Redo of Healer: Season 1/ Episode 5 “The Hero Finds a New Toy!” – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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While Redo of Healer provides us with Keyarga’s first formidable opponent, it increasingly shies away from being as explicit as it once was.

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Director(s)	Takuya Asaoka
Writer(s)	Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Aired (VRV)	2/10/2021
Newly Noted Characters
Kureha	Natsuki Aikawa
Anna	Nishi Asuka

This content contains pertinent spoilers. Also, images and text may contain affiliate links, which, if a purchase is made, we’ll earn money or products from the company.

Recap

Play With Me If You Want To – Keyarga

As Keyarga predicted, the merchant does attempt to betray him, and with that in mind, Keyarga was ready to kill everyone that sided with the merchant. However, with them knowing his new name and not wanting that attention, it is agreed that for 500 gold pieces, Keyarga will sell his recipe. Mind you, the source of the sickness is gone, and without Keyarga’s antibodies, the potion is useless. But, the merchant wanted to pull a fast one, so this is what they get.

A Battle With Kureha Krylet – Kureha, Keyarga, Freiya, Setsuna

With calling himself the hero of the sword and using a blade associated with Kureha’s family, she finds herself face to face with Keyarga under the impression he murdered soldiers trying to protect the White Wolf Clan village. And despite Freiya and Setsuna backing up his statement, Kureha decides to fight Keyarga and ends up like everyone else. Smart, talented, yes, but ultimately not prepared for Keyarga’s tricks, including drugging Kureha.

Loyalty Doesn’t Mean Lack of Jealousy – Kureha, Keyarga, Freiya, Setsuna

Leading to Keyarga using Freiya to help push Kureha onto his side. For with Freiya as Princess Flare saying Leonard wanted to silence the princess, imprison Keyaru, who reveals his true identity, and that all of this was done when they discovered the darker side of the kingdom, Kureha is broken. Her sense of justice is shown to be off and pair that with the drugs Keyarga gives her? Well, she ends up joining his harem.

One that already is one too many for Setsuna and Freiya, for while they participate in a threesome, both make it clear they prefer one on one sex with Keyarga. But, it seems now, with another woman involved, sometimes they may just have to listen outside the door, hoping he has the stamina left so they can have a turn.

Review

Highlights

Keyarga’s Battle With Kureha

The struggle that is Keyarga seeming so powerful is that it makes everyone seem meek in comparison. However, with Kureha giving Keyarga a run for his money in a rather entertaining fight, you can see him having to act calculated beyond how he usually handles situations. And while he ultimately won and subdued Kureha, just knowing people can still be a threat and injure him, that’s all that matters.

Leonard Capturing Anna

While Keyarga should have no issue sacrificing Freiya, due to her former life as Flare, and Setsuna due to her being a slave he has some semblance of a bond to, Anna is different. As established earlier in the show, Anna raised Keyarga, and while he hasn’t spoken to her or sought her out, this doesn’t mean she was forgotten. And considering we know what soldiers do, from enslavement to rape, I fully expect what we saw Keyarga go through in his past life, Anna will deal with. Which perhaps will inject the sense of emotion that Redo of Healer is slowly losing.

On The Fence

Keyarga’s Relationship With The Girls

It’s still an uncomfortable relationship between Keyarga, Setsuna, Freiya, and now Kureha, since the power dynamics are weird. With Freiya, you can’t erase the fact he wiped her brain and manipulated her into thinking they are in some sort of relationship that allows him to have additional women. Then with Setsuna, she is clearly a young girl who hangs off Keyarga due to him empowering her and giving her revenge. I mean, she thinks she grows stronger every time she is ejaculated in for goodness sakes.

Yet, even with how creepy Keyarga’s relationships are, there are moments you want to will yourself into believing maybe he genuinely cares about these women? That he doesn’t just randomly have sex with Setsuna to flout his power but because there is something there emotionally. Maybe, with Freiya, because she is sweet, an ally, and nothing like how she was when she was Flare, as weird as their relationship is, perhaps it can evolve?

And mind you, this isn’t to say we’re trying to find ways to excuse Keyarga’s actions. We understand why Keyarga acts this way towards Setsuna and Freiya is because he felt powerless and now is compensating for that. But, because it seems Redo of Healer wants there to be some form of intimacy here, it’s hard to tell if we should see growth through Keyarga growing close to Setsuna and Freiya. Especially since, for every moment Keyarga expresses he is proud of Setsuna, for example, there is him surprising her with his penis just randomly being inserted. Never mind Kureha being added to his harem and the vibe that this is all about him satisfying himself.

Thus showing, despite the appearance of trying to form a bond with these women, it doesn’t mean it is due to love or affection. Simply put, it is because, with them becoming d**k-matized, it means further protection for when something unplanned happens. One prime example is when the merchant decided to betray Keyarga, and he was ready to sacrifice both Freiya and Setsuna, who he knew would fight to the death for him.

It Has Really Toned Itself Down

Fully acknowledging there was a point I said this show was doing so much I didn’t know if I could continue, now I’m starting to feel, with it toning down, it has lost its edge. If not, like most shows that start off very violent and sexual early on, once you move past there, there is a need to ask, “What’s left to keep me on the hook?”

This feels like a growing problem for Redo of Healer since Keyarga’s revenge has stalled a bit as he took on being an adventurer. Though perhaps what gets us is when it shows fish flailing, a dragon sleeping, or stuff like that, it doesn’t have the same impact as when you knew Keyarga was torturing Princess Flare. There is no feeling of being glad you don’t know what’s happening because you can imagine it. Rather, you’re just left feeling that, after all we’ve seen, consensual sex is what you want to hide from us? Not even with black bars or clouds, but just silence and us focusing on something that doesn’t matter?

Mind you, this isn’t hentai, so Redo of Healer showing sex scenes isn’t expected nor necessarily wanted. More so, I think we’ve come to the point of wondering if Redo of Healer has run out of ways to shock its audience. If not, tap into our emotions by showing our lead go through horrific things. And as much as you want Keyarga to get revenge, he goes beyond the archetype of an anti-hero. He oftentimes mirrors those you want to see him get vengeance on, and while you want to believe he is still a good guy, his relationships walk a very thin tight rope.

So, with no longer using Keyarga’s abuse as a quick and easy means to get a rise out of you, having uninspiring sex scenes and action scenes that are decent but won’t leave you awestruck, what does Redo of Healer have to offer? It hasn’t done much world-building, and its character development is a bit sparse, so have we seen the best this has to offer?

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