For manhwa like The Beginning After the End, start with A Returner's Magic Should Be Special. It's a mage with a past life, a magic academy, and friends he's trying to keep alive this time, and unlike TBATE it's finished. If what you loved was Arthur's family, go to The Infinite Mage instead.
The six below are series that r/manhwa readers name when someone asks for something like TBATE, and each one matches a different part of it. None of them is a copy.
Picking manhwa like The Beginning After the End: magic, family or a fresh start
Tapas sums up TBATE's setup in two lines. King Grey "has unrivaled strength, wealth, and prestige in a world governed by martial ability," and then he's "reincarnated into a new world filled with magic and monsters." AniList's anime entry fills in the rest: he's reborn "as Arthur Leywin on the magical continent of Dicathen," and he starts that second life as a baby.
That gives you three ways in: the magic, the Leywin family, or a grown man's mind starting over in a new life. The picks are grouped by which of those they deliver.
Check where you'll read TBATE first. Tapas lists 302 episodes, but the comic is on hiatus after Episode 259, published October 29, 2026, with no return date, and Tapas itself plans to shut down on March 31, 2027. That makes the six picks below more than a side dish: there's no new TBATE comic episode to wait for. What we know about the Tapas shutdown covers what that means for readers who've bought episodes.
If you came from the anime: studio A-CAT made two 12-episode seasons, the first in spring 2025 and the second from April 1 to June 24, 2026, and Crunchyroll streams both. Here's Crunchyroll's trailer for the second season.
*Crunchyroll's main trailer for The Beginning After the End Season 2 (YouTube).*Manhwa like The Beginning After the End at a glance
| # | Series | English edition | Status | Closest to TBATE's |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Returner's Magic Should Be Special | Tapas, Tappytoon; Yen Press print | Completed | Magic school and a second chance |
| 2 | The Infinite Mage | Tapas | On hiatus after Season 2 | Loving family, magic from scratch |
| 3 | Becoming the Monarch | WEBTOON | Completed | Past-life know-how, friends to protect |
| 4 | The Greatest Estate Developer | WEBTOON | Completed | A new life and a new family |
| 5 | The Druid of Seoul Station | WEBTOON | Completed | A veteran from another world |
| 6 | SSS-Class Revival Hunter | Tapas; Yen Press print | On hiatus after Season 4 | An adult mind that keeps its memories |
1. A Returner's Magic Should Be Special: the magic pick
A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, Korean volume 1 cover (image via AniList).
Tapas's blurb: "For 10 years, magical prodigy Desir and his party have been battling inside the mysterious Shadow Labyrinth." Just as he's about to die, he's "sent back 13 years into the past" and gets a chance "to train his friends and better prepare to face Armageddon together." AniList puts it more bluntly: he closes his eyes on the end of the world and opens them at "the beginning of his school days."
That's the closest match on this list to TBATE's academy years: a mage who already knows how things go wrong, back in a classroom with people he wants to save. It's also done. AniList says the Korean run finished in June 2024 at 268 chapters. When someone on r/manhwa asked for completed series similar to TBATE, the top answer was this one: "~250 chapters and completed. It won't change your life but it's a good read." That's a fair way to set your expectations. Our A Returner's Magic Should Be Special review goes deeper.
2. The Infinite Mage: the family pick
The Infinite Mage, Korean cover (image via AniList).
If the early Leywin chapters were your favorite part, this is the one. Sirone is "abandoned in a stable" and "found by a family of hunters and raised in a loving home." He grows up "obsessed with books, especially ones on the history of magic," in a world where "they say only nobles can be mages." It's a peasant kid learning magic the hard way, with parents who actually matter to the story's start.
A reader asking r/manhwa for a TBATE-like series with magic, power scaling and an academy arc got a one-line answer: "Infinite Mage." It's a REDICE STUDIO adaptation, and there are two catches. Tapas says Season 2 has ended and the series is on hiatus until Season 3, at 150 episodes. And AniList lists Tapas as its only English edition, so the same shutdown date applies. Our Infinite Mage review has more.
3. Becoming the Monarch: the finished second-life pick
Becoming the Monarch, Korean cover (image via AniList).
WEBTOON's blurb: Chris is "a one-armed mercenary with considerable experience and skills" who swallows an artifact and wakes up "back in the past as a 15-year-old lowly foot soldier... with both his arms." The promise is plain: "This time, he will not let his friends die in vain."
