Redo of Healer

Redo of a Healer is surely going to be remembered by everyone who ever cared about it and is going to be a much talked-about anime series in the future. However, it is not going to be because it offers a look at the main protagonist’s journey to getting a satisfying revenge (unless you are also a passionate sadist like the main male protagonist) like, say, The Rising of the Shield Hero, however, mostly because it will be an anime series that clearly blurred the lines between anime and hentai. If Interspecies Reviewers teetered on the imaginary edge of the space between the two concepts, then Redo of a Healer is already quite clearly over that edge and on the way to the other side. This is because of the color filtering in some of the scenes, and because of the character’s proportions and the way they are portrayed. This is also because of the frequency and length of the sex scenes, and because the content of those scenes could have at least five hentai tags for each episode describing what is going on: it is clearly hentai. While it is not exactly graphically hardcore hentai with close-ups of the actual penetration, visually, it is more like soft porn. However, because of the subject matter, this hentai is definitely very rough sex with unpleasant consequences, and the participants do not appear to have a romantic nature. This needs to be made very clear because if you are not aware of the light novel or manga series that the anime series is based on, and friends have not warned you for example, and you, as I did, just go into the anime series based on the trailer, poster, and tags on anime websites alone, after a couple of episodes, you are going to be quite shocked at exactly what it is that you are watching. For the hardened and knowledgeable, this is not going to be anything new, you might even come across the opinion that it is actually an average show in the world of sex-oriented animation, and above-average graphically - well, each to their own...Unfortunately, I personally did not care much for it, I am not a fan of excessive brutality, rape, brainwashing, etc., which is actually half of what the sexual content is about. Of course, I am talking about the uncensored version, where you can see pretty much everything except close-ups of their genitals. Of the other versions, I have seen two of the most censored episodes, and I am going to say this much, as a comparison - the censored version is truncated, sometimes blacked out, and other times dramatic dialogue and scenes are simply replaced with a long shot of the fireplace, or of a sleeping lizard (their equivalent of a horse), which is, of course, logical according to the nature of the censored version, however, given the fact that some of the events that take place during the sex scenes affect the story, you lose a lot of context and sometimes it just does not quite make sense. So the censored version is useless for a comprehensive insight into this madness, and looks pretty silly, on the other hand, it will save you from watching a lot of things you might find extremely distasteful. So much for the first controversy and let us move on to the second - the concept of revenge and its moral implications. Let me be honest here, from a moral point of view, I find this show to be utter garbage! This anime series hangs tenaciously on that archaic moral concept from the Bible; "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", while trying to convince us that the main male protagonist has no choice, that he was the victim of something nasty and insane that would break anyone, and so Keyaruga’s revenge is justified and righteous. He is, after all, an antihero who takes revenge on corrupt people and pays them back with like for like, fighting fire with fire! However, do you think this is morally okay, and when exactly does someone who punishes human monsters in the same way actually become just another such monster? For me, the line is clearly drawn - the moment you start to feed off the violence, abuse, and humiliation yourself! At that point, I feel like the character loses any moral high ground and sinks to the same level as those he is taking revenge on. Then, I really had enough of it when Keyaruga even more unironically declared that he thinks of himself as actually one of the good guys, after all the atrocities he has managed to commit throughout the season. This moral viewpoint is shown by the producers of the show and literally made me start loathing some of the other characters as well. Even Setsuna lost any semblance of being a good character for me the moment she admitted that she actually enjoys killing people. You can defend the main male protagonist all you want by saying that he only takes revenge on those who hurt him, however, truth be told, that seems like a lame excuse that loses steam as the episodes go on, with Keyaruga choosing to exact revenge in far worse and more brutal ways than the actual offenses against him (like the food revenge episode). I also expected to hear voices starting to say that the revenge thing was not so bad, even in the comments on this website I found an opinion about the very first act of revenge that I totally disagreed with - "He could have killed her in her room (or maimed her so badly that she would have been disfigured for the rest of her life), but he did not go that far". Yeah, is that really supposed to be a defense of what the main male protagonist really did, or perhaps an apology for what I think was in some ways possibly worse than a quick death? I am not sure, do any of you have something against a quick death in a case like this? I personally see it as a justifiable