The 2 season anime were released between 2008-2011 and a movie released in February this year.
A Certain Magical Index is set in a world where supernatural abilities are a reality. While some individuals known as Espers possess special powers gained since birth, other individuals denominated Magicians gain their powers upon mastering the power of symbolism, be it from obtaining knowledge from special books known as Grimoires or by using special magic artifacts. While several Magician cults align themselves with ancient religions, Esper powers are usually developed by experimentation and training, thus they are usually aligned with scientific institutions. This leads to a power struggle between magic and science factions for control of the world.
The story is set in Academy City, a technologically advanced city located in western Tokyo, known for its educational and research institutions. Tōma Kamijō is a student in Academy City whose right hand, the Imagine Breaker, has the ability to negate any supernatural powers, but also negates his own luck, much to his chagrin who meets a young girl named Index who is a nun from Necessarius, a secret magic branch of the Church of England, and her mind has been implanted with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum—103,000 forbidden magical books the Church has removed from circulation. His encounter with her leads him to meet others from the secret worlds of science and magic and an adventure with his friends where both collide. Tōma's unusual power places him at the center of conflicts relating magicians and science-based espers in Academy City. As Tōma tries to help and protect his friends, he learns the people he knows are not as they appear and begins to attract the attention of magicians and espers alike as they try to unravel the secrets behind Academy City, Index and his own special power.
Story-10: Okay, after watching the first few episodes of the series i was overwhelmed by all the information being thrown at me, it left me confused and i nearly gave up on the series, but i stuck through...and my god it was worth it.
After the first few confusing episodes, the story started to space out and add more humour to the plot, for example; Index and Toma talking about food and when Toma refuses to buy her anything, she starts trying to eat him which is a recurring theme throughout both series and is always funny to watch, and i was able to enjoy the personalities and relationships between characters without worrying about having more information thrown at me in colossal chunks again, during this 'break' period (because there are multiple occasions you'll find yourself wondering what they're blabbering on about) is when i started to gain an emotional attachment to Misaka and Index, and as every anime fan knows, once you're attached you will keep watching to find out their fate, right? and thats exactly when i admired the story for what it is, and considering anything i say about the story will be a minor spoiler at least, you'll just have to experience it for yourself.
Art-8: The art is fantastic from any angle you look at it, however, despite the crisp looking and vastly colourful looking animation, its not my type, and i'm very cynical of what male characters look like, and in my opinion, our unfortunate protagonist could have been designed to compete with the more 'handsome' anime characters like Zero from Vampire Knight for example, his appearance and 2D personality makes me wonder exactly what does Misaka see in him? (although his lack of social skills makes a rather amusing scene every now and again) but other than that, the magic battles and alike are spot on what i'd expect from a big budget franchise like this one.
Sound-8: Not much i can say on this one as 3/4 of an AVERAGE episode has magic spells flying about the screen like a fly thats just been sprayed by a can of anti-bug, and my lack of knowledge as to what a REAL fireball sounds like makes this alot more tricky, however, the japanese voice actors are very very good, as youd expect from the japanese actors/actresses, sadly i havent got a chance to watch the english dub version of this series, but ive heard good reviews about it, so how bad can it be? The sound quality is also very good, although the music can be a bit too loud when Toma is giving his overview at the end of the episode.
Character-9: All the characters play their own part in the overall humour of the show; Toma is always found in outrageous situations due to his bad luck, Misaka's roommater Kuroko often does stupid and surreal things to attract the attention of Misaka, Toma is always the 'straight man' in the Toma-Index relationship with Index bossing him about and trying to eat him in every episode.
The characters (except Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado) are all well flushed out and fit well into the story with their unique personalities, back stories and links to each other , the reason i didnt give the 'character' section a solid 10/10 is because a certain red haired gentleman does something unnecessary and quite frankly stupid in the second season, and with no real motive to back him up, no real back story, his actions just felt really pointless.
Enjoyment-10: After a ton of confusing episodes dotted all over the 48 episode series (and judging by the ending of the second season, there will be at least one more season) and reflecting upon the motives of all the character's actions; ESPECIALLY Accelerator's, i came to a sudden realisation that i had just finished watching an absolute masterpiece, and the magic part? i didnt even realise just how good this series actually was until it was all over, and thats something you dont get alot from shallow anime series you see lately, however, if you're looking for any romance, ecchi or love triangles, look elsewhere, because although its obvious that at some point our clumsy protagonist will end up with one of the main characters, no progress has been made between them at all.
All in all this series has alot (borderline too much) story, magic and characters, if you want a relaxing anime to watch, one where you dont have to remember something from episode 6 when you're watching episode 30, then, again, dont go near this anime, because its requires you to absorb every last piece of information given to you, and even then, you probably wont expect whatll happen at the end of the episode, but isnt that just amazing? I hope you guys will take on this adventure, you will not regret it at all.
