(Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the final week of Aniween with special guest Yume and of course Seras.
(Yume): During the late 2010s Japan was going through a strange phase where they would write about a particular fetish. A fetish that would come to be known as revenge porn.
(Seras): Brutal murder, rape, unforgiveness, vendettas, my scythe cleaving a body in half! Revenge porn! Fuck those stories about the hero forgiving those who wronged them and moving on. You backstab me you’re a dead man.
(Nitsuj): Yeah, it was a strange time where writers wrote stories about the main character being a person filled with hatred and not afraid to go low to get revenge on those who wronged him in the past. I’m not sure what the catalyst for this was but the phase seemed to up and die just as quickly as it began.
(Yume): While it was something fresh and new that played to the dark imagination of readers, everyone eventually lost interest in them. The problem that people had with regular stories was the main character being too much of a saint and finding the good in everyone. A good moral, but when the character is made too saintly they lose all connection to the reader and come across as naïve and uninteresting. Revenge porn characters went in the opposite direction and were portrayed as rotten scumbags who didn’t care who they hurt as long they got their revenge. Substituting one extreme for the other instead of finding the middle ground.
(Seras): As you would imagine most of these stories were controversial in some way or another which wasn’t a bad thing. Controversy leads to interest. It’s why artists and celebrities get in trouble all the time. And one story that benefited the most from this was Redo of Healer.
(Nitsuj): Based off the novel written by Rui Tsukiyo in 2017 and continuing to this day, Redo of Healer is probably the most widely known revenge porn story out there. Rui goes on record calling this story a gamble as he was hoping the controversy it generated would make it sell and sure enough it did. It was a genius move on his part as people were curious about just how dark this series was willing to go.
(Yume): The controversy rose it to fame so much that in 2021 renowned ecchi studio TNK (School Days and Highschool DxD) turned it into an anime where once again it raised eyebrows.
(Seras): Some people liked the series. Others were disgusted by it.
(Nitsuj): It’s an anime we’ve wanted to talk about for some time so let’s get into it. This is Redo of Healer.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yume): Opening is “Zankoku na Yume to Nemure” by Minami Kuribayashi. It’s a good song and does a good job of deceiving people who know nothing about this series. You think it’s going to be your typical fantasy series where the supporting characters are in bad spots and it’s our righteous hero who comes to their aid. Oh if only you knew.
(Seras): The ending is “Yume de Sekai wo Kaeru nara” by Arcana Project. I just love how even after everything you just witnessed in the episode they try to smooth it over with this sweet and peaceful song focusing on the female cast. It is hilarious to me. I literally burst out laughing the first time I saw this. They are so dedicated to making this appear like a normal fantasy anime.
Episodes 1-4
(Nitsuj): The anime starts with our main character Keyaru voiced by Yūya Hozumi who wakes up from an odd dream all while hearing a mysterious voice in his head telling him to get stronger and never forget (Seras: Oh that’s the voice of vengeance speaking to him). We see he lives in a village where his birthday is only a few days away and he’ll get to see what class he’ll be from now on. While working in the fields, he hears the voice in his head again telling him to obtain the sight of the spirits in the forest. Falling into a hypnotic state, Keyaru goes to the forest and summons the star spirit (Yume: Is that a woman? (Nitsuj): God, I hope so, otherwise this is going to be awkward) who gives him the sight of the spirits by kissing his eye (wow, that was easy. Usually, you have to go on a big quest or do something special to get a power like this. She just outright gave it to him without question. Not sure why she kissed him on the eye. (Yume): Best not to question the fetish of the spirits. To each their own). With the sight of the spirits, Keyaru is able to see the stats of everyone, everything, and himself (Seras: Think scouter from DBZ except you can’t hide your power level no matter what). When reading his own stats he starts to remember his past or should I say past life. We see that in his prior life he earned the class of hero, and not just any hero the healing hero (he’s the white mage of white mages). He can revive and heal the injured or dead, however there is a drawback to using this power. Whoever he heals he experiences all of their pain, fear, and suffering in an instant, so he did his best to only use this power when necessary. However, the other heroes had different plans for him. The other heroes saw him as worthless because they had elixirs to do all their healing but decided to keep him around as their pack mule and slave in their journey to defeat the demon lord. Keyaru’s mind was broken with drugs, turning