Anime Review - Toaru Majutsu No Index

Toaru Majutsu No Index

Hello everybody, Typhoon LordGrief here with another anime review. Today as you can tell from the title I'm going to be reviewing Toaru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index).

Synopsis

Academy city population 2.3 million, what makes it unique is that 80% of the population consist of students. It is the focal points of multiple high education programs/centers. Within this city there reside special humans who are known as Espers, Espers are people who have gained a supernatural ability either naturally or via a mixture of drugs and sense alteration. This city is known as the city of science and it is home to many powerful individuals.

Within this city there is a young man named Touma. He is a high school student who is thought to have absolutely no abilities, what makes him remarkable is that his right hand is capable of canceling all other esper abilities on touch. This is made apparent from the very first episode when he is shown being able to fight against the third most powerful person in the city without receiving any harm. One day he opens up his window to find a girl in white hold trimmed robes passed out on the rail to his balcony. He discovers her name is Index, and that she is in possession of 103,000 grimoires ( powerful magic manuals, EX. Necronomicon). She also tell him that she is being chased by powerful magicians who aim to steal her knowledge and use it to change or destroy the very world.

From this moment on Touma is plunged into a world of magic, science, and religion. His only goal is to protect Index and everyone from the suffering that is constantly around them.

Story [ 6 / 10 ]

The story is good and is paced well enough, it's often disjointed but that's mostly because they don't give too much exposition (which is a good thing!). The setting to the story is rather rich and I find myself drawn in by my curiosity. Sadly the story has to lose several points due to a problem that a lot of animes have. NOBODY DIES! I'm sure that's a huge spoiler but it's actually really frustrating to me when an anime has a perfect moment where if a character died it would have a genuine impact on both the characters and the watcher. Instead it ruins those moments by having the character live on. Heck, I'd even take thinking the character is dead for an episode or two but it doesn't even wait that long to reveal that, what a surprise, they lived.

As a side note the story goes over a lot of the science vs religion aspects which I don't mind that much but are overplayed in real life let alone in anime.

Art [ 9 / 10 ]

This is where I feel the show really picks up from a lot of animes I watch. They have good shading and good animation for the characters. They don't overkill it with an acid wash technicolour and for that I thank them. I found the art to be extremely appealing, though it's not the absolute best.

Sound [ 3 / 10 ]

The music sadly doesn't stand out too much to me. It does it's job whenever it needs to and it fits the moment correctly but it isn't something that I'd associate with the anime.

Character [ 5 / 10 ]

This is where the show gets hit or miss. The main character has to have a rigid personality though he actual does start to develop after two seasons. The full main cast of character are good although some of them are annoying. It's one of those animes where I felt much more connection and development from the support cast and the side characters. The villains are fairly blank slates, and bothered me due to the fact that all except for maybe two of them had some dark past that made them hate science or whatever at the given time.

Enjoyment [ 10 / 10]

I vastly enjoyed this anime, I liked it so much I shotgunned the two seasons and even watched the DVD specials. It is really fun to watch but it can get tiring to hear the main character give speeches on morality even if they are good speeches. The characters are pretty awesome to watch in motion and the story is fun to watch as well. What really got me was how rich the setting was from the Church of England, to the Academy city the writer had it down and for me lore does a long way into making something interesting and enjoyable.

Overall [ 6.6 / 10 ]

Nothing much else that I can say. Really I liked it and that's all that matters to me. It's a good anime and even though it has it's flaws it manages to make up for them in ways that don't make me want to put my fist through my monitor. Check it out.