Academy City in Japan is at least 30 years more advanced than the rest of the world, technologically. However, they also have a number of students that are honing their psychic abilities.
Unfortunately for Touma Kamijou, he has a psychic rank of zero, but he has an ability that the city’s scientists can’t quite understand – the ability to negate other psychic abilities.
Despite this, he lives a normal life until he meets Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a young girl who has memorized all the forbidden grimoires, and she drags him into the realm of the supernatural.
When magic and science meet, a story is born, right? A Certain Magical Index can be one of those anime series that can be hard to get into at first, but once you are in, you are really in. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like A Certain Magical Index, head on down below.
Anime Like A Certain Magical Index
Be Sure To Watch The Spin-Offs
You know what the best anime recommendations for A Certain Magical Index are? More from that world! A Certain Magical Index has two spin-offs – A Certain Scientific Railgun and A Certain Scientific Accelerator.
However, while the world “spin-off” has innately optional connotations, A Certain Scientific Railgun is less optional then maybe you would want it to be. If you are wondering about certain things in A Certain Magical Index Season 3, like who the hell Shiage Hamazura is and what is ITEM, that’s information you get from watching A Certain Scientific Railgun.
Alternatively, A Certain Scientific Accelerator is actually an optional spin-off. It is more for those who just can’t get enough of Accelerator, his mortality pet, and some of the best psychotic laughing anime has ever seen.
If you want to see how A Certain Magical Index and its spin-offs all connect together in more detail, check out our A Certain Magical Index / A Certain Scientific Railgun anime watch order.
For Fans of Supernatural Occurrences in a Seemingly Normal World
Shakugan no Shana
One day, Yuuji Sakai had his regular school life end when he becomes trapped in time and attacked by an unknown being. Right as he is about to die, he is rescued by a nameless hunter with brilliant red hair.
After being saved, the girl tells him that he is a Torch, a soul that has already died and is just waiting to fizzle out.
In A Certain Magical index, Touma lives in a world of espers and science. He knows people with abilities exist, and he knows about his power. However, like Shakugan no Shana is about a normal boy being pulled into this whole supernatural world he didn’t know existed, Touma gets pulled into a world of magic that he didn’t know existed.
What A Certain Magical Index and Shakugan no Shana have in common is a passion for big, flashy action, though Shakugan no Shana loves fire a little more than other sources of flash.
That said, Shakugan no Shana is a little less detailed in its world. It doesn’t go into lengthy exposition about how and why things are the way they are like A Certain Magical Index enjoys, but it does feature big action and a likable duo.
Durarara
Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro is awash in strange rumors, everything from colorless color gangs to a headless rider roaming town populate the rumors.
For Mikado Ryuugamine who just moved there from the countryside, he is but one witness to the district’s slew of strange events.
At a glance, both series look like they take place in a pretty normal city filled with quirky characters, but soon you see that they are not very normal at all. Both shows are very much about showing you the stranger, more supernatural underbelly of their normal settings.
The real primary difference here is that supernatural occurrences are portrayed as a mystery of the underbelly of Ikebukuro. By comparison, A Certain Magical Index and its variety of espers makes it an already odd city, it is just the magic is portrayed as something happening in the underbelly.
While A Certain Magical Index has a main character, only dipping out to show other character perspectives on occasion, Durarara actually doesn’t have a true main character. It is exploring all of the characters stories and weaving them into a building central narrative.
The Mystic Archives of Dantalian
After losing his eccentric grandfather, Lord Hugh “Huey” Disward is set to inherit his estate, but on one condition. He must take over care of his grandfather’s archives full of forbidden knowledge and care for a mysterious girl named Dalian.
However, he soon learns that the rival of his grandfather’s and his suspected killer is in the possession of a cursed tome that is causing problems in the world.
Now with Dalian’s help, he must work to do what his grandfather failed to do – seal the tome away.
Both A Certain Magical Index and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian feature men who one day meet young girls that are in charge of or contain an archive of forbidden knowledge. While that doesn’t play as big of a role in A Certain Magical Index as they make it out to at first, the forbidden knowledge archive is the central element in The Mystic Archives of Dantalian.
As the knowledge in The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is a physical thing and not something in Index’s head, The Mystic Archives of Dantalian is more focused on gathering and containing the books.
While The Mystic Archives of Dantalian features less grand action and is innately different in its more Victorian setting, the main duo forms a likable relationship not completely unlike Touma and Index – though often less contentious and with less biting.
