A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 9

とある魔術の禁書目録 [Toaru Majutsu no Index] (Novel) #9

by Kazuma Kamachi

The Daihasei Festival--a huge athletics festival attended by every school in Academy City, where the superpowered students attending these institutions gather to compete in a wide variety of competitions. And of course, Touma Kamijou is participating. His terrible luck is still in full effect--he's gnawed on by a famished Index, castigated by a representative of the festival management committee, and zapped mid-competition by none other than Mikoto Misaka. But Academy city's about to have a much bigger problem--and her name is Oriana Thomson.

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Manga, Comedy

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2006

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

[Niquie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Unlike previous books in this series this is not a standalone book. It honestly feels like one giant prologue/filler. Not much seems to happen outside of fan service and the occasional magic attack/battle. It was a strangely relaxing read and I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be one.

[Kurezan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sports festival intertwined with the now typical interference of a magician in Academy City.

This volume felt largely like filler, and the fights were uninteresting.

Hopefully the next volume is better.

[Mendhak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly the series is increasing the amount of fanservice in each volume and I feel it's affecting the quality of the storytelling. Most of the "situations" felt excessive, and worse, were simply repetitive, just a waste of space.

I do hope he author will tone it down as that wasn't the reason we started reading this series in the first place. And whomever these "fans" are, for whom this "service" exists, I want no part of.

Story wise, not much happens, but what little does happen is explained through a lot of exposition. It felt like the volume was 80% exposition, so the read felt like a slog, with no reward at the end, because it's a two parter.

[Lils · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, although this arc is split into two volumes, I quite enjoyed it. I think it gave more time for more slice of life things whilst keeping the plot and "villain" in focus. At times it did seem kinda all over the place with the new characters and lack of introduction or characteristics to remember them, but I think it worked out okay in the end. Always good to see Misaka in the story, and I guess I kinda prefer how Touma, Tsuchimikado and Stiyl joined hands to go against the "villain", since it wasn't another fight leaving Touma to solve with his right hand's powers (at least the set up isn't for now), and instead involves more of the others' (Tsuchimikado etc) knowledge and techniques to even track the enemy down (alongside their motives).

I also really like the Daihaseisai background since it sounds like such a nice big athletics carnival party, it's just a bit saddening that you don't get to see much of it, since the focus is on Touma trying to deal with problematic mages again lol. It's a slow burner in terms of plot, but I really did like the relaxing feel it had compared to the previous formulaic volumes of "Touma winning against the bad guy", I think I really needed a bit more development on the characters' side of things, and although it's not totally concentrated on that, it gave me a bit of time to just kick back and relax seeing Touma and Misaka do normal things haha. I finished this volume pretty fast even though it had quite a few pages (compared to some other volumes) because it was a pretty easy and fun read. And I guess the "harem" increases with Fukiyose's entrance? A normal girl that's studying and working hard? Lol.

[Damian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laying it on a bit thick with the fanservice, Kamachi. The story is dragged out too, extending over 2 volumes, but it isn't necessarily bad. This is continues the conflicts with the Roman Catholic Church while also providing nice insight into the academic aspects of Academy City.

[Creativeimaginator · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice twist that almost seemed obvious after it was revealed. But still, it was clever.

[Grace Ziehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

[Abel Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time - [01h 59m 58s]

[Alec Rebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it a bit but I felt it tried to speed thorough some of the plot without really establishing characters that well