Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. New year, new me, and new reviews starting with today’s anime, The Beginning After the End. . .GAAAHHHHH! Well this is an anime I haven’t been looking forward to reviewing. This is a unique web novel in that it doesn’t come from Japan or Korea. It comes from America. The series was written by TurtleMe and originally ran from 2015-2025 before becoming a webtoon in 2018 and still ongoing to this day. Uploaded on the Royalroad fiction website, the novel gained a following in web novel circles. Readers quickly fell in love with the main character’s psychological journey and some even went as far as comparing it to Solo Leveling. In the spring of 2025 an anime was released based off the series and was produced by Studio A-Cat with even the director saying he was a fan of the series. Fans were excited, but that excitement quickly ended after the first episode and was instead replaced with anger and outrage. Fans were not pleased with the way the story was being handled and how the animation looked. The Beginning After the End quickly became one of the worst animes of 2025 and there was even a petition online that reportedly got signed by over 40,000 fans demanding the series be remade because of its poor quality. Yeah, that’s how much people were pissed about this anime and I get the pleasure of talking about it. Let’s start at the end. This is The Beginning After the End.
Opening and Ending Theme
So the opening is “KINGSBLOOD” by KALA. This song is actually pretty good. It sets the tone, the lyrics match up with the character’s psychological journey and I do like how it switches from English to Japanese.
The ending is “Mahiru no Tsuki” by seiza. This is another good song. How the hell do you get this right but mess up on the actual anime? It’s sung well and it serves as a time of reflection. I could honestly see myself meditating while listening to this song.
Episodes 1-4
The anime opens up by focusing on the life of our main character Grey (in a vague way) voiced by Makoto Furukawa (Saitama from One Punch Man) He was a king and not just anything king but a powerful king. Nobody could stand against him. He had power, wealth, fame, and anything you could ever want. However, he led a lonely life trusting no one not even his own men (when one stands at the top of the mountain everyone comes for you. I know from experience). However, one day he just dies and gets reincarnated in another world as a newborn baby named Arthur. In this new world now voiced by Natsumi Fujiwara (Damian from SpyxFamily), magic exists and isn’t as technologically advanced as his previous world (which looked like something out of an early Gundam anime. This series needs a prequel). Despite being in the body of a baby he had the mind of a man and took every chance he got to learn about this world which runs on mana. It took him two years, but he managed to create his very own mana core (scene here: https://youtu.be/__ev-OkEG24?si=MFFXBrm9M-a92n-W, he’s a prodigy) and over the years slowly learned about the warmth of family. Something he never got a chance to experience in his past life.
In episode 2 Arthur is now 4 years old, and his skills have continued to grow to the point that his dad realizes he needs a tutor. So the family packs up and begins to travel to the big city. They’re escorted by some adventurers who are friends of Arthur’s parents. During the trip we learn that Arthur’s mom has healing magic which is a rarity in this world (this is not surprising). When bandits attack them, it gets revealed that Arthur’s mom is pregnant and his dad tells him to escape with her while he and the others hold off the bandits. As they run a bandit spots them and is about to attack with wind magic. Arthur sacrifices himself to protect his mom and falls off a cliff supposedly to his doom (short anime).
At the start of episode 3 Arthur wakes up in the presence of evil-looking creature named Sylvia. Despite her appearance she’s actually well-mannered and nice (looks can be deceiving). She feeds him and even tells him his family is safe. However, he’s in the outskirts of a dangerous forest filled with bandits and animals. She can open up a dimensional rift to send him on his way but it’ll take some time to open it. During that time Sylvia and Arthur bond with each other. She helps him control his mana more and even helps him mature in his quest for power (scene here: https://youtu.be/zYrmy90gGIE?si=wRYk7iUlpzoy5wDM. That’s cool and all, but I have one question. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?). So after X number of days a creature that looks exactly like Sylvia appears and attacks her. Sylvia freezes time and opens up the dimensional drift to allow Arthur to escape, but not before giving him an egg, a feather, and putting some mark on him. Also, she’s a dragon (why were we keeping it a secret?). So Sylvia sacrifices her life for Arthur and he cries having learned human compassion and came to see her as a grandma-figure in his life.
