Based on the titular South Korean web novel written by Usonan, and later illustrated as a webtoon by Wookjakga. The story takes place in a fantasy world on the brink of destruction after a devastating ten-year war in the “shadow labyrinth.” Desir Herrman is one of the least skilled magicians left standing, but even he is no match for the formidable foe threatening humanity’s existence. Just when he’s certain the end has come, he finds himself sent back in time to the enrollment ceremony of his school 13 years ago…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 difficult 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?On the Technical Side, this Korean anime adaptation was produced by Arvo Animation and directed by Taishi Kawaguchi, with scripts written by Takamitsu Kōno, character designs handled by Hiromi Katō, and music composed by Kenta Higashiohji. The opening theme song is “Get Back” by Flow, while the ending theme song is “Stroke the 6” by Momosu Momosu.Korean Manwha stories are hard to break into the mainstream with only a small handful being successful. You have to be careful with a story like this to make it good since time travel stories are always about keeping continuity coherent and consistent. The heart of this story is mostly about how Desir failed to save the world and now gets a second chance, by traveling back to the start of his time in a magical academy. We then follow him trying to change what happened originally, to hopefully change the outcome of the world’s possible It isn’t exactly the most original in terms of a by-the-numbers time travel story of someone performing a “do-over” to fix past mistakes, but it CAN be interesting if done right.Our main protagonist Desir as a character despite some of the pathos he carries internally from his failure, is slightly powerful, but he has every reason to be. Having come back with knowledge of the future, he is more composed, confident, and capable than his age would assume. As he is repeating his life once again starting from school, his stronger powers make absolute sense. Yet later episodes almost derail from that plot not just to focus on other characters but also delving into the topics of classism and inequality within the school hierarchy, along with the politics and certain teachers and headmasters within their magic school who for some reason see low-class students climbing the proverbial ladder as a threat for some reason, at least until the ending which leaves things open for more storylines… The animation is kinda bland, but certainly not distractingly bad. Even the use of CGI for the otherworldly monsters isn’t all that bad and rather simple, there aren’t grand animated spells and CGI monsters look like CGI monsters (but they don’t appear often). Outside of that there’s colorful scenery in the forest areas, and the music is quite passable and with catchy credits music.Overall, Returner’s Magic is a show that’s a mix of fairly common fantasy tropes that manages to put together a sufficiently interesting story and characters, along with passable production values and some stereotypical roles done right. The characters personalities are not unique, you still become invested in their story, and the story doesn’t much innovate, but it’s more interesting than most. Although the characters personalities are not unique, you still become invested in their story. But with the recent announcement of Season 2, we can only hope they top themselves somewhere down the line.