Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts
Healer Girl Episode 9 Review – Quick Summary
In Healer Girl episode 9, “The Best Guarantee • Buy the CD,” the local hospital called Ria to ask for her help. The director of the hospital, Ria’s old university professor, needed complex surgery. The outcome was by no means guaranteed. Not only was the director Ria’s mentor. He had been the doctor who had inspired Kana to want to become a healer. Will Ria, Kana, Reimi, and Hibiki accept the job? And if they do, how well will Ria perform during a ten hour operation, when we see how often she needs to nap?
Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.
Favorite Quote from Healer Girl Episode 9
The doctor reacted to the evidence right in front of him. And he knew Ria was no witch. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
I have a weird view of history. I shy away from popular versions of history because they so often turn out to be false. Take the imagery associated with witches, for example. Until the 1500s, women dominated the beer brewing industry. Don’t believe me? Check out the data from the Smithsonian Magazine. The women would often wear tall, pointy hats so folks could find them in the crowd.
According to that post, “The fundamentalist religious movement, which originated in the early 16th century, preached stricter gender norms and condemned witchcraft.” So guess what? Yep! Honest, hard-working women found themselves burned at the stake so some dude could turn a bigger profit on his beer.
Such is the patriarchy. Which explains why I rather detest it.
But there’s another reason, I think, that the patriarchy uses “witch” in a derogatory sense. And it’s contained in my favorite quote.
The doctor saw just how much Ria’s singing helped all phases of the surgery. He looked at her and marveled, saying (16:17), “They call her a witch? She’s more like a goddess.”
There is only one danger that the patriarchy detests more than a threat to its profits. It’s a threat to their power. And someone like Ria, with her demonstrated skill and power, would be a direct threat to them. Even worse? Her beauty is inspirational. And an inspirational threat to power and profit is about as great a danger as those folks can conceive. And yes, I’m seriously overloading Healer Girl’s energy here!
Best in Show Moment for Healer Girl Episode 9
I admired this man’s faith in his students. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Setup: Death Flags?
Sorry for the rather heavy favorite quote narrative this week. Events in the news, as well as the continued political discourse in the United States, has me in a brooding mood. To explain what I think about the patriarchy would take a book. Which, fortunately, David Graeber and David Wengrow have already written. It’s called The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, and if you’re interested in a fact-based assessment of our history, I highly recommend it.
Back to Healer Girl. We’re nine episodes in, and I’m not sure if the show’s going to go tragic on us. When we learned that the hospital director was both Ria’s mentor and Kana’s inspiration, I thought, “That’s it. That’s two major death flags. The dude’s as good as dead.”
When Kana mentioned the doctor who had inspired her to become a healer, I have to admit I was a bit nervous about his chances of survival! Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
For his sake, I’m glad I was wrong. But if the show wants to play the tragedy card, it’s laid the groundwork. Did you see how draining surgery was for Ria? She fell asleep in the car almost before she could buckle her seatbelt. Also, she naps over lunch. Is she ill? Dying? The show could play that card and devastate Kana, Reimi, and Hibiki. To say nothing of Shouko!
Delivery: The Good Teacher
This episode, though, didn’t do that. Ria, Kana, Reimi, and Hibiki’s work amazed the doctors. Together, the two traditions seemed to come together into a single formidable technique. That’s important to me because if I had one fear about the series, it was this: that they would disparage modern medicine in favor of something magical. They didn’t do that, and I couldn’t be happier.
The show did a great job preparing my favorite moment. We saw in this episode how Ria, when she was in college, faced serious head-winds when she wanted to be a vocal healer. It took the support of the now director of the hospital to clear the way for her.
The courage to see where new ideas lead is laudable. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
Think about that for a second. An established doctor in a field of modern medicine risked his career. Why? Because he saw potential in a new idea. Because he had confidence in Ria, his student. That’s exactly what a teacher is supposed to do!
And just in case there was any doubt, on the day of the surgery, he announced, for anyone to hear, that (12:44) “My very own students are operating on me. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Aside from the feeling of “Oh, no, is that a death flag?”, his statement touched me. It’s exactly what a good teacher should say. Judging from how Ria turned out, he must have been among the best!
What did you think of Hibiki’s fascination with pro wrestling? What were your favorite scenes? Feel free to let me know in the comments?
Healer Girl Episode 9: Other Posts
Other Anime Sites
- Reddit: Healer Girl – Episode 9 discussion
- The Magic Planet: Let’s Watch HEALER GIRL Episode 9 – The Best Guarantee • Buy the CD
- The Yuri Empire: Healer Girl Episode 9: Witness Her Power!
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!
Ria falling asleep almost immediately isn’t that surprising. I don’t remember how long the operation lasted; I think they said something about 10 hours? I might misremember. In any case, it was definitely longer than the one song we heard, and she’d have had to pay attention to the surgery and adjust. That *is* draining. Very much so.
Also, I’m pretty sure this time: they’re not behind glass. They’re busily expelling aerosols into a sterile environment… It’s no big deal; I wouldn’t likely mention it at all, if the show didn’t usually pay attention to this sort of thing. (And I’m additionally sensitised to this sort of thing due to the pandemic.)
I wonder if Kana will ever figure out why the doctor looks familiar to her?
Sorry if I wasn’t clear! You’re absolutely right — Ria’s exhaustion at the end of the episode was completely reasonable. I’m just worried about the trend of what appears like her exhaustion. I’m worried that it might be the sign of an underlying condition.
I think you’re right about the glass — I saw no barrier at all. I haven’t seen anything in the narrative that said their singing is sanitized. So I don’t know if it’s an artistic license thing or they’re explain it later.
Kana can be a little dense, can’t she? It might be for the better she didn’t figure it out. She was already pretty nervous!