STORY (spoilers):
The story itself is nothing special, really, but it sets everything up wonderfully and has a few hilarious twists. A dude gets teleported to a fantasy world, where he finds instead of being a hero, he's forced to be a laborer and live the minimum wage fantasy life. Every time he saves the day, he still gets screwed over by the consequences of what he does.
That's my favorite part of the story. Real consequences. He saves his two female party members from the insides of a frog, but they come out all slimy and the town mistakes him for a pervert, which leads to a perverted crusader seeking him out. The characters save the town by flooding the villain with a torrent of water, but they end up in debt because they destroyed the city wall. They save the day yet again, but the main character is arrested because he teleported the detonating power core right onto the governor's mansion. Nothing ever goes his way and I love it.
CHARACTERS:
This is the sole reason you should watch this show. The characters are f*cking fantastic. Kazuma and gang are a beautiful subversion of every single harem anime out there.
Kazuma is the best main character in a long time. I haven't liked someone this much since Hachiman. He's deadpan, he's cynical, he's pragmatic, he insults the crap out of everybody, he's an amazing straight man in all the antics he's involved in, and he's basically just the subversion of all the infuriatingly bland MCs out there.
One of my favorite character moments for him is when he meets someone who's basically the MC of every other fantasy transportation anime out there. The other guy is annoyingly selfless to the point where people consider him narcissistic, and keeps trying to act how he believes is right. The other person challenges Kazuma to a duel due to a misunderstanding.
Just as the other guy is finished with the challenge, Kazuma quickly says "All right, I'm in." and charges right at him, catching the guy off guard. As soon as the other person tries to defend himself, he steals his magic sword and knocks him out with it. Then he goes to pawn it off to make a boatload of cash.
Kazuma isn't interested in morality or chivalry, he acts in the most pragmatic and logical ways possible. He isn't afraid to take advantage of other people's idiotic tendencies and use it against them.
There are tons of other character quirks I love. The way he says "Yeah, I'm Kazuma" or "Hi, this is Kazuma" when other people call is name out is a fantastic way of making fun of other animes where characters constantly call out the MCs name. He insults and berates his teammates to push their limits and get them to step up instead of some corny inspirational speech. He fully acknowledges his perverted thought, and eagerly cuts the bullshit to embrace opportunities with the other sex when he gets the chance (like a lot of normal high schoolers).
Imagine any other MC walking what amounts to a prostitution bar filled with skimpy succubi. They would probably get all flustered, apologize profusely for no fucking reason, and sprint out, right? Kazuma instead asks about possible legal ramifications for some requests that he's about to make to see how far he can push it. A girl barges into the bathroom as he's taking a bath, and his response is a leisurely "yo" with the best shit eating grin you'll ever see. This guy is great.
His chemistry and relationships with the other party members he has are also amazing. He sees himself as their caretaker, but he's pissed off at them for their horrible combat abilities and personality. He spends most episodes insulting the crap out of them, but it's still evident they all care for each other regardless because of how he keeps paying their tabs off.
They're basically like your college roommates. One's lazy and retarded, one 's weird, and the last one is into some really weird sh*t, but you all still hang out due to proximity. Eventually, you're all forced to like each other. That's the character dynamic we're talking about here.
Their relationships are never blatant either, which is f*cking incredible in the world of anime. There are no relationship scenes where they talk about their feelings/backstories and then blush a bunch (by the way, screw these scenes and their cringy dialogue), but their relationships still evolve before your eyes.
You get the feeling that Kazuma is kind of awkwardly sexually attracted to his party members, but there aren't zoom ins on his blushing face to REALLY MAKE SURE YOU GET THAT HE MAY HAVE A THING FOR THIS ONE. You get the feeling that the other girl might like him back, but there aren't any MEANINGFUL dialogue lines with a SHORT, BUT PROFOUND PAUSE FOLLOWED BY A GASP BY THE MAIN CHARACTER AS HIS DENSE MIND IS FINALLY PROCESSING WHAT SHE MIGHT BE IMPLYING.
Sorry, this is turning into a rant about how much I'm getting sick of all the stock harem anime out there. Which I am, by the way.This anime is a breath of fresh air.
