Back(b)logging: To Aru Majutsu no Index
nekosasu | May 5, 2009 | 8:14 pm
Why so surprised? Didn’t I announce this post… ages ago?
About time, one might say. Slowpoke.jpg, another might say. Toaru what?, the last one might say.
Truth is, right now, I just ran out of reasons to postpone writing about this show. So here I am.
Nah, I’m kiddin’.
If you remember well, I had blogged about the first five episodes already, and I was actually, yes, following it as it aired (sometimes it does happen). However, I have to admit that my highly professional, er, reviews, if you will, were not really all that interesting, not even to myself (and that doesn’t happen all that often, honestly!).
Since I already had read the first arc in the manga, I already knew the contents of the next episode; and while speculating about possible divergences from the novel, I decided to focus on attracting everyone’s attention to Index and Komoe’s flatness, and griping about the sheer boredom that had befallen me by watching this series. Waiting a week for an outpour of tl;dr dialogue and sparse animation/action, I soon concluded that this series was perfect novel/manga material, but encompasses way too much content to make it halfway interesting on a weekly basis – thus, BORING.
There have been (and apparently, there still are) quite a few series that were so captivating, they were akin to elysian marvels to look forward to every week – remember ARIA…. To Aru, though, was more like looking forward to receiving your weekly fix of AH1N1. It was a plague to keep up interest back then, and it dreaded me that I would experience the same when marathoning it.
Guess what. I loved watching it… Kinda.
I can’t think of any witty caption right now. Wait, isn’t that the Hindenburg? …*sweatdrop*
The difference with my experience back then is – obviously – the amount of time spent waiting between two episodes. One week, full of conjecture, impatience and bias, against -2 minutes (always skipping the ED and preview). This greatly reduced the feeling of hunger that emerged after watching yet another dialogue-filled episode; after all, the only remedy to tl;dr is MORE COWB tl;dr! I mean, when you read a book, you would want to read it all at once, instead of one chapter a week. And this applies especially to the case of Toaru.
There was little to no action to look forward to, knowing that the so-called “action scenes” would be dragged throughout several episodes in good old Dragon Ball manner. It takes quite a lot of nerve to offer such a slow pace to the occasional anime enthusiast, who (probably due to their recurrent ADHD) wants ACTION NAO OR QUIT zomg.
Don’t get me wrong, there was action, there was great action actually; but it was such a long time coming, it was not suspense anymore – it was more like, “uh, okay, can we move on now? Are we there yet?” At least, that’s what I can imagine it must have felt like when waiting long weeks for the episodes. Obviously, watching it all at once disables all thoughts of anticipation, and prevents the viewer from raising expectations that most likely would not be met within the next episode(s).
Many a series crumble down in this very fashion; however, there was an important element that compensated for this weakness, and which managed to uphold the interest: seriousness, or the lack thereof.
It’s a SURPRISE CAMERA! …not.
The first few episodes did start on a rather witty note, but the premise hinted that this whole church/magic/esper/dingbat would eventually lead to something very dark, deep and earth-shattering. You would expect a lot of tears, emotion, suspense, the fate of the world lying in the sole cursed hand of that ignorant shounen – not really.
Well, tears were shed, but of laughter. The light action in this anime provided for lots of room for any kind of gimmick: ranging from the occasional SD-faces to classic slapstick jokes, the generic romance “misunderstandings” and embarrassing situations, this series offered it all, and it did well.
It’s been a while since I last laughed like that as I did when I watched episode 15 – that situation was too much to handle for me at 5 AM, as I yelled my embarrassed laughters into the dawn (waking up my poor mother, sorry!). Railgun as your hyperactive pettan-cousin-more-like-imouto, Index as your loli mother in a bare-clad bikini (sooo hot), calling your father a lolicon, Aogami as Index, and KurokObama shouting Yes We Can in the US of A!?!?? WHAT THE FUDGE.
Oh, my. Just imagine if Hillary had made it. (I couldn’t be bothered to shop an Obama poster for this post though.)
After my deafening outbursts though, I thought to myself “Right, this must be a dream scene, as it so often is the case.” I mean, the hilarity of the situation didn’t really allow much space for any plot-related stuff. It was not so the case, unexpectedly, and they really managed to dish out a rather valid explanation for that phenomenon! When in doubt, blame it on space distortion and coincidental spells!
