Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!

(6.5/10) - If you are curious about the point system I use to grade shows, check my profile for more information.

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Konosuba is most likely the last anime i'll be watching this summer. In a way, that makes me happy. Its a very light-hearted and breezy show that I honestly don't want to critique too heavily. At its core, its just so likable and easy to watch. However, I wouldn't be a hardass if I didn't tear up a likable show like this every so often, so lets get into it.

Much like this show, i'll keep this review breezy and to-the-point. But not before ... I explain the concept of comedy.

...


The very base idea of a joke is something that makes someone laugh. Something told through a story with a funny punchline that subverts expectations and causes a response of happiness. Put simply, this is exactly what a joke should be.

Jokes and comedy in general live on unexpectedness. Something called "subversion." If you think back to any funny joke, the punchline is always there to subvert some sort of expectation. Whether its making something dirtier than you originally thought, or stupider, or more random, or darker, everything in humor is there to be unexpected at its core.

I won't delve into ironic humor which is obviously become so big recently. But that's it. To prove my point I typed in "Funny jokes" on google and the first website I went on was titled Jokes.cc.com.

I clicked the first tab I saw and the first joke I saw and what I read the following :

A grasshopper walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "Hey, we have a drink named after you!"
The grasshopper looks surprised and asks, "You have a drink named Steve?"

Is it a good joke? Well, maybe not. Its a very overdone joke at this point, but it follows every format that a joke does. It had a setup, a delivery, a punchline, and a subversion of expectations with that punchline. You expect a grasshopper not to have a name but man, his name is STEVE! Fucking hilarious! Or, at least it was at some point.

So the more we see a similar setup and delivery, the more unfunny a joke becomes. The less you get surprised when the punchline has an animal saying his name is "Steve". That subversion element is gone and the joke is no longer funny. It becomes a cliche.

But still, I see so much television out there that strives on comedic cliches in bad and good ways. In a bad way, there is television out there just checking off a checklist of "cliche humor that is sure to make someone laugh", and then in a good way, there are shows out there that use cliche humor AS the setup to a more clever or ironic punchline.

With that in mind, i'll get into Konosuba.

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[PART 1] : The theme

This is a fun little show. I won't waste your time by giving you a plot synopsis, but at its core its a show about a dysfunctional group of people trying to live in a fantasy world. I automatically recommend it for two kinds of people. Avid MMO players as well as just fans of anime.

Its at its funniest when it does clever (and occasionally not-so-clever) nods to the idea of being a show about a party in an MMO.

A tank who's a horndoggo masochist.

A healer who's a weakling and a coward.

A glass-cannon DPS who's out of mana after one spell.

The party-leader who's useless in combat.

Its a funny concept in itself and it lends well to subvert a lot of expectations that anime has. Especially with the boom of MMO anime like Sword Art Online, RE:Zero, etc. Its always nice to see the piss being taken out of a really popular cliche.

I just wish Konosuba actually did that more. I felt like this concept was often a bit too hidden or even underutilized. A lot of scenes were simply cliche and not a funny twist on the cliche. Mind you, I don't find pointing out that this a cliche and still doing it with a straight face is any different that just doing the cliche and moving on. If anything, it drags it out.

The show is occasionally self-aware and occasionally not. That's what makes the tonal shifts in a few episodes so jarring. We have a lot of self-awareness in the final episode of the season and then literally none in the episode before. This makes the author of the Light Novel feel as though he's cherry picking the things he wants to make fun of. If anything, the reason this show falls a little short in execution is because the author isn't willing to to go "whole hog" with the concept.

Its like he's laughing at one thing because he thinks its stupid and then doing another, equally dumb, cliche with a straight face. It comes off as though he's not creative enough to think of something else in place of that cliche. Or if anything, do it with the same self-awareness.

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[PART 2] : Art


After I finished the show I read a little about the response it got. The show received a mostly positive response, however, I see a lot of people criticizing its art. Personally, I didn't find it any worse than a lot of anime I've seen. In fact, it did a few things better.

I'll gladly take simpler designs with enhanced animation over complex designs over literally just still images (looking at you ever Shounen-action show ever).

So this shows actual animation was fairly solid throughout. It was unclean, sure, but honestly that kind of added to the charm of the whole thing. I liked that these characters didn't feel like a perfect-looking flawed bunch. They are a flawed-looking flawed-bunch, which fits.

Whether this was done on purpose or not doesn't matter to me. I'm going to give Studio Deen the benefit of the doubt here. Where this show is also a bit hit-or-miss with is the character designs.

We get a generic looking protagonist with Kazuma, who gets elevated by VA Jun Fukushima's voice work, which is often times deadpan and the highlight of the show, comedy wise.

Other characters are also fairly uninspired looking. From the goddess, Aqua, and her "seen her before" look of "anime goddess". To a few of the locals having the whole "same-face" treatment.

That being said, the show stands out with its design of Darkness, the crusader tank of the group who's armor looks pretty great. As well as the adorable Loli mage Megumin who quickly skyrocketed to my favorite character in the entire show. Her design is the shows most unique (and cute) as well as a pretty nice performance by her VA, Rie Takahashi, who from the looks of it is newer to voice acting than the others in the show.

So the design is a mixed bag that's elevated by the entire style of the show. I'm also a complete sucker for fantasy, as its my favorite genre. So everything from the quaint starting town to the grass-swept hills are things that I look at extremely fondly.

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[PART 3] : Sound


I'll keep it short. The sound design in the show is OK. It seems to be using the same effects as most other shows in similar environments use. This is fine, to be honest. I'm not expecting some crazy level of detail in the sound design. Apart from the cool popping noises we get from Megumin's magic, and the magic itself looking pretty cool, its generally run-of-the-mill.

The intro song is also fairly forgettable, to be honest. There's really nothing about it that's memorable and it plays as every other Shounen opening does. Its loud, poppy, and features scenes of the characters looking at the camera or at each other.

Where this show REALLY excels in sound is the credits song, which is fucking. AMAZING. It might actually be my favorite song I've heard an anime produce, ever. Its really really good and I found myself constantly just listening to the entire credits track, which is something I've never done before.

It honestly perfectly encapsulates the starting zone feel in MMO's. It has this soothing, catchy, and memorable quality about it. It also reincorporates the shows title in it. Its perfect and I wish i heard more of it as I believe that in the second season when they inevitably leave the starting area, the song won't be used.

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[PART 4] : Comedy


Inevitably, lets talk about comedy. I touched a little on it in the first part, but lets get into it fully. This show is a action-comedy show which means that the comedy is equally, if not the biggest element in the show. Its also the first action-comedy anime I've seen. Even if a lot of the action Shounen that I've seen did have comedy elements.

This show is very "anime" with its comedy. I hope that doesn't sound offensive, but every single anime i've seen approaches comedy in a very similar way. For some reason, and I cannot for the life of me place it, maybe its cultural or something, anime has this necessity of making a joke TOO obvious. It makes the joke right in your face. It suffocates you with it. Every reaction is usually overdone and HUGE.

This is great for some people, especially people who love unsubtle slapstick. But for someone like me who finds comedy to be the funniest when its subtle, it falls flat more times than one.

Although this show does do some funny facial expressions as well as cuts the music for some deadpan delivery, which actually did get a few chuckles from me, it often feels as though its too deep in its "roots" to try and create anything subtle about any of its delivery.

The only actor who really nails it with the concept of "subtle" is our protagonists VA. I don't think I've ever called the protagonist of an anime its "best" part, but honestly, Kazuma wrung the most laughs from me. He plays the deadpan to the other characters crazy, which makes him a funny foil a lot.

