A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Volume 2 Review
Since our protagonist Desir has gone back in time (no clue on how that happened) after his world was destroyed, he vowed to not lose anyone else and to protect the people he cares about. When he meets Pram and Romantica, comrades from his previous life, he knows they need to be trained to be stronger to survive. They are merely classmates now, but Desir knows what they are capable of and how they can improve. And to do so, they need to join the Alpha Class at Hebrion Academy. Good grades are not enough—they must become more powerful to join the top thirty parties in the school and place for the advancement exam to the Alpha Class.
It’s not an easy feat. Romantica and Pram need to overcome their traumas to gain new skills. Azest from the Alpha Class (aka nobility class) as well needs to up her game. Although she started as Desir’s enemy, she has respect for him and wants to defeat him. Desir is quite happy about this as it means Azest can work even harder to surpass him, and hopefully she’ll become his comrade once again as she was in his past life. It doesn’t matter that his past comrades can’t remember their previous lives journeying and fighting with Desir. He remembers, and that’s enough.
But Desir’s plans don’t go smoothly because there are still people in the kingdom who despise commoners like Desir and his comrades and will do anything in their power to stop Desir’s party advancing to the Alpha Class. As mere commoners, they can’t sit and study together with the nobility, and unfortunately this is the feeling of many professors. Luckily, Desir doesn’t get discouraged, but instead devises new plans to reach his goals, even if they are unfair at times.
This volume, like the previous one, kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt it was too short because I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t expect it to end. I love how crafty Desir is. There is a lot resting on his shoulders as he doesn’t want to lose the people he cares about. He must be strict with Romantica’s and Pram’s training because it’s for their own good. However, his party members don’t complain too much about it. Romantica loves complaining, but she has realised that by listening to Desir’s advice she can become stronger. Reluctantly, she admits that he knows what he’s doing, and she knows that by sticking around him she can improve and gain skills that people in Desir’s current timeline don’t know yet.
Pram is quiet. He follows Desir because he has started to consider him a friend, but when Desir helps him to overcome a family trauma and shows him the truth, Desir gains a loyal follower. I admit, sometimes Pram seems like a puppy when he looks at Desir. It’s quite the trio, but I can’t wait to see what they accomplish. I wonder if Azest will also realise how skilful Desir is and go to his side. Desir drops the names of other companions as well in his past life, but the readers don’t know much about them yet. I’m sure that he’ll be able to accomplish what he sets his mind to. Albeit not everything always goes to plan, but nobody can dispute Desir’s skills and ability to plan.
Most of the times, when I read a manhwa I feel like I’m actually watching an anime. Maybe it’s because manhwa are usually in full colour, but the way the colours are used helps to tell the story. Characters’ movements are more visible and compared to manga, which are more wordy (think of One Piece for example), the illustrations are more fundamental to the narrative; they don’t need dialogue. The action scenes of Desir, Pram and Romantica taking the advancement test is an example of this. This is also a way for the readers to come up with their own ideas on what the characters think during that action or movement, based on the characters’ expressions. I had wild thoughts when Pram faced the rodents, and I enjoyed not having the omniscient narrator point of view. A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special could be used as the perfect example of ‘show don’t tell’.
A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special is written by Usonan and illustrated by Wookjakga; the translation is by Micah Kim. Volume 2 has been out for a few months already, but there is no indication yet of when Volume 3 will be out. I hope that Yen Press, the English publisher of this manhwa, will schedule a release date soon.
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
