YEN PRESS
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
MANGAKA: Chuya Kogino
ORIGINAL STORY: Kazuma Kamachi
CHARACTER DESIGNS: Kiyotaka Haimura
TRANSLATION: Andrew Prowse
LETTERS: Phil Christie
ISBN: 978-1-9753-3198-6; paperback (April 2020); Rated “T” for “Teen”
194pp, B&W, $13.00 U.S., $17.00 CAN
A Certain Magical Index is a Japanese light novel series written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Kiyotaka Haimura. It has been published by ASCII Media Works (a brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing) under their “Dengeki Bunko” imprint since April 2004.
A Certain Magical Index has been adapted into two manga series. Chuya Kogino has adapted and illustrated the manga that is directly based on the novels. Kogino's A Certain Magical Index began serialization in the May 2007 issue of Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan. Yen Press is publishing an English language adaptation of Kogino's manga as a graphic novel series, also entitled A Certain Magical Index.
A Certain Magical Index is set in a world where supernatural abilities exist. Touma Kamijou is a high school student who has an unusual ability; his right hand is the “Imagine Breaker.” It has the ability to negate any supernatural power, but it also negates Touma's own luck. Touma lives in Academy City, a scientific marvel of the modern world where superhuman abilities are artificially cultivated and commonplace. Touma meets an English nun named “Index,” or maybe she thinks she's a nun. Touma's abilities and his relationship with Index prove dangerous to many entities that want to discover the secrets behind him, Index, and Academy City.
As A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 21 (Chapters 123 to 128) opens, protests against Academy City have broken out worldwide, and the never-ending tensions between the forces of magic and science escalate even further. Who truly stands to benefit from the specter of conflict, and can anything be done to prevent the worst-case scenario?
Touma finds himself confronted by a mysterious old woman who turns out to be Monaka Oyafune, one of Academy City's board of directors. She sends him on a mission to Avignon, France to discover who is really the mastermind behind the protests against Academy City. Accompanied by his friend, Motoharu Tsuchimikado, and assisted by a young female magician, Itsuwa, Touma will find himself facing a most fierce enemy, Terra of the Left, a member of “God's Right Seat.”
I had never heard of the A Certain Magical Index manga, nor of the light novel series upon which it is based. I had to learn about the series when my Yen Press media rep sent me a review copy of the manga.
A Certain Magical Index Graphic Novel Volume 21 is the one I received. After some intense Internet research, including using Wikipedia and Google, I had some information on the series' publishing history, adaptations and mythopoeia. I figured out enough to enjoy Vol. 21, and I can see how some readers would drawn into the complicated, complex, and multi-layered world of A Certain Magical Index, both light novels and manga.
I certainly enjoyed the art by Chuya Kogino, who both adapts the novels and draws the manga. His multi-genre style is appropriate both for the action-fantasy elements of A Certain Magical Index and its comic moments. I would read practically any manga Kogino illustrated.
The English translation by Andrew Prowse deftly conveys the large cast of characters and the multiple competing interests and conflicts. I can say that Vol. 21 is good enough to make a new reader consider going back to the beginning of manga series, and giving it a try.
7 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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