Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. When it comes to classes in RPGs everyone has their favorite. Some prefer the attack power of the warrior. Some like the long-range magic attacks of the mage. Others like the speed and agility of the rogue and in some cases like the defensive and magic abilities of the paladin (https://youtu.be/_oRiWJWXVPM?si=36X6dFQWFr8cmIF2). While all these classes are great, there’s one class that everyone agrees is the most important class of them all, the healer. No matter what your party setup is, a healer, white mage, priest, priestess or whatever they get called in the game is always essential. Because in the end it doesn’t matter how strong the party is, it means nothing if they get killed and that’s where the healer comes in. They keep the party alive and kicking to do damage and defeat enemies. You may think I’m exaggerating, but anime has always showed us the importance of healers. Case in point, The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows. A novel series written by Sakaku Hishikawa in 2021, the series was nothing new but told a good story and has more positives than negatives. In 2025, the small and unknown studio Makaria turned the series into an anime hoping to garner attention. Originally, I skipped the anime it came but I had some spare time earlier this year and decided to watch it. How was it? Let’s review to find out. This is The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this anime is “Light Maker” by bokula. Didn’t really care for this song. While I wouldn’t call it bad I would say it’s forgetful. You hear it but you’ll quickly forget it. The whole song just sounds like an old punk rock song you heard from that one band you forget.
For the ending we have “Tsuki ni Negau” by sorato. Much better and more memorable than the opening. The guitarist in this song is what sells it for me. They elevate this song and make it memorable. I also like the singer’s soft voice.
Episodes 1-4
Our story begins in the kingdom of Herzeth, which became famous for its great healers. However, in the kingdom’s slums is our main character Zenos voiced by Shogo Sakata (Aki from Chainsaw Man). Zenos is an unlicensed healer but still works as a healer healing anyone that comes to his clinic (a back-alley doctor who will heal anyone as long as they got the money). He works with an elf girl named Lily voiced by Miharu Hanai and a wraith named Carmilla voiced by Yoko Hikasa (Rias from Highschool DxD) who inhabits the mansion Zenos and Lily live in. Now the first episode isn’t the best as it just tosses you into the story and introduces the characters without much information of who or what they are, or how this world works. Anyway, while Zenos is returning from a house call, he comes across this noble being attacked by his demihuman slave as apparently in this world humans are the supreme species, and other races are looked down upon. The demihuman got possessed by a spirit and is now trying to kill her master but Zenos steps in to knock her out and destroy the spirit. He then forces the noble to pay him everything he’s got to heal him as well as ownership of the demihuman. After the demihuman helps Zenos find some medicinal herbs, he frees her and he heads home where Lily is preparing dinner.
Episode 2 gives us a little backstory into Zenos. In the past he was the healer in his party known as the Golden Phoenix. However, their leader, Aston, kicks him out of the party saying he’s useless and because having an unlicensed healer in their party will make them look bad in front of the nobles (of all the party members to kick out, did you seriously just kick out your healer? The cornerstone of your team that decides whether you live or die. Are you an idiot?). After leaving his party, he comes across Lily who was about to be killed by her traders. Zenos buys and saves her from death and then decides to open his own clinic after healing a lizardman named Zonde. Since he’s unlicensed that means he’ll have to go underground and decides to open his clinic in the slums (which is currently in the middle of a gang war). Zenos and Lily find an abandoned mansion that would be perfect for the clinic, but the place is inhabited by Carmilla. She tries to scare them away, but Zenos’s healing is so powerful that he could exorcise her if he really wanted to. Seeing the gap in their power (a gap so wide you can drive the wiener mobile through), Carmilla allows them to use the first floor of the mansion for their clinic. They receive their first clients, Zonde and his sister Zophia one of the three big bosses of the slums voiced by Anna Nagase. She’s been shot in the arm and the bullet laced with poison is still in the arm. It’s too late to heal it so Zenos has no choice but to amputate the arm. He amputates the arm and then uses his magic to grow Zophia a new arm. Shocking everyone as of course most healers (if any) can’t do that (well then, they’re terrible at their job. Scene here: https://youtu.be/hVkMAxAV63c?si=sWQK5qHlZWRYNilD). After healing Zophia, news quickly spreads about Zenos and his abilities, that they reach the ears of Lygna the werewolf voiced by Mashiro Hitaka. She runs the gambling ring in the slums and is another one of the big bosses. She attacks Zenos for aiding the lizardmen gang but can’t harm him thanks to his defensive magic. She then tries to destroy the place (wild mutts to the end) which pisses off Carmilla who gets ready to kill them but Zenos stops her. After seeing a wraith listen to Zenos, Lygna quickly apologizes realizing the mistake she’s made (scene here: https://youtu.be/5TAxKnZOz8Y?si=NUiYJbwU09Guaw-4).
