Toaru Majutsu no Index III

It has finished and I felt like I should make a review (just so it wouldn't be crowded with just negative reviews). So here we go:

The story for Index III isn't that bad. Personally I didn't think that it was rushed nor did I thought that it was confusing. Index has always been like this when if you don't pay attention there is a high chance in which you would be lost. Though I do admit that plenty of things were explained a lot better in the novels but this isn't a review of that but more as if I were an anime-only watcher.

The art ... is fine. Like the characters do look different from each other. But the only reason why it's a 6 in this category is because I know it could have been done better as some of the CG wasn't that great (I'm looking at you tornado wings) and that sometimes the characters can look off-model.

Sound wise it is quite good. The voice actors feel like they did a really good job and gave me performances I wasn't expecting to hear (like Mugino and Misaka Worst for example). The OST was pretty good though a nitpick I had was that an emotional scene could have something that would fit an exposition scene for example.

Of course like any anime there has to be good opening and ending themes to go along with it to help with the experience and I'll start with the openings. While I do really like Graviation, I feel like it overstayed its welcome a bit more than it should have. And as for ROAR... I feel like it is the most visually impressive of all the ops in the Index series (even if the "Engrish" can sound weird during the chorus).

As for the endings... well it is hit or miss just like the other eds in the series. ED1 might be my least favorite of the endings mostly for how forgettable it is while I will be able to remember ED2 pretty well even if I am not sure if it fits the WW3 arc...

One of the things that I always liked about Index would be the character cast and how well they interact with each other and the situations that they get in and it didn't disappoint me this time around. Though just don't expect Misaka to do much as there's always Railgun 3 coming up and Accelerator is just Accelerator doing his own thing.

And while I would like to continue talking about the cast... I shouldn't really be going to spoiler material (hence why this section might be the most vague of them all).

Now I don't think Index III is anywhere close to being a butchered adaptation compared to something like Date A Live III or even Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria. Instead I see this as a flawed adaptation but that didn't meant that I didn't enjoy myself. In fact I thought it was a really nice ride getting through this weekly as there were plenty of moments that I was glad to see getting animated.

I am not here to make you change your mind as I am perfectly fine with you being disappointed with the way this series turned out and if I had to say one thing about this season it would be: I am glad that it exists.

I admit I didn't watch the Light Novel; so I went into the anime with an open mind and I really enjoyed it. The animation was great as always from JC Staff; the fight scenes were thrilling (I especially loved the Kakine vs Accelerator fight and flying around those buildings) and the story...while a bit all over the place, was very interesting to watch...and as usual, the soundtrack is amazing and memorable like the first two seasons.

I felt sad for the death of a certain characters (I think you all know who that is)...though the ending was very emotionally powerful and I loved the reunion ... between Accelerator and Last Order....Also Misaka Worst is pure love <3

Bottom line, this anime is a great continuation for the Index anime universe and I am looking forward for Railgun 3 and Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator!

And So the Index franchise is back with another season, at the time of the review the 9th episode had just finished airing so without further ado let's get in with it.

I love it !! The first thing I loved about the third season is the stakes, this season is a direct follow up of Index ii so we all know the God's Right seat are the villains this time around. It starts off with Touma facing off against them as always but what I particularly like about this season so far are how multiple protagonists are popping up. In fact, I think this ... is the first time we have so many character perspectives in a single season. FYI this season alongside Touma we are getting two new protagonists, Accelerator and Hamazura.

There's, of course, the usual amalgamation of pacing problems, completely new characters that end up fighting and killing without any explanation. The character introduction scenes have been cut short is what I can tell as an Anime-only viewer. Particularly if you ask me the episodes 4-6 were a mess, but if you are the kind of viewer who follows every single dialogue like me then it isn't much of a problem as the essence of the arcs are conveyed. However, I will suggest reading the Light novels if you want to enjoy this season as that's what most of the LN readers have said.

Characters: To Aru's strong point has always been its characters and it has plenty of those.

Art: 7 is the best rating I can manage, either JC Staff is lazy or they are just not invested in Index III.

