Marinate1016

Finally, after all these years, the definitive magnum opus of the Japanese anime industry is here. Eva who? Shingeki no what? Redo of healer is unironically one of the best shows in recent memory. It’s not for everyone, in fact it’s probably not for most people. That’s fine. It was for me. “You only like Redo because of how edgy it is” Well, you’re not wrong. What makes Kayari so enjoyable is not its story, which is actually pretty good in its own right, but its unique take on the dark fantasy general and how it takes traditional preconceptions of what a MC has to be,and turns them on their head. We have all the same traditional set ups that we’re accustomed to with this genre. JRPG inspired world, OP MC surrounded by a harem of girls, setting out on a quest, etc, ect. Where the series sets itself apart from others is the MCs approach to revenge and life. In traditional series like this, you have a MC who is afraid of hurting people, afraid of women and just a beta male in general. What I love about Keyaru is the fact that he just doesn’t give a fuck. He’s not afraid to tear people apart, literally and figuratively, and he reacts how a normal person in his situation would. I love that. What people often forget about when they write negative reviews and talk about the MCs use of rape as a weapon, is the emotional, physical and psychological abuse that he endured at the hands of the people he gets revenge on. Yes, rape is horrible, but in the context of Kayari it is totally understandable from a literary and logical standpoint why its used in the story. One negative thing about the anime, is the fact that Keyaru’s desire to not hurt anyone who hasn’t hurt him isn’t emphasised. I think that caused a lot of people to hate him as an MC because of the cut monologues that provide context about his emotional state. While Keyaru is not a good guy in the traditional sense, he is not out to hurt people who have not abused him or hurt his companions. He’s not just out raping and killing people for the sake of it. On the animation quality side of things, I think TNK did a better job than I was expecting. The fight scenes are surprisingly well done and the sex scenes are as fluid as you’d hope. I do think the OST was pretty weak, but that’s a rather minor complaint. A story that makes you uncomfortable is not necessarily a bad story. Sometimes we need to have our views and ideas challenged, and I think Kayari can provide that for fans of dark fantasy anime/LNs. Again, you know damn well if this show is for you or not. If you’re just gonna have a meltdown about how edgy it is, just stay away. Kayari gets 10 heals out of 10.

