Introduction
The hoopla surrounding Redo of Healer and its controversial content has definitely calmed down over the past few weeks. However, interestingly, as I checked through some anime news, apparently the show has gained somewhat of a following. On a Jan. 21st tweet, Redo of Healer became the most watched anime on AT-X:
And while the German simulcast of the anime has been cancelled, apparently that did not stop the Blu-ray edition as it shot up to #1 under "Anime" and #3 under "Blu-ray" in German Amazon:
With that said, in the previous episode, Keyaru bought a demi-human slave to bring more strength to his party. He could tell that the demi-human went through a lot of hell and desired to get revenge on the people who did her wrong. How will Keyaru help his new party member out carry out her revenge on the folks who got her enslaved in the first place?
The Episode
Keyaru takes the newly acquired demi-human to the inn to treat her sickness. As he used his Recover Heal, he gains the demi-human's memories of the events that led to her enslavement. After giving her a few doses of his antidote via mouth-to-mouth administration, the demi-human finally awakes. After sorting out the misunderstanding after the demi-human accuses Keyaru for sexual harassment, she introduces herself as Setsuna. To celebrate Setsuna's recovery, Freia heads out to get dinner for the party.
On the other hand, Setsuna has other ideas as she tries to knock out Keyaru to find the slavers as soon as she can. But Keyaru easily subdues her and he explains using a small cup as a metaphor for her low level cap. The demi-human is distraught at the helplessness of her situation, but Keyaru reveals to her that he's a hero who can raise her level cap by donating his... bodily fluids. Agreeing to provide her real name and thus, entrusting her autonomy to Keyaru, Setsuna "grabs her future" by engaging in oral and vaginal intercourse.
The party waits until nightfall to take out the slavers, who turn out to be human supremacist Jioral soldiers. Keyaru jumps in first, donning a phantom mask to disguise as the Sword Hero. Under the slavers' confusion, he uses the Clyret sword technique he acquired from healing Kureha in the first episode to whittle down the numbers. Freia later helps out with her high level magic and Setsuna finally cleans up the rest as she gleefully executes her revenge.
The party and the ice wolf demi-humans celebrated their victory together until everyone fell asleep except for Keyaru and Setsuna. The former reveals that the ice wolf village are the ones who contaminated Lanaritta's water supply and offers the latter the choice to make the poison more potent or to make the water clean. Setsuna chooses the latter option before the pair once again engage in intercourse. It is during the intercourse where Setsuna reveals she much prefers to do revenge up close and personal as opposed to guerrilla tactics from afar. This apparently pleases Keyaru quite a bit.
The episode ends with the Jioral king admonishing Leonard, the royal guard captain, for failing to protect Flare. Leonard, who now takes the appearance of Keyaru thanks to the latter's appearance changing abilities, is given a chance to redeem himself of which he swears to get revenge on the Healer Hero.
My Impressions
The best part of the episode, in my opinion, was when the party fought the Jioral slavers. The animation was mostly solid, though it wasn't as impressive as the Demon Lord fight scene from the first episode. Watching Setsuna getting back at the people who enslaved her was pretty satisfying. Also during that scene, I like how the episode further establishes Keyaru's moral code with his monologue. While he is a broken person, as he himself even admitted in the anime, he does have some sort of a moral compass.
In contrast, my feelings about the sex scenes are lukewarm. That isn't to say they cannot work, but during the first half of the episode, I couldn't help, but laugh a tiny bit. Something about Setsuna engaging in oral sex after Keyaru's encouragement speech and her brave declaration to "take hold of the future" just comes off funny. It also doesn't help later in the episode where apparently, the moon changes color depending on whether there's bloodshed or intercourse.
However, my biggest issue is how the anime keeps skipping over explaining one of Keyaru's most important abilities: Upgrade Heal. It's an ability that allows Keyaru to redistribute his stat points. The limitation to this ability is that it does not change the overall amount of stat points he has; only leveling up can do that. For instance, if he wants to prioritize speed, he can deduct points off of attack, defense, magic attack, and/or magic defense to add to his speed statline.
In fact, the first time he used Upgrade Heal was when he escaped from the Jioral castle dungeon in Episode 2, though the anime skipped over how he avoided the soldiers and took down Leonard.
It's rather frustrating to see the anime failing to divulge on one of Keyaru's most important abilities. Not only would showcasing Upgrade Heal help a whole lot at explaining certain events of the anime, but it would also serve as a good device to show off the protagonist's resourcefulness.
