Kikansha no Mahou wa Tokubetsu desu

This is a disappointing adaptation, so much so that I felt inclined to write my first review. The animation is clunky, there’s endless dead time and still frames, with several key details altered or completely discarded from the source material. I genuinely struggle to find anything redeemable from an adaptation perspective. The fact that they skimmed over 10 chapters of plot and world building in a 30 second montage at the end of the last episode was especially painful. The only reason I don’t rate it lower is due to the source material. If this was my first encounter with the series, I probably would’ve dropped it by the first or second episode. Read the manhwa instead, and forget this adaptation exists.

What would you do if you failed to save the world? What if you had one more chance? What would you do differently? That is what this story is trying to tell, the story of a second chance. A Returner's Magic Should Be Special is about how Desir failed to save the world and now gets a second chance, by traveling back to the start of his time in a magical academy. We then follow him trying to change what happened originally, to hopefully change the outcome of the world's possible end. The plot is very much about the growth of characters and to start building up knowledge and power, so they can stand together. Through this do you see how Desir hopes to have people more prepared and change the mistakes that originally happened. Which is done through some interesting arcs that help show the world at the academy and a glimpse of how the wider world works. The characters in itself are based on stereotypes that are seen before, but none of them is done in a really extreme or frustrating way. You explore Desir’s past throughout the season and start to understand why he is making specific choices, so you don't see him evolve that much, but instead learns more about him and his past. The other characters you see grow, overcome obstacles and have a steady progression forward. This is also a show that sticks very close to the original fantasy vibe, where magic is not explained by levels, but instead is purely based on skill and abilities. The show also has a specific style of animation that puts much focus on colors, which can especially be seen in the characters' hair, since they have some interesting color schemes. Overall, is this a good fantasy anime that has a nice plot and some stereotypical roles done right, so i would definitely recommend giving this a watch.

