Anime: Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi

I read the web novel in japanese on Shousetsuka ni Narou before I saw this anime. It is one of my favorite novels, so I am upset by the poor adaptation.

The anime has a very different feel from the source material.

In the novel, the protagonist is a very kind, caring, and considerate person, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, who is driven to revenge by the cruelty and violence that happens to him and to those around him who he cares about.

In the anime he comes off as an empty psychopath with no redeeming qualities.

In the novel the protagonist is weak and often unsure of how to escape tough situations. He is very calculating, but his plans frequently don't work out how he intends. He perseveres by luck, chance, calculated cunning, being helped by others, and sometimes by accident. He eventually gets very strong near the end, but does so very slowly and gradually.

In the anime he feels like an over powered, unstoppable, untrusting, sex and murder machine, with no real depth at all.

In the anime he basically just rapes and kills with no thought except for vengance. Sometimes his sense of fairness, justice, and his desire not to fight, shows through, but it feels almost out of place and inconsistent with so much plot cut out.

In the anime the girls seem more like they're just manipulated sex slaves and that's their only purpose.

A large amount of plot was cut, or extremely condensed. Many of the places where events happen were changed. And how the characters meet and interact is sometimes quite different.

The strength and depth of the supporting characters was toned down quite a bit in the anime.

All the character development, romance, moral dilemas, tension, suspence, themes of loss and redemption, exploration of what makes us who we are, and large amounts of other plot has all been cut out. Leaving only a general plot outline of revenge, with lots of gratuitous sex and violence for shock value.

The violence was toned down a bit, and the sex was toned up a lot, when compared to the novel.

It feels like an empty shell of the epic story that it is. The novel gets a 10/10 on all counts. The story is right up there with Berserk. They're very similar stories, but you'd never know by just watching the anime. The anime adaptation was not done well and it's a shame. It's a tradgedy that "Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo" is listed as similar. I've read that novel too and the stories are not similar at all. They wasted so much potential! I blame it on the unprofessional studio that gave a complex story to a novice director with zero experience who didn't even read it.

Hopefully it gets people to read the novel. There's an english translation now. If I was Rui Tsukiyo, I'd want my name taken off of the anime.

Redo of Healer has got to be the best anime. I am so not joking.

Why do I enjoy this show so much? Because it is very unique and visually good. Although somewhat generic, the designs are very good (look at Setsuna the Wolf Loli)

It’s story is as good as the graphics. It follows our young protagonist Keyaru, becoming a hero and fighting alongside the the other three heroes of the Jioral Kingdom to defeat the demon lord, just like he always dreamed of.

However, his healing ability isn’t very useful in combat. That causes the other heroes to torment him. One day, the heroes fight the demon lord. All the other heroes are injured. Keyaru is the Healing Hero, so he’s supposed to heal his comrades. And what does he do? He says, “Welp, sucks to be you motherfuckers! After years of hell and torment, you really think I’m going to heal you?! Hahahahahahahahaha!” Like every rational person should.(I might have been paraphrasing what he said, though). Then he defeats the demon lord, and in return, gets the Philosopher’s Stone, and uses his new powers given to him by the Star Spirit to go back in time by four years.

Then he starts tormenting everybody who tormented him in the first timeline, one by one, starting with the First Princess of Jioral Kingdom, Flare.

So what do I have to say about this anime. It’s a masterpiece. Fuck the big three (Bitch, Narutard, and None Piece). Fuck the new big three (My Villain Academia, The one with the demon loli that’s been memed to death, and I don’t even know the third one). THIS is a motherfucking masterpiece and you cannot change my damn mind.

STORY

Like every great review, they always start with the story part of every piece of media. So what do I think of Kaiyari’s story? Well…

The story is top-notch. It is the most unique premise of an anime I’ve ever seen. Most of today’s anime is just isekai trash. And for the animes that aren’t isekai, they still suck!!! Thankfully, this story is not isekai garbage, or even an isekai at all!

The show is really controversial, though, and that’s because of the use of “rape” scenes. Keyaru is not meant to be your goody two shoes protagonist, goddammit! Yes, rape is wrong, but many seem to side with the people that tormented him. Plus, the rape is off-screen. So why the outcry on Twitter when the rape isn’t even shown?!

