Review of A Certain Magical Index
"When science and magic cross paths, this epic will begin" (Uhm... maybe not.) I had such great expectation for this anime... Magic versus technology, science versus religion. It had everything to be great, but somehow after the 5th episode I felt like it lost its "particularity". If you're looking for a show to pass time, give it a shot. But don't be fooled like I was. Why it had everything to be a sucess: In the futuristic world, the entire knowledge of mankind is concentrated in a city. Academy City. A place where young espers develop their abilities and there's no place for things like superstition or fairytales. In this context you're introduced to a girl who claims she has in her mind more then 10.000 grimores with the most powerfull magic spells in the world. She says that magic exist and that there's a rivality between the magic and the scientific side which may lead to a war.
After this, I was expecting the plot to be something like Shana, ZnT or Nanoha's... stuff like that. Where the main character (who holds the name of the series) have a great power and the story moves around it. It was huge (and unpleasant) surprise for me when I found out that Index would became a suportive character and the plot would be a slice-of-life about some guy called Touma Kamijou. From this on, this serie fell in the cliche of "main male character helps a lot of different girls for no especific reason just because he's 'nice'".
Really?
Fortunatelly, you have really good arcs in the story that saves this show from getting a lower score. Accelerator's and the sisters' arc were really interesting and made me continue watching.
This show was supposed to be a action/adventure, but since the plot is very poor, sometimes, you have characters that only appears in one or two episodes, are beaten up by Touma, and vanish again. You can't observe character development neither get to know them better. Which is realy bad because without it, you have plain characters with no personality. During the show you have specific 'arcs' for key characters, which allows the viewer to understand better the story, but after it, they change the subject and moves to another problem.
Now tell me, is it possible to solve a life tretening issue within one or two days? Of course not.
Sound... nothing to complain about. Had a decent OST and I enjoyed the OP/ED. PSI-Missing is really addictive... still can't get it out of my head.
Some of the OSTs they used in the battles were great, it matched realy well.
If this show has a highlight it's the art. They created nice visuals mixing old style architecture with futuristic stuff. The scenario also differs in different "districts" of AcademyCity depending on the places importance or economical power just like a real city. It was interesting to watch. All the characters were well drawn and I particulary loved the singular "acessories" the ones from the magic side had. Each one had something related to their ability and it was funny to try guess what it was. The best one was Styl Magnus, [he's soooo stylish 'hahaha']
This story had a great potential, too bad it was not fully explored.
It became really boring to watch sometimes. If you noticed, before every battle you have in this anime, Touma gives a speach about life, ethics or self-help. After all the chick-chat, the ending for every fight is completely predictable and repetitive.
c'mon, what about the 103.000 dangerous grimores? Does anyone still remember they exist?
Story - 7/10 | Characters - 7/10 | Sound - 9/10 | Art - 10/10 | Overall + Enjoyment - 7/10
[Thx for reading, appreciate your feedback. Sry if there're mistakes, eng is not my 1st language]