him into a drug addict, and he was beaten by them daily (there’s also the fact that he was actually raped by one of the heroes as well. I warned you this was going to be a dark series). Thankfully, during their travels, Keyaru gained the skill drug resistance and was able to recover his sanity slowly. He continued to act like a drug addict to fool the other heroes waiting for his moment to strike. His moment came when the heroes fought against the demon lord where he took her down single-handedly (Seras: Damn. How weak is your party that the healer has to go on offense for you?). It turns out that when he uses his healing skills, he also gains the experience of the people he heals and makes their techniques his own (Yume: So, his abilities are a double-edged sword? If you can handle the mental strain, you get amazing abilities in return). After defeating the demon lord, the philosopher’s stone appears (suck it laws of equivalent exchange) and he uses it to restart the world swearing that he would never forget the pain and despair he experienced and get revenge on the heroes and the kingdom for what they did to him by taking everything away from them and making their lives a living hell (Seras: See, this is why you don’t fuck with a white mage). Returning back to the present (or past, I don’t know), Keyaru gets started by consuming mushrooms and other narcotics to gain the drug resistance skill (Yume: Smart, if they can’t drug you they can’t control you). On the day of his birthday, he gets the mark of the hero and Flare the hero of magic and princess of the Gioral kingdom voiced by Ayano Shibuya comes to his village to get him. We get to the kingdom where we find out they took the land from the surrounding demi-humans and made them their slaves. Several days go by as he stays at the castle with the maids sleeping with him as apparently sleeping with a hero raises your own experience points as well (Corbin: Wow, being a hero comes with amazing perks). Keyaru, uses his healing skills to steal their experience and add it to his own in order to get stronger (hmm, gets to have sex and get stronger in the process. Good deal) and even restores the arm of Kureha a great swordswoman of the kingdom. He pretends to pass out after healing Kureha where Flare gives her mage permission to use whatever means necessary to control Keyaru (Seras: This bitch) as she sees him as a worthless hero.
Keyaru’s first step of revenge begins in episode 2. Waiting for the right moment, Keyaru plays the fool and pretends to be under Flare’s control as she gets him addicted to drugs and has nightly visitors to come to him in order to make themselves strong (both male and female with shockingly the males wanting to have sex more than the females. (Seras): Apparently, Keyaru has awakened something they’ve been hiding for some time). Little do they know Keyaru has been secretly using his healing skills on them to copy their abilities and make them his own. After six months of healing, drugged, being raped, and copying abilities, Keyaru’s poison tolerance maxed out and now it was time to exact his revenge on Flare (Yume: Make that bitch scream). A few days go by where the king and his bodyguards leave the kingdom giving Keyaru the perfect opportunity to strike. Using alchemy he escapes his cell (didn’t even need to draw a circle) only to get captured by Leonard, the captain of the guards who wants to speak with Flare in private. Flare takes him back to her room where he attacks her and steals her magic. Leonard reveals himself to be Keyaru who used his healing skills to change up his face and body (Seras: Wow, being a healer is awesome. I didn’t know they could do that). The real Leonard now looks like Keyaru and is now locked up in a cell. Keyaru exacts his revenge on Flare by stripping her, breaking her fingers, and then raping her until her mind is broken (Yume: Hmm~, you know for all she’s done to him I still feel this isn’t enough to make things even). After having his fun, he erases her mind and changes her face to give her a new look before escaping into the night with her unconscious body. The next day, Keyaru now calling himself Keyarga is at an inn where Flare wakes up with a completely different face and sweet personality. She has no memories of her past life and now goes by the name Freiya who is Keyarga’s loyal servant and sex slave (Seras: Keeping her around as a sex slave instead of killing her. I like it. Yeah, he could kill her and that would be the end of it, but then she wouldn’t live to be around to witness the destruction of her corrupted kingdom at her own hands. (Baron): And he gets to eat pie as much as he wants).
After his revenge on Freiya, Keyarga flees Gioral Kingdom with Freiya and arrives in Lanaritta a free city location to plot his next move. Once in the city, they see that the water has been contaminated by the body of a dead animal (that’s a disgusting image) and everyone is getting sick from it. Keyarga creates a potion to counter the sickness and sells it off to a merchant to distribute and sell to the people. Using the money he got from the merchant he buys an ice wolf girl to be his slave as he can tell she also wants to get revenge on someone she hates (Seras: A kindred spirit).