Nothing much happens in episode 4. Arthur saves an elf girl named Tessia from slave traders (scene here: https://youtu.be/3odQ8zw5n3Y?si=cxIPyr4qPN62fB8E) and accompanies her home despite going in the opposite direction of where he needs to go. During the trip they bond a little and it is nice to see Arthur interact with someone his age (physically) and act like a kid his own age (scene here: https://youtu.be/SDSo8fOoJZc?si=De1bd9agL-WW61iL).
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 Arthur and Tessia make it back to her hometown where the other elves aren’t welcoming (Baron: Don’t you come walkin’ into this village, boy. (Nitsuj): You’re ignorant). Thankfully, he gets saved by Tessia and her grandfather where we find out Tessia is a princess (then why the hell didn’t you go after her?). Despite saving Tessia and being allowed to walk freely, Arthur is clearly not welcomed. Even after explaining the situation, Tessia’s parents are still wary of him. However, Tessia’s grandpa does sense a strong power within him and after seeing his skills in action offers to train Arthur and help him control the Beast’s Will that he inherited which seems to be harming him.
Nothing much happens in episode 6. Arthur is able to speak to his parents telepathically and tell them that he’s okay and still alive but it’s gonna be a minute before he can return to them. Arthur beats some bullies (scene here: https://youtu.be/_5-hLss8xcE?si=xpBDm0XLYlZcmoX8), and he starts his training with Tessia’s grandfather.
In episode 7 a few years have gone by with Arthur’s training and Tessia joining in (because she loves him). Arthur finds out he has a Beast Will within him, which is disrupting the body and mana core (scene here: https://youtu.be/5ZF6gHResvg?si=VRpoCMFYZQdTIrhq). Tessia’s grandpa awakens the will transforming it into a mana egg and making Arthur a beast tamer (he went from the king class to the infant class to battle mage class and now the beast tamer class. This guy switches classes more than the students in Three Houses). The egg hatches quickly into a dragon with a cat-like face and he names it Sylvie. Now that he’s a beast tamer Arthur will have to train both his beast core and mana core (twice the work). In the months to come he trains both and masters them just in time for the exchange program between races which will allow him to return to the human kingdom. Arthur and Tessia have a tearful good-bye, and he leaves with the other selected elves to the human kingdom.
At the start of episode 8 Arthur reunites with his parents (seriously, no tears? Your son who you thought was dead is standing right in front of you. Show more emotion). He also meets his little sister Eleanor who is rightfully confused about who he is. After things cool down he tells them everything that happened to him except Sylvia (that might be a little too crazy from them). His dad now works as a security guard instructor for an auction house run by Vincent and his wife and daughter, Tabitha and Lilia (who is clearly thirsty for him). After showing off his power in a sparring match with dad (scene here: https://youtu.be/7A2ziUoEKSg?si=C2urExYctMu7vrl5), Vincent suggests Arthur enroll in the Xyrus Academy, the greatest mage institute on the continent. While Arthur isn’t against the idea he just got back and wants to spend time with his family. He also gets to meet the adventurers that our friends with his parents who are happy to see him alive again.
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9, Arthur spends time with the ladies in his life. After getting a haircut he gets a tour of the city where he sees humans sell beast cores and Lilia wants to be a mage as well. This seems impossible seeing as how her parents can’t use magic either (but stranger things have happened). We see the pressure she feels from her dad (scene here: https://youtu.be/Vo2mIABFgEw?si=ih2tQOLFTrE8qcQR) and Arthur helps them reconcile with each other by making him believe that Lilia went to the elf kingdom. This makes him see all the stress he and his wife put her through before she comes out of hiding and reveals it was a ruse. The three make up and Arthur awakens the magic within Lilia and Eleanor.