A Returner's Magic Should Be Special — Tell me why manhwa series like author Chugong's Solo Levelling get all the hype with next season's much anticipated anime adaptation, rather than this "special" show that frankly (and really) isn't all that special to begin with. Japan's equivalent of South Korea's manhwa (or Webtoons as we simply call them today), the material has made headwaves in its own country for decades, so much so that its industry has effectively blown up in the same way that we now experience Japanese manga for authors to pursue fame and fortune. For every piece of the genre pie that we can easily get through manga, Webtoons also have their own iterations, with the only difference being in full colour, as opposed to the black-and-white manga standard. And in this season, we are presented with one such work: Kikansha no Mahou wa Tokubetsu desu a.k.a A Returner's Magic Should Be Special — author Usonan and illustrator Wookjakga's fantasy adventure time-travel series, being the equivalent to Ken Wakui's Tokyo Revengers, if only made in a fantasy realm.  In a ravaged life of war with an armed party fighting against an evil labyrinth that has absorbed the world into its eternal darkness, only the strongest mages would remain to defeat the dungeon boss, which they did until its sac burst to bring out imminent, permanent destruction upon the world. But for one such mage, he finds himself mysteriously time-travelling back to the beginning of school days and only has one objective: by having retained all of the memories from the previous timeline, he will use that to thwart a repeat of that same catastrophe in the new timeline. That's the MC Desir Herrman for you, being one of the last 6 mages in a party of the strongest mages who's gone back 13 years to school to recruit the very same people in his party that would defeat the labyrinth's dungeon boss, by hook or by crook. The school that Desir once attended (and has to again) is the prestigious Hebrion Academy, the school for both nobles and commoners, split into Alpha and Beta classes, which is designed for students to receive the education best suited to their skill level, resulting in the best possible learning outcomes for all the students. But with that balance, soon came oppression between the two entities, because while the academy still placed the most skilled students in the Alpha Class, most of them were nobles who had been systematically trained from the beginning of their education, leaning the Alpha Class to an aristocratic, superiority-obsessed air to it. And in that sort of atmosphere, a commoner with the appropriate skills would sometimes rightly qualify for the Alpha Class but would always be pushed back into the Beta Class, which, other than the obvious difference of being the total opposite, was mostly composed of commoners who lacked any kind of support. Care and passion were not directed towards the students, as almost none of the lectures had proper professors assigned to them, making it extremely difficult for the commoners to reach their full potential. But there is a silver lining for the Beta Class commoner students (as well as nobles) wanting to make it into the aristocrat-stinking Alpha Class: Hebrion Academy's traditional Ranking Tournament, which also acts as a sort of midterm exam for the students. It starts off with the typical 1-on-1 tournament phase, which slowly dwindles down to the Top 30 students, who would use the academy's specially tailored and crafted Shadow World (which typically would be reserved for evil creatures to envelop their enemies) that's laden as both a survival-of-the-fittest battle royale and a team mission in top of it to avoid that world's catastrophe, which would round up the Top 9 to receive the Single Ranker title, regardless of either commoner or noble status. You might ask: What has everything above got to do with the characters? This is where the story and plot take their form. As mentioned, Desir's primary role is to recruit his party members to avoid the exact same catastrophe happening in the new timeline, albeit in their high school form. And the first of which he would meet is the Wind elemental attribute mage of Romantica Eru. She first depicts herself as nobility, having joined the Alpha Class and partnering up with one of the best parties in the academy, but after finding out that everything about her is falsified, Romantica is soon "brought down to Earth" back to the Beta class, where she has become the subject of infamy to both commoners and nobles. That is, until Desir's persistence that she'd come to accept him after rejecting him many times through the persuasion of his time-travel knowledge (that she doesn't know about) and his training to refine her into a capable mage. The next to come would be the swordsman (or swords-boy, rather) of Pram Schneider, the blue-haired short boy who's perceived to be so cute and adorable that most people mistake him for a girl. How Desir found him is through the ranked tournament and the overly familiar torture of a fight between a noble and a commoner, being the son of a noble father that he'd never met and taken care of by his commoner mother until her passing. To be expected, Pram starts off being the assumed commoner weakling that he is, until Desir picks him up, trains him, and utilises the last gift from the scum of a noble father of a rapier to defeat his opponent, to which he'd lean towards taking care of everyone, even Desir himself, to the point of being a Tsundere-like child for his affection. The last of which is also the strongest of the bunch: Azest Kingscrown. Her being Hebrion Academy's school idol is a testament to who she is: the perfect top-excelling student and leading the academy's top Blue Moon nobility-only party but parading around in the Kingscrown name to avoid the anonymity about her: being the heir to the Hebrion throne as the Empire's Crown Princess. The tall, blonde-braid-haired girl certainly is a tour de force, the definition of a cold person who's disinterested in the things around her due to her affinity with ice magic. That is, until she meets Desir, and her world grows from a blue, cold-ish monotone to one of colour, with which she would become friendly and warm up to him, Romantica and Pram. Certainly, of which, said MC doesn't treat her differently from who she was before, and the party of 4 would become a united party to take down issues orchestrated by Desir. The biggest elephant in the room would have to be the lacklustre production. Please be reminded that Aniplex IS the head of the production committee for this show (and coincidentally, Project No. 9's ButaReba), and somehow this season, you have a double whammy of adaptations that are just straight-up inferior versions of their source materials. Arvo Animation, the studio best known for the Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai a.k.a We Never Learn: BokuBen series, I thought actually succeeded for once with Fall 2021's Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu a.k.a Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, despite not having a lot of action in said source material. However, with almost ALL Korean manhwa, you can expect action at every corner, and sadly, the production just weighs the entire series down, almost to the point where the line between anime and manhwa just looks the same. Come on, Aniplex, you have a big (and I mean, BIG) budget; is this a test-ground experiment of sorts? The music...is as I've expected: Japan's version of Shonen stuffed into a Korean manhwa, especially with FLOW's Shonen-sounding OP, comes from the J-Pop band famous for iconic theme songs from Naruto to Code Geass. It's decent, but it definitely fits the nature of the show to a T. The part that I don't get is Momosu Momosu's ED song, which just sounds like something you'd expect to hear in a romance (if not rom-com) anime. So...a rather misconstrued misalignment of song selection, perhaps? Ultimately, I still come off of the pre-co…