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For Fans of Magic Fused with Science
The Irregular at Magic High School
After magic, once thought to be folklore, was turned into a technical skill, schools to teach it opened all over. At one such school are siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba.
While Miyuki excels, her brother is placed in a lower class due to his seemingly magical ineptitude.
However, he has rather unique abilities that make him quite irregular.
A Certain Magical Index emphasizes a world where magic and religion exists contentiously with science and psychic abilities. It creates a world that feels still very modern, but is also very magical. It is a unique experience and there are only two series that come close to capturing the same – The Irregular at Magic High School and Fate/Stay (which is right below this).
Like A Certain Magical Index, The Irregular at Magic High School follows a guy with so-called weak abilities, but only because they are abnormal to the more traditional magical abilities in that world. Unlike Touma who just has a weak power with game-breaking levels of usefulness, Tatsuya augments his magic with physical abilities that helps him overcome a lot of problems. It makes him irregular, you might say.
If you enjoyed A Certain Magical Index because it put a lot of love and detail into building the world, The Irregular at Magic High School does the same.
The Fate/ Stay Night Series
The Holy Grail War is a battle royale in one city in Japan among seven magi selected to be Masters.
These Masters summon a Servant, a Heroic Spirit of historic or mythical heroes past, and gain command seals to order their Servant to do their bidding.
Together, Masters use their Servants to fight a proxy war for the Holy Grail—a magical artifact capable of granting its wielder any wish.
In the Fifth Holy Grail War, Rin Toosaka is among the magi entering the competition. With her Servant, Archer, she hopes to obtain the Holy Grail and have her wish granted.
However, when Rin’s classmate Emiya Shirou accidentally enters too, things get much more interesting.
Both Fate/Stay and A Certain Magical Index do something quite unique in creating both a world that feels modern and realistic, but still filled with magic and also capturing the feeling that the plot of the series is just one small event happening in a world full of events.
While Fate/Stay Night follows the different visual novel routes in what is essentially a magical battle royale using summoned familiars, it still feels much like A Certain Magical Index in its world, though without the espers.
Furthermore, A Certain world is stuffed full of unique and interesting characters, the very same can be said of the Fate universe as well.
The Fate series can be a bit complicated to get into. However, if you want to get into it, check out our Fate / Stay Franchise Watch Order.
For Fans of Rare Power Protagonists
Guilty Crown
After being ravaged by the Apocalypse Virus, Japan has fallen under control of the GHQ, an independent military force dedicated to the restoration of order. However, a guerrilla group called Funeral Parlor seeks to put an end to their despotism.
After a fateful run in with a key member of Funeral Parlor, weak and anti-social Shuu Ouma finds himself with a powerful new weapon, the ability to pull out manifestations of a person’s personality to wield as weapons.
Now he must make use of it in order to free Japan once and for all.
Both A Certain Magical Index and Guilty Crown follow protagonists that were living otherwise normal school lives until they discovered a unique power that makes particularly useful. With Touma’s power, it is only useful when he is fighting an esper or a mage. With Shuu, his power is only useful if there happens to be another person, preferably a person with a soul that turns into a useful object, nearby.
While not as detailed in it as A Certain Magical Index, Guilty Crown tries its hand at building a unique city that is closed off from the world. As such, the main character is continuously pulled into different battles. However, Guilty Crown goes more for heart-wrenching than the fiery passion that A Certain Magic Index employs in its action.
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Vampires, fishmen, supersonic monkeys – They are all normal residents living alongside humans in Hellsalem’s Lot, formerly known as New York City.
When a gate between Earth and the Beyond popped up there three years ago, old NYC became dominated by monsters, and now Libra, a secret organization, is tasked with keeping it in order.
After hobbyist photographer Leonardo Watch obtains the All-Seeing Eyes of the Gods, he finds himself recruited into Libra.
Both A Certain Magical Index and Blood Blockade Battlefront take place in unique cities that are closed off from the rest of the world. In A Certain Magical Index, Academy City is closed off from magic users whereas Blood Blockade Battlefront closes off the supernatural and supernaturally-powered from the rest of the normal people of the world.
While A Certain Magical Index features Touma just kind of getting pulled into problems, Blood Blockade Battlefront frames its main characters as an organization that handles particularly difficult problems in the city.
Both series also feature main characters with “powerful, but only useful in specific niche situations” sort of abilities.
Bakemonogatari
After surviving a vampire attack, high school student Koyomi Araragi finds he has several supernatural side effects that remained after being cured including the ability to rapidly heal.
