Then, would you accompany me to the depths of hell?
— Index

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Academy City is a city that is, according to a tourist guide in an episode, about 20-30 years ahead of the rest of the world. Also, the city is in itself an experiment. 80% of the inhabitants of Academy City are students(thus the name) and about 70-90% of the inhabitants has an Esper Ability – a sort of Superpower that has been scientifically awakened from within a person, such as Misaka being able to control electric and magnetic fields(including those within her own body), Shirai who can Teleport herself and things she touches, Accelerator who can change the nature of whatever object he comes in contact with and Konori who can see through anything. The remaining 10-30%(the exact number isn’t given) is called Level 0, and has powers which is still sleeping – or undocumented superpowers which wasn’t supposed to be awakened. Kamijou Touma is one of those who has an undocumented “power” – Imagine Breaker, which allows him to negate or block any other superpower hitting his right hand. The fact that he has that ability is good, since otherwise the series would have ended two minutes into the first episode – counting the opening theme which takes a half minute.

After a prologue where Touma is almost killed by Misaka Mitoko(a.k.a “Shocker”, or as Touma calls her, “The Biri-Biri middle schooler”, or just “Biribiri” for short), Touma finds an unconcious nun hanging over the ledge of his balcony(it’s just as weird as it sounds, see picture number 2 below), who doesn’t react at all to the fact that she is hanging from a balcony on the thenth floor of a student dormitory, but instead asks Touma for something to eat. It turns out Index is actually a nun from the English Purist Church, the Necessarius faction, and that she has all the knowledge of magic in the world, in the form of 103,000 Forbidden Grimoires stuffed into her head, making her a sort of living library. Index is chased by other magicians(the opposite of Espers, they use magic, as the name suggests. While Espers represents Science, Magicians represents the occult) – or so she thinks – who are after the endless knowledge inside her head. Despite that Index initially tries to keep Touma out of the entire Science-Magic thing, Touma manages to be pulled in anyways when he finds Index lying on the ground, stabbed in the back. Touma then gets involved in a series of (sometimes pretty nonsensical, but still great) events revolving around Esper Powers and Magic.

I can’t really write much about the story, as it would spoil the entire thing. While the story isn’t the greatest one ever, sometimes it gets a bit repetitive, the amazing way in which it is performed more than makes up for it. Toaru Majutsu no Index is a visual masterpiece from start to end, the visuals being in the same class as masterpieces such as Love Hina, and D.N.Angel. The sound isn’t far after either, and while it isn’t the best soundtrack ever(that’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, or possibly Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu), it certainly is good, and really fits into the general atmosphere of the series. Returning to the animation, everything holds high class with natural movements and really awesome special effects. The only real complain about the graphics is the way Accelerator’s Wind Plasma ball looks strange, people sometimes has their eyebrows on top of their hair(it’s only visible on some people though), Innocentius is hard to really differentiate from the surrounding fire sometimes – like in the OP. Speaking of the OP, the first one, PSI-Missing, is one of the best openings I’ve ever seen(although it is still beaten by Neon Genesis Evangelion‘s “Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis“). The second OP, Masterpiece, is about as far from a masterpiece as you could possibly get, being just a big disappointment all the way through.

This anime is pretty violent, but not particularily bloody(the sequel/side-story Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is however, even if it’s not much blood, you have been warned…), but the violence still isn’t near the class of Soul Eater or Angel Beats!. The story also seems unfinished, seemingly ending in the middle, even providing the start of a Season Two if there ever is one. Since Toaru Majutsu no Index leaves a mess of loose ends, you shouldn’t watch it if you’re expecting something that answers all the questions it raises. If that’s not a requirement, you should watch this no matter what. Touma has an annoying tendency of holding long monologues, but it’s not that annoying. Something that is more annoying is that Index’ personality changes drastically after the first episodes. At first she acts(relatively) mature and has a large impact on the plot, and her knowledge of every magic force in existence is cool, but then she becomes just an annoying nuisance who spends most of the time either whining, causing trouble, scheming something with Misaka or biting Touma. She seems forgotten until the last episode where she is the focus of one of the coolest scenes in the series where she holds her own against a 4 meters tall Clay Golem named Elliot by first using a needle from her coat to reverse engineer and sabotage it’s self-recovery ability and then reverse-engineering and jacking it’s control. That scene is also where the epic quote “I may not be able to use Magic myself, but I can create confusion in the magic!” comes from, right before she makes Elliot trip over it’s own feet.

The only plausible excuse I can come up with(except the mess of loose ends) not to watch this would be if the entire internet would die overnight. And since that’s not very likely to happen, go here and start watching on Anime Season.com!

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