Kikansha no Mahou wa Tokubetsu desu

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

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.

From reading a manga to this, you can expect some content to be cut out and added because it's a different media and needs to be adjusted. But for an "anime" (anima-tion), there's a surprisingly little amount of smooth aniomation. Most of the time you'll get fixed png's with small differences or a crappy 1 second 3d animation that loops back and forth. Added to that, it seems they invented a rule for their work where "You can only animate 1 action in a frame". A handshake is first one hand, then the other, then the shake, then cut to next scene. That all takes ... 30 seconds. It's not an anime, it's a presentation, a slow one that only has one thing going for it. The special effects, the little lights, magic circles and "rubble", probably all thanks to 3d animation.
I think time is to blame and the effeciency. The art is up to standards, so I it is a matter of growth for later projects. So I'd give it a 4/10 for good art but bad actual anmation.

Now the sounds, effects and especially the voice acting are really well done. You do get the feelings of the characters even if they have shabby lines or poor animation as reference. For the music I'd say it's good, but sometimes not well placed in the moment (probably due to poor animation and tempo). Sound gets 7/10 (mostly the voice acting).

Now for the story itself, it is already slow (animation's fault) and a bit out of tempo (again, animation), but be it due to the writer or drawer, it can't clearly tell how advanced the technology of the world is. Even if they tell it clearly, it seams they have electromagnetic trains and medieval housing at the same time. 5/10.

Now some extra things to say.
Romantica is super cute, atleast the animators did that well, especially the VA Suzushiro Sayumi. Good job.
The art (frames) itself is real nice, shadows are good and everything is coloured really well.

I read the manhwa and it is fire unfortunately though the anime is not. The story is good and the art is fine. Desir is definitely a the most fitting protagonist for this and the side characters although cliched they still have depths to them. I believe that the characters were okay however many character development scenes were rushed at the end .The pacing is off, a lot of still frames, okay animation, and they montaged a lot of stuff at the last episode. Overall still an okay adaption compared to other horribly adapted anime but if want more of the story then I ... highly recommend reading the manhwa.

(Before I start, I'd like to mention that I had read the manhwa and felt it was a decent read).

=====Introduction=====
A Returner's Magic Should Be Special. But sadly, it isn't. The plot of this anime is pretty cookie-cutter for 2023. We've seen tonnes of anime with a tragedy-reset plot or an overpowered character in a school (The Irregular at Magic High School comes to mind, and that was nine years ago!). The problem with shows like these is that there's nothing much new to discover apart from the shallow world-building & hodge-podge mix of themes copied from various other franchises, plot twists barely existent, and like ... junk food, most people understand these shows don't have a lot of variances to offer. But they still watch them for some brainless entertainment. As much as I want every anime to be unique, I guess there's a safety blanket of comfort anime to watch when one is in the mood.

=====Story===== 5/10
The story is fundamental and nothing special. Witnessing the eventual demise of the entire world, Desir's soul travels to the past to the time he joins the academy (quite convenient!). However, this time he assures himself that he will not let the tragedy occur again and will do everything in his power to prepare himself and the people around him for the doomsday. Shows like these are never meant to impress story-wise and a quota of only 12 episodes doesn't help (though it's not impossible, anime like Terror In Resonance & The Promised Neverland prove that it is possible.) There is another overused trope of the nobles vs commoners, which enables easy opportunities to set up internal conflict at the academy. And everything (conveniently enough) is settled through a ranking system. All these tropes and setups are utilized, just to tell a story that is a trope of its own.

=====Characters===== 6/10
The characters do give the show more color. While we have cookie-cutter tropes in this department, it is fun watching them bond with each other. Many stereotypes are used, like the evil teacher, the helpful teacher, the strong & silent girl who uses ice magic, the tsundere character, and the character that hates commoners. There is a sense of comfort in using generic characters. Some people may even enjoy that more since people, in reality, are more 'down to earth.' The problem is that their reaction to events is always predictable, and the appeal loses quickly. There is no amusing moment of changes or growth as a character. Every character can seemingly be symbolized as a line segment, traveling from A to B in a straight line without ups or downs.

