A Certain Magical Index: The Movie Review

4 stars of tense and exciting fantasy action.

A Certain Magical Index: The Movie The Miracle of Endymion is based on a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi (A Certain Scientific Railgun) and takes place in the same world and with the same basic characters as the series, A Certain Magical Index.

“How can you be a Nun and a glutton?!”

It is set in Academy City, a technologically and scientifically advanced city in Western Tokyo, which consists mostly of highly regarded academic institutions, where students train to release their latent supernatural abilities. This is a world where being able to control electricity, or the flow of materials, or any one of many weird and wonderful talents, is considered quite normal.

The people who command these kind of powers are known as Espers and have their powers from birth. However, most can only gain access to them through the Power Curriculum Programme.

There is another way to gain powers, through mastery of magic, gained from reading Grimoires or using magical artifacts, although this way is clandestine and frowned upon, as the two methods are mutually exclusive.

Now however, the peaceful existence of Academy City could be under threat. Three years previously, the Spaceplane Orion crashed to Earth with no casualties. Known as the miracle of the 88, there is a memorial to the event and the crash site is now home to the Endymion, a space elevator which is nearing completion.

Touma Kamijo (Micah Solusod – Brothers Conflict, Noragami) and his house mate Index (Monica Rial – Lord Marksman and Vanadis) are happily getting on with their lives, he is in school and she is eating everything in sight. All that changes when they meet Arisa Meigo (Megan Shipman – No-rin), a young and extremely talented singer who is taking the internet by storm.

After a day out, they are attacked by three witches, Marie, Marybeth and Jane, all lead by a familiar face, Stiyl Magnus (Robert McCollum – Free! Eternal Summer). He believes that Arisa, who has just been selected to perform at the opening ceremony of Endymion, is being used to turn it into some kind of weapon.  Touma and Index must find out what’s going on, with help of Misaka (Brittney Karbowski – Chaika: The Coffin Princess) and friends in order to save their beloved Academy City.

A Certain Magical Index: The Movie The Miracle of Endymion is a really enjoyable story with a good soundtrack and really slick animation. Although it is a stand alone story, you probably do need to have watched at least some of the series, because none of the characters are introduced in any way and there is a lot of backstory needed in order for it to make sense.

One for the fans and well worth adding to your collection.

“She’s using Endymion, we’re talking a colossal spell. Something with the power to wipe out the entire Northern Hemisphere if we allow it to be activated.”

A Certain Magical Index: The Movie The Miracle of Endymion is available to buy now on Dual Format DVD and Blu-ray.