Irony aside, it was good. A little farfetched, but coincidence is rather hard to come by nowadays (things are always planned and keikaku doori‘d – boring), so it’s all good. Actually, there are heaps of coincidences in this series. The most important one is the large FIRIN’ MAH LAZER ray of light that gushed out of Index’s head in episode 6. It shot down the satellite that contained the supercomputer (Tree Diagram) that calculated the odds of Axel (my moniker for Accelerator) reaching power level 9001 – who’d have imagined that the funny image of the satellite being pierced by a laser would actually have an impact on the story! COINCIDENCE!
And Kazakiri Hyouka, her existence is a coincidence in itself. Though I’m now grasping at straws, so let’s move on.
So relevant to my interests. They are all hittable. No exceptions.
Another example of the unseriousness of this series, the Accelerator arc. The entire level-up process of killing 20000 MISAKAs; Touma proving his heroism in front of Misaka, defending the old “don’t kill yourself”/”everyone will be saved” manifesto and awakening her dere blood; making the MISAKAs realize that even their artificial life is worth something, etc. I like it. Morals, seriousness, romance, emotion, you name it – it had it all. Now, after that, you would expect Axel to eventually take revenge onto Touma for that humiliating defeat, which ruined his reputation and life. Well, no.
He encounters yet another loli MISAKA, and after another moment of hilarity, befriends her (as everyone probably expected). This is usually how such baddies evolve – from bad to good. They never remain true baddies. But perhaps he had an epiphany? He realized he was a lolikon! I kid.
The bottom line is, this series keeps cornering important moral topics, however tries not to remain serious all the time. And the more SRS you want to take it, the less SRS it will look to you. This kind of symbiosis between comic and sternness worked pretty well, and was widely used throughout the other arcs as well to loosen up the mood. It was a good recreation which distracted from the weak suspense of the story.
Before watching this series last week, I really thought this story would be wrapped up in 24 episodes. But the more I watched, the more I tried to discern where this story was going, and after the recreational beach episode, I already noticed that a decent conclusion that would offer an answer to all the open questions would not fit at all into the already shortened seasonal frame. As such, the notion of suspense faded even further, since it was clear that a second series was in order.
From Index-tan OVA. Not only did they hint at Shanatan, but also at Toradora. lol, J.C. Staff. You like your lolis don’t'cha.
All the more, I don’t know how the Last Order arc was perceived back then (apart from being an obvious wink to all the lolicons out there; J.C. Staff seems to love making series starring pettan lolis (Shana, Toradora, Toaru)) but to me, it came across as a filler. It was cute and all, but, as Touma already had pointed out in the pre-opening animation, he’d get no screen time there as well, which is quite unusual. I almost expected him to pop out of nowhere and get rid of the virus for Axel, after which they’d be best friends, etc. But no. Mind you, I didn’t want to see him – I’d rather gaze at loli-MISAKA all day long – but two episodes without main characters, and with no new element whatsoever to the story? Filler.
(And I’m sure this comment will come back during the second season to slap me in the face, when Axel and loli-MISAKA will team up with Touma… hahaha. Please.)
About the rest of the story, well I can’t really comment on it. Between Alchemists and AIM dispersion fields, I found myself in agreement with the rest – however, as this anime is yet to be continued, there are obviously many questions that remain open. I can offer conjecture for some, but that’s it.
- Why did that one mage who attacked Touma have a crush on Biribiri say he would be the main target of further attacks? Nobody else has attacked him since. Was it just a simple threat by a sore loser, or are there more magicians who are bitter that Railgun is falling for Touma?
- The Knights that appeared during the Izzard/Vampire arc, I faintly remember they were mentioned later in the series as well – why did they destroy that building for the lulz? Why did they even appear??
Hmm. Aisa. Kinda cute. Although, I wouldn’t want to be hit by her very (un)divine “magical staff”.
- Who is Tsuchimikado, besides being a liar and a lazybones? His sister Maika must be a magician as well then? To me, it seems they are observing Touma.
- Alleister, that magician floating in the LCL tank, why does he rely on Touma so much? Will the course of actions eventually lead Touma to him, and help him free himself from that tank? Or rather, he’s probably that sort of baddie who lets Touma get rid of all enemies first, then take Touma out himself. Bah.
- That Archbishop… I remember seeing her in the first couple of chapters of the manga. She sure makes a late apparition here.
