I've read comments about this being the ultimate masterpiece; that if you disliked this is because you belong to the crystal generation of sensitive onions. Or that “this show is not for normies”. I rather be a normie than a person that praises this. But my question is how can you even feel comfortable while watching this?
The plot couldn’t be more simple since it is almost a hentai. Hentai don’t need a plot, but this one tried very hard to have one. It’s supposed to be a “dark fantasy”, but instead of being that, it is more like a “your hentai fantasy”, about a healer guy that gets violented and abused by Flare, a princess. When he gets the chance to remake his life with some powers, he chooses to get revenge instead of looking for a better life this time. No, he prepares himself for years so he could live all over again and survive her abuses and confront her (I’m sorry, I meant ‘rape her’) in order to achieve his revenge.
What is the problem with the sexual assaults and the plot? Well, let me explain it if you are still not getting it by yourself. A series/anime/movie/book can have rapes and so, because yes, we as a viewer can’t delete that from the media world since it is part of the world’s cruelty. Nevertheless, here’s the problem. For example, when you read Lolita from Vladimir Nabokov (I had to bring it up since it was my recent good read), the pedophile thing is always as polemic as rape, and here it is not normalized and is well settled because that’s the main plot. It is a story told from the nauseous point of view of the pedophile that narrates his sickest fantasies involving a 12 yo. The difference is that Lolita can be enjoyed by normies and by pervs. It is a disturbing plot with some abuse, not an abuse with some plot. It is not made to make the main character look cool nor to make the audience feel satisfied; on the other hand, our beloved Redo anime does pretend that. I can’t recall how many comments I’ve read that said stupid things like “yea, I wish I could rape her too”. Please, ask for help and don’t approach any woman ever.
If there’s a phrase that really gets on my nerves is the dumb one that this guys use to everything as their safe passage. “It is fiction, why do you care?” Yes, it is fiction, thankfully, of course. Nonetheless, does that solve anything to you? Again, I repeat my question: how can you feel comfortable while watching this? It is fiction, yes, but are you actually enjoying that? If you do, you better go watch a hentai that has the guts to accept it is a hentai, because no one is going to attack that one. I could mention like three literary examples more but we are talking about anime, so I’ll take a chill pill and go on with this. A rape scene is not supposed to be automatically canceled and deleted, because a tragic story can have one and be a piece of art (let’s say, Berserk). While it can’t be easy to watch for sensitive people (or people that have actually suffered an assault), it still can fit in the story in a good way and can contribute to the story or a character’s background and can enrich the plot. Although, can you unironically afirm this anime does that? Of course not. What Redo of Healer does is to disminish this subject and treat it frivolously, it’s like it actually wants to justify violations. Flare was a trashcan, yes. It is reasonable if the main character wanted to take revenge, yes. Would it have been a little bit more logical if the rape scene had been just implied, or a little more subtle (I mean, without those frames where you can see Flare’s fingers from inside her… you know)? In my opinion, yes, specially if they were going to repeat it so many times. But, oh, no, of course introducing a sensitive theme like a rape must be executed in a 10 minutes scene. Of course they are not trying to disminish the problem with a scene of Flare begging for a dick and touching herself while the guy threatens her to stick her up with a poker! I’m sorry, I’m so boring I just couldn’t enjoy those ten minutes with the delightly sound of her screaming and crying in pain while a macho man is laughing over her. For ten explicit minutes.
That only prooves my point that all that scene was to capture the virgin audience’s attention. Even a friend of mine admited he was watching this anime just because of sex scenes. And what’s even worse, even when he erases her entire memories, he keeps her as her kind of sex slave/companion. What does that contribute to his revenge? She doesn’t remember anything from her life, nor what she did to him in the past, nor the rape. Then, WAS IT NECESSARY AN EXPLICIT RAPE SCENE? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. When she wakes up with her memories erased, he convinces her that she was some sort of lover to him. After that she just believes in him and they have sex. Why. Why. Why. What does it add to the plot? Nothing at all. And when she believes in him and has sex with him, he smiles like “haha, I’m so enjoying this revenge”. What revenge? She doesn’t remember anything, she even enjoys having sex with him and feels safe with him. How can it be a revenge when she doesn’t suffer (thankfully) what he is doing to her? This guy was always hot for Flare and all this was a poor excuse, that’s the only reason I found, I’m sorry.