ANIMATION

Next up is the animation!

So good! Screw Demon Slayer, this is like the best I've seen. The characters are hot, the fight scenes are well choreographed, and *those* scenes are really well done.

CHARACTERS

Let's start off with the main character, Keyaru. I like him, he's very interesting. Screw the typical harem protags! He is a healer who wants revenge after how his comrades have treated him. He is so deep and complex. He does not consider himself a hero, but he also does not harm others who have not harmed him, so he has some bit of humanity left. I especially cried when his caretaker was raped and killed. Also, he is hot as fuck. Awesome character 10/10

Next up is Flare or "Freia". She is the first princess of Jioral, and although she looks pretty and kind on the surface, she is actually cruel. I love these kind of twist villains! I love her character design and all that PINK! I kinda feel bad for her because of how she was raised. I also love her new personality, derederes are underrated. Awesome character 10/10.

Next up is my personal favorite, Setsuna. She is so cute OMG! >.< I love her character! I feel so bad for her. She is a weak Ice Wolf warrior taken in by Keyaru after she was sold into slavery by the Jioral kingdom. She becomes more open as time moves on. The best character 11/10.

Next up is Eve Reese. I like Tsunderes, so I found her very entertaining. She also acts different from the rest of the cast as she doesn't immediately fall in love with Keyaru. Excellent character 10/10.

Next up is... um... Kureha Clyret. Awesome character 10/10.

Next up are the side villains Blade and Bullet. I love their designs and I like how they are literal degenerates. Screw sympathetic villains. Both 10/10.

Lastly, we have the main villain, Princess Norn. I love how she isn't really shown at first and then, BOOM! She appears. I love her character design. She is so smart. And then her new personality after Keyaru heals her from her sick mind? OMG OMG! Awesome character 10/10

MUSIC

The soundtrack is excellent and memorable. I cannot get the opening song out of my head. ZANKOKU NA YUME TO NEMURE! 10/10

OVERALL

This was a masterpiece of an anime! Holy crap. This is so underrated. I recommend all of you to watch it right now! 69420/69420!!!

This is very obviously a joke. Redo of Healer is shit, and I agree with the reviews above me. Also, Keyaru is not hot at all.

• DISCLAIMER

  I am not a sensitive person. I have watched many other anime series that were more brutal and shocking that this. I am not giving this series a low grade because I am a “SJW” or some other bullshit, and I am, in fact, an unrepentant tankie.

