The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

Its as meh as meh can be. I have forgotten what its about and all its characters almost as soon as I finished watching it. The premise was very appealing to me, since it's isekai and also since I had played healers in MMOs many a times. And it was quite funny and entertaining in the first couple of episodes. And then it got boring. And blah, and just eye-roll inducing. The characters were all so one-dimensional that they started to bleed into one another, the storyline felt like they just did not know what to do with it once they actually got people to startwatching, and the humour and comedy just started to feel forced and like they finally realise how boring the show was getting and they just absolutely had to throw in some jokes to try to make it entertaining. Shame really, because it kinda started off decent. It just got so blah until I almost forgot I was watching this series and had to force myself to finish it.

“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” is what happens when You have a good start and botch the ending. Do You know what’s the difference between “Story” and “Plot”? I actually like the way Lisa Cron describes them: “What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.” “STORY is about how the things that happen in the plot affect the protagonist, and how he or she changes internally as a result.” As she put’s it “The problem is that most writers mistake story for the things we can see on the page: the stunning prose, the authoritative voice, the intense and exciting plot, the clever structure.” Thatis the reason so many anime have absolute garbage stories. Because their plot does nothing. Most characters, especially in isekai’s, start and end the same way. They don’t change, don’t learn, they are static. “The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” was a nice surprise in that department. It actually has a story. Not a very original one but a story nonetheless. I can and will appreciate that. Let’s start with the plot. It’s not great. It’s actually pretty standard stuff for most isekai. W hero, this time 3, gets summoned to another world because they are incompetent and need teenagers to clean up their messes. In this case a war with the demonkind. Yes, it’s that unoriginal. Seriously, has anyone in those types of plots ever sat down and thought “Maybe kidnapping a kid and forcing him to fix the world he doesn’t belong to is a bad idea”? No? Didn’t think so. Anyway… This time we, in theory at least, have 4 main characters, but in reality it’s just two. The other two are just glorified support that brings little to the table except being a catalyst for one of them to grow a pair. So I’ll talk only about the two mains. Ken Usato - a seventeen year old highschool student. He was actually summoned by accident and that is a part of the plot that I actually love. Finally someone who gets dragged into another world’s mess against his or anyone else's will. He wasn't supposed to be there. And that’s about the most awesome part of the plot. Everything else just messes it up. Despite not being the chosen hero (that honor belongs to his two companions) he has a very rare and very useful skill of using healing magic. So I guess anyone who gets transported gets to use magic. One hero get’s light magic, the other lightning, both offensive, and the only person who isn’t supposed to be there just happens to hit the jackpot of magic and get’s healing. Yeah… I’m not buying it. Why not make it that healing magic is the most common one? That way the title “The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” would be more impactful. I could even bear that he would have higher skill in it than most people in that case. But no. Our “hero” gets magic that is so rare that there are only three other people that can use it. The “chosen one” bullshit strikes again. I will give credit, where credit is due, he evolves as a character. The Usato we get in the beginning isn’t the same we get in the end. That’s always nice. Now, let’s talk about the other main character - Rose - the “sadistic” mister Miyagi type mentor with a sour attitude. She’s powerful, respected and feared both by her enemies and friends. Granted it’s a bit of a different type of fear but I’ll still count it. If this was D&D she would be a multiclass Fighter (probably a berserker) / Cleric. She has both physical strength and magic power to be a one woman battalion. She’s the most powerful user of healing magic in the kingdom and practically kidnaps Usato to train him as her subordinate/successor. She’s also a fucking idiot. Granted, it’s not her fault, the writer gave her a dumb ass logic. She want’s a subordinate who will never die. It’s a result of her trauma, because of course she has trauma, we can’t have characters who are stable mentally and emotionally in an anime. That would be ridiculous. Up until the moment she stated that bs I actually thought of her as the best character. After that she dropped to the status of just another mentor character. I don’t want to state why she thinks she can create such a subordinate, that would be spoiler territory, but it's just dumb and contradicts what was stated earlier about healing magic. A thing that really rubbed me the wrong way. After our main cast is sent to war, we get, not one, but two goddamn retrospective episodes, about Rose’s past and her PTSD. Why? We could have got this as a supplement to the training arc and go back and forth between Rose’s past and Usato’s training. I would even accept an info dump in the form of a dialog. This is not important enough to everything that was set up to have to see it first hand. The retrospective just destroyed the pacing and gave nothing important in return. We had some “hints”, and even Rose saying that her squad died, that showing the event isn’t really necessary. Those are characters (apart from Rose) that have nothing to do with the main story and plot. I couldn't care less about them if I tried. The truly tragic thing? The retrospective shows Rose as an idiot who lets powerful enemies escape despite being capable of killing them. Apart from that it changes nothing in Rose, she’s caring and tough in both the past and the present. We already know that she had a subordinate that was similar to Usato and that she died in her arms. There is little to gain in giving a whole episode about that. It would be different if Rose in the past was drastically different from the present, but she’s not so I call that a waste of a perfectly good episode slots. The training arc is probably the best part of the show. Usato both trains his body, and is closer to understanding both his new world and his new role. It also shows his transformation from a pretty closed highschooler to a witty, sharp tongued almost soldier. The change isn’t done in a fast, half assed (well, maybe a little) way. Every episode gives some new behaviours to him until we see someone who is able to talk back to, and stand up to a woman who is feared among both friends and foes alike. Too bad that the show treats him like most other isekai mc’s in the way he can do no wrong. He doesn’t make decisions that have long lasting, negative consequences. He doesn’t get someone killed like Rose or even loses a limb or the use of his powers. There are two decisions that he made that had negative consequences but that really didn’t matter. In the first case the result was miniscule and not long term. In the second case he got saved. Apart from that he somehow does everything right. He heals wounds, dodges axes and swords and even defeats the black knight (more on that later). He even gives a pep talk to his hero friend and that fixes his hesitation about the war. Shame because the show started really well with him needing to learn the ropes. After all he is 17 but I guess in animeland that’s all it takes to be another Neo. The war arc and its aftermath are the most pathetic parts of the whole show. It was hardly a war. Just one clash and it’s over. It’s a shame because it was getting good with the whole healing combatants and running through the battlefield. I had potential for some pretty nice stories and fleshing out the two remaining healers a little. It could also show the horrors of war and why a unit like Rose’s is important, but that would require some thought and at this point in the show thinking isn’t really part of the writer's vocabulary. Now for the most idiotic part… The Black Knight, the creature that basically caused a shit load of problems, and probably death to the human army, is conscripted to Usato’s unit instead of suffering any true consequences of her action. She was more than willing to kill people and she gets away with what is basically an effing slap on the wrist. Morality in anime sucks. I’m not saying she should be killed (maybe a little) but for fucks sake, make her suffer at least some more hardships than just sitting in a prison cell. But of course we need another girl to develop a crush on Usato, because we have to. It’s an isekai after all. It may seem like I have mainly bad things to say about the show and… when it comes to writing, yeah, I don’t have much positive to say. It’s full of cliches, standard arcs and cheap tricks to make You think You care about the cast. Yet somehow the execution of this cliche fest is pretty good. I watched all 13 episodes and only got bored during the retrospection. The show has a really basic plot but the story compensates a lot for it. Granted the story itself isn’t original or groundbreaking, and towards the end becomes pretty bad but there is charm to it. I can’t really recommend this show with a clear conscience but if You want to see an anime that has at least some story, and not just plot like most, You will find it entertaining.

