The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 13 (Fin) – Great Expectations

The best part of Wrong Way was its lovable, adorkable characters and their chemistry with one another, and finale leans into those strengths. Ken and Suzune meet with the fox girl Amako, who showed Ken a vision so he’d change that vision’s future. Because he and his friends survived, now he can help her mother. Doing so means traveling to Beastkin territory, which is quite far away. Ken wants to help if he can; he just needs to ask Rose and the King.

Meanwhile, Black Knight, whom we finally learned is named Felm, is having the same initial difficulties as Ken in adjusting to her new life with the Rescue Team and Rose as her captain. We know from her time with the demon army that Felm was a bit of a lazy brat who skated by on her magical talent, but that shit won’t fly. Ken gives her a diary like the one he used to help him process the hardship he went through. It’s here where I declare that I love Felm with all my heart and can’t get enough of her!

Amako is pretty cute herself—Suzune agrees, and would really like to scratch those fluffy ears sometime—but she’s not as fleshed out yet as Felm. That said, the king voices his gratitude to her for giving Ken a vision that ultimately motivated him to do what was needed to save the kingdom from demon invasion. In exchange, the final leg of Ken’s four-leg missive delivery journey will be her home in Beastkin Territory so he can heal her mother.

Just as she witnesses how powerful Ken and Rose are when they’re doing dodging training, Felm uses her sneaking affinity to learn that Ken will be leaving for parts unknown, and she’s clearly worried about that. When she tries to make a break for it (though not back to the demons), Rose catches her easily and immediately senses that Felm is worried about Ken.

Felm can tsundere all she likes; the fact of the matter is, when Ken says her name it makes her immeasurably happy. I for one wish she’d be joining his missive delivering mission, but there’s still much she has to learn that only Rose can teach her. She’ll be in good, if rough, hands.

Rose assures Felm that Ken will be just fine, and won’t be easily hurt by anyone. After all, he was trained by perhaps the most terrifyingly powerful human in the world, so anyone else—including the former Black Knight—is a cakewalk by comparison. Rose makes Ken more happy than he expected by telling him she expects great things from him.

So as she continues training Felm, he heads off with Suzune, Kazuki, the mage Welcie, the knights Aruku and Thomas, and of course, Amako. Hopefully we’ll get a second season that chronicles their travels, and above all gives us more Felm. There’s no such thing as too much Felm!

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 12 – Upright Demon Brigade

Back from his great victory, Ken is suddenly the toast of the town, as everyone in the market crowds around him. Needless to say he’s not used to this kind of adulation, but you can’t say his heroic deeds didn’t justify it! The way he managed to cancel out Black Knight’s magic also means she asks for him specifically as a condition of providing useful demon intel.

Suzune accompanies Ken, both to protect him—or at least be his meat shield, a line delivered perfectly—but Black Knight, back in her armor, is still in rough shape, since she bore the full brunt of his punches in battle. Ken goes into her cell to heal her, which means first melting away parts of her suit so he can make physical contact. Turns out she’s never felt anyone’s warm touch before, so Ken has a profound effect on her.

Speaking of punches, Rose doesn’t waste any time advancing Ken’s training to the next level: learning how to dodge her E. Honda-like supersonic punches. The ones he can’t dodge, he has to absorb, and her first one, in which she’s going easy on him, sends him flying and knocks him out to the point he comes to thinking he had a nightmare … only it’s reality.

Ken vents about his three days of fresh hell to the Black Knight (or BK), who is both clearly happy he’s there spending time with her and somewhat confused the man who defeated her so completely in battle is now just hanging out with her. I love this dynamic, and BK herself (again, voiced by Aoi Yuuki and sounding a lot like Maomao) is a total cutie.

It’s just like our kind best boy Ken to reach out to those he thinks are having trouble, even his ostensible enemy. Because she’s a demon, it felt a little foreboding when the king summoned Rose and we didn’t hear what about, and Ken even thought about the possibility of BK being executed. Turns out, Rose wants to reform BK into an “upright demon” and a member of the Rescue Team. That’s awesome, especially since BK totally has a crush on Ken!

Ken is informed by Rose that he, Suzune, and Kazuki (who is basically married to Celia now) are going to be dispatched to neighboring nations in order to deliver missives as key parts of a campaign to build alliances against the demons.

While in town buying some supplies, smiling at some smitten young lady fans of his, and bumping into Suzune, he spots the fox girl who showed him a bad future he was able to prevent. She doesn’t seem that miffed about being run up on and lifted into the air. In fact, she’d been meaning to speak to him about paying her back by saving her mother.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 07 – The Essential Third Wheel

First, the bad news: For those of you hoping the action would get started, you’ll have to wait at least another week. Honestly, I was not one of those people. I’m glad to have as much time with these excellent, endearing characters as possible before the fighting, bleeding, and killing starts (also, there’s no guarantee the fighting will look that good).

Instead, this is a classic CBtS (Calm-Before-the-Storm) episode. Ken is haunted by the fox girl’s vision, but even when Rose returns from her scouting mission, he isn’t able to talk to her about it. Instead, he learns that beastkin who can see the future are incredibly rare and sought-after.

Kazuki and Suzune are summoned to an audience with the King, who informs them that the invasion of the Demon Lord’s army is about to begin. They pass Princess Celia in the hall, but Kazuki is still unable to call her simply “Celia”, which seems to disappoint her. Suzune notices the tension between them, but Kazuki scoffs it off.

That night, when Ken can’t sleep because of the vision of his friends dying, Kazuki pays him a visit, because he can’t sleep either. He admits he’s scared every time he has to face enemies, and terrified about the battles to come. Ken tells him all the comforting and supportive things you’d expect a good kid to say to his friend, and helps Kazuki feel a lot better about tomorrow.

