Review of A Certain Magical Index
To Aru Majutsu no Index is a decent but not overly notable Shonen action anime. It is worth noting that I have only seen the first season and have not read the light novels or watched the railgun spinoff at the time of writing this review. One of the things that initially interested me about the show was how it positions itself to be a commentary on the conflict between Science and Magic as well as Religion and Superstition. While there is a great deal of scientific, religious, philosophical, and magical terms tossed around (such as "electromagnetic energy" "Gregorian chants" "Schrödinger's cat" etc) most of thisis surface level, and the show really does not have anything to say about any of these topics. The whole "science vs magic" commentary falls flat as the magical based power system of the sorcerers is far more intuitive and easier to grasp than the supposedly more scientific power system of the espers.
The plot structure of the show falls into a familiar and predictable rhythm as the show goes on: some conflict arises requiring the attention of our protagonist Touma, which almost always involves him risking his life to save a female character he just met. During the initial fight the opponent will gain the upper hand, before some plot twist happens, Touma self-righteously lectures the antagonist, before ending the fight by touching/punching his opponent with his right hand. The girl he just saved will inevitably develop a crush on Touma, who then ends up in the hospital, where he says or does something that is comically misinterpreted and then Index ends up biting him.
Some things I liked about To Aru Majutsu no Index include the two ops and eds, while not spectacular, were well done in my opinion. I really enjoyed the arc in episodes 19-20 concerning Accelerator as there was some decent character development and more genuine tension in the story. Episode 14 was also pretty good in my opinion. While the humor was noting original and mostly of the slapstick variety, there were a few times it was pretty hilarious, especially at the end of episode 17.
Some things I disliked about the show was how it never really delivered on its premise of science and magic. The titular character Index herself was incredibly annoying and outside of the first arc she really serves no actual purpose to the story, Lastly, I felt that amnesia was overused in the story as a plot device, especially for the first half, and as the show progressed the amount of fan service got a bit over the top.
Overall, I think 6/10 is a fair score for this show, it is slightly better than the average show I have watched so far, but not so much to overly distinguish itself .