Enjoyment: 8, if you are okay with a few unexplained details I'm sure better arcs are coming up!

This review is **SPOILER FREE**

The ToAru franchise has caught me by storm back when I started watching anime. It just had this certain "something" from the getgo, that kept me entertained. I couldn't express how excited I was when I heared about all the news about the new anime adaptations coming in 2019: so then, why am I so disappointed?

Sidenote: I've seen the entire ToAru franchise (5 seasons including the new "ToAru majutsu no Index III" (up to episode 19). I've rewatched the previous installments multiple times, both in release order and chronological order and I've bought all the source material (Lightnovels + Mangas). I ... know what I'm talking about when I say that this season wasted pretty much all its potential so far.

The ToAru Franchise takes place in a world, where magic and science have long both been part of our daily lives. One much more than the other, as the magical side tends to work hidden rather than open. In the most advanced city in the world "Gakuen Toshi" or "Academy city" millions of students live in "peace and harmony", where they train their supernatural powers as espers. However, the mascerade of this city is nothing more but a construct of illusions: Human laboratories, clones, warfare and abductions as well as murder all take place in the darkest places of this brightest city. Its a world doomed by the illusion, that with great power, great responsibility follows and that people will use their power to protect those, that can't do it themselves. Its sadly an Illusion, that Touma (male protagonist) has to destroy. Sacred with the mysterious power to negate any supernatural force by simply touching it with his right arm, the "Majutsu" branch follows his daily life as he keeps getting involved in these dark, brutal things that take place in this city and how he has to give it his all to fight back and protect those that are close to him.

The ToAru franchise is filled with intruiging plots and sidestories that all come together to one big clash. Again and again. No matter how weird it seems, it always ends up in something way bigger than you originaly expected. This however is sadly also why the anime adaptation of this genius series often sucks ass. Excuse my words.

Due to the sheer size of source-material and its complexity, a H U GE part of the entire narrative gets lost in its adaptation - even with 24 episodes per season. Some arcs may be lighter than others but in general you'd need at least 10 - 12 episodes per arc. Often times sadly they get broken down in 4 - 6.

Story: 5
The story itself would get a straight 10/10 from me. But sadly the series cuts so much material that its just confusing - even after you read 17 goddamn lightnovels about it.

Art: 7
It looked pretty decent in the beginning but it suffers from its rushed nature and often times you have a very neatly animated clash only to be followed by a static close-up battle and an "evil explanation of why they have to destroy the world for the greater" for 5+ Minutes (once again, its just too rushed...)

Sound: Oh lord. I loved the new sounddesign, instantly felt in love with it when the first episode aired of this new season. It also has a lot more epic OST and some absolute banger OPs. So why not 10/10 or at least 9? Simply because there are some soundtracks that are nice to listen to - maybe for 20 seconds. But you'll hear the looped for the entirity of 5 minutes whilst someone has a monologue about their motives and past.
The VA did an amazing job - especially "Accelerator" is just insanely (hehe~) talented ;)

Character: Standart bunch of okay characters. Could've been a lot better but pretty much all their detail gets lost - once again - in its rushed nature.

Enjoyment: 10/10 cause boi, why would I spend 500 Dollars on source material if it ain't good? Its my fravourite series of all time and I'd love to see it come alive as an anime more lively. But this installment just falls flat because it cuts so much source off and keeps having very blunt moments stretched out to eternity.

Overall: 7
Yeah. I'd love to give it a higher rating but this season falls very flat compared to the previous ones (especially considering that the sidebranch "ToAru kagaku no railgun has a waaaaay better anime adaptation)

Toaru Majutsu no Index III (2018-2019)

I know it is normally unheard of but this really needed like 32 episodes or perhaps even a season 4 or a part 1 and part 2 because they really did rush it towards the end. I mean the final episode crammed so much in you don't even get the happy return to the normal scene you normally expect in Academy City.
That said the season is absolutely watchable and great in many aspects, just it did let the team down with being so crammed.

