helped enhance its underlying concepts while here all these mini-arcs were suppose to increase your attachments to the characters. It failed. Probably the only character I even got semi-attached to was Accelerator (even though he was initially introduced as a villian, go figure).
The speed that this series was telling this "story" (what story? hah), was very slow until closer to the end when things just started picking up. Just a little too late however, by the time they got to a decent speed it was already the final episode of this "series" and it slowed back down immediately. The final episode seemed to have dragged on. Lets not even mention how ridiculous it was.
Now now, some of you may think I'm being extremely harsh on this series, but with everything it did yet still fail as much as it did, the series deserves it. I did enjoy some of the jokes and antics in the anime, but it wasn't enough to pull the story out of the toilet. There were even plot devices in this series that made no sense whatsoever. Even when they did have plot devices that made some sense, they don't even solve or answer questions pertaining to them (i.e. will Touma ever regain his memory or would people find out that he did lose it). When its all said and done, the final episode leaves a big fat cliff hanger that can be seen from the moon if it was a visible object. Hey, instead of creating a side story about Misaka Mikoto (reference: To Aru Majutsu no Railgun), why not create a second season, or hell, even just annouce that you guys are doing one?! We all know its going to come, unless if the series was canceled. In some ways I hope it was canceled because this series is doing nothing by making me more mad the more I talk about it.
Overall this series had some decent jokes and some laughable spots, but its not even close to saving the story. The story would've worked 20 times better had it been one continous, connecting series of episodes instead of a "mini-arcs within the larger story". We spent more time on the mini-arcs than we did on anything that actually related to the real story. The 24 episodes was definitely not warranted for this.
Look if you have time to kill, no new anime to watch, and you really want to watch something, this series can help pass the time. Episodes here and there by themselves were fun. Otherwise look somewhere else cause there are definitely alot better series out there (and I can't stress the word alot as much as I am here)
Rating:
Final Verdict
4.8333 (moderate)
Reviewed by SaitoHajime101, Jan 22, 2010
Comments
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z827 Jan 22, 2010
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Prooof Jan 22, 2010
I would agree the series is rather aimless
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BlackBahamut Jan 23, 2010
I liked the start of the series up to the point when Tohma lost his memory, but like you allready said, near to nothing happens after that that could be called "story-related". The most sad point about this show is that Index became a side-character in her "own" show.
IF they were to make a second season, I wouldn
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rukasu04 Mute Member Feb 06, 2010
Nice review
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Warpten29 Feb 23, 2010
great!
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SchRita May 01, 2010
Thanks for the review!
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kevin10133 Sep 28, 2011
good review i still love this anime though XD but if you do a review about A Certain Scientific Railgun then i wouldnt be surprised to see a rating of 3 or less
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SaitoHajime101 Oct 01, 2011
I doubt I'll get to a review on Railgun or even the second season of Index, because of how terrible the first season of Index was. Glad you enjoyed the review and hopefully I'll find time to write more in the near future.
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back07 Sep 26, 2012
thanks for the nice review
:)
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