At the start of episode 3, Zenos gets a visit from an orc. He’s been summoned to meet Loewe the leader of the orcs and last of the big bosses voiced by Yuki Nakashima. Out of the three she’s the most dangerous as she runs the mana excavation bracket. He goes to meet her where he discovers that she swallowed a volatile mana stone that will explode. Rather than ask for his help, she instead names him the sole inheritor of the orc’s fortune, so that when she dies the orcs can go to him for help free of charge. Zenos removes the stone instantly and refuses taking any money seeing as how the surgery lasted barely 5 seconds (scene here: https://youtu.be/CKTNykikRjE?si=Ce_ekLHhewcs7IZP). After this, all three bosses visit Zenos frequently and separately in the coming days even though they’re not injured. Sure enough, all three women have developed crushes on him (Lily included) and Carmilla is worried that this will escalate things between the gangs (I can just hear their leaders asking them to die for their love). Sure enough, all three bosses declare war and want Zenos to be in their corner (for moral and healing support. And the victory sex after). On the day of battle Zenos shows up and tells them to have at it (smart man). Yep, he chooses not to stop them nor take a side. He knows these three have years of grudges that’s been building up and the best way to deal with it is to let them get it all out of their system. So the three gangs fight for hours only to realize that no matter how much they beat the other one, they keep getting back up (it’s almost like there’s a healer among them). It gets revealed that Zenos has been healing everyone from the sideline meaning this fight will never end (he’ll just keep healing them over and over again and judging by the looks of it he can do this for days. Scene here: https://youtu.be/rh2l84b-fsk?si=g43ZDIDoy9wOzw1Z). The three soon realize this fight is pointless and after fighting so much they manage to get rid of any animosity they had for each other and agree to a truce (however, the fight for Zenos rages on). Meanwhile, back in Herzeth (the rich and safe part of the kingdom), a knight named Krishna has been summoned to investigate the slums after the knights found out about the peace treaty between the gangs. The knights are afraid that this united front will destroy the hierarchy the kingdom has had in place for years (a hierarchy that sees the rich get richer and the poor fight amongst themselves instead of addressing the real issues. Now where have I seen and heard that before?). Krishna journeys into the slums where she gets lost and winds up at Zenos’s clinic where she shoots him after seeing Lily and believes he’s a kidnapper (and another troublesome woman enters his life. You have to admire his talent for attracting all these women).
