The Great Cleric Vol. 1
Author: Broccoli Lion
Illustrators: Hiiro Akikaze; Sime
Publishers: Kodansha Comics
Age Group: Teen
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy
Type: Manga
Content Warnings: Masochism, Substance X, racism references
Spoilers ahead
Plot
After his untimely demise as the hardest-working salaryman in Japan, Luciel is reincarnated into the magical fantasy world Galdardia. Always the man with a plan, he recreates himself to be a healer, and sets about making his way in the world. But while Luciel knows a thing or two about making money, he knows absolutely nothing about Galdardia. Will his good heart and great work ethic be nought to him…The Great Cleric?
The plot for The Great Cleric has a logical progression. He finds a town, registers with a guild, and focuses on developing his skills first (something that most people don’t do in Isekai before heading off to fight monsters), and finds a stable job where he can continue improving his skills. That’s the summation of the entire first manga. It’s a relaxing and easy read where we learn more about Galdardia at the same time as Luciel like we’re his shadow as he learns and grows. It’s a great way for the reader to be involved with the characters and story.
Character Development
Luciel is a very positive person. He always accepts the next challenge, even if he has fears. He snaps himself out of spiraling to face his challenges head on. He makes goals and works hard to accomplish them. At the same time, he’s naive when it comes to this world which allows the audience to learn alongside him.
He’s a protagonist you can easily see as the friend that helps you to keep going no matter how bad things get. I’d also say he’s a little dense because he doesn’t question much about the world (even though he wants to learn more about it). The biggest example of this is how beastfolk are seen. We get a lot of hints from how beastfolk interact with him (they think he’s odd because he treats them equally without judgement). As the audience, we get the sense that beastfolk are, at the very least, considered second class citizens.
World-building
While the world-building is done mostly through the comic backgrounds, the artist does take time to show use people’s full outfits when they’re introduced. This gives us a sense of the style of clothing for the world and each characters personal style. I honestly wish more artists did that in their works. I find clothes interesting. We get more world-building from Luciel as he observes different things such as how the town seems to be built like medieval Europe.
The culture of the Republic of St. Shurule (the country he reincarnated in) highly values healers. Luciel doesn’t have to pay any tolls going into cities if he’s in this country (though we learn that’s not the case with another country, The Empire).
As healer’s are highly regarded, we learn more about them from the healer’s guild (which seems to need some updates to their building). It’s smaller than the adventurer’s guild and has a hard time keeping healers in line. Healers run amok in this country. We learn from several of the secondary characters such as Brod and Monica that healer’s are greedy, setting their prices to exorbitant amounts. We also get the sense from Luciel healing beastfolk that other healer’s won’t heal them. I can’t imagine what happens to them with ones that do.
When Luciel gets reincarnated, the nameless deity that does so mentions that they hope Luciel can change things around though they won’t hold their breath. This tells the reader that not everything is as it seems. There’s some deep rooted problems that Luciel will have to face. Luckily he’s a positive person that doesn’t shrink from challenges.
Themes
If this manga has a theme, I would say (so far) it’s to think about what your limitations are and work to push past them. Everyone has things they don’t want to do.
Now, why is this important to the reader? According to neuroscience there is a part of the brain called the aMCC (anterior mid-cingulate cortex). This part of the brain is like a tracking of pros, cons, consequences, and rewards. It activates when you do things you don’t want to do. What’s fascinating about this is it grows based on your own efforts.
The more you do something you don’t want to do such as brushing your teeth, laundry, dishes, going to work, etc the more it helps you create self-discipline making those very things easier to do over time. Its job is to help you develop self-discipline and make things less difficult. The more things you dislike but do, the more you grow. The more you grow the more willpower you’ll have to do more things (Huberman).
See it as an equivalent exchange. The more energy you use, the more you’ll have and get back. Just like how Luciel does whenever he trains. If you’ve ever played a video game, it’s like leveling up and having more magic, stamina, etc at your disposal.
Observations & Predictions
Luciel is an oddball since he remembers his previous life. He treats everyone equally regardless of race. I foresee this being a problem as he’s working (technically for free) at the Adventurer’s Guild. By healing adventurer’s it could cause problems with the healer’s in the area. If this happens he may be forced to transfer.
Though, how that will happen when we know the guild can’t check healers will be interesting to see. As we know that only the head office can do something. If they don’t move then neither do the local healer guilds.
With so many beautiful girls, he may develop his own harem or at least his own fan club.
Recommendations
Similar Vibes:
I’ve been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level
By: Kisetsu Morita
Sasaki and Peeps
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Another Healer:
The wrong way to use Healing Magic
By: Kurota
More Action:
Wise Man’s Grandchild (also known as the Sage’s grandson)
By: Tsuyoshi Yoshioka
*English translations exist on a variety of websites online but cannot be bought officially; Is also an anime series
The Faraway Paladin
By: Kanata Yanagino, Kususaga Rin
Works Cited
Huberman, Andrew d. [@hubermanlab]. “Tweet on Neuroscience Research”, Twitter, 14 October 2023. https://x.com/hubermanlab/status/1713234704240161039
