Travis Bruno of Capsule Computers writes:
"A Certain Magical Index Season 1 Part 1 manages to not only take cliché elements and make them exceptional, it does so by finding the sweet-spot on the balance between exposition and action. While there are some drops in visual quality throughout the first half of the season, each battle is well animated and thought out well. With great characters and story arcs to kick things off and a killer cliff hanger leading into part 2, it appears that when science and magic collide, a great anime is born."
9/10
Glad to hear that they retained the whole "says Misaka..." thing in there. The sister arc would have felt weird without it. Already put in my order for both parts of this but it is good to see that they managed to keep the quality of the show on the up and up.
the rail gun spin off .. oh boy that one was surprisingly good. can't believe it was actually better the s2 of the original which was such a disappointment, however I think it had redeemed itself with last 5 eps.. but again I still enjoyed it.