- Mangaka : Kamachi, Kazuma (Story) and Haimura, Kiyotaka (Art)
- Publisher : Yen Press
- Genre : Comedy, Magic, Shounen, Supernatural
- Published : November 2020 - Ongoing
After the event that took place on the 30th of September, Touma Kamijou and everyone else in the Academy City resumes their normal day-to-day lives. However, there is a growing concern about a potential war that is going to happen soon. But why talk about it when Kamijou’s class somewhat steer that topic into a class hot pot party? Meanwhile, in London’s Puritan Church, the sisters discussed which sides should they take for the upcoming war and, in addition to that, they have to deal with the chaos that is happening in the sisters’ dormitory. On top of these, a certain railgun’s mother visited the Academy City for an important business, causing a Level Five esper panic.
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
This light novel focuses on the perspectives of Touma Kamijou, Kaori Kanzaki and Accelerator after the event of 30th September. Touma Kamijou resumes with his regular days of school. Kaori Kanzaki is at London under Puritan Church. Accelerator works under GROUP to dispose of anyone whom Academy City deem as threats. Each chapter consists of supernatural battles, comedy, and the writing style converges on the overall story.
1. Filling the Gaps
If you wonder why the main series of Toaru Majutsu no Index sometimes made you feel like something is missing, well, it is because of the existence of these side stories written in other volumes. Such an approach provides options to readers who want to focus on the main story and side stories or continue the main story's progression—but knowing the side stories of this volume help readers to build further understanding of the character development and story further.
2. A Balance of Serious and Funny
It is difficult to fathom how a bunch of high school espers, who had gone through wars and troubles to defend themselves and the Academy City or anyone in general, casually talks about going out for dinner as a class, worrying about whether a laundry machine can manage an oversize load of futons and the worst part, dealing with a drunken high profile woman and trying to get her home to safety. The arrangement of the chapters and development is like riding a roller coaster. They talked about the upcoming war then suddenly mundane problems came into your life and gave espers a hard time solving them. It is a nice touch as they reminded us, readers, that they may have supernatural powers, but they are humans nonetheless.
3. Battles Between Factions
The main enemy of this volume is Skill-Out, a group of high-school delinquents who attempt to cause a large scale panic and destruction to the Academy City with guns and explosives under their disposal. Under GROUP, Accelerator and Musujime are the main operatives to dispose of these pieces of trash, starting with Skill-out leader Ritoku Komaba. The battle scenes are smooth and immersive while considering the realism, supernatural abilities and the technologies they possessed with a hint of fiction.
1. Not a Good Start
Toaru Majutsu no Index SS (A Certain Magical Index SS) is more of a side story between volumes 13 and 14 of the main series. If you are new to the Certain Magical Index series, we highly suggest you start with the main series itself, so that you can understand the context and situations unfold in this volume.
Final Thoughts
Toaru Majutsu no Index SS (A Certain Magical Index SS) is an excellent volume to have as it explores the perspectives of individual characters in short story manner and they complement each other for the overall plot. It is more focused on the overall story, filled with comedy elements, battle scenes and foundation for the main series' forthcoming volumes. But this volume isn’t meant for readers who are not familiar with the main series.
So if you are interested in side-stories where you get to experience different characters’ perspectives, you might like this volume. Which is your favorite character in this volume and why? Leave them down in the comment below!
Author: Nobodies17