After a devastating ten-year war with the shadow world event called shadow labyrinth, the heroes of humanity, including Desir Arman, one of the last mages standing, face off against their final foe. While they defeat it, a self-destruct spell sees them wiped out as well.
Just as the end consumes him, Desir wakes up back in the early days of his study at Hebrion Academy. Realizing he now has a second chance at what will be a brutal future, Desir is determined to save not just himself, but all the friends he had lost along the way in the past.
Can his knowledge and power cultivated from the future help steer the course, or is calamity doomed to repeat itself?
Average is a good way to describe this series, and yet there was really nothing wrong with it. There just isn’t enough to set it apart from the ten tons of magic anime like it, and, well, a returner’s anime should be special, right? If you are looking for more anime recommendations like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, head on down below.
Anime Like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special
For Fans of Getting a Redo
Ragna Crimson
Humans live in constant fear of dragon attack, the species that really rules the world with overwhelming power. To keep human populations safe, a number of hunters track and kill dragons as their job. Ragna was one such dragon hunter, though as weak as he is, he is often carried by the prodigal talent of his companion, Leonica.
One day, Ragna gains an influx of power that came from his fallen future self. He learns that after Leonica’s brutal death in the future, Ragna’s future self labored for years hunting dragons in revenge, losing comrade after comrade and building his strength ever higher.
While his new body struggles to hold all the power he gained, his future self tells him that the key to finally killing all dragons, including the Dragon God, lies in him finding Crimson, a Dragon Lord who also seeks to end their entire species.
Both A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and Ragna Crimson are about characters who fought long, hard battles against countless enemies and cultivated a great amount of power. However, despite that power, they still lost, but were given a chance to try again as they return to their younger years with that same amount of power.
The key difference between these two regressor anime series is knowledge. A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special has Desir still retain his memories of future events. Ragna Crimson only receives power from his past self, meaning he doesn’t know much of the future past a few select piece of information.
Ragna Crimson uses his power to fight his enemies, meanwhile Desir uses both his power and knowledge to train his peers that would have died in future events in an effort to get a better outcome.
Re-Zero
When Subaru Natsuki goes out for a midnight snack run, he suddenly finds himself transported to another world. As a bewildered teen in a land of swords and magic, he wanders around and ends up attacked by thugs.
After being saved by a mysterious woman, he agrees to help her get back something that was stolen. Unfortunately, it ends in both their deaths. With his dying breath, he finds that he possesses the power of revival, escaping his death by the repeating the last few hours.
What A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special does, Re-Zero does on a smaller, more frequent scale.
Both series feature main characters who die in the future, but are able to go back to a previous time period in an attempt to use their knowledge and abilities to change that future. A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special only has one jump while Re-Zero is often a try, fail, try again sort of affair.
Re-Zero also has this power be a little harder on the main character mentally since it is both difficult watching people you love die often as well as suffering the agony of death yourself.
Tearmoon Empire
As the people rebel against the royal line that lead to famine and suffering, first princess Mia Luna Tearmoon is imprisoned and eventually publicly executed. After her death, Mia wakes up several years prior when she was still just a child.
At first, she thinks it was all just a terrible dream until she finds the blood-spattered diary she kept in her cell next to her. Using the knowledge of the future, Mia seeks to escape her fate by preventing the poor governance and economic strife that is to come. However, tireless efforts are not something this pampered princess is used to or particularly good at.
Both A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and Tearmoon Empire are about main characters who died in the future. They are then sent back to their younger selves with all the knowledge of the future so they can try to avoid that fate.
That innate similarity aside, Tearmoon Empire features a main character who is more comically selfish in that she is trying to save her own life while Desir is often trying to save others. Tearmoon Empire also has the distinct difference of not being an action-focused anime since Mia isn’t much of a fighter. Tearmoon Empire is essentially a shoujo version of the more shounen A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special.
Summoned to Another World for a Second Time
Previously, Setsu was a hero that was summoned to another world embroiled in a bitter war to save it. With the help of his companions, he managed to succeed, ending a war between humanity and the demon kingdoms and bringing peace to the world.
However, Setsu was betrayed by someone close to him and returned to his original world after saving everyone. What’s more, he was returned as a baby that had to grow up all over again. There, he grew into a gloomy teenager, but one day he and his classmates were summoned, once again returning him to the world he had once saved.
Unlike A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, Summoned to Another World for a Second Time isn’t a regressor anime, but it has the same spirit as one.
In Summoned to Another World for a Second Time, it follows an isekai hero whose isekai adventure ended and he was sent back to modern Japan. He is then summoned to that world again and ventures to fight the person who betrayed him last time.
Like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special is often about reminiscing about events that happen in the future, Summoned to Another World for a Second Time is also about meeting people and then showcasing the relationship he had with them in the past.
For Fans of OP MC At Magic School
The Irregular at Magic High School
After magic, once thought to be folklore, was turned into a technical skill, schools to teach it opened all over.
At one such school are siblings Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba. While Miyuki excels, her brother is placed in a lower class due to his seemingly magical ineptitude. However, he has rather unique abilities that make him quite irregular.