  Show Spoiler
  Before getting into what the show is about, let’s talk about the technical value of this anime. Oh, that’s right! It’s non existent. The animation is extremely bad, even in the moments where its quality should be the highest (the first and the last episode). The characters’ faces are inconsistent and often look ugly because of their distortion. The character designs are forgettable: the protagonist has the generic evil face, clothing is dull, and female characters are only sexy thanks to their over-sized breasts. The backgrounds and background characters are badly drawn, and the design of the landscapes and buildings is the generic stuff you can find in a crappy isekai hentai. There is little actual animation, as most of the fight scenes – which are ridiculously gore, by the way – consist for the most part in static images with movements lines. The art style is also very ugly. I would go as far as saying that there isn’t a single frame that looks good in the entire show. The sound isn’t much better. The sound effects are ridiculous: blades cutting through flesh sounds like a goddamn kitchen knife slicing a tomato. The background music is shitty and repetitive. The voice acting isn’t particularly good either, with exaggerated evil laughs and the like.
  So, what’s this anime about? Simply put: it’s a revenge story and a rape fantasy. The protagonist, Keyaru (later called Keyaruga), the healing magician of a team of “heroes”, uses magic to go back in time to redo everything and get his revenge on the “heroes” who mistreated him and raped him for four years. How does he get revenge on them? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: he rapes them and tortures them one by one, along with rewriting the memories of some of them to turn them into his sex slaves. Keyaruga doesn’t hesitate to be more cruel than his enemies: gang rape, rape by monsters, psychological torture… As the show progresses, it gets trashier and edgier. In this anime, sexual abuse fixes everything and is the solution to all problems.
  Luckily for Keyaruga, his ability allows him to copy the abilities of other people, making him overpowered and pretty much unbeatable. Every time a fight starts, you just know Keyaruga is going to win without an effort, and then do horrible things to his enemy. He is also lucky that two of his former abusers are sexy young women with huge breasts. What’s interesting about him, though, is that he went as far as to go through torture and sexual abuse a second time – which includes pretty funny stuff like CBT, being ass-raped by a strong man, and being forced to suck his own dick, among other things – in order to get his revenge.
  There are many flaws in the plot but I will mainly talk about the two major ones. The first major flaw in the plot is the fact that Keyaruga’s revenge starts too early. “Revenge is a dish best served cold” says the proverb, in other words: revenge needs preparation. The show would have been far less shit if there were more episodes focused on the preparation of his revenge. It would have helped create complicity between the viewer and the protagonist as he plans his revenge while suffering from the mistreatment, the torture and the sexual abuse. But no, this show wants to provide immediate “justice porn”, so we don’t get to see much planning, as the revenge starts as early as episode 2, with Keyaru raping Flare, one his former abusers, which brings me to the second major flaw of the plot: the glorification of rape.
  As I said earlier, Keyaru / Keyaruga gets revenge on his former abusers mostly by raping them, which means that there are many rape scenes in this series. Granted, this is not the first time that an anime has rape scenes. But contrary to series like Berserk, where rape is clearly shown as an evil act made by degenerates, and contributes to making the series dark, in this series rape is also done by the protagonist. This wouldn’t be a problem if the protagonist was portrayed as evil, but that’s not really the case. Keyaru / Keyaruga doesn’t act evil for the sake of being evil, but to achieve his revenge, and his revenge is legitimate, given how badly he was mistreated. When he rapes one his former abusers, the viewer is supposed to enjoy the scene since they are “getting what they deserve”. Not only is rape shown in an almost positive light, the protagonist isn’t even portrayed as evil for committing rape and torture, in fact in many instances he is presented as some sort of anime Batman, much like Zero in Code Geass, because he fights against a corrupt power and sides with the oppressed – at some point there’s even a cheesy anti-racist message, something nobody would expect from the incel fantasy that this series is.
  Regarding the other problems of the plot, there’s little actual world-building, and most of it is the stereotypical stuff you can find in any garbage isekai: a European-looking country, video game classes, heroes, magic, monsters, and demons, with male demons looking like orcs and female demons looking like… normal human women with slightly different ears. The names of characters and places are also pretty bad: Jioral kingdom, Keyaru / Keyaruga, Flare, Trist Organ, Kureha Crylet… Someone should tell the author that putting random letters one after another isn’t an efficient way to create good names.
  Coming back to the characters, they can be separated into three categories: the protagonist, the bad guys, and the female characters who make up the protagonist’s harem.
  The protagonist, Keyaruga, is by far the “least worst” character since he is the only one that has an actual objective, namely revenge, and each of his actions is done to achieve this objective. He is also the only one who gets some development, through flashbacks and such. Even so, that isn’t enough to make him a good protagonist. While it is pretty obvious that he is crazy, the anime still tries to portray his actions as justified.
  The bad guys are cartoonishly evil. They are all psychopaths and degenerates who love to torture, rape, kill and plunder on a daily basis and for no apparent reason. Some people say that this anime is realistic, it is not. In the real world, people don’t do evil things for the sake of being evil, they do it to obtain certain things, such as money and power. This is not the case in this anime, where the bad guys are all sadists and perverts who hate the protagonist for no valid reason, which makes them shitty villains.
  The female characters aren’t better. Once they join the protagonist’s harem, they are deprived or their personality and turned into sex dolls who only appear on the screen to have sex with the protagonist.
  Not only are the characters and the plot bad, this series isn’t even good as a porn. As I said earlier, the animation in this anime looks like shit. This also applies to the sex scenes, and there are many of them. Seriously, even low quality hentai performs better than this. I ended up skipping most of them since they were ugly, ridiculous and didn’t add anything to the plot. On a positive note, it does have a lot of different fetishes: femdom, gender bender, wolf girl, monsters, strangulation, humiliation, slavery, CBT, etc…
  In conclusion, Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi doesn’t bring anything new to the medium. It’s one these shows that try to appeal to the teenagers by having a lot of violence, rape and torture, so that they can feel like they’re watching something mature – spoiler: violence doesn’t equate maturity. If you’ve been bullied by girls in high school or hate women because they won’t date you, this anime was made for you. Otherwise if you have good taste in anime you should avoid this show.