This is just an average isekai about one guy that its a healing dude and he is just overpowered and he has a hot teacher and its just basic stuff to be honest, it bored so much and i don't understand tue positive reviews. We otakus deserve better than this after sacrificing our social lives and sexual lives to watch only anime, we deserve respect ok animators, this show its just abominable in every single way and i will not forget this atrocious anime ok, please fellow otakus dont Watch this and watch a better isekai like.... And like .... Ok just ignore this awfulexcuse of an anime ok and lets he happy.

Chiyu Mahou ended up being one of those pleasant surprises this season. At first glance from the title alone, I was expecting another somewhat generic healer/pharmacy style anime of which we’ve had several lately. However, after the first few episodes I quickly realised this had way more potential than I thought and I ultimately think it lived up to that. This show’s got a few things going for it that really make it good for me. The first is that we have a group isekai. Not an entire class, but a trio of friends. Usato, Suzune and Kazuki are unexpectedly summoned to another world whilewalking home one day. While Kazuki and Suzune are quickly named heroes, Usato is taken off to join the healing corps, which brings me to my next point. Usato being proficient at healing magic and working to support the wounded in combat as opposed to your traditional overpowered hero MC makes things way more interesting. While he does get some offensive capabilities towards the end, for the most part the story focuses on his training and learning to use his abilities to support others in combat. While it may seem like that would be slow and boring, they manage to make all of the training arc so fun and engaging with characters like Rose, Usato’s squad leader. In addition to being the mommy dommy waifu of the season, she’s a strict, but loving mentor who wants the best for her subordinates. As the story goes on and we learn about her motivations and backstory, she becomes an even more complex and well rounded character. Every moment with she and Usato is so fun and over the top, but you can feel the love and kindness beneath her rough exterior. Rose isn’t alone though, the other supporting characters are great too. In particular, Suzune stood out to me. She and Kazuki kinda go MIA for a few eps in the story before popping back up, but when they did come back, I like how the author fleshed out their relationship with Usato. They were all made to feel like legit high school aged teens who were transported to another world and given an immense task. In most other shows, that’s kinda glossed over in favour of the MC or his classmates getting harems and overpowered skills, but realistically that would be enough to break most people. I loved seeing that vulnerability and fear from them, and seeing them overcome those obstacles. It was also refreshing to get an isekai without a ton of romance and girls fawning over the MC. In the later stretches, there’s some hints and signs of a couple ships, but it’s not the primary focus nor does it really distract from the story. The main thing about this show is seeing 3 teenagers get thrust into an unfamiliar world and make the most of a difficult situation, while finding who they truly are. No longer shackled by the chains of Japanese society, they can truly be themselves and grow. While we really only got one big fight in this at the end, there’s never a dull moment in this show. If it’s not comedy, training antics or some nice slice of life moments, there’s something else that’ll keep you engaged guaranteed. Speaking of fights, the animation isn’t the best, but it’s good enough. The art is really solid, love the bright art style and character models are on point too. Just a really aesthetically pleasing experience. Chiyu Mahou was a great surprise and ended up being one of my favourite shows of the season. A must watch in my opinion. Chiyu Mahou gets 9 out of 10.