Quartz 4

The Controversial Popularity of Misaka Mikoto

12 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndp6wQdZI1U&t
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1RH4y127tZ/

The Controversial Popularity of Misaka Mikoto

Misa Mikoto is by far the most popular character in the entire toaru franchise.

but with such a claim comes criticism.

how did Misa become more popular than even the main character of the series.

is it outrageous and unfair and why do some toaru fans despise her and remember I’m only pointing out what others have said about misa’s character. So please don’t get butthurt thinking, I believe everything I say.

Misaka was an instant success in her debut as an adorable Tsundere in A Certain Magical Index, while also having a sadistic tendency to violently electrocute the main character, when embarrassed.

I guess Tomo must be a self-insert for all the masochists watching

https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/xj8qnn/what_makes_a_character_a_selfinsert/

something that is put inside sth else, or added to sth else 插入物；添加物
These inserts fit inside any style of shoe.
这些鞋垫适合任何式样的鞋。

turns out when you turn Pikachu and an advanced military weapon into an anime girl you’ve hit a gold mine for such creativity, as Misaka became the most popular character in the entire franchise which is a hell of an achievement considering this series probably has more character characters than the big three combined.

= hell of a
Extremely (used for emphasis)
I was hella mad

Link to original

while her character design was simplistic, Misaka still stood out thanks to her Dynamic personality of being cocky as hell, and having a strange obsession with frogs, which even puts Alex Jones to shame.

while being generic animation Tsundere girl 1000, but with a superpower isn’t reinventing the wheel.

she still had her own merits to make one of the most overused trope in anime a lot more refreshing and the fact that anime fans in the early 2000s couldn’t give a shit.

Misaka’s character was vastly expanded on with the sister’s Arc,

expand on/upon sth
to say more about sth and add some details 详述；充分叙述；详细阐明
Could you expand on that point, please?
请你把那一点详细说明一下好吗？

where thousands of identical clones of her were massacred in Cold Blood thanks to a non-binary anorexic albino kid resulting in severe PTSD which puts Vietnam vets to shame.

the story went deep into misaka’s Soul about how she felt guilty for feeling responsible for the deaths of her clone sisters and feeling like the only solution to ending the nightmare would be to die at accelerator’s hands.

That is until her hero, Toma, stepped in, who was
electrocuted harder than an inmate on death row but still had enough strength to smack the living1 shit out of accelerator due to solving a seemingly hopeless situation.

this only cemented misaka’s feelings for Toma as popularity for their ship went berserk. the author
of toaru kamachi Kaza thought about giving misaka’s teleporting lesbian sidekick her own spin-off manga but the editors objected, making Misaka the star instead.

speaking of Kuroko, if you like a vid on why she is arguably the most divisive character in the series, then make sure you subscribe to the channel

so you don’t miss out

Misaka’s spin-off turned out to be the right decision as a certain scientific railgun was a huge hit, and absolutely cemented her as not only the most popular character in the series but arguably the most popular girl in light novel history, at least in Japan way more fans simp for Asuna and Rem in the west and to the average anime fan, Misaka is lowkey underrated

but she’s pretty much used as the poster girl for

the entire franchise, as her face appears on nearly every piece of advertising

even if Misa has a minor2 role in the actual series or game they’re promoting

Look at his promo art of index 3 Misaka Hardly appears and yet the new MC on the Block Hamazura has been shafted for the fucking waifu bait。

this is the exact same shit Finn had to deal with in China.

no doubt, all this attention on Misaka has influenced some Toaru fans into thinking lesser appreciated characters deserve more attention and time in the
spotlight, but hey Biri Biri makes bank,

and has likely funded the index novels to continue to the End of Time.

the franchise does have a huge cast of Amazing characters with multiple Dimensions to them

that definitely do deserve more love,

as the index anime pretty much butchered them.

so from a purely marketing standpoint it makes perfect sense why misaka’s face can be

seen everywhere, because she’s got 10,000 clones of course. but due to the huge Mass Appeal of Misaka, just like any other popular character or series, it makes her more prone to be targeted for criticism, which involves her antis3 furiously

typing ‘Midsaka Midkoto’ from their basements. while Misa does have a quirky and engaging demeanor, she does have a bratty side and she can make veryquestionable decisions at times, which can be annoying for some fans.

obviously

it’s just a gag, when she tries to hurt Toma After getting embarrassed, like when she shocks him with 1-billion-volt lightning, fires a railgun at him, traveling at three times a speed of sound and goes chainsaw man mode with her iron sand sword

okay okay it’s a little excessive.

