A Certain Magical Index NT (Light Novel), Vol. 4

新約 とある魔術の禁書目録 [Shin'yaku Toaru Majutsu no Index] #4

by Kazuma Kamachi, Alice Prowse (translator), Kiyotaka Haimura (illustrator)

In the fallout of the attack on Hawaii, the twenty-seven partner corporations that broke away from Academy City announce that they will be hosting “Natural Selector,” a combat tournament in Eastern Europe. By holding the event, the Anti-Academy City faction hopes to prove the existence of powers that surpass psychic abilities, thereby destroying the identity of Academy City. With the help of Gremlin, an organization that merges magic and science, their scheme gets underway. Will Academy City be able to stop them before it's too late?  

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Science Fiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2012

About the author

Kamachi Kazuma (鎌池和馬) is a Japanese-born light novel author and the original creator of the Toaru Majutsu no Index light novel series and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, its spin-off manga series.

Reviews

[Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best possible way to make the Kiharas much more interesting, and to flesh out GREMLIN. On top of that, it barely used Touma, making his appearance at the end of the novel that much more impactful. This volume introduced the leader of GREMLIN, Othinus, and gave her an amazing display of power by having her defeat Imagine Breaker's hidden power with ease.

[Mathxxl]

Un volume qui voit l'affrontement de deux factions, l'une pro Cité Académique, et l'autre alliée à GREMLIN, dans une ville extérieure.

Ce volume a une structure assez particulière, découpé en plusieurs chapitres courts qui nous font suivre pas mal de points de vue différents de personnages jamais vus jusqu'ici.

Si c'est assez chouette de voir l'auteur essayer des choses dans la forme, reste une histoire qui ne m'aura pas vraiment passionnée, la faute à des personnages que j'ai trouvé peu intéressants.

[Abel Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time - [02h 33m 24s]

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kamijou Touma has set off to the Natural Selector tournament held by the Science Guardians in order to make up for his actions in Hawaii. GREMLIN has also come out to this tournament...but why? Not only that, but the Kihara family has been sent in as Academy City's counterattack. Meanwhile, three competitors have their own plans. These four sides cause a chaos akin to the Battle Royale of October 9th, except this time, on the stage of Baggage City in Eastern Europe.

Indeed, the structure of this story is similar to the volume 15 of the first series, but with much more bloodshed. With all of this violence, there must be enough inner conflict to balance it out. This time, we get to peer into the minds of the enigmatic Kihara family members. It is interesting because they are larger than life. We have never seen anybody like them before, so it is harder to understand them. Character development for all of the characters presented is minimal, as it is centered around a few key figures. Weird things occur throughout the novel, but the explanation for them does not come as a total shock because of Kamachi's skillful placement of details. Overall, I found this novel difficult to understand. While things started dragging out toward the end, the complexity does not make it bad.

But I did have a hard time enjoying this installment. The translation or editing by Baka-Tsuki was shaky, with ungrammatical sentences all over the place. I am not sure whether it is Kamachi's style this time or the translator's/editor's fault, but the hackneyed sentences combined with the complex supernatural powers and narratives made for a difficult reading experience. Because of this, I must lower my score by one. B-T is the only decent translation in English, after all, and I have to rate this based on the available version.