Annarasumanara

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

GOOD BITS: Great characters. There is depth to each of the main trio and layers that get peeled off as the story progresses. Lee Eul (the magician) is so mysterious and intriguing. Each of the main three give some kind of insight on how wealth can affect people.
The story is quite laid back but is still quite forward moving, enough to make you continue reading at least.
The paneling is often outstanding. While it does peak early on, Ha Il Kwon is still so imaginative with the space and magic sections.
The message and themes really hit hard. They provide judgement on society's expectations of students ... and the well achieving, as well as the trials and tribulations the poor have to go through to do even basic tasks like buying food.

BAD BITS: The art is simple. Characters are simply designed and outfits rarely go beyond a school uniform or suit. The focus is more on the paneling rather than the artwork itself, not that great art isn't present, just that it isn't the focus for most of the story.
No spoilers, but the ending is a bit weak, it would've benefited from another chapter or part to explain something: but it doesn't ruin the story or anything bad like that.
The theme of poverty takes a bit of a backseat to allow wealth as a whole to drive the story. It's a shame because it's argueably the most interesting and emotional part of the story.

OVERALL: Great insight into wealth and those affected by it while still having some good fun. You'll come for the creativity, but stay for the characters and message.

This read was, for better words, truly unexpected. A lot of people went into this like myself, intrigued, confused. There are about 50 reviews of this mahnwa on this website as of now and most of them are positive. So it begs the question, why does it have such high ratings?

Everyone talks about how this was a beautifully written mahnwa, how it changed their perspective on life, how they enjoyed the art, the implications of the ending … You should read some of the reviews cause they are beautifully written and in my opinion also inspiring.

The story starts like this:
“Do you believe in magic?”

This is ... how this mahnwa actually starts. With a question of all things. Very bold of an author to do this, because you have to sell it when it comes to the end or it’s not gonna work.

Some people who didn’t like all the questions that came with the mahnwa, but I believe this was the point of the story.

To see who would believe. Because that was the point of Annarasumanara.

It’s done quite remarkably.

This isn’t just a story made to inspire teenagers/young adults. This was a story made to inspire everyone, from all genders, to all ages, to all backgrounds.

In 27 chapters this mahnwa encompasses everything that it means to be or become an adult. The biggest plot point is about dreams, but I find that this is more of a camouflage to the underlining plot point in this incredibly written mahnwa, and that is aspirations.

What do you aspire to be when you get old? And if you have gotten to a certain age, is that what you have always aspired to be growing up?

I feel like 27 chapters weren’t enough but that’s just cause I loved the end to this story. A favourite that I will come back to from time to time.

Graced by a cute art style that expresses the manhwa’s childish overview, Annarasumanara is about all the magic we miss once we grow up into what we consider an adult. This definition is one that’s usually coined by society, but it’s completely left our interpretation. Yet we’re hardly given control of how we truly want to maneuver ourselves during the challenges of our present and the catastrophes of our past: one where we leave behind everything that was important to us to live a real life.

Following the steps of Ah-ee Yoon, Annarasumanara explores what it means to believe and perform magic. Ah-ee finds herself lost ... in her school life, but she wants something more than just grades and money. She’s burdened with the game of numbers, but all that starts to change when she meets the magician called Eui Lee who is a so-called real magician.

At the forefront, this is a romantic slice of life with multiple hidden meanings layered between the nuanced approaches to presenting us with what it means to live a mundane life while realizing that we can either complain or create our own memory lane. There’s an opportunity cost and consequence to all our actions, and sometimes the most obvious ones cause us the most turmoil. We’re so hard-wired into believing that we have to live one way or another, that strangers always bring dangers, and that money is the most important aspect of life. Annarasumanara plays judge, jury, and executioner to each of those topics through its three central players.

For a large part of this short series, Ah-ee confronts the idea of whether Eui Lee is actually a real magician or if everything is a trick and she just wants to believe in it because of the magic she never chased as a child.

Yet as the series goes on, we witness how much comfort the characters have confusing their sense of self and responsibilities. Ah-ee Yoon can’t focus on her home as much, Il Deung-Na does poorly on his exams, and even Eui Lee starts pulling off some shady stunts in the name of protection.

Ultimately, the idea behind real magic may be Ah-ee’s ability to live as an adult and as a child, to recover all the splendid youthful days she missed out on because of her family situation. Perhaps, life is the ultimate magic trick, one where we have to live through the realistic lie and deception, knowing it’s simply a contraption for repetition and exhaustion.

But at the same time, the concept of magic is a sense of clarity that detaches us from societal expectations, allowing us to find our own spark and path in life. This idea is expressed seamlessly through Il Deung-Na’s realization that he’s on a cold path to nowhere besides where his parents want him to be.

The series starts questioning what it truly means to be an adult, and by the end, it’s really about finding a balance between being the child we never got to be yet fulfilling our responsibilities as an adult so that we may present ourselves with the chance to everything else we’ve ever wanted. Life is a compromise, and the magic is everything that’s nice.

Slowly, these aspects become the secrets of the silent streets, the quiet of colorful conversation, the relief of raging regrets, and the whispers of words unspoken. The end is left open intentionally so that we can continue how Ah-ee’s story continues, and we relate to her struggles, all the while listening for that opportune moment when we get what we’ve always wanted.

Till the very end, we’re left guessing if Eui Lee was ever a real magician, or if he could simply translate the visions in his heads into the eyes of the rest. There’s a magical element to the Annarasumanara, but it has nothing to do with magic — it’s truly about the special people we meet in our lives while understanding that there are things only we care about. Those aspects shine brightest because they speak to us in ways words never can, in ways that we can only feel — that is the sound of magic: an essence that fills our ears with pleasant presence.