***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for A Certain Magical Index. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Welcome to Academy City, a place built on scientific discovery. A world leader in advancement, its population consists of 80% students. Most of whom have a wide range of psychic powers. It's a place like no other. Yet scientists are not the only ones looking for influence.
Around the world, many factions of faith do not rely on the power of science. But rather magic. Churches of the world and academic institutions are in constant struggle. Both sides are looking for their edge. At long last, the decisive piece may have come.
Touma Kamaijo (voiced by Atsushi Abe) is a student residing in Academy City. Designated as a Level 0 esper, he tries his best to live a normal life. But there are two things making that difficult.
The first is his ability to dispel all other abilities; both psychic and magical. The other is the sudden appearance of a young nun named Index (voiced by Yuka Iguchi).
Index is in possession of the Church’s most valuable knowledge. This makes her a frequent target. Though the odds are forever stacked against him, Touma cannot sit by when someone needs his help. Facing the strength of divinity and discovery, he is the only one who can make a stand against either.
Series Positives
Crisis now averted.
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| Touma |
If you’re just joining us, this review is a little late. Or at least it’s in the wrong order. A Certain Magical Index is the first entry in the, I guess we’ll call it, Academy City series. The problem, I failed to notice before it was too late. I ended up watching the spin-off series, A Certain Scientific Railgun, first.
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| Index |
In my Railgun review, I said two things. It became that these two things, for better or worse, influenced my outlook on Index. First, I enjoyed the hell out of Railgun. It’s a fantastic series and is worth a look. Second, I wasn’t convinced the order of these shows was all that important. Aside from the occasional cameo, I believed a person didn’t need to watch Index to follow Railgun.
It turns out, I was right. However, I’m not done with this point. We’ll put it on pause for now, but there’s more that needs saying.
Housekeeping and vagueness now over, where does that leave Index?
It’s a good show. I had a lot of fun with it. Just like it was with Railgun, Index was an easy series to get through. In fact, had it been ten or fifteen episodes longer, you wouldn’t hear me complaining. I say that while including the twenty-four episode Second Season. Bring it on. I’m nowhere near done with this series yet.
Buildup and Payoff
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| Mikoto |
In Railgun, there were only two big crisis events. Both played out well and were gripping to watch. There were other things going on which added to the show's charms. But when things needed to happen, the series didn’t mess around.
Index did something similar. The main difference, instead of two large scale events, there were several. This show didn’t take many breaks. It still managed to have humor and be silly. Yet while that was happening, a problem was always getting solved.
Index was more situational that its successor. To make a story like that work, situations have to feel big. They have to feel important. And that’s what happened.
Every time a problem came to a head, it felt dire. Should Touma fail, bad stuff was going to happen. That alone was enough to establish a significant amount of weight. That’s not easy even for a story that spends its entire runtime on a single event. Thus, making it all the more impressive that Index was able to do that with six arcs.
That was only four episodes per arc. And in those episodes, the show had to lay the groundwork, set up the threat, and deliver a satisfying conclusion. Adding to the challenge, all this work often included introducing new characters and villains. Not only that, recurring characters sometimes needed a little more development. That was a lot that needed to get done.
The two arcs that best illustrated this were the ones that involved Accelerator (voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto). When first introduced, he was a villain. There’s no getting around that. He played the role well and was quite effective in it. This was a guy you did not want to see win. In a short amount of time, it was clear how dangerous he was.
When brought back for his own arc later in the series, something was different. You never forget what he did. But the story gives a clearer glimpse into the circumstances behind his actions. Also, all the intimidation that formed wasn’t around anymore. He was just a dude. By the end of this arc, the series managed to do a full 180. We last see him under a much more heroic light. Accelerator became one of the few characters not pivotal to Railgun I want to know more about.
Core Characters
One thing that carries over between Index and Railgun are the strength of their main characters. Since these were long series, we spent the majority of our time with these people. It’s good that this wasn’t time wasted.
I already mentioned how interested I’m in with Accelerator. But of all the characters I’m about to mention, he had the smallest impact. At this point, I’m not sure if I would even consider him a core element. There’s potential, though.
As for other side characters, there were many who I enjoyed. For instance, it was always nice when either Aisa Himegami (voiced by Mamiko Noto) or Komoe Tsukuyomi (voiced Kimiko Koyama) were around. Too bad they weren’t that necessary to the story. I’d be sad to see them go, but they aren’t needed.
The people I want to focus on are those who were critical to the plot.
So, it would make sense to start with Touma. A main character of the franchise, his cameo in Railgun stretched the meaning of the word. Now seeing him in his own series, it’s a little strange why he didn’t play a bigger role in Railgun.
At first, I didn’t have that much of an opinion on him. Character and personality-wise, there wasn’t that much going for him. Over the course of the series, that changed. Touma was always able to keep a cool head. Even in the most desperate of times, he found a way out.
His ability to neutralize powers, on paper, doesn’t sound all that impressive. In action, though, it proved its worth. With the amount of power thrown at him, Touma should have died several times over. But he could go toe to toe with some of the series’ most destructive.