Notably good things:

- Misaka sisters and the way they speak in phenomenal still.
- Imagine ... breaker has superb sound in this.
- Other such areas of sound especially towards the end taking a very familiar sound from No Game No Life Zero which came out just prior.
- Finally from all the anime videos I have seen online seeing the cheeky blonde from the puritans church in the OP was great. (A specific scene looking slyly over her shoulder).
- Itsuwa finally getting the development she deserved before like many main characters falling off the face of the show.
- Accelerator has some of the most powerful development yet with an amazing scene with the cute Last Order.
- Misaka Worst needs to marry Accelerator or what is life.
- The Royal Family Arc is fun.
- The witches are always fun to see.
- Lessar was an unexpected delight through this.
- Episode 26 has a scene at the very end whereby you get a reminiscent scene similar to Bioshock Infinite. This is where you have Leivinia Birdway and Mark Space appear like the Lutece twins (Not twins as such play the game).


Odd notes:
- Cannot miss the seats of god since they all look insanely evil generally when in actions initially.
- In episode 8 keep an eye for the moment that Itsuwa lost her under top whilst falling but not the outer layer by some magic.
- The ending was just mind-blowingly bad and episode 26 in that seems to cram a good 4 episodes of events into its second half literally.

The art of the season is amazing. It really holds up well and will stand well in time.

The soundtrack is great, SFX is deep and well planned. Voices are great, especially the Misaka sisters as always. The first op of the season with Gravitation by Maon Kurosaki is by far the best OP visually and musically of the show.

Characters do develop but some also just disappear unexpectedly and randomly during the season. Like Index is important then not there and then sort of a sideshow, just like Itsuwa. One character that stood out the most which as already stated was Accelerator who is incredible. For the most part, the characters are great but as the show began rushing they became blurred.

Honestly, up until maybe episode 24/25 the show was brilliant regardless of rushing. Episode 24/25 onwards went full turbo and just lost the plot, literally if I am honest. It is almost like they made it and was like oh no! we have to wrap this up.

Aisa Himegami is still the best girl for me, I suppose since she is the most traditional Japanese girl in the show. She needed more air time but like many characters, she sort of just dropped off the face of the earth.

In the end, we needed another season or the show to continue. I wish I was a billionaire so I could fund it to happen because it just leaves a slightly bad taste in the mouth with how it ended. That said the series has been a blast and I would still recommend watching this and it as a whole.

8/10 says Misaka, Misaka with gleeful intent.

**THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**

"My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined" ,encapsulates the reputation the 3rd season of Index has formulated over the past 2 years since its initial release. I started the story through its anime replica 2 weeks ago at the time this review has been posted, and I accumulated a deep interest into the franchise, so naturally being aware of the 8 year gap between season 2 and season 3, I was thrilled to see the differences in quality between the two, however, this season has proved that we shouldn't take its situation into fave value just because of hypothetical ... improved quality in story telling and visuals

Story: The Toaru series overall contains a very intriguing story, mainly because of the elements it toys with and utilizes them to build its geographical setting and narrative purpose. Unfortunately, the way the has chose to adapt the source material into 26 eps is a complete joke by some, including me to an extent. Unlike the other seasons, the story is fairly rushed, and as a result it leaves a lot of plot holes open and doesn't bother to fix them, which ruins the way we consume the narrative. The content itself is really good, as it continues right after season 2, but the production team clearly didnt show enough love to it. To point out a few examples, some arcs, like the Battle Royale arc and DRAGON arc that are 3 eps, involve a lot of characters perspectives into the play, to the point where it's difficult to process what's going on, considering that the material itself can be a pain to analyse, not to mention it skips a lot of important details and skips character interactions, with one shot having the character on that location and right after, transporting the character in a brand new area . It's not an impossible task to comprehend what's going on, but the speed it's going is the embodiment of 100 miles per minute, showing how it doesnt leave room to breathe in between. Because of this, arcs such as the DRAGON arc are made from good original story parts into trash. In contrast, despite this issue, all the arcs can be fairly enjoyable and some others are just as good as precious arcs, such as the early arcs. One thing I want to point out, which is an aspect I really like is the geography of season 3. Unlike past seasons, this season takes place in many locations, from Academy City, France, London, and Russia. It isn't a huge deal, but the changd in atmospheres makes the content more intriguing and creates greater anticipation of what's to come. Overall, the story is not bad, but it could've been a lot better if they chose to slow down the pace it adapting the source material.

