The Sound of Magic

The Sound of Magic is a six-episode musical fantasy drama directed by Kim Sung-youn and written by Kim Min-jeong, adapted from Ha Il-kwon's webtoon Annarasumanara. Set in contemporary South Korea, the story centers on Yoon Ah-yi, an impoverished high school student forced to abandon her childhood dreams to provide for her younger sister after their parents disappear under heavy debts. Viewing wonder as an unaffordable luxury, Ah-yi wishes only to grow up quickly to achieve financial stability.

Her bleak life is interrupted when she encounters Ri-eul, an enigmatic magician living in a decaying, abandoned amusement park on the edge of town, who greets strangers with the question: "Do you believe in magic?" Concurrently, Ah-yi's wealthy and academically high-achieving classmate, Na Il-deung, finds his rigid life challenged by both Ah-yi and the magician after being trapped under the suffocating academic expectations of his parents.

As Ri-eul provides both adolescents temporary solace through illusions and musical reveries, dark societal realities intervene. Local rumors, crimes, and deep-seated prejudices lead the community and police to target Ri-eul, pushing the three individuals to challenge conventional definitions of success and rediscover genuine human agency.

The core message of the series is a critique of modern society's rigid metrics of success, which sacrifice youthful wonder, innocence, and empathy for conformity, academic elitism, and financial security. Contrasting the cold asphalt of the modern city with the sanctuary of a decaying amusement park, the narrative asserts that growing up does not require extinguishing one's inner child. Magic functions as an empowering metaphor for hope, self-determination, and the emotional agency needed to heal from trauma and choose one's own path.

The narrative supports multiple interpretive lenses:

The series addresses prominent South Korean social issues, specifically "Hell Joseon" anxieties, intense academic pressure from cram schools (hagwons), and youth mental health struggles. By adapting Ha Il-kwon's classic 2010 webtoon into a high-budget musical drama, it represented a notable stylistic departure for Netflix Korea, achieving global Top 10 rankings and encouraging genre experimentation within Korean television.

The series received widespread praise for its visual direction, cinematography, imaginative musical staging, and faithful adaptation of the webtoon's themes. Lead performances—particularly Ji Chang-wook's balance of charisma and vulnerability, Choi Sung-eun's grounded emotional resonance, and Hwang In-youp's coming-of-age portrayal—were widely commended. Conversely, some viewers and critics found the tonal shifts between whimsical musical numbers and dark subplots involving attempted assault and crime jarring, while noting that the six-episode runtime compressed certain mystery elements in the finale.