Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: A Certain Magical Index III
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killjoy_the
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Neither. You might not remember this from the end of Season 2, but Accelerator can manifest his dark wings without the Misaka network's aid - it's kind of going berserk though. It was an emotional thing - Accelerator just really doesn't want to hurt LO and in fact no one else if she's present.
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Stiles
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This arc definitely needed another full episode to fill in the missing scenes and important plot related dialogue. Some of the brutality is missing as well, but aside from all that this episode was right on the money.
Seems like Theron and some others posting have misinterpreted what little bit of ITEM was shown in Railgun S. -Frenda was absolutely not above selling out ITEM as she was literal moments away from doing just that to Mikoto, if Mikoto's electricity hadn't numbed her tongue. -Mugino is intense, prideful and hates to lose, as Hamazura notes in his assessment of her character, flying into an incredible rage for not being able to secure a more 'perfect' victory. You see plenty of hints of that madness in her fight with Misaka. Mugino's blatant disregard for her comrades shows through in her treatment of Takitsubo in both adaptations, having her use Body Crystal again and again in spite of knowing how dangerous it is. Upon realizing she was fighting the third ranked level 5, she sends Takitsubo and Frenda away so she can potentially claim all the credit for the kill. Coming back to the missing brutality... -The novel has Mugino blowing away most of her left arm with her own power during her fight with Hamazura. Her fate is left uncertain. -Kakine forcefully dislocates Uiharu's shoulder during his short interrogation of her and was actually going to kill her outright due to her (imo, awesome) refusal to submit to him. Her life is saved when Accelerator slams an ATM into Kakine upon his arrival. -Accelerator initially defeats Kakine by impaling him with his own wings. When Yomikawa tries to stop Accelerator, Kakine assaults her a bit more viciously with 'invisible pressure' presumed to be his Dark Matter. And finally, Accelerator straight up slaughters Kakine upon manifesting his black wings, to the point where it's unlikely the #2 survived. With the too fast pace of the adaptation, it's true that some character development is missing, but I would hardly call this incoherent. You're not supposed to know what BLOCK is truly after until they're in the reformatory. You're not supposed to know what SCHOOL is after until the #2 confronts the #1. There are no good guys or bad guys in this arc and that's the point. You have five different factions within Academy City all vying for power in one form or another, with only GROUP, ITEM, and MEMBER staying at least somewhat loyal to the city. It's (imo) supposed to feel messy because that's the state of the city that has most of its security missing due to the situation in Avignon. TL;DR: Yes, the adaptation could be better. So could every previous season of both Index and Railgun. As long as they don't stumble too hard into the end of this season, it will all make sense, so please be patient. This isn't by any stretch a bad anime thus far. |
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ThatGuyWhoLikesThings
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Not very. Recall that she was willing to sell out her team after her fight with Mikoto to save her own skin, but she wasn't actually able to because of reasons I'm forgetting. And keep in mind that this is technically Frenda and ITEM's debut, so if their characterization might seem slightly inconsistent, it's Railgun's fault. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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His wings are suppose to be black, but for some reason they decided to color all his wind attacks black.
Exactly. I was going to point out the same thing. She was totally prepared to sell ITEM out to Mikoto who seems far less threatening than Kakine (though perhaps this is bias because the audience knows she wouldn't really do it). I also agree with your points on Mugino. Her flaws may come out a bit stronger here, but as for the over all picture, I think Railgun does a fine job of foreshadowing this (technically this comes first so I don't think foreshadowing is the right word).
These 2 cuts kind of annoy me. They were fine showing Fre/nda. Why hesitate showing Mugino or Kakine meeting dark fates. Especially Kakine... Accel dunked him in concrete with his awakened power then just punches him a few times? It really looks like Kakine would basically be fine once someone gets around to digging him out (or really if he recovered a bit, he could get himself out). Last edited by SilverTalon01 on Sat Nov 10, 2018 10:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Animorphimagi
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I forget where it was mentioned, I think it was some bio page, but it was mentioned that every level 5 is an anti-social, mentally unstable psychopath in some way. It manifests in different ways, but while some of them gather "allies" to feel normal or just to boss weaker people around, there's also the number 1, number 5, and number 7 who are loners(even if 5 isn't "alone" she only has people around her who are being directly controlled by her) BTW number 3 is considered the most normal level 5, but it seems like she slowly became normal due to her friends and she didn't develop violent tendencies or a major superiority complex by obtaining and wanting to use her powers. Meltdowner became so stressed from being pressured by someone more powerful than herself(something she never has to deal with) and being betrayed by a close ally(and nearly killed as a result) that she reverted to her most basic arrogant and violent tendencies. All of this could've been shown far better with a bit more time in the show of course. |
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OH&S
 Posts: 306 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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I'm heartbroken at the butchering of the adaptation for these past two arcs.
