Redo of Healer Review

Once in a while, there comes along a show that aims to push the boundaries. What those boundaries are all lie within the beholder. I’ve given controversial shows like this a chance before (i.e. Interspecies Reviewers) but the typical pattern for me is to try it and then drop it. When Redo of Healer came about, I figured it was going to be another one of those shows; however, Redo of Healer did something just a little bit different but was it enough to keep me watching from beginning to end?

Let’s Jam!

The Story

Keyaru is a boy who awakens his powers as a hero. Turns out his power is the ability to heal others with a grave tradeoff. Whenever he heals someone, he becomes connected to them and will experience all of the pain and suffering that led up to their injury. That pain almost broke his mind and, indirectly, his body as well.

Enter Princess Flare. Once Keyaru was unwilling to use his powers, she began to detest him. So much so that she had him drugged and turned into a bit of a slave/whipping boy/sexual toy. The drugs forced him to do her bidding and also forced him to heal others against his will. He had it rough until they went up against the Demon Lord. After learning about the true nature of his healing power, he purposely let his entire party lay there injured so he could take on the demon lord one-on-one. After destroying her with a single touch, he used the demon lord’s philosopher’s stone to send himself back in time where he would slowly unlock his memories and take revenge on all of those who had used him for their own personal whimsy.

The first target he set his eyes on was Princess Flare. Many wondered why this show was so controversial as the first episode was rather tame. When the second episode came around and Keyaru drew a hot poker from a fireplace and told Flare that it was either his rod or this one, it became pretty apparent that rape was on the menu as the measure of revenge. It didn’t end there, though. After Keyaru sexually satisfied himself, he used heal to wipe Flare’s memories, giving her the new name of Freya. He even took a new name himself: Keyarga.

With one down, Keyarga began his journey to enact revenge on everyone he had ever come across. Along the way, he ends up buying a slave by the name of Setsuna. After gaining her trust, he now has sex slave #2. He does the same with Kureha after gaining her trust by using Freya to portray Princess Flare once again in front of her; as well as Eve… the girl who would go on to become the demon lord that he would eventually slay for the philosopher’s stone.

The overall story is simply Keyaru/Keyarga’s journey of revenge. Add in a ton of sex scenes, a few action scenes, and a splash of story and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a semi-decent show.

The Characters

Keyaru

Not sure I can say anything more than what I did up above as his entire backstory doubles as the plot for the show. I will say that it is refreshing to have a tragic hero (or perhaps an anti-hero/villain) as the main character. You feel for him… you sympathize with him, but at the same time, you’re kind of disgusted by his actions. He reminds me a lot of Naofumi from The Rising of the Shield Hero except Keyaru is actually guilty of rape! He is very seedy, conniving, and downright manipulative but he doesn’t care. If it’s for the sole goal of getting his revenge, he will do just about anything.

Flare/Freya

As Princess Flare… she is a rotten bitch who treats any and all beneath her with such disrespect. She seemed happy when she first met Keyaru in his home village after he awakened his hero powers but ever since she found out he was a healer, she had a bit of a disdain for him… especially when the king took a bit of an interest in him. When he refused to use his powers, that was the moment that sent Flare over the edge. Drugging, beating, and raping Keyaru on a daily basis felt nothing more than a game to her. An absolutely despicable woman who got everything she deserved and then some.

After having her mind wiped, she turned into this bubbly girl who would do anything that Keyaru would say. Her personality changed drastically and she became… dare I say…. Cute. Still, despite how different she became, there was still be bit of awareness in the back of your mind of all the atrocities that she caused. Mind-controlled and ignorant… a fitting punishment, indeed.

Setsuna

Setsuna was a slave that Keyaru purchased. She had an out-of-control temper until Keyaru promised her that she could get revenge on the soldiers that raided her village. The kingdom saw beastfolk like her as nothing more than slaves so they would raid their homes, kidnap them, and sell them off. After leading an attack, Setsuna tore through an army and left the entire camp in blood. After fulfilling his promise, Setsuna became loyal to Keyaru and promised to stick by his side no matter what.

Taking away her anger issues, Setsuna is pretty playful and cute. She does have a bit of a monotonal voice but there are some inflections there to set her apart from every other character of that archetype. In fact, I enjoyed her the most out of all the characters in the show so I’m going to crown her best girl!

Kureha

She is a knight for the Jiorhal Kingdom who was pursuing Keyaru after the events of the massacre led by himself and Setsuna. When she comes across him, he has Freya reprise her role as Princess Flare to prove to Kureha that the princess is not dead as it had been rumored. As Flare, she convinces Kureha that the very kingdom she serves is up to no good. After realizing the error of her ways this entire time, she swears loyalty to Keyaru and becomes sex slave #3… although she’s not really around all that much as Keyaru mainly uses her to go gather information.

Eve

If it weren’t for Setsuna, Eve would have been the best girl for me. She’s there to fulfill your loli fetish; however, she’s not one to join in on Keyaru’s little orgies… at least not right away. Eve is more reserved and embarrassed by what Keyaru is doing to all of the other girls… at least on the surface. She will retreat behind a semi-closed door and pleasure herself while she watches them all in the act. She tries to act so innocently but you just know she wants a piece of the action.

The fact that she gets so upset over it is beyond cute. Plus, when you think that this girl is supposed to become the demon lord, it just makes everything better. Keyaru promises to help Eve become the demon lord as long as he can have the philosopher’s stone. Accepting his offer, they close the deal and Eve becomes the newest member of Keyaru’s harem.

Art, Animation, and Sound

For a fantasy-style anime… the artwork and animation were fairly average at best. You could tell this wasn’t exactly a top-budget show for Studio TNK but, then again, given the nature of it, would you have taken the risk and put a massive pool of money behind it knowing full-well that this show could go up in flames given its nature?

While the art side of things left a bit to be desired, the soundtrack was halfway decent. Nothing that really stood out but it wasn’t bad. The opening song “Zankoku na Yume to Nemure” by Minami Kuribayashi was also surprisingly good. It wasn’t a super banger but it was far better than what I was expecting it to be.

Overall Thoughts

The show was pretty basic for me. On the one hand, the setup and premise of the story were actually pretty top-notch. It made you feel a strong connection to Keyaru and it really made you want to see him get his revenge.

After that; however, not so much.

The show quickly breaks down into assembling the harem and carrying out that revenge with random sex scenes thrown in between everything. In fact, the sex scenes themselves were so random that it gave off the vibe that the studio was just inserting them because they felt like the show had gone on long enough without another sex scene. The moments were never really led into… it was like “okay, looks like we’re having sex now.”

One thing that did bother me was the fact that there was a censored version of the show. Massive black blurry areas and everything else in between hid the characters and I have to wonder why? When you watch the uncensored version, the only things you see is boobs and ass. Non-ecchi anime show ass all the time without any type of censorship and aside from the boobs, there was nothing worth covering up!

You never saw any genitalia, never saw penetration or anything else of the sort. In fact, when there was a blow job scene, you never say Keyaru’s penis…. You just saw Setsuna sucking on literal air. So… it begs the question of what the point of the censorship was!?

I will say that this show isn’t going to win any awards but it was definitely a bit better than what I was expecting. Then again, when you’re not expecting anything… it’s hard to not be impressed when it actually does something to hold your attention.

Despite that, I feel that this is still a show people can skip and still sleep well at night knowing that they didn’t miss anything special.