Anime: Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!

Note: This review applies only to the first season of Konosuba

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Review
Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! is another show with a longer-than-necessary name. People call it Konosuba and therefore I'll do the same. This is a tricky show to analyze as it attempts to mock the ongoing trend of "stuck-in-a-game" genre that sprouted and dominated the scenes since Sword Art Online hit the market. Despite its comical success and some clever jokes, it falls into the very same holes as most other parodies of these last few years.

Basically, this is the tale of a boy named Satou Kazuma, killed in a traffic accident after a life of games, animes, mangas, and so on. Instead of simply dying though, he is asked by the young goddess Aqua, who gives him a chance to live again in an alternative world while taking one thing of his choice with him. Well, he picks the goddess herself to take with him.

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1. A game
   Konosuba may not directly imply this is a game, but the world where Kazuma and Aqua are taken is exactly that. They start as low level adventurers in a random town, earn skills by leveling up, are assigned roles such as healer, tank, mage, etc. In all regards, it seems the two of them are stuck in a regular MMO, with the additional fact that they must also earn money to sustain their basic needs.
   
   Kazuma
   Konosuba is a funny show. Instead of putting Kazuma right into action he must first earn a living. He does that by exploring his goddess tsundere companion and from that a few comical scenes arise here and there. Kazuma himself may look like your boring annoying protagonist of every light novel (well, he IS one) but his behavior is more akin to your 90's shameless ecchi lead, a guy who bullies most girls for sexy stuff while not really caring about romance at all. This is nice, as we are all tired of the shitty leads of modern shows.
   
   The girls
   Following Kazuma are the girls, because of course this is filled with cutie lolis, otherwise it wouldn't be a parody of modern-day tales. Aqua is the least funny of them, a basic tsundere with colored hair that tries to patronize Kazuma while he jokes around. She is a goddess, yes, but that doesn't affect the show more than a few lines where she is arrogant or show off her powers.
   
   Two more girls join the fray as the show goes on. Megumin is your copy-and-paste smart silent loli, which happens to be a mage who knows only one spell that consumes all her energy. Yup. Her fun is also only one joke, so she gets boring quickly. Darkness offers a more entertaining comical trope as she is a masochist tank who wants to get beaten, which leads to a lot of double meaning jokes and perhaps the funniest situations of the show.
   
   The... story?
   Sadly though, the cycle of slice-of-life adventuring never gets anywhere. There is little moving these characters towards an objective, even if that would be an emotional one. Kazuma and the girls got nothing else to thrive for in this world besides eating and joking around and there is little innovation to where the casual events takes them. This lack of motivation extrapolates to the remaining cast, which is just there to fill gaps and not exactly give a boost for the comical quartet, much less to give them meaning to move on.
   
   Kinda lazy too
   Studio Deen was certainly not known for superb works, but Konosuba is far from being one of their best outings. The show is severely lazy in regards of coloring, rarely remembering to work on light effects and shadows. Animation-wise it gets even more slobbish, with distorted characters and very little fluid motion. The character design is quite generic, but that may get the pass as this is made to be a satire.
   

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Comments
Konosuba got some kind of hype from those around me. I was supposed to take this as one of the most funny shows of recent years, yet after watching it I am still looking to where all that powerful comedy was. You see, Konosuba is funny, surely, but most of it is because they slap you in the face with some absurd nonsense involving known tropes of games and animes of a similar genre. Instead of your second-life where the protagonist becomes a hero, here he simply lives a tough life as an everyday adventure. This by itself would be the spark to many smart jokes, but sadly the show only resorts to the most forced ones. It doesn't help that only Kazuma can make things funny on his own while the girls are locked into one-line jokes repeated ad infinitum.

Well, yeah, it's an interesting comedy, but nothing else.

There have been many entries to the RPG, fantasy category of late, of which Konosuba is an interesting addition. It's a show that doesn't take itself too seriously with slapstick comedy everywhere and a plotline that is engaging yet still light. If you're looking for an easily digestible show that will give you some hearty laughs, you've found a wonderful option.

Konosuba is about a guy who dies, in a pretty darn humiliating way. As in Yu Yu Hakusho, he is granted a second life by a blue-haired deity. However, this second life will be in a different parallel world of the dungeons and demons sort where he must fight to defeat the demon lord. To aid him, he is allowed to bring one thing of his choice, be it a possession or ability. To spite the nonchalant yet condescending god, he decides to bring her along and thus we have our show- a NEET turned adventurer and his pet god who only complains and causes trouble like the girlfriend out a hell.

