A Certain Magical Index

Why is this series not way more popular? It should at least be one of the most popular series in the whole anime-manga-light novel sphere. Seriously, I’m genuinely confused. It’s literally the One Piece of light novels, with a continually growing world. It has everything you want in an expansive action adventure series:

- entertaining, memorable characters whom readers can differentiate

- strategic battles with interesting powers and dynamics

- Great worldbuilding and world interaction that’s up there, maybe better, than One Piece and Hunter X Hunter

- solid writing. Great character writing with characters like Accelerator. Also, some nice plot writing. If the best action adventure or battle Shonen arcs are all A+, Sisters arc is at least A-, and that’s just one arc.

Seriously. What’s there not to like? Sure the writing can be “shoneny” at times, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it can work well a lot (see One Piece). And yea it can also be up and down quality wise, but that’s literally every long running manga. Greed island isn’t even in the same realm as Chimera Ant arc, but HXH still fills a baseline level of quality every arc. It’s the e same with Index. Is it the shit anime adaption? Do people just not read light novels? Is the mangas being monthly too long a wait?

I assume the series is popular in Japan, but why isn’t this bigger internationally?

Attached: DD387859-DD6E-4B49-A27E-5F9355F3F333.jpg (1120x1600, 267.48K)

The original TV anime wasn't that well made. Even the spinoff anime was more popular,and currently there were way too many new story to watch than a long running series
Pic related,a anime series that was by sunrise but they didn't continue it either

Attached: EO5KJnyX4AA2-hR.jpg (703x1000, 257.49K)

Americans only watch netflix anime, mappa, kyoani, vtubers and isekai
shit taste btw

The anime adaptation is trash and the series has lingered on way past relevancy.

Except it’s still relevant, just not in the west. It’s popular in the east, but it def could be more popular.

The only problem is the series plays way too much into haremy or ecchi content. I was convinced this belonged in the same category as High School Dxd at first

So what you’re saying is we need to reboot the anime?

Simple: it didn't hit it big in the Mexican market when it had its chance

A thread just died, faggot. Constant threads for a subpar at best, terrible at worst series is why it's not more popular.

What makes you think the series is subpar or garbage?

> threads on Any Forums are why series isn't more popular
I've heard some dumbshit in my time but this really takes the cake

This series would’ve been way more popular if the source material was a manga.

Not only are the anime adaption, (which are the starter for most of the western fanbase) trash, but it’s a long running light novel series. It’s much easier to get people to read manga then read a bunch of novels

Index is best girl, Last Order is second best.

>- entertaining, memorable characters whom readers can differentiate
Four characters among hundreds are actually memorable and the most memorable of those got shafted because the writer realizes that he no longer has the ability to write him well.
>- strategic battles with interesting powers and dynamics
Your head must be stuck up your ass, power negation is one of the least interesting abilities in fiction and anyone with an IQ above room temperature understands that most fights don't play out logically, bowing to plot armor at all times.
>- worldbuilding and world interaction
The worldbuilding makes less and less sense the more you consider it, and is not very original in the first place. It's the real world but ever dumber, with more autistic occult references than Fate but with even less rethinking those references.
>- solid writing. Great character writing with characters like Accelerator.
The only solid writing that the series ever had was with Accelerator. The writing quality goes through a few nosedives over time as the author is unable to follow through on the complexities he creates, eventually to the point of critical failure - the series breaking it's own thesis statement. This is reflected in the author suddenly throwing out all of his work and foreshadowing for Accelerator out the window and doing something mind-numbingly cliche with the character. Because the character has been a part of the ongoing story since the fifth volume, this undoes all the work of two 22 volume novel series to present the readers with pure trash.

Even you seem to understand that whoever's managing the franchise broke the main draw for viewers interested in more than mindless entertainment.

To be fair, even with that, it’s better than 90% of the Shit coming out. The idea of the Index series is better than the actual product, at least now more than ever. But even then, as just mindless entertainment it’s great. As anything more, it’s still better than most series.

