The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows is an upcoming spring 2025 anime series. It had a special premiere showing at a movie theater in Tokyo recently. However, unlike the many other premieres I have attended, this time we were not shown the first episode. Rather we were treated to episodes two and three. Narratively, this didn't prove to be a problem. These episodes serve as the start of the story and are nearly identical to how both the manga and light novels start. (The actual first episode, which we saw only a brief preview of, appears to be an in-medias res original story set sometime after episodes two and three).

On its surface, The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows is another in the recently popular “kicked out of the heroes' party” fantasy sub-genre. Zenos is deemed useless by his party as they don't want an uneducated street rat to ruin their image as they begin hobnobbing with the noble society. Moreover, they are unable to understand how much he has been helping them behind the scenes. Thrown away with only a gold coin to his name, he promptly uses it to buy an escaping child slave from her pursuers as she's dying on the street. With neither having any home to return to, the two decide to stick together and open a back alley clinic.

These two episodes are spent mostly introducing the various monster girls who become smitten with Zenos. The first is Carmilla, the undead wraith haunting the abandoned house he and Lily set up their clinic inside. Then come the three big gang leaders of the slums: the lizard woman Zophia, the werewolf Lynga, and the orc Loewe.

A lot of this is standard harem anime fare. There's a girl to appeal to each viewer. Like playful sarcasm? That's Carmilla. Muscular and straightforward? Loewe is for you. More into the little sister type? Then Lily should be in your crosshairs.

However, that's not all there is to heroines we are introduced to. Through them, we learn about the state of the slums—the workings of its society and how Zeno's indiscriminate healing has caused the power balance to shift dramatically. Moreover, we learn that the conditions in the slum are by design. To keep the poor downtrodden and exploitable by noble society, the government has purposely left things in chaos. This is an interesting twist that adds a bit of complexity to the story.

It also helps that Zenos himself is a well-realized “overpowered” character. He is almost completely self-taught when it comes to healing. Both as a child and in his adventuring party, he had no other healers to compare himself to (beyond a wandering healer who gave him a few pointers). Because of this, he thinks he's nothing special and that all healers can do what he can.

On one level this gives him humility that contrasts with his talents. On another, it means he still sees himself as the street rat he once was. He cannot even conceive the idea that some of the most powerful women in the city would not only respect him but see him as an option for romance.

As for the presentation, The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows looks good at first glance. Some scenes have impressive lighting while others have a surprising amount of detail. And the male werewolves? Their faces are utterly hilarious when they act like their canine brethren. However, if you pay close attention, you can see that the show uses every budget-saving animation trick in the book. Attacks cut away at the moment of impact. There are pans across completely static shots to give the illusion of animation—or static shots where only the characters' mouths move. It doesn't look bad but you can easily see the seams if you start looking.

On the music side, nothing stood out either positively or negatively—which usually means the soundtrack is doing a decent job of supporting the story without being obtrusive. Sadly, neither the openings nor endings were played at the premiere screening so I can't comment on either.

From these two episodes, The Brilliant Healer's New Life in the Shadows appears to be a light-hearted fantasy harem anime first and foremost. The interactions between Zenos and the demi-human girls are the focus of the show with action and intrigue being secondary. However, that said, there was a surprising amount of depth to both Zenos and the setting. This one most likely won't be topping any “best of the season” lists but if it carries on as is, it will be enjoyable to anyone who likes the non-revenge-focused “kicked out of the heroes' party” stories.