I. Intro Behold the vast world in which we live It is rampant with monsters that threaten human life. This threat is opposed by countless adventurers Heroes Every day they face these dangerous battlesTo protect the people To protect the world And I Alvin am one of them After this grand opening monologue our brave protagonist Alvin is attacked by a ferocious Mostly Bear He is quickly disarmed by the creature and is about to be impaled by her horn. When all hope seems lost a dark elf healer named Carla appears to offer her assistance. Could this be the start of a great adventurethe humble beginnings of the party fated to vanquish the great evil threatening the land and restore peace to the world? Carla clasps her hands in prayer surely about to cast a powerful spell to enhance Alvins abilitiesonly to declare that he should repeat his request for help while kneeling and pressing his forehead to the ground. Uhhwhat? And if thats not odd enough Alvin and Mostly Bear agree to pause their fight so Alvin can figure out what Carlas deal is. The bear can even speak fluent Japanese and cycles through three different speech tics in less than 10 seconds Oh were you expecting another generic fantasy adventure anime? Dont feel bad if you fell for the baitandswitch. Just sit back relax and enjoy the chaos of the fantasy adventure anime parody Dont Hurt Me My Healer II. Premise/Story Dont Hurt Me My Healer makes fun of common fantasy adventure tropes and goes out of its way to subvert the viewers expectations. In fact everything described in the previous section besides the bear speaking Japanese which happens several minutes later in the same scene unfolds in the first minute and a half of the anime. Later on Alvin unintentionally offends Mostly Bear by discussing her age causing her to brutally knock him out on reflex. As a form of apology she transports Alvin to her cabin to recuperate. You know just in case it still wasnt clear what kind of show Dont Hurt Me My Healer is. There isnt much story here as the anime would rather devote its runtime to parodic jokes and Alvin and Carlas comedic dynamic. Aside from the first half of the first episode where Alvin and Carla first form their party most of the anime features their various misadventures. These are usually parodies of common fantasy occurrences such as exploring dungeons gathering herbs for a quest and fighting creatures in random encounters. The show does feature several multiepisode arcs which help to break up the repetitiveness of the show but even that cant save Dont Hurt Me My Healer from being bland the rest of the time. The anime derives or at least attempts to derive a lot of humor from Alvin and Carlas dynamic. The jokes are simple: Carla says something funny e.g. an outlandish statement an insult directed at Alvin or exaggerated selfpraise and Alvin points out how ridiculous shes being or fights back against the insult. If youre wondering how a 12episode anime can keep this kind of humor fresh the answer is simple: it cant. After a few episodes the comedy routine starts getting stale. To the shows credit it eventually introduces additional party members which does make the main Alvin/Carla dynamic more bearable but only slightly so. The first new member Altargaia doesnt join until Episode 4 and even then it barely affects the dynamic because it doesnt have as strong of a personality as Alvin and Carla. It also doesnt help that it sometimes leaves the party to do its own thing and randomly reappears which is supposed to be funny I guess?. The other two members Anna and Ryoko formally join the party at the start of Episode 11 and while they are interesting there isnt enough time for them to have a lasting impact on the partys dynamic reminder: this show has 12 episodes. Its disappointing that we only get to see a fraction of the potential of such a wacky partys adventures during the animes final arc. III. Characters A. Alvin Alvin is a hilariously inept beginner warrior. I appreciated the shows commitment to never showing his face. Even in scenes where his helmet is off his face is always either obscured by something else in the scene or just barely offscreen. Its a subtle but entertaining running gag. His comedic role in the party is to be the sole voice of reason against Carlas eccentricities and later on against Altargaia Anna and Ryokos as well and it works. Theres nothing wrong with this character but theres also nothing memorable about him. Hes just a guy thats meant to be a metaphorical punching bag for most of the other characters in the show. B. Carla Carla is a dark elf healer who is quite frankly very annoying to watch. Shes always insulting Alvin and refuses to follow basic common sense. I understand that her character is meant to clash harshly with Alvins to generate a significant amount of the animes comedy but it doesnt make her any more likable. She would have been more bearable if the show delved more into her backstory to explain why she is the way she is but its simply not interested in diving past the superficial. On multiple occasions the show has the other characters wonder if shes really a healer which is an amusing plot thread but its disappointing that the show doesnt tug on it any further. It doesnt help that she has the most screen time in the show aside from Alvin of course. Overall I did not like Carla as a character. C. Altargaia Anna and Ryoko a.k.a. The Other Members For a show focused on parodying fantasy adventure tropes I was surprised that it didnt feature a dysfunctional party from the beginning although I suppose you could argue delaying the formation of the aforementioned party is a subversion in itself. Unfortunately these other members of the party dont contribute much. Altargaia is a mushroom creature that initially fights Alvin but eventually joins his party because it feels like tagging along. As mentioned previously it has a small running gag where it wanders off on its own unnoticed by Carla and Alvin and reappears when the plot demands it. Even when it is physically present as a member of the party it doesnt do much besides provide additional commentary. Like Alvin Altargaia lacks any memorable personality traits so when it disappears from the party I barely notice any difference in the dynamic. You could argue that this is intentional and part of the running gag but