One day after school, Usato ends up walking home with Suzune and Kazuki, president and vice-president of the student council respectively. Usato becomes fast friends with Kazuki, and Usato is also a bit thrilled to be talking to the beautiful and talented Suzune.
But suddenly, the three of them find themselves in another world! Suzune and Kazuki have been chosen to be the country’s heroes, but as for Usato? Well, he was brought along by accident. Still, he does end up with aptitude for healing magic. But he doesn’t understand why everyone is freaking out…until he finds himself being carried off by a scary woman who has decided to make him her newest victim student!
This series is billed as The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic: The Manga Companion. I think “companion” is the key word here. Most manga (and anime) adaptations of light novels tend to make some changes to slow down or speed up the story, and that may involve changing details or skipping events. The manga here does both, and if you match the final pages here to where it is at in the novel, it’s about 71% of the way through.
Yeah, that’s very far into the story. I can understand combining certain events like Usato meeting his senpai (who are siblings) at the same time instead of separately, but in general, the manga moves too fast. If I hadn’t had read the novel first, I don’t know if I would have bonded with the characters. For those who start with this version first, there are moments that demonstrate why I want to root for this kingdom and the summoned heroes (like Rose and the king having a heart-to-heart), but that’s not going to be enough to get over the feeling like readers are missing something. If you’re looking for scenes like Usato healing other people, that’s not in the original, but between all the scenes of Usato doing push-ups and fighting giant monsters, readers may have a hard time understanding just how he is a healer.
There is a possibility volume 2 will go back and cover some of the skipped portions, such as Usato and Suzune heading out on a practice battle run together, but I have no idea if it will or not.
The manga does better capture the comedy though. The text and few accompanying illustrations captured Rose’s crazed harshness and Suzune being thrilled about being summoned in the original, but now the manga can expand upon the humor. For instance, while the novel described Rose’s main rescue squad members as scary guys, well, now we get to see them in their full prison movie/psycho killer glory. And seeing Rose literally throw Usato into the forest to train makes it clear Rose just might have set the Interworld Human Throwing Championship record for distance.
The art is just okay, edging more to being a little weak at times. As you can imagine, the pacing is a problem, as the chapters seem to prioritize getting in story beats over characterization and development. Suzune is initially one of those almost-perfect student council presidents, but when brought to this other world, she flips into an isekai fangirl. At best, it makes her look a little naïve that she’s so willing to go to battle, but in the novel, she at least acknowledges the dangers and what she’s leaving behind. However, a lot of Suzune’s scenes seem to be cut or trimmed, so she’s fortunately not as annoying as she could have been.
Ultimately, though, as of right now, The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic volume 1 isn’t a terrible way to be introduced to Usato and his new friends. But while a lot of people will love a manga adaptation that is already a ways through the first novel volume instead of taking two, three, even four manga volumes, for me, it’s too much of an abridged version. I liked certain aspects, but I doubt those additional laughs would be worth readers feeling like they’re speeding through the story.