{"id":38074,"date":"2022-09-04T13:21:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T17:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=38074"},"modified":"2022-09-06T17:48:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T21:48:00","slug":"the-wrong-way-to-write-about-using-healing-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/the-wrong-way-to-write-about-using-healing-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wrong Way to Write About Using Healing Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The nature of Japanese light novels is to be simple, easy-reading, disposable literary entertainment. By design, light novels are only barely more literary than manga comic books. Moreover, light novels are typically rapidly written first drafts featuring the barest minimum of editing. Thus light novels frequently contain errors in narrative continuity, technical composition errors, and other minor flaws. What they lack in literate, artistic substance they compensate for with creativity and entertainment value. The \u201cisekai\u201d sub-genre, stories about characters whisked away to unfamiliar new worlds, has arisen as one of the most popular genres of Japanese fantasy literature, especially since the early 1990s. The abundance of stories within the isekai genre naturally distills into more praiseworthy and admirable literary works including the Mushoku Tensei<\/em> and Sword Art Online<\/em> franchises, especially poorly written novel series including Isekai Meikyuu de Harem wo<\/em> and Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari<\/em>, and everything in-between. While not terribly poorly written, the first volume of author Kurokata\u2019s light novel The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic<\/a> falls into the vast and deep well of mediocre isekai fantasy novels primarily because the entire book is nothing more than an extended and particularly dull prologue.<\/p>\n

The trope of a protagonist being accidentally caught up in an isekai hero summoning ritual has been utilized in other light novel series including Miya Kinojo\u2019s Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers<\/em>, Yuka Tachibana\u2019s The Saint\u2019s Magic Power is Omnipotent<\/em>, and Ren Eguchi\u2019s Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill<\/em>. Unlike comparable titles that apply a unique, creative twist, the first novel of The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic<\/em> regrettably doesn\u2019t do anything unique or compelling with its scenario. In fact, the novel does very little at all.<\/p>\n

Three Japanese high school students are magically teleported to a sword & sorcery world to defend the Llinger Kingdom from invasion by the Demon Lord. But only two of the transposed students were targeted by the summoning spell. The story\u2019s protagonist, Ken Usato, is an unintended extra caught up in the mix. However, his status as a \u201cplus one\u201d has no impact on the story development. Within the first novel, the three teen heroes spend their time training to strengthen their magic casting abilities. Then the Demon Lord\u2019s army begins its invasion. Then the novel ends. Lamentably, the novel contains almost no action whatsoever although the story is not a slice-of-life fantasy. The novel\u2019s intriguing title, \u201cThe Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic,\u201d has practically no relevance to the novel\u2019s story. Characterizations are superficial and minimal. Protagonist Usato introduces himself as someone with no hobbies. Yet, seemingly contradictorily, shortly later he refers to himself as having a \u201cgamer\u2019s brain.\u201d He\u2019s also oddly, consciously homophobic for no explained reason. His male upperclassman Kazuki Ryusen is pure-hearted and described as \u201cinnocent.\u201d Usato\u2019s female classmate Suzune Inukami functions half-heartedly as comic relief in a story that\u2019s doesn\u2019t need any. She\u2019s also a bit difficult to empathize with since she\u2019s characterized as a girl who pities herself because she’s too good at everything she tries. The only other significant character in the novel is Rose, Usato\u2019s mentor. While she does get one detail of background, she functions more like a prominent supporting character than a main character.<\/p>\n

As if the novel knows that its narrative development is thin and boring, the novel tries to inject sub-plots and nuance, but the efforts are irresolute and perfunctory. Halfway through the novel, the story introduces animal mascot characters although these characters don\u2019t do anything nor serve any narrative purpose. As if resorting to clich\u00e9, the novel\u2019s first chapter drops the revelation that the Llinger Kingdom treats healing magic users as useless trash, evoking the treatment of the Shield Hero in the Rising of the Shield Hero<\/em> novels, yet as soon as it\u2019s mentioned, this plot point is forgotten. Knight Commander Siglis announces that he has a matter to discuss with Rose, yet when he goes to meet her, he says nothing of significance to her. In a brief passage a fox girl relays a prophecy to the protagonist. Then this plot point receives no further development. The novel introduces a threatening black knight yet doesn\u2019t bother to give him a name nor have him do anything prominent. In fact, the entire novel\u2019s world building is perfunctory at best. The novel\u2019s magic system essentially gets no detail or explanation. The country neighboring the Llinger Kingdom is simply referred to as \u201cneighboring country.\u201d The demon lord has no name or motivation beyond, \u201cDemon Lord.\u201d The briefly appearing bandit leader is such a clich\u00e9 that he comes across as a parody instead of a legitimate character.<\/p>\n

The narrative also contains other continuity errors. Rose has only one eye, yet the novel contains the descriptive lines, \u201cAll I could do was avoid meeting the eyes of this woman who savagely smiled at me,\u201d and, \u201cAll I knew was that her eyes were filled with contradiction.\u201d In the first half of the novel Rose makes multiple similar statements including, \u201cIf someone dies, revive \u2019em.\u201d Yet later in the book Rose asserts, \u201cIf you die, you\u2019re done for,\u201d and, \u201cI know I can\u2019t bring my boys back to life.\u201d Usato describes the palace\u2019s training ground as \u201ca big open space,\u201d yet then says, \u201cWhile I was scanning the area, I saw a black-haired girl in the corner of the room.\u201d What room? He\u2019s outdoors.<\/p>\n

Other flaws within the novel may arise particularly from the English translation. At one point Rose asks, \u201cCapiche?\u201d without explanation for why this resident of an alternate world would be familiar with Italian language. Similarly, the black knight says, \u201cMy bad,\u201d which seems like a distinctly Earth expression used by a character presumably not from Earth. The translation contains numerous minor errors in punctuation and capitalization, but most casual readers won\u2019t notice them. The novel is expressed in the first-person perspective typical of light novels except for one brief scene that switches into third-person perspective. Frustratingly, the novel regularly switches narrator without notice or signal. In at least one occasion the reader must read at least six paragraphs to figure out that the storytelling has shifted to a different character\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

The novel contains no references to nudity or sex and only brief description of graphic violence. The translation includes a few instances of \u201cSh*t,\u201d one \u201cgod*mnit,\u201d and one \u201cson of a b*tch.\u201d The translation also retains Japanese honorifics when appropriate, including \u201csenpai,\u201d \u201c-chan,\u201d and \u201c-kun.\u201d The novel also includes a reference to \u201ctsuchinoko\u201d that may be unfamiliar to readers lacking awareness of Japanese folkloric monsters. One Peace Books\u2019 official English translation of the first novel includes a double-page color character introduction illustration, a color page illustration of the black knight, eleven monochrome illustrations by artist KeG, and one monochrome character concept design illustration.<\/p>\n

The isekai fantasy sub-genre can be highly entertaining because it can be very immersive and very gratifying. Readers interested in dipping their toes into the field should be advised to begin elsewhere. Die-hard fans of the isekai genre who are willing and prepared to read everything they can may find some satisfaction from The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic<\/em>. Thanks to passable writing, the novel isn\u2019t completely awful; however, while this series may become more exciting and interesting in subsequent volumes, the first novel is 219 pages of redundancy and almost nothing happening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nature of Japanese light novels is to be simple, easy-reading, disposable literary entertainment. By design, light novels are only barely more literary than manga comic books. Moreover, light novels are typically rapidly written first drafts featuring the barest minimum of editing. Thus light novels frequently contain errors in narrative continuity, technical composition errors, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/chiyu.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38074"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38081,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38074\/revisions\/38081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}