A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 6 (light novel)

Okay, I'll just save some of you the trouble right off the bat. The reason I took away a star is because I don't really like Index, the character, and she is front and center for a LOT of this book. If you feel there is no justifiable reason for me to take away a star because of the character the series is named after, feel free to stop reading because I doubt I'll change your mind. If you want to know why I did this, please read on.For clarity's sake, this review is for the LIGHT NOVEL of 'A Certain Magical Index 6'. The cover has a picture of Index and Kazakiri standing side by side on it.The day Touma Kamijou has been dreading has finally arrived. Summer break is over--no, he never did finish his homework--and now it's time for him to go back to school. Having lost all of his memories (something that the book, and the series, feels it needs to remind us of constantly and is getting a bit annoying now) from before the start of break, Kamijou has been dreading this day. Will he be able to fit in with his class, or will they suspect something is up and blow his cover? The answer to this question is...we have no idea. Kamijou manages to get through start of class, but then things kind of go sideways and he basically ends up skipping school. Yes, it was only a half day since it's the Opening Ceremony, but the dread he was feeling is sort of shoved aside in favor of the actual story.Only two interesting things happen while Kamijou is at school. The first is that his class is getting a new transfer student. Naturally, all the boys are hoping it's a cute new girl, and when Miss Komoe opens the door to introduce the new student, Kamijou is surprised to find Index standing there. That's the second surprise. Index shows up at Kamijou's school--asking for food, of course--but she is quickly shooed out of the room and the real transfer student shows up: the beautiful, and somewhat strange, shrine maiden, Himegami.Too bad the story doesn't really do anything with her, besides having her give a bit of backstory on Kazakiri.Index, left to her own devices inside the school, runs into Kazakiri, another transfer student to Kamijou's school. Index immediately latches on to her, and the two become fast friends. Kamijou, worried that Index has basically been left alone unsupervised, tracks them down and the three end up going to an underground mall. Pictures in risque outfits are taken--because of course they are, because Kazakiri is stacked and Index needs to find some excuse to beat on Kamijou--arcade games are played, and food is eaten. It seems like a normal day, but this is 'A Certain Magical Index' and as we all know, normal is not part of Kamijou's life.A rogue sorcerer from Necessarius (the same faction that Index belongs to) has her sights set squarely on the trio, and she is not pulling her punches. Sherry's aim is to kill one or all three of them, and with literally the entire Earth as her weapon, it's going to take more than Kamijou's right hand to stop Sherry.What follows is a battle that, while only taking place in the span of maybe an hour, takes up nearly a third of the book. Some parts are really good, while other parts are rather bland. Kazakiri reveals/discovers a horrifying secret about herself, Index shows that she can handle herself without any help for a bit, and Kamijou gives his usual speech of happiness and breaking illusions.I'll be honest. When I watched this story in the anime, I really didn't like it. It felt out of place, rather poorly paced, and I didn't really understand what was going on. Sherry's motives for wanting to start a war between Science and Magic make sense--at first. But then she starts to explain them, and while they get a bit selfish, they still made sense. But then Kamijou throws her beliefs back at her and it goes out the window, making her really come across as a pale villain in the anime.Well, in the book, it's even worse. We're told, by Kamijou, Sherry, AND the author, that Sherry has over a thousand beliefs. This is supposed to explain why she's so conflicted and is such a mess, wanting to start a war but not really start a war, but it just doesn't work. Instead, what we get is a tangled mess of a character that feels like a ball of knots that most readers won't want to bother untangling. I was already annoyed with this story (more on that below), and once Kamijou did his whole, "I'm yelling at you about how wrong you are and I'm understanding how you feel but you're still wrong so I'm going to stop you!" speech, I just wanted to be done with Sherry.So, why was I annoyed with this story? Well, it goes back to that opening paragraph. Index (the character) fans, be warned. I'm about to start "hating on your waifu" here.Index, to me, has always been a brat. And I don't mean that as a compliment. She is selfish, always demanding food even when Kamijou explains that he's broke and they can't afford all the stuff she wants, but she doesn't care. She's constantly yelling at him and biting his head or hurting him in other ways, even when she knows he's not at fault. She is, in my opinion, one of the worst types of people--she reminds me of Chibi-Usa from Sailor Moon when she first arrived. She doesn't make an effort to learn anything, having been in Academy City for a few months now and still being clueless on how basic stuff works (and don't tell me it's because she's not from Japan, because the girl has a perfect memory so she should be able to pick some things up), and she seems to have absolutely zero concept of how reality works. When Kamijou points this out to her, saying she lacks common sense, she counters by explaining a really complicated magical rule to him and saying, "But you knew that, right? It's common sense." This would be a fair point, save for two things. 1) Magic is supposed to be SECRET. Index knows this, so of course what is common sense to her isn't going to be common sense to everyone else. 2) Index has been in Japan, and the outside world, for a few months now. She should be picking a few things up at this point, but she's not. At this point, her not knowing things is becoming less because she's sheltered and more because she just doesn't want to make any attempt and rely solely on Kamijou for everything.The scene where she just walks into Kamijou's classroom and starts asking for food is mind boggling. I know it's supposed to be cute--ha ha, Index followed him to school--but to me it just shows everything that is wrong with her character. Even if she really doesn't know what a school is, which I find hard to believe, even she should have been able to tell from a FULL classroom that she shouldn't just walk right in and interrupt the proceedings.Worse, she even acknowledges this herself, saying that she wouldn't want Kamijou following her into a Church meeting, but she quickly overrides this because she's hungry.The first half of the book is pretty much Index doing these sorts of things. She and Kazakiri change clothes in the Nurse's office--because she wants to try on the school clothes for some reason--and Kamijou walks in on them so she bites his head. How about locking the door next time you're getting naked, huh? To be fair though, Kamijou should have really learned to knock by now.While they're walking through the mall, Index insults Kamijou over and over, saying that his aura and the look on his face scares young girls and that's why Kazakiri keeps shying away from him, and yet when she's alone with Kazakiri, she tells her that "Touma isn't really a bad guy, so stop being so scared of him." Just...ugh!On a positive note, Index FINALLY meets her match when she crosses paths with Mikoto Misaka for the first time. Mikoto isn't having any of Index's sass, and personally, it was my favorite part of the book. Or, second favorite part.Let me be clear: when Index is in fighting mode, or when she knows she needs to be serious, I like her. Even when she's just being sweet, nice, or just normal, I like her. When she was just hanging around with Kazakiri, she's fine. But whenever Kamijou enters the scene and there's not a life-and-death situation going on, I find her to be little more than a spoiled child and it wears on me. And most of this book is exactly that. Throw in the mess that is Sherry, and that is why the star is missing. I know there are people out there who probably adore Index, but I am not one of them.It's not until the epilogue that this story really got good for me. We are treated to a scene between Tsuchimikado and Aleister, the man who seems to be pulling the strings in Academy City. He's the one floating upside down in a tube. In this one scene, not only do we learn a bit more about Aliester, but the events of basically the past four or five books are all revealed for what they truly were: the opening moves in a master game of chess that Aliester is playing. This scene also sums up what, exactly, the entire point of this book, something that I feel the anime failed at.This one scene is probably the high-light of the entire story, and if I'm being generous (and I mean REALLY generous here), I would say that it might be safe to just read the epilogue if you've seen the anime episodes of this story.Bottom line: I didn't care for this story in the anime, and I don't care for it here. The villain, while starting out good, falls apart when the author tries to make her tragic and complicated, Index is in full annoying brat mode for the vast majority of the story, and Kamijou just keeps taking it over and over. The world building we get, as well as the action scenes and Mikoto and Kuroko's guest appearances, save this story from only getting three stars, but if I'm being honest, I'll probably skip this book if I decided to read the series again.The next book introduces us to two new Church factions, as well as a few new characters, and if the anime was any clue, it should be much more enjoyable than this one.