Episode 10 opens up at the auction house where the king and his family are attending. While everyone bids on items, Sylvie wonders off and catches the attention of Sebastian the court mage and obviously a bad person (because all court mages are secretly evil and plotting something bad). He demands that Arthur hand over Sylvie to him and even goes as far as threatening his family should he refuse (and Arthur took offence to that). Angered by this, Arthur unleashes his blood lust which damages the building and everyone believes this was an assassination attempt on the royal family (scene here: https://youtu.be/5DBnmPNGZtk?si=WqgI0aU6LW36uEpq). The king gets ready to punish Arthur’s dad until Sebastian steps in and tries to use this as leverage to get Sylvie (dude, let it go). Arthur refuses saying that Sylvie is as valuable to him as one of the king’s children. Sebastian hears enough and tries to take Sylvie but Arthur easily defeats the knights and freezes time for everyone except him and Sebastian. He breaks Sebastian’s leg and scares him with his beast core which takes the form of Sylvia. Arthur then unfreezes time and passes out only to wake up the next day (scene here: https://youtu.be/94n94URrE8Y?si=ZyEALzo03PGPLCFZ). A messenger gets sent by the king to apologize for what happened yesterday. Sebastian and the knights were fired for their actions and the king sent gold to them as a bribe saying to keep this little incident to themselves (something tells me this isn’t the first time they’ve done something like this). They accept the money, but Arthur isn’t all that happy with how things ended. Once again he was reminded that he’s still a child and doesn’t have the proper power or status to oppose those of higher ranking. Arthur decides to attend the magic academy to better use Sylvie’s powers and comes across a mysterious woman to end the episode.
Episode 11 begins with Arthur fighting the mysterious woman named Goodsky, the headmistress of the academy. She wants to test Arthur’s skills and challenges him to a duel. He accepts and the two duel where he makes a lot of mistakes and loses (I’m not sure if he was holding back or if Goodsky is that strong). Goodsky gives him a passing grade and would like to personally train him at the academy. Arthur is more than happy to attend the academy, but he wants to join when he’s the right age, which is 3 years from now. During that time, he wants to become an adventurer and see the world. He also works out a deal asking Goodsky to use her family’s authority to protect his family in the meantime (wow, you got balls asking a teacher that). Shockingly, she accepts his terms (better hope he doesn’t die while adventuring) and he heads home to tell his parents. While his dad approves of his choice, his mom doesn’t like it until he promises to return every few months. His dad also suggests he travel with an adventurer they can trust and reaches out to his old group where Jasmine volunteers to look after him. The two did seem to bond quite a bit in the earlier episodes and it’s hinted there may be a possible love interest there (yes, groom him into your ideal husband). After this, Arthur gets a new sword from the auction house (scene here: https://youtu.be/pFOwwdL3oBk?si=1BI1hdsoZlXZJxow) and on his 9th birthday (9th!? Motherfucker you look 12) he finally sets out on his adventure with Jasmine.
In the final episode, Arthur and Jasmine go to the guild to register him as an adventurer. In order to protect his family and not earn the attention of the royal family, he wears a mask and goes under a new alias, Note (gaahhhh~, so cringe). Arthur becomes a B-class adventurer and we learn that Jasmine comes from a noble family, but was rejected by her family members because she didn’t have the family’s trademark fire magic. While the two are training in the wild a wild boar gets loose and is slain by Arthur (oh I’m sorry, Note). While Arthur seems to be enjoying his life little does he know Tessia has been spying on him through her crystal ball and is mad he’s hanging out with other girls (stalker much?). We end by fast forwarding two years later where Arthur has made a name for herself as the masked swordsman.
Final Thoughts
Well this was disappointing. Even though I’ve never read the series before the anime I was excited to check it out because of what everyone was saying about it online. But after watching it, I can tell you that this anime left a lot to be desired. The animation is terrible, the fight scenes are forgetful, the characters are bland, the music is dull, and the anime is just overall boring to watch. It plays out like a generic fantasy anime that was just made to pad out a season or time slot. It’s one of the most boring animes I’ve reviewed in recent years and leaves no impact on me whatsoever.
Final Score
The Beginning After the End earns a 2.5/10. I see why everyone bashed this anime. It does a terrible job of representing the source material. I actually did get a chance to read a few chapters before doing the review and I’ll say it’s way better than this anime and I encourage everyone to skip the anime and just read the webtoon or novel. A second season is coming out this spring and I really don’t know if that’s a good idea seeing as how they screwed up the first season so much, but we’ll just have to wait and find out. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. I’m going to go track down that petition and sign it myself.