“A Certain Magical Index” can be Confusing and Why that’s Okay
[Written April 25th, 2019]
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Yesterday, I finished Season 3 of Index, and thus, have seen the entirety of A Certain Magical Index! Naturally, the sequel books "New Testament: A Certain Magical Index" will likely be adapted later, but this closes out the story of the original Index, and the story of the Right Seat of God saga that began halfway through Season 2. Overall, season 3 was a packed season, with new events and occurrences happening one after another, and while I personally really enjoyed the thrilling and sometimes confusing ride, I'm sad to see the poor response other fans have given the series. And I think a lot of the complaints stem from one general feeling many fans probably felt: "What is going on?" It's an understandable response, and even I had that feeling during a few points while watching as well. But I think a lot of fans have gone overboard in reacting negatively about the series just because they're confused. Also, I've found myself thinking a lot about why people have felt that way, especially about this season in particular, so I think I want to analyze that just a bit, which is what I'll do in this post. So I'll get this out of the way first: Index is complicated. I don't mean Season 3 specifically when I say this, I mean in general. From the very beginning, Index was always a series that had aspects that were hard to follow. Even the Deep Blood arc in Season 1 probably confused a lot of viewers. "How did Aureolus just make stuff happen by saying it? How did a whole car just appear and fall on Touma because he said so? Why did making him doubt himself cause his defeat so easily?" I'm sure several viewers probably asked these questions when watching episodes 8 and 9 of Index1. And this is because one of the core running themes of Index is exactly that: "There is a villain using nonsensical magic who must be defeated by the hero." So why is it that Index's confusing elements were generally overlooked or accepted until now? I think I know why: It's because of Touma Kamijou. Touma Kamijou is the main protagonist, and the center of many events occurring within the series. He's really just an ordinary high schooler, who lost his memories after saving a girl, and is doing his best to protect her. He and his ideals are easy to understand, and when the action is focused around him, it doesn't matter what kind of nonsensical magic is being used by the enemy, or what kind of crazy plot is happening, as long as Touma comes along with his idealistic speeches, punches the villain in the face, and saves the day. This formula surrounding Touma is why the Academy City saga (which lasted from Season 1 through to the first half of Season 2) was able to work so well as an anime, because outside of two short detours into the POV's of Accelerator in the Three Stories arc and Kuroko in the Tree Diagram Remnant arc, Touma was always there in the middle of the story to keep the viewers grounded and make the objective "clear enough" with his viewpoint as a protagonist. And that's why the Daihasei Festival arc's finale, which ends the Academy City saga, is so powerful. Because that story was the first time that Touma's efforts weren't able to subdue the villain, and he actually would have failed, had the city's fireworks festival not blocked the constellations and rendered the Croce de Pietro useless. That story made the ordinary residents of Academy City into the heroes. And that also marks the series' shift towards people other than Touma Kamijou being allowed to be the hero, which is a theme that the Right Seat of God saga held very close, and was in full effect during the content covered by Season 3. This began in earnest during the Academy City Invasion arc, when Accelerator’s arc of redemption as a dark hero began, and then ramped up even further with the introduction of Shiage Hamazura in the final episode of Season 2, and the start of his story as a member of ITEM in Season 3’s Dark Side of Academy City arc. The Invasion arc and Hamazura’s introduction at the end of Season 2 I believe were well-received because they weren’t too far of a stretch from the usual established Index content thus far (even though introducing Hamazura may have felt like a weird last-minute detour to some), but regardless they were all setups for the kind of stuff we’d be seeing in Season 3, which covered the remainder of the Right Seat of God story. The core idea is there, which I believe is the root of the issues a lot of people may have had with Season 3: This story isn’t just about Touma anymore. Everyone who watched Season 3 probably realized that Touma didn’t appear nearly as much as he had before in the earlier seasons. There are two entire arcs in Season 3 that don’t feature him at all, and another where he’s incapacitated for the majority of what’s happening. Viewers now have to take in and digest the worldview of A Certain Magical Index at face value, without having Touma’s viewpoint there to ground them. All during a season that has to remain at a fast pace in order to cover all the key plot points within 26 episodes. Suddenly, a complex story that could once be enjoyed as a story about “That hero kid punching evil wizards in the face” became a big complex web of insane plot points coming into various conflicts one after another, without any hero kid