The Fascinating World of Index/Railgun and Why You Should Watch It

why do you like index why are you hyped for index because here's my opinion I don't get it it's so it's it's not bad it's just really mediocre and that's my opinion in index this was me literally a month ago reaction to the new index season 3 trailer as I was streaming my impressions of the fall season charts see the whole index rail gun to arrow whatever you want to call it franchise has always been somewhat of a mystery for me from my perspective it always looked like your typical generic high school fantasy action light novel that has been done a million different times nowadays and any attempts to watch the anime did nothing to prove me otherwise yet it's the franchise I had one of those fan bases that were praised it to high heavens you know one of those rabid fan bases that seems nyeon obsessed would have franchise and would take any opportunity they had to spread the word of the holy gospel like they were recruiting for a new religious cult or something so after seven years of silence before new season getting announced seemingly out of nowhere I said you know what [ __ ] it I'm going to try to get to the bottom of why this franchise is so beloved by so many despite by my accounts it looking like a dated the mid-2000s generic light novel franchise that time should have left behind and through that journey I discovered a unique world that blends fantasy and science in a way I'd never seen before a grand narrative that fits the bill for a shared universe I had been searching for an anime for so long a power system so intriguing you tested my knowledge of my university education that's before I knew it something happened I became a fan [Music] index has become my newest obsession and sometimes there's nothing quite like the feeling of completely losing yourself in the franchise consuming every little thing it has to offer researching the intricacies of the world mechanics finding every little bit you can about the law and background and you do it because the deeper you go the more rewarding the experience becomes as a whole this franchise was exactly that for me so today I wanted to share some of the reasoning why I got so sucked in to the world of index now before I get started I wants to give a quick shout out to book Walker who are doing an index giveaway right now if you want to win some figures details are coming at the end of this video if you feel like having a dabble with the franchise because I understand that as big as index was in its heyday it's been seven years since its last anime adaptation so I'm sure there are many of you now who have not even heard of the franchise so here's a bit of background a certain magical index is a light novel series that started in 2004 and has since spawned the grand franchise Fault in multiple anime adaptations spin-offs in mangas and animes and lots and lots and lots of light novels many people are familiar with the franchise through its main line anime series a certain magical index in which we mainly follow a spiky haired protagonist Tomac Armijo on his adventures of fighting magicians picking up chicks and solving literally every problem by punching in the place but arguably equally as popular is its spin-off series a certain scientific railgun which focuses on The Adventures of Mikoto Misaka a powerful ESPO with the ability to control electricity shrug off teleporting lesbians and has basically peaked you as a tsundere anime girl from that brief description it may be hard to see the appeal of index because that's what it looks like from the outside and to say the franchise is a bit daunting is kind of an understatement at this point but for my personal experience through all the confusion about the sheer scope explanations about chronology you've read and watch order I never really saw anything to explain to me what the core appeal of Enix was and why it's a mass such a loyal fanbase so that's what I'm gonna try and do today and I think a good place to start instead of explaining specific plot details is to start explaining what index is as a concept [Music] in next session a world very reminiscent of the one we're in right now it said to both magic and science play a massive part in it you have the world of magic which has its roots and faiths and religion that can be traced back through various myths and legends and has shaped lots of the world's history through secret organizations and practices this is where you see a lot of the traditional fantasy elements with mages and magicians drawing their powers through spells and magic and it finds his basis through a lot of real-life law we can find in this world however you'll serve the world of science as the main setting is the modern sci-fi world of Academy City here you have a city that's advanced to be 30 years ahead technology wise to what we have today and it's full of people who have gained supernatural power through the practices of science and experimentation and while both these worlds are normally kept separate they are in conflict with each other both vying to be in the dominant power to shape the world of index which serves as the basis for the various stories told in the setting and it's really hard to get this perspective from the beginning this is where a lot of the confusion about what the franchise is about lies many people myself included were only really exposed through the plot synopsis of the opening arc something about a generic spiky haired boy who's right an of the power to cancel out any magical supernatural ability hashtag a weaking - no not November running into some lolly nun that has a load of magic books in her head who's getting chased by this mysterious magical organization with your usual trashy power fantasy stuff and while this is technically what happens it's not an accurate representation of the franchise