The Index Post To End All Index Posts

It’s time for Nova to yet again whine about To Aru Majutsu no Index but this time is different – different because I promise that this will be the last post I’m ever going to write about it. As such I’m going all out to clear my mind of this cancer that has been infecting it yet again lately.

It’s funny how I’ve managed to develop such a hate-love relationship with Index anime. I was all but certain that a show with Kugyuu being a bitch like Toradora! or just steaming piles of horse shit such as Akikan! and Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka would be the most likely candidates. However as it turned out the pot was taken by the anime adaptation of To Aru Majutsu no Index-franchise produced by the loved and hated animation firm JC Staff, loved for things such as Azumanga Daioh and hated for occasional blunders like Shakugan no Shana Second. In which group does Index fall into? Read on and maybe we’ll find out.

As everyone is or at least should be aware of, To Aru Majutsu no Index is adapted from a somewhat popular series of light novels. A manga adaptation and a spinoff To Aru Kagaku no Choudenjibou also exist. Now, JC Staff’s reputation in making light novel adaptations is a bit controversial. In this category we have titles such as Shakugan no Shana, Zero no Tsukaima and Toradora! – and the public opinion on all of these is far from uniform. Personally I regard the first season of TV-anime Shakugan no Shana to be average and the second season to be total fucking horseshit. For Zero no Tsukaima adaptations I have no other sentiments but a simple wish that they’d some day disappear from the face of the universe, putting me in the group of people who think ZnT is nothing but bullshit against the group that thinks it’s the best shit since sliced bread and how great anime is is directly proportional to the average breast size. As far as Toradora! goes I must say that it’s quite decent and without the existence of Index I’d certainly consider this as a sign of improvement.

What is wrong with Index then? The show has decent production values, is based on a recognized piece of literature with a good setting and solid characters, and the graphical execution is nice. Because these aforementioned things are pretty much the only things Index anime excels at. Animation is good – it may not be KyoAni-level but good nevertheless – and just like with Toradora! the characters themselves provide a good support to the story and its execution. But where the problem really lies is that Index is a series that falls in the nasty gray zone between slice-of-life and plot-driven shows for a very simple reason. It’s because the production crew forgot that there is a fine line between adjectives slow and erratic. Not to mention that an attempt to mix action-based story with slice-of-life-type storytelling isn’t usually a good idea. Remember Naruto-fillers? That’s exactly what I’m talking about.

I must apologize as Naruto-fillers are so notorious in the anime circles that using them in an argument should be included in Godwin’s Law along with Hitler. But in this case it just illustrates my point too well to be left unused. Everyone can surely remember the frustration when sitting through hours of these more or less weak “storyarcs” thrown at the viewers just because the production staff had nothing else to do. This frustration is the same feeling that I get when watching Index. Even when there appears to be plot progression and action at times, in the end it all just resets more or less back to the square one! Even though the random short storyarcs Index caters us with always involve part of the main cast in addition to a bunch of new side characters one can hardly say that there is any illusion of progress. The storyarcs are simply being thrown in randomly as the production crew is holding hands and praying that it’ll work out somehow in the end. This might have worked with Shigofumi but I must strongly doubt Index will be able to pull off the same trick. TL;DR: To Aru Majutsu no Index anime is a filler.

Talking about TL;DR brings me to another point. The sheer volume of TL;DR/DW/DL in this anime for no apparent reason but to playing time. Index is a massive pile of dialogue that could be used for a whole lot of other things (i kno ur sayn action GET BACK 2 NARUTO KTHXBAI). Not that I’d wish for parades of fanservice or totally pointless action either but since the show is already stingy at explaining things to people with no knowledge on the novels and manga I’m sure these babbling sessions could be used more productively.

There’s one more thing in Index that undermines its value as entertainment – the inability to make sense. JC Staff appears to be relying on the numerous novel/mangafags to defend their lack of effort while the screenwriters are too busy smoking pot and fapping to MISAKA’s panties to give a damn about such difficult things as comprehensibility and coherence. In the end the poor viewer is left guessing why the hell did it take Touma 1 minute and 20 seconds to run a 4 meter distance and what these random people mean while novelfags leap into action spewing explanations left and right. And in the end JC Staff hits the big red RESET-button and the next storyarc starts after a brief half-episode of Touma being bossed around by his bitch and bitten in the face.

Except that maybe Index is just intended as DEEP shit and I’m being misguided – maybe I’m just looking for action and should get back to Naruto and Bleach for “the swordfight of the day“! I mean, few did understand the sheer genious behind Shakugan no Shana Second and we all were just pretentious asshats who only like a show when it has hot girls killing shit. But let’s be serious and bring this rant to its conclusion. The only two reasons I see for the fail of Index anime are 1) simply the lack of skill of the production crew when it comes to a novel adaptation and 2) see the picture below.