The first season of A Certain Magical Index was produced in 2008. At that time, the tsundere series began to become popular in the animation industry. In addition, A Certain Magical Index itself is also an excellent work. As a typical representative of the tsundere series, Sister Pao is very popular. Being popular is completely normal.
I don’t really like to read electromagnetic gun. It did not continue the route of the original novel and became a quite satisfactory and inspirational story about the growth of a girl. However, relying on the high popularity accumulated by Sister Gun still made it a popular novel. This is a popular work, among which Fripside's OP and ED also add a lot of color to it.
From my personal point of view, apart from Sister Pao, there is nothing outstanding about the electromagnetic gun itself.
Tsunderes are rampant in current anime, and almost every work has a tsundere in it. If you just watch the electromagnetic gun now, you definitely don’t have a deep feeling (just like the popular Sanmu Shoujo earlier) It has almost disappeared now), but at the time, Sister Pao’s popularity was well deserved.
To put it bluntly, everyone has their own preference for radish and green vegetables...
(Personal opinion, light smash...)