The beginning after the end vol 1 by turtleme

Illustrated by Fuyuki23
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To begin, our narrator is a king on his deathbed, floating towards the light at the end of the tunnel, which happens to have him being reborn in another body at the end of it. Art is a beautiful baby boy born to two doting parents, in a world that is similar but not quite the one he left behind. As soon as he’s able to crawl, Art sneaks into the study to read books and learn more about his new world, which includes a form of magic similar to his former world. He spends several years of his baby existence honing his mana core in his body so that he can become a powerful magic user as an adult. By age four, Art is able to spar with wooden swords with his father. His parents decide to take him on a several week’s journey with some of his father’s adventurer friends to be tested and trained by more professional tutors. They road is not without its dangers, though, as there are dangerous animals and bandits galore!

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The beginning of this story is a little slow and has a lot of explanation as TurtleMe sets up the world and how magic works. Once the group gets on the road, the pace picks up a bit, so hopefully further volumes have a little more balance of action and explaining. So far, there’s a very similar premise to The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest with the "reborn" trope of the main character retaining all of their memories from their previous life. There's nothing in this first volume to make this story stand out from some of those other reborn stories, so hopefully this one sets itself apart in future volumes. 

The illustrations are colored beautifully and feel very animated, but they were often pixelated, and I'm curious as to the original file size and quality used when this webcomic was first published on Tapas. It's slightly irritating that Yen Press and/or TurtleMe didn't clean them up before putting them in this book.

​Yen Press rates this for teen, which seems appropriate. There is a bit of violence towards the end of the volume, which hints that there will be more fighting in later volumes.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12

Publisher: Yen Press
Publication Date: August 2, 2022
ISBN: 9781975345631 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manhwa, Fantasy, Family, Yen Press