Both A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and The Irregular at Magic High School are magic school-focused action anime about wildly overpowered main characters who help their classmates and friends with issues while a deeper overall plot is unfolding.
While you enjoy both series for their interesting fights, The Irregular at Magic High School has pretty dense world-building to enjoy as well. Furthermore, its main character is technically still in the process of honing his powers. However, both of these main characters are still considered quite weak due to either discrimination or the power system not understanding the true nature of their abilities.
The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule The World
Ray White is the first commoner to be admitted to the prestigious Arnold Academy of Sorcery. As such, he is also the immediate target of contempt by some of the nobles at the academy.
However, what they don’t know is that Ray’s real identity is the current Iceblade Sorcerer, one of only a few powerful magic wielders that once led their country to victory.
Despite being the current holder of such a legendary power, Ray just wants to live an ordinary school life that he hasn’t been able to experience until now.
Instead of having a regressor element like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule The World follows a legendary hero who decides to try and live a normal life by going to magic school.
Both series feature wildly overpowered main characters that don’t actually need to go to school. Furthermore, those characters are also discriminated against for being commoners, but they quickly find friends that they also teach to better use their own abilities.
Alongside lacking the regressor plot, the only truly notable difference between A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule The World is that Iceblade is distinctly more of a harem.
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
A certain selection of people, known as Blazers, are able to manifest their souls as weapons. To harness these powers, a number of schools have been established to teach these people how to use them.
Ikki Kurogane is an aspiring Mage-Knight, but unfortunately is also one of the lowest ranked Blazers around. However, there may be more to his powers than meets the eye.
Like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, Chivalry of a Failed Knight follows a main character that goes to magic school where he is ranked lower than others due to being a commoner or them just not understanding the nature of his abilities. As these things go, of course they are wildly overpowered and prove it by dominating every battle they are in.
While both series are flashy, action-focused anime, they also have a focus on the relationships between their characters. Unlike A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special that only hints at romance, Chivalry of a Failed Knight surprises everyone by having a non-harem romance with actual progression rather early on in the series. It creates the same dynamic where the pair can rely on each other that A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special eventually fosters through friendship alone.
For Fans of Training Up Others
Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor
Sistine is a dedicated student at the magical academy where she hones her skills. She eventually hopes to solve the great mystery of the Sky Castle, but when her teacher retires, the replacement, Glenn Radars, turns out to be a lazy bastard.
How is it that this incompetent man was hand-picked as the best magician in the academy?
Although Desir isn’t a teacher in A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, he certainly acts like it with how he helps his peers better utilize their abilities. That said, he carries himself as a friendly and helpful character with a lot of mystery surrounding his wildly powerful abilities. Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor features that as well, but with a teacher as the main character.
While both series surround the relationships that the main character forms at magic school and how they use their overpowered magic to protect others, Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor focuses more on the mysterious dark past of the main character, drawing you in by making him often act like a silly pervert until it comes time for him to seriously use his finely honed abilities.
Reign of the Seven Spellblades
In the spring, Kimberly Magic Academy, a prestigious – and famously dangerous – magic school welcomed its incoming freshman. Among these new students is the mysterious Oliver Horn who hides his dark past and an even darker purpose for his enrollment.
When a troll runs wild at the opening ceremony, Oliver unites a group of new students, including a battle-hardened samurai and veteran of war named Nanao. After taking down the troll, Oliver quickly bonds with the six students and they are determined to hone their magic as well as survive the dangerous trials – and dangerous fellow mages – present in the school.
Both A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special and Reign of the Seven Spellblades feature what are actually overpowered main characters going to magic school with alternative motives. Desir seeks to train his friends up to avoid their early deaths while Oliver is actually there to murder people in revenge.
Regardless, both of these OP MC at magic school anime follow main characters that meet/make friends and do show them how to properly wield the skills that they naturally excel in. However, the group of friends is a lot bigger in Reign of the Seven Spellblades, so not every character gets as much focus as Romantica and Pram. Reign of the Seven Spellbaldes, while also having some big flashy moments of action, does focus more on building an intriguing plot than the more straightforward A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special.
The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest
When they are born, mages are each given a random and unchangeable crest that will effect their powers and potential. Gaius, a man widely known as the strongest sage, reached the limit of his potential, but decided to reincarnate far into the future to attain a different crest.
He is reborn as Mathias Hildesheimer thousands of years later and gets the crest he hoped to receive. However, in this future, his crest has been slandered as the worst crest due to demons that have now infiltrated humanity and pull the strings in order to limit humanity’s magical potential.
Unlike A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special which is a regressor story, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is a reincarnation story. Both series follow once-wildly powerful mages who are young and going to school again.
Both of these series have a strong focus on the main characters training their close friends to better utilize their abilities. While A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special is training them up for a future war, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest is about teaching people to properly use their crests in a future where crest abilities had been slandered and suppressed by demon interference to weaken humanity for several generations.
Do you have more anime recommendations like A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special? Let fans know in the comments section below.
