An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: September 2021

Rushed Testament – A Certain Magical Index III Spoiler Review

Now we come to the (chronologically) last entry in Academy City’s anime run. I left this one for last not because of its place in the timeline, though, but rather because it has some critical differences with its predecessors, and those show in a big way.

On the surface, Index III shares the structure of I and II. It’s a two-cour show and can be fairly easily broken down into a set of arcs, each of which deals with a new crisis, to a greater or lesser degree. However, it’s adapted from a good deal more source material than the previous seasons, and it’s done by compression.

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Antihero Testament – A Certain Scientific Accelerator Spoiler Review

A Certain Scientific Accelerator is, to an extent, the black sheep of the shows set in Academy City. It’s only 12 episodes, and it consists of only a single arc. The character designs are a little different, and the tone is a good deal darker – not that more bad things happen here (Index and Railgun have their fair share of losses), but the emotions evoked are typically more bleak. What’s more, A Certain Scientific Accelerator stars, of course, Accelerator. And Accelerator is a character who, after his first encounter with Last Order, still qualifies as an antihero at best, compared to Railgun and especially Toma who are fairly straightforward heroic characters.

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Awesome Testament – A Certain Scientific Railgun (Seasons 1-3) Spoiler Review

So, A Certain Magical Index is the kind of series you don’t expect a consensus on. Some people are going to hate that it’s the type of show you can turn your brain off for, others will love it. Some people are going to hate how much effort it goes through to explain every spell and power, others will enjoy the technobabble and mythical references. Some will love the main character as a comedy victim and appreciate his ability to be a badass despite also being kind of a moron, others will despise how he always gets into contrived situations and never understands anything. One thing that most people seem to agree on, though, is this: Mikoto Misaka, aka Railgun? She was pretty cool. Not only is she a spunky, sporty, tsundere middle-schooler with top-tier power (making her fun), she’s also got one of the best and deepest emotional arcs in all of Index with the Sisters arc. And, for her well-deserved popularity, she was granted her own spinoff: A Certain Scientific Railgun.

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Academy City Testament – A Certain Magical Index (Seasons 1 & 2) Spoiler Review

Well, it’s back-to-school time again, and this year we’re going to be looking at one of the biggest schools in Anime, Academy City.

In terms of what’s got shows, Academy City is the setting for three separate shows with seven seasons of material between them: three seasons of A Certain Magical Index, three seasons of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and one season of A Certain Scientific Accelerator. The series as a whole is typically referred to either as RailDex (after Railgun and Index) or Toaru (after the common word translated as “A Certain” in the titles), but it’s also easy to think of them by their common setting.

So, what is the setting and, for A Certain Magical Index, what is the story?

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2nd Anniversary Special: Top 10 Anime Openings (Action and Non-Action lists)

Well, it’s that time of year again – time for a Top 10 list! This is one that’s probably going to be deeply contentious: there are so many anime openings, and so many of them are really good that I think every anime fan has their own personal top list, with very little overlap between them. So if you disagree, go ahead and share your favorites in the comments, I’d love to hear them.

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