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REVIEW: A Certain Magical Index Novel 1

too bad its not the manga version cause to be frank there are people that would rather read the manga version instead of the light novel version. that is proven considering the manga versions for both highschool dxd and sword art online are more popular here than their light novel counterparts.

not to mention that it would feel really awkward that toaru no majustu index got no manga release , but toaru no kagaku railgun does.

too bad its not the manga version cause to be frank there are people that would rather read the manga version instead of the light novel version. that is proven considering the manga versions for both highschool dxd and sword art online are more popular here than their light novel counterparts.

It further points out that Level 0 youths are actually the majority of the 2.3 million students in Academy City (60%, in fact), something which the anime series implies to the contrary.

The only thing stopped me right now from starting to collect this novel series...is the release schedule. Loved the anime, but I can't bring myself to buy the books until they get to a point where something that hasn't been animated will be covered.

I think I may be waiting a few years.

(In fact, the way various scenes are staged and described, the writing gives the impression that Kamachi may have specifically had an eventual anime adaptation in mind when writing it.)

On the downside, the novel also points out the ages of both Styl and Kanzaki, and especially Styl's does not make sense; he is certainly portrayed as being much older than that, and references to him and Kanzaki having done things once a year on what seems to be multiple previous occasions do not add up.

...A common theme that Kiyotaka Haimura went for Stiyl and Kaori is that ever since their introduction in Volume 1, the gap between age and appearance in the magic side characters has been much greater than in the science side characters. When he read the first draft of Volume 1, he came with the impression that it was the story of children rebelling against the reasoning of adults. Stating that:"...I thought Kamijou would have seen Stiyl and Kanzaki as adults that used reasonings and principles that a child would refuse to accept." Haimura believed that the Index novels would go on for so long, as such he went with the designs that did not match their age, and by volume 7 Haimura began regretting his decision.

None of these illustrations are above mediocre in quality and all are distinctly improved upon by the anime.

Evaluated as a standalone read, the novel's greatest strength is how it defines and describes an intriguing (if also illogical) setting, one where the development of psychic powers is the norm rather than the exception. Adding a complex magical system which exists side-by-side but still outside the knowledge of most allows for even greater diversity and to see how the two might interact. Touma, as a protagonist who must endure the disadvantages of his power but can also put it to indispensable use in the right situations, also impresses, and the storytelling does do an effective job of keeping him from seeming overpowered, as the same ability which can break any supernatural offense or defense also prevents him from using or being benefited by them, too.

Ali07 wrote:

The only thing stopped me right now from starting to collect this novel series...is the release schedule. Loved the anime, but I can't bring myself to buy the books until they get to a point where something that hasn't been animated will be covered. I think I may be waiting a few years.

Thats up to you, but the anime leaves out a huge amount of stuff. Season 1 I think was a little better at it because of the pacing, but season 2 left out a lot of information.

Oh, I'm not talking about skipping through volumes to just read what hasn't been touched by the anime. Would still get everything, eventually. But, I'm not really wanting to read over stuff that I've mostly seen without something new to follow it up quickly.

I'd just rather spend time reading things that are new (or new to me) instead of reading novels that are the source material of an anime I've seen, even if there is more detail or events that weren't covered. This is made even less attractive with the release schedule for these LNs.

I don't know exactly up to where the anime got to in the LN series, but I'm thinking it'll be late-2016 or 2017 before uncovered ground is tread upon?

Regarding Styl's age, I always thought he looked older because: 1) he is really tall, even by England's standard (and japanese people are relatively small in comparison) and 2) because of his upbringing on the magic side, which forced him to mature far more quickly than the average 14-years-old.

Via_01 wrote:

Regarding Styl's age, I always thought he looked older because: 1) he is really tall, even by England's standard (and japanese people are relatively small in comparison) and 2) because of his upbringing on the magic side, which forced him to mature far more quickly than the average 14-years-old.

The problem with Styl's age is not his looks .. it is his previous continual involvement in spoiler[Index's memory reset which happens once a year. It is suggested that he has gone through at least 2 cycles which means that he would have started getting involved with this as a preteen which simply is not credible.]

I see no issue with Stiyl 's age. At first I was like "LOL he's 14?!?" but then I remembered that in my real life I've met dozens of kids that were 13-16 that looked older than I do (20+). It happens and should not considered a negative.

The manga isn't necessarily better though. That is definitely true in Index's case.

and there are times where people will prefer the manga and anime versions over the original source materials if its ero based and one base of my case is some of type moon's series especially FSN. we all know that their visual novels is ero and most fans hate it ,which is why instead they would prefer their alternate anime and manga version.