Butterfly instead of white rabbit, magician instead of Mad Hatter, magical world and a lot of unresolved emotional trauma - get ready for it all. The Sound of Magic delivers both the enticing fantasy and the harsh reality.

A lot of the things I liked about it, the details in the created world, were the result of the hard work of the webtoon writer Ha Il Kwon. The best examples are the names of the main characters - 아이 (child), 일등 (first; if we add his surname to the mix, it would literally mean I am first) that represent the internal conflicts the characters were facing. Seems on the nose? Maybe, but it fits the story and the approach they took with presenting it.

Ai was forced to grow up fast because of her family situation. Her dreams, hopes, wishes were all focusing on gaining money, as she believed being poor was the reason for her misery. She viewed every situation in her life from the perspective of her financial situation. She did not want to believe in magic, since for her, magic symbolizes hope for better life. All the good things end, like waking up from a beautiful dream, so why even start when you are deemed to be disappointed at the end, when you are back to unfair reality?

Ildeung follows the path his parents picked, doing his best to stay at the top. This takes a toll on his mind and his body. He realizes how trapped he was, yet he wasn’t sure if he is brave enough to stop chasing after the future his parents chose, and try to find his own path. His whole arc was built on small things that might seem like non existing issues, but in reality can take away your sense of individuality and self-worth: things like his dad not calling him by his name, but “Na Jin Man’s boy” - first he is his parents’ son, then he is himself.

Both main characters do not know how to be happy, feel free, make personal choices, act like children their age. And this is the story of them slowly freeing themselves from the cages they were locked in.

It’s hard to talk about Ji Chang Wook’s character without diving into spoilers, since we are mostly kept in the dark about who he is and his past till the end. That adds to the thrills though, creating that mystical and magical aura around him, making the viewers question if the magic is real till the last moment. I was invested in the simple question: who is this magician?

What I also liked about the show is how it spoke about the faults in adults while also not truly making the adults into villains (mostly). Some of them were annoying, sometimes acted unfair or selfish, but most of them were not evil, they were just humans.

The performance from the cast was great. Yes, some movements and facial expressions during the musical numbers were rather cringe and awkward, but it happened only a few times. I was quite surprised by all the emotional scenes, since they all hit me hard (yes, I cried), especially any scene with Ji Chang Wook in the second half - been a while since I enjoyed his performance so much.

Visually they did more than I ever expected. A few times the special effects, especially in terms of the motion, were slightly off, but nothing that would take away from the stunning pictures created.

A lot of the songs had stage-like performances that just sucked me in and I could not take my eyes off it. The A Curse of Asphalt scene was especially breathtaking, even though compared to some other songs, it had a more simple approach. Yet, with how instrumental, lyrics, vocals, visuals, set design, arrangement, all fitted perfectly like puzzle pieces, this song became my favorite performance.

Were the musical aspects all that perfect? No. Some songs just felt awkward with how they were placed in the story, at times feeling unnecessary. I understand why it became a musical-like drama, some lyrics had a really strong message and the performance features added to it - which would not be possible to achieve with simple dialogue. That said, at times I would skip a song or two as they felt redundant at that specific moment.

Speaking of music - all the instrumentals are to die for. Some melodies reminded me of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie (2010) - which fitted the theme perfectly. Even the sound design at times surprised me - taking into consideration the place the songs were sung in and mixing the vocals according to it.

Overall, I truly enjoyed it a lot. Had some questionable choices, acting and directing wise, but I still believe it’s a solid drama. While at first I was not sure about making it into a semi-musical, after seeing all the episodes, I understand the value that was added with some numbers and I appreciate the rather bold move they took with it (let’s get real, musicals are not exactly a mainstream genre loved by all). Ending review with a quote that I loved:

“Flowers don’t bloom on smooth asphalt, but on bumpy dirt”.