In episode 4 Zenos survives Krishna’s gunshot and Lily clears up the misunderstanding. Krishna tells them why she’s in the slums and asks for their help finding the one responsible for bringing it peace. Krishna spends the night in the clinic much to Lily’s dismay where we find out Krishna’s mom used to make frequent visits to the slums and help feed the poor. Until she was killed in a robbery by the same people she was trying to help. Krishna soon came to hate the slums and saw everyone in it as low-life criminals trying to disrupt the kingdom. The next day, Krishna crosses paths with Zophia who gave her that gun wound from the first episode (you shot Zophia? Kill her). Not wanting a fight to break out (we just got the clinic all fixed up), Zenos reveals himself to Krishna and Zophia also tells her about the recent kidnappings going on in the kingdom saying a noble named Calendor is responsible for them. Krishna doesn’t believe her as she thinks all nobles are generous and good people (https://youtu.be/_n5E7feJHw0?si=Y4zygsZFKOQrfYIs). Krishna doesn’t believe Zenos is the person she’s looking for and takes her leave (girl is a about sharp as a bowling ball). Wanting to prove Zophia wrong, Krishna goes to Calendor’s mansion to investigate only to find the kidnapped children (this sick fuck!). Krishna gets shot by Calendor who even shoots off her arm for good measure. Just when he’s about to kill her, Zenos and Zophia show up to save the day. Zenos knocks Calendor out, heals Krishna, and the lizardmen help the kids escape (and I think this experience was a huge eye opener for Krishna on just how messed up the kingdom’s system is).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 begins with us seeing more of Zenos’s past. Being a kid born in the slums, Zenos had nothing much going for him until he met Aston (they pronounce it as As-ton but I’m going to pronounce it as ass-hole) who invited him into his party. In truth, Aston wanted to use Zenos as a slave and meat shield (see why I pronounce his name as ass-hole?) but changed his mind when he saw just how good of a healer Zenos was. Unfortunately, Zenos did his job too well. Aston and the others never noticed Zenos healing them constantly on their missions (he healed and saved their lives so many times that it’s not even funny) and thought they were just that good. Because of this, they became arrogant and overconfident which led to them kicking Zenos from the party (like a bunch of dumbasses. It’s an S-class healer on a D or C-class team at best. Be glad he didn’t know he could do better). Back in the present, we focus on Aston and the Golden Phoenixes attempting to slay some monsters only to get hurt badly and forced to retreat. The loss was so bad that their archer had to retire from the injuries done to his arm. They hire a new healer named Umin who while competent just isn’t at the same skill level as Zenos and can’t meet Aston’s demands which results in their mage almost dying. Because of these setbacks, the Golden Phoenix fail a mission and embarrass themselves in front of a noble. While Aston doesn’t believe their success came from Zenos’s healing he’s smart enough to know that things went smoothly when he was around and decides to go and get him. Aston makes it to the slums where he tries to recruit the three big bosses to track down Zenos, but they all refuse to help him, call him an idiot for kicking out Zenos, and warn him not to cause any trouble or else. By luck, Aston comes across Zenos in the streets and invites him back to the party but Zenos makes it clear that Aston can’t afford him and takes his leave. Angered by this, Aston attempts to attack him, but gets stopped by Krishna and then flees (scene here: https://youtu.be/I9gC_N1MNuI?si=knnA0gvYeKc778mQ). The others are now worried that Aston will seek the help of the underground guild to exact revenge on Zenos, so he stays up to keep an eye on the place with Carmilla. While talking to Carmilla, Zenos reveals that he once tried to resurrect someone close to him using healing magic. It failed, and his teacher gave him a good smack in the head. This conversation leads to golems which can only be created using demon sorcery. Then by pure coincidence a golem attacks the slums (what are the odds? He said sarcastically).
So in episode 6 we see Aston go to a guy simply known as The Guide to get revenge on Zenos and his friends. The Guide uses Aston as the golem’s core and sets him loose on the slums as it attempts to find and kill Zenos. Once Zenos figures out Aston is the one inside the golem, he takes it on himself and performs surgery. Rather than kill Aston (which he is totally valid to do), Zenos takes on the difficult task of saving him. He slices Aston out of the golem piece by piece and then healing his flesh before the golem’s stone can fuse with him again. It takes a minute but Zenos is able to save Aston who finally realizes just how amazing Zenos is and how much of an idiot he was to abandon him (yeah, you ain’t shit without him). Zenos knocks out Aston, takes his sword as payment and leaves him one gold piece as severance to their relationship ending.
In the first half of episode 7, Zenos spends the day relaxing in the hot springs to recover from the golem battle. The ladies of course barge in to have a little more intimate time with him which results in them fighting each other. We also see Umin was there as well. On the day they leave, the innkeeper gets burnt badly and Umin tries to heal him but there’s not much her magic can do (you second-rate healer). Zenos of course heals him on the house and Umin mistakes him for a saint (no, he’s in a class of his own). In the second half, Umin reports Zenos to her superior, Becker, who decides to meet Zenos after learning he wears a distinct black coat similar to his old friend. He goes to the slums and fakes being sick to meet Zenos. He’s impressed with how Zenos was able to quickly deduce his sickness but is disappointed to see he’s not the man he’s looking for which is Zenos’s teacher, a man so mysterious Zenos doesn’t even know his name (you accepted teachings from a man who never revealed his name? How trusting were you as a kid?). Becker asks for Zenos’s help in dealing with a situation going on at the central hospital. Zenos accepts as he hopes this it’ll give him the chance to learn about his mysterious teacher.
