Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: A Certain Magical Index III
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micah007
Posts: 205 |
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I'm also more in-tuned with characters and story than in the past, especially for this franchise. At least after all this time I still find enjoyment with seeing the variable cast interact with one another and the fact that so far the narrative hasn't collapsed yet. |
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Izanagi009
 Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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That seems more like the fault of the original source on some level but mostly the issue of a media transition. Regardless, I feel that strict adhesion to the source material might end up causing a mess in the future of the show. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18179 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This is the part of why I prefer ACS Railgun that isn't just about preferring Mikoto as a protagonist. Both seasons of that spin-off have been much more deeply-invested in the characters and how they do or don't relate, even while the other stuff is going on. |
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WatcherZer
Posts: 273 |
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I don't think the issue is so much the pace of the adaptation, simply how convoluted the Arc is with all the different groups of previously and non-previously introduced characters and their differing motivations, allegiances and powers and the difficulty of conveying that in 30 minutes of animation rather than prose. As said some kind of graphic ala the One Piece graphics would have been useful but I see two different interpretations of whats happening.
Either A: the producers are assuming most of the audience has read the books and just want to see the action without needed lengthy monologuing. Or B: They are intentionally playing in to the complexity to make the audience share the characters confusion and frenetic activity by not giving them information that the characters themselves do not possess. |
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Squidslinger
Posts: 76 |
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It's all fun and games till it turns into G-Reconguista... I'll give this show that much, it at least has some semblance of a plot. Unlike Reconguista which you could actually feel your brain cells spinning in circles as you watched it. Likely they are assuming that you've been watching every single Index and spinoff. Probably gambled on the confusion because if they stopped to give a recap, it would cut into the episodes they can run new content on. Why they didn't just do an episode 0 that went straight to stream that did all this...probably someone in management who decided that. Maybe the publisher wasn't willing. I dunno, anymore episodes like this last set and I'll probably give up the series. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2401 |
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As far as anime adaptations, I also prefer Railgun. The pacing and detail is just so much better. Even with the awful padding they throw into Railgun (like that silly find a four leaf clover episode), I think we get a much more polished final product. The Index anime, starting at least with S2, just feel constantly rushed, and I feel like they're constantly skimping on details and not explaining things (which I know is true since I've read the LN). They're really struggling to give the new characters the proper amount of time, and it doesn't help that there are a lot of them. You can't introduce someone, simultaneously explain their power and end the encounter (sometimes even off screen), and then expect the viewer to care. Railgun arcs tend to have less new characters spread over a larger chunk of episodes. I do feel like Kamachi generally does a good job with his new characters in the LN, but it just isn't transferring over here. |
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Stiles
 Posts: 105 |
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Personally, I appreciate that Index moves the plot along with characters that are going to matter far more than Railgun's tendency to putter around in the metaphorical Academy City playgrounds and shopping malls.
Both seem to have something the other is sorely missing and that's a really weird irony. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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Okay. So... here are the things that were cut out of Episode 6 that you're going to need to know in order for future arcs to make sense (all spoiler tags are Episode 6 spoilers, not novel spoilers):
(1) This arc's major theme was "disposability": -Kakine was motivated by his anger about being treated like a disposable "backup" for Accelerator. -Hamazura struggled to find his place in a world where Level 0's were treated as disposable. -Mugino treated her teammates as pawns who she could use up and discard, and talked about how they could be replaced by other students who had similar power sets. -Saiai revealed that she was one of many disposable children who were used in an experiment to modify children to be more like Accelerator. -Takitsubo and Xochitl were put in positions where the people they work for have artificially boosted their powers in exchange for significantly shorter lifespans (in Takitsubo's case, it's drugs, in Xochitl's, it's grimoires). -the BLOCK guy talked about how it didn't matter if they killed a few of Musujime's friends, as long as a few were left alive to serve as hostages. This was contrasted by Accelerator's decision to fight in a way that spoiler[prevents any collateral damage or injury to bystanders]. Due to his horrible experiences with the Clones, he's learned that no one is disposable. In spite of this, Accelerator doesn't consider himself "a hero", prompting Kakine to wonder, if Accelerator doesn't consider himself "a hero", what must the people he does consider "heroes" be like? This sets us up nicely for some of the choices we'll be seeing Touma making in the future. (2) Part of the reason why that claw thing that was stolen in