at all despite his name index is not actually about index the lolly nan character nor is it really about Toma despite him getting most of the screen time a better way to describe this series from a broader perspective is that it's like a shared universe with many moving parts having more in common with things like Game of Thrones or the Marvel Cinematic Universe think of every story arc as a different movie in the MCU each arc is a self-contained story that has a new elemental cast of characters to the world whether they focus exclusively on the science side of things or the magic side of things and occasionally you gets bigger crossover events that involve every party where you get to see the normally separate carson elements come together because of this structure you can have multiple storylines running in parallel and sometimes you get to see the same events happen but from the different characters perspectives and while not every story arc is essential to follow along with the ground and narrative they all add something to the Canon of this shared universe so while all the different series stretched across multiple mediums may look confusing and daunting what it really means is that there are multiple ways to get into this franchise you can start with index or you can even start with railgun if you so please you can read the light novels for some arc and switch to the manga then switch to the anime or vice-versa it doesn't really matter how you choose to consume it because the universe that you'll take place in stays coherent the only difference is that law novels may go more in depth than the intricacies of the world and their systems this is why I has it's called railgun a spin-off because while technically the events aren't as important to the main narrative in the same way that for example black panther doesn't move forward the grander Infinity stones plotline of the MCU it's a great story and serves to give the viewer a better understanding of the characters and why they act the way they do in the main series in Nexus core appeal stems from this expanded universe and how extensively it blends in it's science fiction and fantasy elements in a coherent world I've made a video before expressing my desire to see some kind of shared universe and anime form and I didn't realize at the time how closely index fitted this bill because for all you can say about the characters and protagonists that make up the world as good or bad as the characters maybe they aren't individually what makes this franchise what it is they are on what drives as fan base to be as invested or obsessed as they are it's the world which is encompassed by setting Academy City Academy City is a weird beast to tackle because while it's technically just a backdrop for all these story arcs taking place I'd actually argue that it is the main character of the franchise because while Tomer may be the face and main protagonist of index early on as the world expands and more characters get introduced index becomes the story of Academy City itself it's the inhabitants of Academy City whose story lines we get to follow its Academy City that is a driving force for the grander conflict its Academy City which serves as the core thread that connects all the numerous plot lines together even if events aren't happening there it always exudes a constant presence and honestly seems like a really cool and unique place which unfortunately the anime doesn't always do justice with a simple betrayal or [ __ ] bad CG wind turbines everywhere because of the amounts of strange different happenings revolving around this city the series can take many forms and genres depending on the Arkin character were following sometimes it's a dark sci-fi involving horrific human experimentation sometimes it's a fantasy action exploring secret underground organizations sometimes it's a fluffy high school slice of life and sometimes it's all those things admittedly I found the story arcs that focus on science far more interesting than the ones that focus the magic but what made it all worth sticking through was when you were able to see all the various characters and plot lines converge some of my favorite moments were actually just seeing different characters from the various story arcs meeting for the first time in interacting with each other there was a few episodes in index season 2 that was purely dedicated to [ __ ] slice-of-life love involving all the cast members and it was honestly some of my favorite episodes the franchise rewards you for investing in the world as a whole with our elements you like you have elements she won't like you'll have characters that bore you and characters that you absolutely love which let's be honest is going to be accelerated because he's best boy it's the juxtaposition of all these different narrative elements you wouldn't normally see together put in one place that makes it so interesting you not only have majors and espers you have angels alchemists on the ground assassins you got modern military SWAT teams fighting magical nuns and what I like is how much they try to ground it in our world because every element no matter how ridiculous has a basis from our real world supernatural phenomenon that we may hear about here and there are given an explanation in index with the rules that structure that universe and that's why this setting works this attention to detail is something that's also mirrored in their power systems which is the one other big unique thing this franchise has to offer god damn I love the power system in this franchise well half of it anyway because most noteworthy is that there are two entirely different systems that work in parallel one for the magic side of things and one for the science side of things and both have been given a lot of care to ground it in with elements we can find in our own world the magic system