you’re gonna get bitten
Categories: anime, general review
Tagged: toaru majutsu no index
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Such misfortune to write such a post.
My one paragraph summary of Toaru Majutsu no Index would go like this:
Toaru Majutsu no Index is the unholy child of Darker Than Black and Shakugan no Shana. It has Darker Than Black‘s almost impenetrable jargon coupled with the Shana-like pairing of a man who loses his past and a wrathful loli-like DFC. Also, much like Darker Than Black, every arc is almost self-contained and lasts from anywhere from two to five episodes… and, much like Shana, there’s an obvious harem situation, only the male lead is more interested in saving the world than gorging himself on the DFC that surrounds him. Dude has his priorities messed up!
Anyway, now that we got that out of the way… I have questions. Oh, yes, questions.
Is there any point to Touma losing his memory? Judging from the arcs so far, there’s not going to be a lot of differences in how he handles each situation so far if he had his memory versus if he does not have his memory. It seems more like an inconvenience on par with Yoichi Karasuma’s sensitivity to nosebleeds than Yuji being the Reiji Maigo.
(And I demand a reality TV spin-off featuring Touma’s doctor and Fran a la L.A. Ink. Frankly, long overdue.)
Does Rina Satou ever sleep? I don’t remember a seiyuu voicing three major roles at the same time. The funny part is following her from Haruka to Misaka to Ibuki… three wildly different characters. Though Misaka and Ibuki are both tsundere, Ibuki has wilder personality swings and the more significant melonpan. Though Misaka is a more dangerous weapon and more deredere. Mmm.
(Are hot dogs to Toaru as melon-flavored bread is to Shana? Mmm… melon-flavored bread has a similar shape to a certain portion of the body… what do hot dog resem– OH SHI-)
Where is Rie Kugimiya in all this?!? I mentioned in my latest Toradora post that there’s a wrathful DFC loli, and she’s not involved?! The worst part is that there’s an assortment of possible roles for her beyond Index… Misaka… Misaka Production Model… Laura… Kuroko… Last Order… and definitely Komoe-sensei. This reminds me of the 2004 US Olympic men’s basketball team when they couldn’t find a point guard… and settled on Stephen Marbury. Amazingly, they still won bronze! Toaru‘s ceiling is a bronze… compared to a possible gold for that other JC Staff show that just finished airing where Rie Kugimiya is the point guard.
Is Komoe-sensei as hot for Touma as Shikijo-sensei was for Suguru? I don’t think so, but it’s not far off. And what moment did I enjoy more, Komoe-sensei answering the door wearing a Shia-imitation set of pajamas while asking Touma if he disliked women who smoked or when she was driving? Driving! More riveting than Yukari-sensei driving.
(If I go by anime, I expect all female teachers to either be 30 year old Christmas cakes or bait for Dateline: To Catch a Predator. This is not a bad thing.)
Why does it feel like there’s a lot of gravure shots for Kanzaki? I think every other shot of her is a slow pan where she’s striking a pose. I’m not against this. She’s an oasis of melonpan in a DFC desert. I have many more questions concerning Kanzaki, but most like “What do you call those pants?” and “How drunk were you?” where already asked during the Index-tan special. Though she’s a perfect example of a product of the Anime Haremette Karaoke Machine where you combine three stereotypes to create a haremette– mmm… let’s see… swordswoman… melonpan… hidden, abnormal past!
(I was thinking what would be the funniest *-tan parody, and I’m leaning towards… wait for it… wait for it… Sunohara-tan! He would ride on top of Tomoyo’s head while challenging her to fights, accusing her of being a man, and taunting her that she can’t kick him while he’s up there. She would just sigh. He can even use an “OTOKO DESU! OTOKO DESU! OTOKO DESU!” catchphrase. It’s frankly about time we had a guy micronized. We’d go for Another World scenario just so we can have Sunohara-tan mess up all the Tomoya and Tomoyo scenes. Though I would also want to see the student council election portion… like where Tomoyo pitches to Sunohara-tan.)
Why did Himegami go through a gimmick change? She disappeared for like 10 episodes and came back as a schoolgirl… did the Anime Haremette Karaoke Machine decide to switch it up because having a miko in an anime with a nun probably was too similar? So she’s now life energy thief + schoolgirl + understated. I’m glad they at least found Hecat– err — Mamiko Noto for this role.
Shouldn’t lesbian + overprotective + twin drill be in Marimite?
Which girl will Touma choose? All I can say is that, fortunately, there’s no male buddy for him. Though I like how every arc involves basically Touma meeting a new girl, saving the new girl by punching shit, and then adding the new girl to his stable. It’s literally like The World God Only Knows, only with punching instead of awesome eroge flag management. I think Himegami even brings up “flags” once in a while to describe Touma’s perchance for attracting the DFC. And, yes, DFC galore. I’m secretly hoping for Komoe-sensei– which is like picking the Atlanta Hawks to win the NBA title this year. Sadly, Index would be the Lakers, and Misaka would be the Celtics. (And neither would be Sheryl nor Ranka.)
Wasn’t the point of Touma fighting Accelerator that he wanted to make the experiment invalid if a level 0 defeated a level 5? Well, technically, it took that level 0, a level 5, and 10,000 clones of that level 5 to defeat Accelerator. Wouldn’t this invalidate this attempt to invalidate the experiment? It’s one thing if he defeated Accelerator by himself, but he wasn’t able to unless he got some serious help at the end.
(And what’s the point of wearing a mini-skirt if you’re just going to wear shorts underneath them?)
In a world where there’s plenty of cleaning robots, why the hell is there a school for meido? Look, I’m a big fan of meido, but what’s the point if the city is overrun by Roombas? And the meido don’t contribute moe? Pointless, right? Now if we had a meido like Yoriko constantly chased around by the Roombas, I’d rethink my position on this.
