And finally, finally, I will finally air my thoughts on a certain franchise and no, I will not use the "well known" Japanese name because fuck that, I'm going with the English Title:
A Certain Magical Index.
For plenty of members in this forum, it's their shit, it's what helps them wake up in the morning or something to occupy their time. For some, it's probably equivalent to their drug. For plenty of others, they hate the mere mention of the name for many reasons. And few of them just wants dudes to not only stop talking about that but another certain franchise too(The person know who he is but I won't name drop you).
For me? I have said alot of things about the franchise but I only ever said it to placate others or just to piss others off, I never truly stated my actual thoughts on To Aru and I'll be frank, I never have... until now anyway.
I'll be completely honest with my take here: I actually enjoyed... the first season... and everything after that just vanishes because the author completely fucking lost me and my interests awhile ago since.
I have put in some of my genuine thoughts of the past but basically, I think the franchise was best when it ultimately didn't go up in it's own ass when it came to the powerlevel nonsense. Character Abilities actually was backed by real life science to some decent degrees and have obvious real life weaknesses, Stiyl looking fucking dope and too bad he barely matters in the franchise, Touma's Imaginary Breaker had strengths and weaknesses and wasn't the end all-be all of every single fight and even when it came to the Invisible Thing, it was still decently mysterious and could have lead into anything...
And then you basically had Accelerator turn into a Angel, powers make no sense, characters destroying "Countless Phases" like bubble wrap and somehow a weapon that is only there to basically increase their probability chances of it not backfiring on them... which is somehow not the problem for the apparent beings stronger than her even if they...
sigh infinitely divide themselves.
I remember having people even tell me I would enjoy this series if I enjoyed the Nasuverse consistently but honestly, I don't see how they are even comparable. I remember reading a simple passage in the actual Light Novel and it threw me for a loop because even then, Kamachi basically throws nonsense at you openly and just hopes you will accept it and he will explain it later on:
The Calculate Fortress is inaccessible to anyone without a level 4 teleport ability.
It was a windowless room.
There were no doors, stairs, lifts, or corridors. As a part of the building, the room had no functionality. There was no way to enter the building except via a Level 4 esper’s teleportation ability. It could have been said to be the most impenetrable stronghold.
I know this because I fully remember asking
@Cryso Agori when will the difference between a Level 3 Esper's Teleportation Ability and a Level 4 Esper's Teleportation Ability be stated because it ultimately feels so needless and a perfect summation of my issues with Kamachi's writing on the spot:
Unlike Nasu, whose biggest crime is that he tends to use archaic Japanese terms for his ultimately extremely simple takes, Kamachi tends to basically throw needless complications in an effect to make his world be more advanced than it is. Even if we have met a Teleportation Esper before this, you would have to sit down and basically explain the difference so that readers aren't immediately be confused on that alone(Because what IS the difference? This isn't like Mugino and Misaka, this is basically the exact same ability just on a "Higher level" like Fire vs. Fira.
And the more we get stuff like this, the more I realize that Kamachi loves to basically throw around shit that he loves but he doesn't know how to package it to readers in a way that it actually makes sense(As I and others have stated countless times, why go with "infinitely divide" when all it looks like anyway is that they know how to control their power levels? Like every other franchise does? Or hell, just have them use weaker spare bodies? Trying to tag it further with "Magic Gods make no sense" just causes more headaches rather than show how "alien" there are because at the end of the day, they are about as alien as a dude dressed up for Halloween.
I do not hate To Aru on a fundamental level, I don't like debating it because I feel like not fully understanding even a bit of it is ripe to basically cause people to find it extremely hard to believe anything that is brought into it because Kamachi just makes it that difficult. I just don't like To Aru because I feel Kamachi had it right, shit got the better of him and now, he's just doing shit because fuck it! World War III featuring the Holy Church, Britain and Wizards? Should be CRAZY AWESOME, instead it's all up in it's own ass? True Gremlin? Ah yeah, we are going to get some really messed up eld- and it's all people in Halloween costumes... they can't even look godly, let alone eldritch.
Now it's literally Dante's Inferno time and I legit want to know:
Where the fuck is the story even? Like I thought it was a joke that Kamachi is stretching it to be the longest running LN but at this point, it's not anymore. What the fuck? So yeah, that's my thoughts on A Certain Magical Index as a whole:
It was fine for one season, should have STAYED the way it was and the instant it decided it was suddenly like Dragonball, it lost me completely. Reading the LN would do nothing because when you have shit like "Aliester Crowley can somehow force an imagination in you and somehow make it affect you and you blow up with the force of x10 Big Bangs that only affect you", it basically becomes hogwash as fuck. It just comes off as "My Unga is Stronger than you Bunga" the franchise.