was a bit more confusing for me but it makes sense in the law because they are meant to be supranational phenomena that cannot be explained or analysed via any sort of scientific means and reasoning so instead the basis of magic in the index universe comes from real-life mythology and law you can find historically from Christianity to Judaism to Norse and Egyptian mythology to Feng Shui it all finds its roots through stories towards reward history and religion to give an example was someone like Jesus in the index universe would have been a magic user however to me the standout power system comes from the science side of things and that's what I want to focus on because what makes this stand out so much is how grounded every ability is in real world science and physics which you know if something I appreciated heavily as someone who went to university to get a master's in electronic and electrical engineering I know this is a weird time to flex this but I paid tens of thousands of pounds for this piece of paper let's take me sakha for example in concept her ability is pretty simple she can control electricity nothing new here in the world of anime powers but it's not so much the ability itself but more so the logic behind its application has the simplest level she can shock people but thanks to my masters an electronic and electrical engineering I know that electricity has more applications than just this and so the sheep because if she can generate an electric current that means she can generate a magnetic force something you'd know if you learned the right hand rule which is what I did in my math is an electronic and electrical okay so I'll stop this now thanks for being able to create a magnetic force you can stick to metallic objects controlled a breed manipulates iron fans and vibrate at a fast enough frequency to make it a buzz saw let's go even further what else can you do with a combination of magnetic and electrical force well you get something called a Lorentz force and what can you do with a Lorentz force well you can make a [ __ ] railgun which is a real life weapon our modern military has been developing and if you couldn't guess that's why the series is called railgun the theory had so many layers to someone's ability and thus your combat strength doesn't necessarily come from raw power but it's also your understanding of science and physics and how best to apply your ability and this is something I found incredibly original and made the science fights that much more interesting but I think the one character that really encapsulates just how innovative these abilities can be while still grounding it in real-world physics its accelerator who has one of the most unique abilities I've seen in all of anime and no it's not his ability to laugh like a beatboxing hyena accelerators ability is vector transformation now for those you who didn't pay attention in maths and physics and school a vector is any quantity that has a magnitude and direction and a hook is allegedly explaining [ __ ] vectors in a video about anime pretty much every force you can think of can be broken down into vector components an accelerator can control the magnitude and direction and what that means is any attack no matter how big or powerful thrown at him he's able to control not only the direction but also the size of that attack read the right hits back at his opponent or anywhere that he pleases the application of this ability goes so far beyond that because so many things have a vector component he can start earthquakes by tapping his foot on the ground he can block incoming sounds he can control the wind he can manipulate blood flow he can accelerate any object just by poking at it if something has a direction he can control it and what you can do with this is only restricted by your knowledge of vectors now I'm sure you're thinking such an ability sounds ridiculously overpowered because it is so the limitations the author is given around disability I feel are just as smart because there isn't a limit to the size of the force he can manipulate or something but his limitations come in get this mathematical calculations that's right his kryptonite his [ __ ] vectors can be complex mathematical concepts to calculate and if you're going to apply these manipulations in the combat situation need to be able to calculate how to do it in real time this is exactly accelerators limitations he has an on-board computer to assist him with the calculations so if there's too much data to process or the computer's battery runs out that is his limit and what he can manipulate and in my honest opinion that's [ __ ] genius because it logically makes sense if such a ridiculous ability actually existed in this world which means if accelerators ever in a bind there's only one thing he can do in the face of overwhelming odds I'm left with only one option I'm gonna have to science the [ __ ] out of this of course understanding the theory behind these powers doesn't actually matter in the wider context but for pretty much anyone who comes from a scientific background it feels incredibly rewarding and it adds that extra layer to every fight scene which is something I found totally unique all right how many people have I lost with that last section is anyone still here engineers mathematicians physicists anyone else if you've made it this far all this sounds exactly like your cup of tea well this is the time when I start putting terms and conditions to everything I've said a lot of them there is one thing I've lost over to focus on the positive is an appeal of this franchise and that is just how goddamn hard it tries to put new people off from getting into it remember when I said I was put off by how generic and boring the beginning arc seemed to be well that still holds true and it can still definitely be applied to a lot of the early arcs in index