coming along and simplifying what was going on. Season 3 started simple enough, shipping Touma off to France to resolve a conflict about a magical piece of paper, but then we jump over to what Accelerator and Hamazura are doing in a big uprising of Academy City’s various underground organizations (most of which are being introduced for the first time) trying to rebel against the city’s leaders, all for their own unique, complicated goals. And then when we finally get back to Touma, he gets K.O.’d and the other characters have to show of their abilities and motivations on their own without having to simplify it for Touma. Then when Touma recovers he gets sent to England in the middle of a complicated political coup d’etat. Then we jump back to more stuff with Accelerator and Hamazura, and then suddenly World War III is happening and we have to follow all 3 protagonists simultaneously in the middle of a war in Russia. It’s a ton of back-and-forth information and scattered plot points to keep track of for one story, and because we’re following three different protagonists now, not everything is cleanly connected. The story becomes very packed, and Touma, our one link that usually serves to dumb down what’s happening for us viewers, either isn’t there, or is too busy running forward to save the day that it’s easy to miss why he’s even doing what he is. That was a very quick rundown of Index Season 3’s content and how it can come across, but I don’t believe any of that makes the story “bad”. And the reason I say this is because this is a show that requires the viewer to think and pay attention to everything in order to understand what’s happening. Basically, it’s a series that works very well as something to rewatch. Before season 3 aired, I rewatched the entirety of Seasons 1 and 2 beforehand, and I was very surprised by one thing: I was enjoying the series even more than the first time I watched it. At first I didn’t understand entirely why I was enjoying it more, but then when thinking about Season 3, it hit me. Since I already knew what was going to happen in Seasons 1 and 2, I didn’t need to rely on Touma’s presence to enjoy the show. I was able to take in a lot more of the complicated magic/science explanations and enjoy the worldbuilding going on in the show surrounding Touma’s heroic feats. When I watched Season 3, even if everything was being explained, it was all complex information going by so fast, and I was too busy trying to keep up with the story to be able to digest the detailed information for everything going on. I can imagine that if I were to rewatch Season 3, much like the first two seasons, I’d enjoy it even more since I’d be able to digest the information more easily, now that I already know what happens. These traits I feel make Index a very complex show, but NOT a “bad” show. And that’s where the fandom at large comes in. I think a lot of people went into Season 3 expecting to be able to just watch and understand what was going on at face value, but Index is not a series designed this way. To begin with, Index originated as a novel series, and I think these traits are a direct result of that. Novels can get away with long complicated explanations on how things work; the entire story is depicted only in words after all. Readers need only read and digest what they just read. Anime, a visual medium, is different. It’s always running ahead, you need to pay attention to everything. If something was confusing, you can’t stop and re-read it, you’re already on the next scene and trying to understand that. Index, and the core traits of what make Index’s story work, are dependent on hard analysis of the text for the reader to understand what they’re reading and picture what’s happening in their mind through those words. Anime has no such luxury. You’re given a story placed in front of you, and it just runs forward: characters say things, stuff happens on screen, and you’re on to the next scene. When reading something, you can analyze text and follow a story at the same time. When watching something, you can only try your best to follow what’s happening in front of you, and then try and analyze it later if you feel like it. That’s the fundamental difference between reading Index and watching Index. And there are fans that don’t look that deeply, and only complain. If it’s an anime-only guy “It’s confusing!”, and if it’s a novel reader “It’s butchered, they messed up ___ scene!” because it wasn’t the same experience as reading the book. This is the source of those complaints. And then there’s someone like me. Who loves this series, and doesn’t care if can be confusing or feel rushed, because it just means I have more to look forward to next time I rewatch it. While I don’t want to be that guy who puts his opinion above those of others, I do think the way I view it has allowed me to get the most out of the series (at least as a primarily anime-only fan of it), and I think it’s a shame more people don’t view it that way... Anyway, this post ended up becoming quite long, so I think I’ll end it here. Overall, I really did enjoy Index season 3, and I’m happy to have the whole original series animated now. It’s a fantastic 74 episodes that I think I’ll continue to enjoy watching several times over the years. Here’s hoping I’ll see you all again in “New Testament: A Certain Magical index” someday! [Back]
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