Recently I wrote a blog post about the various series from the just-ending monster winter 2021 anime season that I wasn’t watching for one reason or another, whether it was because there was just too many other quality shows that demanded my time, or because they didn’t appeal to me for one reason or another. When I added the controversial Redo of Healer to the list, I got a lot of pushback from die-hard fans of that series. So I promised to properly re-watch the show from the beginning, and write a follow-up post.
WARNING: Some might not like the content of this anime, so you might want to stop reading this post.
Why I Was Wrong About the Redo of Healer Anime
What would you do if you could relive your life over and over again, gaining more experience along the way? Would you take the time to teach yourself French and jazz piano and ice sculpting, and help as many people as possible, as Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day? Or would you use your powers to extract the sweetest possible revenge against those who have wronged you in the past? I’m hoping most of us would choose the former option…
Even if you’ve never watched an episode of Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi, you probably know that it’s a “revenge porn” anime that caused a dust-up on Twitter, with many fans protesting its depiction of the main character Keyaru getting revenge on the many wrongs done to him by using his powers to commit crimes, including rape and brainwashing.
Keyaru is a lowly healer — usually the weakest class in a party — who wants to do his part to save the world from the evil dark lord… until he becomes the target of extreme abuse by members of the corrupt Jioral Kingdom, including forced drugging and rape by the twisted Princess Freia as well as some male members of his party. Keyaru would have been completely broken, but for the fact that every time he heals someone, he gains some of their experience. He’s able to steal the Philosopher’s Stone from the Dark Lord, giving him the power to re-start his life and live it again, this time with incredible magical abilities. He does a few good things, such as saving an ice wolf tribe from murder and enslavement, and many bad things, starting with the revenge-rape of Freia, then reprogramming her into a lovey-dovey and supportive companion.
Unlike the vast number of anime series, Redo of Healer goes out of its way to portray the sex scenes, either in cheesy censored clips (in the TV broadcast version) or in much more detail (in the uncensored version). Like Interspecies Reviewers, this made it a lightning rod for fan outrage… which naturally propelled it to greater heights of popularity as other fans tuned in to see what all the fuss was about.
Five Things I Learned by Watching Redo of Healer
Revenge Stories are not New At All
People are seemingly shocked that a story could be centered around a detailed revenge plot, but they’re forgetting that seeing violent revenge played out on screen has been a popular plot device for decades. Code Geass, Goblin Slayer, Attack on Titan, Black Butler, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and Higurashi no Naku Koroni all push the emotional buttons of fans through revenge, giving us that sweet dopamine hit deep inside our brain when a long-awaited vengeance is fulfilled. Fist of the North Star also made heavy use of revenge as a plot element, and it was great to watch Kenshiro split open the heads of the evildoers who have slain some innocent villagers. The fact that the writer of Fist uses the penname Buronson indicates that he’s taking his storytelling cues from the popular Death Wish revenge films from the 1970s, which starred Charles Bronson. These films pretty much created the “revenge porn” trope single-handedly.
Redo of Healer was Written by a Female Amateur Author
It’s a very exciting time to be a creative person, and there are more avenues for amateur writers or doujin artists to have their works picked up for major distribution than ever. Redo of Healer was written by female author Rui Tsukiyo, who published her work through the website Shōsetsuka ni Narō (Let’s Become a Novelist). The sexual nature of the work caused that website to pull the work, which was the best thing that could have happened for the creator, as the backlash by fans caught the attention of Kadokawa, who decided to publish the novels and later fund the anime.
More Women than Men Enjoy Redo of Healer
It was widely reported through the anime press (and in memes, of course) that the majority of fans of Redo of Healer in Japan are girls, not guys. This is based on a tweet from the writer who looked at data from streaming sites inside Japan. This caused a loud grinding sound across the Internet, as many fans experienced paradigm-shifting without a clutch.
Japanese Fans Like Different Things Than Western Fans
There’s a genre of adult manga called レディコミ redi-komi (from “lady’s comics”) which goes out of its way to tell sexual stories that will be of interest to a certain type of female fan. The stories provide a unique kind of sexual escapism for females and are definitely not the kind of stories Westerners would expect to see. Some examples of manga that were popular enough to get anime made include:
- The 25-year-old High School Student, about a 25-year-old woman who goes back to high school, pretending to be her cousin in order to keep her from getting expelled. When her hot bishie teacher sees through her ruse, she has no choice but to allow his physical advances and become his lover.
- My Arranged Marriage Partner Is My Troublesome Student, about a teacher who learns that her arranged marriage partner is really the younger brother of the man she intended to marry, and a student from her class. The boy is so full of passion for her she feels obliged to let him use her body for sex.
- Amai Chobatsu (Sweet Punishment), about a girl who’s framed for embezzlement and put in a prison where she becomes the target of, ah, “cavity searches” and more by a twisted guard. When another prisoner comes to her defense, she becomes romantically torn between both men.
- XL Joshi: My Boss is Really Big Down There?, about an unfulfilled OL who signs up to write product reviews and is surprised when the company sends her XL-sized condoms. Her boss finds them and begins helping her write her reviews by banging her endlessly.
These are not “Tumblr-approved” stories, and all involve females being put into sexual situations that would not be considered appropriate by anyone in the real world. Japanese female fans enjoy these stories for the same reason Western fans might enjoy a good “bodice-ripper” erotic novel: the thrill of the story fills something that’s missing from their real lives, inside a fictional setting.
As I wrote in my post about how Japan ranked on the world “happiness ranking,” it’s probably not a good thing to be judging the popular culture of a country like Japan through a filter of European political thought. So let’s all be happy with Japan telling the kinds of stories it wants to tell, and we’ll all watch the shows that appeal to us.
Conclusion: Anime is a Big Tent
I think Redo of Healer was a fine anime, with an interesting take on the familiar themes of looping stories as well as not-quite-classic revenge. It’s definitely not for everyone, but that’s fine because anime is a “big tent” with hundreds of smaller fandoms inside. I may not be personally into boy’s love stories, or anime about ping pong or fishing, but if other fans are into that, then great! I’ll just mind my own beeswax.
What I liked least about the anime was the hero Keyaru himself. Not necessarily because of his endless quest for revenge, but because he managed to save so few of the good characters during his journey. You’d think a hero who could literally heal any injury or disease could somehow find a way to make the world a better place, or at least be like Darth Plagueis and keep the ones he loved from dying. His inability to do even a little good even as he went about exacting his revenge on the evil Jioral Kingdom made him a very unlikable character.
Thanks for reading this “hot take” about why I was wrong about Redo of Healer. Do you disagree with any of my conclusions or opinions? Please tell me in the comments below, or on Twitter!
The hits from J-List’s sister company J18 Publishing just keep coming, and now we’ve got a fun hentai doujinshi called Lusty Ayaka-chan, about a lucky boy whose parents go on vacation, causing him to spend time with a saucy GAL. The book is in stock in San Diego now!