Have you ever thought to yourself "Hey, this manga would be great as an anime! Why hasn't it been done yet?" That was me with this show--- about 5 years ago when I first started reading the Manhwa. After completing it I can safely say it absolutely FLOPPED and did not live up to expectation like with Attack on Titan or Mushoku Tensei. But looking back on it, the signs were there and realistically even with better animation or editing this was about the level of quality to be expected. I will put it here if you don't want to read the following ramblings: This is show is not very good, is kinda boring, but provides a bit of entertainment if you like Isekai, Fantasy Academy stuff. I can't comment on the Manhwa since I only read maybe a hundred chapters years ago and honestly don't remember much about it, but I think that in and of itself says something. Minor Spoilers, if you couldn't figure it out from the title, the main character of the story is Desir, a magician, who goes back in time to save his friends(?) and his magic and his use of it is abnormal, special even one could say. Now, as it sounds this should be a fairly standard I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Isekai fantasy story that feels like an Isekai because of the aforementioned premise, but there were a few points to it that make it, or would have made it, a more interesting story. First, the protagonist isn't overpowered, sorta. Much like many other stories from Korean authors, Desir isn't overpowered because of some God-Given Gift or power but rather his own intelligent use of his abilities, skills, and knowledge. Second, he is returning to save people who had died rather than for some self-serving purpose. Instantly makes him a more likeable and supportable character whom has their own autonomy. Third, a harem. You know it. I know it. We watch these shows because it tickles that little funny part of our monkey brains for a nice dopamine hit. However, this show spices it up by making it a more pseudo-harem feel. Like in his eyes he loves them, as his kids, and not as romantic partners so it doesn't feel weird and makes it more wholesome while having fairly legitimate reasons for them to interact the way they do. Now putting that all together you get a show just as interesting as you reading me list out all of the interesting things about the show. It's bland, tasteless, but also exactly what you came for while knowing it may or may not have something fun or exciting to read. Did that blow your mind? Don't worry, I only noticed after I had written out that entire dissertation and realized it truly encapsulated what the show felt like. If this review bored the crap out of you, there's your answer. I personally slept through 2 episodes before I noticed and ended up having to rewatch them only because where I woke up at seemed interesting and I had hopes it would eventually get better. It did not. However, If you found this review piqued your interest in the show or found it mildly informative, then you may like the show. It had its fun points and may scratch that fantasy itch

To be honest, the first two episodes were actually amazing. I loved the tension and the setup. It really felt like this anime was going to be something special. But after that, it completely fell apart and turned into your average piece of trash isekai. Like I said, the start gave me hope, but the characters ruined everything. Most of them are annoying and not even worthy to remember. Romantica is the biggest problem. This bitch should have died in the first episode and the MC should have let her die. She is ungrateful, annoying, untrustworthy, and easily the shitest thing about the show. Then we have Pram. You can add a girl, a boy, or even an old man, but a character who looks like a boy and acts like a girl is just weird here. I don’t know if he was gay or what kind of creature this character was, but there was nothing interesting about him at all. After these unnecessary characters, we get our MC. In the beginning, he looked like a worthy character who would do anything to protect his loved ones. But from episode three, he also turns into an unnecessary side character that you can forget anytime. The characters around the MC feel more like side characters than anything important. The story is simple. The MC goes back in time to save his friends. But those friends, especially that bitch Romantica, are completely unworthy to save. The story becomes boring, and the fighting scenes feel almost the same in every episode. Two characters fight, magic happens, and you don’t care what’s going on because it’s not interesting at all. The art is not so bad, but not good either. Overall, A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special is a waste of time with annoying characters, a boring storyline, and nothing special to remember.

The story did have some potential considering the manwha already has a built in fanbase. However, the studio did it so half-heartedly that a story that deserves 7 or 8 out of 10 becomes a 2 really and averages out at 4 or 5. The characters feel forced, the MC's determination feels half-assed, but the biggest drawback is the animation. It's not that it's the worst, it's just weirdly slow and clunky, like worse than mid 2000s video game, same with dialogue- it felt like something written and acted by AI. It walks such a weird line of rushed or skipped plot but super slow dialogue and animation. Like when you're watching a video buffer but it's not buffering actually. Yet it skips all the elements that might have made me care about the side characters or their motivations or something along those lines. My recommendation- READ THE MANWHA if you're interested.

