The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 04 – Something Stronger than Fear

After the forest ordeal that led to Ken gaining a blue grizzly cub sidekick, Rose doesn’t sugarcoat her plans for him: he’ll be joining her in the vanguard of the coming war against the Demon Lord’s army, healing the wounded on the front lines.

The first battle will be led by Amila, who knows, fears, and hates Rose, but will be delegating the actual fighting to the faceless Black Knight. There’s also a demon mad scientist named Hyriluk, who developed the giant snake Ken and Rose fought, and has developed a stronger one.

Rose urges Ken to steel himself for the duties that await him, but she does at least let him sleep in a real bed. And while he was once annoyed by his roommate Tong’s snoring, now he finds it comforting. The next day, Rose has Ken run an obstacle course with Blurin (his bear) on his back, simulating the act of carrying a wounded soldier through the hell of battle.

Tong and the other non-healing members of the Resuce Team are all too happy to provide the hell, and after about four hours. Ken finally reaches his limit and collapses earlier than he expected. Rose tells him that’s due to the added stress of a combat zone, something he’ll have to overcome.

Next, Ken runs through the town with Blurin on his back, a sight that would be cause for concern among the townsfolk if he weren’t wearing the familiar garb of the Rescue Team. Everyone assumes there’s a good reason he has a blue bear on his back.

Ken, whom we know to be an extremely Good Guy, has a wholesome interaction with a grocer who offers him a free peffle (one of the tasty tomatillo-looking fruits of this world). He promises to return, which is when I imagine he’ll meet the fox-eared girl featured in the OP.

As Ken heads to the castle to visit Suzune and Kazuki, a flustered young man in a lab coat chases after him and soon falls behind. Ken eventually notices him and stops. Turns out this man is Orga Fleur, who along with his younger sister Ururu are the two other Healers in the Rescue Team.

Orga is appreciative of Ken’s healing, as he’s not as good at healing himself as he is others. He explains that in battles he and Ururu stay in the rear as supporters. When Ken asks what’s rattling around in his head—can he really be in the vanguard—Orga trusts Rose’s faith in him.

When Ken reaches the castle gates, he’s pleasantly surprised that Blurin, technically a monster, is allowed to pass along with him, as Rose vouched for him. Kazuki is out in the woods training with Sir Siglis (mentioned by name by Hyriluk as a human to watch out for), but Suzune is there, and overjoyed to see Ken.

Suzune is super excited to pet Blurin, but even when the bear rejects her with a rude swipe, she still “savors the feel of his toe beans.” Then Ken sees the callouses on her hand, takes it in his, and heals it, making her blush. When she asks if he came to see her, Ken says he came to see her and Kazuki. It’s clear Suzune wouldn’t mind being considered special to him … clear to anyone but Ken!

Visiting Suzune, seeing her callouses, and hearing that Kazuki is also training hard is ultimately what steels Ken for the battle to come, not all the running around with Blurin. Back home all he could do was admire people like them, who could do things he couldn’t. But in this world, there’s plenty he can do to support them. He can literally be the Heroes’ hero.

That night he spots Rose gazing at the moon and tells her while he initially feared the battlefield, his desire to save Suzune and Kazuki is stronger than that fear. Rose smiles, for this is exactly what she wanted to hear from her presumptive heir, and gives him a gentle punch to the chest, declaring him an official member of the Rescue Team.

The next morning, she surprises him with a mission: he’ll be joining Hero Suzune’s training outside the castle. Both Ken and Suzune are such cute and fun characters to watch, and their chemistry is so strong, their finally teaming up is something I’m very much looking forward to!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 03 – Snake Handling

Not long after Ken crash-lands in the forest, he encounters his quarry: a ferocious white grand grizzly. He finds he can just manage to out run it, but when he’s outnumbered by two blue grizzlies, he exercises the better part of valor and jumps into a waterfall, Fugitive style.

Having met his prey, Ken spends the next ten days observing it, and learns that the bears form a family. He even starts to find them cute. During these ten days he gets sick from river water, meets a cute black bunny that can understand what he’s saying and leads him to potable water. He also encounters something far more lethal than the bears: a bus-sized white snake.

When Ken finally works up the nerve to attack the bears, he finds the two adults have been brutally slaughtered for sport by the snake. The blue baby bear is still alive, and Ken vows to avenge its parents. Operating under the credo that nothing is scarier than Miss Rose, Ken fights valiantly, blinding the snake, getting his arm chomped, enduring and counteracting venom with his healing magic, and finally bringing the beast down with a flurry of dagger strikes to its head.