the franchise came at a time when trashy harem bates high school fancied light novel adaptations hadn't already oversaturated the industry and going back through it now it has really really not aged well early index embodies almost all of the Yogi's tropes character archetypes and cliches we have gotten bored off since this and they should release and it ends up coming across as a run of the mill was shown in action show considering how much of it revolves around Toma he's just not a very interesting character and only gets development further down in the light novel not only that but his ability to cancel out other abilities it's just so [ __ ] boring compared to everything else I've talked about in the franchise's power systems it's not bad per se it's just extremely generic and this is what makes it a really hard sell I would like to say that you can easily power through it and quickly get to the good stuff and while there are definitely some highs I'm going to touch upon there is a lot of [ __ ] to wade through entire seasons worth of episodes mind you which in today's standards of short hard-hitting 12-episode anime series is probably gonna put off about 90% of you but this is exactly why there's no such thing as a casual fan of the franchise only those who've been willing to trudge through all the mediocrity are rewarded with everything the world can offer and if you're willing to do that that probably means these elements I've talked about are something that appeal very strongly to you as was the case for me the good thing to know is that while index season one was mostly world building and season two was a lot of build up to a climax there was only just teased that by the end those who have stuck with it are finally getting to see a lot of the payoff that is being adapted in season 3 that's airing right now and if you continue reading the light novel it only gets better and there's so much of it to lose yourself in plus with a new season of railgun and accelerator just being announced there is no better time to get into this franchise so after all this there is one question left how do you get into index index season 1 then railgun then rail s then index season - that's the short version however that's a lot of episodes and a big commitment if you're still on the fence and quite frankly if I had attempted that I would have never gotten past the first season of index so I wanted to share this streamlined method I use that made me decide whether I wanted to fully dive into the franchise now I consumed it across different mediums so if you don't want to do that I will put the corresponding army episodes manga or light novel volumes on-screen if you just want to stick to one this is Gygax guide to speedrunning in this I starts off by reading the first index arc via volume one of the index light novel then I read the first arc in railgun via volumes one two three of the railgun manga then I watched the anime railgun s which is basically what sold me on the franchise I managed to achieve this in a day so it didn't take too much time and the reason I chose to do this was I could quickly get an introduction to the magic world and also the science world while being able to quickly go to one of the early highlights that not only ties in a lot of the main protagonists but is also a great [ __ ] standalone story in its own right in its best adaptation in railgun s like I said you can get this to the franchise whoever you want this is just my method cuz I'm an impatient prick or so this might be a good time to mention that all the light novels and manga are available via book Walker if you want to try this method out hashtag coupon code gig out for five dollars off this is mode out - very daunting and quite frankly hard franchise to get into and will definitely not be for everyone but getting into this franchise its world and characters have given me a completely unique experience in the 15 or so years I've been an anime fan and that is not an easy feat to do anymore if this seems like something way too heavy to get into that's completely understandable if you just want something more quick and casual there are many many other shows you can get into but if the specific aspects I just talked about sound exactly like something you would appreciate and you just want to lose yourself in a franchise [ __ ] do it man become one of us because I can see why this franchise joins the ranks of things like jojo's Montague Archer again fate for having this really dedicated fanbase that never shuts up about it because there really is nothing else like it hey guys I hope you enjoyed me essentially just gushing over index for almost 20 minutes I do want to give a quick shout out to Brooke wall right now who has the index light novels railgun an accelerator manga if you want to try it out they're actually doing a giveaway right now we can win an index figure a Misaka figure or a signed board by just downloading a free sample of the index light novel before November 30th plus at the moment is 20% off or the railgun and accelerator manga and you can use coupon code Giga for another $5 off I saw the pretty good deal in my opinion so get on that before November 30th I'll include a link below with the details so remember to use coupon code Giga for $5 off any purchase you make because if you want to get into the franchise there's not a better time than now anyway that's all I wanted to say I've been gig ugh and I'll see you all next time

Channel: Gigguk

Views: 1,502,884

Keywords: Anime Zone, Gigguk, Top Anime, OP, ED, A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun, Accelerator, Accelerator Anime, Index Anime, Railgun Anime, Index Season 3, Index OP, Index ED, Railgun OP, Railgun ED, Toaru Series, Toaru Explained, Index Explained, Index Timeline

Id: YTJKfvZmDUM

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 16 2018