'The Beginning After the End' is infamous and widely hated this Spring 2025 season. I watched it, thinking I'll be scoring this a 2 out of 10 or at most a 4 out of 10. I was surprised that I liked it and ended up giving it a passing score of 5 out of 10.

Its story is basically about how the evil King Grey, the strongest in his world, died and reincarnated into the boy Arthur in a new world that's more like the Middle Ages and not technologically advanced, unlike his old world. The new world has great magic, though.

It has the hallmarks of modern isekai. The protagonist dies and gets reincarnated into a world resembling the Middle Ages, filled with castles, knights, magic, adventurers, etc.

That said, I don't think it is self-insert. It's trying to convey Arthur, with his dark past, as a fully fleshed-out character. One may admire him or even try to relate to him, but that's just standard emulation or hero worship, which is the purpose of Homer's epicks, a vehicle for teaching virtue.

In Arthur's case, this is a story of how his soul is redeemed, so to speak. From an evil and unforgivable king to someone with a heart, who will protect his loved ones. (Without trying to spoil how, Arthur met a mentor figure who set his heart from being vindictive to the right virtuous path.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I judge the anime 'The Beginning After the End' more favourably because it seems to be a vehicle for teaching heroic virtues, and this is consistent with the classickal humanist view of literature.

"Poetry should both delight and instruct."
– attributed to Horace

I love how introspective Arthur is. Many adaptations of light novels barely use voiceovers for the protagonist, even though the source material has so many internal thoughts. This adaptation includes Arthur's cogitations.

Some might dislike it, but as far as I'm concerned, it adds depth to it because we hear his motivations and how his actions and his experiences help him grow as a character.

If we see Frieren contemplating her past experiences through flashbacks, we then see Arthur processing everything via his internal thoughts.

Much of the hate in this anime comes from how lousy the animation is. To some extent, I agree. Whenever blood is shed, they just move in slow motion, the same way a slow PowerPoint transition crawls. If the source material is truly great, as claimed by some fans, then this anime deserves better animation and not one whose quality is best reserved for the nth isekai slop.

For someone like me, who wasn't expecting much from this anime and actually more tolerant of bad animation, the animation isn't really that bad. It's tolerable and doesn't detract from the viewing experience. It's just that I agree with the proposition that 'The Beginning After the End' deserves better animation proportional to how the source material might be great (whose score is at least an 8 out of 10), and I reckon it is great based on how I enjoyed watching this.

The cinematography is inconsistent. I appreciate one framing where a child seemed that she will be raped. She wasn't raped actually, but visually, it looked ominous. This is one instance where I saw a display of visual storytelling. But other than this instance, it seemed to be just serviceable and not worth noting. When Arthur was entering a palace or at least a great mansion, the camera angles did not attempt to give you the visceral feeling of being at a significant place.

Still, it is a far better adaptation than Unnamed Memory. 'The Beginning After the End' did not have pacing issues despite some claims I am reading that the anime omitted so much from the source material, an omission whose inclusion probably would have made this anime great and worth giving a high score. Without knowing the contents of the source material, the anime did not feel that it was missing something, unlike in Unnamed Memory. It didn't seem that it was cramming so much material in a single cour. I think it is better paced.

Some people say that the entire first season is a preparation for the next part. I agree. The story could have been better presented as two consecutive cours. Despite that, I love it for what it is. It kept me engaged.

The bottom line: I love it, but it has blemishes that keep it from being great. It has a lid to its potential and could have been a better adaptation.

NOTA BENE: A rating of 5 out of 10 means that 1) I find this anime to be average, 2) I enjoyed it to some extent, but it has some flaws. 3) Or simply, I rank it below my 6's but above my 4's.

A 5 (or 50/100 in anilist's case) means a passing score. Contrary to the misconception of some users, it does not mean that I consider this trash.