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 – 11 – Doing What Needed to Be Done

As she lies on the ground beaten and bleeding, Suzune remembers that dark, rainy day when she and Kazuki were at school late. She hid her sad smiles from Kazuki when he praised her for earning the teachers’ complete trust and exceeding their expectations.

Then they met Ken, who forgot his umbrella, ended up in another world, and Suzune was able to be herself, and Ken accepted her true self, not the fake Suzune she’d created back home. She thought as long as the three of them were together, everything would work out.

My attitude going in? If Suzune or Kazuki die, I RIOT. Well, we don’t know how this story ends, but so far, Suzune’s still right! Before the Black Knight can deliver a killing blow, Ken charges in at Mach K and delivers a hell of a right hook to the Black Knight, sending them flying.

When Suzune comes to, she and Kazuki are being healed by Ken. They were certainly in a bad way like his vision, but they were still breathing. He made it in time by not hesitating. They all stuck together, and things worked out.

As expected, the nanosecond things started not going exactly the Black Knight’s way, she (as it turns out) gets all whiny and petulant about How Things Are Supposed To Be, and fury at why those things Aren’t That Way. She’s nothing but a cheatin’-ass bully, and it’s time to put her in her place. Not only is Ken able to actually harm her and damage her suit of mana armor, but her attacks have no effect on him.

Throughout their battle Ken is surrounded by a green healing aura that turns her razor-sharp attacks into black goop. But this is no stalemate; Black Knight can’t hurt Ken, but he can most definitely hurt her. When Kazuki comes to, he and Suzune watch the battle and aren’t sure why Ken’s attacks aren’t continuously healing his opponent.

Then it dawns on Suzune: the Black Knight has a weakness to healing magic. Not only that, but Ken’s healing fists are powerful enough on their own to deal significant damage. When Suzune actually says the titular line, “That’s definitely the wrong way to use healing magic,” I did a fist pump.

At first Black Knight is able to heal her armor, but as the battle wears on, it’s clear she’s losing mana. We’d seen her in the past lazing around, sailing by with her nigh-invincible armor. But Ken isn’t tiring; thanks to his ridiculous training regime, this is a walk in the park.

When she tries to go all out with one final attack, Ken’s fist meets the tip of her enlarged sword, blows through it, surrounds both of them in an gleaming emerald aura, and delivers a devastating punch to her gut. The Black Knight is knocked out and her suit of armor melts away, revealing a beautiful young demon woman with silver hair.

She’s promptly tied up and taken as a prisoner. Suzune messes with him a bit by telling him she overheard his embarrassing shounen name for his attack, but then gets serious and thanks him for saving her. Since she and Kazuki are all healed up, they head back to the front, while Rose orders Ken back to camp with her.

While he, Rose, and the other healers continue to treat the wounded and poisoned, they suddenly see a bright flash of light mixed with lightning: Suzune and Kazuki have done their part by taking down the giant snake monster, which was never going to be as tough as the Black Knight with her reflective anti-hero armor.

With the capture of their most powerful knight and killing of the giant snake, the Demon Army beats a swift retreat, their morale in tatters. Amila is at least level-headed enough to know they don’t stand a chance against Rose, Siglis, and a second Healing Monster in White.

With the battle being a complete victory thanks to Ken, Rose gives him his proper due, while also praising him for making it back to her alive. She admits he reminds her of comrades who only live on in her memory who represented the best of the Rescue Team, and now Ken has similarly distinguished himself.

Upon hearing her kind words, Ken can’t help but tear up, reminding Rose that at the end of the day he’s still a green seventeen-year-old kid. When he finally runs out of mana and stamina and passes out in her arms, she holds him close and tells him he did good.

So did this episode, which was full of heart, emotion, and some outstanding character work while also providing quite a bit of nifty, satisfying action. It’s a true gem of an episode that brought the whole season together—an emerald, if you will.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 10 – The Black Knight Surprises

The morning of the battle arrives, and Ken wakes up to a rising sun and an uneasy heart. Suzune feels the same way, but compensates by flaunting her pretty battle armor and flirting with Ken. She wants him to “soothe her heart”, but when Ken yelps for Kazuki to rescue him like a demsel in distress, he does. We see that despite her lighthearted surface, Suzune’s hand still trembles as she grasps her sword.

Now we know why Wrong Way took so long to give us an action-packed battle: it doesn’t really have the budget to actually pull one off. The battle loses a lot of grandeur once it devolves into a sequence of panning and shaking stills. Still, I’ve long since been okay with the so-so- production values because the character work has been so solid.

Once the battle gets going, Rose and Ken advance into the battle area, and he ends up rescuing a number of soldiers, one in particular who was about to be killed. Suzune and Kazuki soon encounter the Black Knight, who is so laid back it had me wondering if they were also from another world. When the soldiers ignore Suzune’s orders to hold back, they pay dearly, as the damage caused by their strikes ends up reflected back upon them.

