A certain wonderful beginning
Creative Staff
Story: Kazuma Kamachi
Art: Kiyotaka Haimura
Translation: Andrew Prowse and Yoshito Hinton
What They Say
In Academy City, magic and science coexist in an unwavering power struggle. Toma Kamijo, an academically-challenged student in Academy City, wields the power of the Imagine Breaker in his right hand, which allows him to completely negate all supernatural powers – as well as his own luck. When he happens upon a mysterious nun named Index, whose mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum – 103,000 ancient texts banned by the Church – Toma’s luck is about to be pushed to its limits when he finds himself in the middle of a war he never expected!
Technical:
The cover here is a nice, serene image of Index with pure white feathers falling around her. It’s a great picture that really helps give the book a little pop. The back cover, on the other hand, offers only a simple image of a card alongside the usual synopsis. Paper quality feels solid, honorifics are not used, and colored images are included at the start of the book. Text reads smoothly for the most part, though occasionally banter between characters can go a little long without any identifier of who’s talking, which can get confusing if the reader isn’t paying careful attention. The images used are decent enough and at least do a good job of showing off the cast. It would’ve been nice for a bit more of the focus to have been on the more fantastical elements such as magic and special abilities when it came to painting a scene, but fortunately the pictures still do a solid job of drawing the reader into the story.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Touma Kamijou is an average student living in the decidedly un-average Academy City. In this advanced area of Tokyo, science runs wild, with a definite focus on facilitating special powers. Those with these skills, referred to as espers, make up the students of Academy City, but their abilities vary greatly, from virtually talentless up to the girl named Mikoto Misaka, who wields electrical powers strong enough to simulate a railgun! Unfortunately for Kamijou, though, he’s considered on the powerless end of the spectrum. However, he does have a boon in the form of his right hand, which possesses an ability he calls Imagine Breaker, allowing him to cancel out any supernatural power.
While having a characteristically unlucky day, Kamijou finds a girl in a white nun outfit hanging over the railing of his apartment! This strange girl introduces herself as Index, and soon starts gobbling down our hero’s expired food stuffs. According to her story, she’s a member of the Puritan Church of England on the run from a magic cabal after the 103,000 grimoires contained within her mind. Of course Kamijou thinks she’s full of it, especially when she talks about the power of her garment, which she claims is an absolute defense system known as the Walking Church. When they get into enough of an argument that he decides to test that by using his Imagine Breaker on the outfit, he gets a definite shock as the girl’s clothes fall apart, both validating her claims and creating quite an embarrassing situation in the process.
The two then part for a time, during which we are introduced to our hero’s childlike homeroom teacher, Komoe Tsukuyomi. When they meet up again, Kamijou finds Index lying in a pool of her own blood, slashed by a blade in the back. The situation goes from bad to worse when a flame wielding sorcerer named Stiyl Magnus appears to take possession of the girl. Will Kamijou’s Imagine Breaker prove strong enough to take down the formidable foe? And just what are these sorcerers planning to do with Index? And finally, what secrets are hidden in Index’s mind and her power of total recall?
In Summary
With a surprising and intriguing mix of magic and technology, this volume sets up a rather unique and exciting world for the series. With the magic containing elements of science, and the science containing some traces of the supernatural, the two elements even manage to feel like well defined and unique versions of their specific fields. On top of this interesting setup, we also fortunately get some solid characters and a rather captivating story. Kamijou himself has a rather unique power, and it’s certainly fun to watch an otherwise average student go up against some serious abilities. Index, meanwhile, is a bundle of mystery and intrigue. Add in some villains with depth, and you get a rather nice cast. Even so, there’s still the odd element of Mikoto, who has potential but remains really underdeveloped and lacks a real place in the volume. As for the story itself, it manages to weave a pretty intriguing web that avoids a lot of the usual tropes, and by the time it reaches its climax it’s sure to have you enraptured and caught up in its intense pace. It’ll definitely be interesting to see where the series goes from here on out, but for now this remains a fantastic opening entry that manages to prove quite powerful even as a standalone novel, so be sure to give it a look.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: November 18th, 2014
MSRP: $14.00
“honorifics are not used”
That was the fail part for me, but that’s just me. It is so odd too — Yen Press puts honorifics into their manga, but when it comes to novels, they go back to the 90s. Oh well.