Episode 8 begins the final arc of the season. Zenos enters the hospital disguised as a student named Zeno. Becker wants him to investigate a series of disappearances that’s been happening at the hospital. Including his dear student, Afread. Umin suspects the deputy director, Goldran, is responsible for the kidnappings as he was the last one to work with Afread, but even he admits that his disappearance has inconvenienced him greatly. We get another look into Zenos’s past where we finally see his mysterious teacher and his good friend Veritra who trained with him. Returning to the present, Zenos quickly makes an enemy in the form of Cresson, a member of Goldran’s inner circle who is jealous of Zenos’s skills. When Zenos and him get assigned to eliminate some undead with a bunch of other students, Cresson tries to show off only to get everyone surrounded by undead. Zenos is able to eliminate them all in one blast and Cresson takes credit for it. However, the real threat, a zombie king appears. Umin and Zenos sit back and let Cresson face it himself where he gets beaten up (this is a certified karma moment. Zenos did nothing to him and he tries to start something out of pettiness. How insecure do you have to be?). Zenos finally steps in and beats the zombie king as well as heal Cresson at the same time (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ybu6KPUO2AI?si=jYqq6P-sGMQJsXt2).
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9 Cresson confesses that Zenos was the one who cleared the undead and took out the zombie king (see? Was that so hard? You insecure brat). This earns him Goldran’s attention who invites Zenos to join his faction after an interview (what is this a job?). After infiltrating the faction, Zenos learns that Afread disappeared after being invited to one of Goldran’s dinners, so Zenos tries to impress him to get an invite. He and Cresson get put in charge of watching his beloved dog, Milk, where thanks to the actions of his drunken secretary, Bons, the dog gets hit by a carriage, but Zenos is able to heal her and leave no scar as evidence. Back in the slums, the three bosses visit the clinic and do some housekeeping (no raiding the underwear draw).
At the start of episode 10 Goldran gets asked by a noble to examine his daughter’s face. A mysterious rash/growth has developed and it’s getting worse by the day. Goldran believes it’s Odd Face (odd name) and while not life-threatening the main issue is that he’ll have to cut it out which will leave a scar on her face (well she won’t be getting married). With his magic he can transfer the damage to others and her skin will regenerate naturally leaving no scar, but she wants as few people as possible to know about this. When Cresson takes credit once again for Zenos’s work last episode (really? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t slap the piss out of you), he gets put in charge of the operation, so Cresson begs Zenos for help (you are so pathetic). Together with Goldran they go to meet the noble’s daughter, Charlotte, who is a spoiled brat and refuses to have surgery until Zenos is able to convince her to do it (careful, prolong exposure to him can give you love sickness). Cresson gets put in charge of the surgery and with Zenos’s guidance is able to perform it, but discovers that the growth has infiltrated the facial nerves of Charlotte’s face, risking paralysis. Seeing no option, Goldran tells Cresson to cut the nerve and once he does he pulls an Uno reverse and blames Cresson for this mistake in front of Charlotte’s dad (I know I should feel bad, but this guy deserves it. He’s done nothing but hate on Zenos for no reason, taken credit for his achievements, and then has the audacity to ask him for him. This is just karma, and I love it). Seeing enough, Zenos steps in and repairs the damaged nerve and the wound leaving no scar behind. With the surgery a success Zenos gets invited to a private dinner with Goldran and Cresson (why is he invited? Is he the plus one?).