(If every series has a scene that hooks me, seeing the Roombas try to clean an injured Index would be the one for this series. For Haruhi Suzumiya, of course, it would be Mikuru in a bunny suit.)
If Index is supposed to be this awesome tome and resource, why does she get left out of a multiple arcs? She hasn’t exactly been useful– while she isn’t a Relena-Uchida-Marina All-Star, she doesn’t give a lot of help to Touma. At least Shana and Yuji worked as a team. Index is almost more like a remora attached on Touma. Still inexcusable that she has been MIA for a few arcs.
Did I enjoy Toaru? Definitely. It’s a light snack that keeps me interested, but it’s not a show you want to take too seriously. And it definitely needs more comedic harem scenes.
12 Responses to “you’re gonna get bitten”
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Hopefully they’ll put more highlight on Index in the next season. Misaka got more screentime than Index did, or at least it felt that way.
Index had nothing to do with the story except the first and a portion of the last arc. She definitely needs more, I thought the part where she messes up Ellis was great. She has all that knowledge in her head, Touma really needs to make use of it!
Honestly, I thought Misaka was the best choice … thus I am rejoicing at the Railgun spinoff.
(they had me sold in the first episode of Index when Misaka flicks her hair and sparks were flying)
Thanks for this post. Now I should actually get around to watching the second half of the series. Whenever I hear people complain about an ongoing anime I end up looking for the flaws they point out and it becomes less fun to watch.
“Driving!”
I thought that was drinking?
“Which girl will Touma choose?”
As you said with Toradora, it is named after Index so any other girl wouldn’t make sense. Though, considering Misaka’s getting her own anime, Touma should end up with both.
The next season is actually going to be focused on Misaka even more, since she’s a fan favorite character (biribiri <3), to the point where Touma and Index are going to be minor characters, if they’re in the show at all.
As for why Index isn’t around much, I’d say it’s to highlight how actually not useful she is, and thus it makes it look dumb for the Church to be so paranoid about her. But if you think about it, there isn’t much she can do in a city filled with espers. None of them can cast magic, nor can she, so even though she has 100000 tomes on magic in her head, she can’t really do anything with them.
And for which girl Touma will choose, I pick Misaka, if anyone. What I got from the final arc is the relationship between Touma and Index is closer to parent/child rather than Lovers, and Misaka would just biribiri anyone else away.
I am actually glad that they didn’t cast Rie Kugimiya as Index. Because, you know, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. She is already typecasted as THE tsundere loli. It’s in her best interest to try to get other kind of roles. She is awesome as Touko-chan in Marimite, for instance.
I liked Yuka Iguchi as Index. I think she has a very moe voice, especially when she goes “To-u-ma~”
Still Misaka had really bigger role than index hence she gets a spin off series.
It didn´t do so much wrong but there was so much nonrealised potentional. Instead of a “haremette of the week” aproach they could have used a more interwined aproach since they really do have good “hooks” with index, the amnesia, accelerator, biribiri…
As far as I heard the series actually improves a lot after the initial struggles. I´m hoping that instead of constantly introducing new girls (which became a issue in itself which I found brilliant) that they will rather work with thouse they already have. Or even plot points in generall. I mean “I have amnesia but I want to keep that a secret” could have been a premis for a series in itself.
I agree that plotwise Toaru Majutsu no Index makes no sense at all. Every new arc spawns a new haremette that immediately gets shoved into the background after Touma punches someone in the face.
But the beach arc actually managed to surprise me. Here I was thinking that we would get Index, Kanzaki, Himegami, Mikoto, and maybe Mikoto’s leftover 10,000 clones in swimsuits engaging in typical harem hijinks, but instead we got this weird body swap arc that ended by blowing up Touma’s parents’ house. Though this is not trainwreck material, Index is still pretty damn entertaining.
I don’t know how you did it Jason but now every bit of interest I had in finishing this series has evaporated. Even the Delicious Flat Chest won’t bring me back to it. Does atleast the action scenes stay well animated throughout the series. (I’m probably 10 or so episodes behind.)
Also:
“Also, much like Darker Than Black, every arc is almost self-contained and lasts from anywhere from two to five episodes… and, much like Shana, there’s an obvious harem situation, only the male lead is more interested in saving the world than gorging”
You know your an anime fan when that situation seems wrong to you. Where are the Yoshitaka Nakabayashi males leads when you need them.
To Aru Majutsu no Index didn’t do much for me. It was like having all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle neatly arranged next to each other but not connected. Haremettes.. with little to no harem action.. dangerous shadowy organizations.. that never really show up beyond a pair of familiar characters..
It just feels like all the pieces were there for a GOOD action/comedy/harem, but nothing was ever done with them.
For the most part I enjoyed Toaru. Every arc seemed to start out interesting and progressively got worse. The best thing to come out of the series was Misaka. I found the story in the spin-off manga centered around her far more interesting than the plot of the main series.
I loved To Aru Majutsu no Index. The absolutely worst plot execution I have ever seen in any show anywhere. Instead, they spent all of that plot money on making ways to make Index cuter. And they succeeded! And yes, Himegami, that is moe!
>>>>I am actually glad that they didn’t cast Rie Kugimiya as Index. Because, you know, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. She is already typecasted as THE tsundere loli. It’s in her best interest to try to get other kind of roles. She is awesome as Touko-chan in Marimite, for instance.
I liked Yuka Iguchi as Index. I think she has a very moe voice, especially when she goes “To-u-ma~â€
Agreed. Index’s voice was one of the highlights of the show. It has a certain musical quality to it.