this arc ("The Tweezers") matters is that it's one of the few ways that someone could find out about the existence of spoiler[DRAGON] (which is mentioned for the first time in the last minute of this episode). (3) The battle between spoiler[Mugino and Hamazura] contains a lot of dialogue that, in hindsight, was explicitly designed to give fans the impression that, prior to the beginning of this arc, Hamazura was in the first stages of a yandere / kuudere love triangle with Mugino and Takitsubo. (4) Although spoiler[Mugino] destroys Hamazura's spoiler[gun], Hamazura has a spoiler[second gun] that was given to him earlier that afternoon by his ninja friend Hattori Hanzou (who seems to have been cut out of the anime entirely). This came across as a plot hole in the anime, but it is explained in the books! (5) spoiler[Frenda] was decapitated as revenge for spoiler[giving the villains the location of ITEM's base]. spoiler[Saiai] is still alive. I hope this clears some stuff up. (Overall, I think this is my favorite arc in the entire series, and although I didn't feel it was adapted in the best way possible, I still enjoyed seeing it in anime form.) |
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Izanagi009
Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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Welp, just saw the new episode of Index
Honestly, Touma's idealism is starting to grate on me. While i get that heroism trancends power, the fact that spoiler[Hamazura is looked down on as he says] is entirely based of the power system. Dear lord Touma is so annoying at times I also find the idea of disposability interesting though i'm not sure if it was intended by the author. Also the fact they couldn't show Hamazura getting the spoiler[second gun] in a different way shows an overadherance to the source material that is detrimental. I will admit Ami Koshimizu is going ham with Mugino's voice so it's fun to see her voice act The fight between the first and second was fun though i feel they are getting sloppy with effects work and why does Accelerator fire black blasts of energy? Regardless, looks like we are going back to Touma and the magic side |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Meltdowner was first depicted as a villain in Railgun but later she had goofy moments with Frenda and she seemed like a relatively nice person. She seemed to get along just nicely with the other ITEM members. Now she suddenly betrays her friends, kills Frenda and tries to kill Hamazura. This sudden, drastic change in her character made zero sense to me. Kakine seemed to have some beef with Accelerator that was just revealed at the last minute. Their rivalry was completely underdeveloped and as such I had very little interest in the fight. Honestly this 3rd season is turning out to be pretty disappointing in my opinion. With this kind of rushed pacing I feel so detached from the story. Such a shame. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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Meltdowner's fist entry in the series is this arc so what's 'weird' is the weird filler by Railgun's anime in your head. She's always been kind of a stuck-up bitch who thinks she's better than anyone else, but treated her group nicely enough as long as they did their jobs. Frenda betrayed that trust, so she killed her also to set an example.
Kakine's rivalry with Accelerator is absolutely one-sided - he's just mad that Accelerator is the number 1 and thus the 'main plan' spoiler[he's very wrong about this] and feels like the only way to get on a 'negotiating' position with Aleister is by becoming the number 1 (by process of elimination). Now talking about the actual episode instead of responding to comments, I actually really liked this episode. I was filling stuff up that wasn't covered with info I had from the novels, sure, but I still felt some of the scenes were done really well, as was the #1vs#2 fight - which I was sort of anxious about given the chops this series in general has been having. I'll admit I was disappointed by the black wings in here though (check the LN illustrations for a comparison), but other than that, yeah great episode. I'm a sucker for Edgy Accelerator relinquishing himself to the role of 'a classy villain' and being told that he doesn't need to be a villain, he can be a hero instead. |
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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Even if I ignore Railgun, nothing I saw in the 2 previous episodes suggested that Meltdowner was someone who'd murder her ally in cold blood like that. So I will retain my position that Meltdowner turning out to be a psycho, who murders her allies without second thought, came out of nowhere. |
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2292 |
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Wow -- this show has been nothing short of incoherent since this season started (and in particular I agree with Cam0 that literally nothing in the show suggested Meltdowner would kill her allies; in fact, most evidence in the anime suggested very much the opposite, and this is a good example of people simply failing to analyze shows properly, not of magical subjectivity suffused throughout them!)...
...but the Misaka-Misaka x Accelerator relationship never fails to stop me in my tracks. What a ridiculously cute scene the finale was. |
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Izanagi009
Posts: 464 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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Both points are agreeable, while the character interaction between Last Order and Accelerator was nice, I also do think that the story and characters are becoming incoherent. I feel this is due to overly adhering to the source material as well as just plain stupidity with the writing |
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WatcherZer
Posts: 273 |
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Question: Was it Accelerators power being reliant on the Misaka network and Last Order being the focal point of this that allowed her to command his powers or was it Last Order demonstrating for the first time Railgun powers?
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