Review of A Certain Magical Index

The beef on the plate before you smells wonderful. Its color indicates that it has spent just about the right amount of time on the grill. Surrounded by finely cooked and cut potatoes and some vegetables for the fresh taste's sake, with a glass of delicious wine towering nearby, the seemingly delicious meat only waits for you to enjoy your meal. It's funny, really. In a way, Toaru Majutsu no Index is deceptive. The first few episodes promise you a really intriguing (if not epic) story. The presentation is phenomenal; the opening is great, events that unfold in episode 1 already get you hooked and thereare already some interesting characters whom you want to know more about. Hungrily, you venture onwards for more.

Throughout the episodes after the terrific first impressions, however, you start to notice a few things. First, it's only minor details that go unexplained, but you start to worry when it does not stop there. Before long, the show refuses to explain even more about certain events or characters. Soon, the story is all over the place, and with its failing ability to present itself properly or consistently, you begin to lose interest gradually over the course of the entire ride.

Remember the meal I mentioned before? The potatoes are just fine, the vegetables are okay and the wine is actually quite good. The meat, however, tastes awful. When you (try to) cut through it, you realize that it is far from done. The meat is pink, and the two or three pieces you try to chew on end up spat out on the floor.

While the side dishes were okay, the main meal was plain bad. In a way, Index is the same.

STORY: 2
Before anything, let me just say that in its core, Index is probably a very good show with regards to the story. However, there is one thing with this story that damages the show badly - the way it is presented. And I'm not exaggerating things, because it really is that severe. The concept of the entire show (Science vs Magic) is really interesting, and the sides shown of both parties are sometimes genuinely good. All things considered though, nothing actually ever happens between them until the last one or two episodes. Index, the main heroine of the anime (I think?), carries surprisingly little importance to the plot for the most part. Mostly forced into a few scenes purely for the sake of comic, what is revealed about her at the very start of the show (which is supposed to carry a lot of weight in the actual plot) is never mentioned until, again, almost the very end of it all, and even there it doesn't matter as much as it should. These are just some of many examples of things the show presents but forgets to handle or elaborate on.

Moving on, the entire show is split into several arcs, each handling its own sub-story and characters. While a minority of these arcs are quite decent, the rest of them remain uninteresting, and some even make you question what importance they actually hold to the main plot. The main problem with the arcs is, yet again, the fact that the show forgets to handle everyone and everything that happens in a proper way. Characters who're just being given some depth are suddenly wiped out of existence (figuratively speaking) with the coming of a new story or arc. Events remain unexplained, both within themselves and how they connect to everything else, until you simply start to not care anymore. Simply put, while everything has a potential of being great and interesting, the show treats its contents with little care, telling us many stories and presenting us to a lot of different characters, only to barely tie the knots on not more than a select few of them.

ART: 8
The art of Toaru Majutsu no Index is, truth be told, very good. While everything is coated with a simple style and charm, the liveliness in both characters and places is presented excellently through not too extreme methods of drawing. Colors come out nicely and blend together in a pretty way where they should, nothing or no one looks too deformed or incomplete, even from a distance. While a flaw can be spotted in the art here and there, it's nothing that will deviate you from the rest of the anime.

SOUND: 7
The music fits in the moment, so to speak. While the tracks of the show give the right effect to all events that occur and set the mood right most of the time, there's nothing here that'll stick with you once the moments have passed. The music, while good, is often forgettable, but it serves its purpose in the show. As for the two openings, they are actually epic. They set the tone right for what's to come, and as standalones in an MP3-player, they're still a pleasure to listen to. The endings are also decent, though not on par with the openings. Finally, sound effects. Everything sounds like it should, whether we're talking about explosions, footsteps, laughs or anything else. Nothing bad, yet nothing exceptional.

CHARACTERS: 7
Considering how I bashed the story section of this show, it may come as a surprise that the characters are being given a (significantly) higher score. However, while they were presented dreadfully together with the story, you actually cared for what you knew about them. Save for a few characters (including Index herself, ironically), most of them made you laugh, feel emotions, or care enough to finish watching the show altogether. Yet, it was rather frustrating when the show kept blowing away characters after their stories were told, since you really want to know more about some of them.

ENJOYMENT: 3
Back to the low scores. Index had every opportunity to become a good show. Most of the characters were interesting, the plot and setting were fresh and intriguing, and even the background details such as art and sound pleased. Nevertheless, thanks to the catastrophical presentation and handling of everything, what cound've been an epic experience was lost.

OVERALL: 5
All things considered, even if the main plot failed, the show wasn't impossible to finish. The several stories, for what it's worth, were decent sometimes, and other elements such as nice characters helped carry me through the ride. In the end, however, it truly is a shame. I really wanted to like what Index truly was trying to tell, but it was impossible considering the scattered everything was.

Even if the main meal failed to deliver, the side dishes were okay. Even if the meat wasn't even close to edible, you could leave the table knowing that at least the rest of the food pleased you. It is possible that the chef might have learned from his or her mistakes, and maybe, just maybe, the next dinner will be a winner.