A Certain Magical Index: The Movie The Miracle of Endymion Blu-ray/DVD Combo

Like all stand alone movies derived from a series franchise the plot was a little thin and the characters lacked any real depth at times but still one for the fans I guess

liked it

One of my favourite anime's I've ever watched and the movie did not disappoint!

This is a review I've been meaning to do for a while now, and I've been desperate to do it since I love and adore the A Certain Magical Index universe/franchise. If you want my thoughts on the series and the Railgun series please read my review for those. So, if I am such a big fan why did I rate it 3 stars? Is the film bad? No. It's just a little disappointing in my eyes.STORYThe story is okay. To be honest there's nothing wrong with it; it's just a little cliché. I know A Certain Magical Index does that and it does use those clichés to its advantage, but this time around it didn't feel that way. The story just seemed a little off, though it does introduce some rather interesting characters. My biggest pet-peeve with this is the ending. I'm not saying it’s bad, but I wish it ended differently. The end tries to give us a twist but it just sounds a little silly. On the plus side, since this movie had the involvement of the man who wrote the light novels in which this is based on, Kazuma Kamachi, so I can only assume that some plot threads might be relevant to the series in the future, or maybe certain characters could re-appear in a filler arc of A Certain Scientific Railgun. Hopefully that is.CHARACTERSThis is one of my main pet-peeves. I know that this is an A Certain Magical Index movie, but I do think that it focuses too much on Touma and Index. Other characters don't get much screen-time if I'm honest. A lot of the characters I really wanted to see more of such as Misaka and Accelerator don't appear that much, or at least for a decent period of time. I still like the way characters were introduced I just wish they had more screen-time, but this is the problem with this movie and that is that it is overcrowded with characters. You Index and Railgun characters thrown into one movie as well as new characters, and it get to be a little much when things start to get going. Also, the bad guys aren't that memorable and are just plain cliché bad guys, though there were moments when they did surprise me and I enjoyed the times when they were on screen.ANIMATION & SOUNDThe animation is very similar to the series in places, but there are times when it does surpass it. The animation could be described as being rather standard and nothing amazing or spectacular, but it is still nice to look at. The music resembles both Index and Railgun well. In fact, this is one of the few movies in which its music is the same as the series, and with the same composer. A good comparison could be to give the Fairy Tail movie as an example. The music is mostly different variations of already existing tracks from both Index and Railgun series, but with some slight differences. I liked the music and enjoyed it as it played throughout the movie. Now, even though I really do like the cast for this movie there is one person in particular who I think should have been cast differently, and that is Megan Shipman (Juri Sanada in Wanna be the Strongest in the World, Hibari in Senran Kagura, Aceto Balsamico in Fairy Tail, and Riko Takitsubo in A Certain Scientific Railgun S) as Arisa Meigo. Don't get me wrong; I like the way she played the character, but I didn't like her singing all that well. Her character is supposed to be a good singer but she sounds a little shaky in places; I'm not a singer and can't think of a better way to describe it apart from saying that she's okay. I do think someone could have been cast to play her well and sing well, but we've got what we got. At least she's played well. The rest of the cast sound great and very much in character. They all sound like they're playing they're characters to the fullest. Whitney Rodgers (Yozora Mikazuki in Haganai, and Setag in Hyperdimension Neptunia The Animation) plays the emotionless Shutaura Sequenzia decently, and Maxey Whitehead (Kazuma Ikezawa in Summer Wars, Crona in Soul Eater, and Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) plays Ladylee Tangleroad to the best of her ability. Now, I haven't heard Maxey Whitehead since her Fullmetal Alchemist years, and I'm not used to hearing her play a female. So, I found it weird that sometimes she would sound like a girl then go to a boyish tone of voice. I liked her in the film, but it was just a little weird hearing her play a female after hearing her play boys for so long. If you want to know who else is in this please head over to my other reviews, or go to behindthevoiceactors.com.OVERALLI might be being a little too critical of this movie, because it is a good movie and the good is makes up for the bad. I might have just been expecting too much. I wish this film was longer so that there could be more interaction with the characters and I do wish that Arisa Meigo English songs sounded better, but despite the bad I do think that this is a good Index movie. It's just not as good as the series. If they decide to do another Index movie of any kind I will gladly accept it with open arms, I just hope that we see a third season of Index and Railgun soon, as me and I'm pretty sure many other fans are eagerly awaiting its return. I give this a recommendation to buy for any Index fan, though the US version isn't region free. If you have a multi-region DVD/Blu-ray player you will be able to play the DVD, but sadly the Blu-ray disc is region-locked. At the time of writing no UK anime distributor has licensed it, though I do hope that either Manga UK or Animatsu license it soon.