Art: The quality overall has pros and cons. To start with the pros, the drawings are noticeably better than previous seasons, which is expected from a 2018 anime. Also, whoever made those background designs deserves a metal. The backgrounds are fucking gorgeous and one of the best in the series. Finally, some of the cgi implemented is pretty good. Although it's bad at some points, the CGI fits with the environment in certain occasions. Contrastingly, the cons are a different matter. Although the art style has improved, the animation doesn't follow that trend. There are a lot of fights where the animation is deficient, and as a result ruins those fights, and finallises them as underwhelming. Some fights however have good use if the animation, for example, Accelerator vs Kakine from the Bottle Royak arc, where both mostly battle mid air, where the 2d animation is mixed with the 3d buildings. This mix is utilized really well and makes the fight extremely pumping and unique; although some fear this use of animation choice, JC Staff has showed that it can succeed in that medium when it tries.

Music: To put it simply, I adore the music. It reinforces the kind of atmosphere the series gives and is consistent in doing so. The opening themes in Season 3 are impressive and some of the best ops in the entire franchise. The ed themes dont scream "Amazing", but the are nice relaxing songs, considering the VA of Index songs both if them. The OST is pretty great as well, as the techno music and dubstep direction they were going for depicts the scientific side of the world the Toaru series is based in.

Characters: Just like the story, characters are another controversial point the toaru fans bring up. To give you an idea of the reasons, season 3 introduced wayyy too many characters than it needed to, especially in the first half. Arcs such as the Battle Royal arc, with the introduction of different teams, and the Britain arc introduce too many characters at once, to the point where it becomes a full time job to keep track of all those boys and girls, especially when perspectives are constantly changing character to character. Because of this, characters ,such as Misaka, who have a great potential to shine, dont get enough screentime, and other characters such as Toma Kamijou, the main character of the Index series, feel undeveloped. However, there are some characters that are established really well in this season, with my favourites being Hamazura and Accelerator, with both undergoing an evolution into their character traits and learning to change as people and their perspectives. Hamazura transforms from an annoying pussy to a hero by following the ideology that Toma Kamijou has taught him in season 2, and Accelerator developing from a killing psycho to a caring character who learns the value of protecting other people instead of exploiting them for power. If you give the characters a chance, I'm sure you would appreciate some of them

Conclusion: With all the cons that I bestowed and described, you might be wondering, why I gave it a 7/10, and the reason being that toaru season 3 doesnt feel completely different to its ancestors. When you put it into action, Season 3 is no more than a procrastination of a school project, but the season still explores familiar characters, such as Toma, Index, Misaka, Accelerator, and still bases Academy city as its main core of the story, even though some arcs take place in different geographical locations. At the end of the day, it is a rushed and uncared project that didn't receive a lot of love from watchers, due to the unfeeling commitment the production team has put, but if you care about the series as a whole, I suggest giving a go, but you should lower expectations in order to appreciate it more

Man. SO much negativity for this series I see. I saw so many 5 and below out of 10 for this.
Let me tell you something! It is OK at best! A solid 7. Let's get down to business then.

So my main gripe first. How do you construct a series so much that the three side protagonists are more interesting than the main protagonist. It baffles me. Rail-gun, Accelerator, and Hamazura are all very interesting. Like... They should have their own series.
*Looks at a Certain Scientific Rail-Gun, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and a Certain Level Zero Hamazura*
OH WAIT! That last one is fake. ... When a Certain Level Zero Hamazura or something like that happens though... I will be on that shit!