In episode 4, Keyarga heals the body of the wolf girl who’s name is Setsuna voiced by Shizuka Ishigami Ayame from Shimoneta). Her village was invaded by you guessed it, the Gioral Kingdom. They disguised themselves as mercenaries, captured a few, and sold them as slaves. Now they plan to invade the village and either capture or kill everyone. Setsuna wants to protect her village but she’s too weak, however Keyarga says he can make her stronger if she sleeps with him. In order to get stronger, Setsuna sleeps with Keyarga (invite Freiya next time. (Corbin): Or better yet, invite me. It’s a new moon tonight, but I’m gonna make her howl). Once the deed is done, Keyarga, Freiya, and Setsuna go to the ice wolf village where Gioral troops are about to attack. Keyarga and Freiya thin out their numbers first and then let Setsuna run wild and exact her revenge (Yume: Get you some Setsuna. Let them feel an ounce of your pain). Setsuna and the rest of the ice wolf clan are victorious and we even find the contaminated water source of Lanaritta. It turns out it was the clan who contaminated the water as a means to get revenge on Lanaritta and Keyarga lets Setsuna decide what she wants to do. She can have Keyarga heal the water thus saving everyone or she can have him contaminate it further and make it an instant death (Seras: Oh~ choose option B). Setsuna asks Keyarga to heal the water as she doesn’t want those who weren’t directly involved to be hurt (good girl. (Seras): Softie). After this, Setsuna tells Keyarga her true name thus making her his loyal servant until the day she dies.
Episodes 5-8
(Yume): For episode 5, word of Keyarga’s victory reaches the ears of Kureha. While that’s going on, Keyarga sells his potion recipe to a shady merchant for 500 gold coins (Nitsuj: Woo~, we’re set for life). Little does the merchant know that he needs Keyarga’s antibodies to complete the potion meaning it’s useless and the merchant is out 500 gold coins (Seras: Very clever and sneaky. I like it). Keyarga soon gets attacked by Kureha who has come to kill him. Apparently, she was fed false information about the soldiers going to the wolf clan village. She was told that they were going there to protect the wolves (Seras: Bullshit! They were going to sell the men off and rape the females. (Yume): That sounds about right) not knowing it was to capture them as slaves. Kureha fights Keyarga where she overcomes his aphrodisiac and even chops off his arm (Nitsuj: Tis’ but a scratch) only for him to restore it and grab her. Using his healing skills he shows Kureha all the misdeeds the kingdom did to the ice wolf clan and she passes out. She regains consciousness where she still doesn’t believe her kingdom could commit such atrocities, so Keyarga goes with plan B, Freiya. He restores Flare’s face on Freiya as well as reveals his true identity to her. They trick her into believing they faked Flare’s death and are now working together to take down their corrupted kingdom and she offers to assist them in whatever way she can. As Keyarga enjoys a night of passion with his new woman, his village gets destroyed and the villagers are captured by Leonard who has sinister plans for them.
In the first half of episode 6 Leonard and his men drag the villagers of Keyarga’s village through town telling him to come out or else. Using a disguise, Keyarga tricks Leonard and his men to an undisclosed location where he reads Leonard’s mind and finds out what happened to his village (Seras: The men were beaten, the women were raped, and the village was burnt down. What did you think would happen?). Sure enough, the village was burnt down, men were beaten, and the women were raped including Anna, Keyarga’s childhood friend (Nitsuj: In the manga she was killed in the village after getting raped, but in the anime they keep her alive a little bit longer). Keyarga exacts revenge on Leonard by turning him into a woman and turning his men into sex-crazed beings who rape him (wow, this would be too dark even for hentai). Keyarga lights the place on fire leaving them all to die (Nitsuj: At least they’ll die hitting their climax) and then goes to find Anna only to see she’s already dead and there’s nothing he can do to save her. Keyarga drowns his sorrows in angry sex with Freiya and Setsuna. In the second half, Keyarga finds out that the remaining villagers will be executed in the coliseum by Norn the second princess of the kingdom and Flare’s sister who (if you can believe it) is even more messed up than Flare (Seras: She’s so messed up that even Flare is afraid of her. And given what that bitch did in the past and her personality, that says a lot). Despite Keyarga being a little scared of her as well, he decides not to kill her as she hasn’t done anything to him in this timeline and he refuses to exact revenge on people who haven’t hurt him. However, he knows he has to do something about her as she’s the only one in this world who can screw him over. On the day of the execution, Keyarga goes to the coliseum and reveals himself for everyone to see.
