Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Healer Girl
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Hiroki not Takuya
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Good eye wolf10! It'll be fun if you are right, I for one can relate having had my eye on a cute neighbor-girl when I was about 8. Now, I wonder if The Great Sonia substituted ube for beets for that borscht because it sure looked like it! Some "Russian" girl...didn't your babushka teach you anything? Also refreshing that despite seeming like an ego-maniac, she actually, honestly cares about others rather than some shows where such a character just stays as an arrogant A-hole. Kana is still Best-Girl though...
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wolf10
 Posts: 903 |
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I felt for Reimi so hard after she realized what her excitement at bringing Ria into the band meant for Kana, like it dawned on her just a few seconds too late that she had completely stopped thinking about her friend. It was a short moment that was never acknowledged again (this episode), but there's no way that's not going to come up again later, either to reflect on Reimi's one-track mind, or Kana's self-effacing tendencies. Or both.
Speaking of plant and payoff, I love how all the people in the neighborhood our girls have Healed (Including a certain repeat offender) came by for some Russian comfort food. They've been around before, largely in the background, but it reinforces that the people helped by Healing are, in fact, people, who exist beyond the simple purpose of having conflicts to be solved, and carry that gratitude beyond the treatment room. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3650 |
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Forgot to mention last week, but with ep. 6 we saw just how tangible this healing can be. Literally healing a burn scar (almost completely) in moments before our eyes. These aren't just soothing songs that have a positive effect on people, they can literally heal like magic.
Maybe the true origin of this show was someone wondering what would happen if the Bard class was a real profession? lol |
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Thesarum
Posts: 402 |
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Interesting shift in tone (a little) for ep8, fleshing out Reimi's situation and adding more depth to her character besides "massive Ria crush". Not everything is fixed with a song (although there is plenty of singing). Sometimes we can hurt people when we're trying to be kind. Sometimes difficult choices must be made. She doesn't get everything right, but overall Reimi shows a degree of maturity you might not have expected in her more unhinged fangirl moments..
spoiler[Totally wimped out with the post credits scene though disappointingly. While it was clear the status at the end of the episode wasn't going to last forever, it kinda undercuts the whole arc. Do it next episode (or the one after that) when you've got a little more space to explore how Aoi and Reimi's dynamic has changed or matured as a result] |
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Regalli
Posts: 107 |
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Glad to see Reimi finally gets a focus episode on something other than her feelings for Ria, and glad to see it was such a strong one. spoiler[Agree that it undercut things to have her leave then come back in post-credits, as opposed to actually leaving longterm or something where, instead of walking out the door, she says that she’ll accept for next semester but there’s still a few months before that happens and her actual farewell is in the finale. Still, while it undercuts itself, the episode was strong enough on the whole that I’m still not docking it THAT much.]
We knew healing had tangible, provable effects back in the opening scene of Episode One, where Kana heals a kid’s scrapes, but I agree that a burn is fairly significant. (It is a recent one, though, a day or two rather than months old, which is consistent with how it’s seemed to reduce symptoms for chronic conditions but not cure anything like Ria laments to Shinobu’s grandmother. Kana probably had the kind of childhood asthma that gets less intense after several years of treatment and growing, but she still has an emergency inhaler in case she needs it, which occurs in the real world too, and Ria helped end a severe attack.) Episode Six also showed it energizing people who couldn’t possibly hear the song - not just Kana who was asleep, but classmates who were in its healing radius or something but were outside the school or rooms away. Which is interesting, even if it didn’t elaborate much on that. Looks like next episode will be giving us more actual Healing, too. Looking forward to it - I’ve liked these more chill episodes but I do like seeing the actual healing magic as well. |
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Covnam
Posts: 3650 |
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What a great and moving episode. "You expect me to willingly embrace such ingratitude?" is a great line. The scene at the front door definitely hit as well
And then they had to go and (basically) undo it at the end in the post credits scene. It really makes you feel like you were just manipulated for no reason. At least give it a few episodes to breath before rolling things back 
It doesn't completely ruin the episode, but it seems like a very poor narrative choice.
Ah, that's right, I completely forgot about that by this point ^^; |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 888 |
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spoiler[I feel like I might be the only one who liked Aoi’s after credits return. While there’s certainly an argument to be made that it undercuts the bittersweetness of the rest of the episode, I actually think it’s a nice wrap-up to the story and it feels earned. Reimi let Aoi go live her dream, despite how painful it was for her, and now Aoi gets to live with her and pursue her own dream (which I got the impression is how Aoi ultimately preferred it, she was quite attached to Reimi) and it’s nice to see Reimi’s selflessness rewarded.
