Is The Beginning After the End Worth Reading? Fantasy Webcomic Review

Quick facts
Format	Manhwa, 227 chapters, 3 volumes
Run	ongoing
Community score	MAL 6.8 · MangaUpdates 8.3
Where to read	Tapas — official

Overview

The Beginning After the End is an action-fantasy comic adapted from TurtleMe's hit web novel, with art by Fuyuki23. King Grey had unmatched power and status but a hollow, lonely life; he dies and is reborn as Arthur Leywin in a world of magic and monsters, getting a rare second chance to live differently — while a darker threat gathers at the edges of his new world. It's ongoing. This review stays spoiler-free.

What it does well

As a reincarnation power fantasy, The Beginning After the End hits the genre's pleasures well. Watching Arthur grow up with the wisdom of a former king — mastering magic, earning real relationships, and slowly building toward something bigger — is satisfying, and the early focus on a second chance at family and connection gives it more heart than a lot of its peers.

The comic's art is a real draw. It's polished, colorful, and dynamic, with action set-pieces that look great, and that visual quality is a big reason the adaptation became so popular. The supporting cast is another strength worth calling out directly: rather than staying purely functional, several side characters get their own meaningful arcs and moments of focus, which gives the wider cast a weight that a lot of similar isekai comics don't bother building.

Underneath the leveling-up, there's a genuine emotional core — a man who wasted his first life trying to do better with his second — and when the series leans on that, it rises above standard power-fantasy fare.

Where it falls short

The early beats are familiar. Reincarnated with past-life knowledge, prodigy protagonist, gradual mastery — if you've read isekai power fantasies, the opening will feel well-trodden before the larger plot takes over.

The pacing is the story's most debated quality. Arthur spends a real stretch of the story as an infant and young child with an adult mind but none of the physical capability to act on it, and the creator has been explicit that this slow build is a deliberate choice meant to subvert typical isekai pacing rather than a structural misstep. That's a defensible creative decision, but it's also the single most common reason readers say they bounce off the series early — the payoff for that patience mostly arrives once the academy arc begins and the pace shifts noticeably. Because Arthur is so capable once the story does pick up, tension can also dip in stretches where he's rarely in real danger. As an ongoing adaptation of a long novel, the comic is still unfolding, so there's no ending yet.

Verdict

The Beginning After the End is one of the more polished and heartfelt reincarnation power fantasies, carried by strong art and a likable second-chance story. If you enjoy the genre, it's an easy recommendation — just know the slow-burn opening is intentional, and the story asks for real patience before it fully pays that off.