This is underrated so I chose to overrate it. As per-usual, those who read the source material are heavily influencing the negative reviews 🙄 and consequently hurting the author and their prospective fan base. No better way to say “I really enjoyed your book” than by hitting them straight in the wallet amiright? Moving on. There are not even an eighth as many “returnee” anime’s as there are mangas/manhwa etc and it’s a crying shame, I hope this statement ages like milk in the future 😌 So that aside, this anime was great. The characters were all distinctive, and art was well drawn and captivating and the story was cohesive. Anime is not known for its subtlety, but this one hit the subtle in the spots where it was needed and the “in your face” when it wasn’t. It is compared to Irregular at Magic High often and I think that’s very fair. It’s like if someone took tIaMHS and made it less stupid and more coherent. The issue of discrimination is handled much more sensibly. In Irregular the discrimination issue boiled down to [i]it makes me feel bad[/i] before being shoved under the rug. In this it was taken more seriously and from an angle of “look how much talent we are wasting”. The problem is overarching and the very future depends on maximizing everyone’s potential. So that’s one aspect I really liked. I also love the way the main character is portrayed. He seems to have it all together and took his time travel in stride, but with little slip-ups you can see how much he isn’t actually okay (without the anime spending needless screen time monologuing.. as if watchers are so dumb they need things spelled out) so I guess what I’m saying is I enjoyed that the creators are trusting the audience. I dearly hope this gets enough season renewals that we are able to watch it do it’s conclusion.

The series is good. I really enjoyed the Manwha, it was something different. Thought the anime adaptation skips throgh four archs in one season. I have mixed feelings about that. The archs that were skipped over had a lot of character building in them that was almost completely skipped over in the anime. On the other end, they did cover all of the important stuff that needed to be covered and I'm not sure if everybody would want to stick arround for two or three seasons of character development. So this very quick run through of the first part of the series was probably necessary if they want to continue with this anime in the future. Personaly though I think that the final 3 episodes should have been the first six episodes in the next season. All of that said I would overall recommend this anime, if nothing else the story is something different from the norm. It doesn't tend to follow the typical anime script and it does tell the story decently well, enough that someone new to the series should be able to understand it. There are some very important things that are skipped over, but I assume they will be retconed in the next season if there is one. Poribably in the first episode from the looks of it, that shouldn't really mess with the story too much either, it wasn't necessarily important events but more important worldbuilding stuff that should be easy to review in one episode while also catching up on other stuff. I assume that's the reason they did that.

The first time I watched this I was positively surprised because it was better than what I had expected, and I gave it a 7. Now I've finished rewatching it, and I'm downgrading to a *lenient* 6. The animation is meh overall, there were a couple interesting/memorable moments for sure, but when it comes to the fights it becomes almost atrocious. Magic is very uninspiring, and Pram's sword-"fighting" has got to be one of the most boring, exaggerated crap I've seen. We're in 2025, and we're no strangers to even crappier animation, so let's move on. The story has so many cuts and holes. At one point, there was a "chess" game (extra pieces, inconsistent & stupid rules) that was supposedly a major plot point, but we weren't even shown the outcome. I decided to look it up. I found the chapter online and read the whole thing, and it was bad. By bad I mean the author contradicting himself in the span of ~20 or so paragraphs. He basically invented a new game, with nonsensical rules, delivered through a crappy dramatized narration. You better believe I'll judge a whole book by only reading it's 30th chapter, and my judgement is that it's crap. Back to the anime, pacing was okay, I guess, setting had some interesting points (although by now you've seen it all before), but that's it. No real character development other than their magic/sword skills improving a bit. It had at least one fun part, the "huh? huh? huh?" scenes in two different episodes, but overall the humor was pretty bland too. Character design is nothing special either. ----- But you like this category and have watched tens of similar series already, right? This is why you're here, no? In this case, YES, even though it's mostly meh/crap, you should watch it because many of the other choices are at least as crappy if not crappier.

Really just a mid anime is the best way to describe it. Just a good show to watch in the background while gaming or doing errands, has in interesting variation of a popular story trope, but really just falls short in capturing the viewers interest in its entirety. You never feel like rooting for anyone, and while some character dynamics interest you, namely the girl from alpha class with our MC (i'm forgetting character names and I just finished the show LOL), their dynamic is the most intruiging part of the show, everything else is just really stale. Overall not bad, but not great so just mid.

