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「神の子」 (Kami no Ko)
“Son of God”
It is done, it is over—and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one relieved for it. After two seasons of scorched pavement and screaming rubber Index has finally drawn to a close, and more or less done everything you could expect. Accelerator continues being the perpetual badass, only now in a slightly more angelic form, while Touma not only gave us one punch but two for all that nagging trouble of arguing with the baddie of the moment (and don’t even get me started with Misaka’s comedic rejection). As for that baddie no real surprises either with Fiamma succumbing to the curse of outlived purpose, although the means of his death are likely to raise a few eyebrows. Aleister leaving the bat cave to talk about the truth of Touma’s arm? Oh you know where this story is heading next.
Speaking of main man himself, I wouldn’t expect him to be separated from the action (and everyone’s favourite set of teeth) for too long. Index may have wrapped up arguably its largest and most impactful arc, but there’s lots more waiting for adaptation. With the Index franchise back in force (summertime Accelerator says hello), we’ll just have to see how long it takes for Index IV to finally make its appearance.
Final Impressions
There’s no two ways about it: Index III objectively sucked. Hard. From start to finish we received one of the largest, most rushed hatchet jobs of recent adaptation history, cutting out significant amounts of material and plot connections for the sake of reaching a convenient starting point in the story for future sequels. No matter how much the season was billed for light novel readers, no matter how it tried to appeal to its target audience, Index simply took the brakes off and sped right past the cliff.
While numerous problems plagued Index’s latest offering, the main one was definitely story, specifically characters. Even for those intimately familiar with Index’s cast this season was often inexplicable at times, throwing various names and faces at us with various important tasks being performed which often lacked context or explanation. Our French girl, this new harem member—Academy City underground round two? Best hope you follow the source material closely, because you’re getting no introductions or answers here. Even for those with some sense of time and place and ability for audience deduction—i.e. Misaka Worst, cyber-Mugino, Hyouka—are lacking in information to explain why they’re specifically showing up and their reasons for acting. For all intents and purpose Index relied on the appearance of key characters to carry the day and overcome the structural defects, but as any anime lover can tell you, it takes more than eye candy to make a show.
Besides character troubles the other noticeable issue plot—or rather the lack of it. Was there an underlying plot? Yes. Was the plot teased? Certainly. Did it all make sense and leave an urge to see more? Not really. Much like those random Stiyl and Amazon magician appearances Index didn’t do a good job at grounding many of this season’s arcs into the greater picture. Arcs like the underground group free for all may have their place in the overall story, but without some sort of explanation (no matter how minor or ambiguous) the we’re left wondering just what the hell is going on—and just in time for the show to move onto the next bit of science-magic chicanery. Again this setup was designed entirely for Index’s source readership and should ideally be judged on it alone, but that caveat doesn’t take away the frustration felt a lot of the time, particularly in this season’s latter half. If Index I and II could manage creating good, enjoyable, and narratively consistent anime, why couldn’t III do the same? It’s a question whose answer we will never know.
In the end however, Index is as Index does, and considering we were never guaranteed getting a sequel after all this time, it’s hard looking in the gift horse’s mouth for too long. While incredibly flawed and imperfect, there’s more than few who’ll be happy having Touma and friends back in anime form, and with this only the first of several new Index franchise works (Accelerator and Railgun being next up to bat), there’s plenty of time to right the ship going forward. Index III may not have been the Index we all wanted or desire (or one which will be looked back fondly upon), but as the first true opening salvo of this franchise’s return, I’d say it did the task of reintroducing Index to the world at large well enough indeed.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0169/6995/7440/products/E3538AS00_Transformers_Generations_War_for_Cybertron_Deluxe_WFC-S21_Ironhide_Figure_vehicle_package_2000x.jpg?v=1550070799
When Tokyo Ghoul aired:
people: An adaptation couln’t get more butchered than this.
Index: Hold my beer !
Maybe they rushed because they want to get started on New Testament? One can hope.
Given all the comments made about this season’s adaptation it’s the likely route IMO. The objective was likely to catch up to material “modern” enough to better hook current readers, but whether it does of course remains the question.
What a downer wife Agnese didn’t appear in this one
Angel-celator and new , softer version of Mugino are all I need to forgive Index s03 all its faults.
I’m usually pretty good at subconsciously putting the pieces together that rushed pacing isn’t an issue for me, and Index III wasn’t an exception. At least until WW3 started and the pedal went to the medal so hard I just gave up trying to comprehend who was doing what
Don’t worry you’re not the only one. I knew more or less what was going to happen and even I gave up trying to have it all make sense 12 episodes or so ago XD
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2026%20-%20Large%2042.jpg
Touma has a destiny with Lolis, not Onee-sans sadly.