The show also has a tendency to drag its very obvious setups and jokes on. A panty-stealing scene is forgivable as it helps establish our protagonists knack for the 'steal' spell. But a bathing scene that goes from chuckle-worthy eye-roll-inducing cliche to "please this is just getting stupid" is the show cutting it a bit too long.

To reiterate my point about comedy way above in the start of the review. The writer needs to realize that adept watchers who watch a lot of television pin-point cliches from a mile away. Just because you point out certain cliches doesn't make the cliches you do any more forgivable. If anything, it makes them LESS forgivable.

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In a show that's bases is its interactions between characters, i'm also sad to say that these interactions become a bit stale. Especially the relationship between Kazuma and the goddess Aqua, which becomes repetitive by episode five.

Thankfully romance is never really introduced into this harem-esq show as that would spoil any amount of fun I was having. It just doesn't need shit like that. Especially since these characters talking is so one-note a lot of the time.

The only scenes which honestly don't have semi-cliche and repetitive dialogue are the scenes with Kazuma and the best character, Megumin. Their scenes feel more natural and as though they actually have a friendship, instead of darting from "caring about these people " to "hating their guts", like our protagonist does so often.

This impacts the shows development. Which a comedy show doesn't necessarily NEED to have, but if it prompts not to have development, it NEEDS to have a solid base of characters.

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Shows like Rick and Morty, Community, Parks and Recreations, The Office, Arrested Development, all have character development and progression.

While shows like Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia do not. So how does Always Sunny stay fresh? Well the base characters that we were introduced to had a various amount of personality to them. They came stock with so much personality that the show can ring eleven, ten episode long seasons from them and it still feel fresh. The show is still going onto its twelfth too.

So where Konosuba should really focus next season is on making sure these characters don't feel as one note. Not every dialogue scene has to end with Aqua and Kazuma yelling at each other. Not every scene has to end with Darkness being awkwardly sexual. Its just not necessary since those parts of the characters are already established.

Much like the joke about the grasshopper named Steve has become old and overused, these characters interactions became somewhat of a drag midway through this shows VERY short season!

This is only emphasized by the messy introduction of a lot of background characters that fill up the show. From Kazuma's two friends that get randomly introduced in episode nine to the lich Wiz, who all feel like stories cut from the Light Novel that were still included in the show.

Its more than a bit messy.

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[Conclusion] :


So I don't find it THAT funny, I find the base concept generic, I think it misses a lot of opportunities to comment on MMO's, it cherry picks too often on what it wants to be meta about... why does this show have a 6.5/10? Which is by all means an above average score!

Well, as I said early in the review, its likable. If I wasn't laughing at certain scenes and jokes, I had a little grin on my face. It was a fun little show to watch and I found myself thankful that it only had ten episodes. These ten episodes were a bit messy, much like the animation and dialogue, but they were endearing if anything.

Everything from the montage in the third episode of Megumin and Kazuma blowing shit up to the way the shows slice-of-life feel is formatted with quests these characters need to complete.

And these quests were the shows more entertaining aspects because I know many people including myself have had these experiences with players in an MMO before. The hilarious incompetence is something we look fondly back on. I only wish this show focused more on that. Its most laugh-out-loud moments came from quests as well as the events that came about because of those quests.

Most specifically the entire string between episode two and three, where a quest involving giant frogs leads to some pretty damn funny results. These results are what build this shows undoubtedly large heart.

I think it wrongfully thinks that its heart comes from emotional scenes that it sparingly includes in its run-time. No. Its heart comes from everything but that. Its the working for money. The questing and getting overrun by mobs. The high-level player encounter. Its all what makes MMO so memorable.

I hope the show doesn't lose that feel when the second season airs next year. I hope it keeps that and doesn't instead go into its own more focused story. Have them move around doing higher level quests, gear up, and just work together. From that there could be ample time to develop these characters more.

I get that their point is that their all just a dumb bunch of shlubs, but if they aren't going for an Always Sunny in Philadelphia level of unlikable douchebaggery, then the author shouldn't be hesitant to give them a better relationship with each other.

I give this show a lot of merit because for everything that it does wrong or messily it makes up for in memory and heart. For every joke that falls flat on its ass and every prolonged scene of awkward and not very well done fan-service, the shows more relaxed moments are what kept me watching in the end.

This brings me back to the end-credit song of the show. That songs perfectly explains the feelings this show occasionally delivered. That's what I want to see more of. Not another scene of Aqua being bitchy or Darkness having giant jiggly tits. Let the comedy come naturally through the flow of events that a lot of people can relate to.

Let the breezy heart of the show take you away into the world.

The influx of MMO themed anime in the recent years may have viewers disheartened by the fact that mostly those share very similar premises and are executed for the most part in similar ways without any significant difference. Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!, or Konosuba in short, is yet another such anime, yet with an interesting twist: it actually takes a comedic stance on its themes, as well as characters, which is great to see in the sea of MMO-type of anime. In fact, it could be seen as a parody of the genre. However, as enjoyable as the anime was, it suffers from ... various issues, the main one being its aimless demeanor after reaching its peak in the first half.

~Story~

The story of Konosuba is focused around Kazuma Satou who just casually dies on the most average day of his life, and in the most unheroic way at that. When he reawakens in the afterlife, he is given the choice to either go to heaven or defeat the Demon King, and goes for the latter - not after he appoints the arrogant Godess Aqua to join him in his journey. With both personalities being quite different, the one being pessimistic, while the other arrogant, hilarity ensures. This is further backed by the comedic approach on its themes and story, which for some may be hit or miss.

The premise of defeating a demon lord has been explored an innumerable amount of times, yet this anime manages to incorporate genuine hilarious elements such as parodies directly to some MMORPG game mechanics (useless skills, grinding, you name it) or the several anime troupes within the genre itself. It is actually hilarious to see. A thing that stands out in the anime is the sense of authenticity of the character's progression: by repeating several actions that represent the "grind" in a game, these convey to audiences a continuous, yet wide-spanning timeline, in which the characters relationships develop, besides of displaying the little details of the world they live in. Concerning the pacing of this work, it is well executed, keeping viewers for most of its duration interested by not prolonging any scene or event longer than necessary, which mostly applies to the flow events as well. Characters are introduced through the various mechanics of the world in a satisfying manner, which is an added bonus.

However, as positive as it may sound, the anime sadly suffers from progression issues after the first half. The first five episodes are dedicated to a introducing the main characters and their hardships, as well as introducing the various secondary characters; with of course hilarious scenes and jokes. Furthermore, progression was made to reach their ultimate goal, the defeat of the Demon King, which kept the story interesting. However, the anime settles itself with little to no progression on the last part, in addition to jokes getting old, and at times just lacking. This is further noticeable with various characters that are abruptly introduced and then left forgotten, with a heavy increase in fanservice in an episode that kind of broke with the immersion of this piece. Naturally, the short duration of the series may have had an impact on the aforementioned problems.

~Characters~

Comedy can never be as good without its characters: Konosuba did actually a great job on this department, albeit admittingly being a bit shallow at times. The different personalities of the cast further enhanced the comedic aspect of the series, which could have gone wrong when treated wrongly. Character development is nihil in this show, but was easily forgiven as it was not its focus. The interactions between the cast are well executed, despite their opposing personalities: this is tackled by the situation they find themselves in, in which they are forced together due to their circumstances. In fact, they're for most part actually just plain dumb or average. Some supporting characters are introduced, but for the most part felt rather lacking, as these were either introduced and forgotten, or the main characters came in contact with them, but that happened off-screen.