While Suzune and Kazuki seem to be doing okay in the heat of battle, it’s clear Ken is having a lot more difficulty. He even ends up in the same situation as the soldier he saved, about to be skewered by a demon foot soldier, only to be rescued by that very same soldier! I like the fact that the soldier, while perhaps not as strong or fast as Ken, has still seen battle, and so is able to think and act more clearly.

Ken’s vision also becomes clearer once he’s saved by the soldier. Specifically, the vision of Suzune and Kazuki fallen and bloodied at the feet of the Black Knight. He rushes to them as fast as he can, hopeful he won’t be too late. When a slash to the Knight’s back doesn’t heal or reflect, Suzune takes it as a sign they can’t reflect an attack they can’t see coming. Suzune has Kazuki use his light magic to blind and distract while she uses her lightning speed to slip behind the knight and stab them in the throat.

I am, and I cannot stress this enough, NOT COOL with this

But the knight simply chose not to heal their back wound, in order to trick Suzune. They also don’t need to actually say “reflect” to reflect. They reflect Suzune’s attacks, and she ends up with her throat and back slashed open, while Kazuki gets impaled on the knight’s greatsword.

It’s an exact recreation of Ken’s horrific vision, but hopefully Ken can get to them before they bleed out. Not only that, there’s a chance he just be the one who can actually harm the unharmable Black Knight … perhaps by , say, using healing magic the “wrong” way?

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 09 – Staying the Person They Admired

If only she’d stayed a little closer to her team, Rose might have been able to heal some of them. Instead, Nero is able to lure her farther away. And while both Aul and the others are able to fight Nero’s subordinates to a stalemate that earns them Nero’s praise, once he uses his cursed sword to compel his people to fight without regard for their lives, Rose’s people start falling one after the other.

The episode doesn’t spare the brutality of the ensuing bloodbath, as the knights call for Rose to heal them. Alas, when her eye is struck by the cursed sword, her healing magic has no effect, and her mana is drained. She can’t make it in time to save anyone, but Aul makes it in time to save her, at the cost of her own life.

Rose lashes out in rage and beats the hell out of Nero before throwing his own cursed sword into his shoulder. He is not immune to its effects, but he still has one subordinate in reserve: a young, inexperienced, and clearly freaked out Amila. In her face Rose sees Aul’s, and ultimately allows her to escape with her maimed master, though with her wounded foot it’s not like Rose can move much.

With her last strands of life, Aul puts her hand on  Rose’s pained, bloodied face and smiles. She has no regrets, is glad to have been able to fight under Rose, and knows the others felt the same way. She urges Rose to “stay the one they admire,” before breathing her last. Rose, utterly broken, lets out a primal scream.

She does manage to return home with the bodies of all her subordinates, for which the parents of one are grateful. But she asks the king to relieve her of her army command and revoke her knighthood. She refuses to heal her eye, so she never forgets the lives lost under her watch. She spends a month alone in the suddenly empty and silent barracks once so full of life. She even admits to a concerned Siglis that the thought occurred to her that death might not be so bad.

But Rose has no intention of ending the life Aul gave her. It’s only a matter of what to do with it. Visions of her subordinates and Aul appear before her and tell her that if any of them were acting like she did, she’d throttle them and assign them to training from hell. Aul then reminds Rose of what she told her: that everything changes, and you have to accept that and move forward.

Rose allows herself a few more minutes of fragility, and tears, then stands up and walks outside the barracks with renewed purpose and resolve. She’ll honor Aul and the others by creating a new kind of force, one that saves lives and won’t allow anyone on the battlefield to die. She knows she’ll need someone like her who can both heal and fight.

Back in the present, she tells that someone, Usato Ken, how glad she is to have found him, and that he should be mindful of how precious his existence is. As they near his first battlefield, we’ll finally, finally see how her Rescue Team system works, and how the Heroes fare, and whether Ken can save them from a supremely confident Black Knight, not to mention a grown Amila eager to kill Rose.

The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 08 – The Knights of Summer

Rose is at the reins of the wagon bearing the Rescue Team to the battlefield, and Ken is at her side. He asks about the demons they’re about to engage, and Rose describes them as being essentially really strong humans with horns and more mana.

When she asks if he’s afraid, he implies he’s much more afraid of her. He then says that he originally endured her punishing training simply to “get one over on her.” He expects an angry reaction, but doesn’t get one. Instead, Rose raises her hand to her hidden, ruined eye.

We then go back to five years ago, when she was the Knight Commander of an entire battalion, but also of a small and tight-knit group of elite, possibly misfit knights. Her deputy is Aul (Kohara Konomi), a happy-go-lucky young knight with a personality so much like Ken’s it’s no wonder she took a shine to him so quickly.

