Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer! ⬢ Rinse-and-Repeat, Yet Entertainingly Silly

Original Run: April 10, 2022 - June 26,2022
Number of Episodes: 12
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Based on the Series Created By: Tannen ni Hakkou

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer! Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

The world is full of monsters. Thus, there are adventurers who seek to defeat such fiends. However, some adventurers are better than others. And then there’s Alvin (voiced by Takuya Satou).

To put it nicely, Alvin has the spirit of a warrior (most of the time), but he lacks many of the skills required to go on long, epic journeys. Still, if that won’t stop him, nothing will.

Then again, that was before Alvin met the healer Carla (voiced by Aguri Onishi).

Much like Alvin’s questionable qualifications as an adventurer, Carla has many qualities that make her an odd healer. Mainly, she has a knack for causing more harm than good, and her attitude tends to get people’s (a.k.a. Alvin’s) nerves.

Series Positives

Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer is not an anime you marathon. The primary joke grows repetitive if you tackle the whole run at once. We’ll go into more detail6, but the short of it is, this series is best suited as an episode-a-night affair.

Thus, if you’re not laughing – or, at the very least, not enjoying – this show immediately, you’re in for a rocky go.

That said, if things do hit off, then Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer is a hidden gem from 2022.

This series does not take itself seriously. There is no tension, no hidden character agendas, and nothing comes close to suggesting this story wants to be a high-adventure epic. Instead, this show does everything possible to make all situations as ridiculous as can be. The resulting effect, more often than not, is satisfyingly hilarious.

Now, Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer’s comedic strategy hinged on the likability of its two lead characters: Alvin and Carla. Given how these two were constantly ripping on each other, there had to be an equal power balance between them. If their dynamic ever became askew, the level of badmouthing they launched at one another would enter the realm of unapologetic bullying.

To this show’s immense credit, despite how gut-punching-ly harsh Alvin and Carla’s comments could be, things never came off as meanspirited. Anyone with a healthy relationship with a sibling can confirm that sometimes the most mundane conversation can turn – from an outsider’s perspective – vial for no reason. Such roast sessions typically have no restraint when aiming below the belt. Nevertheless, as long as both parties get their fair share of hits in, when these exchanges are over, there are no hard feelings between participants.

That was the sentiment that existed between Alvin and Carla.

Granted, between the two, Alvin was usually on the defensive from Carla’s snideness. But this show found balance because Alvin never crumbled under the pressure, even in the face of Carla’s heavyhandedness. Heck, Alvin occasionally managed to come out on top.

Except, that outcome was a rarity since Carla would often have standing. Sure, she was more than willing to turn an encounter on its head by jumping to the wildest of conclusions regardless of what was actually occurring. Still, especially when it came to Alvin, Carla drew most of her material by maliciously stating the white elephant in the room – Alvin’s adventuring incompetence.

This was the bulk of Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer’s comedy, and it was funny.

It wasn’t merely the banter between Alvin and Carla that worked in this show’s favor. This series had a never-ending list of single-use characters 0that poked fun at many fantasy tropes. While these encounters quickly fell into a rinse-and-repeat routine, on the whole, they remained bubbly and entertaining.

And that last word – “entertaining” – best encapsulates Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer.

This is not a high-brow comedy. No, if anything, this series is more like junk food. It’s simple, not at all complex, and when you’ve had your fill, you can put it down for later. Then when you do return, it is easy to jump right back into the swing of things.

Series Negatives

Hints of what was problematic with Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer were all over the previous section. To repeat, it is best if you don’t watch this series in a single go. Take plenty of breaks, and maybe come back to this show after a hard day. Doing so allows the humor to not grow stale.

No matter how you spin it, it is never a compliment to say a comedy’s jokes grow old after a while. Although Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer can last much longer than most, it does lose steam long before the final episode.

Or, to put it another way: If you can skip massive chunks of an episode and still have a solid understanding of what’s happening, then what is happening is largely fluff.  

Nowhere does this become more evident than in this show’s final episode.

Without going into details, for the “climatic” final battle, Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer brought back all the characters Alvin and Carla met on their journey. Incidentally, this is not an action series, which was painfully evident in this moment. That notwithstanding, seeing everyone come back, you realize something:

“I don’t remember who half of you are.”

During their respective episodes, the side characters do their job and add to the humor of Alvin and Carla’s shenanigans. However, the moment they are gone, they become irrelevant. You certainly don’t expect the lot of them to reappear during a noticeably lackluster final fight.

While on that subject, the final episode also highlighted another weakness of this series. Visually, Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer was visually unremarkable.

Fortunately, this show makes up for its weak animation with Alvin and Carla, /Everything else, on the other hand, is either bland at best or forgettable at worst.

Final Thoughts

While this review might not offer the most enthusiastic praise, do consider it a positive outlook.

Many elements in this series would come off as lazy nine times out of ten. However, thanks to certain key aspects – i.e., the lead characters – this show manages to be that notable exception. Thanks to the protagonists, things remain fun and entertaining.

Therefore, Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer has earned a recommendation.