Academy City

Academy City (学園都市 GakuenToshi) is the primary setting of the Toaru Majutsu no Index series and its side stories.

As the city's name suggests, it is a city of several schools and institutions of higher learning from kindergarten to university level that learn side-by-side along with the scientists who research on psychic powers and higher technology, the latter being one of the primary reasons for its establishment. It is the most advanced city in the world and its technology is said to be 30 years ahead of what's 'outside' of Academy City.

Academy City is composed of 23 districts, called School Districts which are simply numbered from one to twenty-three and each of these districts have a specific purpose.

In the novel series, there are only a very few citizens who know about magic such as Kamijou Touma, Index, Misaka Mikoto, Accelerator, Hamazura Shiage, Aleister Crowley, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, Himegami Aisa, Etzali, and Kazakiri Hyouka.

History
In 1947, a heavily injured Aleister Crowley is found by the Heaven Canceller in a remote English countryside and is nursed back to health by him. He later tells Aleister Crowley of the far away land of Japan. The city was founded by the magician Aleister Crowley to do studies and research on the development of preternatural abilities. According to Therestina, the students in Academy City are just being used to further the research and development in the achivement of a Level 6. How truthful her words are remains to be seen, however its important to note that both Aleister Crowley and Board of Directors have allowed deaths of students, and have allowed and supported further experimentation and research at the expense of many lives.

Some time later a pacel of land to the west of Tokyo in slow development was bought for the development of Academy City. The Five Elements Insitution is the first research organization formed, though it is exact location or existence has been in question. However, since the Five Elements Institution is closely related to the Imaginary Number District and Artificial Heaven, it can be assumed that the institution does not exist in the real world.

On October 9, Academy City formally gains independence as a city-state.

Government and Politics
Aleister Crowley is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and holds absolue power of the city, however, he usually doesn't concern himself with government affairs and delegates them to the 12 members of the Board of Directors. According to Aleister, the members of the board of directors are expendable and can be replaced any time.

The government has absolute power regarding policies, as adults have no say regarding policies being implemented. There is no suffrage since the majority population are minors.

Geography
Located just west of Tokyo, it is apprently located in a region where there is a constant wind that flows within the city, allowing its wind turbines to generate power. Climate in Academy City is probably the same in Tokyo and other surrounding areas, though through its technological advances they are able to predict the weather much more accurately and can actually give schedules on when the weather might change. Academy City is roughly 1/3 the size of Tokyo.

As stated, Academy City is composed of 23 districts, which are simply called School Districts and are numbered from one to twenty-three. Each of these districts has a specific purpose; below lists all 23 School Districts of Academy City, including their functions and purposes:

Below is the complete map of Academy City, with notes pertaining to certain locations where events in the Toaru Majutsu no Index occur.



Demographics
Academy City's total population is about 2.3 million with 80% of them being students and 1/8 of those students living in the city dorms. Of the entire student population, about 60% of them have the ability to demonstrate even a slight amount of psychic ability (these are Power Users of Levels 0-5). The remaining 20% of the students in Academy City pursue other subjects instead of going under the Power Curriculum Program, like Tsuchimikado Maika, who studies in a maid school.

It is unknown if Child Errors are part of the 80% demographic since they are no longer given any support from their guardians. On the other hand, it is highly probable that drop-outs and gangs such as Skill-Out are part of the remaining 20% demographic.

Nearly all inhabitants of the city of Japanese descent, though there are some foreign inhabitants of the city such as Frenda and Fremea Seivelun.

Education
Like its namesake, Academy City boasts the largest collection of primary, secondary, tertiary educational facilities in a single city. It can be aptly be described as a City of Schools.

Like most Japanese schools, Academy City follows a similar setup, with lessons on English, history, maths, etc. However, some schools such as Tokiwadai Middle School may have somewhat different setup than regular schools.

Similarly, the city follows a similar academic term to that outside of the city. With summer break beginning on the 20th of July up until the 1st of September. Additionally, the city boasts their own sports and cultural festivals similar to the outside, the Daihaseisai and Ichihanaransai respectively with its own unique touch that differentiates it from the outside.

Unique to Academy City is the Power Curriculum Program, a program which through the used of drugs, training and tests allow students to gain Esper powers.