Interesting. I thought it was obvious (that the anime is sht), but the recommendations section is almost equal. As usual, most people talk about the source or how they felt, instead of just saying facts about this anime. So, here I am. I'll keep it shot because I really don't wanna talk about it too much. Visuals. Meh. Meh all around. Designs, landscape, vfx, animation, cinematography, fight choreography etc. Oh, actually the teacher has a somewhat decent design. And the "old" version of Azest. The rest is meh or downright bleargh, starting with Pram. Audio. Again, meh. OP and ED are forgettable, both songs and visuals. The soundtrack is also meh, although they used a lot of different tracks and in par with the scene. So I guess, thats one good thing. Ok, and maybe also the mixing levels was not that bad. The VA was meh, mostly cringy (and I'm sure thats the director's fault). The pacing was all over the place. I've watched episode 11 at a higher speed and I had no idea. I was so bored that I was thinking I should skip it and thats when I realised that already it was faster. The world-building, hmmm.... Not really. There is something but mostly because I've figured it out, not because the show told us stuff. The magic system is a joke, the explanations are missing. A low production value. Now the "good" stuff. The idea itself might have potential, if you really really like thins knd of stuff, but the premise is flawed. And sadly, the execution is also deplorable. Plot devices and plot contrivances all around. Everything goes as the author wants it to, it "just" happens. The dialogue is cringy and with jokes in the might of serious events, resulting in a failed scene. And because the segue is nice, character development. For the others. Its fake, forced and cringy. It starts with something that might be and then when you;re expecting for the payoff or something, insert joke (as I was saying earlier). Thats the good version. Usually the characters just do stuff to push the plot forward. Oki, some supporting cast might have an idea of a good character background ('cause thats not development), but also they are made one-dimention, so thats another failure. But hey, at least we get "the training montage" (actually we get it 2-3 times, a real treat) so we know they don't become OP overnight. Right? And now, the MC. Annoying and shitty character development. As in none. You can describe him with " I'll do anything to protect my friends". Wow, great stuff. Did he make a mistake? Nope, the wizard remembers later why. Did he actively do something to travel in time? Nope, we don't know how that happened, we don't get an explanation (great world-building). Now, have he told someone about this stuff? Have he tried or learned anything new? Well, no. But "we must get stronger". Yes, great character development.... And I'll stop there. This anime is sht, boring, cringy, annoying. People should really make the difference between "the anime is good" and "I like this anime". Or "I like the source so I'll give it a higher rating". WTF? It gets a rating of 4. Barely, and I won't even bother to say what for. Not recommended, obviously. I'm sure the fans love this adaptation :))) Have a lovely evening.

Returner's Magic is a show that's a mix of fairly common fantasy tropes that manages to put together a sufficiently interesting story and characters, along with passable production values. Animation / Art / General Visuals - 7/10 ----------------------------------------------- There's nothing wrong with the show per se, but it doesn't really impress in any way either. Everything is pretty standard for a moderate budget adaptation. Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 7/10 ------------------------------------------ The show has some cool battle themes, but ultimately nothing overly noteworthy. Story - 7/10 ------------- While full of common fantasy tropes, the story is fairly interesting. A young man who studied magic and adventured for 10 years with countless friends and colleagues, gets sent back in time when a catastrophic event destroys the world. With his knowledge of the future, and some extra skills at his disposal, he will attempt to rewrite the events that lead to the catastrophe and save the world, along with all his friends and allies. And pretty much the entire runtime of the show, he will attempt to do just that. Recruit his friends and allies, and help them train to become stronger than they were in the previous timeline, in the hopes that it will be enough this time. The story doesn't much innovate, but it's more interesting than most. Characters - 7/10 --------------------- The cast doesn't receive a whole lot of attention. A lot of their personalities and motivations, and personal history are left unexplored save for a few short flash-backs. Still, the protagonist is quite well done. Having come back with knowledge of the future, he is more composed, confident and capable than his age would assume. Having such an adult like teenager be the main character in what's essentially a school training arc anime in Season 1, helps to do away with a lot of the common cringe tropes like the main character feeling like they're not strong enough, being all depressed, no knowing how to make friends, or not knowing how to talk to girls and whatnot. This is not a problem in this show, which is nice. Other characters are fairly nice as well, if a tad annoying at times. Nothing too remarkable however. A pretty standard cast for a teenage school anime. --- Total - 7/10 --- Returner's magic is not particularly impressing, but it doesn't really drop the ball anywhere either. The visuals are fine, sound and music fine, story fine, characters fine. It's fine across the board. You could do a lot worse than watching this magic school focused, time travel themed, fantasy story.

