The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest – Episode 1

What’s it about? Laust is a healer in a first-rate party who, unfortunately, can only use the very basic “Heal” spell. Cast out of his party for being too weak and equally scorned, he struggles to find his place and restart his life. Thankfully, he meets Narsena, a martial artist who eagerly forms a party with him. Now, life truly can begin again!

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The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest (Sheesh, I understand SEO and showing your hand so someone picks up your light novel at the train station bookstore, but can we please get some snappier titles that don’t stretch a mile long? Also, hereafter The Healer Who Was Banished) is another LitRPG entry to this year and season, following a male healer and his reintegration into adventurer society. It’s the kind of story that sits in the comfortable middle, bulking out a season where there’s just SO. MANY. ANIME. 

That makes for a good opportunity, though; so if you don’t mind, I’m going to take this review in a bit of a different direction, because I have some thoughts to think and some things to say. So come along with me for a bit more introspective review of a premiere that was accidentally thought-provoking.

Episode 1, “Regarding Their Meeting, Which Was, in Fact, a Reunion,” automatically establishes the world of The Healer Who Was Banished as something of a dark place in the way that many of these pseudo-European fantasy stories do. It’s a world where monsters run amuck and the skilled likely prosper. But that’s not really the story here: this is the story of Narsena and Laust, the former a martial artist and the latter a healer. At Narsena’s behest, they form a party, and with that, they’re off for adventure.

Yet adventure isn’t all that awaits Laust and his new companion. Narsena hides a secret: she’s met Laust before, and he saved her life as a child. In fact, he impacted her so much that she pledged herself to becoming an adventurer and forming a party with him. Now, she’s planning on fulfilling that goal as best she can, even if he doesn’t recognize who she is.

I’m just gonna say it: this feels like a weird dude wish fulfillment in the “nice guy” sort of way, and I kind of hate it. It’s part of the wider trend of LitRPG titles, and general fantasy titles, and it’s starting to chafe. It was something I couldn’t get out of my head during my watch, and something I really questioned talking about in this review because honestly, there’s not necessarily a lot happening here that’s new to this type of story.

But seriously, I’m so sick of being inundated with these “I’m secretly the strongest and nobody knows” stories where some guy is hot shit because no one knows that he’s actually the world’s most powerful dude and shouldn’t all the girls be falling over him? That last part isn’t always present but implicit, because I think that’s a lot of the motivation behind cis male fantasies when it comes to power. That’s a bit of a broad generalization, but I also think it’s part and parcel for this uptick in black haired dudes being denied their flowers for not having overt masculinity present in their narratives.

You might say that’s not fair in terms of this premiere but I think it’s completely fair because sometimes, those specific power fantasies hide themselves beneath a veneer of “But I’m a good guy” and obscure the societal implications and latent insidiousness of these kind of stories. That’s not to say people can’t enjoy them, but I do want viewers to question why these stories are so popular. It’s not just because they’re well-written, as many start off as the Japanese equivalent of high-quality Wattpad stories, which isn’t a diss but more a disclaimer.

I’ll admit that the biggest crime here is how bland this premiere is: it’s unseasoned potatoes, a broth made from vegetable scraps instead of bone. It’s the definition of just okay, and while that’s fine, I do have to question why these adaptations keep happening. Are these titles that popular, or is it catering to a perceived majority? It’s hard to tell. And while I don’t think this series is going to reach any level of depravity, I do wonder why Studio Elle decided to pick it up.

I never want to seem like I’m dismissing a series: I get why these types of fantasy series are engaging. I fully understand, and have spent a lot of time reading them myself. Full transparency: I’m someone who was, once upon a time, a huge fan of The Rising of the Shield Hero novels, collecting them book by book and devouring them during my time in grad school. I thought it was a really, really cool series, not to be edgy, not because I wasn’t like other girls, but because my feminism was still unformed and I didn’t know I could expect better. I don’t regret that, because it informs my work now: I understand both sides of the fence and can better speak my mind. And I don’t have any shame for the thing I like: every experience, including watching series like this, allows me to become a more fully formed reviewer.

That said, tepid as The Healer Who Was Banished From His Party, Is, in Fact, the Strongest is, it still slots into the wider problem of average guy who’s secretly the best teams up with unnecessarily scantily clad girl (here, Narsena is actually pretty moderately dressed, all things considered) in what uncomfortably feels like a potential romance in the future, given the nature of Laust and Narsena’s relationship. Truth be told, I’d love to see one of these series actually comprehend that men and women can be friends and have a deep relationship that way, that it’s okay to have a male lead that isn’t secretly number one and is just kind of normal, that there’s still stories to be told with utterly relatable, fairly mundane heroes. Maybe this will become one of those stories, and my concerns will be all for naught. I’d love to be proven wrong and see this specific kind of narrative really start to reevaluate itself.

I don’t think I’ll be following this one during this autumnal season. Take away my concerns above, and you get just kind of a boring premiere that is exactly what’s on the digital screen. I don’t think there’s any hidden depths here. It’s serviceable in the same way a lunch rush order from McDonald’s is: it’s food, and it’ll do. 

Here, the anime is just okay and I’m sure there’s a fanbase ready to embrace it: I’m just not going to be a part of it.

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