Honestly, at first glance Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! (God's Blessings on this Wonderful World!) or simply put as KonoSuba, feels nothing groundbreaking in a sense that its set in an RPG world, with the protagonist being a hardcore gamer and a shut-in, and on top of that its supposed to be a parody and a light comedy show. This is where it proves all the odds wrong by throwing a totally absurd, non-sensical whack job that forces the viewer to shut all his reasonings for a moment and simply sit back and take a piece of what's on offer. KonoSuba is one of those rare shows that is legitimately funny, and actually make you laugh with dialogues that are supposed to. What makes this show just brilliant is that its not a try-hard at whatever it does, but simply offers you what its genuinely good at, and that is to make the viewer piss his pants by laughing.
Like how laudable is that for a show, that dares to mix in all the elements and different genres, to go on and satisfy our needs to the fullest? You have a setting in an imaginary world inside like that of an RPG, you have cute moe girls that are set up with our supposedly miserable MC which creates a harem, and an endless amount of fanservice on offer. With all that added up, KonoSuba still manages to feed every category and does it without ever holding back. Now I said that the MC is supposed to be a loser who's a shut-in and obsessed with games, but in all fairness I will say that he's one of the coolest fellows I've ever seen gracing an anime. Kazuma Satou is his identification and he DIES within a minute of episode 1. Don't worry, its not a certain popular shounen anime of the past, but a start to this extraordinary and at the same time silly adventure he's going to take part in. So as he dies, he's sent to an unexisting void where he meets a cocky Goddess, that tells him to make one of the two choices given to him to in order to decide what his afterlife would be like -- To go to Heaven; which is supposedly a boring place where only old people take solace in or in an entirely alternate world, where its total chaos caused by the Demon King to whom the people live in fear of and it would mean their freedom if the Demon King is defeated.
It's inevitable what Kazuma would choose as his fate to be, as a hardcore gamer who can experience his wish from his wildest dreams; to be an adventurer and a hero in a world filled with fantasies! He also gets an additional wish fulfilled, that is to have anything he wishes for -- from weapons to superpowers, to aid him on his journey to defeat the Demon King. Interestingly he chooses Aqua, who is none other than the Goddess waiting for Kazuma after his death!
As unwillingly as she is forced to join Kazuma on his quest, Aqua the Goddess takes on the challenge in order to get back to her original role as a Goddess. At first, the two seem to be a band of misfits, which is apparent by Aqua's arrogant personality and Kazuma's constant teasing of her calling her as a 'Dame-Gami' meaning a Useless Goddess. As the two march forwards they're joined by two other members; Megumin and Darkness. Apparently Megumin is an arch wizard who's a total klutz and clumsy all the time. One of her prominent feature in the show is her love for the technique "Explosion!", which is supposedly the strongest wizard attack there is. One setback of Megumin using this technique is it trains out all her energy and she's only able to propel it once at a time. She's often called the crazy girl for her over-exaggerating behavior and that's something she dislikes a lot. Kazuma's telling that he finds 'Megumin' as a weird name pisses her off, too. However, Megumin is one of the funniest character in the show and also the easily likable one. Darkness is a member that joins last in the group. She's a Knight and oddly... a masochist? Apparently she has one problem of missing the target and hitting something insignificant more, but that's just not about it, she has this weird fetish for being turned on in the most despairing situations! As often as her fights are with the villains and enemies, she always quotes the possibility of being overwhelmed in the fight and turning herself in, only to be sexually molested to the opposition's pleasings. And strangely enough, this turns her on even more! Quite excitingly though, this is one of the funniest feature of the whole show. Megumin might be the best girl of the show in my opinion, but I'll definitely ship Darkness and Kazuma more! (Sorry Aqua, try harder in the second season).
And yes! Talking about a possibility of having a second season, it's already been announced officially! I only just started this show a day earlier, and as I hit the halfway mark in the show, I was already so excited about the prospect of it having a second season, something which is a first for me!
Moving on to the visuals of the show, and as well as the cons of it. The art style of the show throughout is underwhelming to say it in a word, with shoddy production values being evident. It was mediocre to begin with, but it does also shift to a worse position in some sections of the show, with the art being much more goofy than usual. This might be something Studio DEEN suffered from in its run, but its definitely something that wasn't lacking with the show providing plenty of positives that overwhelms the negatives in my opinion. The voice casting also brings in some of the newer personnel than usual we see in anime, but they definitely felt like professionals to me with them being in such a good sync with the characters and their traits as well. Jun Fukushima does an excellent job handling Kazuma and had his voice in perfect shape from one situations to the other. Rie Takahashi's youthful voice goes hand in hand with Megumin's quirky behavior. Kudos to the voice casting for a job very well done. The OP & ED simply do their jobs, they're nothing outstanding nor do they contribute to any expectations to come from the show. The ED is a nice country music-like and is joyful to hear.
KonoSuba isn't touching great heights with its story weaving but its not just a mere comedy show. That's a pure understatement to this show. When I say KonoSuba is legitimately funny, I mean it. With regular chaos-filled fights to the squad quarrels, the dialogues are immersed with excitement.
This is my only pitch to you, watch KonoSuba and appreciate the entertainment it so wonderfully provides.
