A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Volume 3 Review

A year on from the print release of Volume 2, the next volume of A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special finally hits the shelves.

In a fantasy world where shadow realms appear, humanity bands together to clear them. Shadow realms are almost like dungeons with monsters, and it’s up to the team that goes inside them to find the clearing goal. If they don’t clear them, the shadow realms keep expanding and devouring their world. It seems to go well, until the shadow labyrinth kills the last warriors. Desir, the last survivor, miraculously finds himself back in time, to his academy years. With knowledge of the future, he’ll make sure that his past companions are strong enough to fight whatever comes their way.

We had left Desir, Pram and Romantica in the middle of their advancement test to Alpha Class. Almost everyone around them wants them to fail—commoners have never joined the Alpha Class, but our three protagonists won’t let this discourage them. While Pram and Romantica still have their doubts on what they can achieve, they trust Desir and where he’ll take them, so they’re willing to follow him in all his endeavours. However, before passing the test, they still need to face Azest’s team.

Nobody has ever bested Azest, so having a commoner do so during the entrance exam to Hebrion Academy irked her. She wants to beat Desir, and once she discovers his plan to clear the shadow realm for the test, she’s ready to face him. While she’s stronger than him, she’s still at a disadvantage—Desir has way more fighting experience than she has, since he retains his memories from his previous life.

But the advancement test is not the only place where Desir and his team show what they are made of. It’s time to develop a connection to the Tower of Magic, and what better way to do so than stopping the outers from getting their hands on a treasure owned by the tower?

As the previous volumes, A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Volume 3 is full of action from page 1. The readers are thrown into the midst of battles, as there is no time for quiet time before the shadow labyrinth pops up and brings the future Desir’s lived through once again. He might be ruthless in his training sessions with Romantica and Pram, but he wants to make sure they survive. While Azest is not their comrade, I think the word ‘yet’ is the keyword in this case. It seems that after the advancement test, she’s more curious about Desir’s abilities and how he can help her improve her skills. It’s not too improbable to assume that she’ll become his comrade sooner rather than later.

In this volume we also get introduced to a few other characters. Zod is the head of the Tower of Magic and he’s known by everyone for his numerous achievements in the magic field. However, Desir knows him as his comrade, and this time he needs his help to develop more powerful magic ahead of the timeline Desir knows from his past life. We don’t know much about Zod, as his appearance in this volume is brief, but it would be interesting to find out more about him as he appears to be a quirky character.

We also get an introduction to the outers, a group of people who want to bring chaos to the world and let the shadow realms rule. They are the enemies of humanity, and it’s also because of their actions that humanity wasn’t able to survive in Desir’s previous life. He’ll stop them at any cost this time, and at the same time he’ll take advantage of the messes they cause to reach his goals.

While we are still at the beginning of the characters’ story, we have seen Pram, Romantica and Azest grow incredibly thanks to Desir’s help. I wonder if we’ll see a development in skills for Desir as well. He’s the weakest among all of them, but his knowledge of magic gives him the upper hand.

A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special is written by Usonan and illustrated by Wookjakga. It’s been released as a web comic on Tapas, and Season 1 of the anime is available on Crunchyroll. It’s published in print format by Ize Press in the English language. Volume 4 is slated for release in July.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.