While trying to live a normal life after the event, he ends up catching a classmate, Hitagi Senjougahara, as she fell down some stairs. As he catches her, he discovers that she is near weightless after being inflicted with a curse.
After enlisting the help of the easy-going wandering Shinto priest that helped him with his vampirism, Araragi finds himself embroiled in not just Senjogahara’s issue but several different supernatural events afflicting those in his town.
If you stripped away all the detail and world building, both A Certain Magical Index and Bakemonogatari would be action harem anime where the main character gets constantly pulled into various problems around town. However, it is the details and the world building that make them great. It does what detailed storytelling and world building should do – hide the basicness of the concept.
Both series feature main characters with rather unique powers. He then proceeds to get pulled into a series of “arcs” that each often consist of them helping a girl solve a problem. A Certain Magical Index is less obvious about this in that sometimes he isn’t focused on a singular girl like Bakemonogatari is. Instead, A Certain Magical Index builds out an interesting world that fuses magic, religion, and science – always feelings like there are a number of things going on in the world outside the main characters’ story.
Alternatively, the Monogatari series is all about the supernatural that is going in an otherwise normal looking city, though it is more focused on the main character being a central part of that.
As, you may have noticed, is a theme on this list, the Monogatari anime series is one best went into with a watch order on hand.
Strike the Blood
Kojou Akatsuki was a normal high school student, but his normal life comes to an end when an encounter with a vampire leaves him with magnificent abilities.
As it turns out, he is the once thought mythical fourth primogenitor, whose power is immense.
Fearing the destructive potential of his powers, the Lion King Organization dispatches sword-shaman Yukina to monitor him and kill him if he becomes a threat. Unfortunately, she is not the only one with eyes on him.
What are A Certain Magical Index and Strike The Blood if not harem anime that makes you forget that it is a harem anime? That’s not an insult, it is actually fantastic that they still have the classic harem appeal of many cute girls and one powerful, helpful main character, but still make you feel like you are not watching a standard harem anime.
Both series feature main characters that are special and powerful in their own unique ways. Due to this, it draws a number of girls to them that end up staying by their side as he helps them solve their own various issues.
However, Strike the Blood features a little less detail than A Certain Magical Index. It focuses more on the action, and is more obvious with the harem sometimes, and does enjoy a little bit more fan service.
Black Clover
After being abandoned at the same church, Asta and Yuno grew up together. Together they also grew up aiming for the same title – The Wizard King, the strongest wizard in the kingdom.
However, it soon became apparent that while Yuno has skill with magic, Asta couldn’t use it at all. This all changed when they were attacked and Asta was given a strange grimoire that granted him the ability to nullify magic.
I like to think of Touma’s power as “F*ck you, no” because that would be a fitting thing to say every time he uses it. His power is the ability to simply negate every other scientific or magical power in that world. Coincidentally, that is pretty much the case for the main character in Black Clover too!
Both series take place in worlds where it is pretty common to have some sort of power. In Black Clover, it is presented as even more rare for a person to not be able to use at least some kind of magic. In both Black Clover and A Certain Magical Index, both main characters have no powers. They are the weakest of the weak. Well, except for their ability to negate magic.
However, Black Clover is more your standard shounen action anime. A Certain Magical Index is akin to a shounen action anime, too, but it definitely spends a lot more time of detailed world building and lengthy exposition explaining its concepts.
Zettai Karen Children
Kaoru, Shiho, and Aoi are the three most powerful espers in a world where of some have developed psychic abilities.
They are enlisted into the Base of Backing ESP Laboratory, or BABEL, where they hope to increase psychic evolution and also control those who seek to use their abilities in dangerous ways.
Unfortunately for the powerless Koichi Minamoto, he is charged with the task of keeping these three powerful teen girl in line and on task.
Both A Certain Magical Index and Zettai Karen Children take place in worlds where people have developed psychic powers. In its way, Zettai Karen Children is more like a A Certain Scientific Railgun in that the group it follows is extremely similar to Judgement, in that they both follow teen girls who take out criminals and act like teen girls. Interestingly enough, Zettai Keren Children’s own spin-off series, Zettai Karen Children – The Unlimited, also feels a bit more like the Accelerator spin-off. It’s a bit more serious than the lighter main series since it follows the antagonist of the main series.
While the worlds of both series are similar, Zettai Karen Children is more focused on the esper battles and less focused on building out its world. If you enjoy the variety of abilities in A Certain Magical Index, but don’t necessarily need the exposition, this is an excellent option.
Do you have anime more anime recommendations like A Certain Magical Index? Let fans know in the comments section below.
