Part of me wonders whether there’s any reason why after two seasons of this show I firstly still like it and secondly am still watching it. Basically, while the plot continues to become yet more convoluted in the jargon they like to babble at the audience, every incident is resolved much the same way with Kamijou eventually punching whoever is responsible and destroying whatever mystic whosit they were chasing by touching it before getting somehow knocked out or injured to the point where the next time we see him he’s waking up in hospital, again.
Yet, the answer to the question of why I am still watching A Certain Magical Index is actually pretty clear. While this formula is repetitive, it is great fun and when accompanied by the music and the general intensity all of the characters put into climactic scenes, it is difficult not to get swept up even if we are just waiting for the right hand to nullify everything and call it a day.
The other reason is that this show continues to bring back ideas from each of its previous stories and continues to build a fairly complex (if at times nonsense) kind of world. This opening act delivers that beautifully with Misaka’s return as a reoccurring character and while it was nice in the first two episodes to see her hounding Kamijou yet again, the phone conversation that she overheard where she finds out that he has in fact lost his memory (something that I kept hoping someone would realise much earlier on) kind of brings things nicely together. We also get a return from Accelerator that really doesn’t add anything to Kamijou’s story but helps with world believability because even after his injuries he’s still pretty much a weapon of mass-destruction.
So while A Certain Magical Index has done nothing to address its problems, three seasons in there’s probably little inclination to fix them because more than enough people are on board with the story as it is. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this cast and the overblown nature of everything is just par for the course.
Although, one of these days it would be nice to meet a villain who isn’t a complete psycho.
Thanks for reading
Karandi James
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DRAGON QUEST 25TH ANNIVERSARY MONSTER ILLUSTRATION BOOK
- Episodes 1 + 2 – That Time Something Happened to Kamijou
- Episode 3 – More Jargon More Punching
- Episode 4 – Ditch the Main Cast and Go For A Ride
- Episode 5 – I’m Glad I’m Not The Only One Confused
- Episodes 6 + 7 – A Certain Villainous Laugh and a Meandering Plot Line
- Episode 8 – A Fight Between Saints Should Be Exciting, Right?
- Episode 9 – The Moment You Know The Magic Is Gone
- Episode 10 – Exposition on A Plane With Index and the Terrorist
- Episode 11 – Dropping A Certain Magical Index
“the phone conversation that she overheard where she finds out that he has in fact lost his memory (something that I kept hoping someone would realise much earlier on) kind of brings things nicely together.”
I actually gasped when I saw her reaction. I’ve watched both series since they came out, and they kinda embody what I like about anime! Her honest tsundere relationship with Touma is a lot of fun, but seeing her reaction to hearing he had amnesia was just wonderful.
“Part of me wonders whether there’s any reason why after two seasons of this show I firstly still like it and secondly am still watching it. ”
Seriously, I realize it’s possible not to like these characters, but you have good taste — so they appeal to you! Yeah, a lot of the villains are insane, but some aren’t; and Touma, Index, Misaka, and the rest are just so darned easy to root for!
And even the magical/theological techno-babble is fun. I have a degree in theology, so seeing how the writers play with theological concepts and create a magical fusion is just fun. Seeing Itsuwa figure out Sahou no Terra’s power based on the flour? That’s good stuff!
I find the theology aspects of this a little hard to take because I get that they are playing with things and there is a lot of fusion going on (as well as creative reinterpretation) but at times it just makes me wonder why they couldn’t just have come up with their own concepts rather than butcher established ones.
I do have a lot of fun watching this show but as easy as it is to go along with these characters and get caught up in the moment, it is almost equally easy to step back and just start picking it all a part. It is one of those stories that depending on my mood and how I choose to view it is either brilliant or a complete mess.
The more skilled you become in either reviewing or creating fiction, the sooner enjoying any work of fiction becomes an act of will. Can you think of any work of fiction that you couldn’t rip apart, if you were so inclined? I’m the same way. So now, I _choose_ to enjoy a show like Index because I want to!
There are some shows, though, that even summoning all of my will, I can’t enjoy… Like Taboo Tattoo (shudder)…
I’m with you on Taboo Tattoo. Even suspending all disbelief and ignoring a lack of coherence, that was just painful to watch.
When Accelerators voice was in last weeks PV, I so hoped we’d see him in action… but no, just a cameo.
And like you, I’ve been waiting a long time to see what they’d do with memory loss.
Let’s hope they do something.
Index and Railgun have their good points, but their bad points are hard to deal with. They rely on giggling villains, and they keep recycling their criminals and terrorists because they’re expected to be air dropped into war zones, which means that the whole place is a training ground, a weapons factory.
Its hard for us to take this seriously because Japan hasn’t been that evil since WW2, and they promised not to be that way anymore. That its popular television suggests US military bases in Japan are completely justified for the next few decades. We know sheeps clothing, and Index is the wolf showing its fangs.
Index has pretty animation, memorable and sometimes gorgeous characters, funny dialogue, and plenty of mysteries. I always thought the primary mystery was implied in the first few eps, that all the students have a single spell on them, one that’s flexible. That’s why they can’t use magic, since they establish that you can’t use two spells at one time. The insistence on deliberate psychosis (rejecting reality) in the school classes is how it affects the spell power. Staying under that one spell after the “student operation” which might be a rune or something, makes the entire thing a really large nationally funded Chuunibyo program which has visible results.
And while one of the chief villains is clearly stealing from Evangelion with his Level 6 attempts (instrumentality), the giggling by villains is a trope I find highly annoying. It makes me turn it off and watch something else. It is lazy writing. Pumpkin Scissors suffered from that too. Lazy writing is a lot of bad to try and overcome. I’m also annoyed that they basically kill off all the sisters rather than continue to use them for humor. They could have made a fantastic food delivery service with electric scooters, since they don’t need batteries (the sisters are all level 2 electromasters) and they couldn’t be stolen. Bringing Kamijou bento and ramen would keep him alive, and also Index who continues to live with him, and being broke and hungry is his most frequent complaint. A pity. I think the author is unaware of the humor potential, and killed them all off instead. His weird Japanese misunderstanding of xtianity is another common trope that annoys. The Jesuits did xtianity no favors to Japan all those centuries ago. Showing xtians as giggling cannibals is politically approved popular racism now, despite most of the population going xtian to get married in Japan because the ceremony is shorter, cheaper, and less annoying than the other two religions in Japan.
Index and Railgun are a conundrum. Parts are great, parts are awful, and you have to take both to watch it. It comes down to your personal tolerance and patience whether it is entertaining enough to bother.
I sometimes ask myself what it was I found compelling in this show, and then I realized that I was 10 years younger then and quite easily pleased by Kamijou’s “misfortune”.
But yeah, too much technobabble, but the formula has pretty much established itself in its viewer base, so all we can do is wait for the moment he wakes up in a hospital and reviews “what thu heck jus happn?”
Another weird “doi” moment was when they made a pun with Kamijou’s name (lit. “above god”), referencing the goal of the Right seat of God. At this point, I just want to know what’s going on (and when Mikasa can finally get in on the action).
I actually enjoyed the pun with his name but I kind of hoped that isn’t actually leading to anything.