Light Novel Thursday: To Aru Majutsu no Index/ A Certain Magical Index

This is one of my favorite Light Novel series, and is one of the most popular ones in Japan. So I figured I’d do my first Light Novel Review on it.

Summary: A high school student named Touma Kamijou is living an somewhat peaceful life in the City of School, Academy City in Tokyo. He meets a strange nun and thus begins his life in the War between Science and Magic.

Plot: While each book is a separate story for the first few volumes, it quickly becomes necessary to have read the entire series to not get lost with all the different characters who show up. That out of the way, the series takes a great look at all the different myths from around the world and incorporates them into the story very well. It also takes into account pretty scientific theories, which while I’m not really that brainy, they all sound plausible to me.

Characters: Well to start with Touma is pretty fun to read about, but beyond him we get loads and loads of characters in this story with each new volume that expand the world building into new and unexpected ways. Needless to say It’s not all about Touma and by the end of the first half of the series we have 4 big heroes that the story follows, with one of them being one of my favorite female characters of all time, Misaka Mikoto.

Length Per Volume: Pretty short for me, at around 200 pages per volume this is a pretty short read for me.

For those who like: Mystery, this series has lots of weird stuff going on. Alternate world fantasy mixed with Urban Fantasy. Kick ass heroes, and an Author who never forgets anything.

Not for those who don’t like: Japan, Fantasy and battle scenes. Lots of death of random goons.

Read before you die?: Yes if you like anything I listed above.

Can’t stand reading, but like watching Anime?: Good news because this is one of the most critically acclaimed Anime Adaptations of a Light Novel series! It even has a spin off series on my favorite heroine, Misaka. The anime covers the first 13 volumes, but it ends on a pretty serious note, so if you are curious you totally should read the rest of the series.

How should I go reading it? Thankfully the amazing people at Baka-tsuki light novel project have you covered, you can download free english translations of the series in helpful .PDF files! Here is their project page for the series.