This 3rd season is full of action, drama, and an actual moment that got me so invested I got a lump in my throat. Seriously. It pulled off the redemption arc so god damn well that it made me feel things. So why the hate? Is it because it takes until the finale of the 3rd season to finally really begin to develop Kamijou's abilities and answer some questions. Not all, but some? ...Ok fair enough on that. This show is suppose to be about Index and Kamijou but honestly the other three protags steal the show. Literally. I was glued when ever they came on.

Ok ok... Kamijou wasn't that bad. He just... Needed more done. Look One Punch Man finishes off people in one punch so they have a competent cast to back it up and draw out tension wonderfully. In a Certain Magical Index... You have a competent cast that does almost nothing when Kamijou is involved and he has to be the one to win the fights. Fine. I get it, but you are making all these other characters look lame by comparison when you have established them as big players prior.

I do like the development Kamijou got and that other characters other than the other 3 protags could shine some but... Index is regulated to Damsel in distress mode once again. No big surprise but I hoped it wouldn't do that. I get it though. I wasn't a fan but I get it why it had to be that way.
74 episodes of this and they also leave it on a cliff hanger note for a fourth and final season if they do it. I hope they do. I am looking forward to give this show a solid 8 at some point. Fourth and Final if my math with how many LN Volumes are left. There are 22 Volumes and Season 3 ends on around 17 or 18 I think? We will see...

Story: 8 - Improvements were made but Kamijou is still Kamijou so... Ya know.
Art: 9 - Fantastic Fight scenes and visuals will keep you gripped all the way through. I had a blast for most of it. They didn't try to do the whole tragic backstory crap as much so the art and flow didn't lose focus.
Sound: 7 - I love the OST a bit more. Maybe because I heard for the better part of 74 episodes but some of the new songs were fire. The new Imagine Breaker Sound effect hurts my ears though. Season 4 needs to go back to the sounds it used in S1 and S2.
Character: 7 - You will love Rail-Gun, Accelerator, and Hamazura's stories. In fact, 2 of those 3 have their own shows! Which I will get to when I watch em.
Enjoyment: Yes. Very.
Overall: 7 - I still am digging this series in spite of my rants. I love it and Can not wait for a season 4!

Edit: This was the end before New Testament. So. My bad.

Contributing a review as my score is way above the average for this installment in the series. I am an anime-only and so I have no basis to judge as to how well they have adapted the source material. However, as I have watched all of the Toaru series back to back in the span of 1 month, I found Index iii to be the most gripping and enjoyable by a mile.

Perhaps due to less slice of life elements being incorporated, and focusing more on the magic and science worlds colliding parallel to world war 3, I've never been more compelled throughout consuming this ... series to start on the light novels.

Toaru Majutsu no Index, or in english, A Certain Magical index. A certain magical index is the main story within this series, which follows the lead of Touma Kamijo and his Co-Lead, Index. With their lead, the story progresses with Touma protecting his city from various magical threats using a mysterious power located in his right hand.

One of the biggest focuses with the drama of this anime is the tension between scientific and religious beliefs.

This anime features so many side characters within Index alone, I can count about 30 important side characters within Index alone. You might think that with many side characters, they ... just have to be bland or have no development at all, right? Actually it's the opposite. It’s actually my favorite part of the series, seeing characters which were perceived as villains grow and eventually learn to become a better person through the lead characters.

All in all, I ended up giving this series an average of 9 out of 10 for its three seasons.

For a more solid, video review, check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3AWGyYEzeo&feature=youtu.be

All reviews are down to personal enjoyment and I for one really enjoyed this season. I would say that its my favourite of the 3.

As an anime only viewer, I dont think its as confusing as other reviews make it out to be. It has a faster pace but in my opinion thats very welcome with the other seasons feeling too slow. Only one arc stands out to me as a little rushed and undeveloped and thats the battle royale arc (eps 4-6).

This season was super entertaining, it had a faster pace, two new interesting protoganists, exciting storylines that felt progressive and its lack of ... downtime/filler episodes made it very enjoyable.