At this point, there's nothing to look forward to anymore because the direction, scripting, pacing and animation are worse than 7+ years ago. Who can I blame for this? |
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Stiles
Posts: 105 |
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I assume that because the project is covering three different adaptations that their budget is stretched thin, with greater care not being given where it is clearly needed and deserved. We didn't need an Accelerator anime right now and Railgun can wait if it means Index is taken care of. I don't really know if we can say this is worse than what we got previously, so let's all just hope they step it up from here. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18190 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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If that's the case, then the question is which direction the cause-and-effect relationship goes; i.e., are the Level 5s anti-social as a consequence of their powers, or do they have to be anti-social to get their powers up to Level 5? And you can see a bit of that anti-social nature even in Mikoto. The scene in Railgun S where she finally broke down and asked for help from her friends was one of my picks for the top individual scene of that year. |
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killjoy_the
Posts: 2459 |
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Esper powers are technically related to how much you can impose your own worldview on top of the world itself, causing your powers to happen. So, in a way, the more powerful you become, the more your head needs to be up your own butt.
The #7 is probably actually an exception for this for reasons, he's just eccentric as all hell. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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I doubt it is primarily a budget thing, and Railgun isn't likely to interfere negatively. It actually sold more so even if their budgets were for some odd reason pooled, Railgun being in there is going to make it proportionally larger. I think they're just trying to adapt too much. The story gets a lot more complex in the later half of OT which is making it even more hectic than Index 2. I'm guessing a bunch of the people behind the scenes are different now too because they seem to be worse at handling the crazy pace this time as well.
I feel like it is mostly effect. They're in many cases not even teenagers when the city dumps them into a bunch of pretty dark stuff. Mikoto who is the most normal had to deal with this the least (well, really because nobody told her so she simply didn't know it for a long time), but even she has a facility that exists to study her plus a lot of people either idolize her or fear her for her power. |
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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This is a popular topic of discussion within Japanese Index fandom, and in 2007, Miki Kazuma (the editor of the light novel series) wrote an essay entitled "The Wall Between Level 3 and Level 4" which examined everything about Academy City's power classification system that had been revealed in the first two seasons of anime and novels, including an explanation for how an esper's mental state was tied to the manifestation of power. Most of the essay was concerned with the differences in power level between Levels 1, 2, 3, etc., with the thrust of the argument being that Level 3 represented the point at which a power could be said to be "useful in everyday life" and Level 4 represented the point at which a power could be said to be of interest to a nation's military leaders. However, the final part of the essay (and the reason why I am bringing it up in the first place) consisted of an analysis of the concept of "Personal Reality", which is the in-universe explanation for how science-side powers work in the Index franchise. Kazuma outlined the ways in which espers developed their Personal Realities: they needed to first understand their own ideologies, calcuate what about the current state of reality made the realization of their ideologies "impossible", and then express their wills upon the world in order to make the impossible possible. Becoming a Level 5 therefore required both the strongest will and the firmest commitment to one's own principles and ideologies. This explains why all of the Level 5s we've encountered are so doggedly committed to their own ways of seeing the world, to the point where every single one of them comes across as anti-social, sociopathic, or even insane. (To that end - and despite her issues - Mikoto is often referred to as the "only sane Level 5", and is often the only one that Academy City's higher-ups deem socially-competent enough to be shown off in public events and marketing.) This also explains why the franchise's most powerful characters can never seem to get along... for how can two people whose ways of seeing themselves and the world around them are so strong that they're able to change the nature of themselves and the world around possibly be expected to share a single reality without coming to blows? 
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Hypeathon
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So I checked the staff credits and Hiroyuki Yoshino is credited as the main writer this season. He was the writer for the Miracle of Endymion movie but not for Seasons 1 & 2. Masano Akahoshi was credited as the main writer for seasons 1 & 2 and his most current credit is being the main writer for what is apparently the reboot of Cardfight Vanguard that has been airing since earlier this May. So if there's a problem with the pacing or what is and isn't being adapted and how, then I guess that's it. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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Ep 7 was much better. It really helps when they don't have to introduce a bunch of new characters... in fact I don't think introduced a new character at all (except maybe one of the nameless Amakusa?). They also didn't have to swap scenes as much since it mostly follows Touma or people in the same area as Touma. I think this arc is going to be much more friendly to being put into 3 episodes.
Tatemiya's scene explaining his logic for why Itsuwa's breasts are larger than they appear was great.
The two are incredibly similar on that point which I find pretty interesting and that feeds into one of my favorite moments in the franchise.
I don't think there is much, but it has been a while. Spoilering this because it is possible that it could appear in the next episode instead, but since the episode ended with Acqua and Touma playing skipping stones, I think it is cut. spoiler[There was a scene with Mikoto leaving the underground mall where she accidentally makes a scene by letting her powers activate unintentionally.] |
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Zof
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I can remember thinking "Yanno, they probably should have some more guards on this guy. More than just that girl if what she's saying is true". Then later "We know he's in town now" and I'm like "Yeah, you should probably have like freaking 50 guys on him right now, I mean, if you care about him. And he shouldn't be wandering around in public. Probably want him locked up somewhere".
Then I remember rolling my eyes a lot. |
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killjoy_the
Posts: 2459 |
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Acqua wiped the floor with the whole of the Amakusa my dude what were you expecting. They were observing from afar rather than stay with him at all times because you'd probably find it a bit inconvenient to have 20+ people around you at all times.
I was expecting the fight to be a lot better - Acqua feels less menacing than teleport-y. Itsuwa trying to heal Touma and failing because of IB also wasn't as impactful as it could've been, but eh. @Theron they skipped the prologue with the Pope. |
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