Manga Review: A Certain Magical Index

Title: A Certain Magical Index
Author: Kamachi Kazuma, Kogino Chuuya
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Humor: B
Action: A

Impression: This about Kamijyo Touma, an officially powerless and terribly unlucky teenager in a city dedicated to bringing out the special powers in the student that live there. In truth, he actually has the ability to negate other abilities if they touch his right hand. His everyday life is turned upside down when he finds a hungry nun hanging out over his balcony. The hungry nun’s name is Index and despite the title of the manga, she doesn’t really get as much screen time as the title would have you believe. She does however pull Touma into a battle between Science and Magic that is centered in the middle of this city filled with espers. It’s based on a series of light novels with more than 17 volumes out in Japan. The manga follows the anime almost exactly with the exception of moving one arc out of the sequence from the novel. It doesn’t really change much though, the arcs are very episodic so it doesn’t really have any effect on the story overall. The drawings do give it an edgier feel as they make it more edgy than the anime version. My biggest problem with the story is that it tries to give focus on each character per story arc instead of really involving them all at once in that particular part of the story so they end up underused.