both will exhaust you cause of how fast they move through the story, but like this one doesn't have 4 different protagonists all doing their own thing in separate areas of the story. also this one does have a good ending and doesn't have the annoying touma. so it's better, I would say atleast the rating is somewhat accurate to how I feel, index 3 was not that
SpinStudios said: Just gonna start it right now, i really hated index 3 so is this season the same disaster ? Just worse than season 1 and 2 or really that bad?
IMO, S 1 and 2 is p good, comparing to index series s1 and 2, i think its preference difference
but s3 of Shana is p bad, though the edit and the fight scenes is p good
it irritates me that neither yuuji or the god tried to explain what they were doing up until near the end
s3 of index is just chaos, its all over the place
i couldnt believe that was index series where s1 was that good
Season 3 is easily the best season and best adaptation of the novels, it just suffers from problems caused by the first two seasons' poor adaptation or parts of the novels not being adapted prior.
*Bal Masque were made to be Team Rocket-esque doing random stuff, when their goal was always to free Snake of the Festival. Both seasons' final arcs and Fumina Konoe stuff are all anime original.
*No foreshadowing and development of Yuuji's character to lead up to. His traits of pragmatism removed.
*The whole thing with Yuuji's disappearance at the start is impossible without Zarovee/Bifrons/Sabrac attacking on Christmas Eve, which was pushed forward in season 2. Yuuji disappears in the exact same way Sabrac managed to survive the fight, which Season 2 never explained. The whole reason Sabrac fought them was to make Yuuji's disappearance possible.
It also has far better color direction, where most people have their correct flame color. And far less things that are canon-breakingly silly.
Season 3 had only 24 episodes to tell its own story while amending missing information from the first two seasons. Three instances from the top of my head where it did this:
*Yuuji's conversation with Snake of the Festival in episode 1, should have been in the first season.
*The flashback between Shana and Merihim, obviously should've been in the first season.
*Khamsin telling Yoshida about his past, first season.
The arguments used against Season 3 are usually ones in which the viewer didn't understand the setting properly.
>Why don't Yuuji and Shana just talk, would stop the fighting.
No, the war was already effectively started by Sydonay attacking Outlaws, which even Season 2 showed him doing. Shana is not the leader of the Flame Haze, and ultimately Yuuji isn't the leader either. Also quite naive to think this would happen when the two sides have been fighting for millennia.
>Why are the Flame Haze trying to prevent Xanadu? The Denizens will just leave and problem solved.
They aren't trying to prevent Xanadu from being made after they are routed in episode 15. The consumption of humans can still happen in Xanadu and will lead to a Great Calamity befalling all worlds due to the distortions created, that's why they needed to add a law preventing human consumption. In the end, the Denizens agreed to such a law, which meant Snake agreed to putting this limit on the paradise. But most of all, they have no idea how Snake was going to make Xanadu, which would need an enormous amount of Power of Existence to create. Luckily he created it in a relatively safe way using the Reiji Maigo altered by Dantalion.
>Why don't Denizens just stop eating humans? (the silliest question)
They need to consume Power of Existence to sustain themselves.
>Why don't Snake/Yuuji just explain themselves?
They did explain in episode 14 to the extent that it wouldn't jeopardize their plans. Snake had also once tried to open up to the Flame Haze and they cast him into the rift between worlds, so understandably he wouldn't be keen to do so so easily.
>Why did most of Bal Masque attack the Flame Haze and leave Seireiden open?
Before the war, Wilhelmina and Alastor are the only people who know that Seireiden and Tendokyu are linked.
>Snake came out of nowhere, No mention of him prior
Blame the first two seasons. Season 1 should have mentioned that he created the Crystal Altar and that Bal Masque had a leader. Who do you think Hecate is always praying to?
>What was the point of the war? The situation is not better than before?
It is better, the situation with Xanadu and the added law is much better than the mechanism of "Flame Haze destroying Denizens", as the latter is just slowing the inevitable Great Calamity, while with the former, the Great Calamity won't happen because no distortions are being created because humans aren't being devoured.
>Yuuji was redeemed too easily!
The outcome of his actions was overall positive for the future worlds' prosperity, pretty much ending any chance of the Great Calamity happening, and he restored Misaki to a pre-Friagne state, but nevertheless it's not like he's living it up in Xanadu and in his own mind he is not redeemed until there is coexistence. He's doing what he said he would do in the last episode, just Shana is with him. Epilogue short stories taking place in Xanadu were written after the third season's airing.
Could it be better? Of course. Background Denizens are not meant to all look the same. Could it use more episodes to slow down the pace? Maybe.