The protagonist Kazuma is where the show is centered about, and quite honestly, the driving force behind the whole show. His cynical and pessimistic personality on life really adds to the overall enjoyment of the series, as he is quite the opposite of your typical protagonist: furthermore, it is quite hilarious to see his interactions with his peers. Then there is Aqua that, despite being a Goddess, is quite arrogant and self-absorbed, it is quickly apparent she is quite the useless person, further mocking the "goddess" title. Some character development could be appreciated due to various events, yet was sufficient to feel authentic. Other characters of importance are Megumin, the archmage chuunibyou with am obsession about demon magic, or the masochistic crusader Darkness, who admittingly got a bit annoying by the end of the show.

~Animation and sound~

The animation quality of Konosuba was as a whole average, yet certainly sufficient without breaking immersion in the story. What must be mentioned are the animations on the boobs of the female cast: these varied immensely, going from either saggy to upright. This might have been on purpose, yet why is unclear. As for the art style, it was at first glance rather lacking, yet as the anime progressed, it became apparent that this particular art style worked in its favour: especially when the facial expression are concerned. This matched magnificently with the various situations, personalities and atmosphere it was trying to convey.

The soundtrack of Konosuba complemented with the comedic nature of the anime, although being either generic, or just forgettable. The opening and ending themes matched as well, yet, once again, were average. However, the selection of voice actors for the different characters were certainly very well done, matching with the different tones and personalities of the cast.

~Enjoyment~

Overall Konosuba was a title that came as a very pleasant surprise this season: in fact, I wouldn't have started it were it not for the recommendation of a user. The anime uses a template that has been recycled greatly, yet does it with a parodying stance on the MMO genre: this was further enhanced by its cast of character and voice actors. Despite all of this, it sadly suffered from an aimless demeanor in its last half, which was disappointing, albeit having some amusing moments. Regardless of said issues, I can't deny I enjoyed it, and I will be awaiting for the second season of Konosuba that has been announced. I truly hope it expands on its premise and progresses on it in the second season. This is a type of anime that can be either hilarious to some, or just plain bad for others, so depending on what you have read, it may be something for you.

Thank you for reading.

Sometimes anime studios surprise me by their ideas, expertly hiding all drawbacks by the good animation and a silly comedy.
Give people great animation, with exciting characters, they immediately lose any logic.

I understand that KonoSuba is primarily a comedy, and talk about some sense, it's silly, because humor, in itself, has no boundaries, but humor in this anime it's a main problem.
Bitter talk about it, but humor was never been a strong point in anime, because comedy often try to limit in school genre.
The problem is that any comedy scene takes place with the participation of someone's girl's pants and mostly with hints Hiki generation. I ... do not want to say that comedy in this area was inappropriate, but it continues throughout all ten episodes.

Since we understand this is a comedy, the viewer is immediately ready to be a lot of absurd things, and in this is collapse of KonoSuba . Showing himself with a humorous side, it continues stretch all ten episodes unchanged. From third episode, when we already seen all characters (about it below) humor is monotonous. All comedy scenes will refer to perversion by female characters and center of all this will be the protagonist. And of course they not forget to show shaking chest all the main women's characters, by the way, some of them even going without underwear.

The story begins with death of the main character from shock, he finds himself in so-called purgatory, where goddess invites him to get into another world, with a particular feature that he should think it himself. He chooses to take a goddess with him, and from this begins their way in the new world.
This world is built by all the canons of MMORPG, to earn money and increase, need to do out quests, with main target kill the King of Demons.
Although KonoSuba has a specific goal in mind, it is still have more episodic format, and this is second main problem in this series.

With its episodic format, some characters are not remembered, while others simply disappear without a purpose in series.
The four main characters, is actually pretty standard, they are arranged according by rules of the genre "Harem".
- Goddess Aqua, a bit silly, not wearing panties, seductive and sometimes useful, serves as a very close girl of protagonist.
- Knight Latalina is worst character, in my opinion, she has a masochistic tendencies that are supposed to entertain audience, perhaps for the first time and it will seem ridiculous, but KonoSuba repeating same jokes throughout of the anime. Not to mention that Knight Warrior is one of the most common characters in hentai.
- What regard Megumin, she plays role of so-called clown in the series. It's strange to talk about it, but it's only character who pulls this anime from the pit.
- Kazuma is a typical retard with flat jokes and do idiotic action.

However Art & Animation made at a high level. Environment shown is very beautiful, moments of casting spells, magic and other things made in good style. I think this is only thing that really turned out well. I dont seen a defects in animation of characters, each of them is made beautiful and attracts attention.

Music and sound, dont have particular drawbacks too. Opening and Ending is average, throughout the series is a good sound in battles.
But still, look for flaws in music or animation does not make sense, as I previously said that this anime hides all their flaws. And to do bad, then, that immediately catches eye, is to doom himself to failure.

Presenting itself from first episode, as a comedy, KonoSuba doomed themselves to failure. Comedy in this series does not improve the show, conversely only spoil it, by the end it becomes clear what to expect a clever humor is meaningless. All ways go only to a many silly dialogues, to depraved poses and jokes in "Ecchi" style.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! - this shows how should not look comedy, it can be considered one of the unsuccessful attempts to make a joke on Hikki generation.

EDIT: It's been a long time since I wrote this review and since then my opinion of the show has kinda improved. I see now that it tried to be a satire, which would explain why it is filled with clichés. However, I think this show was at times a little bit too unaware of itself, that's why at first it didn't really hit me as a satire, more as just another silly little isekai. However, I still stand by most of the things I've writting in this review. Satire is no excuse for shallow characters, sometimes the humor/satire did come across very well, but ... most of the times it didn't really.

First of all, I’m a girl, probably not the audience the makers of this anime had in mind. I found myself annoyed with stuff that I think most boys won’t complain over. Second, the whole ‘game/fantasy world trope’ was never my cup of tea. I watched Re:Zero, officially the worst show I ever watched (in my opinion) and I tried to watch SAO, but never got further than the first episode, because I hated everything about. Still, I thought I would give Konosuba a chance and I actually don’t regret it. I enjoyed the first few episodes quite a bit and at some points, I even cracked a smile.

But… that doesn’t take away that most of the episodes… were shit. The story wasn’t original to begin with. It is seriously the most overused trope in anime history (except for maybe the ‘power of friendship’). I can’t say Konosuba had potential, ‘cause it didn’t. The only thing that was maybe a bit original, was the fact that our main character Kazuma didn’t had a lot of things going for him. Instead of a fancy power, he chose a useless goddess. His fantasy world wasn’t what he dreamt of: he started of as a novice who basically couldn’t do anything. I’m glad that they at least tried to do something different… Sadly it doesn’t make up for the lack of originality in the rest of the story. Besides from that, Konosuba is also filled with a lot and a lot of fanservice, that I just can't stand. I’ve seen a lot of shows with a goddamn lot of fanservice and it always annoys me, but when they make a whole episode just for the fanservice… It broke my heart a little. I can take a little fanservice every now and then… but a whole episode? Not only did it put me off, it also ruined ‘the flow’ of the story.

Next, characters. I hoped that the characters would be better than in most other shounen… but they weren’t. I don’t know why I’m still hoping for a shounen with strong female characters (and I don’t mean strong like Mikasa from AoT, I mean strong like… actually well written). All the girls in this show were just plain stupid. I mean, is it that much of a hassle to make one girl smart? Just one, not all of them… one. Or to give a girl some kind of complex personality? I mean… I can round all of these characters up in just a few words, what means they’re just shallow and didn’t go through any development at all. First, we have Aqua, a arrogant, annoying, screaming, egocentric goddess. Next, we have Megumin, a girl who… loves explosions – that’s really her only personality trait, if you can even call it that. And last, we have Darkness, who is a masochist that wants to protect people, I guess? I don’t get why some people get invested in these characters, they’re just stupid.