Even letting all that aside. We knew this guy was made a drug addict by Flare, we understood it very clear, but was it still necessary to decorate that fact with a scene with her making him lick her down there in order to make him take the drug, or the one with the guy sucking his own dick? Not only it is pretty redundant, but it remarks once again what they aim for with this poor thing that doesn’t have the title of hentai. We even have the full package! The lesbian kink wouldn’t be out either. Was it necessary the scene with that crazy girl licking this guy’s tongue so she could feel Flare’s flavor while she literally masturbates upon him? Was it necessary to explicit show how he was raped by the guards and Flare’s partners? The healer is sexually abused IN FLASHBACKS like three times by three different persons in episode three. Again, redundant and with obvious intentions, with the first episode it got clear, now can we go on, or are you still going to persist on unnecessary sex stuff? It is a lot worse than those animes that have an excessive amount of blood in order to attract people. You don’t need to show tits and sex scenes every two minutes to demonstrate a person’s suffer and abuse, and that’s how you can tell this anime was never supposed to be taken as anything more than a dirty hentai with some sort of very bad-made “story”.
I’m not saying this shouldn’t have sex scenes at all, but when most of the half of an episode is a sex scene, then you can see where this is going. Sex and abuse are meant to be a tool to give context, not to be the entire plot. If the revenge was supposed to be taken seriously, a lot of more aspects could have been explored, since a trauma is not as simple as “they raped me, then I’m going to rape them”. And also, it could have embraced a wider gamma of tortures beyond fisical abuse. If they wanted to represent his ‘deep’ resentment, he could have improved his plans a lot more so he could deploy an actual vengeance with real consequences, but they didn’t have the guts to do that. Because they don’t care about a real revenge nor to represent a compelling damaged person, they just wanted to “take advantage of the bug” and to exploit the sexual side until it reached a disgusting point. Good or not, it accomplished its mision of getting people’s attention.
Even if we discuss terms of characters, it is still really poor. All we know about Flare is that she was a petty shrew, and that’s it. The same goes for the rest of the rape-team; oh, the only difference I forgot, is that Flare turned into a potato that goes all the time “Keyaruga-samaaa” and that praises him all day. What do we know about the main character (Keyaruga-samaaa)? Well, he is supposed to be different from other fantasies protagonists since he is more an anti-hero, but he also fails loudly at that. He was abused (in case you didn’t notice) and constantly drugged (in case you didn’t notice. If you didn’t, let me put you another scene of him getting kicked on the floor before he is violated. Again) and he went back in time and got some sort of Geass that he uses in order to achieve his vengeance and to rape Flare. Again. He is pretty buffed like every fantasy main character and is very shallow and disgustingly confident; he sees himself as some sort of god when he is a loser that can’t even do an actual revenge with a logical development. However, can we blame him when 99% of his development is about him being raped in very very very long scenes? Oh, and right now also appeared a furry girl that was used by the anime to give some sort of depth to this guy, because she was a slave and he bought her because “he saw himself reflected on her when he looked her in the eye, that thirst for revenge, and the she will only be satisfied once they kill them”. Yea, nice try. Next season we’ll have the furry girl raping the enslavers as the main premise. I’m looking forward to seeing this, you know.
Anyway, leaving all that aside, even animation is pretty lousy. Character’s design is nothing new and the visual art is mediocre at best. But hey! We got boobs every episode, so who is going to pay attention to the visual art anyway?
“You don’t have to take anime that seriously”. There’s a noticeable line between what can be taken seriously and what cannot. If I want to enjoy something without taking it seriously, I go watch a sitcom; If I wanted to watch actual porn, I would go watch it. But making a mix between an abusive hentai and a main character that is supposed to look cool is not something that must function.
I gave it a try, and even though I don’t usually drop things, I’m in hard times of study, so I’m not spending my few spare hours on something like this. If by episode 12 it ends up being watchable, I may give it a shot again. Nevertheless, right now, I rather have more sleep hours than watch this.
