A Returner's Magic Should Be Special
A Returner's Magic Should Be Special
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A Returner's Magic Should Be Special

7.3
Yr 2023
Rt 24m
Status Returning Series
Animation Sci-Fi & Fantasy Action & Adventure
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Series Brief

Overview

In a land dominated by the formidable Shadow Worlds, most of humanity has been destroyed. To rescue their planet from impending doom, six brave heroes fight a perilous battle…and fail. But there’s a glimpse of hope when Desir, one of the last mages, is suddenly sent back in time 13 years! Now armed with knowledge of the grim future, can he alter the course of history and save the world?

Critical Reception

What critics are saying

Score 42 /100

Critical reception for A Returner's Magic Should Be Special leaned mostly mediocre to negative, with reviewers arguing that the series relies far too heavily on generic anime tropes. Multiple critics observed that the core setup—sending an all-powerful protagonist back in time with all their future knowledge—feels uninspired and overly familiar.

Outlets such as In The Seats and Pinned Up Ink felt the narrative was formulaic and predictable, taking few creative risks with its webtoon source material. Anime News Network similarly panned the opening hook and self-serious tone, expressing frustration with high-stakes action scenes that failed to build genuine emotional investment in the characters.

On the other hand, a few reviewers were more forgiving of the series' execution. Spryfilm offered a milder, positive assessment, noting that despite the familiar template, the first season still delivers a solid and enjoyable experience for fans of time-travel fantasy.

“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...”

“Season One offers a solid and enjoyable entry into the world of time-traveling fantasy...”

“The story of A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special has also been done to death, and doesn’t offer anything new.”

“Returner's Magic gambled and lost on the idea that I would be spellbound by watching the climactic battle...”

Transmission Paths

Where to Watch

Crunchyroll
US • CA • UK
Why fans love it

A Returner's Magic Should Be Special functions on the precise anxiety of knowing exactly how the world ends. In this fantasy landscape, humanity has already met its ruin at the hands of the Shadow Worlds, leaving the protagonist with a map of every tactical error committed by his predecessors. The series shifts the conventional magic school trope into a high-stakes rehearsal for survival, where academic success is the only way to prevent a total extinction event.

Takuma Terashima anchors the narrative as Desir, a strategist operating with the heavy burden of hindsight. While other students treat the academy as an environment for self-improvement or social climbing, Desir navigates classes and curriculum as a series of urgent fixes to a timeline he has already lived through. The appeal lies in this asymmetry of information, transforming the standard training arc into an exercise in corrective history.

Production Board

Crew

Executive Producer
Masanori Miyake Nobuhiro Nakayama Asa Suehira
Art Direction
Eiji Iwase
Producer
Park Jin-hye Kanako Takahashi Kwak Hae-eun Kim Ah-young
Prop Designer
Shoutarou Hashiguchi
Theme Song Performance
KOHSHI GOT'S Momosu Momosu IWASAKI TAKE KEIGO
Series Director
Taishi Kawaguchi
Comic Book
Wookjakga
Assistant Art Director
Masahiro Kaba
Director of Photography
Hideki Imaizumi
Art Designer
Kazushige Kanehira Akihiro Hirasawa Tomoyasu Fujise
Series Composition
Takamitsu Kohno
Sound Director
Takatoshi Hamano
Editor
Ryoko Kaneshige
Novel
Usonan
Original Music Composer
Kenta Higashiohji
Color Designer
Aiko Matsuyama
Sound Effects
Yasumasa Koyama
Character Designer
Hiromi Kato
Signal Match

Similarity

Where A Returner's Magic Should Be Special overlaps with other shows, and exactly what they have in common.

Keyword Cloud

Keywords

magic time travel school fantasy world anime based on webcomic or webtoon magic school based on web novel based on manhwa
Technical Sheet

Details

First Aired
October 08, 2023
Status
Returning Series
Episode Runtime
24 minutes
Origin
JP
TMDB Votes
42