We also have Kazuma. Our main hero, who is a guy, so of course he does have a certain amount of intelligence. I mean, why would you give a girl some common sense, how is our hero going to save her if she’s capable of saving herself? So, Kazuma has common sense, constantly complains about the stupid world he ended up in and he is annoyed with all those stupid girls surrounding him. Naturally, somewhere along the way he starts to care for them and they all become bff’s. What I did like about Kazuma, is that he becomes stronger at a slow rate, much more believable than Aqua, who suddenly gets some epic tricks out of nowhere.

And my last comment about the characters (somebody needs to say it): is every man in Konosuba a pervert? I mean, at the final episode, all of the men began to fight… only after they thought of their nights with the succubi? Is that really their only motivation? Even if they’re just side characters… give them some substance please.
I understand that it is meant to be funny and not taken so seriously… but can we maybe have a funny show with some decent characters? They do exist, you know. We have for example My Hero Academia and Magi: they still manage to be funny even with some intelligent and complex female characters in the running.

Now, over to sound… I did not like it, I did not dislike it. The opening was nothing more than mediocre. The ending… except for one time, I always skipped it, so it wasn’t that good either. Sound effects were nothing special. Voice acting did fit the characters most of the time. It just really annoyed me when Aqua started screaming again – and again… and again.

The art is not worth mentioning either…

So... If your looking for something that has been done a thousand time before and you really enjoy watching some stupid girl with tons of fanservice... this is the show for you.

Konusoba is very popular this season, and I see it being recommended left right and sideways. For this reason I am actually taking the time to write my first review of an anime. Normally I don't have strong opinions on any anime, but this show's reception has been so completely against the grain of my thoughts on it I felt like I'd throw in my 2 cents.

Minor spoilers below but it shouldn't matter because the show is so predictable you can't spoil anything.

Lets start with the characters. The MC is your standard 'just came out of the cookie cutter' NEET. He plays video games, he's ... a nice guy, he can't seem to get a break, and he's prone to misunderstandings and awkward circumstances. They really took a lot of risks with this guy's character I'll tell ya! Also he's a pervert. Shocker.

Every single other major character in the story is female and serves to be made fun of as sexual objects. Every single instance of plot between MC and the lead lady takes the form of her being portrayed as a money wasting useless person. Her personality traits are being spineless, being whiny, wasting money, and getting drunk.

The other female characters all serve as the butt ends of jokes over and over again. Except the only two jokes they make are 'this little girl likes explosion magic and its inefficient, haha!' and 'this other chick is a masochist, haha!'

Thats it. Thats the show folks. It's a perfect rotation of:

MC boy has something unfortunate happen to him!

Lead lady does something greedy and is portrayed as a money waster!

Followed by one of the two supporting ladies being portrayed as a sexual object, generally in the form of their panties or them doing something stupid. Rinse and repeat for 20 minutes an episode. HAHAHAHA COMEDY GOLD.

Thats all this show has to it. There's no sustenance, there's no real plot, the MC gets thrown into this whole new world and we have yet to even see any world building involved. We have no idea what the world looks like, what the rules are here, and etc. Which brings us to the writing.

Lets talk about Konu's writing, or lack thereof?

Sometimes, the world goes by video game rules. Sometimes its just a normal world. The line is so blurry it doesnt exist, and the writers randomly throw in video game rules that never existed before.

There are times when they suddenly mention "Oh I levelled up!" when the principle of exp/exp grinding/levels was NEVER MENTIONED BEFORE IN THE PLOT. Wat?

The MCs spend the first episode working a real job and making cash in order to get by, then once they switch into adventuring mode because the writers said so. And yet, at a certain point in the plot they lose the ability to go on adventures, and become strapped for cash.

Instead of going back to working normal jobs, they just... do nothing and complain about the lack of funds. Despite the fact 4 episodes later it was made evident manual labor pays more than well enough for them to get by and blow money on booze every night, suddenly the act of going on 2 adventures means going back temporarily to manual labor isn't a possibility. So much so that they don't even address this.

There isn't even a 'What if we just went back to work our old jobs?' 'No way! We'll have to think of something else!' convo. It's just glazed right over because, that would actually be a real solution to the problem as opposed to the plot that follows...

The writing is full of terrible writing like this. Nothing makes sense, the rules are often made up on the spot and never mentioned previously, then discarded once done with and never mentioned again.

In terms of art, its got nothing special going. It looks about the same as all the other meh anime out these last few years and has nothing glamorous going on. There are even a decent chunk of magical girl style scenes frequently reused to shave down the budget.

Same goes for sound. The music isn't particularly enthralling and feels about as generic as everything else in this show.

Overall I give it a 5/10. This show is exactly what I expected it to be. A cash grab at the ever growing in popularity 'Guy gets stuck in a video game' genre. Except unlike SAO this show has no art to ride on the back of, and unlike NGNL and friends this show has no writing to speak for either.

They took the model of the other successful shows in the genre, ripped them off, cheaped out on art/directing/writing/music/sound and just threw sexual innuendos and panties at it and... it worked. Everyone is eating this crock up for breakfast.

Which makes me embarrassed to see happen.

Anime is a production.
As of late, there are few genres of anime (aside from the ever popular time travel) that I've seen take off as much as the MMO/Fantasy RPG/Living inside a video game. 2014 had more SAO, "No Game No Life" and "Log Horizon", 2015 had such hits as "Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?" (Danmachi), "Overlord", and "Bikini Warriors". Given that many anime consumers in Japan (keep in mind, this is who anime is made for, despite the odd trend to the contrary) also consume video games- it makes sense from a demographic and market share ... perspective- offer your audience something they can relate to and find engaging.

It's a tried and true method of marketing, and just like sex, video game themed anime sells.
The next step in selling your product, after you've figured out what you're going to make, is to differentiate it; because, let's face it, these anime are so manufactured and soulless that they were made by a committee of suits, just like horror movie sequels and Disney. So, you've gotta find a gag, since we've all seen what happens when you play it straight: SAO.
As far as I've seen, you've got about 3 choices: fanservice, humor, or some combination of the two. Overlord went the humor route in depicting a ridiculously overpowered MC in an underpowered game. Danmachi went full fanservice and showed off nothing but ridiculously overdone T&A. Where does Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo fall on this? Somewhere roughly in the middle, along with Bikini Warriors, which sold out on BOTH extreme fanservice and humor.

Allow me to explain, Kono Subarashii takes a very self aware and 4th wall breaking style of humor in its setting- a nameless NEET dies in the stupidest way possible- dying of shock after buying a new video game, and in return gets reincarnated into a fantasy world he hopes will be like the game he never got to play. As it turns out, life in the fantasy world isn't all T&A (but there's a lot of that anyway).

I'm watching Kono Subarashii, and wondering what people liked about it so much. The comedy is hit or miss, as with most MMO themed shows (depending on if you've played the specific game or experienced the scenarios in RPG games the characters run into), but it's just a cast of cardboard cutouts with no personality to speak of, acting like the median character archetype they're based on. Like, even Bikini Warriors managed that, and it was like 3 minutes per episode.

Character archetype list:
You've got the wisecracking sarcastic shaggy hair NEET MC who knows everything about how the game functions, or should function. Can't suffer his idiotic teammates, but of course, is also a horny bastard.

Then there's the arrogant, bitchy character who's actually an idiot and completely useless other than running their mouth, crying, and getting in the way for the sake of humor.

