Ranked #564

Toaru Majutsu no Index II

Before I begin my review, let me share with you a little story

I once went to the "Women Are Neglecting Kitchens Society" ( Yes, I do know that abbreviates to W.A.N.K.S) Don't worry, all they do is tell "Women and Kitchen" jokes to each other. Anyways, the committee was proposing "Kamijou Touma" as their society's mascot. Bear in mind I did not watch any episodes of "Toaru Majutsu no Index" at all so I had to ask, "Who the heck is Touma??"
My membership got instantly revoked.

So after watching the first season, I still did not understand why is Touma is treated like a hero for the W.A.N.K.S. But after venturing into the second season during the great "Nuns vs Touma's Right Fist" war, I finally understood them..

"Your story wasn't that entertaining" says Misaka expressing her boredom.

Oh, and providing commentary for this review today is Misaka Clone #10032
So let's begin the review shall we?

As I've mentioned before, I've continuously watched from the first season into the second season, thus I could significantly notice several changes between the two season.

Once again the story revolves around Kamijou Touma and his RIGHT FIST. Note I do not say RIGHT HAND to avoid any sexual innuendos. Once again, Touma lack of discrimination for women causes him to go out of his way to save any "damsel in distress" nor does he care about holding back when he "rearranging their faces" Along with index and a few other companions, he is again dragged into solving the problems between the two dominating church factions in the story out of his sense of altruism. I can absolutely say you will get hooked onto each episode, there is almost no such thing as "fillers" (Eventhough once in a while I would like that since the story is moving at such an incredible momentum) I did not read the light novels thus in no way am I comparing the anime to it.

The character design improved significantly from the previous season. Combat sequence are getting more serious effects. I love the new opening now and I've seen tons of spoof and parodies made about it in NND. This is one of the few openings I would actually listen to instead of skipping. And who doesn't like the sound effect when Touma uses his RIGHT FIST to dispel magic or espers ability?

Characters! More development here for Touma's character. And when I say more development, I mean his HAREM is developing! However I felt like they were neglecting Index once again.. Poor Index... Other supporting characters such as Misaka, Accelerator and Kuroko do appear to further compliment the story. Misaka and her tsudere-ness reaches a higher level! The sad part about this anime is that as new characters are being introduced, the older ones which had their own arc are being left by the sidelines.

"I did get to appear momentarily in one of the episodes..." says Misaka proudly.

NO!!! DONT SPOIL THE SHOW FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED!! Now go make me a sammich!

"I decline..." says Misaka while looking at the other direction.

Anyways, as blasphemous as it is, I did enjoy the whole religion versus science theme. Ok, so technically all religions are not represented so to correct it, it would actually be a war between the Christian Crusaders and Science. And wow, these Christian Crusaders made Taliban Terrorist looks like wimps, eventhough in reality the existence of espers and magic isn't really acknowledge. Now the reason I wouldn't give the enjoyment value of this anime to the maximun score is because the whole Touma tries to reason a girl, girl rejects Touma's reasoning, Touma's crush girl's illusion a.k.a her face, girl defects and becomes his ally, is getting old pretty quick. Sure thats a nice way to add girls to your harem instead of the typical dating sim of buying flowers and chocolates and raising flags every single moment, why not just falcon punch her?? Now, in no way am I or Touma are sexist here.

"Touma isn't sexist as he indiscriminately punches anyone in the face, male or female" Misaka adds to strengthen the argument.

Well said. So to put it easily, if you're the type who fancies superpowers and ability users, this would be a good anime for you to watch. Be sure to watch the first season though. And what is a harem anime without a couple of fanservice?? Yes we do have some to satisfy you fetish! For all you lolicon, Miko fetish, and Nun fetish! Not to mention a lot of tsunderes to go around (10,000+ to be exact)
And do not take the religion aspect of this story too seriously, in no way it is connected to reality. This is a fictional world. Otherwise, how else would they be able to acquire magic make up?? What? You didn't notice they were wearing magic make up?? Whenever Touma punches his enemies' face with his RIGHT FIST, their faces becomes slightly uglier thus their magic make up was dispelled by Touma's RIGHT FIST..

"I do not understand your jokes.." says Misaka showing her confusion

Well how about this? Touma lost his right arm when he was a kid so Chuck Norris gave him his right arm since Chuck Norris has the ability to regenerate any of his body part. Thus explains why Touma's RIGHT FIST is supremely incredible!

"Who is this Chucku Norrissu of which you speak?" Misaka asked in further confusion.

Haremu Kingu,
Signing off! read more

Before reviewing Index II, allow me to present you with a little analogy:

So picture yourself living the good life. You have two best friends who you have grown up with and prospered together. Your first friend becomes a hardworking politician, while your second friend becomes a well-acclaimed doctor. Now, after a few years, your politician friend goes up and tells you that you have an incurable disease. That's nice and all, but he's working towards becoming the governor, what does he know about your health? Not much right? Now the next day, your doctor friend tells you that you have an incurable disease. Now you're screwed.