The show has now demonstrated that it can not only give us wonderful scenes of companionship and affection between Ken and Suzune, but Ken and Kazuki as well. Even admitting how scared he is, Ken tells Kazuki he’s still the coolest. Ken also makes clear he’s just as scared, but he’s made up his mind to protect the people who matter to him.

Suzune, who was worried about Kazuki and followed him, overhears everything, and her heart is warmed by their pure bromance. Unlike Kazuki and Ken, Suzune seems eager to get down to business of fulfilling her role as Hero, and says nothing to Ken to disabuse us of that notion. If she’s scared, she doesn’t tell him. Perhaps she’s just that cool … I wouldn’t put it past her!

The next day, the king addresses his army with a motivational speech promising them that the Kingdom of Llinger will prevail thanks to their two Heroes and the Rescue Team. Celia remains in her chambers, looking worried, but Kazuki pays her a visit before he heads off to war tomorrow. He even finally manages to call her “Celia”, and she urges him to return home unharmed. I tellya, I’m loving this budding romance.

Meanwhile, when Ken is summoned to Rose’s room, something that’s never happened before, he’s not sure what to expect. She lectures him not to be clumsy on the battlefield, to know who to heal and when so as not to interrupt the flow of the fighting, and above all, to value his own life.

She also presents him with a gift of sorts: the same gleaming white battle uniform of the Rescue Corps she wears, and which is meant to stand out. While Rose doles out quite a bit of incidental physical abuse this week, there’s a lovely tenderness to the way she cradles his face in her hands.

Ken declares that he’ll protect everyone—including himself—once on the battlefield. Rose told him to keep spouting his ideal, after all, so spout he shall! This puts a smile on Rose’s face: she’s done all could to make him the man he is.

Visions be damned, he knows what he needs to do. He just needs to get out there and do it. I think the fox girl’s vision is of a future where he wasn’t brought to this world along with the Heroes. But he was, and his accidental summoning will be the reason the Heroes survive this world. He’ll survive it too, as long as they stick together.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 06 – What Will Come to Pass if He Should Fail

Ken and Suzune are back at the palace with no harm done. Ken lets slip that the situation wasn’t nearly as treacherous as the king and minister might believe due to his training, but then sees Rose glaring and not only holds his tongue, but declares that his training has been hunky-dory, concealing how it’s often been indistinguishable from torture.

Kazuki is also glad to see Ken and Suzune are unharmed from their little excursion, and he and Celia notice how much closer the two of them have gotten of late. Celia also talks about how warm Kazuki’s bond with the other two are, and how happy he seems when they’re around. She asks if he’d “let her in” to that dynamic, starting by calling her simply Celia. We haven’t seen much of these two, but I like their vibes too!

Ken is worried Rose was held behind by the minister to get reamed out for letting two heroes get misplaced, but that isn’t the issue at all. Rather, the king has received reports that suggest the Demon Lord’s Army is on the move once again. He asks Rose to head out and scout their advance. His Majesty also asks if she’ll return to leading troops into battle.

This is when we learn Rose was once a full-fledged general, but allowed all her men (and women) to be killed. She hides a scar with her hair that reminds her daily of the debt she can never repay, though she hopes to forge the ideal healer and successor in Ken, training him to the point he’s able to cheat death indefinitely.

While I wish we’d gotten it by means other than Rose simply spouting information about her backstory, I’m glad to learn more about her, and it only endears her to me more as someone who no longer believes she has the right to fight, only to save and protect.

That said, she still puts a major wrench in the Demon Army’s gears when she destroys a bridge they’re building by throwing a whole damn tree at it. Amila’s hands are already full with the surprisingly willful and apathetic Black Knight, but when she spots Rose and shouts her name, Rose flashes a huge smile before slipping away.

I’ll be honest: I felt like Rose was throwing a lot of death flags this week, from the fact that she left Ken on a dangerous scouting mission without a word to him, only an ominous sealed letter and a map that leads him to the Fleur clinic. There, he meets the one-year-older Ururu.

She lets him watch her brother Orga heal a young child with stomach problems, and Ken is in awe of Orga’s dense, deep green healing magic. Ururu also asks about the Rescue Team members, admitting that she and Orga ultimately couldn’t cut it there, even though Rose had such high hopes for them.

When townsfolk enter the clinic to report an accident that injured three people, Orga puts Ken to work. When Ken’s magic falters due to his lack of confidence, Orga gives him a pep talk that helps him calm down. he remembers what Kazuki told him: he wasn’t worried about him and Suzune because Rose had complete faith in him. So Ken trusts himself, and is able to heal the man’s leg completely.

When Ken leaves, Orga tells Ururu the content of the letter, which I also felt was part of Rose possibly never coming back. Instead, it’s simply a warning to Orga to prepare for war. Ururu, like Ken, has no combat experience, so it’s going to be tough, but as long as the siblings stick together they should be okay.

As for Ken, he doesn’t know it as he buys some fruit for Blurin on the way home, but before long he’ll be on those front lines with Suzune, Kazuki, and Rose. Even if he did know, battle would have all felt very abstract were it not for the catgirl from the market touching his arm and showing him a vision of a bad future, Mirror of Galadriel-style.

She’s showing him what she says only he can see: a future where Suzune and Kazuki fall to the Black Knight. But now that he’s seen this future, he can work to change it. To do so, he must eradicate all remaining fear and doubt in his abilities. For fear, as we know, is the mind-killer.

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!