What's an anime without another useless airhead character? Oh, and make them a cute little girl, because you need lolis.

And finally, the token female masochist character that tries to elbow your ribs with the completely punchless erotic jokes that wear thin within 5 minutes of their appearance. This character type is only moderately better than the spicy red head tsundere archetype who gets violent with the MC for no reason and the big tits loli dumbass.


I'm pretty sure Bikini Warriors did exactly this, in 20 less minutes of runtime. In fact, Bikini Warriors does do this, and does it better. For a 3 minute short to be effective, you have to be very focused and get the point out there, quickly. They did exactly that: pick one poignant video game humor joke, like repeatedly getting the same loot, armor that looks exactly the same, but better, pot smashing, dumb AI, etc and making that the focus of the episode amid a flood of pointless fanservice. Bikini Warriors borders on hentai at times, but the jokes land in the crosswind, and it's actually funny.

Kono Subarashii tries to use these same jokes- grinding endlessly for a pittance of money, ineffective equipment or spells, useless teammates, etc and they work at times... but their reiterative feel and how similarly each episode plays out kills the effect- Kazuma wants to get money, accept quest, some weird combination of fudgery allows them to complete it, Aqua messes it up and costs the team all their money, (or some variant on that, rinse, repeat). Bikini Warriors didn't wear as thin because it was a short burst, but Kono Subarashii just doesn't have enough content to fill out a 23 minute episode, although this may be a shortcoming of the studio Deen for not effectively adapting the LNs... as they're known for their crap quality in 2016.

The last two episodes were the highlight of the show, honestly. The whorehouse part was actually funny- because they played up the gamer humor AND the fanservice in an acceptable way that wasn't just shoved in for no reason. That succubus episode would have been filler in literally any other show, but in the effectively all filler, no progression SOL style of Kono Subarashii, it takes the cake as the cream of the pants. I mean, crop.
It's not fair to rate a largely episodic comedy series on how it progresses plots or characters, but at least the overarching plot is addressed, even if it's for the sake of humor- as in, "lol we're never going to reach our goal of finishing this adventure, because we SUCK!"
The last episode wasn't bad either, if entirely predictable. It's always nice to see the idiosyncrasies of the ragtag group of characters finally work out the way it's supposed to, even with all their blunders.

Overall, I have to say that even as a former MMORPG player, I have never really been a fan of the presentation of it in series form... the potential for humor is there, if you can harness the memories/nostalgia of mutual experience among the audience... and while I "GET" the jokes, and I "GET" that humor is subjective, I'm also the target audience for this kind of show, and I just didn't find it that funny. But, there are certainly worse ways to blow 23 minutes.

"Konosuba is like that one comedian that makes some really satisfying jokes, but then drills some of the weaker material into the ground before getting drenched in rotten tomatoes until finally doing something new at the end." -Me, whenever you read this.

It seems as if an anime critic's mortal enemy isn't a badly written original story or even a story that is cliched to the bone, but rather Light Novels/Light Novel anime adaptations and Isekai (taken to a fantasy world) series. LNs and their adaptations often consist of a plain or terrible main character surrounded by two-dimensional love interests for his harem, in which he ... saves them constantly while fighting poorly done battles in a horribly written narrative, making it so that it was inevitable for a series to subvert and play around with those typical trappings (like Chivalry of a Failed Knight, which started out as a Light Novel) or mock what this type of series has become. Meanwhile, Isekai series (which are often Light Novels/LN anime adaptations) generally feature a NEET/Hikikomori protagonist that is randomly summoned into a bland fantasy world for some purpose while being surrounded by a weak cast of characters driven along by a poorly made plot that often relies on desperately trying to make jabs or references about its lifeblood, making it so that it was inevitable for a series toe subvert and play around with those typical trappings or mock what type of series this has become, like our current target, KonoSuba (which started out as a Light Novel). So, did this series succeed at providing satisfying jabs at what it mocks without becoming as bad as what it mocked? Well, if you looked at my score, you know the answer, but let's pretend you didn't, and with that, let's find out, shall we?

STORY: 6/10

A NEET named Kazuma dies a hilariously stupid death and is sent by Aqua to a fantasy world because he decided to choose that rather than just ending everything for him there. Since Aqua was so rude to him all the while, he manages to trick her into coming along. Thus, he forms a "ragtag team" and his "quest" begins. Ultimately, the plot goes nowhere, aside from showing us who Kazuma is gonna adventure with, and showing a fraction of what army will truly oppose him in the future. They start in this beginner town, and they stay there by the end of the season. It is a fairly episodic series as well, with only minor things, like a change of living space, carrying from episode to episode. The plot isn't important here, as it is one big prologue that makes fun of Isekai shows (and even Isekai-like shows like SAO) and makes use of how it feels like an RPG with how each mission starts and concludes. I do wish it went somewhere, or at least, showed a bit more of our villains (maybe even give us a glimpse onto what our villain is like or what he/she even looks like). A minor complaint is that, when Megumin (who I will talk about later) blasts a knight's castle for weeks on end, it takes weeks for him ton bother trying to address the issue, instead of, right away, like a smart person would. Plus, there is this time-skip in episode 8 that makes the context of the introduction of a character named Wiz, awkward, no matter how they went about it. Still, it's not the story that is at fault here. It's the characters. Speaking of...

CHARACTERS: 4/10

Our protagonist, Kazuma, is a NEET who is constantly fed up by his cohorts' antics, and has to deal with everyone's crap, which is why he revels in each chance to spite them, especially Aqua (who I'll get to). Ultimately, he has the most personality in this series as of this season, and is he only one that remains decent by the end of the series (aside from Wiz, who is pretty beautiful, fearful and clumsy around Aqua given how much Aqua tries to kill her, and kicks the most ass out of everyone in the show). I honestly feel bad for him given the 3 characters he has to deal with, but he is at the forefront of the funniest moment in the show: when he uses the steal technique to steal a thief girl's panties and waves it gloriously.

In order of descending appearance (there is a reason for this), Darkness is the second most one-dimensional character here, with her only two traits being a perverted sense of masochism (which is run into the ground pretty quick) and her stubborn sense of self-sacrifice in knighthood. Those are the only two things to her for most part; she does have her limits, as shown in episode 9, but her beauty can't save her from being annoyingly one-note. Megumin is also pretty lame, with her one major trait being her love and pridefulness of her EXPLOSION magic, which wears out rather quick. It's also discomforting how she lusts her magic staff at points. She is also the subject of occasional sexual gags (accidentally), but, again, there isn't much to her aside from the one personality trait she has, so her charm peters out towards the end, aside from the small growth at the end. Doesn't mean she wasn't fun in the first 6 episode, especially that explosion montage.

Aqua, is a pathetic, pretentious, pompous, arrogant, stupid, demanding, self-serving, uncaring, and infuriating bitch who I cannot stand for the life of me! The joke is: she's a bitch, so here's how much it bites her whiny ass and makes her cry like what she is (do you really need me to call her that again?). However, she goes over-the-top n terms of making every scene worse for almost every character involved, especially Kazuma. When you want to make your character funny while pathetic and awful, you need to take special care in making sure that she doesn't cross the line and instead shows us on the occasion, why we should put up with her, and while they manage do the latter twice (which leads to funny moments that make everything worse for Kazuma and his money), they fail horribly at doing the latter, with her sheer stupidity and arrogance being a bother. Yet, while hearing her bawl like what she is, is funny the first few times, the actual crying is still annoying to the point where it loses the cathartic charm she has. She is a pathetically hateful and one-dimensional character that actively makes the show worse, and her good looks can't help her here. Her treatment of Wiz in episode 8 is particularly disgusting, and is the moment where I truly hated this wench, more so than any other female character I have seen to date.