So the moral of the story is that if you have an incurable disease, you'll probably only believe your doctor friend who knows what he is talking about, and not your politician friend who only knows about politics.

So basically it comes down to this: Would you believe criticism from an average person, or criticism from a die-hard fan? The answer is clear now.

So a bit of back story, I am a huge Index fan. Season one made my top 10 in an instant and Railgun was fabulous. I think the Railgun manga (different plot) is genius and cannot wait for the localized copies to be released this June. I have read almost all of the translated volumes of the light novel and I also have taken the Baka-Tsuki translations, and transcribed them into the more tangible PDF source. That's how much of a fan I am. My friends all know I am a huge Toaru fan, and my good friend, Detective, also gave me a lovely Biribiri mouse pad. So a diehard fan is supposed to give everything about the series a ten, favorite all the characters, and troll haters, right? Well I hoped I would, but I am a critic before I am a fan, and well, the second season of Index, although a nice watch has flaws that should be addressed.

[Story: 7/10]
I hate to end things on a bad note, so I’ll be starting on the bad of course. First of all, I have read the volumes of the light novel that pertain to the second season of Index. I have to say it is indeed really accurate and I was impressed at how they were able to accurately depict the story. But of course, the story itself is bad, and I would have to say that this would be not the anime’s fault, but the fault of Kamachi Kazuma, the original author. The first arc (Not including the random first episode) was a bad note to start on, although it was pleasant hearing Rie’s voice for Agnes, the first arc was random and taking a look at the wider plot of Index, does nothing for the plot aside from adding some minor characters, emphasis on minor. Arc 2, the teleporter arc, was only two episodes which was really disappoint because it was one of my more favorable novels. Now skipping over the minor details, the longest arc in the series is the sports festival arc, which presented a threat to academy city by ancient religious artifacts being brought into the city. I have only one thing to say about that arc: it had the most nonsensical religious and magical jargon I have ever seen. The arc stretches over two novels in the series and was in fact one of the most boring reads I have had in a while. The anime actually does a good job of shortening up the religious lectures, but fails to suppress the incomprehensiveness altogether. I hate to criticize every arc, so I’ll skip the Italy arc, which was pretty straightforward, but boring nevertheless, and move onto the last arc of the Index II. Of course this is the best arc, and fitted perfectly for a season finale. Accelerator and Last Order arc? A good arc indeed. Lots of Accelerator, Misaka, MISAKA, and Last Order topped off with angels and crazy religious chicks and you have a good finish.

[Art: 8/10]
The art was really good, a bit too flashy at times, but it is a sci-fi so I’m not complaining. The art has really remained the same since season one, but they seemed to really like to add fan service to this season, which of course is never a bad thing in my eyes. Plus, all the fan service scenes came directly from the light novels, so the change from season one’s amount of fan service to this season is most certainly attributed to the author. The character designs were really good. Although the characters themselves may not be the best, at least their designs truly fit.

[Sound: 9/10]
Index II has fabulous sound. It has fitting voices and awesome music. The OPs were average, but the EDs are quite likable to my tastes. The voices were well casted and it was nice to hear Rie’s voice early on. The OST was a remix of old songs and a bunch of new tracks, they fitted the anime nicely so I have no complaints about unfitting music.

[Character: 7/10]
If the cast was just the old characters, it would have been a 9/10, but if the cast was just new characters, it would be a 5/10. The average is a 7/10. And it’s fitting as I didn’t like a single of the new characters beside from Awaki (Move Point) and Itsuwa (Amakusa Catholic). Seri (Class President) was an okay new character with a big rack for fan service, but other than those characters, the rest were bad. I don’t even want to mention how poor they were. Everyone from the catholic side is a messed up, crazy, psychotic freak. Most of the new characters are from the religious side which just comes to show that the science side just has better characters. *Cough* Misaka > Index *Cough*. In any case, the returning characters are great, with the exception of Touma, who has become even more annoying and spews even more nonsensical morality jargon and ends each battle with a punch to the face. His ability is really cool, if only he utilized it better/more. It seems as though Touma isn’t as badass as he once was, aka, the Deep Blood arc in season one where his arm turns into a demon. Now that is badass.

Main argument of the character section: There was no Saten-san, minus three points.

[Enjoyment: 7/10]
A fan has just too much to write… *looks above*
So I’ll keep this brief, take into account everything I have written summarize it and paste it here, then take the starting points, at 10 and subtract one for bad story, one for bad characters, and one for no Saten-san and you get the number seven.

[Overall: 8/10]
Overall, Index has its flaws, but hey, it still is pretty damn good compared to a bunch of other shows. As a fan, I can’t bring myself to give the show anything lower than a seven. Although it has a pretty boring and poor story and poor characters throughout the series, the season ended on a good note with an awesome arc and overall deserves a fairly good score for that final finishing touch that saved the season. And at the end of the day, I'm still a Toaru no Majutsu no Index fan. Although there are flaws, hey, I still love Index with a passion.

Edit: I miscalculated the average, which is a 7.6, which rounds up to an 8. read more