As someone who watches and enjoys silly but fun action and fantasy, I hoped this would at least be that. However, this show committed 2 sins that I cannot tolerate: (1) It Bored The Hell out of me and (2) It confused me to no end. While usually I might write a review detailing the traditional aspects of a show and their qualities, everything in general was so mediocre that I didn't want to explain why everything was at best a 5/10. Instead, I will cover two things in this review, how it committed the aforementioned 2 sins. (1) Boredom - No Stakes, Bad Action, No Way To Measure Strength. - When something has no stakes in it, you tend to start to ask yourself why you should care about what is happening. This was the case here. The first couple of episodes is as the synopsis says and then it drags on and on with no real sense of danger. The characters can't die in the school and we are never really given any idea as to why it would be so bad if the protagonists don't get transferred to class A. I mean, they're already training and getting stronger, our MC already knows everything cause he's from the future, and we already know that the characters that were in class B end uo being some of the strongest in the future. So really why should one care about anything that happens this season? And why would I get excited about something I don't care about? - The Action in this show did something unforgivable. It reminded me of the Last Airbender Movie and of the power scaling of Boruto. First I'll explain why it reminded me of the Last Airbender Movie. Several times we hear a character become impressed my the power and speed of magic being used but then when we actually see the magic it looks so incredibly lame. Powerful wind spells don't even leave a mark on a regular wooden wall, ice projectiles look dull and as harmless as a hard snowball, and both flames and stones that are moving so slow any normal person would be able to dodge them. And there in lies the connection. The spells and fighting are like the scene in The Last Airbender movie where the rocks fly at 2mph. It's very boring. As far as why it reminded me of the power scaling in Boruto, that mostly comes down to how inconsistent the characters are. You have a character do what appears to be a freaking light split blits in one scene, outrun and deflect spells in the other, and then get hit by a regular punch or be held up by characters who at any point of the story should have honestly been considered fodder. I am not joking when I say we have people moving like the flash and losing to a fight against someone who's best feat is throwing a sword and subsequently catching it. - This last aspect of boredom is very simple and ties in to the second category. We literally have no way of knowing what is supposed to be impressive or how anything works. Spells or moves that are reacted with shock and awe look the same as others that are met with phrases such as "something of that level would never work on me." Because of that you have to wait until the show tells you something is cool before you can think it's cool. Mind you, we have no idea why it's cool since we don't know how anything works. (2) Confusion - Why? How? -The two questions I found myself asking more and more as the episodes went by at what seemed to be a slower and slower pace. Like I previously said we don't know anything about how magic or fighting skills work and so nothing that's done ever feels satisfying. We see people training and supposedly getting stronger but we don't know how they got stronger. There's some mentions of magic circle tiers or something but that just makes it more confusing because said information seems to contradict the idea that some characters can become strong. Whenever that very contradiction is questioned we almost intentionally don't get a response. "You have way less magic than me and the little magic you have is of much less objective quality than mine so why are you able to not only cast more than me but cast more powerful spells than me?" Response: 🙂. Yeah, that's not satisfying, that's not funny, it just gives off a sense of laziness and a way to have the plot keep advancing. The magic system wasn't the only thing that is confusing, however. The choices of several characters is also very confusing, especially those of oir protagonists. I'm talking serveral times where we end up learning that the plan all along was to almost purposefully lose or give the enemy an advantage but ultimately win because the MC is just better. This is especially the case IN THE FINAL BATTLE WHERE THEY WAITED FOR SOME RANDOM ARTIFACT MACGUFFIN (we we know nothing about) TO LITERALLY BE POCKITED BY THE VILLAINS BEFORE INTERVENING. *Sigh* sorry about that, but god the last two episodes were so stupid. Overall, when you get a show where literally nothing is explained, you're never given a reason to care, and you can't even unplug your brain and look at the fun action (because there is no fun action) you're left feeling two things: bored and confused. I honestly don't know why I didn't drop this but I had more fun writing this review than actually watching the show.