Yet, Touma’s biggest strength was his resolve. If he knew he had to put his foot down, he wasn’t going to back down. Even if that meant serious injury, he would stand his ground. He was able to bring in an outside perspective which often allowed others to see the world in a different light. If a fight was going to happen, he wouldn’t run. But he was never the one to throw the first punch.
The second character I want to talk about is Index. She’s adorable. That’s not her main appeal, but it’s pretty big. Adding to that, there was an air of randomness to her. You were never sure what she was going to do.
I’ll admit, for the majority of the series, Index felt like a sidekick to Touma. I wish that wasn’t the case because she wasn’t a useless character. She possessed the knowledge of every single bit of magic’s history and usage. When she activated that power, she became rather formidable in her own right. I feel the show did not use her to her fullest potential.
The final person I want to mention is none other than Mikoto Misaka (voiced by Rina Sato). Even though it shouldn’t have been the case, (because, you know, I f@#$ed up) I was happy to see her. Plus, I’m relieved she plays a more prominent role in the whole franchise than I first thought.
Her role in Index allowed us to get a much more detailed look into her past. This was something that wasn’t well explored in Railgun. It wasn’t what I would call dark, but what she went through wasn’t good either.
It might be because I saw Railgun first, but Mikoto never felt sidelined. She was a key player in what was going on. HOWEVER, there was something that bothered me.
Had I started with Index, like I should have, I think I would have enjoyed Makoto’s character. Too bad I don’t think this anime provided enough reasons to warrant her own spin-off.
Series Negatives
I liked this show. I liked it a lot. And I want this to be clear.
It’s been bugging me the whole time. I wanted to get the good points out of the way before going into this. I may have shot myself in the foot by watching this series out of order. Yet by doing so, I noticed something.
Railgun is superior to Index in every conceivable way. It’s no a question which of the two I prefer. Railgun is just a better anime. And it comes down to a single reason.
Railgun got treated like an adaptation. Index got treated like you better know the series going in. That’s never a good thing. But in a strange, completely unexpected way, I did know this series going in.
You remember how I said you don’t have to watch Index to watch Railgun. Well, you kind of have to watch Railgun to watch Index. This confused the hell out of me.
I looked everywhere to confirm this. Sure enough, Index released first. Both in manga and anime form. So why then did Index feel like the spin-off and not the source series?
Zero Explanation
I had to keep reminding myself I was watching this series out of order. Thus, any questions I had, I could only use the answers provided within the confines of the show. With that in mind, Index’s story does a crap job of explaining major details.
For example, let’s use Academy City’s peacekeepers, Judgement. They weren't a major players this time around. That’s fine because this was Touma and Index’s story. So, their exposure to Judgement was much more limited. Yet, Kuroko Shirai (voiced by Satomi Arai) still made an appearance.
What do we know about Judgement? What is it? How does it work? Using only what we can find in this series, the answer is “you have no idea”.
Judgement was never explained. Or at least not until many, many, many episodes after being introduced. Along with that…
How did Kuroko keep disappearing?
Why does she have such an affectionate relationship with Mikoto?
Why is Mikoto, a level 5 esper, not in Judgement?
What is Kuroko’s level?
Now that I think about it, what do the levels even mean?
Is a 4 that much weaker than a 5?
How do people get their levels? Are they born with it? Do they work for it?
Do you think I’m done yet? No, let’s keep going.
What are espers? Why are there espers? They seem like supernatural beings. So, why is a city based on science and reasoning the one with supernatural beings? It kind of seems like magic, doesn’t it?
How is magic all that different from espers? Also, why is the Christian Church the ones who are dealing with magic; a.k.a. which craft?
I trust you see the problem.
If, and that’s a big if, any of these questions did get an answer, it was long after they were first asked.
World Building
Railgun took its time. Yes, it only had two major events. But when it wasn’t doing that, the story was building a cohesive world. Academy City felt alive. It felt real. Index took that illusion away.
All the magical elements felt out of place. It seemed so unnecessary. Again, there isn’t that big of a difference between magicians and espers. Now if you think I’m biased because I was use to a world of all science, that’s fair. It’s wrong but fair.
Even the scientific elements didn’t feel right. Academy City lost its charm. It wasn’t as if magic invaded. There was nothing to Index’s version of Academy City. It was a random arbitrary location. Not the setting to a larger than life story.
If I had seen A Certain Magical Index first, I wouldn’t be this gung-ho about continuing the series.
Final Thoughts
This was a good show. How it earned not only a second season but also a side story I don’t know. There was nothing here to warrant it. Sure, it had cute elements and decent action. Then why is Railgun not a byproduct of that?
Whatever the history may be, I’ll take it. I’m not disinterested in Index season two. And you can be damn sure I’m looking forward to watching Railgun S.
That aside, A Certain Magical Index is entertaining. It may not be the greatest thing in letting you know what’s going on. But it still has good characters. A charm that cannot be denied. And more than enough reasons to keep you glued to your seat.
If anything, this is a sign that the entire franchise might be heading up.
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