The Genius Wants an Ordinary Life

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Is there a moment in your life that ruined everything? One that you would give anything to undo if you could?

At a young age, the protagonist loses his parents in a terrible accident, only to be abused by his uncle afterwards. In the end, he works himself to near death in the hope of finding a new meaning in life, but the protagonist of this story gets a second chance when he also experiences a terrible accident and wakes up a few days before his parents died.

Let's start with my biggest criticism: ‘The Genius’ doesn't really seem genius. It is repeatedly hinted that the protagonist ... has special abilities, but that's all it is. Nothing but hints, which is why you find yourself wondering when exactly this ‘genius’ from the title will play a role.
But that's not exactly my biggest problem with the work; rather, it's that it can be found on all levels. There are repeated hints that there is something interesting that could perhaps play a bigger role in the future, but in all 43 chapters that I've been able to read so far, nothing is done with it. For example, at the beginning there are repeated hints that his rebirth has a special background, but after the reader is left with a cliffhanger, the subject soon disappears altogether.

That doesn't mean that ‘The Genius Wants To Be Ordinary!’ is bad – even if it's not good. This is partly because the characters are quite likeable, and even though there are only relaxed scenes and hardly any progress in any (overarching) story or action or humour or anything else, it's just enough to keep the reader engaged with the book.
And as frustrating as it was, part of the reason this book is so fascinating is because it opens up a few storylines – such as the background of rebirth – but then hardly pursues them. The questions ‘What is this actually about, what exactly does the manga want to tell and what does the protagonist want to achieve?’ do linger in your mind, and even if the lack of any answers can be frustrating, it's not frustrating enough to put the manhwa down.

Conclusion: There's a reason why this story isn't well known – even as a pure relaxation manga, it's only okay in the end, but if you like this kind of thing or are interested in the mystery surrounding the protagonist's abilities and rebirth, as well as others, then I can't advise against it, at least.