Animation:
The show is drawn in a relatively simple manner with relatively light shading and detailing (I'm comparing against Phantom World, which is of the same season). The bright colors and high saturation make for a light and casual atmosphere, which is perfect considering where the plot goes. Backgrounds are mostly simplistic and blurred though there are occasionally scenes with nice detailing and backgrounds. There's a multitude of characters both primary and secondary in fitting, medieval garb, which makes our tracksuit-donning protagonist stick out humorously. All the characters are unique in both appearance and abilities and are rather all on the lively side. Emotions are often very strong and overstated in the show, fittingly so.

This show has a fair amount of action though the stakes are often raised to extremely dire levels only to be resolved in a rather ridiculous manner. Expect a lot of flashy explosions (literally) and effects to complement the magical nature of the show. Don't expect too much in terms of choreography or swordplay as this show is much too light for any of that. Opponents are occasionally rather humorous and include an assortment of haro-like flying cabbages, giant toads, a headless knight, and a monkeylord. There is also a fair amount of ecchi in the show ranging from an ability to steal objects (such as panties) to open bath scenes with well-placed washcloths and sparkly lights. There's also a fair amount of implied ecchi thanks to the masochistic nature of Darkness.

Sound:
The show starts with an energetic, light pop piece with a fair melody and ends with a really slow piece sung by the VA gals, with fitting instrumentation given the setting. The BGM isn't anything amazing but does sound reasonable for the genre; just don't expect SAO level production here. The most notable tune is obviously the ominous preparation song whenever Megumin prepares to use explosion.

The VA cast delivers with strong personalities in this show. Ai Kayano does a great job voicing darkness and though Sora Amamiya's character is hella annoying, it's an interesting and convincing departure from her more quiet previous roles. You also have Rie Takahashi from Sore ga Seiyuu playing the crazy chuunibyo wizard. Finally, you also get a bit of Yui Horie in the latter episodes as well, feels like a cameo almost.

Story:
Kazuma had, from an outsider's perspective, a horrible life filled with games and otherwise being a drag on human society. Luckily, in his second life, he now has a chance to defeat the demon lord and bring a parallel world to a happier era- or so the story hints. Unfortunately, he is doomed by countless, sometimes hilarious, setbacks and ends up just having a good time making friends.

The show doesn't have a strong central plot pull, as it's more about characters goofing off while slowly leveling up RPG style. There are countless mini climax moments but no arc stood out in particular, mostly because they're often contained within a single episode. In the end, they don't really make all that much progress, though it's already known that there will be a season two. If they continue at the current pace though they won't make it to the demon lord until season twelve.

Character:
The characters in the show have a lot of personality. Each of the main cast has their strengths and their often laughable weaknesses. For instance, Aqua has strong magical abilities but it is offset by her naive personality and absurdly bad luck. However, the team of Kazuma and his misfit harem works pretty well together and successfully completes various quests. The group has some fun interactions though most of them are between Kazuma and the individual gals. Don't expect any romance or deep relationships in this light piece.

Value:
Konosuba isn't a masterpiece; it knows it and makes fun of itself knowing it- that's what sets this show apart from so many others in the fantasy realm. If you're just looking for a laid back show to enjoy, you've found it. If you want something more tense or story-driven, SAO is still my highest recommendation with No Game No Life close on its tail.

Konosuba is a good example of average beating flashy trainwreck. Although superficially it’s yet another trapped in a videogame show filled with fan service and otaku pandering, it is mostly a satire of JRPGs and nothing more. It is not making videogames to be harems masked as serious death games (Sword Art Online), it’s not stuffed with politics that go nowhere (Log Horizon), and it doesn’t treat its characters as proxies for misery porn (Grimgar).

At the same time, it is not excelling at something either. The visuals are ok but far from great, the plot is there but it ain’t much, and the characters have personality but it’s fairly simple. What it manages to do in order to mitigate that is to not become stale after a few episodes (Ixion Saga DT), not go in circles without having a feeling of progression (Mondaiji), and not repeating the same joke in every episode until you no longer give a shit (One Punch Man).

Did I find it hilarious? After the first episode, no I didn’t. Is it the best in what it’s doing? No it isn’t (Mahoujin Guruguru). Is it the best in the season it came out? No, but it’s definitely the funniest (Shouwa Genroku). Am I looking forward to the second season? No, there is nothing left to explore. Most of the first season was spent on introducing and getting to know the characters. Unless they keep introducing more characters or flesh out the setting, which I doubt they will, there is nothing they can do to keep it fresh.

So there, well done, 5/10 but I am not interested for more. Now back to waiting for more Jojo to come out.