That's Arthur's setup without the reincarnation: a veteran's mind in a young body, using what he knows to protect the people around him. One reader in the completed-series thread suggested it under its longer name, The Story of a Low-Rank Soldier Becoming a Monarch. It is finished: AniList counts 146 chapters, ending in June 2024. Fair warning on the ending, though. Asked how it closes, another reader answered "Meh, felt kinda rushed," and later called it "a fun read besides the ending, probably a solid 7-8."
4. The Greatest Estate Developer: the new-family pick
The Greatest Estate Developer, Korean volume 1 cover (image via AniList).
Here the second life is played for laughs. A "civil engineering student" named Suho Kim "falls asleep reading a fantasy novel" and wakes up as Lloyd Frontera, "a lazy noble who loves to drink, and whose family is in a mountain of debt." His plan is to engineer the family out of trouble with "the help of a giant hamster, a knight, and the world's magic."
The tone is far lighter than TBATE's, but the core is the same: a new life comes with a family worth fighting for. The reader who opened that completed-series thread said they'd read Solo Leveling and The Greatest Estate Developer and "really liked these three," TBATE being the third. Another reader asking for a TBATE-like series was told "the greatest estate developer might be in your lane." It's complete on WEBTOON, and AniList counts 222 chapters. Our Greatest Estate Developer review goes into more detail.
5. The Druid of Seoul Station: the veteran-comes-home pick
The Druid of Seoul Station, Korean cover (image via AniList).
This one flips TBATE's direction. A catastrophe sends Suho Park "to a different planet," where he learns to fight and survive, and then he's "pulled back to Earth" to find it "in constant battle with monsters." Instead of a king starting over in a fantasy world, it's a fantasy-world survivor starting over at home.
It came up in the same completed-series thread with a simple "You can try the druid of Seoul station." WEBTOON has the whole run, and AniList dates the finale to July 2025 at 207 chapters. It's the pick for readers who want TBATE's power growth more than its family drama.
6. SSS-Class Revival Hunter: the adult-mind pick
SSS-Class Revival Hunter, Korean volume 1 cover (image via AniList).
Confucius Kim "lives a mundane existence, envying all the star hunters" until he gets "a legendary skill to copy others' abilities… at the cost of his life." His first death gives him "the ability to travel back in time upon death," and the rest of the series runs on that loop.
The TBATE connection comes from a reader who wanted main characters who are "old or atleast matured" and who "actually use the knowledge of their previous world repeatedly in their new life." One reply listed SSS-Class among its picks. It's the darkest series here and the furthest from TBATE's warmth. Tapas says Season 4 has ended and Season 5 is coming after a hiatus, with 154 episodes so far. Our SSS-Class Revival Hunter review goes deeper.
Our take
Start with A Returner's Magic Should Be Special. It's the closest match to what TBATE does well, and you can read it to the end. If the Leywin family was the reason you kept reading, The Infinite Mage scratches that itch better, but go in knowing it's on hiatus and on Tapas only. Want something finished and quick? Becoming the Monarch is the shortest run here; just don't expect much from the last stretch. And if TBATE's darker arcs wore you down, The Greatest Estate Developer is the light one.
How we checked this
For this update we checked TBATE's Tapas page, AniList's entries for both anime seasons, the Tapas, WEBTOON and AniList pages for all six picks, Crunchyroll's trailer, and four r/manhwa threads. We haven't reread these series for this update; the comparisons come from the publishers' blurbs and from those readers. This update replaced four of the old picks with series readers actually suggest for TBATE fans, dropped episode counts and an artist credit we couldn't match to current sources, swapped two images that showed series not on the list, and removed the TL;DR, FAQ and GODEEPER boxes. On October 29, 2026 we re-opened TBATE's Tapas page for its hiatus notice, dated October 26, and on October 30 its Episode 259 page, dated October 29.
Last reviewed: October 15, 2026
Related Reading
- The Beginning After the End review: our full take on TBATE itself.
- The Beginning After the End reading guide: novel versus manhwa, and where to start.
- The Beginning After the End character guide: the main cast at a glance.
- Best isekai manhwa: the wider reincarnation genre.
- Best manhwa with an OP MC: if Arthur's power curve was the draw.
- Best manhwa to read in 2026: a broader list for when you've worked through these six.
References
- The Beginning After the End on Tapas
- The Beginning After the End anime on AniList
- The Beginning After the End Season 2 on AniList
- A Returner's Magic Should Be Special on Tapas
- A Returner's Magic Should Be Special on AniList
- The Infinite Mage on Tapas
- Becoming the Monarch on WEBTOON
- The Greatest Estate Developer on WEBTOON
- The Druid of Seoul Station on WEBTOON
- SSS-Class Revival Hunter on Tapas
- Tapas end-of-service notice