it doesnt solve the problem of the party feeling very samey. I do like Altargaias design though. Its purple cap has horns eyes and protrusions that resemble fangs which are all really cute. I also liked how Altargaia is apparently strong enough to casually bend open the metal bars of prison cells even though this detail is never mentioned before this point. Anna is a ghost thief and Ryoko is an undead spirit ? maid who both join Alvin and Carlas party after the party arrives at Ryokos home to deal with her haunting incidents. They are introduced at the same time so from the start they compete for screen time which is a shame because they are both interesting characters. Anna is both incorporeal and is really good at stealing things two aspects that complement each other. Ryoko meanwhile is an undead spirit maid did I mention what a wild combination that is? that has the ability to teleport and access an extradimensional area to use as an infinite item storage box. Her introduction and her transformation from a spooky spirit to a seemingly normal catgirl maid were some of my favorite moments in the entire anime she also never changes back. These characters are both fun additions to the party by providing new sources of humor. And to the shows credit the final arc is vastly more entertaining. Each member of the party has something to do and they each get a chance to shine. They bounce off each other well and the show relies less on the Carla/Alvin dynamic to maintain the comedy. Even Altargaias gag of disappearing and reappearing is relevant There are still issues with Anna and Ryokos inclusion though. First I thought it was strange how Carla introduces Anna by explaining how the latter was killed in Ryokos mansion while exploring it implying Ryoko was responsible for Annas death. And yet Anna displays no open hostility to Ryoko at all throughout the remainder of the show. Of course its possible its just correlation not causation and that Ryoko had no involvement in Annas death but then the show should have clarified that point before adding the two to the party. Furthermore as mentioned previously Anna and Ryoko only get 2 episodes to do stuff which just isnt enough time for them to really shine. I wish they were introduced earlier so I could watch more of the fully assembled partys antics. IV. Everyone Else Dont Hurt Me My Healer features a wide cast of fantasyrelated characters and creatures. Most of them are pretty onenote and only exist for the sake of subverting some trope. I didnt have an issue with this given the shows episodic parodic nature but I wish they went further with the subversions. IV. Art/Animation The art and animation for Dont Hurt Me My Healer are average. The backgrounds and character designs are pretty generic which work for a fantasy adventure parody but fail to give this show an identity of its own. V. OP/ED Dont Hurt Me My Healers OP and ED are OK. Aguri Onishi was a welcome surprise but Im probably not going to be adding either song to my personal playlist anytime soon. However the OPs structure is brilliant for a fantasy adventure parody. The show uses this sequence to introduce the entire cast of the show and credit their voice actors which sounds fine until you realize this essentially spoils all the characters that Alvins party is going to meet on their adventures. The credits are even divided by episode so you know for sure whos showing up in each oneexcept for the final episodes section which refuses to name a mysterious shadowy character or their voice actor. The deliberate nature of the entire opening sequence is such a clever and bold subversion that even though there are fewer surprises I have to respect it. Ive definitely never seen anything like it before. I appreciated how the first half of each episodes ED depicts the current members of Alvins party and the guest characters because its a simple way to close out each episode. The featured characters change depending on who has joined the party and what guests showed up which is a nice touch. The chibi versions of all the characters are very cute. I also liked the comic book panel aesthetic in the second half of the ED. VI. My Other Thoughts/Conclusion Overall Dont Hurt Me My Healer is a decently entertaining parody of the fantasy adventure genre. It subverts a lot of tropes and viewer expectations but a lot of it is superficial. Most guests are confined to their own short sections and rarely reappear afterwards. Once a guest character performs their shtick the anime moves on to the next guest never to be seen again excluding the characters involved in multiepisode arcs of course. The anime spends so much time poking fun at the genre that it never forms a unique identity. Another significant weak point of the show is that as mentioned previously it relies extensively on Alvin and Carlas dynamic which just isnt funny as often as it should be. A lot of the humor from this dynamic can be boiled down to Carla says something funny Alvin exaggeratedly responds and repeat. Unfortunately you can only say something wacky and expect it to be funny so many times before it isnt anymore. Additionally I found Carla annoying and borderline toxic due to how often she verbally abuses Alvin. It doesnt help that Altargaia Anna and Ryoko almost always take Carlas side in her and Alvins numerous arguments. Occasionally there is some good banter but its vastly outweighed by the bad. Thats not to say there arent some clever gags though. Besides the OP spoiling the entire guest cast except for one character another memorable joke is how each episodes title introduced at the end of the preceding episode is comically long and usually contains a brief summary of that episodes events and sometimes random productionrelated trivia. The titles are always runon sentences and feel like informal longwinded rambles. Its endearing memorable and a fun subversion and I have to give the show credit for committing to the bit by making each episodes title equally long. 220https://i.ur.com/aUqOCkB.jpg Is this long enough? Overall Dont Hurt Me My Healer is an average fantasy adventure parody. If youre looking for some harmless brainless entertainment this is an OK choice. Personally I think Id rather watch Konosuba. Final Score: 7.0/10 P.S. Heres one of my favorite jokes in the show: 220https://i.ur.com/yX6WpLT.png