=====Art, animation & sound===== 8/10
I think this department was a clear step up from the norm. Something about the visuals was more vibrant & colorful, especially the spell usage. A few soundtracks hit the sweet spot at the right time. The studio did a decently above-average job. But lights & sound without proper story guidance can only pull the weight so far before the fragility of it all shows itself. I think the animation itself could've been slightly better. It felt a bit lacking compared to the OST and the art (a lot of standing shots & weird movement.)

=====Reasons NOT to watch=====
If you're not interested in watching something generic or witnessing tropes you've most likely experienced prior, then I can tell that you won't enjoy this show. This show has most of the typical isekai/fantasy tropes of generic anime over several years prior.

=====Overall===== 6/10
I get the need for these shows. It's a comfort show where you can hop on and celebrate the MC's wins, and you don't have to use your mind actively. Unfortunately, I feel like we're being bombarded with too many of these kinds of shows as studios think it's probably a meager yet stable profit to capitalize on the folks attached to them. I hope the number of these shows goes down, otherwise it trivializes its existence.

This is heartbreaking, to be honest, when the show was announced I was incredibly hyped for it. A Returners Magic Should be Special Manhwa is one of my favorites that I have read but unfortunately, this anime does not do it justice. The animation is pretty poor, with tons of still frames, and there's even filler. The whole show feels incredibly phoned in and half-assed. Starting off with the art style, the original manhwa is incredibly stylized with bold colors and lines, the spells look powerful, and the art style is unique. In the anime the colors are flat, the spells look like png assets, ... and it just looks like a generic isekai. The fights lack any sort of impact due to the poor animation, and the show reuses clips to pad out an episode's runtime (the most egregious example being in episode 6 when the same clip of a certain character climbing up some stairs was played at least 5 times). Every scene in the show feels like its being extended to meet runtime requirements. Regardless of whether or not you enjoyed the show, I think you should read this series instead.

There were quite a few things I liked about it, but on the whole it sort of felt like a mess.

Things that were fun/good:
rainbow hair
pram is a super cute and fun character
azest is hot

However - the plot in general is very basic and follows the same tropes weve seen a million times without really adding anything fresh. The main girl is annoying, and the logic of the MC / general reasonings doesnt make any sense. Were never given a reason why the MC is OP, nor are we given anything about the background of the world to justify the over the top "commoners suck" ... prejudice that is being fought against the whole time. There also seems to be alot of going back and forth on the "rules" of everything like the tournament and so on. There was a bit of satisfaction in terms of seeing the how the characters get stronger and seeing how they get through situations, but neither of those was done well enough to weigh it out.

Overall I thought it was weak and shallow/tropey with some good characters that made it watchable to the end, not sure if its worth the time it takes to watch, but it feels like the second season would be better than the first since all the good characters are finally coming together.

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.

Im very disappointed with this adaptation. It skipped a lot of scenes, interactions between the characters that builds up their relationships and turned a lot of things into slideshows (Promised Neverland S2 style). They fit around 53 chapters in 12 episodes. Its so disappointing because it lacked substance making scenes less impactful. The animation also didn't help. I loved Arvo's adaptation of "Bokutachi wa benkyou ga dekinai!" but it seems that they don't excel in combat animation. I gave the anime a 6/10 just because Im happy that this got the attention of the anime industry and got animated.

If the anime is your introduction ... to the series and loved it, i'd say its fine. But you're missing out on a lot of stuff.

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-conception that with the failed abomination of Crunchyroll Originals adapting the Top 3 manhwa (Tower of God, God of High School, and Noblesse) back in 2020, Japan still has a long way to go before making a near-perfect Korean Webtoon adaptation.

Maybe next season's Solo Leveling will change that perception? But for now, this show just isn't it. But with the unexpected Season 2, will this change the show for what it is? Only time will tell.