"A Returner's Magic Should Be Special" is an engaging adventure that breaks from the standard amidst a sea of animated stories. The narrative is compelling and maintains the viewer's interest throughout, which is a rare quality in and of itself. The tale is a breath of new air. ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɴɪᴍᴇ ʜᴀꜱ ᴀ ᴘᴏᴏʀ ᴊᴏʙ ᴀᴛ ᴀɴɪᴍᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇꜱ, ᴅᴇꜱᴘɪᴛᴇ ɪᴛꜱ ꜱᴛʀᴏɴɢ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏᴛᴇʟʟɪɴɢ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴛɪᴇꜱ. ᴛʜᴇ ꜱʟɪɢʜᴛʟʏ ʟᴇꜱꜱ ᴘᴏʟɪꜱʜᴇᴅ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇꜱ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀɴ ᴀɪʀ ᴏꜰ ɴᴏꜱᴛᴀʟɢɪᴀ, ᴄᴀʟʟɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴍɪɴᴅ ᴇᴀʀʟɪᴇʀ ᴀɴɪᴍᴇ ɢᴇɴʀᴇꜱ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ ᴜꜱᴇᴅ ʟᴇꜱꜱ ᴀᴄᴄᴜʀᴀᴄʏ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀᴅ ᴇʀʀᴀᴛɪᴄ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ꜱᴡɪɴɢꜱ. ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ɴᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ ᴀꜱᴘᴇᴄᴛ, ᴏᴛʜᴇʀꜱ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜʀᴏᴡʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴀ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄᴀʀᴇꜰʀᴇᴇ ᴇʀᴀ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴɪᴍᴇ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. I find great resonance in the way the characters' bond is portrayed. The relationships shown in this series touch a nerve, even in spite of the fact that I frequently find it difficult to relate to emotional content due to my personal health issues. It's a credit to the show's storytelling that it can arouse such compassion, and the companionship feels real. To sum up, "A Returner's Magic Should Be Special" has a touching tale of friendship and an engrossing narrative that keeps you watching, even though it doesn't always have the best fighting animation and occasionally has inconsistent scenes. It serves as a reminder that the emotional bonds we develop with the characters are what really set any excellent anime apart from the others.

I think this is my new benchmark for average. It's not awful, but an average anime isn't really worth your time. The animation is cheap. Lot's of cg, none of which looks particularly good. The none cg action scenes are fine, but pretty average. The detail is pretty average overall, but occasionally the character detail is pretty decent. The story has a good premise, and fair world building, but the overall execution leave something to be desired. Pacing is fairly good most of the time, a couple of episodes drag, but overall it's fine. Voice acting is average town, slightly grating, not a ton of emotion, but some. So not good at all, but average for dubs :). I actually liked a fair number of the tracks in the ost, and the ED is quite good. The op is kind of generic, but fine. Overall this is the bare minimum to create a watchable anime. Not good, not terrible, but still not really worth your time. 5.20/10 Dubbed

The anime stays true to the manhwa, faithfully adapting each scene without rushing or cutting corners. While this loyalty is appreciated, it becomes a double-edged sword. The animated series could benefit from injecting its own creativity, especially in the battle scenes. The manhwa excels in showcasing stunning battles through illustrations, but the anime feels somewhat lackluster in comparison. A bit more original animation could enhance the overall viewing experience. Nevertheless, the story and pacing remain solid, leaving only the animation as a minor disappointment for those craving a bit more flair in the action sequences. Oh right, the opening songs are bangers, though!

This show felt like a strange mix between World Trigger and Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei / The Irregular at Magic High School. It was a fun enough watch, but nothing particular special or stand-out was in it. (Not a spoiler, this is covered in episode 1:) The "going back in time to prevent a terrible future" time-loop part of the story is uncommon but not anything original. Overall it's slightly above mid in my opinion, and I enjoyed it enough. However the entire show felt very rushed and suffers from bad pacing. Not sure if the source material also moves the plot as fast or if it is an anime only issue, but if the show had been better paced it would have felt much better. I will keep an eye out for a second season for sure, though.

The writing is a 6 or a 7. At times it's eh, at times you say "This is better writing than shows like SAO". It's just inconsistent. The animation is also wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it's decent. Sometimes you see a door blown up behind a "magic barrier" 4 scenes before that actually happens. Quality control on this show was not up to par. The characters are fairly likeable. The constant throwbacks to episode one are an annoying trope of isekai anime that I could do without. Just imply it. Stop constantly flashbacking and ghosting in your "past self" for no other purpose than to remind the audience that you lived a past life. The show has a good direction though. I'd watch a second season.

