Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Healer Girl Episode 2 Review – Quick Summary
In Healer Girl episode 2, “Can I Take a Picture? Or Maybe a Video?,” Kana Fujii was absolutely freaking out over the number of tests she’ll need to pass to become even a provisional healer. Worse, she struggled making vocal key changes with accompaniment. Her friends could not help her. What options does she have? Elsewhere, Sonia Yanagi at school heard Kana talking about becoming an apprentice healer. She demanded that Kana meet her after school. What’s that all about? And why is Sonia talking about Kana as an “enemy?”
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Healer Girl Episode 2
I have to admire Kana’s honesty. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Kana is growing on me. Maybe it’s because I gravitate toward people who are talented but who aren’t arrogant about it. I don’t think that personality type gets the admiration and attention it deserves! Thinking about it, it seems that there really are more humble talented people than super arrogant talented people. But, boy oh boy, do the arrogant ones spoil it for everyone!
Despite her magnificent performance in the first episode, Kana still struggles with self-confidence. She was talking to her friends Reimi Itsushiro and Hibiki Morishima about their upcoming exams. Apparently, they cover a lot more than just singing, though it’s covered, too. They also include topics like general medical knowledge and pharmacology. Just mentioning the words seemed to panic Kana.
Seeing her kneeling, practically in terror, Hibiki asked, “Is one of those your weak subject?”
“Actually,” Kana said (03:33), “they all are!”
It’s laudable that Kana knows her own limitations!
Best in Show Moment for Healer Girl Episode 2
Their visualization had shattered. The song had failed. All Kana could think about was the mother-to-be. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: Sonia Sprang into Action
Good Lord, the singing in this episode was lovely! Seriously! Their performances were so pleasant that I believe they could heal solely through the power of their voices. Which probably gives you an idea of which is my favorite scene in this episode!
In the previous episode, we got to see what happens when the singer and song are on point. We got hints that it could go wrong through Ria Karasuma’s stern warning to Ria. Kana listening to that warning at the end (in my favorite moment), which reinforced the idea.
Well, in this episode, we saw what could happen if the song goes off the rails.
Sonia did not at all like hearing that the ambulance would be delayed. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Sonia has some skills. Probably not to the extent she thinks she does, but she is a C-rank healer, so the accreditation process in this world recognizes her abilities. She, her friend Shinobu Honosaka, and Kana encountered a woman in distress – a woman who was eight months pregnant. There was a big fire, so the ambulance was going to be delayed. That meant it was up to Sonia to act.
Reminding Kana (and telling us in the audience!) that a ranked healer could ask for help from even an apprentice, Sonia launched into her song. Like Kana in the previous episode, her aim was to eliminate the woman’s pain and help her be calm before the ambulance arrived. But this time, the situation was more grave.
Delivery: The Song Beings to Come Apart
At first, when Kana joined in, Sonia seemed surprised at the strength in Kana’s voice. But Sonia kept her focus. She began to build a visualization/image that would bring comfort to the mother-to-be.
But something was wrong. Very wrong, in fact. The image shattered, and Sonia and Kana tried in unison to reform it. But nothing they did could alleviate the woman’s pain. The visualization shattered, leaving Sonia clinging to its remnants with the mother, as Kana plunged into the abyss. But even as she fell, her thoughts were with the mother (17:25).
The difference between Ria’s experience and skill and that of Sonia and Kana was enormous. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
That moment, when it seemed like they had failed, when it seemed like the mother and her unborn’s fate were uncertain, was exquisitely executed. Seeing the more experienced Sonia beginning to realize she was losing control; seeing Kana’s rising panic and her fight to keep it under control – the animation nailed really conveyed their feelings! Add to that the character insight that even amid the horror of knowing just how badly it was going, Kana still thought like a healer. That’s good stuff!
Of course, Ria showed up to save the day. But I just love how the show is dramatizing how this world works. And the voices are just so lovely!
What did you think of Shinobu’s revelation of why Sonia treats her so badly? What were your favorite moments in this episode? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Healer Girl Episode 2: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Healer Girl – Episode 2 discussion
- The Yuri Empire: Healer Girl Episode 2: “Enemies”
- KeithSpeaks: Enter: Sonia Yanagi! Healer Girl Episode 2 Review (YouTube)
This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)
- Healer Girl Episode 1: Kana Fujii, Healer (Apprentice)
- Healer Girl Episode 2: Can I Take a Picture? Or Maybe a Video?
- Healer Girl Episode 3: Cleanup, Run • Run • Run
- Healer Girl Episode 4: First Steps, Horror, and a First Job
- Healer Girl Episode 5: Blue Skies, Green Mountains, River Battles and the Galactic Station
- Healer Girl Episode 6: Become My Servant • Russian Food and Sweet Dreams
- Healer Girl Episode 7: A Culture Festival Full of Surprises
- Healer Girl Episode 8: I Love Maids • You’re Fired
- Healer Girl Episode 9: The Best Guarantee • Buy the CD
- Healer Girl Episode 10: Halloween • Masquerade • Butterfly!