Episode 7 goes by rather quickly. Keyarga attacks the guards where they activate a barrier to weaken him except Keyarga saw this coming and tweaked the barrier earlier to harm the guards. He then has Freiya project herself as Flare and expose the evil doings of the kingdom to the people (Nitsuj: That, and her death was greatly exaggerated). With the sight and words of Flare the people rebel and attack the guards. Keyarga finds out that the people from his village were forced to drink a slow poison, so even if Keyarga rescued them they would still die. However, he managed to save one boy just in time who will more than likely blame him for everything that has happened to the village and will most likely try to kill him someday. Keyarga is okay with this as he says his vengeance will help him grow stronger (Seras: It’s done wonders for Keyarga). Keyarga, Freiya and Setsuna decide it’s time to leave and head towards Branica where Norn is conducting an expedition and Keyarga wants to go there to find the future demon lord.
In episode 8, Keyarga and his harem make it to Branica, a city where humans, demihumans and demons live in harmony with each other (the interracial marriages must be high here). While eating at a pub, luck comes his way when he shares a table with a demon named Eve who is going to become the demon lord down the line (hard to believe someone so cute will go on to destroy the world. (Seras): Looks are always deceiving). We learn that Eve is a candidate to become the next demon lord and comes from the Black Wing tribe a demon tribe that is hated by the current demon lord because he fears their power and has ordered the ratification of their tribe being eliminated. Because of this, mercenaries and bounty hunters everywhere are after her and will do anything to get her. As everyone eats, the pub gets attacked by some minotaurs where Keyarga saves Eve from getting captured and gets her to safety. Once alone, Keyarga reveals himself as a hero and says he wants to broker a peace between humans and demons by killing the current demon lord, getting the Philosopher’s Stone, and making Eve the demon lord (Nitsuj: And of course we’ll get revenge on everyone who’s wronged us in the past). Eve is hesitant to side with Keyarga because he reeks of suspiciousness (Seras: Which let’s be honest, he does) and asks for one night to think about his proposal. The next morning she wakes up to the sight of Keyarga having some morning sex (Nitsuj: Best way to start the day). Eve is of course embarrassed and shocked to see such inappropriate behavior and after Keyarga teases her, he dares her to prove she’s an adult by sucking his manhood (here’s hoping she doesn’t use an instant kill move on it).
Episodes 9-12
(Seras): Nothing much happens in episode 9. Eve agrees to join forces with Keyarga who continues to tease her about his sexual activities with the girls (Nitsuj: I sure hope he has enough stamina when she decides to join in). He takes care of the remaining bounty hunters in the city searching for Eve in hilarious fashion. Near the end of the episode Norn finally arrives in the city and she bought the sword hero, Blade herself as her personal bodyguard.
In episode 10 we focus on Keyarga and Blade. Now there are a few things you need to know about Blade. She’s a hardcore lesbian, is madly in love with Flare, and likes to drug, rape, and break other women. In Keyarga’s first walkthrough, Blade would always attack him for getting the attention of Flare (Yume: Trust me, it was attention he didn’t want) and still finds men disgusting individuals that gross her out. Keyarga decides to take down Blade before targeting Norn and can’t send in Freiya as he’s afraid she’ll recognize her as Flare and the thought of Blade breaking Setsuna angers him (Nitsuj: The one thing worse than breaking your toys is someone else breaking them). Keyarga decides to be the bait himself. He uses his powers to turn his face into a pretty girl’s face, goes out to the bar and gets the attention of Blade. Blade of course drugs him and carries him back to her place (Yume: Wow, I’m surprised the bartender didn’t try to stop her. (Seras): He’s not paid enough to care) where on the way she gets attacked by one of the fathers of the girls she broke seeking revenge. This forces Keyarga to expose himself in order to save his life and this time he really gets knocked out. He wakes up chained to a bed (Nitsuj: Damnit, is it Friday already?) where just when Blade is about to start the fun, she finds some extra equipment downstairs and freaks out. Keyarga paralyzes her with some needles and prepares to exact his revenge on her.
