The first thing of note is the flow of the anime, or rather, the seeming lack thereof. You are first thrown into this very compelling, if not epic, storyline that sets the show up with a ton of potential. You have 2 major organizations in the series: the science side, Academy City (Home of the espers) and the Magic side, Religion (Home of the Mages). The protagonist of the series, Kamijou Touma, is a student in Academy city who poses the ability to nullify any supernatural power his right hand comes in contact with. Touma ends up meeting a unique young girl named Index, who claims to have the contents of 103,000 powerful grimoires memorized, and power-hungry mages want dibs on this knowledge. Alright, cool. After 6 episodes of some pretty compelling story and set-up, suddenly the preceding events cease to hold much importance. Index, the promising plot-generator, becomes a little more than comedic relief and the story set up until now is barely, in round-about ways, touched upon. As the series continues, each event seems rather disconnected from each other. What gives?
The above observation is what I believe causes people to lose interest in the series. But, a bit a research sheds some light onto why the story is told this way, and realizing this information made the series much more enjoyable for me. You see, unlike many Animes, Majutsu no Index is based off a (lengthy) series of light novels instead of a manga. The difference between the 2 is while each chapter of a manga is a continuation of the last, each volume in a light novel is intended to be read as a separate story: plots that have an introduction, conflict, and then a conclusion. Each essential "arc" of Majutsu no Index is an animated version of each volume of the light novel series. So why did this series get animated?
The thing about this series is that is actually does have a compelling, detailed, continuous plot; but not until much later. The first few novels act as prologues for this plot, and slowly but surely start the start building the needed details. Unfortunately for the viewers, this means the whole first season of Index is nothing more but a large and convoluted prologue to something much bigger. Bummer. However, it is important to note that I found the series to be much more enjoyable when you expect to see a bunch of mini plots instead of 1 continuous story. It's very much akin to Higuarshi no Naku Koro ni, and to a degree, Cowboy Bebop, Gintama, and detective Conan's perspective on storytelling.
Alright, so how good are these "arcs"? I'd give a general 7/10 overall throughout the series. They are enjoyable, but they don't hold the depth one might want to see from an anime. The series tends to follow a formula for the first 6-10 novels or so: Some character relevant to the immediate plot is introduced, some conflict surrounds this character, Touma gets thrown into the conflict, Touma confronts the antagonist, antagonists explain their reasons, Touma preaches morals to them and then proceeds to punching out the conflict with his magical right fist. Meh.
While formulaic (mostly), this is also part of the charm of the series. You see, in Majutsu no Index, there is no "ultimate" evil the protagonist is trying to defeat. The are good and bad aspects of both sides. We are introduced to the bad aspect of the Religious side quite early on, but a bit further the dark side of Academy city is hinted at as well. Throughout the first season, the viewers are left in a position where they really can't decide if the "boss" of Academy city is good or evil. Everything is washed with a shade of grey. This is a good part of storytelling, and receives a plus in my book.
The real strength of Majutsu no Index, I feel, is the character interaction. The characters are not profoundly unique in any respect, but they are detailed enough that entertaining dialogue can be exchanged at a decent rate. You see, in this series, between the main conflicts are little snippets of a slice-of-life anime, and Index does these exchanges well. While it's always fun to see Touma overcome a tough opponent, it is very easy to get lost in the pace of the slice-of-life conversations, which are sprinkled with comedy and character-development throughout. Setting the main-character's power to backfire on his everyday life by blessing him with abnormal bad luck is a sure way to have some interesting situations, but entertaining nonetheless.
While the story makes some amazing progress, such as connecting seemingly disconnected events together, introducing some really interesting characters and events, and transitioning the story to follow 3 protagonists and their different perspectives instead of a normal 1, it unfortunately happens after the events of this season, and thus cannot be considered in this evaluation. As a stand alone anime, The first season of Index cannot show off the series' whole potential, and is hurt because of it.
Story - 6
Art - 7
Sound - 8
Characters - 8
Enjoyment - 8
Overall - 37/50 = 0.74 = 7 out of 10.
