From Discord - The Raildex Watch Order Rant

An excerpt from Discord discussing the optimal order to watch the Raildex anime.

Jacen Sekai — 5/11/2020 8:25 PM
Okay so
Raildex is a common nickname for the To Aru franchise, which has a bunch of series and spinoffs and spinoffs of spinoffs
but the core two entries are Index and Railgun
(hence the nickname)
Index is the main series and Railgun is a spinoff
except Index is bad
I've heard the original Index light novels are better, but the general consensus is that the anime is not great
Index being bad wouldn't really be an issue except that Index and Railgun chronologically overlap
and even that wouldn't be an issue except there's one arc in specific that is adapted in both
and Index's version is very underwhelming
so my opinion is that arc should be experienced in Railgun first
There's this big convoluted watch order that involves watching Index and Railgun simultaneously in chronological order, which would allow you to watch the Railgun version of that arc first while still getting the worldbuilding that Index provides
but honestly it's just easier to watch Railgun first
You miss out on some worldbuilding details, though, because that is the one thing Index does right
and Railgun does to an extent assume you've already seen Index
but as someone who accidentally watched Railgun first, it's not a terrible experience and you pick up on the important bits

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Jacen Sekai — 5/11/2020 8:36 PM
tbh
watch order is probably the biggest source of drama in the Raildex fandom
There are people who think you should watch in broadcast order, because that gives you the best worldbuilding and because it's what the creators intended
There are people like me who think you should go Railgun first because that's just going to be a better overall viewing experience
and there are people who think you should go in the chronological order to try and get the best of both worlds
idk who's right