Her team of seven knights occupied the same barracks now used as the Rescue Team’s headquarters. And we already know that all of them, including Aul, will eventually die. The series could have started with Rose’s past, but presenting it now adds a layer of melancholy and grim inevitability. No matter how silly these knights act, I was already pre-mourning them because I knew their fate.

Of course, they don’t think they’re doomed, nor does Rose. When they enter the Darkness of Llinger and camp for the night, Aul can’t sleep, and instead joins Rose by the fire and asks her why she chose her as her deputy commander. She ends up essentially answering her own question: Because she was what Rose was looking for in a successor.

Aul was a troublemaker, stubbornly refusing orders she didn’t agree with. She was an immovable object everyone else gave up on, but Rose became the unstoppable force she needed to nuture her potential. She never gave up, and Rose never gave up on her, believes she has what it takes to succeed her as unit commander when the time comes, because as she aptly puts it, “everything changes”.

This is a very moving, intimate scene between Rose and Aul that really does a lot of legwork in terms of making Aul a compelling tragic figure. Kohara Konomi also really gives the role the gravitas it needs while still being silly and hyper when called for. Knowing that night by the fire will probably be the last for everyone but Rose adds to the somber, wistful vibes.

The next day they come across the Demon unit stunning and capturing shock wolves, likely so the mad scientist demon guy can develop stronger monsters. Rose is the first to emerge from the trees and give the Demons a chance to withdraw and avoid conflict. It’s a deal the Demons’ commander won’t take, because now that humans have seen them, they must die.

As soon as Rose puts Aul in charge of leading the other six knights against the rank-and-file demons so she could focus on the leader, my heart sank in my chest, because I knew this was the beginning of the end of her unit.

For those eager to see this series actually give us some action, we finally get some here the end of the episode, as Rose throws everything she’s got at the Demon, who is impressed by her speed and strength. The battle music comes correct here, and there are some flashes of decent combat animation.

He’s so impressed with her tree-hucking ability that he deigns to give her his name—Nero Argence—and deigns to ask for hers. He summons a nasty-looking demon sword and announces that he’ll be killing her now, but Rose nonchalantly cracks her knuckles and tells him she’ll beat the crap out of him before he can.

I certainly didn’t expect the show to suddenly go back in time just when it looked like we’d finally see her, Ken, Suzune and Kazuki in their first real battle. But having watched this flashback unfold, I’m not mad about it, nor am I even mad that it won’t conclude until next week.

Such is the nature of the show’s careful and subtle character work and writing, as well as the fact that Rose is Just the Coolest no matter what timeline we’re in. There will be time to watch Ken, Suzune, and Kazuki do their thing. For now, it’s important to watch Rose’s history unfold, and hope that it won’t be repeated.

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 – 05 – The Place We’ve Made for Ourselves

The Wrong Way is drawing and keeping my interest the right way: by focusing on its lovable, relatable characters. I’d been looking forward to Ken and Suzune going on an adventure together all week, and I was not disappointed. Suzune is as excited as I am, not just to hang out with Ken, but for an opportunity to pet Blurin—even if carrying him is out of the question!

The pair are accompanied by a royal guard and a mage, but it’s the Ken and Suzune show. When eight bandits appear, her face is glowing with delight, and she makes quick work of them with her electricity before their escorts can even spring into action. Unfortunately, all the ruckus stirs up a herd of boars, and Suzune and Ken are sent flying.

Being separated from their escort and isolated in the forest with no food might’ve been a problem for these two in their original world. But between the fact Ken was just here and learned how to live off the land and Suzune’s ability to easily zap fish and make a fire, all that’s left to do is wait until morning … and also talk about how things are going.

Suzune makes clear she’s glad to be in this new world, because it’s given her the freedom she always dreamed of. Ken knows that much, and while she’s still troubled by the fact he was summoned here against his will, he assures her that he sought a more interesting life, and is proud of the strength he’s gained. In that regard, he considers them the same.

When she compliments him on becoming so reliable, he returns the favor by saying she’s become more “human” to him: no longer the school idol atop a pedestal, admired from afar. Suzune likes that Ken feels this way, because she’d much rather be “closer” to him than that. When he hears this, Ken blushes, and Suzune messes with him a little more before letting him sleep while she keeps watch.

In the morning the two get the feeling a vicious beast is lurking in the trees, but it turns out to be Blurin, who followed their scent there. The bear then locates the den where his parents were killed, but doesn’t intend to linger: like Suzune and Ken, he knows where he belongs.

While it didn’t feature any fights with the demon king’s underlings and amounted to little more than a one-night camping trip, I came away from it more than satisfied with all the sweet Suzune-and-Ken time we got. They’re just such good kids, it’s so heartwarming watching them interact, and it was great to see them grow closer.

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.