One of the Korean manhwa I have been enjoying as of late is The Beginning After the End, so when I discovered that it was getting an anime adaptation, I was quite pleased. This is one of those times where I was already familiar with the source material, so I have to ask… does the anime adaptation live up to the source?
Let’s go!
First Episode Synopsis
A king who rules over a modern city one day collapses. Was it old age? Was he poisoned? Was he murdered? It doesn’t matter because he is reborn in another world as an infant by the name of Arthur, or Art for short. Despite being just a baby, his inner monologues tell us that he retained all of his memories from the old world and is keenly aware that he has been reborn. He discovers that the world he was reborn in contains magic, and after reading some books in his father’s library, learns that magic is formed by creating a magic core inside your body in the same way that ki was used in his old world.
At the ripe old age of three, he forms his core, until then, he bided his time learning about the world, about magic, and having his diaper changed by his mother while cursing the fact that his young body is nothing more than a prison… a prison in which he cannot even control his own bodily functions.
Worth Watching?
YES – I’ve already seen the feedback online and how people are severely disappointed with this series. I think a lot of the hype surrounding it came from the fact that people called this the next Solo Leveling. As soon as they said that, the expectation was there for this show to be badass straight out of the gate and/or have the budget that Solo Leveling had. Once people discovered that it wasn’t quite on the same level in both its first episode and production value, they tossed it aside and wanted nothing to do with it.
And, quite frankly, had it not been for the fact that I was familiar with the source material, I would be right there with them. It’s only because I know what’s going to happen that I am recommending that you give this show a chance. It’s funny I say that because based on the first impression, I would have given this a maybe and would be talking about the three-episode rule as the first episode didn’t accomplish much in the way of hooking the viewer which would be very off-putting and/or raise some red flags with anime-only watchers (which is what I try to be most of the time.)
After reading seven volumes of the manhwa, I don’t know how much of the story will get adapted, but I can tell you that it definitely does get better… WAY better. Also, the fact that this has 24 episodes should tell you that the studio has a lot of faith in this show.
I will admit that the animation is fairly average; however, I wouldn’t agree with some of the critics who called this show a PNG fest. There’s more movement than they are complaining about, and the special effects for the magic spells and abilities look great; however, it does not have a Solo Leveling budget, and therefore, it’s not going to have that level of quality, so don’t expect a movie-level tv anime here. Studio A-CAT and Slow Curve did a decent job with the first episode, but not a great job. If you can put aside the mediocre animation and just watch it for the story, you should enjoy this show. If you’d rather read the manhwa, well, there’s that option, too, but I’m going to stick with it because I want to see how it plays out.
As for the adaptation, aside from extending the opening and adding extra scenes that weren’t in the manhwa, it stayed pretty faithful; however, they did kind of rush through Art’s formation of the mana core, and/or did a poor job explaining it. Kind of odd how they would add stuff in the beginning that didn’t matter, but take away some of the more important parts. Let’s hope this isn’t a recurring theme throughout the rest of this double-cours season.
You can watch The Beginning After the End on Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/G24H1NWKE/the-beginning-after-the-end