When even that doesn’t prove adequate to vanquish the beast, Ken is on the ground, just about out of mana and barely able to move. He contemplates his death until the revived snake is finished off … by Rose. Turns out she’s been watching the whole time, and the black bunny is her pet. Thus she knows everything he’s done, and that he did good. That said, she also heard him call her a brute, violent woman, and ogre, so he won’t be sleeping tonight as punishment!

The snake was actually an unexpected relic of the last Demon King war. Rose didn’t expect him to defeat it by himself, as even a whole party would have trouble. The whole point was to learn how it felt to face off against a plainly superior adversary.

And Ken comported himself well enough that Rose declares him qualified to stand with her in battle, an honor two previous healers couldn’t claim. Rose isn’t just being nice, either; she had been hoping Ken is a tough as he is, because the Demon King’s army is on the move. That he passed her test gives her hope they’ll fare okay in the battles to come.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 02 – Healing Like Hell

Suzune and Kazuki visit Ken at the Rescue Team HQ, resplendent in their new uniforms. They’re greatly relieved to learn he’s okay. Despite the fact he’s about to start “training from hell” with Rose, Ken is determined to push through in hopes of becoming useful.

Suzune expected he would, which speaks to her trust in his character, while he also inspires Kazuki to set aside his anger and being brought here and do his best. These kids are so damn wholesome and kind. I love them.

Ken soon learns that “Kind” isn’t in the vocabulary of his new master teacher Rose. When Day 1 is simply meditation to make him more aware of the mana within him, and Day 2 is studying texts (that he can read thanks to translation magic that occurred when he was summoned—a neat detail). But after that, Ken runs … and runs …and runs some more.

When his muscles won’t work anymore he collapses, but Rose heals him. The muscles are repaired and the pain is gone, so he gets up and keeps running. At first he lags behind his burly roommates, but he gradually gains speed and stamina.

When hundreds of nightly pushups are added to the daily running, it soon clicks for Ken: he starts manifesting healing magic, and casts it instinctively whenever he’s tired or in pain. It’s the fitness buff’s dream come true: continuous exercise with instantaneous recovery. Lactic acid is a thing of the past!

But while undergoing this amazing transformation, Ken still lingers on his self-worth compared to the two school idols. Will he really be able to help them when his training is nothing but running and pushups?

But here’s the thing: it is about more than running and pushups. Any healer worth their salt has to start with strength and speed. As Rose reveals to her, everything he’s doing is to make him a faster healing mage. The faster he is, the faster he can help or save others. The tougher he is, the longer he can hang in a battle.

When Suzune and Kazuki visit him in the woods, they’re shocked by what they see: Ken is doing pushups with a car-sized block of stone on his back, and Rose sitting atop the block. They also learn he’s taken not only to Rose’s training but her personality like a fish to water.

While she’s never shown it during his three weeks of training, Rose is impressed with his progress, such that she tells the Knight Commander training Suzune and Kazuki that she intends to make Ken her right hand man.

I loved the casual bliss of enjoying a picnic with Suzune and Kazuki, along with Princess Celia, who they’re protecting. Suzune can’t help but lift up Ken’s shirt to reveal rippling muscles, of which she greatly approves. When Kazuki asks if his training is always so intense, he tells them this was a light day.

Kazuki is worried this Miss Rose isn’t properly looking after Ken’s well-being like their knightly commander is looking after his and Suzune’s. Ken admits it’s tough, and he wanted to run at first, but no longer. Now it’s becoming fun. Suzune congratulates him for finding his place, though he says he’s simply been too stubborn to quit or give in.

There’s no more reassuring display than when Ken’s roommate brings him a lunch, Ken gets into it with him for stealing his lunch originally, and the two end up in a fist-and-kick fight, all with heightened expressions and dramatic music.

But despite the nervous sweat drops, it is reassuring because now Suzune and Kazuki know that not only is Ken going to be okay, but so are they, and perhaps sometime soon they’ll be able to fight side by side. I for one can’t wait for that!

But so far all he’s done is physical and mental training. Now it’s time for him to use what he’s learned in an uncontrolled environment. One morning, without warning, Rose tells him they’re “going out.” While at first I’d hoped that meant going on a cute date in the city, that would probably be too goofy.