In episode 11 we open at Goldran’s party where he announces that the current head of the hospital will be retiring and he’ll be the next head. At the party, Zenos and Lily get Bons hammered where he reveals 13 years ago, Goldran saved Charlotte’s dad after an explosion. This confuses the two because if Goldran saved his life why wouldn’t he spread the story to become more famous (he seems like the kind of guy who would brag nonstop about his achievements). Lily suggests someone else healed Charlotte’s dad and Goldran took credit for their work. Afread came to the same conclusion as well and must have went into hiding to keep himself safe. However, Zenos’s theory is a little darker. He suggests that there were multiple people caught in the explosion and Goldran used his health transfer ability to heal Charlotte’s dad, but in the process killed everyone else. Goldran then climbed the corporate ladder at the hospital and has been hanging on to that favor for years until he needed to call it in (I like Zenos’s theory more). He also thinks Afread may have been involved in the explosion, survived, and is now biding his time for revenge (damn, this is like Game of Thrones with doctors. Hope it doesn’t go off the rails in the later seasons). Meanwhile, back in the slums, Zonde gets severely injured in a construction accident. Having no other choice, Zophia and the others take him to Zenos knowing that this will blow his cover (hell, Zophia gets on her knees, crying and begging for Zenos to forgive her and save her brother). With the help of Umin they arrive at the party and blow Zenos’s cover in front of everyone. Goldran hating demihumans, tells them to leave but Zenos refuses to ignore those in pain and takes his leave with Lily to heal Zonde and Carrson leaves realizing he ain’t shit and wants to be a healer like Zenos (like that’s ever gonna happen. But you’re taking a step in the right direction). The next day, Zenos reports his findings and theory to Becker who thanks him for everything and lets him leave promising to deliver a letter detailing everything he knows about his master. That night, Umin and Cresson have a going away party for Zenos and then the next day arrives where Goldran and his supporters have all been poisoned with Becker standing over him.
In the final episode we find out the truth on what happened 13 years ago. Just like Zenos theorized, Goldran did in fact use his health transfer ability to save Charlotte’s dad. However, Bons managed to capture a picture of him doing this and threatened to expose Goldran unless he made him his first secretary. Afread was one of the workers who survived the explosion and one of the people Goldran allowed to die that night was Becker’s wife. Back at the party, we see it was Becker who poisoned everyone and now gives Goldran a choice. He can either save everyone or himself. Being the selfish prick that he is, Goldran chooses his own life over everyone else. Zenos arrives with Umin and Cresson where he heals everyone until the poison in their body naturally wears off. Becker realizes he was wrong for doing this while Goldran’s supporters seeing him as the selfish prick he is, turn on him, and he gets arrested for murder (be sure to arrest Bons for conspiracy, bribery, cover-up, accomplice, and public intoxication). Becker gets arrested but will be let go soon. He confesses that he never intended to poison anyone. He only used a paralysis drug to scare Goldran and get him to reveal his true personality to everyone. Nobody was in any real danger which means the poison came from someone else. Becker believes it was Afread who did this and sure enough he’s right. We find out that Afread is The Guide and he’s possessed by a demon. The real Afread died in the explosion and got his body possessed by a demon who seems to be coming after Zenos. We wrap up with Zenos returning to the slums and getting ready for his next patient.
Final Thoughts
And that was The Brilliant Healer’s New Life in the Shadows. This is an anime that has a fair number of minor faults. Zenos is a character without much personality. He’s nice and is OP with his healing, but outside of that he doesn’t have much of a personality to speak of. We don’t see him get mad, scared, or display that many emotions. The rest of the characters are kind of the same. They’re not bad, I like them, but they don’t give you much to work with in terms of personality, which is a shame because that’s the one thing holding this anime back in my opinion. The setup and story are good as there’s a surprising amount of depth to this world we’re seeing and exploring. The segregation between humans and demihumans with healers being caught in the middle and told to favor the lives of the nobles and themselves over the lives of those who need their help. This belief that those in the slums are evil and that nobles are generous people who can do no wrong. Is this belief in all the kingdoms or just this one? While it’s not a story that has you on the edge of your seat with each episode, it is a good watch with characters you like seeing, can get behind and want to see be happy.
The animation and music are good and it is cute to see all these strong women fall in love with Zenos and yet he either doesn’t care or just sees them as patients as he knows getting involved with each with them will spell trouble in some form or another.
Final Score
The final score for this anime is 5.5/10. It’s not gonna top anybody’s list of animes to watch this season but if you’re looking for something that’s decent and doesn’t require much thought this anime is for you. I actually wouldn’t mind a second season as I’m curious about Zenos’s teacher and that demon using Afread’s body. This season left a lot to explore for the future. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