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2026%20-%20Large%2002.jpg
Felt the wings could be animated better.
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2026%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
Can’t tell if Misaka was trying to fish for Touma. But at least she got keychain-chan
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2026%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
On the side note, while it is sensible to wear a helmet for protection, I don’t get wearing a suit in the middle of a war-zone. meh. I forgot who was under that helmet.
She is/was ITEM’s controller, the Academy City’s Dark Side Liason that gave them their orders.
This was, as so many things are, more obvious in the LNs. Though this is her first time showing up in person and they generally communicated via phone, her interactions with ITEM in the Battle Royale arc helped to hammer home a particular key phrase (“It’s always like this with you!”) that she would work into conversation so that ITEM would know that they were talking to her, and not another Dark Side faction trying to pose as her. And when lovely helmet-woman showed herself here, she made sure to use that same key phrase to ensure that the former members of ITEM (and by extension, we the readers) knew who we were dealing with.
Unfortunately, that little plot point was lost in the hatchet job that was the anime’s Battle Royale arc, so… *shrugs*
Also, the helmet’s probably more to hide her identity than for protection. While she fully intended to off Hamazura, she was going to take Mugino and Takitsubo back alive, so letting them see her face could have caused issues down the road…
yeah it was such a mess, i finished it because it was flashy enough…
But dam was i close to dropping it.
Now the wait for Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index begins! Hopefully its not too long as they have 22 light novels of material to get through.
Considering how the previous seasons went in terms of timing I imagine it’ll appear after Railgun III. The Index franchise always had a good sense for timing its various series.
You know,I may just have to read this volume again, because this season left a bitter taste.
Accelerator turns into an Angel, flies of to the floating island and then… WHAT HAPPENNED?
I thought he was going to do something, but his next scene he’s tied up to a bed. WTF!?
Indeed I thought that was quite odd. I’m just going to assume he deflected the big blast that was going to happen somehow.
https://randomc.net/image/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index/To%20Aru%20Majutsu%20no%20Index%20III%20-%2026%20-%2002.jpg
WTH Accelerator’s powers became white then wings of an angel, congrats he’s a Saint.
I Feel like with so many storylines to tie up I was missing the bigger picture or some important message, not being able see pass what’s obviously going on. Hamazura saving Takitsubo and Mugino coming to her senses, Touma telling Index of his amnesia, Last order lives to annoy Accelerator for another day.
Welcome to the world of made for light novel audiences haha
I feel like this season was always going be a train wreck, at least once there was this long of a wait. They needed to get to a significant milestone to make the wait worth it but that required plowing through nine novels. But at least Accelerator and Railgun won’t have this problem.
Railgun only has two completed arcs uncovered in anime form and one arc ongoing. I’d hate to see them fit Dream Ranker in Season 3 as it’d probably be a rush job.
This season was a downer for me in many respects. The torrid pace often meant that characters would just float by with a single line (or sometimes none). And I can’t say that I liked the art either. I barely recognized Kanzaki, for example. For the most part, the host of new characters didn’t get the care or attention that others did in the earlier series (e.g. Stiyl’s during his mission with Touma against Izzard, or when he was playing with Komoe-sensei during Daihasesai). Offhand, other than Hamazura, I’m not sure that any character got much attention in III. Maybe Accelerator but that’s it.
I definitely won’t be buying this season, which disappoints me.
Man, and I thought Persona 5: The Animation (Note: Finally watched the Stars and Ours OVA after putting it off for a while) had rushed pacing… Looks like this season of Index had that beat.
And I’m saying this as someone who heard that there were some pretty awesome scenes from the light novel arcs this season adapted. So I was looking forward to see those awesome (+ heartwarming/funny) scenes in animated form. But instead, Index III was one confusing clusterf**k that went by too quickly (requiring frequent trips to Wikis about the series just to get a better idea of what’s going on)–and makes Stars and Ours (or hell, Persona 5: The Animation in general) a decent adaptation by comparison.
For the anime-only watchers who felt like they were “hung out to dry” by this season of Index–I feel ya. In all honesty, the disappointing aftertaste of Index III will linger even if New Testament inevitably gets its anime adaptation.
And as mentioned by another comment above, J.C. Staff is itching to adapt New Testament into anime form, but was it really worth rushing through all the preceding content from the light novel just to get to the newest arc(s) sooner?
It came and went by. I was excited at first then… yeah. That was it.
I just hope Railgun 3 and Accelerator series fairs way better.