- Genre : Action, supernatural, sci fi, harem, magical girl, exposition
- Episodes: 24
- Studio: J.C.Staff
Academy City is a place of wonders. Man-made wonders. A world of logic and science where gifted young men and women (called Espers) are brought together to sharpen their skills. A place where people strive to make the world better through the advancement of technology. But this world of reason is suddenly invaded by the chaos of Magic in the form of a young woman called Index. A nun from the mysterious Necessarium branch of the Church of England, she carries within her the secrets of the 103,000 forbidden magical books collected by the church. An unimaginable wealth of arcane knowledge. And nothing is more dangerous than a little knowledge.
A Certain Magical Index is one of those animes that had always existed in the periphery of my mind. I have heard the name regularly throughout the years and always figured I should watch it someday but at the same time never truly felt the need to. I finally got that push when the third season recently came out and a lot of bloggers I respect got very excited about it. The first this I noticed is: I had always been mistaking the anime for The Irregular at Magic High School… Good start Irina!

I had to look it up and the first season is now 10 years old. I actually thought it was older. Although A Certain Magical Index doesn’t look bad by any means, there’s something a little dated in the designs and aesthetics. Visually, in my mind, it stands somewhere between the classic anime look and the modern one. The animation can get a little jagged in more high-speed scenes, but the art is very consistent which is nice.
The voice acting on the other hand was not my favourite. I wouldn’t necessarily blame it on the actors though. I’ll get back to this a bit later but suffice it to say, a mix of very shallow direction and basic writing has made the script rather unwieldy and you often get the feeling that characters are spouting memorized monologues rather than having natural conversations. This could in fact be a stylistic choice but it’s not one I enjoyed.

You know what, let’s get to those writing issues right away. Somewhere around episode 5, I started calling A Certain Magical Index, “Exposition, the Animation”. And it only gets worse as episodes progressed. This series really does not adhere by the “don’t tell, show” doctrine. I understand that the world A Certain Magical Index is trying to create is rather large with many complicated rules, but pretty much every episode features at least one (if not several) minutes long speech explaining everything that’s happening. And it still feels confused.
Aside from the clumsy exposition which gets boring quick. It’s the anime equivalent of a wall of text. The major problem I had with the story is the murky character motivations. It was difficult to follow or sympathize with anything on screen because I never got to know the characters all that well and the show never gave me any substantial reason for why they were behaving the way they were.

The story is actually broken down in several miniarcs. The ones featuring Accelerator and Railgun being my favourites by far as those side characters were ironically more fleshed out. However, the main plot is concerned with Touma’s ongoing attempts to “save” Index. Why does Touma put himself and others in constant danger to “save” Index. As far as I can tell it’s because she’s cute and he’s the hero. Why is Index running away? The few people we meet from the church actually care a great deal about her. She’s also an amnesiac so she doesn’t really have any specific examples of mistreatment….
Why is Academy City forcing cruel experiments on children to create a level 6 Esper? Just cause they can? Are they at war?

Honestly, as soon as you scratch below the surface, a lot of the reasoning amounts to “because plot”. To be fair – I was slogging through this series (it really took me way longer than usual to get through) when it suddenly disappeared from my Crunchyroll feed so I missed out on the two last episodes. It makes no difference to everything I’ve said so far but it is possible that these issues get resolved in the last episodes and that the following seasons are much better.
Also, even though I did find it a bit tedious, I stuck with it because there were elements I liked a lot. The universe seems unrealized, but it is very rich and expansive with a lot of potential. As I said, I enjoyed Accelerator a lot and his redemption arc was downright interesting and would have convinced me to watch season two had it still been available.

Fact is, I can see why some people enjoyed this show a lot. It has a decent amount of action and keeps changing. The mid-season trick of switching around character appearance due to magic was a great way to revitalize the series and something I hadn’t seen before. There’s simply this feeling of the narrative being unfinished. Like it needed a few more editing passes before it was ready to go out because it sometimes gives the impression that they were working with an outline rather than a complete script.
My final verdict is this. If it reappears on Crunchyroll, I will watch season 2. I won’t go out of my way to find it though (and yes, I know it’s on Netflix). Unless you guys tell me it gets much better…

