Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows about how the Space Elevator has become a staple in parts of Japan’s culture – TV shows, cartoon shows, Anime, Manga, books, etc. with a space elevator in them are quite common.
One of these movies, Miracle of Endymion, was released in 2013 (with a Blu-Ray edition coming out in February of next year). From the Wiki:
The Toaru Majutsu no Index Movie: Miracle of Endymion (劇場版 とある魔術の禁書目録 エンデュミオンの奇蹟 Gekijōban Toaru Majutsu no Indekkusu: Endyumion no Kiseki) is a theatrical film based on the popular Toaru Majutsu no Index franchise released on February 23, 2013. It is centered around a terrible threat against the once peaceful Academy City that could lead to its destruction.
Academy City’s space elevator [is] Endymion. One day as its completion nears, Kamijou and Index meet a Level 0 girl named Meigo Arisa. Index and Arisa have a mysterious connection in their ravenous appetites. While the three are enjoying their time after school, Stiyl (who has brought in some other magicians) suddenly attacks. His target is Arisa. Why is a member of the science side like her being targeted by the magic side? With the attack from the magic side underway, Academy City deploys a unit meant to maintain order led by its female leader Shutaura. As the situation developing around Kamijou, Index, and Arisa grows more and more confused, Stiyl says, “That girl could likely cause a war between the magic side and the science side.”
When science and magic cross paths, the story begins with Endymion as its stage!
The Academy City in the story appears to be similar in setting to Professor X’s Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
According to one of the descriptions I read about this movie, it is “…set in the shared universes of A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun…”.
A “Certain Scientific Railgun” – really? I thought that was a translation error so went hunting for some more information about it. I found this; “Part Girl. Part Railgun. All Awesome. Misaka’s electro-manipulation abilities – and delightfully destructive Railgun projectile move – make her a rock star in Academy City. The techno-metropolis is packed with supernaturally powered students known as espers, including Misaka’s flirty friend and roommate, Kuroko.”
“Delightfully destructive Railgun projectile move” – I love it!
For completeness’ sake, I found a description of A Certain Magical Index: The description for Season 1 of this series starts out as “Kamijo is a student in Academy City, where people use science to develop supernatural abilities. The guy’s got a lot of heart – luckily for a young nun named Index. She’s on the run from a sorcery society that covets the astonishing 103,000 volumes of magical knowledge stored in her memory…”.
There are several other descriptions of this movie and its basis around the web – one of them describes the Academy City as a place where people are trying to make magic with a scientific basis. But as Sir Arthur C. Clarke once explained in his Third Law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Anyway, space elevators, magic & science, awesome art – what’s not like? According to the movie’s description, it is subtitled in English, so maybe I’ll buy it as a Christmas present to myself.
The image thumbnails in this post all come from the The Miracle of Endymion movie. There are several on the web – these were some of my favorites. Clicking on any of them will display a full-size picture.
(Update – 09DEC14 – Chris Beveridge, who knows much more about manga, anime, etc. than I do, has written a review of this movie here – very useful if you want to know more about this).
The Endymion space elevator as described allegedly is an off-axis non-vertical space elevator, with the ground anchor located in Academy City, which is ostensibly located in japan. The off-axis issue was a problem that was supposedly solved by the geniuses living in the city, according to the dialogue. Notable is the shortness of the elevator, ending at zero-G with no upper anchor mass/tether.