Having watched “A Certain Magical Index”, “A Certain Magical Index II”, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”, “A Certain Scientific Railgun S”, I can say that I was pretty disappointed with “A Certain Magical Index III”.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the “A Certain Magical Index” series and its spin-offs - I even named my blog after this series: “CodingIndex”. This should be weird, because my main interest is in psychological anime.

Misaka Mikoto | Source: Tumblr

The only reason why I fell for “A Certain Magical Index” so hard was because of how similar the anime felt to one of my first few animes: “Shakugan no Shana”. “Shakugan no Shana” was very impactful to me, being my introductory anime to the ‘Action’ genre, and my first (if I’m not wrong) anime from J.C. Staff. Back then, I binged all three seasons within four days, which earned me the “weeb” title; those who know of my exploits try not to approach me. It was an awkward time.

Shakugan no Shana | Source: Tumblr

So why did something that caught my attention, and even inspired my blog name, score so low? Let’s review the evidence.

What even is happening?

The first few episodes were perfectly understandable. The speed was perfect, the story was still flowing nicely, characters are acting consistent, etc.

Then the next few came. The plot is progressing, albiet a little faster, but still somewhat understandable. Characters start to experience some challenges, and are solving them in a consistent manner, and the anime is developing both the characters and the world at the same time. Not too bad.

Then the last few episodes came. The plot is moving at the speed of sound (literally, you sometimes can’t even catch what the characters are saying), characters start to become inconsistent, characters appear and disappear out of nowhere, characters are depicted as useless even though in the source material they are not (according to some commenters on the offending episodes), the plot accelerates with an exponential scale and bam! End of season.

What the heck happened? I could still comprehend certain things, but the plot was moving so god damn fast that characters gain a new personality minutes after a certain reaction to the story climax, and is even willing to protect the main character despite being an antagonist five minutes ago!

Accurate portrayal of plot progression | Source: Giphy

This was not a problem in the other seasons/spin-offs; what happened?

Sympathy for characters

Due to the speed of the plot, I fail to sympathize with the characters; I can no longer experience what the characters are feeling during a moment in the story. As no time is given to process the information on the screen, it hence becomes very difficult to understand what the characters are going through. This disconnection from the characters becomes the reason why the story does not resonate with the viewer, and hence, loses the interest of the viewer. Again, I love these characters from the previous installments of the series; but this… this…

This cannot be forgiven.

Me to J.C. Staff | Source: Pinterest

Why is this happening?

Some speculate that “A Certain Magical Index III” was rushed so that a hypothetical Season 4 will be able to cover the next arc; which admittedly, I’ve spoiled a little to myself via their Wikia page.

It’s an interesting arc, and I cannot wait. Given J.C. Staff’s reputation of providing multiple seasons to anime, I am fully expecting a Season 4. After all, Accelerator’s getting his own season, and Misaka’s getting a Season 3; I better see an Index’s Season 4.

Conclusion

Despite me loving the series, I cannot bear to give it too high of a rating. Not only was the plot fast, and the characters were unpredictable, but the anime commited a heavy sin: the ending was rushed, and very unimpactful. Such an ending can cause even fans to lose interest in the next season of the adaptation. Its not that I disliked it; I just didn’t find it in me to give the anime a high rating, which is how I generally assess anime. It doesn’t matter if the art or sound is terrible; as long as it is able to tell the story in an effective way, I’ll find a way to like it. However, “A Certain Magical Index III” definitely did not tell the story well, and hence, I give it a 4 out of 10 for its poor performance.

I hope this does not adjust the scales that govern karma, because I still look forward to a Season 4! Afterall, the source material’s already there!

Happy Coding,

CodingIndex