Title: The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic Vol. 1
Author: Kugayama Reki (Manga), Kurokata (Original Story), KeG (Characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy
Publication Date: November 22, 2022
The Story
An ordinary teenage boy, the cutest girl in school, and a super-polite dream guy who is on the student council. Just your average trio of main characters minding their own business when two of them hear a gong. Suddenly, a magic circle appears underneath them and they are summoned to another world as the heroes that will save the kingdom from a demon lord.
So far, this describes just about every isekai story out there but there is a bit of a twist. Kazuki and Inukami were meant to be summoned as heroes since they could hear the gong… Usato, on the other hand, couldn’t hear it and was summoned accidentally. While they were being measured for their aptitude, Kazuki had an affinity for light magic and Inukami had an affinity for lightning magic. Just for kicks, Usato takes the test and the orb glows green. He has a rare affinity for healing magic!
The king wants to hide this power as a woman named Rose shows up. Kazuki and Inukami accidentally mention the green color of the orb so Rose snatches Usato and storms off with him! Rose is the leader of The Rescue Team and is known for BRUTAL training methods. Usato is put through these methods but does not break! Rose believes that she has found a diamond in the rough and now they look to prepare to do their best to support the heroes as the demon lord is on the move!
Characters
I can’t really say much for Kazuki and Inukami. Kazuki is just a polite, good-looking guy who is a bit too well-mannered for his own good while Inukami seems like she would be the uptight student council member but she’s not. She was actually excited about being summoned to another world and was geeking out something fierce over it! Once they get separated from Usato, they kind of become background characters as the manga shifts focus.
As for Usato… he doesn’t have much of a personality either. He has an iron will and is determined to help others so he puts up with Rose’s training… which is odd because he kind of put up a verbal fight when the king told him that he was summoned on accident with no way to be sent home. You would think that after an outburst like that over a huge misunderstanding that he would be really reluctant to do anything but, alas, he has embraced Rose’s training and surpassed all of her expectations and then some. I guess you could say that he has a strong sense for helping others and is a bit caring. I’m still wondering what he’s trying to get out of all of this, though.
Rose, on the other hand, seems like a tyrant; however, toward the end of the first volume, we get a bit of her backstory that explains why she is the way she is. She’s tough because she doesn’t want a certain scenario to play out ever again. She blames herself for what happened and something about her serves as a constant reminder of that error. She sees Usato as someone who is just like her and feels confident that those mistakes won’t repeat themselves as long as he’s properly trained.
Final Thoughts
I have to admit… I read the title of this manga and was waiting for the twist to come but it never did. When you call your series “The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” I thought that maybe it would be like Redo of Healer in the sense that the healer uses the power of healing magic to harm others. That’s kind of the expectation I had going in but instead, I was treated to just a super-long training montage and a main character that hasn’t really learned how to use healing magic properly yet. Plus, the idea of being on a rescue team of just running bodies back and forth to heal them doesn’t lend much appeal so there has to be a twist coming to spice up the premise.
I would have believed that twist would have been here in the first volume because you need that hook right away to set the tone for a series but we didn’t really get much of that. This causes the manga to start off rather slowly and if one were to take it at face value, there wouldn’t be much here. You really only get three people summoned to another world, four chapters of training, a little bit of demon lord activity, and some slight backstory on Rose.
Right now, it’s not living up to what the title suggests it should be but I’m willing to give this series the benefit of the doubt and read some more to see where it goes. I hate to say it but Rose is a more interesting character than any others so far and when you have a supporting character outshining the main protagonist in the first volume, that’s a bit of an issue. I hope that things improve and we see Usato take a more prominent role but it was a decent start that does build a bit of intrigue and it does make me interested to see where the story goes.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @JJPiedraOELN
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
A digital version was provided for review by One Peace Books