Honestly this anime started off kind of cliche, and that should have been enough of a warning to avoid it: demon lord/dragon thing that threatens mankind is defeated by “the heroes” yawwwwnnn… but wait! They didn’t quite defeat it- BOOM!! MC is reincarnated… that canard again. The MC, who is oddly named Desir, has to go back in time with his reincarnation and do it all over again- but this time actually defeat the monster in the end. Okay, that’s not a terrible idea. It puts me in mind of an old movie where a man is tragically murdered, and he’s committed too many sins to get into heaven, so he’s told by an angel he has to go back and figure out his own murder…. in both cases this is a storytelling concept that isn’t original but it CAN be interesting if done right. So the real challenge for the main character- he needs to build the perfect team. And he already knows who the members are that he wants- but going back in time even the slightest change in what you do also changes the outcome- and things don’t go exactly like he thinks they will. All pretty interesting- but only as I summarize it. In reality this got dragged down by too much fluff and cliches. One of the only things that kept me watching it early on was curiosities like the character Pram- a ridiculously cute blue haired boy who shows up with a school uniform that includes short shorts, and he has a crush on Desir too! His uniform is a unique look that he sticks with, and even adds stockings later. I love characters who wear shorts with stylish uniforms… So with Pram earning a place into my favorites right away, and with the overall story dynamics being interesting- I slogged through this thing through boring training arcs and cgi battle scenes; and endured its stupid “plebs vs nobles” shtick (which clashes pretty hard with the whole ‘humanity’s survival’ plot) all to arrive at: an ending arc that includes more ugly cgi battle scenes. This anime feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It has bits of magic school, mage battle-royale, training arc, fanservice fluff.. it was really inconsistent. It couldn’t make its mind up about what the plot should be- the time-travel aspect is forgotten right away, and the implications of changing future with every action totally ignored. Instead it goes for this conflict between stuck-up nobles sneering down at ‘commoners’ with often violent hatred; even the whole magic school is organized to give the nobility students all these preferences, and not bother with the commoners… that’s really stupid! If th nobility hated the common folk that much THEY WOULDNT GET TO GO TO MAGIC SKOOL!!! They don’t actually bother to show what the differences are- this show barely bothers to depict any decent backgrounds and mostly takes place inside generic white or grey rooms so they didn’t have to do any scenery. This gives the whole show a sort of empty feeling… like I know who the characters are, but nothing else. There’s no sense of time or place. There isn’t ANY concept of why saving the world is even important, since we never see people outside the college or the world he’s trying to save. Mostly what you get here is low-level game-mechanics magic battle with a small amount of characterization. The main character is a little too kind and too flat- he mostly just stands there and smiles at his enemies while defeating them in fights where he mostly stands still. Pram and Romantica are more interesting- at least they have clear motivations. But they mostly just fight too. The standout is Pram, who is the most animated character in the whole show- he darts all over the screen and has the best moves of the entire cast. But that’s all you get with this show- is some magic battles where the stakes are not very high, the tension is lacking, the characters hardly ever get injured and never really feel like they’re in any kind of danger. The major fight of the season was between Desir and a guy transformed into a ridiculous green lizard monster thing… and the entire time, the entire battle- the harder it tried the more I just laughed at its ridiculousness. And the entire plot is built around having to rebuild the same team of mages that he had at the beginning- all to defeat a horrible looking CGI dragon at the end of another cgi game battle. So unless you're heavily invested in one of the characters or source material, I can't strongly recommend watching this. It's either a 5 or 6 really, but because of Pram I'm totally unfairly rating it 7. Sue me.

The story is forgettable, the animation is mid at best, the plot is literally just a fix-it fanfic from AO3, the voice acting isn't particularly revolutionary or interesting but the sound design is next level. I've watched a lot of bad and mid anime in my life and this one's sound design and flourishes are surprisingly competent, varied and all around well put together. From the footstep properly sounding like the sound of the shoes the specific character is wearing to the the musical flourishes being well timed and unique in their composition, it just goes above and beyond. 4/10 Give the sound guy and the composer a raise