A Certain Magical Index III - Reviews

I am surprised to be the first one to add a review and no I am not ashamed to review before the anime ends, there is no need to wait. 

Its...not that good. Especially for somebody who really likes the original novels, manga and anime before. 

What happened? I think every problem this series have is pacing issues. They simply try to fit so much stuff in to the episodes which forces them to cut needed character development. It also forces them to put exposition more in to dialog and Touma looks more stupid and boring then he does in the light novel, by far. 
They are faithfull to the material, but lacklaster. It all feels like just "make it as it is written, don't think about it much, just do it... first take and let's move to some bath scence!" 
What they did change, or rather cenzure was the moment: SPOILER

When Misaka realizes that she loves Touma. It happened generaly very similary, except Touma wasn't tired looking, but covered in blood and brusies, he was barely not passing out with electrotes from the hospital machine still on his head. When she saw him she didnt went completly dere, she was worried, confused and then as he left she figure it out, LITERARY changing her personal reality. For those who don't know that is what makes her ESP powers work and changing that can change the ability! That impactfull... did it feel like that i the anime? Not by a long shoot. 

I liked Magic Index I, thought Magic index II was OK. Magic Index III was TERRIBLE. There was WAY too many groups who motives I could not care less about, even when one of the characters declared the intention during their 3 minutes of fame. The authors really, REALLY liked anagrams & over used them ad nauseum. Even the spells had anagrams. Did the writers think that tons of groups with anagram names could make up for trash writing?

One of the few anime’s I dropped. I dropped it at episode 6. Went to another anime I enjoyed, then picked this up again mainly to see what was happening with the character Accelerator, who was a tad more interesting in that crowded field. The story arcs seemed watery or perhaps there were so many I could not have given a fig less about them. Both the insane number of characters and arcs circled the viewer like confusing clouds of bats.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a complex story line (I loved game of thrones), but here so many superficial arcs made for muddy garbage. It’s like the writers could not decide what to go with, so they put a little of everyone’s idea in, which was a really bad idea.

I know, other folks said the light novels were good. I am not reviewing the light novels, nor did I read them. I should not  need to read them to understand the anime. What is the point of an anime then?

This season is garbage and I cannot recommend it unles you have read the novels FIRST.

there's no way to understand this without reading light novels first. 

That is a failure as an anime medium. 

Concepts and characters from previous seasons are fair game. 

This pulled new things from nowhere without explaining them. 

The first two seasons were predictable but satisfying, but this went off the rails.

Skip this. It pains me to say it but after watching everything in the continuum before it this show will only serve to muddle waters and leave you dissatisfied. 

By far this was the worst offering this franchise has, even having watched all the previous content. You should not need to be a hard-core fan to understand. Businesses don't make money like that without a whale centric business model and there isn't one here. 

Index is dead, long live accelerator and railgun.

The first two series were pretty decent, and I enjoyed both of them. Index III is a tangled mess that should have never been made, at least not in this form. It could not be more obvious that they tried to adapt far too much material while keeping the episode count as low as they could.

The result is a confusing, incoherant plot that seems to skip many necessary details that would have at least let someone who has not read the full series follow along. Characters are introduced and then dropped with little explanation, and most of those that stick around don't really get any actual characterization. The series goes from the Touma-show to the Touma, Accelerator, and other guy show; and while I like Accelerator as a character, the series never really gives a reason to empathize with the other guy so the multiple plotlines just makes it all feel bloated.

And I do have to question why they decided to change the sound effect when Touma's right arm cancels out a power or magic. It seems a needless change and makes it inconsistent with the two series that came before. This may seem a silly thing to nitpick when the series has so many other flaws I could write about, but it genuinely bothered me in all 26 of the episodes when I heard it. Surely there were more important things they could have focused on to make this series more... well, more?

Viewers who enjoyed the previous two series should watch this only if they have fully read the remainder of the light novels; maybe then they could get some enjoyment from it. If not, they are liable to finish the series feeling confused and disappointed; this franchise deserved a better ending than this.

I'm not angry, just disappointed. That pretty much sums up my feelings of the show. I've personally never liked the main series of Index, mostly because Index herself is such an insufferable parasite, and have only watched the show to keep up with stuff in Railgun and Accelerator. However, even with a trash tier title character the previous two seasons have at least been watchable for me. This one felt like a chore. Like, I would rather be vacuuming every apartment in the building I currently live in than watch this show again. I almost dropped it after about 6 episodes but felt compelled to see this trainwreck through. It was so bad it has put me off of the series for good, I think. Let me tell you why, and I'll try to keep it short.

The show has a problem with abundance. It introduces characters, factions, locations and actual wars on such a breakneck pace it almost feels like the show was written by a bunch of kids high on sugar going "AND THEN THIS HAPPENS! AND OOH, OOH, THIS ALSO HAPPENS!" and dumping a crate full of toys into whatever they are playing as new characters. People are introduced in one episode and completely forgotten the next, characters change sides on the tip of a hat and change back only a few episodes later, old characters I have already forgotten because it's been five flippin' years since the last episode before now are brough back as punching bags without adding any actual value to the show and one of the main villains-turned-good-guy was beaten off screen. Factions are introduced en masse but only by name because they are gone an episode later without us ever actually even seeing them. What was the point of even naming them and throwing them in the fray in the first place if we never even see them and they have literally no impact on the story whatsoever? Shonen shows also always have that "I prevail because of friendship and magic or whatever" moment but this time it happend so many times it lost all its meaning and started feeling like a storytelling crutch for a team of writers way out of their depth. And don't even get me started on the weird and incredibly forced fan service stuff, like a bad guy who I'm pretty sure was arrested in a previous episode yet was hanging out with Touma all buddy buddy the next just straight up asking for him to bang her right then and there. All for the lulz xd. My god. I feel dumber just having watched this show.

Just as a final nail in the coffin of the storytelling here, this show deadass had an episode and a half of just the characters standing there explaining what was going on and it still went right over my head because you just spent an episode and a half just talking about made up history using made up words. The story progressed nowhere, nothing was gained, you wasted like 40 minutes of my time.

Just don't bother with this season. It really is just a waste of time. It might look okay but you will be hearing that Imagine Breaker sound effect in your dreams. Because by god, did they milk that for everything it was worth this time around.