I am loving this series the writing is incredible , the characters are great as is there interactions . Great

Good

Sind Sie auch müde von der Realität? Brauchen Sie ein bisschen mehr Magie in Ihrem Leben? Dann ist dieses Buch genau das Richtige für Sie!Vorteile: Die Welt der Magie ist faszinierend und voller Abenteuer. Die Charaktere sind einzigartig und haben alle ihre eigenen Kräfte und Persönlichkeiten. Die Geschichte ist komplex und hält Sie auf Trab.Nachteile: Wenn Sie keine Erfahrung mit der "A Certain Magical Index"-Reihe haben, können Sie sich ein wenig verloren fühlen. Einige der Handlungsstränge sind verwirrend und können schwer zu folgen sein.Fazit: A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 6 (light novel) ist ein Buch für diejenigen, die ein bisschen mehr Magie in ihrem Leben wollen. Die Geschichte ist komplex und faszinierend, aber auch verwirrend und schwer zu folgen. Wenn Sie die Serie bereits kennen und lieben, werden Sie es genießen, weitere Abenteuer in dieser magischen Welt zu erleben. Aber wenn Sie neu in der Serie sind, könnte es schwierig sein, in die Geschichte einzusteigen.

Ist anstrengend auf Englisch zu lesen, ehrlich gesagt find ich Hyouka etwas langweilig. Dieser Arc war nicht so gut wie sonst muss ich leider sagen deswegen nur 4 SterneHabe generell Schwierigkeiten die magische Seite zu begreifen, lese eigentlich nur wegen Mikoto