A Certain Magical Index has a movie and it’s a musical.
Well. There’s singing in it. Lots of it. Toma and Index find themselves in the company of an up and coming idol called Arisa and needless to say all sorts of powers get involved.
The world of A Certain Magical Index focuses on the conflict between science and magic. Science is well known and more advanced that we have today. There is psionics in the world, rated and ranked, walking among us and put to good use. Science and science-powers is the world the people know. There’s also magic, in the shadows, and sometimes at odds with science. More often than not there are internal disputes in the science and magic factions more than open conflict between the two.
Index, a walking library of dangerous spell books, is quick to befriend Arisa. So when a group of mages – who we might have thought would be more friendly – get involved and seemingly target Arisa both Index and Toma are around to defend her. But they’re not alone; the melee catches the attention of a high science group known as The Black Crow Unit who wade in with their invisible mini-tanks.
All Arisa wants to do is sing, and so when she’s invited up to do a hugely important performance in Academy City’s space needle, she leaps at the chance. Will Toma and Index be able to keep her safe?
Ah, the space needle – found in a few sci-fi books and lots of anime. The needle is a building that reaches from the earth all the way up into space. It’s cheaper and more effective than firing rockets up there, and it’s a sure fire way to set off my vertigo. I was worried I might have to watch the final third of The Miracle of Endymion through my fingers. Thankfully, a scene in which a magical samurai stands on the nose cone of a spaceship and swipes missiles away with sword helped bring some ridiculousness to the whole scene and take the edge off the height.
This tension between cool and the ridiculous is one that A Certain Magical Index movie often faces and wins. The Miracle of Endymion is an action flick about, essentially, superpowered kids fighting to do what’s right while adults meddle in the background.
A Certain Magical Index is self-aware. It knows that Misaka (< a href=”https://www.geeknative.com/tag/a-certain-scientific-railgun/”>)A Certain Scientific Railgun) might well be more popular than Index and Toma and so she’s there. There are cameos from quite a few characters including The Accelerator. There’s also a touch more fan service than usual with a social shower scene.
If none of these character names means nothing to you, it’ll likely be because you’ve not seen any of the series or spin-off series. I think it helps hugely to have seen the first series of A Certain Magical Index to get the most out of this movie, but I don’t think it’s strictly necessary. You’ll get spoilers, yeah, but you’ll also be able to decide whether or not you want to invest any more time into the show.
Overall? I enjoyed it. The movie did not get as much of my attention as the series did and I’m one of the fans who think the Railgun spin-off is quids better, but I’m pleased I finally got around to watching the movie. All fans should.
My copy of A Certain Magical Index: The Movie – The Miracle of Endymion was provided for review.
