>>6373
>the characters are annoying and it's repetitive.
Yeah. I had to drop Toaru Majutsu no Index because of this. While it literally had my favorite theme about how psychic powers and magic operate how merging with a natural force blocks you from "representative magic" and how every "power" has a weakness it always had an absolutely annoying arc before things went good again. Didn't even manage to reach the pic related meme because I stopped around S1 and while I always wanted to continue but whenever I heard what LNfags are saying the direction the series is going and the characters are still dumb as hell always drained my enthusiasm. I drop so few anime because I usually put in on endless hold but still.

>>6374
>and was disappointed in the anime for this reason.
You sound like Hideaki Anno

>>6375
>It looks a lot cooler on the cover than the experience of actually watching it, which is kinda the whole deal with this anime. It's all made to create a certain look and feel.
That is true. They were still a small anime studio before they managed to get popular and once they became popular the money got squandered left and right so yeah. What you feel is correct. There is a reason why Anno is an eternally depressed fuck even when he is "happy"

>The manga on the other hand has actual content in addition to that surface.
I will have to read that sometimes because I am sure it got an extreme amount of polish and panelling can change the tone between serene eternal moments and action packed madness better than you can do it with moving pictures.