With Kazuma's 3 female companions, I get that the joke is that they have flat personalities as if they were like the class archetypes like archmage or paladin, but, the joke wears out horrifically quickly, and the show makes no attempt at shaking it up. It is the same tired punch line over and over again, and that becomes a detriment to the characters and the show, since they never twist these characters into gold, but rather, make them as dry as the types of characters the show is mocking, and, surprise surprise, it makes them terrible characters. I mean, the 3 ladies are funny the first few times, and Kazuma can give us some hilarious scenes, but the joke gets old after episode 6. As for the rest (aside from the beautiful Wiz, who I covered), there is Kyouya (a joke on Kirito from SAO) and his two girl who kiss his ass the whole way through, Luna (the voluptuous quest-giver), and a few other minute characters only there for quick gags or whatnot that aren't even worth mentioning by name. All-in-all, a pretty lame cast of mostly one-dimensional characters that often fail at being cathartic rips on their counterparts.

ART: 8/10

Studio DEEN isn't known for great art, and this isn't the best of exceptions (Rakugo came out this year and overall, looks and IS much better), with the rugged character models and certain faces at times, but the facial expressions at other times can be downright hilarious (like when Aqua realizes she's been tricked in episode 1 and when she shakes Kazuma while crying in the same episode). Also, the level up things and the magic (EXPLOSION) were done so dam well, and they're so vibrant. Too bad the CGI contraption in the finale was awkward to look at. I also like the touches on the quest jokes.

SOUND: 5/10

The OP, fantastic dreamer, by Machico, is pretty annoying to me with the vocals, but otherwise doesn't stand out. The ED, Chiisana Boukensha, by the seiyuus of the 3 main ladies, doesn't stand out either. In fact, the entire OST is pretty forgettable to me. I don't remember a single track in this OST, aside from the song used for the EXPLOSION magic. Nothing was bad per se, but I wish I got something I could remember aside from a bunch of music that was just...there...

ENJOYMENT: 5/10

The first 4 episodes were a riot. The highlight of the show was when Kazuma was laughing while twirling the thief's panties in front of her. GLORIOUS!! Hell, episode 6 had that funny EXPLOSION montage. The first 4 episodes has satisfying jokes that felt endearing and refreshing. Then, episode 5 came and annoyed me, and then, by episode 8, the show's fate was sealed, thanks to the girls becoming highly repetitive and grating, and Aqua being the most insufferable character I've ever seen, especially in episode 8 with her treatment of Wiz. Episode 7 was aggravating too, but NOTHING in episode 8 worked for me, and episode 9 felt discomforting and tedious as well. Sure, the finale was sort of funny and satisfying, but by that point, the damage had been done.

OVERALL: 5/10 RAW SCORE: 54/100

This show felt pretty funny at first, but for most of the things mentioned above, the show lost its luster and grew grating and stale until the final episode finally decided to change things up. Episodes 6-8 felt like repetitive filer that added nothing but infuriation to me, with how much it made me hate Aqua, and for how repetitive most characters felt. It made me feel like Kazuma (the guy who puts up with BS with his teeth clenched and his gorge rising), and in a show like this, you NEVER want to make the audience feel that way. Still, can't say there wasn't a good amount of merit here. Despite my qualms, this show felt hardy and genuine. Doesn't mean that the act got old, and that's easily the show's biggest sin. The shtick gets old, and only at the end do they try to spice it up again. Well, with that said, I bid you adieu before the EXPLOSION of backlash rolls in from Konosuba and Megumin fans alike.

I don't think I've been more let down by an anime. Watched it after glowing reviews on reddit and a high MAL score, so I expected good things. However, the story just falls flat, and none of the characters are interesting enough to make up for it. The show is just made up entirely of crude, lewd jokes and overused tropes - jiggly boobs, panty stealing, sexual harassment etc. I guess that's my punishment for taking recommendations of reddit - should've known they're all just horny teenage boys.

The MC is just the most unlikeable person - selfish, annoying, money-driven, horny. Megumin and Aqua are annoying ... at times (esp Aqua who's just so loud and whiny), but on the whole, they're ok and the only reason I've sat through the entire season. Darkness though, she's so painful to watch. She's got one personality - masochist, and it gets annoying real fast as her personality never changes.

Overall, just enough of a story to make you feel like you should slog through till the end. 2 party members are ok, while the other 2 are insufferable. I'd set this as "Not Recommended", but I guess some people may like the overload of sexual jokes.
Although, perhaps I'm a masochist myself, as I'm considering whether or not to bother watching season 2 in case the story picks up. I really want to know if there's any merit to the high scores

KonoSuba is a strange animal. Literally every trope it contains is fatal and it shouldn't work at all on paper. It includes, and is built on, an MC that tickles the complexes of the socially incapacitated Japanese 'Hiki-neet's, a huge female main cast(including two...or one who hasn't appeared yet), mostly cheap visuals, generic generic and generic backgrounds, standard Boke-tsukkomi combinations, an obviously unnatural focus on the roles the MCs partake in and paper thin characters that blatantly rely on their profile personalities to interact. Definitely it does.

And yet, surprise surprise, most of the time it DOES work. All of that is down to the producers, ... who injected shards of brilliant and original(at least down this road) screenplay which sometimes felt simply ingenious. Credit where it's due, the high sales and the critical success comes from that reason.

But there is a disclaimer. It is not that this is an otaku filling moe show with tonnes of fanservice surgically implanted into it. To tell the truth it is, but it is no more so than your normal show. The praise and popularity doesn't root from that.

The disclaimer it that the heaps of problems this contains only works when tongue is firmly in cheek. And regardless of the reason why, lots of times they tried to pull a serious face. Never did they succeed. Even worse, it severely hurts the viewer's image of the show. It's a one to laugh with, and its fabulous comedy golds are perfect to laugh with. But when it does not work it becomes a one to laugh at. Case in point: the Darkness scenes in the last episode.

For me in particular it was a hard time trawling through certain episodes because of that. The pseudo seriousness Darkness brings to the table always backfires on the flow, even when it leads to the inevitable masochist joke, because that trope in particular got old extremely quickly. Every character is guilty of this, only in differing ways.

KonoSuba's qualities as an entertaining show always stem from the flaws and the gaps between its status as a game based LN show, and the production usually made great use of it and strongly amplified the effects of those qualities. Unfortunately those exact flaws lead to the fact that it would never be a perfect show, and the fact that it would always be a show gunning for a niche. It is impossible to build on it as a genre because it straddles the line innately. It is a bastard child of two genres and multiple tastes. This was the final undoing of the show.

But then again I admit that I enjoyed the show quite much and am disappointed by the restraints on time it got. Its highs define its lows, but the lows don't overshadow the highs. The girls are still cute. The comedy is still funny.

You know what haters gonna do, haters gonna hate. Haters gonna bait. I'm not a hater, but I realise its minuses. This is a show that's bound to divide. I would stay on the like side, for now.

I really wanted to like this, though after watching it through it simply left me annoyed. The story, characters, and comedy felt overly reliant on the time it was created and as such wasn't satisfying. In that way, the parody and subversion of the isekai genre were done for their own sake and put ahead of everything else, making for a fairly incohesive show.