- Healer Girl Episode 11: Sharks and Training Camp! Let’s Climb Together!
- Healer Girl Episode 12: We’re C-Rank Healers!
I can sympathise with having trouble with key changes. A key is basically the context for all notes you’re singing; an when you change that, there’s usually no context for that one change. You have to anticipate it, and you can learn to time it right, but if there’s also the accompaniment. It made total sense for Ria sensei to recommend what’s basically ear training.
Ria sensei is awesome. Love her dearly. A great teacher and cat owner.
I have to admit why the song went wrong didn’t occur to me at all: when Ria revealed the reason it was so obvious that I thought, why didn’t I think of it. What do they say about hindsight? Heh.
Yeah, I’m going to enjoy this show.
Thanks for explaining key changes. My daughter is a music teacher, but she takes after her mom, not her dad! So most musical theory and practice are out of my experience. Your description helped this episode feel a little more realistic!
I find my hopes for this show rising.
Well, my explanation was incomplete, and possibly even wrong for that particular example. I said that there’s no context for the key change, but that’s only true if the musical piece doesn’t modulate into the new key. And since I didn’t actually hear a key change, it’s likely that that’s precisely what happened. (Modulation makes the modulating chords have to different functions at once, one in the old key, and one in the new.) Ear training is great advice in any case. I’m quite interested in music theory, but I could use *a ton* of ear training. I’d better at it if I had sheet music…
Pretty obvious that world wants fully trained medical people and not just singers. I could see a simple singer being the equivalent of a paramedic but even those need a couple of years of training. (Daughter is an EMT, one step lower than a paramedic, and it took her a year. But that was only because she had lot of the general ed requirement already knocked out. You want your people to be fluent in medical terminology, technology, and applications they might have to use.
Elaborate schooling and accreditation is gong to be inevitable in any medical system I’d want to be doctored by. Just being an RN takes 4 years of school (BSRN or 4 year AARN. The latter are getting rare.) and then it is 3-6 months before you’re allowed to work independently. (Wife is an RN.) Doctors have 8 years of school and then another 4-8 years in internship.
There are too many quacks out there, even with accreditation. Daddy’s money greased the skids. Or maybe the person was brilliant at tests but incompetent in actual medicine. Or maybe a good con artist. These types are found in any career path and will work their way through any system if there’s money at the end. Most of the doctors and nurses I have dealt with are both intelligent and competent, though many lack a good bedside manner.
OTOH, limiting accreditation can be a way to enforce conformity in thought. Or to control the supply/demand ratio and keep prices artificially high. Two sided sword.
It’s amazing, and (generally) reassuring, how long it takes someone to qualify to practice medicine. Excepting the edge cases you mentioned!
Speaking of which, I wonder if in this world if a singer who relied on auto-tuning would be considered a quack?
Interesting point about the dark side of accreditation. I think this world is learning towards the light side, but it might be interesting to see a rival school try to take a different approach!
So… You have the healing arts through song. However your forced to undergo a forced education system to get a doctorate in audatory healing, and probably need to be board certified and get an internship at a prestigious Medical Stadium. If she lived in Nashville shed be vying for an opening at the Grand Old Opry Medical Center. Or moving up to Branson and their smaller down home country music clinics. Way to take the miracle out of miraculous gifts, Anime!
Also I didn’t know you and Irina had your own Anime series! I need one of those… Even if it’s in Zombieland… With Bill Murray.
“Grand Old Opry Medical Center”
I’d love to see the series talk about that!
And I get what you’re saying about accreditation taking some of the spontaneous joy out of the equation. At the same time, I have to admire the realistic world building they’re using. Even a talented singer doesn’t know how to sing well, without practice. The schools seem to instill that practice and ensure that someone without adequate preparation doesn’t cause more harm than good.
A medical doctor might have raw talent. But without the benefit of the experience of the medical establishment, all new singers would have to learn from scratch — and encounter the inevitable deaths along the way. The way Healer Girl portrays that process is one of the things I really like about it!
Irina and I have our own series? That would be seriously cool! Though I have to admit that I think we both really enjoyed reviewing Zombie Land Saga.
I never saw Zombieland 2. I really liked the first one!
You reviewed it. Irina And Crow In Zombieland. Anyway it’s fine. When the DVD comes out I’ll review it. Next order however is White Snake 2020.
The way I read your previous comment, it sounded like Irina and I funded the production of an anime! Which sounded like it could have been a lot of fun! The collab was a lot of fun, too!
Oh… Yeah that makes more sense than whatever I thought. Thanks. I’m wondering if it’s called something complicated or is a streaming original because I couldn’t find a manga for this. Oh well. I’m ordering White Snake 2020 this weekend anyway so that’s my present direction in Any case review wise. World animation and cinema.