Hard Science
One of the things that makes Academy City special technologically wise is their ability to make ground breaking technology that completely sweeps away "all mystical darkness" with the power of science, in other words, they create machines possessing specs that were completely thought of as impossible before and thus are basically a "myth buster", this specialty of Academy City is known with the term is known as Hard Science (自然科学).

Academy City mainly uses this as a serial number to their most advanced machinery regardless of "what it is for", which translate in equipment having an Hs within it's serial, such as the HsSSV-01 "motorcycle" power suit or the HsAFH-11 helicopter or the HsF-00 super sonic plane, it should be noted that to the reader most of the technology produced by the "Hard Science" has been put into practice for the sake of creating new weapons.

Foreign Relations
Although Academy City is stated as the dominant faction on the Science side, there are still internal conflicts with the science side, not unlike what's happening in the magic side between the various churches. Because of their stance as the most advanced city in the world and having the capability of producing supernatural powers, they are both and envied and feared by the factions on both sides. Even then before the start of the series, Academy City has remained neutral towards Magic side affairs in the city, allowing magicians to enter the city and not intervene with their business even at the cost of lives, and having other magicians deal with magicians without reporting to the magicians if there are third parties involved.

However, even with this, before the start of the series, the Roman Catholic Church was already considering to take over Academy City.

Academy City is stated to follow international laws against cloning, though with the existence of the Radio Noise clones it is obvious they are secretly delving into illegal activity banned by international law not just cloning.

Where the city's funds comes from is probably from different countries, even the military, that have high interest in psychic research. Also, the city has other bases of operations outside of Japan such as in Russia, demonstrated when all of the Sister clones left after the Level 6 Shift Experiment except 10 are sent outside Academy City for adjustments.

Many countries/factions found out the existence of Gemstones, natural born espers, and attempted to collect them to set up a esper research institutes independent of Academy City. There are up to 50 different factions/countries, all of which targeted one of the 50 gemstones outside Academy City. It was stated the CIA had 2 moles within each faction and tried to bring all of the gemstones together under their control. Academy City's Board of Directors in the end made a deal with Heaven Canceler, and sent in the Sister clones to all 50 institutes around the world to retrieve the gemstones for their protection, and also sent Kinuhata Saiai to assassinate the mastermind behind the plan of collecting the gemstones.

Domestic concerns
Academy City's technology is thirty years ahead of its time and thus, has accessibility to a more sophisticated array of measures to ensure security across the city.

The city limits leading outside are lined with walls, accessible only through entry points which require persons to have permission to enter or leave the premises. Inside the city, hidden cameras are dotted along many roads and alleyways. Not only that Aleister Crowley uses small miniscule machines known as the UNDER_LINE to gather data around the entire city.

In addition to the ground-level security protocols in Academy City, the satellite Orihime 1 (where the Tree Diagram supercomputer is located) and Hikoboshi II (a camera satellite and also a satellite laser-cannon) gathers detailed pictures of the area and relays it back to Earth. According to Kamijou Touma in the beginning of the series there were three satellites that continually monitor the city.

The primary peacekeeping forces in Academy City are Judgment and Anti-Skill; these two groups are composed of trained students and faculty respectively which deal with crimes and conflicts with security. They are authorized to retrieve Information from surveillance equipment within Academy City, to check if there are any crimes occurring, in addition to their constant patrol duties. Academy City also has a fire department as well as emergency response organization.

Unfortunately, security in Academy City is revealed to have severe flaws in it. Because of the destruction of Orihime 1, live feeds of satellite images are greatly reduced. Magicians can easily enter Academy City and, like Sherry Cromwell, can cause damage despite the presence of Judgment and Anti-Skill units. Also, it has been revealed that parts of District 10 of Academy City have been completely overrun by its inhabitants, unreachable by technology due to the Skill-Out members destroying the hidden cameras and Security robots throughout the area.

Groups like MEMBER and ITEM, they are mostly politically motivated factions working for one of the 12 Board of Directors of Academy City or Aleister Crowley, and care less about security and more on furthering their (or their employer's) own interests.

Foreign concerns

 * Main article: Academy City Military

Anti-Skill is used as the formal military forces of Academy City. With their advanced technology, Academy City boasts technological superiority over most military of the world, with their several Powered Suits such as the HsPS-15.

Trivia

 * Many scenes of Academy City from the anime are taken from Tama City and from Tachikawa City, both of which are in the Tokyo prefecture.