I also just like to see everyone happy in the end.] |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2514 |
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What impressed me about Ep8 was how Reimi acted in a very mature manner compared to typical female characters in anime. As a teen, she acted more realistically like a 30+ year old. As for the maid outfit, it could have been that she knew teens were into that sort of maid image via anime and decided to play the part to appeal to Reimi (would I be cursed to bring up Uzumaid?). I agree that Aoi-san should have been saved for a later episode at least for realism, but I guess the writers thought it would be awkward for her to show up after a few months of having a new maid around (?).
P.S. Maybe I'm a sap, but Reimi being brave made me cry, darnit! |
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Amiantos
Posts: 342 |
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Personally I would have liked it if Aoi didn't return at least for an EP. I felt the post credits diminished the overall ep. I'm not against her returning...just it felt too fast.
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Saeryen
Posts: 888 |
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Episode 9
spoiler[This song was HEARTWARMING! I really loved the visuals representing the surgery and how when it was done, the image covered in grass to symbolize that the patient was healed.] |
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athimmel
Posts: 8 |
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I have been watching and enjoying this series from the start. I love the singing voices of the leads and think that the premise is interesting. But episode 9 just knocked me out. Not to give anything away, but the singing and imagery throughout this episode blew away the feeling that this show was just a warm, fuzzy girls-being-girls show. Instead, "The Best Guarantee - Buy the CD" rocketed to the top of my "best of" for the season. I need to go back and watch it again, just for the operation scenes.
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Covnam
Posts: 3650 |
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Great episode, I'd be surprised if they can top this one without another major medical event.
Ria may have struggled for a moment, but she was still skilled enough to send some support back to the trio without missing a beat! |
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Covnam
Posts: 3650 |
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I didn't find that all the time skipping in the first half worked very well, but the second half was more up to the series usual standards.
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Regalli
Posts: 107 |
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I like how this episode recontextualizes the other Episodes With No Healing - we’ve seen the girls add enough Healing Magic in all of them to bring up Images in all of them, and it seems now like the rankings and restrictions are because losing control (as we saw way back in Episode Two) can go some bad places. If Sonia was capable of inspiring the whole school while she was soothing Kana (and she clearly consciously used her powers there, but might not have consciously been trying to impact people outside the classroom,) what happens if you lose control of your Bardic Inspiration because you didn’t know you were using it? Which also explains the ranking system and experience limits. (I’d assume the age limit is semi-arbitrary, since clearly younger people CAN have exceptions made if they demonstrate the necessary control, but the experience limit is a lot less so and there’s only so young anyone could responsibly train a child in Actual Magic that seems so fun and helpful but could potentially cause harm they don’t intend. I also suspect Sonia might potentially be ready for a B-rank if her mentor found out about how her song impacted the rest of the school.) Thus the more experienced Healers stepping in in this episode when they see things COULD overwhelm the girls, and the cultural festival not being ground for concern because they had Sonia. Speaking of which I kinda want to rewatch that episode now and see if Sonia DOES react.
The other interesting thing here is that, while Reimi and Hibiki have both called Images without meaning to on their own (Hibiki only briefly, but it was there in the vacation episode and didn’t do the meadow or angel imagery that tends to be used for the girls together, and incidentally I could write a whole essay on how the series ties specific imagery to specific Healers, please do not let me,) they both did it after getting their provisional licenses and using it consciously on the surgery job. Kana apparently had a very ‘evolved’ one in episode one… and it is apparently unusual for ADULTS to see the magic without training, much less a young child like Kana was. Some of that could be Ria as the Witch, but that’s clearly also Kana’s potential too. Wonder if it’s linked, and if Kana’s potential and the three meshing so well together when they’re working spur them all to be much stronger than they would have been if they’d learned on their own. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
Posts: 2514 |
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^^Some interesting suppositions there and I guess we may see if so or not on the next episode (Ep12) because this episode seems to bear out some of them. The girls are "feeding" on each other which is why their disharmony and self-doubt sabotage the tests. I do love the idea that they are still connected even though in different rooms and that they can transform the symbolic "shark" images into benign versions and move past their insecurities.
Ep12- Well I guess we won't find out everything but the girls have matured a bit and it does seem like the healing is a sort of magic after all. The visual storytelling I think was just beautiful and integrated, Kana and Co come full circle to where Rei was once and we see that when Kana was healed, Rei was impacted as much and Kana having learned from her, she can pass on the love. And here we hear a full three/four part harmonic version of the original song to underscore the changes everyone have undergone. Even if different, the words and music still convey the emotion of the healer to the patient and connects them together. The connectedness of people and their "destinies" and how love and connection can truly heal as a theme is beautifully fulfilled. At the start, I worried about the possibility that the wonder of the first episode could be carried into a full 12 episodes and now I would say the "musical miracle" didn't end but stayed true and strong to the end. I almost hope there isn't an S2 for that fear but the if the creative team has proven anything, it is they are brilliant story artisans when they are allowed to do so unhindered. And so I will watch their careers with hope. Now, they had better come out with that songbook I keep asking for!! |
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