No, by “out”, Rose means the wilderness beyond the city walls. She’s leaving him out there, and he can’t come back until he’s bagged a grand grizzly. Ken knows from his texts that a grand grizzly is formidable beast and wigs out, but Rose wouldn’t have brought him here if she didn’t think he was ready to handle one.

This was a brilliant, entertaining, funny, almost perfect training episode that only endeared me more to Ken, Suzune, and Kazuki, all of them irrepressibly grand kids. I only wish we got to see more of Suzune and Kazuki’s training!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 01 (First Impressions) – The Right Stuff

Usato Ken considers himself an unremarkable, run-of-the-mill high-schooler. He’s intimidated by the likes of Inukami Suzune and Ryuusen Kazuki, the president and vice president of the student council. But on a rainy evening when he forgets his umbrella, he soon learns they’re nothing to fear.

In fact, they’re friendly and generous. Kazuki lends Ken his spare umbrella, and he and Suzune are happy to walk home with him. He learns they’re much nicer and more down to earth than he thought, and despite rumors, they’re not dating (they also thank him for asking about it directly, unlike others).

These opening minutes aren’t just an opportunity for Ken to meet Kazuki and Suzune, but for us as well. It efficiently introduces all three leads as likeable good kids with distinct personalities—a lot like Reign of the Seven Spellblades. Then a magic circle appears and Suzune reveals her otaku side and is jazzed about it!

We kinda know why, too, thanks to what they spoke of just before. Despite being a third-year and the top student in school, Suzune hasn’t figured out what she’s going to do yet. We know Ken yearns for a more interesting life where he can make a difference. And we can infer that Kazuki has the most planned out future of the three.

They emerge in the throne room of another world and are told by a King Lloyd of Llander that they’ve been summoned as heroes to defeat the armies of the demon lord. That’s a lot to take in, but Suzune at least is loving every minute of it. Ken is a lot more guarded by this situation, while Kazuki is straight-up pissed about this sudden abduction.

He makes a good point: the three of them have families from whom they’ve been torn away. But Ken calms Kazuki down, telling him there’s no point in starting a fight. Kazuki stands down, and the king approaches them, goes down to a knee in apology; the entire court does the same.

He knows it isn’t fair what they did to them, but the hour is late, and his kingdom is desperate, as the demon lord’s forces continue to expand. He promises that they’ll find a way to send them back as soon as possible, but for now he humbly asks if they’ll be the heroes they need. Mind you, they only intended to summon two exemplary people from the other world, making Ken’s presence confusing.

Intended heroes like Suzune and Kazuki heard bells before they were summoned, but Ken didn’t. It appears that he was simply caught in the proverbial transporter beam. Nevertheless, he is treated the same as the other two, and evaluated for magic affinity. Suzune learns lightning is her element, while Kazuki’s is light—as in the opposite of dark, perfect against demons.

But when the crystal ball used to evaulate their magic turns green when Ken touches it, the royal mage Welcie suddenly freaks out, grabs Ken, and runs back to the throne room. She informs King Lloyd, who also freaks out. Up until this point, everyone in this show has acted reasonably and amicably.

The minute Rescue Team Captain Rose stomps into the room, we suddenly see everyone’s panicky side. They try to keep Ken’s magical ability secret, but then he blurts out that his light was green, and within thirty seconds Welcie the mage has gathered him up in a bubble and shot him out of the castle, and Rose brandishes a devlish smirk and gives chase.

She catches him with ease, and carries him to Rescue Team HQ. Green means healing, an extraordinarily rare type of magic. Rose introduces some other Rescue Team members, books Ken judges by their covers because they resemble a wrestling stable more than anything else! Not only that, none of them have healing magic!

Captain Rose intends to whip Ken into shape as a healing magic user, in effect bestowing upon him the significant purpose he desired in his original world. But it’s clear from the fear Rose instills in everyone he’s seen that it may be tough sledding. He’s going to have to step up his game: run-of-the-mill ain’t gonna cut it here!

And there you have it: one minute Ken is befriending the two most popular students at his school as they walk home, and that night he’s in a strange bed sharing a room with a snoring hulk in another world, his old dull life path replaced with a one filled with far more danger and promise.

What Wrong Way lacks in original ideas it more than makes up for with its execution. Its characters are instantly charming and rootable, the dialogue pops, and the production values are solid. This has the look and feel of a show made with care and thought, and I’m excited to see how Ken, Suzune, and Kazuki fare in their fantastic new circumstances.