The Great Cleric

The Great Cleric Review: A Salaryman Reincarnates and Decides to Master the Most Overlooked Job Class

by Hiiro Akikaze / Broccoli Lion

★★★★OngoingT (Teen)
Reviewed by Yu
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Quick Take

  • The isekai that takes the "healer" class seriously — Luciel commits to the overlooked support role with the same intensity most protagonists bring to sword training
  • The potion-drinking training regimen (they taste terrible, they work, he keeps drinking) is the series' signature and distinguishes it from typical isekai power fantasy
  • Ongoing with 11 volumes; underdog-healer isekai for readers who want the support class treated as a protagonist's vocation

Who Is This Manga For?

  • Readers who play support roles in games and want to see that perspective as an isekai protagonist
  • Anyone who enjoys deliberate skill-building isekai where the protagonist's power comes from dedicated effort rather than innate ability
  • Fans of isekai where the main character chooses a non-combat path and sticks to it
  • Readers who want ongoing fantasy with consistent quality

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: T (Teen) Content Warnings: Combat sequences involving healing and recovery; mild violence

The T rating is accurate. Less combat-focused than typical isekai action.

Yu's Rating

Category Score
Story Depth ★★★★☆
Art Style ★★★★☆
Character Development ★★★★☆
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers ★★★★☆
Reread Value ★★★☆☆

Story Overview

Luciel reincarnates in a fantasy world with a goal: he will be a healer, specifically the best healer in the world. The healer class is considered weak, poorly paid, and professionally undesirable. Luciel does not care. He believes that healers are essential and systematically undervalued, and he intends to demonstrate this.

He trains by consuming large quantities of recovery potions — they accelerate healing and build the body's recovery capacity, but they taste genuinely terrible. He trains in combat to be able to protect himself. He studies healing magic exhaustively. He works in the healer's guild, taking commissions that other healers won't take.

His progress is measurable and deliberate rather than sudden and granted. The series follows him building competence the way someone would actually build competence — through repetition, discomfort, and accumulating experience.

Characters

Luciel — His specific quality is the stubbornness of someone who has decided that the overlooked thing is actually the most important thing. His healer-first ethic means he will not abandon patients for convenience or safety. His training intensity — the terrible potions, the combat practice — comes from understanding that a healer who can't survive is no use to anyone.

His Patients and Allies — The people Luciel heals, trains alongside, and works with are characterized individually — the series takes the relationships that form through healing seriously.

Art Style

Broccoli Lion's art handles the healing sequences with appropriate care — healing magic that looks like something rather than just a glow. The training sequences convey physical difficulty. The combat sequences, when they occur, demonstrate that Luciel's self-defense training is functional rather than ornamental.

Cultural Context

The Great Cleric engages with a genuine bias in fantasy RPG genre conventions — the healer class is structurally essential but culturally undervalued, both in games and in the isekai manga that borrows their mechanics. Luciel's commitment to the overlooked role resonates with readers who have played support roles and experienced this dynamic.

What I Love About It

The sequence where Luciel is assigned a patient that the healer's guild has given up on — described as beyond what their magic can do — and Luciel's approach is not a miraculous single spell but a sustained, methodical treatment that requires days of work. The series' strongest moments are when healing is shown as a practice, not a power.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

Western readers who enjoy MMO-adjacent isekai describe The Great Cleric as one of the more satisfying healer-protagonist stories — the commitment to the support class as a vocation rather than a temporary limitation is consistently noted. Luciel's training approach (effort-based rather than talent-based) is cited as more satisfying than innate-ability isekai protagonists.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The scene where Luciel's healer status, which has been treated with professional condescension by combat-focused adventurers, saves a situation that combat cannot resolve — and the acknowledgment from the adventurers who dismissed him is handled without triumph, just competence completing its work.

Similar Manga

  • Isekai Pharmacy — Knowledge-based healing in another world
  • The Frieren — Magic with a different relationship to effort and mastery
  • Mushoku Tensei — Isekai with genuine skill development and professional dedication
  • By the Grace of the Gods — Gentle isekai with craft and support focus

Reading Order / Where to Start

Volume 1 — Luciel's reincarnation, his choice of the healer class, and the beginning of the potion regimen.

Official English Translation Status

Kodansha Comics is publishing the English edition, currently at 11 volumes. Ongoing.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • The healer-protagonist premise is executed with genuine commitment to the class's specific challenges
  • Effort-based power development is more satisfying than innate-ability isekai
  • The professional healer ethic — treating anyone, protecting yourself to remain useful — is well-developed
  • Consistent quality across its volumes

Cons

  • The healer focus means combat is secondary — action-focused readers may be unsatisfied
  • The training sequences can feel repetitive
  • Ongoing with no endpoint yet

Format Comparison

Format Notes
Individual Volumes Kodansha Comics; ongoing
Digital Available

Where to Buy

Get The Great Cleric Vol. 1 on Amazon →


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Buy The Great Cleric on Amazon →

*Affiliate link — I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Y

Written by

Yu

Manga Enthusiast from Japan

I grew up in Japan and manga literally saved me during a tough time in elementary school. My English isn't perfect, but my love for manga is real — and I want to share it with you.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.