A Certain Magical Index – The Miracle of Endymion (also known as A Certain Magical Index: The Movie – The Miracle of Endymion) is a Japanese anime movie that takes place between volumes 8 and 9 of A Certain Magical Index that was released on February 23, 2013 in Japan. This was also released by Funimation for the English-speaking audience. The movie has a manga/novel adaptation and a Japanese-game that act as prequels to the movie events, which consist of A Certain Magical and Scientific Ensemble and A Certain Magical Index: Road to Endymion.
The movie starts when Academy City reports the Spaceplane Orion crash landing without any casualties years ago before the events of the Index series. Later on, Touma and Index get acquainted with a teenage girl named Arisa Meigo, who wants to be a future singer. While Arisa was chosen to be the singer for the ceremony to celebrate the opening of a space elevator named Endymion, she gets targeted by magicians under the Anglican Church.
From there, the two realize that the assassination attempt leads to another event that has something to do with the creation of Endymion.
Tropes found in the anime movie:
- Accidental Pervert: Index and Arisa are bathing together in Touma's apartment when Arisa is struck by inspiration for a new song. They rush to the living room without bothering to dress so Arisa can write it down. Naturally, Touma comes home, gets an eyeful, and is bitten by a furious Index.
- Artistic License – Physics: Endymion. Space elevators are extremely difficult to build even in the best of circumstances. For best results, they are supposed to be built from space, hanging above the equator. Building one in Japan would be much more trouble than it's worth, not to mention that it looks like it was built from the ground up. Justified by Academy City's super-science, and lampshaded when Touma notes it could have been built easier elsewhere. Endymion actually had the ground part and space port constructed roughly at the same time, the main wire of the elevator being connected to the ground portion from the space port. The exterior of the elevator was created in record time by making the building blocks of the tower individual moving robots who could crawl up the wire to get to their positions, building the elevator from top to bottom. Uiharu also admits the elevator would have been easier to build at the equator but the construction of Endymion was also meant as a show of force by Academy City.
- Bittersweet Ending: At the end of the movie, the main conflict is resolved, but Arisa has merged with Shutaura. A post-movie interview by Kamachi teases that Arisa/Shutaura might have a bigger chest and might be singing somewhere in Academy City.
- Foreshadowing: In the movie, Index is in awe upon seeing the Endymion Space Elevator and proclaims that the science side has managed to construct the Tower of Babel. She's right.
- Identical Stranger: An unintentional example. Shutaura Sequenzia looks exactly like Seiri Fukiyose. The series artist, Kiyotaka Haimura, realized this too late and apologized to the fans.
- Mystical City Planning: In Miracle of Endymion it's revealed that the Endymion space elevator was actually built in order to be the center for a magical circle large enough to encompass the entire earth. The scale of the structure on its own was enough to give it magical significance, but everything about it was built to channel a specific spell. The core room's true purpose was to house the center of the spell, and allowed the villain, who otherwise couldn't wield magic, to direct the spell.
- The Nudifier: At the end of the film, Arisa Meigo returns to Shutaura Sequenzia's body. Shutaura's clothes disappear in the process.
- Really 700 Years Old: Ladylee Tangleroad
- Retcon: The movie retcons a space elevator into existence for the sake of its plot. This is lampshaded in the movie itself, as well as in Chapter 56.5 of A Certain Scientific Railgun:Saten: "Don't you call this a retco-"
Uiharu: "IT JUST SO HAPPENED! TO BE OUTSIDE!! THE PANEL!!!" - The X of Y: The subtitle-thing: "(The) Miracle of Endymion"
- Two Halves Make a Plot: Shutaura carries a broken bracelet as a Tragic Keepsake from the plane crash that killed her father. She gets shocked when she runs into Arisa and finds Arisa carrying the other half even though they have never met before. It turns out Arisa was spawned from Shutaura during the plane crash and took the other half with her. When the two become one again, the bracelet becomes whole.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Ladylee Tangleroad violently dislikes her immortality, and she has gone to extreme lengths to bypass it over the centuries.
