The Animage article on Toaru Majutsu no Index III. Illustration done by Haruka Sano. Left-side text says "Our world is not so weak that it needs saving"
On June 2018, the anime and entertainment magazine Animage celebrated its 40th anniversary, there it featured a few pages detailing the new season of Toaru Majutsu no Index, which included an interview with Miki Kazuma, editor of the light novel series.
Interview Proper[]
The main axis of the story is God's Right Seat and Dark Organizations. Editor in charge Miki Kazuma
――After eight years we got our 3rd TV anime, but what will the story be this time?
The tagline for "Toaru~" is "When Science and Magic crossover, the story begins--", but it's only toward the end of Index II that science and magic truly begin to intersect. Due to the attack on Academy City in Index II Episode 20 by Vento of the Front, one of the Roman Catholic Church's "God's Right Seat", the Science side characters stationed in Academy City became aware of magic as well. While the score was settled with Vento of the Front in Index II, there are still three members in God's Right Seat including Acqua who came to recover Vento, and the Left and the Right. One of the main plots in III will be the battle with the remaining God's Right Seat, another being a war between Academy City's Dark Side organizations, including School led by Level 5 "Dark Matter" Kakine Teitoku and Item led by another Level 5 "Meltdowner" Mugino Shizuri. Personally out of all the new characters I would like to push it would be Kakine. Although his portrayal itself is small, I think that his way of life will give off a strong impression to everyone in the audience.
――In Touma's portrayal, is his main fight against the God's Right Seat?
Let's see. When God's Right Seat attacked Academy City, the confrontation between the Science side and Magic side suddenly intensified. In this setting, Kamijou learns of a certain magical item that has the world up in arms against Academy City over, which one of Academy City's executives asks him to destroy. So first he flies over to France, but his underlying principle is nothing noble like "I will stop this upheaval!" He just wants to help his acquaintances in jeopardy, his friends and comrades. But because he's reckless, he continues to dive into bigger and bigger incidents.
――And new heroines will join the fray? A character enjoying great support from the light novel fans, Itsuwa of the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church, will appear from the beginning. Ituswa is shy but can be assertive, and her fighting strength isn't very high so her perspective would be closer to Kamijou's. She's easy to portray as contributing her abilities to help him take on those cases.
――What will the other heroines be up to? Mikoto will be a heroine to an unusual extent this time. Kamijou has a certain secret that he hid from everyone but Mikoto finds out about it at the beginning of III. Please keep an eye on Mikoto's emotional development there.
――And the main heroine Index? She may be a little irrelevant in the first half. But she'll fight with Kamijou in the later half, and save him from dilemmas too. Please look forward to it, Index fans.
――III is only one part of the Toaru Project announced in autumn of 2017, but what else do you have planned?
I can't openly declare it, but we're planning something that once released the fans will be astonished, like "that really is a major announcement!" But let's put that side for the moment and enjoy III first. I believe we can deliver you scenes that are worth the 8-year wait. Also, first timers may feel the threshold is rather high with 48 episodes combined from I+II and a movie. But the core of the story is a royal road of Kamijou smashing anything that is unforgivable and gaining new allies. So please give it a try. If you feel it could excite you, the setting and character relationships and story developments are quite profound, so I'm sure you will be hooked.