The anime actually had me hooked at the first few minutes of the first episode. The character of Touma, who inexplicably possesses the power to nullify any supernatural force with his right hand (and also seems to attract misfortune, something I can relate with) was very appealing. Upon his encounter with Index, a girl who inexplicably has perfect memory recall, things really started to take off. Now there were two mysterious characters and a decent plot to go with one of them. By the third episode, I was convinced that I was in for a rare masterpiece.
Admittedly I was concerned about Touma, because his mysterious power is essentially god-mode, and overpowered characters tend to ruin a story. I set those concerns aside, though, reasoning that the title character is Index, not Touma. Little did I know that after the first arc concluded, the title character would have little to no influence in the overall plot, in some cases barely managing to make an appearance in most later episodes.
Very few of the characters past the two main ones are genuinely likable. I have to admit I liked Touma's teacher, Komoe. She provided some of the best comic relief, but didn't do much else aside from acting as a plot device. Index's two guardians, central to the plot of the first arc, were also among the better personalities. At the very least, they weren't completely unlikeable. The same can't be said for the rest of the cast: almost offensively dull supporting characters; a series of super-powerful girls, each who thinks her life is the worst and she'd be better off dead; a select few villains to do battle with Touma; and behind-the-scenes bad guys who never do anything but make vague references to the story. Before I move on, I'd like to give an honorable mention to Accelerator. He had probably the coolest power of them all, and would have made my list of likable characters if he had dropped the angsty emo-kid act. Just one more wasted character among many.
If there's one thing they did right, though, it was the art and animation. But if all your anime can do is look good, there's hardly any point to it. Overall I have to say I was really disappointed with Toaru Majutsu no Index. It had such a great buildup and they could have done great things with it, but once Index was no longer a central part of the story it all fell flat. I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone. I watched it from start to finish, and now I wish I hadn't.
