The main genre of this anime are Romance, action, and...magic? Comedy? There's so much going on but let's just say it's comedy for convenience. These will be assessed at the end, now for the other junk.
Story (10/10):
Okay so to be honest this was the first anime I watched that was not English dubbed, like the first ever. I watched it back when I first started watching anime in my senior year of HS (like 4 years ago),and it is the reason I still watch today.
And it is still my favorite anime of all time. This is in no small part due to the story.
The story is in good old-fashioned arc-mode so the main plot changes a lot, but one thing that remains constant is Touma's struggle with his lost memories. I am sure that the anime gets criticized a lot for how he handles this but I will touch on that later. Anyway, the memory-los part of the story I believe is handled better than most memory-loss anime and it plays in pretty nicely with the story.
Overall the first season is more of a "meet the characters" season, but I personally thought all of the arcs were really cool and I thoroughly enjoy watching them again...and again......and again.
Sorry I do not go more into detail but it is honestly hard for me to put how great the story is into words. But the Sisters arc is an incredible example of how this type of anime should go. One of the best arcs right there, 10/10.
Art (8/10):
I don't really pay attention to the art as most of it looks the same to me, 8/10.
Sound (10/10):
So normally I review Sound and Art the same way, I say I don't care about them then I move on with my life. But No Index is one of the few anime where the music in it makes it just that much better. The intros are all amazing and the fight music is absolutely perfect, 10/10.
Characters (10000000000/10, but 10/10 for the sake of being realistic)
Touma, to this day, is one of my favorite protagonists. Something about the combination of his voice (great job by the voice actor btw, absolutely perfect job), the way he acts, jut everything is amazing. This is also where I am coming back to the memory loss stuff.
Spoilers ahead:
So Touma loses his memories in like the second episode of the show (actually might be 4th?, idk, been awhile), but he refuses to tell anyone. I am sure he receives a lot of shit for this, but honestly I think it is great. It always sucks in an anime when a great moment happens and a character goes "just one question, do I know you?" Touma is smarter than that. His doctor tells him his memories are most likely gone, then all of a sudden this adorable little munchkin (Index) comes into his room to say hi and is so happy to see him okay. So instead of breaking her fucking heart, he lies and acts like he knows her. And soon enough he gets to know her again (remember he only knew her for like 4 days before the accident anyway). It is honestly a very brave and very awesome thing for a protagonist to do and he handles it so well throughout the series even though he is struggling with it internally the whole time.
Now onto my favorite female protagonist of all time. No, not Index, although she is cute and a great character (same for Himeragi). I am of course talking about Misaka Mikoto. Honestly I have tried to get 4 of my friends to watch this anime, 1 stopped watching just because she lost interest in anime for awhile, one stuck through it to the end and loved it, and two stopped watching....mostly because of Mikoto.
Admittedly she takes some time to grow on you, but Mikoto is honestly one of the best tsunderes there is. She is not one of those "i didn't do it for you...baka!" types, but she is the "I know why I am always helping you, thinking of you, etc. but it is too embarrassing because I always fuck up when I try to interact with you" types. And do not act like you do not know exactly the type of anime girl I am talking about. She crushes on him so hard and it's adorable! I have honestly watched the festival arc like 10 times just to see her get all red-faced when he is forced to tackle her because he thinks he's protecting her. There is a reason she got a spin-off people. She's amazing (and the second season of her anime, Kagaku no railgun, is amazing too).
The other characters are good too, 10/10.
Enjoyment (10/10):
My anime list on this web site is not up=to-date, but I used to have a rankings list of the 300+ anime I have watched (not a ton I know, but I'm a college student so back off!) and No Index has never moved from the #1 spot of that list. I just love every arc so much, it almost brings a tear to my eye.
Overall (10/10):
So normally this is where I break down the anime by genre, give my score and composition for each, but I am gonna make it really simple this time:
Romance:
Fucking amazing. Mikoto best girl.
Score: 10/10
Composition: doesn't fucking matter.
Action:
God that fight scene with Accelerator, fucking awesome. Love the fights in this so goddamn much.
Score: 10/10
Every other genre:
This anime proves that anime is a form of art.
Score: 10/10
Overall: 10/10. Please watch the entire first season, I guarantee you will be pining for the second and hoping for a third.
