The gimmick of Index, as its referred to by fans, is that Academy City is a million students with psychic powers created by the city scientists to study their experiments. Unfortunately, the less obvious aspect of the city is some of the experiments on students are officially sanctioned violence and murders. The whole place is a bunch of schools, teachers, maintenance robots, libraries, and rapid reaction police with fully automatic rifles which are often not enough to stop the power users. One especially vicious experiment is a high level psychic who serial-kills 10,000 identical clones of another high level psychic, one after another, in inventively vicious ways for some plot reason. Yes, the hero works to save the clones, but the violence in the course of the story is like a tournament of death, battle after battle, and a secret war between the Vatican and Aleister Crowley who is running this city of psychics.
Japan has a really WRONG understanding of Christianity. The Catholic church sent priests from exploration ships in the 1700's from Portugal. They made a BAD impression and all were eventually tortured to death by the rulers of the time. Ever since then, Christianity is treated like a violent cult in Japan and while most Japanese marry using the Christian ceremony, they don't practice the faith, or understand it at all. Japan is officially Shinto in order to end the power of Buddhist monasteries two centuries ago. At the time, Buddhist monks had joined a rebellion against the shogun of the time, the shogun being the supreme ruler of Japan. He won, and the monks were required by law to marry, which violated their oaths to Buddha. While most Japanese are buddhist from their marriages to their deaths, their kids are raised to Shinto faith, mainly through visits to shrines and festivals. This cultural transition has no room for Christianity, and that faith becomes the key undercurrent of the series' second season. The war going on between black mages from the Vatican and their relationship with Index, a 14 year old girl who ends up living with the unlucky hero, cursed with God's Right Arm (literal), as factions of one side, which is incompatible with the psychic powers of the rest of Academy City. It is for this reason that the second season of the anime is not broadcast in America. Most people find it quite offensive. Most think the author of the light novels on which it was based needs application of a cattle prod or taser somewhere sensitive for the level of offense he commits against the two billion Catholics on Earth.
I just can't recommend this anime to youths of either gender. While there is a lighter side story called Railgun, the author just can't seem to resist mass murderers and ultraviolent murder-death experiments. This is unfortunate, but its the violence that ruins it. The cute and comedy moments just can't save it from the viciousness.
It is true that Japan is essentially eating its children by crushing the economy, preventing new businesses from being created by denying business loans, and even denying marriages by insuring nobody can get a job in Japan thanks to the 26 year long Clinton-Recession, which in real English means Depression. 26 years of Depression with earthquakes, massive tsunami, nuclear power plant leaks, and jobs outsourcing to Korea and China has been a continuous assault on their youth. With official racism keeping kids from leaving Japan for fear of being labelled outcastes who can't come back if things get better someday, this is more and more often turning up in YA popular media. So officially endorsed murder of teenagers seems like something going on, which is why I think it keeps turning up in popular manga and anime in Japan.
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