solution because I agree with the legendary idea that "From the point of view of a higher moral principle, murder of a tyrant is not a crime!" and that could have been seen to be fulfilled here. At the same time, I disagree that the main male protagonist has no choice, he had so many of those choices, however, he always chooses the worst way possible in my opinion. It is so low! Can you believe it? Fine, I can come up with several different scenarios as to how it could have happened without it being such an over-the-top, sadistic, sickening cringe-fest. SPOILER ALERT 1) The Hero's Journey - in the very first story when Keyaruga overcomes the effects of the drugs, he had enough reason to leave the entire group of heroes at the mercy of the Demon Lord (who is really a woman), just to let them die a horrible death for the way they treated him! Then he should go and killed the Demon Lord. After that the King would have logically given him a reward he deserved, fame, and influence in the kingdom since he would have been the only surviving hero. With this influence he might be able to change the whole society. 2) The Rebel's Journey - In the second timeline, Keyaruga just had to take the horn right at the beginning, after he got his powers, that would be simply enough. Just like in the anime series, he should be roaming around the kingdom and the surrounding area, doing good deeds, finding allies with whose help he could develop his own abilities, or defeat other heroes, start a revolution and open war, change the ruling regime, and change society again so that no one suffers the same as the main male protagonist did. 3) More sophisticated revenge - however, that would have required Keyaruga to cooperate with the other "heroes" at the beginning. Simply put, the moment he first uses his powers and finds out what the price of healing is, here he does not fall apart like a little kid, but instead, he manages to man up and, like a true hero, continues to heal others at the cost of his own excruciating pain. This way, others would not treat him the way they did, he would gain information about everyone who is healed, get to know everyone in the kingdom better (their strengths and weaknesses), and then he could skilfully use this knowledge to exact a more sophisticated act of revenge with the help of allies he has gained here (such as Kureha). He could probably even use Fleur and brainwash her into being his puppet, as in the original story, using her to gain influence, which he could use to publicly expose the perversions of the other heroes, eliminating other dangerous and corrupt characters in the kingdom, leading to his gradual change for the better...END OF SPOILERS. There you have it, three versions of a more complex and, for me personally, more interesting and less repulsive story than what is on offer here, and it did not even require much effort on my part. The other thing that blatantly irritates me here is the lack of any compassion as if it were a weakness! The claim that revenge can give a person strength (in the case of one little boy) is also really irritating. Okay, I get it. However, what about a boy who lives only for revenge, what kind of man will he turn out to be, and what will the meaning of his life be when he has completted his revenge? We can only imagine. It is worth pondering further, about when an individual has the right to take the law into his own hands. Is it OK if he is falsely accused and needs to clear his own name (as with The Rising of the Shield Hero)? Absolutely! If he is attacked, can he defend himself? Yes! What about when he is in a situation where he has no other way to get justice or a way of bringing about change in an unjust society? Well, but that is not the case here with Keyaruga! After all, he is a hero, he has above-average abilities, and thanks to the bad screenplay, he has a whole arsenal of spells under one single ability called Heal, such as erasing people’s memories, and shapeshifting, etc...With all that being said and done, there is a lot he could do with that power for the welfare of decent folk, and a lot he could do with it to publicly expose the bad guys. Oh, yeah. However, what is it we find the main male protagonist mainly using it for? Well, he is using it to abuse people around him (Setsuna, Eve...), twisted depraved revenge (a lot of the sex scenes are actually pretty much just vicious and actually rape, which I found got a bit samey after a while), plus other unnecessary bullshit. It's so low! No one could blame me for the fact that I could not get behind Keyaruga, and that I found him a deeply unpleasant character. Far too often this whole anime series made me mentally and physically sick as it is an indefensible debacle. However, some will like it, all I have to do is go to any discussion about this anime series and I will see that I am right about that. I have even noticed that if I wanted to boost the popularity of my Disqus account, all I would have to do is go around the discussions for each censored episode right after its release posting something along the lines of "Don't mind me, just waiting for a cultured version!" and the thumbs up would just roll in due to how insanely cultured the atmosphere is - I wish I was young and restless again. However, I am going to be thirty-five years old this year. I have been through a lot of stuff, and it has somehow taken its toll on me. So, I think this show is just mediocre hentai with a theme and characters that I find deeply unpleasant. Hence I am awarding a maximum of 2/10 for the fantasy world, and for learning something new about my own boundaries again. (31/03/2021) (less) (more)