So in the opening minutes of episode 11, Keyarga exacts his revenge on Blade in a way that’s similar to how he killed Leonard. She gets raped by drugged out men high on aphrodisiac. The only difference being is that they eat her to satisfy their hunger as well (https://youtu.be/T1i3wh2bG8g). With Blade out of the way, Keyarga turns his attention to Norn who is planning on destroying the city in 3 days. The only person standing in his way is Hawkeye, a hero from the past who also serves as Norn’s personal guard and has amazing eyesight (Nitsuj: I daresay he could beat Yume in an archery match. (Yume): Then the eyes must be destroyed). To defeat Hawkeye, Keyarga uses Blade’s sword Ragnarök. With Blade dead the sword has now returned to a crystal ball known as a Divine Arms. Divine Arms take the shape of whatever weapon the hero desires and are powerful tools that have enough power to save the world. Keyarga uses the Divine Arms to create the weapon Georgius, a gauntlet (which was a ring in the manga) that will heal Keyarga’s injuries as long as he has mana and allows him to cast spells from over a meter away without having to touch anyone. 3 days pass and Norn begins her assault on the city by killing all of the demonic beings and anyone who tries to defend them.
In the final episode Keyarga goes after Norn. He easily defeats Hawkeye with Georgius by making him explode like something out of Fist of the North Star (Nitsuj: Omae wa mou. . .shindeiru). With nothing standing between him and Norn, Keyarga knocks her out and the killing in the city stops thanks to Freiya acting as Flare and telling everyone to lay down their weapons and stop this senseless violence. Keyarga exacts his revenge on Norn by raping her and having sex with Freiya who she secretly loves. All she ever wanted was Flare’s attention (Yume: Well she has it now). After having his fun, Keyarga brainwashes Norn into believing that they’re long-lost siblings, her name is Ellen, and she has a big brother complex. Sometime later, Kureha arrives and Keyarga has an orgy with his women all while Eve watches (just join in already. You know you want to). The season wraps up with everyone getting set to leave the village and head east to get the Philosopher’s Stone.
Final Thoughts
(Nitsuj): Redo of Healer falls into the same category as Goblin Slayer. It’s a dark anime that’s not for the easily offended. Are there things in here that are wrong? Somewhat, but that’s kind of what makes the anime compelling. There are some wrong things in here, but at the same time you understand why Keyarga is doing what he’s doing and can’t help but feel you would do the same thing. He’s a broken character, harmed, abused and scarred by the people he trusted in his past life and now the only thing on his mind is getting revenge on those who have wronged him. But, at the same time he still wants to save the world from those who are evil. He also seems to still have some good in him. He could have easily killed Flare and Norn, but chose to keep them alive, and doesn’t abuse or mistreat them as they did in the past. He hasn’t let his revenge completely consume him to the point where he’s mercilessly killing everyone left and right like a madman, he wants to be the bigger man and not become the thing he hates. Still, his revenges on those who have seriously wronged him in the past are vicious, dark, and satisfying in my opinion.
(Seras): Oh definitely, the revenges are well-executed and enjoyable to watch. I did enjoy the array of violence Keyarga incorporates in his battles and the amount of glee he takes in killing those that are the objects of his revenge. The anime does a good job following the novel and manga. The add-ins that the anime has are good. Although they did add in one too many unnecessary sex scenes to the point where it almost feels like we’re watching a softcore hentai. Just know that the manga doesn’t have this many sex scenes in it.
(Yume): The animation while good could have been better in my opinion. It’s too bright at times when it should be dark and shaded to show how serious the situation is. I will say the facial expressions and voice acting are spot on as they do a good job conveying the emotions of fear and anger on their face. The music is decent, but not memorable. It knows when to be loud and daunting as well as soft and menacing. There are times when there’ll be no music at all and we have to take in everything that’s happening. But like I said, it’s not very memorable music which is a shame seeing how they clearly know how to use it.
Final Score
(Seras): The final score for Redo of Healer for me is a 7/10.
(Yume): I have to give it a 6.5/10.
(Nitsuj): I’m also giving it a 6.5/10.
(Seras): That brings the final to 20/30 and averaging out to a 6.6/10.
(Yume): And going by our system that’s a 7/10 for the final score of Redo of Healer.
(Nitsuj): If you liked Goblin Slayer and don’t mind the dark stuff, then check this anime out. From what I saw the sales and ratings for this anime were good in and out of Japan, so chances are high we’ll be getting a second season and I look forward to it. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.