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Toaru Majutsu no Index
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Animation - 8.4 |
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Sound - 7.6 |
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Story - 4.8 |
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Character - 6.2 |
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Value - 5.2 |
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Enjoyment - 6.8 |
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Average - 6.5 |
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| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Follows the story of a boy with the Right Hand of Misfortune. Toaru is a dog's breakfast of unusual stories and characters, leading predictably to chaos.
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Toaru Majutsu no Index attempts to cross sci-fi with magic in a world where magic can be explained through science.
The animation is superb, with crisp and consistent drawings, very good hi-def pictures, and unlike other anime where hi-def does not really necessary enhance the animation, Toaru really did an excellent job with its fluid animation and action scenes.
The theme songs are really good, with Kawada Mami delivering two extremely unique and catchy OP themes and IKU has both excellent ED theme songs. But perhaps the voice that has elevated this anime to another level would be Rina Satou voicing the character Mikoto Misaka. She really outdid herself in this series, as her character enables her to really showcase the wide range of emotions and Rina Satou really took advantage here to establish herself as one of the top seiyuu in the industry.
The story is a letdown, with a really good start to the story, it has quickly derailed and lost its focus in its main storyline and into several unimportant sidestory arcs. While most of the story arcs are pretty good, the excellent start of the series has left us wonder why the writers did not focus on its main storyline instead.
The characters have quickly turned into a harem style showcasing quite a few female characters in different styles. The best character would be Mikoto Misaka, which has developed into a very deep character (maybe because of its already spinoff from its manga). But most other characters do not get enough screen time to become more interesting. Even for Touma, with the most screen time, it feels as if he's mostly a supporting character that didn't really show much in developing himself.
Overall it might be disappointing for the people who were expecting a serious sci-fi drama but quickly turns into a harem comedy. But I feel that it has a good balance of comedy, fan service and story.
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Budding |
(2009-03-23 18:41:31) 2009-03-23 18:41:12 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| To Aru Majutsu no Index is a 24 episode fantasy action anime released in 2008. It has some good moments of comedy and ecchi, but falls short as an action anime.
The graphics and animation in To Aru Majutsu no Index are very good, and the use of computer aniamtion is both adequate and impressive. Character designs are mostly suitable, although the attire of certain characters could be arguable. Overall, although nothing spectacular, To Aru Majutsu no Index does not disappoint visually.
To Aru Majutsu no Index has some decent theme songs, but they sadly do not fit very well with the overall storyline and atmosphere of the anime. Furthermore, although the voice acting is performed to a very high standard, the dialogue is extremely repetitive and lackluster. At certain moments in the anime, inadequate background music is used, some of which are also replayed too frequently, resulting in scenes that are cumbersome to listen to. Still, the audio of the anime is endurable most of the time, which cannot be said for its storyline.
The story of To Aru Majutsu no Index spans a wide range of genres, and is quite enjoyable for most of those genres. It's got enjoyable scenes of comedy and ecchi, and the few moments of drama are a welcome addition. However, almost every fight sequence in To Aru Majutsu no Index is flawed. There is either too much uninteresting dialogue taking place, or the pace is simply off, resulting in battle scenes that take too long to start and too swift to end. Ultimately, this results in boring and anti-climactic fight scenes, ruining the entire episode straight away. The abrupt ending of the anime is carried out in a good way, and does prompt the viewer to watch the next season that is due shortly. However, this is but a small last minute redemption following hours of failure.
Due to the good voice acting, To Aru Majutsu no Index has several characters that have been very well received, resulting in one of them about to receive their own anime adaptation. The anime doesn't do a great job of reusing its cast however, and some characters are not seen again for many episodes in a row, if at all. To Aru Majutsu no Index therefore has a pretty good cast of characters, despite being let down by tiresome dialogue.
In Japan, To Aru Majutsu no Index has been subject to publicity from a number of high profile celebrities. As a consequence, it is one of the most popular anime in Japan, with a second season and an adaption of a side story to follow. In western countries, this anime would no doubt received a highly mixed reception, since it fails in pretty much every way as an action anime. For viewers who have enjoyed following the cast in To Aru Majutsu no Index, I would recommend looking forward to the anime adaptation of the side story. For viewers who have enjoyed To Aru Majutsu no Index, I would no doubt recommend the second season. But, for those deciding whether or not to watch To Aru Majutsu no Index, I would recommend them to look elsewhere first.
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Pakxenon |
(2009-03-23 03:21:44) 2009-03-23 03:17:23 |
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| Average |
5.8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
3 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| Finally, an anime from JC Staff that has a plethora of female characters and not one of them is voiced by Rie Kugimiya. Welcome to A Certain Magical Index, a light novel adaption that takes its titular character and gives her a secondary function after the first volume/six episodes.
