What is wrong with you, J.C. Staff? I’m aware that you love ruining absolutely everything in recent times. Why do you have to mess A Certain Magical Index up to this extent ? Why do you hate this planet and all of its denizens? Why couldn’t they have, uh, adapted the material, as opposed to translating it into animation?

This series had the potential as a cheesy sci-fi action series with cute little girls. Sort of like a loli-centric, much less badass version of GaoGaiGar with railguns subbed in for the mecha and in 2008. It turns out Index is actually a Nasu Kinoko me-too with all the quality exposition direction of Shana and the writing on par with my excrement. Touma turned from a likable lead to a tired cliche, the direction died, there’s no campy railgun-type humor, and this show has been borderline painful since episode four. Not only am I amazed how comically terrible episodes 4-6 were, it is equally incredible that a series with a character like Komoe has jumped the shark. Come on.

Now I can’t be this harsh on J.C. Staff in good faith. Currently, they are producing the decently entertaining and competent Toradora, worked on Potemayo, one of last year’s sleeper-hit surprises, and they have have a fine past as an above average animation studio for enough series I liked, but some of their (recent?) staff sure fails at direction and apparently series composition.

And I really wanted to like Index. Maybe there’s luck and we’ll get a followup adaptation of the Railgun spinoff comic, which is pretty amusing for what it is. With a different staff or studio. I’m feeling the same about Index itself, where another studio could have trimmed down most/all of the tedious and mood-killing exposition. Like SHAFT.