The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest is like...if you asked ChatGPT to generate an Isekai and ran with it. It possesses a painfully predictable premise that certainly validates those that critique the genre's oversaturation.
The generic nature of the anime was apparent from the beginning - it set itself up in a safe, but uninteresting, manner that left little room for character attachment. The blatant lack of backstories - which seemed lazily made up for with sudden mid-season flashback scenes - hurt its potential for worldbuilding immediately as well.
I wanted to brush the rocky start off and deem it as growing pains - not all shows can pull somebody in instantly, after all. But the "Walmart bin RPG" energy was hard to shake off. So...
...Maybe the characters could compensate for the generic story, right? At least?
...Right?
Unfortunately not.
The premise of The Healer is self-explanatory from its long-winded title - a healer, Raust, from a traveling party was kicked out of the group for his incompetency, so he was picked up elsewhere - in this case, our protagonist Narsena took a profound interest in him.
And I must admit, Narsena's backstory with Raust, while confusing and a tad rushed in essence, is at least layered enough to give their dynamic some uniqueness. Unfortunately, a cute flashback isn't enough to justify their mildly cringe and sort of odd relationship. They are both painfully bland in nature and carry little charm, no matter how romanticized Narsena is by The Healer community.
...Fine, she is a bit endearing, perhaps this cast's saving grace. But the lack of depth still hurts.
Being the forgiving person I am, I can't even claim that The Healer's character dynamics are bad - they're average and passable to a numbing extent, which I quickly realized was an over-arching flaw of the anime.
The one advantage of fantasy-oriented content is it always has the upside to get chaotic and fun. Interesting. Thrilling.
But, in unsurprising fashion, The Healer is none of those things. Instead, its story is paced at an erratic speed, taking ages to develop before exponentially picking up in intensity for a confusing, anticlimactic finish.
I couldn't bring myself to feel legitimate interest in the messy, unfocused branches of storyline embodying the latter half of the season - in fact, I almost preferred the stale, lumbering nature of the first few episodes.
The uprising of monsters towards the end felt destined to build tension and investment, but it was just so poorly explained that it felt like a sudden rush of content to give the anime a catch. Something unique, perhaps.
But the more I reflect upon The Healer's poor execution for such a simple concept, the more disdain I feel towards my viewing experience as a whole.
Could I argue that reading some reviews could have saved me from a waste of time? Yes.
But what's the fun in knowing what to expect from a watch?
I found The Healer on Crunchyroll's front page the day of its series finale, and it certainly impressed me from a presentation standpoint. The anime's outward aesthetics are beautiful, and the actual animation was quite good as well - certainly its biggest strength, all things considered.
The watch wasn't worth it, although I've seen worse things. The Healer is just so painfully mediocre that it almost disappoints more than a terrible show. At least I find comedic value in those.
So to everybody proclaiming this as the most generic anime of the past season, I wholeheartedly agree.
...Not that I've seen enough to form a conclusion. But I can't see something else boasting that title. That's one way to end my anime 2024, I suppose!
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