Sub-score explanation:

Redo of Healer is basically a hentai in TV format and it’s not trying to hide it. You are watching it purely for the rape scenes as well as for the most extreme depiction of justiceporn. The way it does that is quite simple.
-It takes out all attempts to offer the moral high ground to the protagonist. He doesn’t want justice, he wants blatant revenge.
-It removes all legit reasons for the women to enter his harem. They don’t want to follow him around because he’s a nice guy. He constantly abuses them and they like it like the masochists they are.
-It reduces all the bad guys to nothing more than sadistic rapists. There is nothing grey about them, they are pure evil and you want to see them suffering.
-And it never cockblocks the protagonist whenever he wants to bang a woman, so he can remain a pure virgin forever. The guy has been violated a thousand times and wants to do the same to all others around him.

In this sense, the anime is the most honest depiction of such a type of power fantasy. Other shows like Akame ga Kill, The Shield Hero, or Goblin Slayer, kinda went that way, but were always holding back from being unapologetic and were constantly trying to make you think the protagonist is heroic and every dubious action he takes is morally justified. Well, not here. The protagonist wants to f*k all the people who messed with him and he does exactly that without caring to justify anything or to come off as heroic.

The show is obviously trying to be as extreme as it can without apologizing to anyone, and it succeeds. It’s not shying away from showing the rape, unless you are watching the censored version which ruins the whole point of the plot, and it’s not trying to make the protagonist to come off like he is regretting the things he is doing and seeks retribution. You are not gonna get crap like forgiving the bad guys and letting them go without punishing them, so he won’t be as bad as they are. Screw that shit, they are one dimensional and love to torture people. There is no redemption for any of them and you are just eating your pop corn as they are destroying each other mentally and physically.

At the same time it doesn’t have something people can look back as a good example of what to do or what not to do in power fantasies. Heck, it didn’t even manage to create a big enough controversy like the aforementioned titles did during their airing, because it had nothing for one side to defend and another to accuse. It is a blatant and straightforward rape fantasy, with nothing else to flavor it. You don’t see anyone defending all those rape hentai games out there for the same reason. No matter how good they are, there is nothing you can say that can make them sound more than what they are.

Although there is a market for that sort of fiction, it is a niche within a niche when it comes to the anime community, and thus anything resembling Redo of Healer will never have a broad appeal. Aside from how it will be banned or blocked or censored on most sites because of its subject matter, it also doesn’t do something for attracting people of other tastes. Goblin Slayer attracted a lot of D&D players, and The Shield Hero attracted a lot of videogame players. This anime keeps everyone at bay, unless they are already into revenge rape, which is not exactly the most popular kink people have.

And when all is said and done, Redo of Healer just doesn’t give you something to talk about. Its plot and characters are as generic as they get and there is no theme exploration for analyzing it on an intellectual level. The other series had interesting themes. They were trying to do something with their premises (and failed), which made a lot of people to defend them, because they either liked the theory behind them, or because they found them to be cool in a superficial way. This anime has no theme or premise one can ponder about, and although it doesn’t come off as pretentious like most anime which do a crappy job with their theme exploration, it also lacks an identity. You can’t set it apart from any other bland rape fantasy, aside from perhaps calling it the first anime tv series which takes that route. And even then it didn’t pioneer anything in the same way Sword Art Online did for isekai and videogame-based settings, because it doesn’t have a mass appeal. It’s a bland power fantasy that leaves you with nothing once you experience it. The same way I feel every time I finish a slice of life episode about some bland moeblob lolis in some generic school setting. There is nothing in that kind of anime. They are vapid entertainment, meant to be consumed and then thrown away. Thus the only thing I can say about Redo of Healer is ‘congratulations for being honest, but I don’t want you anywhere near me’.