By the team that did Shakugan no Shana, there is no doubt that the production quality remains high: cute character designs, great fights, great lighting effects, and catchy I've Sound songs by Kawada Mami and the rest of the crew. That team is pretty much set for selling a shounen-action series; the only inhibiting factor is how they ADAPT the source material. You can see my/other reviews of Shakugan no Shana to understand this problem, but the fact remains prevalent.
Please do not ask me why, but yes, Index becomes a secondary character right after her arc ends. The author's (Kazuma Kamachi) attempt to write an "epic" about science vs. magic falls miserably to our deaf eyes; however, he succeeds in attracting a large readership with enough attention to garner an anime adaption: why? You can thank Kiyotaka Haimura, the original character designer of all the characters from the light novel illustrations (he also did Yume Miru Kusuri... I loved that game :D). You can eventually find a poster full of most of the female crew all the way to volume 16 or something, which shows the effect of what hiring a good illustrator can do for your literary work. I must admit, I liked the plain design of Misaka Mikoto the best (maybe because she resembled Aeka from YMK sort-of), but the designs of Index, Kanzaki, and other future haremettes also attracted my attention a great deal.
So you ask me if I watched this just for the characters? By the end of the series, my intent has still not changed: yes, I did watch this for Index and Misaka Mikoto.
Toaru... does not have a conventional story structure; instead, each volume is its own story but using the same protagonist (Kamijo Touma) and revolving around his mending of problems by talking and talking to his opponents and talking and using his nullifying ability (Imagine Breaker). Did I mention he talks a lot? It sure gets epic when each fight is broken down with text walls of trying to convince the opponent to back down. Each arc is the same thing over and over again: Touma meets new girl, Touma helps with the world's exposition, Touma fights opponents through talking. Each story also uses up a main girl, thus a reason to have so many female character designs.
So to really get the most out of Toaru..., you must love the characters that are involved in a particular arc. For me, obviously the first and third arc were the most enjoyable as they featured Index and Mikoto. A later episode was also highly enjoyable, but it's too bad nothing will come out of it for a while (even the author is holding back on such a flag event!).
Not to mention that each girl gets almost "thrown away" after their arc ends. (There is almost no hint of an overarching plot, because the author does not touch upon it very well.) To sum it up, the entire concept is a waste of potential on fault of the author.
I would like to commend JC Staff for actually sticking to the source material for once. My qualms with this is that they took it too far. Of course, as I have not read the light novel, my entire impression of Index relies only on the anime. And this anime has a lot of talking in it. So much, that all the fights could only look better if there was not so much mumbling babble. This is especially evident on the final episode of Index's (first) arc, where it takes Touma at least two minutes to travel a distance of 3 meters because of all the talking he had to do.
I would classify Toaru Majutsu no Index as a waste of potential, a waste of time, a waste of fandom, but a pretty cool action anime. Since I fell victim to the fandom (of Misaka Mikoto), I anxiously await the Railgun anime adaption.
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fnord |
2009-02-04 09:25:43 |
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| Average |
5.3 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| This review is based on the first 17 episodes, after which I decided to drop & delete the show.
Animation:
Barely acceptable during normal scenes, but improves during fight scenes. It is at no point spectacular, but does never invoke disgust either. The art is of generic style.
Sound:
Touma (the male lead) received a good VA who does his best to milk the character for what he would give, but other VAs don't measure up. The music is barely noticeable, and not particularly well implemented. OP and ED are both standard J-Pop songs, which I skipped most of the time. Starting with episode 17 the show receives a new OP, which is a lot better than the first one.
Story:
As a light novel adaption, the story progresses highly arc-ish with 5-7 episodes devoted to a single arc. These are paced reasonably well, but the connection between the arcs is simply nonexistent. The show tries to introduce a broader background to the viewer and paint a detailed picture of the magical mechanics the world features, but in my opinion fails quite miserably in this task. It attempts to make the fights more tactical by including various obscure sideffects of magical and ESP powers in respect to the environment they are used in, but regularly seems too simple. In this, it manages the fascinating feat to demonstrate its own stupidity by trying not to be a stupid action show.
Character:
Index' main personality is immensely obnoxious for its ridiculous naiveté, but thankfully she does not receive as much screentime (especially later on) as the title might suggest. Touma is ok. The secondary cast ranges from pathetic to good - I liked Misaka. A main problem this show has is the inclusion of oddly placed emotional talks. For instance, when everything pointed to a soon-to-start action scene, a large-scale discussion about someones feelings about something tangentially related to the situation at hand would ensue, leaving the viewer mystified whether the characters do not have more pressing business to take care of. These discussions can get quite lengthy.
Value:
Since I didn't (want to) finish it, rewatching it is out of the question. The subs I watched are adequate, but suffer from the chronic problem that the group has - that being odd transitions between lines.
Enjoyment:
Index is not catastrophic, but it accumulates lots and lots of little failures. The arcs are decently paced, and Index' secondary personality (which only showed up once) was cool. But in the end, the good aspects, characters and nice episodes are simply drowned in the general sea of fail.
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