The comedy sometimes landed. What dragged it down was how simplistic and repetitive it was. The initial subversion of the characters being capable with one thing but otherwise useless with everything else was momentarily funny and interesting, though as it played out ... it proved to severely limit the progression of the characters' development as well as the story in general. It's not good when what was once only for a moment funny quickly becomes stale and subsequently gets in the way of everything else. More than that, it's ironic that the tropes of isekai that are subverted end up leading the show into its own tropes... which makes it almost infuriating since generic isekai tropes at least allow for growth whereas in this show everything has everything stagnant. The whole premise of the MC being at rock-bottom as opposed to overpowered has potential, but the show is stubborn in keeping him at rock-bottom and that's just not satisfying to see. And again, the other characters are stuck being one-note in their subversive nature. Because they're all so exaggeratedly ridiculous there are no interesting interactions, and none of the characters feel close to each other. Since there's no chemistry between the characters, I'm left wondering why they even stick together. Really, it's worse, and I'm left desperately wanting them to leave each other alone because they frequently don't get along and they haven no reason to.

Overall, it's unsatisfying.

Just personal scratch.
Advised, possible spoilers.
Opinion & Informal

Art: 6/10
I watched the BD release version. Anatomy and proportions checked out but I felt that the anatomy for Kazuma's body during the bath scene was really meh. There were one or two parts where the anatomy looked a bit off such as oddly shaped hands or somewhat misaligned facial proportions. Environmental and nature showcases were either not focused on or just underwhelming such as the plains, the landscape surrounding the city, or the snow area, to name a few. Interiors were nicely populated but the details were about average. Framing and area selection of certain scenes left much ... of the interiors and town unaccounted for; I didn't feel like I got any clear picture of the aesthetics, locations, or the kind of world they were living in. Overall, I thought the (main) character details, while more on the basic side, were at least nicely clean and looked good. The background characters looked painfully over-simplified in all aspects. I thought the rest such as backgrounds, nature presentation, and supporting details were pretty average and nothing to write home about when comparing this show to other isekai or fantasy genre. This part is just extra: Since service was something that this show didn't have any problems with using as a selling point, I'll talk about how I found it interesting how attention was paid to how breast anatomy would shift between episodes; they could look overly ideal and anime-esq in a few episodes, being very plump, rounded, and generally just having that "perfect" silhouette or they could end up looking more "natural" in other episodes. Some examples for what I mean are Guild Receptionists lady or the succubi in episode 9 in which they all had breasts that weren't affected by gravity at all and could maintain a perfect upright position. However, during the scenes in the mansion, the girls had gravity-affected breasts and in my personal opinion looked more natural. Attributed to them possibly not wearing a bra in their nightgowns? Sure, maybe. I just thought I'd point these differences out since they were so distinct and that it says a bit about the show's art quality when the most impressive thing art quality-wise I can think of is the attention to how realistic or not breasts looked between episodes. Oh yeah, the cgi elements were absolute crap.

Animation: 5/10
The animation in my opinion was pretty average. There weren't any impressive impact sequences that are the kinds of things you would clip and show on YouTube and title something along the lines of "Epic Anime Battle!" Natural motions such as body language, facial expression changes, or things like walking or running looked fine. Action and quick movements looked fine as well but weren't good enough to warrant any praise. Cgi elements such as the mobile fortress Destroyer looked terrible and the movements from that looked so low-budget. The supporting effects such as those for any of the magic spells or sparkles were bright and flashy but they were just that. They weren't meant to impart any extra bit of world lore or intricacies, they were just a bunch of bright and pretty-looking lights to add some wow-factor to the production value and in my opinion make up for the honestly average animation and art quality.

Characters, Plot & Development: 5/10
Pretty generic and one-dimensional with minimal growth throughout the duration of the show. How much did each of the characters really change from start to finish? Did Kazuma accomplish any of the goals he was aiming for when he decided to reincarnate? Did Aqua get any closer to defeating the Demon King and returning to her previous position in the afterlife? What were Megumin's and Darkness' goals again? The dynamics between characters and with the plot were underwhelming. Almost all of the show's jokes, character dynamics, and plot interactions were dictated by each one of their "weird" points. Darkness would in one way or another get herself into a position where she's protecting her friends then the villain or Kazuma would get weirded out by her fantasies. Were there any other notable situations where this wasn't the main theme in her screen time or other than giving us her service shots? What about Megumin? Did she ever grow as a character by the end? No. She was exactly the same from start to finish. Her relationship with Kazuma or the group didn't change and she still couldn't fire off more than one explosion. Her original reasoning of joining the group was out of pity and that she didn't have anywhere else to go at the time but nothing was really introduced to change that sort of relationship or dynamic, she stayed solely as a plot device to solve any of the big problems the group ran into, that's it; Megumin literally only showed up to take care of the group's problems and she solved it in the exact same way. Aqua's interactions were the same: she's either conniving some way to earn money, whining, or begging Kazuma to do this or that - maybe throw in that Nature's Trick spell for even more comedy. During the last episode she suddenly shows some crazy laser power that's enough to break the Destroyer's barrier; when, how, and why isn't she using that more often to earn money? Fine. If we're just going to let everything slide and just settle with me being way too picky and critical of the show, under the premise of "it's just a parody" and that we're not supposed to take this show that seriously, then what does this show do differently from other comedies or isekai? I found it really hard to see why this show gets the praise that it does when it feels like another generic isekai or comedy. Darkness and Megumin do exactly the same thing in 90% of their screen time for the entirety of the show. Kazuma's straight-man act is funny at first but gets old quick when the setup for the gags is exactly the same.

Music: 5/10
Background music was fine and was reused a lot, especially for Megumin sequences. Soundboard was fine too but don't expect a huge range of sword clangs or magic spells because there weren't any sword battles or the like. No sound design to note. OP and ED were fine but felt pretty generic.

Conclusion: 5/10
Cliffhanger for a second season of probably the exact same formula. We'll see.

Overall: 5/10
Character introductions and reasoning for joining the group were fine. I wasn't fine with how they made zero growth throughout the entire show and that an extreme majority of their screen time was to follow the exact same formula and gag setup and punchline. I didn't really see what was so great about this show in particular or what made it warrant the praise I've heard about it when considering and comparing this show to other comedies or isekai.

It's been a long time since I have been as dumbfounded about the hype over a show as I am after sampling Konosuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World.

The basic idea behind the anime is simple enough: a NEET, through what must be the most convoluted set of circumstances ever used to drag a NEET into a fantasy world, makes the occasional witty comment about the pros and cons of JRPG-like mechanics in the real world while amassing a party of girls who all range from idiotic to completely insane.
A subversion of this genre blend of harem and trapped-in-a-fantasy-world has a lot of ... potential to be timely and funny in the wake of popular franchises like Sword Art Online taking center stage in recent years, and the artwork for Konosuba is charming and colorful. However, sadly, witty commentary and funny antics that show how life working like a JRPG would be both horrible and fantastic in different ways constantly takes a backseat to the lowest common denominator: sexual jokes.

It's obvious where both the writers and the animators have invested their time and effort: rear and/or chest centric "male gaze" shots abound and every little motion a female character makes causes their breasts to bounce exageratedly. (It's not quite GAINAX's infamous levels, but it's still obviously exagerated because LOL BREASTS ARE FUNNY.) An entire episode's plot is about our main character learning stealing skills - specifically, the ability to steal anybody's panties, even if he's trying to take something else. (Because LOL PANTIES ARE FUNNY AND ACCIDENTAL PERVERT NEETS ARE DEFINITELY NOT AN OVERDONE TROPE.)

All of this winds up being at great expense not only to the potential satire, but the characters. Our "hero" is rather unlikable, and it's hard to trace his character path despite having a clear goal from the first episode. His party, while refreshingly not all instantly in love with him, can pretty much all be summed up as punchlines. You have the useless godess, the girl who must blow everything up, and the masochist.