>subpar or garbage
Pretty huge difference between those two. Probably why user distinguished them. Subpar = problems with the narrative upon reflection, but still enjoyable. Garbage = major problems with the narrative that cause it to become obviously bad and/or incoherent.
From those definitions, the current novel series GT is garbage and will always be garbage until it repairs what it broke to the point of usability. That repair is in how the author handles the character of Accelerator. Dancing around or avoiding the issue won't fix it, just like messing around with the AC in your apartment won't fix a broken water pipe.

I haven’t caught up compeltely, but I don’t care for spoilers. What’s the problem with Accelerator’s character?

>better than 90%
Please, for the love of god, expand your horizons beyond shonen jump and isekai. That simply isn't the case. The story is in the bottom 50% of current popular entertainment at best.
>as mindless entertainment it's still good
No, it isn't even doing that well, but that's a fine line. Generally one-offs like movies are better consumed as shlock than ongoing stories like TV shows.

I wanna start the series, but now you’re worrying me. The series is highly rated on both MyAnimeList and manga updates, and in other spaces on the internet. At worst, I see it’s a wasted potential or subpar series that’s entertaining. So either you’re over exaggerating the series problems , or the ratings are only due to the highly dedicated readers who are blind to the series negatives. But considering how much, I’d be surprised if it was just the blind hardcore fans.

>Is it the shit anime adaption? Do people just not read light novels? Is the mangas being monthly too long a wait?

A combination of a multitude of factors.

The anime is a major one. A LOT of people were waiting on particular material to be adapted in Season 3. The problem is that they:
1. Waited far too long to do so( over 5 years between S2 and S3) even though fans were clamouring for it.
2. Didn't give the production an adequate budget so they only had 2-cours to work with instead of the bare minimum of 3-cour (and ideal 4-cour). So pacing fucked and a lot of important scenes/fights/explanations were handled poorly. (Compare to the 4-cour SAO: Alicization)
3. Stuck with the same director as S1-S2 and movie so the direction was bland. (Maybe nothing they could do about this, but I dunno...)
4. Overloaded JC Staff with too many concurrent productions (they were also juggling One Punch Man S2) so there wasn't any good animation or consistency.

At that point enthusiasm was dead. At least Railgun T wasn't marred by any of these problems but it just re-enforced the previous incorrect notion of Index-bad, Railgun-good.

The other problem is the Index series itself. Its earlier volumes make it come across a s a generic harem series before it becomes something more unique; this is a huge turn-off. It's long, slow-moving and a roller-coaster in terms of quality from volume to volume. No ones going to get into such an old series anymore (started in 2004) without a really solid marketing vehicle (like a good anime) which it will forever lack. Even for me whose caught up, the story feels like it has come to halt for these past couple of years due to the slow release schedule for both the light novels and the Railgun manga. That's the major difference between it and series like One Piece.

I wouldn't say that I'm over-exaggerating at all. Haven't I made it clear that the problems with the franchise get worse over time, with the major problems being introduced recently? Anyone getting into the series should know what they're getting into. Just like you should be aware that a series might always be unfinished or a television show declines after the first two seasons. If you don't know that going in you're going to be more disappointed than if you did know it.
Ratings are always unreliable, but I'd say MAL and manga site ratings are the worst. There's no filter, so popular series are always rated highly no matter the quality.

its old and past its prime user.

The hilarious thing about this is that the series isn’t ending any time soon, I think it might hit 100 volumes. I wonder if the quality continues to tank or it just become quality rollercoaster on an arc to arc basis

I need a Kuroko GF

Attached: kuroko-bikini4.jpg (1133x1729, 1.54M)

>That's the major difference between it and series like One Piece.
One Piece also rewards it's long-time fans, even if it takes a while. See Crocodile getting a role in the future story because of his popularity. The current direction of Toaru as a franchise honestly feels like it's meant to spite most of long-time novel fans. Needless to say that making writing decisions out of spite will always be self-destructive before anything else.