- What happened to that chalk-wielding Demowoman? (my moniker for Sherry – TF2 reference – go figure, you git)
May I point out that I waited half a week before writing this? Because I’m running out of ideas. So far, I haven’t written anything meaningful, but okay, here are some random thoughts:
I could comment about how hard it is to choose between all the girls in that series, I mean, Index, Komoe, Aisa, Maika, all Misakas, and other lolis I might have forgotten. I’d settle for Maika, but that’d prove that I have a maid fetish so… hmm. Dunno. Aisa would be perfect, I guess.
AIM fields are properly marked.
Misaka too. …Who said Hyouka? Shoot, no. Besides, there must have been quite a lot of AIM dispersion fields around, considering the humongous size of her globes (indirectly in touch with everyone, huh). And I don’t like meganekkos, especially not when they’re there only to fulfill some kind of quota in anime, just like the quota loli in, err, every anime series.
I could also try to identify some kind of incompatibility between the church and society, religion and science and all the other -isms, that they can’t smell each other, etc. But that would probably step out of my area of expertise, and I realize I didn’t pay that much attention to the anime in detail to make such a blunt comment either.
… Why must that stupid, useless, lazy main guy in every second anime always have a harem of girls around him, and not notice that they all want to hump him so badly? Sometimes, these generic patterns annoy me to death. Because then I keep thinking “if it had been me, it’d be tentacles” and that sucks. Envy aside, I don’t want to identify myself with a guy whose balls might fall off if he tried fapping…
This post must’ve felt like an entire episode of To Aru Majutsu no Index… So here’s a quick summary!
TL;DR: interesting and pseudo-serious story featuring solid character development, cute fanservice lolis, and a few inconsistencies – however, series yet to be continued. First though, the Railgun spinoff. More Biribiri, great!
biribiribiribiriiiii~~
Oh and the openings rock, they’re both great songs. I just don’t understand why they decided to change them at such a late period of the series, usually it happens at episode 12 or 13, and not at 17, especially not during an ongoing arc. The Ending switch happened at episode 20? lol. Not that it matters though, because I always skipped them anyway.
—
And until today, I still cannot understand how a guy who apparently lost all of his memories (because of brain cells raid), was able to speak and understand again.
EDIT: -bling, I solved it now. Frogface “Heaven Canceller” Doctor must have installed a dictionary file into Touma’s brain. Heh, not bad.
Just want to comment on the last point, he lost his “event memories”, so he still can breath and eat and speak, etc. Kinda convenient, doesn’t it? Well, the feather was intend to be backup plan for deleting Index’s memories after all, so it’s acceptable I think. I would still think he should have a lot of trouble in school though. It’s not like he can reinvent all the math he learned so far. We can just say he re-learn it all at some point though.
BTW, interesting read, though I’m not sure I get what you are trying to say :)
Great review ;) … looking forward to Toaru Kagaku no Railgun!
Index was a show with its share of hits and misses, but overall it was an enjoyable series. Looking forward to Railgun!
Awesome! Very entertaining read, and it sort of makes me want to finish it when I left off at ep6. I guess the first 6 episodes were sort of an improper start to the series since it gave reason to believe Index would be darker than it came out to be. From the read, I’m guessing its actually quite enjoyable when not wanting it to be something that it may have seemed to be in the first 6 episodes….
but who knows. Perhaps JC Staff is just holding out on the viewers. In any case, Railgun animu. F’kyaaas!
@all Thanks for the feedback guys! I tried to make it as entertaining as possible, because I know TL;DR stuff is pretty tedious to sit through and digest.
@Hypernova: Haha, probably. I know of some people who could need such feather treatment XD And don’t worry, I don’t think I got the point myself. I think the one who understands me the least is myself. ^^;
@Ryan: And you didn’t reproach me that I spoiled you. I think this is a 大成功!!!
Railgun Animu FTW! Bet they’ll fill it with all kind of fanservice. I’ll hate them if they do (though I wouldn’t mind to see moar nugunugu Biribiri either…)
*emerges from the Hell called Final exams*
Huh… only two left from Phase 1.
So… when I watched To Aru I liked it. And that’s all, I couldn’t say more. It was… good. First I said it was just like Shana, but with more focus on the story than the action. And I liked that.
So if I think back (I’ve followed the series properly) I think To Aru is more like Touhou, without danmaku, and with more talking. Wacky stories with wacky loli characters, where everybody takes everything serious, except the series itself.
Dunno about Railgun, I don’t really like her.