Favorite character: Accelerator – The Railgun clones
What this anime taught me: Watch quickly for nothing lasts forever
Technically, alcohol is a *solution*
Suggested drink: a Vesper
- Every time a phone gets broken – take a sip
- Every time anyone has a smoke – take a sip
- Every time Touma has rotten luck – take a sip
- Every time Index bites Touma – take a snack
- Every time we see a cross – get some water
- Every time anyone casts a spell – take a sip
- Every time someone aggressively tries to save Index – take a sip
- Every time we meet a homeless cat – take a sip
- Every time a girl is starving – get dessert
- Every time Touma is in the hospital – take a sip

Huh, I thought about watching the anime on Crunchyroll, but maybe not if it is just exposition. I don’t know maybe I should still try it some point…still a good review!
There is something fun aut the series but I can’t exactly describe it
Season 3 Starts out ok, then gets very dark – almost unrecognizably so. It swings back to something recognizable but I keep hearing that world war three is about to happen. I’ll probably watch it because I like some of the characters but it will be an episode now and then. It is not bingeworthy. Something about Kuroko’s pathetic and unrequited love for Mokito
makes Railgun more interesting even though Index has more chracters and arcs.
Seems like Railgun is the prefered anime
Index wasn’t bad. I didn’t mind the exposition of Index at all. It is the more complex of the two and the issues are of a much greater scale. I just enjoyed the unrequited Yuri.
Accelerator was the best. Honestly I remember I enjoyed it but I think I liked Railgun more.
I guess we both need to see railgun…
I’ve reviewed the first two seasons and the film of this series and none of them excited me enough as the promise of the central concept did. The big problem, aside from the scrappy storytelling, was Index herself. A hopelessly annoying and useless character which is not good when she is supposed to be the main conceit of the story! :-/
Like everyone else has said, watch Railgun instead. 😛
Seems there’s a concensus…
I’d definitely recommend Railgun over Index. That said, I enjoyed season one of Index. However, I was less engaged by season 2, and I haven’t rewatched it, and season 3 is now making me want to just walk away from the show. I’m really not having much fun with it at all and the faults mentioned here never go away. Death by exposition in almost every episode.
oh wow – and I was having a hard time with the season 1 exposition…
I was actually thinking about this in my last episode review of season three, but part of me wonders if I just outgrew this series. Because I remember I really enjoyed season one despite the faults, and it isn’t as though things actually changed that much but season three is really feeling like a drag right now.
Oh no…maturity ruins everything again
I’ve watched around 7 episodes (can’t remember how many precisely) and then just never found the motivation to continue until I couldn’t remember what happened, but I don’t recall disliking it. Whenever I brought this up to people (and people who don’t know each other and have different tastes) they told me that it’s fine not continue the series, but I should pick up Railgun instead. Haven’t gotten around to it yet, but a lot of people say that Railgun‘s the better show in the franchise.
Makes sense – it’s the better character for sure
Genre : Action, supernatural, sci fi, harem, magical girl, exposition
Ha, I think your assessment of this show’s weaknesses is spot on. Personally, I stopped watching after 2 episodes without tsun-tsun biri-biri. Although I do plan to finish this someday… I think…
I’m like you – I did like it but execution left something to be desired
Ooohhh nice to see more and more people watching the index franchise. I am a fan myself but I do agree on some points you made. Those were my thoughts when I first got introduced to the franchise. But believe me, it gets better. 😊
A tip though, I suggest you watch the 2 railgun animes before proceeding to index season 2. Most of the story arcs on the railgun animes happens before, during and after the index season 1. That way, you can breeze through the franchise…hehehehe
Intriguing – I have been eyeing Railgun…
I am actually doing a second rewatch of the series with season 3 airing. While I like the franchise a lot, it is hard to argue some of the points your make. Index is one of my favorite series especially with my rewatch but I will agree it is not without flaws. The stories with Mikoto and Accelerator are the best of the series. While I don’t hate Touma by any means, the other characters are certainly more fleshed out and interesting. I would certainly recommend the Railgun spinoff. It gives Mikoto’s perspective on the Sisters arc in season 2, explains the workings of Academy City a lot better, and is just told in a better way than Index.
Well that certainly sells it well. Like I said – I did enjoy the series
I did forget to mention that Railgun is getting a season 3 and Accelerator’s spinoff series is getting animated next year. So if Mikoto and Accelerator piqued your interest then it is good time to check out Railgun before those anime air.