A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Review (2025)

A Returner's Magic Should Be Special

If you had the ability to travel back in time and relive future events, what actions would you take? Maybe you’re already rolling out the long list of things you would and wouldn’t do in such a scenario, including changing events for your own benefit or for the greater good of the world. This would be the ideal chance to tackle all your regrets and forge what you believe would be a better future, whether or not that is the reality. Some people say that everything happened for your own good or as God intended, but I personally don’t like that take because some losses are in no way for anyone’s or anything’s “own good.”

“A Returner's Magic Should Be Special,” also known as “Kikansha no Mahou wa Tokubetsu desu” or “Gwihwanja-ui Mabeop-eun Teukbyeol-haeya Hamnida,” is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 8th of October till the 24th of December in Fall 2023. Aniplex, Magic Capsule, Crunchyroll, D&C WEBTOON Biz, and Kakao piccoma produced it and brought it to life by Studio Arvo Animation. The main staff behind it include Takahashi Kanako, Furuhashi Souta, and Kwak Hye-eun as producers, and Kawaguchi Taishi as director. It features the action and fantasy genres, alongside themes of school and time travel. Each episode has a runtime of 23 minutes and earned a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years or older.

The anime is based on Yu So-nan's “Gwihwan-jaui Mabeop-eun Teukbyeol-haeya Hamnida” web novel series. While it was originally a Webtoon series, it was officially published into book format via D&C Webtoon Biz on the 11th of January 2021. It got adapted into a manhwa of the same name for a total of 268 chapters from the 19th of May 2018 till the 22nd of June 2024, which got serialized in KakaoPage. It is the work of author Yu So-nan and artist Uk-jakga, getting published digitally in English via Tappytoon since the 7th of June 2020. The volumes were later published via Yen Press on the 9th of August 2022. The series was also adapted into a light novel series of the same name for 8 volumes from the 30th of June 2017 till the 29th of November 2019. It is the work of author Yu So-nan and artist ORKA. A sequel to the anime has been announced, titled “A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Season 2,” courtesy of Aniplex.

The Shadow Labyrinth is an eerie location that is an ever-growing cloud of darkness that is threatening to eventually engulf the entire world and destroy all life therein in the process. This is where the protagonist, Desir Herrman, has spent an entire decade fighting off monsters in seemingly endless waves. But when he and his five companions finally come face-to-face with their final foe, the dragon of destruction Boromir Napolitan, things are guaranteed to change. While this valiant group of heroes manages to slay this incredibly formidable opponent, things turn sour when the tremendous amount of mana stored within the dragon's body ultimately releases.

This raw power became an unstoppable explosion that annihilated the rest of their world. But instead of dying, our MC gets sent back in time 10 years along with complete memories of the future to come. Now given a second chance to make things right, he gets enrolled at Hebrion Academy, fully determined to end the classist prejudice that plagues the magical world and would ultimately lead to humanity’s fall. But things don’t go smoothly from the onset, as early on as the entrance exams in fact, because he gets assigned to the Beta Class despite ranking at the top of his group. This is a big issue, as it is the default class for commoners, so much work lies ahead of Desir, starting from rallying other people to his cause. His first target is someone he failed to save in his previous life, a wind mage named Romantica Eru. Afterwards, he must prove his worth to the Alpha Class above him on his path to piecing together a new party that would ultimately help him save as many lives as possible.

As you may have already guessed from the synopsis, there really isn’t anything particularly “special” about this series. The series employs the overused premise of sending an overpowered MC to a different world or time, where they retain their expertise and effortlessly dominate everything. Here we have a global tragedy reset and the MC is “forced” to start from school level, and there’s nothing unique or engaging about it. In typical fashion, we have shallow and forgettable world-building, too many themes they have no idea how to juggle, cheap or non-existent plot twists and a plot copied from countless other shows like this. This is brainless entertainment, though, because as long as you can accept the overused tropes and just laugh off the lack of distinguishing traits, you can still have a decent watch.

On paper, there's basically nothing wrong with the plot. The issue is that it’s completely unoriginal and has nothing “special” about it, and no, the Magic itself is not special. We see how witnessing the unreasonable demise of the world affects Desir as his soul goes back in time to when he can change things. As determined as he is to prevent the tragedy, he must make sure both he and everyone around him are ready to face the fateful day. Of course, 12 episodes aren’t enough to do anything noteworthy with the story either, and the tiresome trope of pitting noble elites against commoners makes sure the usual pour of conflicts happens consistently within the school. Meanwhile, convenience is the motto of story writing here because everything can be solved through the almighty “ranking system” prevalent at the school. We are also not given proper reasons as to why Desir is OP or what kind of world background reinforces the system they have in place. There’s just a lot of prejudice going around and people are fighting it; that’s it. On top of that, there’s so much back and forth about “rules” that apply to everything, without any context as to why and how. The only redeeming quality here is how the plotline shows us how the characters grow stronger and get through tough situations, but even there the execution flopped.

The character department does relatively better than the story. While we have the overused archetypes and trope characters here, it was at least nice getting to see their interactions and bonding experience. If you want to get a feel for the stereotypes, they have everything from the good teacher, bad teacher, the textbook tsundere, that elitist who hates commoners, and so on. Oh, there’s also the strong but silent magic-user who just happens to be a girl with Ice affinity; need I say more? Their reactions to certain events are also pretty generic and predictable, so you’ll find them losing their appeal pretty fast. There is little to no character development as well, and don’t expect key moments that bring about big changes in the characters. And no, they aren't funny either. Everyone is just traveling along a straight line from the start to the endpoints, never experiencing any major ups, downs, or even defining moments.

Things are much better in the Art and Animation department. While the genericness seeps into this aspect as well, the visuals generally remain vibrant and colorful consistently. The best example of this is the magic cast using spells, which honestly looked so mystical and alive. The character designs are pretty standard in the genre. Starting from the male MC, we have seen a thousand times. Everyone has their archetype drawn into them and none of them have any memorable visual traits, so this was a downer for me. The animation is decent, but you can expect a handful of screens where people are just standing around or are moving very sluggishly. You’re better off being distracted by the good lighting and average backgrounds, which don’t really do much for the world-building sadly.

The Sounds and Music department is decent. The opening theme is "GET BACK" by FLOW and the ending theme is "6 wo Naderu" by Momosu Momosu, where the prior is your typical Shonen opening sequence but still suits the show well. Meanwhile, the latter is what you’d expect to hear from a romance series, so I felt it was horribly misplaced here. The OSTs, though few in number, do a good job of enhancing the scenes every now and then, but the bad writing just makes you realize what a waste it is. The voice acting is average; nothing special here.

Overall, this is not a show you should go into if you are tired of or dislike overused anime tropes. The sheer genericness of it all will water down whatever plus points this show has and there are hundreds of others just like it. On the other hand, if you can tolerate the tropes and find joy in the MC's triumph over adversities, this show may serve as a comforting, mindless entertainment. I know there are people who love/enjoy this genre, which is why the industry keeps pumping out so many of them in the first place, so please go in expecting the predictable.