A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 8

とある魔術の禁書目録 [Toaru Majutsu no Index] (Novel) #8

by Kazuma Kamachi, Kazuma Kamachi

Tokiwadai Middle School--a place bathed in the envious gazes of all the schoolgirls in Academy City. Every single one of its female students is a proper young lady, and none more so than Mikoto Misaka. Kuroko--a Level Four teleporter and a member of Judgment, the organization that preserves public order in the city--knows this all too well. She invites her darling Misaka out to go shopping, but that's just the beginning of what ends up being a very, very long day, one in which she sees Misaka's true form and may wish she hadn't...

Genres: Light Novel, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Comedy, Japanese Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 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

[Lils · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially, I thought the volume would be focusing on Misaka, but it actually focuses on Kuroko! I guess it's kind of nice and interesting to see her perspective towards things, and how strong her determination to protect Misaka is, that she's willing to risk her life. However, it saddeningly seems to reveal that she's not strong enough to go into "their world". I think this volume serves to give some clarification as to the idea that even if the others have desires to help out Misaka and them, their desires simply aren't enough against the bigger picture of things, which I guess is shown when Touma comes to save Kuroko, and Accelerator deals with the antagonist this time around.

However, tbh I don't think it really needed a whole volume to show that, so it was prettyyy tedious to read at times. On the other hand, two teleporter types fighting against each other was rather amusing to read (as a break from all the Touma fights), but as usual, the volume still just seems like a build up for something later on, so it wasn't the most interesting in itself, and rather more of a discovery and enlightenment that Kuroko may be strong as a Judgement member, but she's still quite far away from being able to protect Misaka, especially if she doesn't want to be a burden to her. I think I really liked seeing more of the reasons why Kuroko loves Misaka so much though, it's obvious, but it's always nice to see people understand how much of a softie Misaka is and how she's always too considerate for her own good but that's how she is.

[Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume confuses me a lot. It characterises the side character Shirai, and it shows very clearly that Shirai can be characterised really well. So it makes her presence everywhere else so much worse. This is a neat short story, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and it gives Accelerator really good development in a short amount of time.

[Brandino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the change in perspective as we follow a secondary character living and acting while the main characters are doing their own thing in the back. It also follows up on the overarching mystery behind the city, from the perspective of a character who never saw the events of the older books and is finding out now. It does trip at the end by giving the villain a flimsy self-righteous excuse that falls apart when the villain thinks for a single second. The excuse isn't even revealed until the very moment it falls apart.

Also like I know I was around the character's age when I read this as a kid but man is it weird reading this back. They are from elite schools, but the series has yet to show, at this point, an actual class or evidence to why they're this intelligent and combat-oriented.

[Creativeimaginator · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite characters by far are Mikoto Misaka and Kuroko Shirai. Since this volume primarily centers around them, I enjoyed this book to high heaven.

[Celloh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anime makes the show seem like a kid's cartoon. Meanwhile, the light novel is brtual af.

[Grace Ziehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Abel Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time- [01h 24m 47s]

[Niquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Team work happens, and it was nice.

[Alec Rebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

well written again but the lack of kamijou or misaka made it a bit boring at times