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, a few months back I covered a review for the second season of Toaru and gave it a pretty mediocre score based upon
several aspects of the season that I did not enjoy. Despite having issues with the majorly increased fan-service , a
disorganized plot that was fairly slow in pace and a general lack of appeal. The cause of all of those? The first
season of Toaru being as good as it was. So, for my tenth review I figured I would cover a show that ranks extremely
high with me and the reason on why the second season suffered so badly. Bear with me through this experimental
review!
Touma Kamijo is blessed. Blessed with incredibly bad luck. It seems like no matter what happens to this guy, he just
can't catch a break. We're introduced to him right off the back running away from some thugs while he tried
to help out a young women from being hit on. However, things aren't as they appear, as Touma wasn't helping
her, but the thugs. The young woman happened to be Misaka Mikoto, one of the seven level five espers in Academy City.
After escaping to a nearby bridge, Touma turns around to find that the thugs have been "taken care of" by
Misaka and due to some poor choice of words, he ends up getting attacked by Touma. While Touma is only a level 0 esper,
he manages to fend off the attack with his right arm's special power. The next day, he finds a young woman in a
strange outfit draped across his railing like a futon, asking for food. All of this introduces us into the show and
begins our journey of adventure, shattering illusions and more importantly. tons and tons of dialogue.
Touma Kamijo is the main character of the series and for a character, he's nothing extremely special. All the guy
wants it to simply live a peaceful life without such great misfortune and can never seem to catch a break. During the
first ten minutes of the anime, we are introduced to three of the four major players throughout the series. Misaka
Mikoto, a young women who has the power to generate electrical currents and Index, the young girl wearing a mysterious
outfit who takes Touma on a wild ride. To get it out of the way, there are a ton of characters introduced in this
series and the wonderful thing that the first season of Toaru does is gives us plenty of time with each of them. There
are several different story arcs that generally range in the several episode category and each one of them involves
different characters, or sometimes the return of previous characters mixed in with new characters. This is by far the
strongest aspect of the story, as we get to not only learn more about the motives behind each of these characters, but
also their personalities and ties they develop and grow with Touma. It cannot be denied, though, that there are a lot
of female characters and it seems after each arc they always end up growing closer to him. However, Toaru (season 1
anyways) does a great job of simply restricting it to that arc and not dwelling far too greatly on it. You get more of
a sense that they've formed a deeper bond with him instead of simply joining his harem. I cannot stress enough how
the character development is absolutely amazing for Toaru.
Another aspect is the story and my gosh, this will be the true test of if you can stick with this series or not. I
won't lie, when I first watched Toaru I dropped it after several episodes. At the time, it just did not fit what I
was looking for and I just found myself bored with the novel sized amount of dialogue in this series. Toaru is a
detailed series that was based upon the light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi and it does not skimp on any
details. While it can certainly make the show feel far longer than necessary, if you can get through it you are
rewarded with a much deeper understanding of the Toaru universe. Characters, reasons for actions, the terminology and
the differences between espers and magicians and then some. This show is probably one of the first anime series
I've watched where I felt like I was reading a novel. Once again, there is a plentiful amount of dialogue and for
those that prefer less, they will have a difficult time sticking it through Toaru. However, despite this I have to make
mention of the fact that the show does a great job of blending hilarious comedy scenes with deep emotional ones and well
played action scenes. My hat goes off to the director of the series for doing a fantastic job of pacing the first
season of Toaru. Nothing ever feels like it hits you out of left field or was too unnecessary. Even the fan-service,
while somewhat uncalled for with certain scenes doesn't really feel terribly unnecessary. I wish I could cover
more about espers, magicians and so much more, but unfortunately it would cause anyone who was reading my review to shut
down after the story aspect, and I don't know if I want to be put in jail for Death By Review.
My only true complaint is that certain elements feel far too generic for the series and that sometimes it gets a little
too wordy for it's own good. Touma is fine being the way that he is, but the problem is that he doesn't
really stand out either. His right arm ends up being a bit of a clutch to always get out of a situation, which can
really eliminate any suspense for some. His solution to most problems also tends to get a bit old after awhile too, as
his solution towards shattering the villain of the arc's evil illusions is to simply punch them, in the face. I
kid you not, it seems like every arc someone is getting punched in the face. Men, women, anyone that needs a good
illusion shattering is getting hit. While it's rather nice to see Touma think on his feet and develop as a
character throughout, the punching is always there.
As previously mentioned too, the dialogue can tend to drone on for a bit and while every bit does count, I do feel that
sometimes there are just episodes that focus on nothing but dialogue. While this certainly isn't a bad thing in
terms of plot progression, this can be a disappointment to some.
Rating: 9
Art
One of the things that was definitely more noticible watching the first and second seasons of Toaru is the change in
art. The second season is definitely the stronger one in terms of art, but we're here to talk about he first
season.
Toaru is definitely well animated. Backgrounds are gorgeous and very far from static and rather varied. Characters are
well drawn and while from a distance they do take a lot more liberties, for the majority of the time the characters look
great. They do tend to lax on quality from time to time, but the overall consistency is very strong, especially in
battles. Combat is the main star when it comes to animation. Battles are fluent, beautiful and extremely creative. I
sure hope they had fun animating this series, because it is an absolute visual treat to watch. Spells and esper attacks
are incredibly vibrant, distinct and really liven up the show overall.
Aside from a few dips in a few places, Toaru overall is extremely well animated.
Rating: 8
Sound
Sound, like the second season, is still rather consistent. While the Accelerator doesn't have nearly the roll he
does in the second one, he still brings us just as strong of a range. However, the real treats lie with Touma, Index
and Misaka. Maybe it's more a personal opinion, but I felt that Atsushi Abe, Yuka Iguchi, and Rina SatÅ (Touma,
Index and Misaka respectively) were given far more changes to have far stronger dialogue and emotional ranges in the
first season. While Touma was more of the same, it still seems as if his character was just much stronger this time
around.
The soundtrack itself is rather well done, using guitar riffs (at times) during the more dramatic scenes, and bears a
strong electronic sound throughout it. This is especially apparent during the introducing and ending themes. Overall,
the soundtrack is very fitting during changing of paces throughout the show. I'm normally not fond of anime
soundtracks, but I could easily see myself picking up the OST for this series.
Rating: 9
Presentation
Toaru Majutsu no Index is one of those shows that completely caught me off guard. I deeply regretted not giving it a
full view the first time I watched it. The first season has probably one of the strongest plot progressions I've
seen in quite some time. Strong characters, a continually interesting storyline, well done animation and a great
soundtrack, it's no wonder I've viewed this show three times. The worst part is I get more addicted to it
each time I view it.
If you don't mind lengthy dialogue, some generic story elements here and there, and a bit of fan service here and
there, Toaru season 1 will easily fit the bill. It's just such a shame that the second season seems even worse
after my re-viewing of Toaru Majutsu no Index season 1. I said this once before, and sadly re-watching this series
reaffirmed it, but Toaru Season 1 really is far better in practically every aspect except animation.
After reviewing this season I've decided that this is the first show I've seen in some time that literally had
what I would consider a perfect presentation. It covers a large variety, while keeping things strong in all
departments. By far a show that I will continue to recommend whenever I can as a perfect example of what should be done
with an anime series to hook your audience.
Rating: 10
Final Verdict
9.1667 (very good)
Reviewed by CyanideBlizzard, Aug 15, 2011