Preface: The adaption of the Accelerator anime is a great improvement over the adaption of the Index 3 material, whether it was through improved scheduling or having a manga to base the artwork on, JC Staff has made a notable improvement in its adaption. None the less this adapt suffers from different issues, despite being a good adapt of the source material the series itself cannot be good if the source material itself is weak. This review will expand on why the anime was fairly average, and what fans of the Toaru series can expect from it.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Story: 5

The story for Toaru Kagaku No Accelerator is largely a page by page faithful adapt of the source material with some extra flash backs, an anime only first episode, and skipping a few redundant scenes. This story takes place right after the head shot Accelerator experiences when trying to save Last Order in the original Index anime, in short it takes place fairly early in the timeline of the series during season 1 of index, and slightly after the events of the Sister’s Noise project in Railgun S. Accelerator is in the hospital still recovering and his head wound still bleeds if he moves around to quick, Last Order is taking care of him and he’s still his old edgy self. It is made clear in the first anime original episode that Accelerator is not at full capacity and is still prone to side effects of his headshot which will later on in the story explain why he keeps letting opponents get away or how he manages to get injured despite his ability. The story after the anime original episode is largely focused on several factions getting in Accelerators hair after he rescues a necromancer, Estelle, from pursuers because she may have a link to Last Order. The factions include one delusional siscon scientist and his imouto, a bunch of self-righteous comically stupid anti skill members who joined a cult, and some edgy teen girls who run an assassination squad. Most of the story is focused on him fighting these groups and making fun of them as he crushes them with relative ease.

Some issues are present in the story that make it worse and less enjoyable, the first reason is because Accelerator is far too overpowered for the actual story, he never has a challenge and sort of just pisses on every opponent he comes across in a very edgy way taunting them for how weak they comparatively are and then fucking with them for amusement. There are some stakes and serious moments, but they always involve side characters and the audience knows nothing bad will happen because Accelerator will protect Last Order for sure and that the fact that Index season 2 exists proves nothing bad will happen ahead of time. Now normally this could be done in a way that has entertainment value for example turning it into a comedic show where Accelerator is largely not caring about anything going on and turning the show into slice of life. However, sadly this is not possible because the show takes itself way to seriously despite the fact that the existence of the rest of Toaru in the continuity guarantees that no threat Accelerator faces in this spin off will ever harm him or his favorite loli.

Due to this the story is simply edgy, boring at times, has no real sense of tension for someone who actually follows the Toaru series, and is needlessly convoluted in explaining the final villain’s powers to somebody who has not seen the Toaru series. It is weak in exposition and as a thriller to both index fans and people new to the series alike so overall it cannot be said that this spin off has a good story.

Art: 6

Well the art isn’t bad at all and is significantly better than season 3 of Index in comparison, clearly JC staff actually scheduled things properly this time. The new character designs are amazing, last order and the Misaka clones look so rubbery and shiny and it is absurdly cute. The animation itself is a bit choppy and slow but that’s expected so it did not hurt the show to much as the backgrounds and character design made up for it.

However, there were 2 things that heavily lowered my score for the art this season, the first is fight choreography. This entire show was largely focused on action, so having low quality fights was a huge disappointment. The vast majority of the fights simply had Accelerator tank some attacks to show off and then 1 shot his opponents without any serious effort. The only fights where he had to expend some effort were full of bad, jarring and immersion breaking CGI that kept the viewer from actually focusing on the fight and instead looking in awe at how bad the special effects were. The second thing that hurt the art rating is the fact there were so many absurdly well animated shows this season, after seeing shows like Demon Slayer I cannot possibly even give the art score of Accelerator a 7, the standards for the industry have gone up and meanwhile JC staff is animating the Accelerator anime like its 2009.

The sound: 8

The opening was a hit and is something I will constantly replay as it is in a playlist of openings that are worth listening to, and the soundtrack is pretty intense and even compensated for the awful fight choreography and lack of tension at times. The index series has never had a bad soundtrack or opening, that is one thing that has never let me down.

Characters: 7

Accelerator is Accelerator and if you enjoy watching Accelerator you will enjoy the characters in this show as the show is largely focused on Accelerator. Outside of that, Last Order is as cute as ever, the Academy City students got some screen time with Uiharu and Saten, the side characters like Estelle and her corpse doll were fun to watch and misaka clones are always hilarious.

Some weaknesses however were the villains, all of them were idiots and quite cringey to watch, cant even blame JC Staff on the characterization here, the antagonists were also delusional idiots in the manga as well. Some cops with a completely detached from reality view on justice which was bordering on religious fanaticism, some edgy girls who really hated teachers, and a delusional siscon scientist made up the antagonists. It is clear that the author meant for them to be either throwaway characters or fodder for level 5 espers like the teenage girl assassination squad.

Enjoyment: 7

I actually did enjoy this spin off, and if you enjoy anything Toaru I think you won’t hate it either. There is much to be desired, that this anime lacks, but the additions to the world building and power systems of Toaru in the final 2 episodes, create more than enough reason to watch the anime for any fan of the series. I would not recommend watching this anime stand alone but with context from either the novels or the index anime. Overall I did have fun watching this anime and its worth checking out.

Overall: 7

I give this show a 7, it was fairly average and most of my list consists of 7 ratings as unless something is really bad I will not rate anime lower than this. It is worth a watch if you are a Toaru fan, and if you can overlook the flaws in the show. Despite all the flaws that were pointed out in this review, the show itself is enjoyable and a decent spin off for the Toaru series as a whole.