Review of Redo of Healer

What Makes a 'Good' Harem Anime?(SR); Redo of healer is yet another entry into the anime cannon of controversial and polarising debate. Some score it highly as a meme much like "Interspecies Reviewers" before it, others write the whole thing off for it's intense subject matters. Let's today try to have a quick look at the show from a more impartial standpoint, giving it as much benefit of the doubt as we can. Music, Direction and Animation - Redo's production is where we can be the most objective about the show and temporarily cast aside the politics of the matter. In terms of OsT it's Mediocre atbest, the general backing-tracks are almost all mellow and drab which migth seem tonally fitting and to a certain degree they are but before long they drag on you and make some of the already badly directed scenes all the worse.
The two tracks used during almost all of the heintai and 'deep contemplation' scenes are possibly the worst on the track list yet see by far the most use - and even the more upbeat of the action tracks feel unoriginal and lacklustre at best. To give some credit where due the intro and outro are quiet nice but otherwise it's a very poor showing.

The direction is a little tricky, on the one hand the director is above average at what they do, however they make some baffling decisions that have to be taken into account.
As most will know many anime (infamously those of Studio Shaft in particular) can go to air with backgrounds or facial expressions rushed, only to be fixed in the Blu-ray, yet with Redo we have something a little different. For it's heintai scenes, even airing in the night time block they are simply too graphic, as such the show cuts to still images that pan across the screen. This goes on sometimes for minutes at a time with nothing, not even dialogue - only the worst of the Ost tracks for company.

Now let's be clear, I'm here to judge a Tv show and neither you or I are here to make excuses for a property. If they couldn't show these scenes then they shouldn't of been left in. The solution is easy - thought uncommon 16 minute anime do exist ('Manaria Friends' is one recent example) and I'd put it that this show should of aired as a 16 minute production, with the Blu-ray exclusively having the extra sex scenes.
That way with a simple fade to black you can imply what's happening and move on. In short any anime that for minutes every episode is either highly censored or essentially on a quick visual hiatus, has dramatically failed in the direction department.

Finally we have the animation which is by far the whole show's strongest selling point. The fights move dynamically with flourish and the general characters designs, while fairly generic standout just enough to the point that you know their from this show. The fight against the Sword Master and later Hawkeye are both superb and the explosion of blood and guts in the final episode puts Elfen Lied to shame.
Put bluntly for what is required to make this story function they do more then enough and this is without doubt the show's most undeniably strong selling point to which almost half of the rating I've given it comes from.

Story and Characters - The story of Redo presents us with an interesting conundrum; What is an Ecchi Harem Anime?
The fact is I do my best to understand everything I watch and read from it's own perspective, therefore what is Redo's standpoint? The thing many seem to miss-understand is the harem genre is not porn, heck even the ecchi genre borderline fails to reach this standard. Four seasons of highschool DXD in and there are still no confirmed instances of sex between the cast, same goes for the likes of Highschool of the Dead, Monster Musume, No game no Life, Infinite Stratus, Danmachi, SAO, etc etc.
No rather the genres are more aimed at young adults and teenagers, the use of objectified man or women as well as fanservice is more like a tool to bring people in, 'sex sells'.

In a sense you can look at it like you would the Mecha genre. Giant robot show's are seldom good just because they're gaint robot shows. You may like a show just for the robots sure but generally speaking the mechs are a gateway. Gundam has almost never been about robots, rather it's about war, drama and space wizards yet it is thee often credited original 'Real -Robot' show.
The point is a good Giant robot anime generally uses the robots as little more then a vehicle, a way to sell toys so that they can tell real stories about tragic people, climate change, understanding one another etc, etc.

Moreover I believe harems operate in much the same way. Zero no Tsukima is a classic harem show but it is also deeply laced with morality and the beliefs of an author who understood a burgeoning and prosperous second generation post-war-Japan, a peace that country had found that was worth appreciating.
Shuffle is a supernatural harem show that spends it's run exploring metaphor for physical and mental health issues.
Clanned of all things is a harem that uses it's setting (and this applies to the majority of harems) to explore the life's and struggles of a group of young relatable people who just so happen to all be after the same guy.

I am a large advocate of not looking up our noses at supposed 'lesser genres', the harem genre can be just as complex and nuanced as any other, like mecha it is just a vehicle - a genre tag and no more or less. Sure plenty try to be no little other then quick cash filled troop fests but you can say that of literally any other genre.

So then does Redo fit into this mould? Not exactly. Redo fails greatly in that it's not true porn due to the mass censorship but not an ecchi because it's still too extreme and it's not got the heart or wholesomeness of a good harem because everyone is his slave.

As for actual plot there is sort of themes....well kind of.
Many have posited and rightfully so that there does appear to be a message about revenge and a question of it's morality when the actions of the protagonist do indeed seem to improve the terrible world he lives in. Further there actually seems to be some commentary buried in here, with things like the shared demon/human city being a more prosperous place then the rest of the kingdom with even it's feudal lord (who we don't see but hear about) seemingly being an honest person who refuses to relent to the invading imperial armies demands.

However it's hard to give the show the benefit of the doubt when it also has the protagonist chose sex-slaves based solely on looks. The two princesses arguably do more evil to him then any other in the world, yet he keeps them, while [Larger Spoiler] Brutally killing Hawkeye who to our knowledge had done literally nothing wrong, not to our protagonist anyway.
As for the Blade Hero her acts against the protag are terrible, down-right abhorrent but are far lesser to that of what the princess's did to him, further she is a women of substantial fighting ability but he doesn't pick her because I guess the plot need to give the protag a magic gauntlet or something and he couldn't of just removed it from her once she became enslaved?(questioning the logic of this show leads to some.... interesting sentences.....)[Spoiler End].
In this regard it's hard to be sure if the themes actually have any weight when really they just come across as hollow excuses for all the debauchery we witness.

The rest of the story is generic fantasy, with the gang travelling from town to town, helping out here and there and selling produce. Essentially Rising of the Shield Hero but with more heintai.

The characters fair little better and there isn't much to say on them. The protagonist's actions often feel due to plot-holes rather then his apparent insanity or morality code and everyone else is set up to be as cruel and immoral as possible in an almost nihilistic setting. This in itself isn't actually an issue (See Evangellion) but rather the way it's handled is unremarkable and while they do mostly serve the story being told to an adequate degree, it's hard to give them much praise.

Conclusion;
"Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi" is one of those rare examples of when a show actually is as bad as everyone says it is.
It isn't trying to depict complex and uncomfortable topics in order to comment on them (ergo Goblin Slayer or School Days) nor is it a fun rompy-fantasy-adventure-harem - no instead Redo of healer is 12 well animated episodes of extremely kinky heintai, except with said heintai being censored through-out, leading it to somehow fail on almost every front.

All told I think it a bit like the prior mentioned Elfen Lied, touching on some deeper themes and messages but without anything productive to say on them or any real care for the groups who've suffered these forms of atrocity and the needed understanding to display such things in a mature manner.

If you want to watch it as something of a meme game, trying each episode to guess if it can actually get worse, all while skipping about a fifth of the runtime due to blank scenes - then it may have some value.
Further if these kinks suit you maybe you migth even want to acquire the Blu-ray version - however I feel I can safely say that for the vast majority of us you can safety skip this one safe, in the knowledge that it definitely isn't some miss-understood secret gem.

I hope your enjoyed this short review, if so please press the 'helpful' button (turn phones to 'desktop mode') and -
Thanks for reading.