I mean one slight misstep from Tomah here and Misaka has just violently murdered her crush.

an intense and usually passing infatuation
have a crush on someone
also : the object of infatuation

all right forget it.

get your ass in jail

it is not even common to only Misaka in the series who hurts or tries to hurt Toma as a gag.

since index loves to repeatedly vore4 Toma’s spiky head when pissed off. most fans are nevertheless willing to look past Misaka tormenting Toma,

 To ignore, disregard, or forgive something; to overlook something.
 We’re willing to look past the incident this time, seeing as it was your first offense, but any future transgressions will result in an immediate termination from the company.
 What she said was insulting, but she apologized, so I’m going to look past it.

even if it only adds to his Never-Ending Misfortune. one thing about Misaka that irks everyone know is that her Tsundere nature not only makes her abusive but also

makes her physically unable to confess her feelings and it’s been nearly 20 years

of course, Tuma is too busy saving the world from Angel, gods and demons every day to have time for that shit anyway

the point is that Toma and misaka’s

relationship has felt stagnant at times,

meaning many hardcore Mikotoma shippers have already lost their minds, that their OTP (One True Pair) isn’t canon

honestly if Toma hooks up with index or misaki the copium5 Meltdown online is going to be so glorious,
like any other community on the internet

sometimes the fans are way worse than what they talk talk about and obsess over online which then in result makes the thing they love hated by the people outside their circlejerk

there’s a reason why a lot of people don’t like

Dragon Ball or Naruto, or whatever,

because the fans can be insufferable.

like I don’t want to generalize all Misaka fans I’m just saying this is one of the reasons why she’s hated by people in the community, as it can be quite divided in the Toaru fandom, as some Misaka fans can be so obsessed with her character that they will shit-talk the other characters in the series and act like she’s the only good thing about the entire franchise, which is crazy to me.

like I understand I get people have waifus

it’s kind of sad, not going to lie, if you’re an adult but come on this is bullshit

sadly this will always exist online

where people compare other characters to each other and there is no such thing as people getting along in harmony

so I feel both parties are in the wrong here

Misaka as a character shouldn’t be hated on, simply because some of her fans need to touch grass and if Misaka is your favorite toaru character and you love

her and no one else

that’s fine

keep it to yourself and don’t be toxic to the others who don’t like her as much as you

and appreciate the other aspects of the series

in index Misa does have a lesser role compared to when she’s kicking ass as the title character in Rail gun

haters of Misa probably claim that she’s stalker, considering she followed him all the way to Russia and England from Academy City in Japan

godamn

time to get a restraining order

well no doubt she does this, because she just cares for him that much. aargh, as you can imagine fans who don’t like this ship will find it very easy to criticize

‘teenage anime girl has feelings? ’

‘fuck your feelings’

‘I only deal with facts and logic’

while Misaka’s appearances in index were often sporadic scenes of minor importance

after the sister Arc she did start to appear a lot
more in the sequel light novel series of index, alongside her bitter rival Shokuho Misaki.

as I mentioned in my misaki video, some readers would have complaints about how they felt forced into being in story arcs with the presence of the duo

either having no impact on the plot, or were a distraction from it.

misaka’s character, though, did have some impactful
dramatic moments however, such as her reverse Talk No Jutsu against Toma in NT 10, and her Sasuke Uchiha-esque power-hunger face in NT15, the
latter of which only lasted for one volume.

even I was disappointed that this character Arc didn’t get expanded upon, but ah well

there’s still a chance in GT(Genesis testament)… right?

of course misaka shines more in railgun

since she has way more shit to do as a strong independent female protagonist,

who don’t need no man(apart from the times Toma saves her ass to steal the glory.)

typical

regardless

in her own Manga she isn’t overly fixed on Toma 24/7,

if you fix your eyes or your attention on someone or something, you look straight at them and at nothing else
She fixed her gaze on Jeff.
I kept my eyes fixed on the horizon.

which definitely benefits their relationship when they do share scenes

to be useful to sb or improve their life in some way
We should spend the money on something that will benefit everyone.

While Misa is often more well-received generally in railgun than in index, nothing is truly perfect.

the railgun manga in recent times has sparked debate, as the current Arc basically gave Misaka the solo: Star Wars story treatment, by giving her unique different quirks,

origin stories that they really didn’t need

ever wonder why misaka loves kicking vending machines cuz she copied it from this girl and guess what

she also happens to love frogs

ever wonder how Misaka first discovered how to use the railgun or the time when she first met shokoho et cetera, etc….

not to mention misaka doesn’t even appear much in this Arc, with it focusing on a lot of new characters you won’t remember and shokuho’s gang

while there does seem to be an actual plan for this Arc according to the editor, and the story starting to gather Pace

I guess we will have to wait and see if this backstory was worth telling to begin with.

I think some fans are just hella salty that misaka gets shoved in their faces way often than what they want.

to put sth somewhere roughly or carelessly 
She shoved the book into her bag and hurried off.她把书胡乱塞进包里就急急忙忙走了。He came over and shoved a piece of paper into my hand.他走过来往我手里塞了一张纸条。Shove your suitcase under the bed.把你的手提箱塞到床底下吧。

but

it’s undeniable, she deserves credit for making the franchise as huge as it is today, and providing me with the opportunity of a lifetime to disappoint
my parents by talking about Toaru on the internet all day

I see this as an absolute win

whether Misa deserves her popularity or not

it isn’t even important

what matters is that she’s still relevant to this day

well kind of also check out these videos right now on screen if you want to watch more epic toaru content.

Footnotes

  1. VERY —used as an intensive: scared the living daylights out of me 吓死我了 ↩

  2. not very important or valuable ↩

  3. A person opposed to a particular policy, activity, or idea. ↩

  4. Vorarephilia ↩

  5. Copium是最近的热词、表情，是Cope和Opium的组合词，类似Mald=Mad+Bald=气秃，copium并不存在，是一种能让你应付(Cope)心理创伤/负面情绪的气体，吸入它能让你好受一点（并不） 实际上这只是暂时的麻痹自己，不能真的改变心理状态，就像Opium鸦片一样 ↩

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