Throughout my life as an otaku I have witnessed many anime(over 250 if I may say). However A certain magical Index has by far piqued my interest the most. It’s ability to create unique characters whom can’t be catergerized as simply hero’s or villains, but individual protagonists of their own inherent stories. In this sense a Certain Magical index is not a story of a boy with the ability to nullify the supernatural, but a boy and the people he has affected with not just his power but his weakness. The story focuses on Toma Kamijo, a boy who in my opinion is one of ... the greatest anime protagonist of all time. An individual whom is sucked into the world of magic and esper abilities. The thing that I find most striking is that his ability of nullifying the supernatural is neither an offense or defencive ability. In its stead his ability is the ability to make overpowered characters unoverpowerd. In other words this is a story not of an individual with fighting potential but in its stead a story of an individual tearing down the small logic of our worlds, of those with exceptional capabilities and revealing just how stupid we are as individuals, and how admirable.

Story

The story is good in the sense that it’s ability to utilize phenomenon and other fundamental ideologies to produce a logical plot line is amazing. However the terminology and requirements for understanding this are high level. As such this is a plot line meant for those of exceptional reading and understanding capabilities.

Sound

It was good at some points, other could be improved but it was decent overall.

Art

The art was moderate and not bad. I’ve seen better but I’ve also seen much worse.

Character

The character development in this anime exceeds all other anime’s I have seen. Never before have I witnessed an anime that is able to truly make a two dimensional character so human, so alive. What is exceptional about the development is that the supporting characters are all given thorough attention and rarely left alone. Every character is significant, every character grows, and every character is neither a villain or a hero. At the end of the day their Highschool students. And that’s what makes them such good characters.

Enjoyment

I can easily say this is one of my top anime’s ever.

Quick take: Index III finally delivers on the complexity of the series' world, but yet again misses the mark on being something magical.

When I first started Index III, I was excited to see that the series was finally exploring the complex depth of the world it had built over the previous seasons. We're treated to several different story archs, most of which are fun to watch. You'll find that it does jump between archs a bit abruptly, but since some of the archs are supposed to be happening at the same time, I didn't find that a distraction.

The issue comes as the stories being ... to converge. Once again, the series' pacing issues return. What ends up happening is the final arch feels more like a "stuff every character" set of episodes. It's so bad that you have a few characters show up and literally serve no purpose, like Mikoto Misika. Then you have other characters go from being bad to good at literally the snap of a finger. Hardly the transition any character deserves in media. It's truly a shame because the smaller archs are some of the best in the series, in my opinion. ITEM, Accelerator and Index all have great sub archs that are over shadowed by the slop that is the large arch.

Art remains the same as before, if not slightly better as does sound. They are both far from perfect, but don't detract from the overall enjoyment.

Characters slip a bit. Mikoto's useless cameo in the end plot is distracting and Accelerator continues to be a weak character. The continued persistence that he is a "villian" and his growth out of that "phase" just lacks the authenticity to make it feel genuine. Lest I forget the main villian's 360 at the flick of a light switch.

Overall, I enjoyed Index III until the final few episodes of the final arch, where everything felt rushed and gave me a bit of whiplash. If you liked the rest of the Raildex universe, you'll also enjoy Index III. I think the show is worth it for the decent sub plots, but suffers gravely with the final major arch, leading it to come up short of being something magical.

This has got to have a season four, And its kind of annoying that i wish this was/has a romance genre . Not with index but with Misaka i like Misaka than Index... Index's character is flat she don't really change and misaka mostly she's static type of a character and she's cuter than index
Sorry for the people who like index . But personally i like Misaka better right now i'm in just a computer shop skip classes just to write a review here hahah.

I'm a filipino and i'm not proud to be a filipino.

I like 2D or i mean anime ... rather than reality, well that's common knowledge for someone who likes anime !

Back to topic "what i'm saying is that to aru's next series must have a romance genre ! please author give this anime some romance and it will be really great !
And one more thing the clones of misaka at this series ( A certain magical index )
They look lifeless because of there eyes. I know that they set it that way so we could know whether if it is Misaka or her clones , But still I think they look better at (A certain scientific railgun )