literaturenerd

I haven’t written many seasonal reviews this year. I slept on Mushoku. I slept on Promised Neverland Season 2. I slept on the glorious Ex-Arm! I will NOT sleep on Redo of Healer! This is one I absolutely had to review as soon as it finished! I gave this a 4 because Redo of Healer is dogshit, but it’s also hands down the most entertaining anime of Winter 2021! I’m dead serious. So, exactly what kind of idiocy are we in for? In case you aren’t aware, there is a certain sub-genre within the wide world of isekai. These are the isekai like Shield Hero thatwere spawned from the massive success of Mushoku Tensei in 2012. Is Sword Art Online too feminist for you? Are you sick of progressive concepts like “consent” ending up in your anime? These are the anime for you! These are pure power fantasies for a market of angry, young, single men. These series absolutely revel in their level of political incorrectness even by Japanese standards. Mushoku is proud to be pro-pedophilia. Shield Hero is proud to be pro-slavery. To be honest, I don’t actually mind this at all. If these series serve as a healthy outlet for frustration and anger, then they are doing a good thing. I may not be the target audience, but not every piece of media is made for everyone. It is perfectly fine for media to sometimes be exclusive. I worked at a Walmart in Tennessee and sold easily about 500 Pureflix movies every month. I am not offended if a movie is made specifically for straight, white, Evangelical Christians and everyone else is going to have a bad time. Sure, it would of course be an issue if that were every movie, but that doesn’t mean we should take the opposite extreme and try erase 100 percent of those movies! Everyone deserves a movie or show that’s made for them. Sometimes we all want to feel comfort, acceptance, and recognition that we don’t have to work for. So where does Redo of Healer fit into all this? Honestly…I’m not even sure. Redo of Healer takes this reactionary power fantasy SO far that it becomes an absolute joke. At certain points, I was entirely convinced I was watching a Juvenalian satire. In other words, a show that wanted to make fun of these types of isekai by exaggerating their faults. People genuinely like Naofumi from Shield Hero and Rudeus from Mushoku. Keyaru is completely unlikeable by design. There is no twisted worldview where he’s the good guy. He is a force of chaotic evil who happens to be torturing and killing lawful evil because they harmed him. We can laugh our asses off when he casts a spell on his dick to make himself iron hard and slaps a princess in the face. However, it is impossible to see Keyaru a decent person. Just in case the audience ever gets close to sympathizing with him, it gives him a maniacal laugh and clear-cut villain speech where he proves that he doesn’t care about saving anyone and solely cares about himself. He was fully willing to poison and massacre an entire city simply to gain a sex slave that he can manipulate and commit statutory rape against. When a villain tried to massacre a city to draw him out, he just sat there and watched the massacre happen. Only when a merchant he happened to sort of like was killed did he decide on a whim to save a few survivors. When his favorite restaurant was massacred, he didn’t care about the people. He decided to summon a giant bull and have it rape the killers to death in order to “avenge the food”. Keyaru is best described as 10 percent Lelouche, 20 percent Shield Hero, and 70 percent Kefka from Final Fantasy. He is a broken man that has been driven insane by years of torture, drugs, and rape. Now he exists solely to dole out hilariously over the top punishment on all those who wronged him. I’ve argued with several friends on MAL over whether or not Redo was a satire. There are plenty that believe it is actually genuine and the original light novel author is simply that depraved. However, I would argue that Redo of Healer is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even matter if the original author intended it to be serious. The director of the 2006 Wicker Man remake intended it to be a serious and disturbing film that he made as a critique of modern feminism. Nicholas Cage said it best. “When you make a film in which a man dresses up in a bear suit and runs around punching women, you’ve made a comedy.” Redo of Healer can only be classified as a comedy. It’s not really a revenge porn because it isn’t erotic. The sadist who would be satisfied when Keyaru summons 3 ogres to rape and eat an evil lesbian to death will instantly lose his chub when Keyaru busts out a half rack of baby back ribs to munch on and tells her to spread her butthole more. I don’t think it’s clinically possible to get an erection watching this show. The tonal whiplash is simply too intense. Redo of Healer is a comedy just like Top Gun is a gay community cult classic and Dolemite is a comedy and not a serious kung fu film. At a certain point it doesn’t matter if it was entirely intentional or not. Interestingly, this makes Redo of Healer far more inclusive and broadly appealing than Shield Hero or Mushoku. You don’t need to be male to enjoy this show. You don’t have to be straight. You don’t need to be a virgin with rage. All you need to have a ball with Redo of Healer is a dark sense of humor. I’m not going to spend much time covering the plot of this show, because the plot honestly doesn’t matter. Redo is about a sad little twerp who gets tortured for years by a team of evil knights who are bent on global conquest. However, this sad sack is actually an evil genius who is formulating a ridiculous revenge scheme. In the first episode, he uses a magic MacGuffin and goes back in time to take advantage of his absurdly OP powers and inflict suffering on all of his enemies. So how is he so powerful? Allow me to introduce you to the moronic magic system in this anime. Healing powers are considered a cursed gift because you must relive all the memories of whoever you heal. That means experiencing all their pain and suffering. This also means that Keyaru can duplicate the spells and abilities of anyone he has healed because he has their memories and knows how to do it. Here’s why that’s so stupid. Keyaru never exercises and isn’t in good shape. He hasn’t conditioned his body at all. Yet he’s able to run at superhuman speed and has superhuman strength simply by having the memories of great athletes. Just because you theoretically know how to run doesn’t mean you’ll be as fast as Usain Bolt! A doctor with poor hand eye coordination can know exactly how to perform a surgery and still won’t be able to do it! He also doesn’t have an abnormally high level of mana, but can cast S tier spells because he knows the basics of how to do it. Keyaru’s power is either intended to be a joke or the author of the LN is a complete moron. Honestly, it could be either from what I’ve seen of the man’s interviews. However, Keyaru’s bullshit power has one amazing upside for the viewer. Every single spell in existence is activated by the incantation “HEAL!” This means that every single battle in the show is Keyaru just screaming “HEAL! HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!” ad infinitum. I can’t describe how funny this becomes after a few episodes. All credit goes to Keyaru’s amazing voice actor. If that man ever comes here to my town, he will never have to buy a drink! I will pay his bar tab for life! Should you watch Redo of Healer? If you can appreciate dark comedy and want to laugh at something stupid, I absolutely recommend this one! I’m a little sad I can’t bring myself to rate it higher, but it’s also a pretty lousy show on an art and technical level. Definitely bring this title to your next bad movie night. You will be laughing until tears stream down your faces! Shame on Funimation for adapting the virgin Mushoku and not dubbing the Chad Redo of Healer. This should be seen and enjoyed by as many people as possible!