Toaru Majutsu no Index: Road to Endymion

Road to Endymion is a magic side light novel and the prequel of the movie, Miracle of Endymion, that was given by the first 103,000 attendees. Yes, exactly as grimoire that index have. Without further ado, let's go with reviewing this. If you just want to know when to read this then skip to the note at the last part. Story: Spiky haired boy, Kamijou Touma, and the freeloader sister, Index enjoying their time after school until Touma accidentally touches something that was from Necessarius member, Stiyl, that was here for the reason of a magic cabal that abhore science had broken into Academy City. Although itwas just a prequel for the Miracle of Endymion, it's not necessary to watch the movie in order to understand it since it's pretty much standalone. But I still recommend reading it before the movie as it explained why Endymion was made. Then again, it's not that popular so I assume that most of you that stumbled upon here watched the movie already so that's no longer an option. Anyways, my only problem on this was the contradiction that had occured at the last-ish chapters. Aside from that, it was quite a nice read. Art: The illustrator for this one was Haimura Kiyotaka, well known as the illustrator of the main franchise. There wasn't that much of illustration on this one since it just had a 1 volume but if I remember correctly, it was fairly decent. I'm not really fan of his illustration at Old Testament. Characters: Aside from the introduced characters on the main francise, we had the Exica sisters here, the hot onee-san, Ureapaddy, and her little sister, Sozty and the other members of the magic cabal. They had a nice characterization on this one, although, I wish their background was explored more since it was pretty interesting. But it's pretty understandable since it was just a standalone story and not related to the Index's main plot at all. Enjoyment: It's pretty much enjoyable, considering that it's just a 1 volume. This novel only had a little slice of life and/so really, you won't get bored reading it. The only thing that really hampered my enjoyment was the contradictions to the movie, that's why it is best to treat as standalone and don't mind the the movie, lol. I recommend reading it if you are a fan of magic lore, and if you only have a spare time, ofcourse. By the way, hey, Index was actually not your typical Index here. Note: Road to Endymion happened at September 10 - 12, after the Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc and before the Three Diagram Remnant Arc and Miracle of Endymion. So if you want to follow the chronological order, you can read it after OT7. As I said earlier, it's not that important to the main plot of Index, it just gives more insight about the magic side, so you can read it before or after the movie, Miracle of Endymion, or even without reading the main franchise lol.