It was tempting to rate Konosuba lower than I did, but when I ignore the extremely confusing hype-train and the fact that the tropes the show embraces are all tropes I'm personally sick of to begin with, I come to the conclusion that the show is all-around average. Fans of shonen harem anime will probably enjoy the series, but it brings nothing new to the table whatsoever.

._. -_- ._. -_- ._.

Where to start with this one......smh

Yet another anime with an invisible storyline/plot.

Ok!! So this anime was recommended to me by a friend (male) also a weeb and let me just say I don't know what he loved so much about this. I tried my best to like it, I really did but NO!! The magic/perverted aspect ain't even worth a mention.

The comedy is corny, the characters are helpless and its just flat out a mess for me. If you read any ... of my reviews you can tell by now I hate anime without substance, there isn't really a point to watching them unless the jokes are superb. Am talking 10/10 roll on the ground type stuff.

This didn't have that, it was 20% laughable.

<----------------------- Lets rewind

To give a honest review I had to rewatch it from episode one cause I stopped at 5 and then decided to give it another try. And let me tell you WHAT A TOTAL LET DOWN. The reincarnated into another world setting has been misused and abused. This anime is guilty of such offense. If you wanna go down that road atleast make it a bit interesting.

I believe the real goal of the anime was not to make sense and that was suppose to be the entertaining part of it. But sadly it didn't make the cut. Trying to make a whole series a comedy show takes mad skills and this just wasn't up to par as yet. And imitating rozen maiden was poor taste

I not going into describing animation and all that BS. The anime is straightforward either it would be for you or its not. For you means u like gullible characters, stale jokes and a hint of this and that. Which, isn't wrong just not my taste.

P.S soundtrack lit and it has some seriously savage remarks. I will watch season 2 and hope for the best.

THE END

I watched this series because some people are hyping this anime on most of the groups and anime sites I had visited.

Overall, it's fine.

Story seems funny and moving away from the cliche MC shounen protagonist everyone is expecting a series should have which is a good point.

Most of the scene are repetitive mostly from the first few episodes which is kinda meh..

Characters are somehow a ripoff of other series with some adjustments..
Start with chuunibyou wizard which other people should know who since she have an eyepatch.
... Crusader aka Saber that is a pervert lol.
etc.

As I said, the series is fine but it doesn't live up with the hype everyone saying that this is the best series or so whatever.

Fantasy series that involved, in one way or another, a protagonist from our world who struggles in a, well, fantasy universe tends to signal a warning light in my head. Even more so when said fantasy universe was deeply inspired by MMO mechanic. Stories of such nature, while not only has been prevalent in the industry in this post-SAO world, is something that I don't associate with good-storytelling. There has been some exceptions, like last year decent-but-not-too-remarkable Danmachi and this season slice-of-life focused MMO anime Grimgar. But on the whole, I remained skeptical in a story with this sort-of premise.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!, ... or Konosuba, however, thankfully rebuked my earlier expectation that it's going to be another bland entry to the fantasy-mmo genre. And while it's comedic-centric conceit is a fresh of breath air, unfortunately, I can't say that it's a particularly noteworthy entry either.

The series main strength is arguably it's enjoyable cast of characters. From the first scene in which two of our protagonist, Kazuma and Aqua, met, the series manage to illustrate and establish an entertaining dynamic between the two. Aqua is a proud, self-important, arrogant cock who relish her status as a goddess, something that made her often the butt off much of the series joke because her status almost didn't help her surviving in the fantasy world, who pretty much run in contrast with snarky, face-palming Kazuma. Joining the two are Megumin who act much like our world chuunibyo, which made it funny because she's an actual demon who can do actual magic (which she also can only use once a day), and, my least favorite, Darkness. A crusader who's useless when it comes to the offense and took pleasure in running into abusive circumstances. Even if the series humor doesn't always hit the mark (and it frequently does for me, something that I'll get into later on), it still manage to provide a constant light-hearted, comfy atmosphere because the main cast of Konosuba are the sort of people you'd enjoy spending times with and you emotionally invested in, even if the two of the leads are technically an ass.

What I also somewhat appreciate is the fact that the series prevented itself from being just a string of ludicrous situation after another by giving a steady narrative progression, although unfortunately it's not on the character side of things since, apart from some few background info regarding each of the leads, their personality and dynamic largely remain the same throughout the season. Kazuma steadily gain fortune and new skills, he and his party eventually managed to move out from a horse stable, and even beat a dark general later on.

But even with entertaining leads, it's a shame that the much of the series humor fell flat. Humor is often reliant of setting up a scenario in order to create a sort of expectation from the audience, only to deliver a punchline by subverting those expectation, either through unexpected, but still plausible, character reaction or another unknown variable. The joke in Konosuba became predictable all to quickly because it often follow more or less the same pattern. Darkness will act perverted in dangerous situation, Aqua's arrogance will backfire against her, Megumin will be all to eager to unleash her magic which pretty much cause her to collapse, and Kazuma will comment about how stupid it all was. Combine that with some tasteless ecchi jokes (about half of them are courtesy of Darkness), the experience of watching Konosuba is often a pleasant one, rather than actually funny or hilarious.

Konosuba does try to balance this by continuously setting up absurd and inventive scenario that based on quest you'd often see in an MMO game. And while several of these scenario is funny in concept, like the battle against the Dullahan which is a nice mix of tension and humor, and the ghost mansion episode which alternate between two "scary" scenario, one is the ghost themselves and the fact that Kazuma and Megumin really needs to go to the bathroom, the characters still more or less reacted the same way as I've stated above.

On aesthetic side of things, I'm not sure there's much too say apart from the fact that it's generally serviceable, with some few derpy expressions. The character design are appealing, but not particularly distinctive. The series does have a few quirky animation that elevate the series joke.

So on the whole, while it failed to live up the comedic potential set up in the introduction episodes, Konosuba is a enjoyable experience that I don't regret watching. Like I said, it's comedic focus is somewhat fresh in the fantasy-mmo crowd. I wouldn't mind watching the second season when it comes out.

*No Spoilers*

It's possible to sum up Konosuba in a single sentence: It is ingeniously bad and that's ironically what makes it so enjoyable.

Luckily while watching the show I always had the feeling that it was aware of it being generally trashy. There are no tries to actually fix something, to push the show in a better direction. Konosuba embraces this trashiness just further. Even when you think a little bit of plot sprouts through the tarmac ground that is the story the sprout gets run over by the 20 ton truck that has "script delivery" written on itself. Every fragment of personality that a character ... is close to develop is spartan kicked into the abyss by Leonidas himself.

That being said there's no cohesive story or plot to be found while watching from start to end. You come to think of watching an anthology series but even the episodes themselves mostly have no main theme to focus on. Over the course of 10 episodes literally nothing of significance happens except you hear the characters say they levelled up. Some people say the story has the pacing of a snail trying to crawl through a dessert. That would be an understatement. It's more like a turtle that does not stick its legs out in fear of tripping over something... slowly dying of starvation.

I would not call the characters flat (  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) ) because they all have a major trait that makes them somewhat special and distinguishable, but throughout they are not unique, complex or multifaceted. But those characters are the basis of the very essence that makes this show enjoyable besides its groundbreakingly lackluster writing. 

Having amazing dialogue and a great sense of comedy is why this show should not be objectively called trash. On a meta level the show recognizes its flaws and ironically reiterates on them through interactions and dialogue between the characters and the world.  Referring to my beginning statement the show should be insanely agonizing to watch. But it isn't due to its incredible awareness of being agonizing which is achieved with quirky dialogue and "funcringe" comedy.
Another aspect that emphasizes this is the use of vulgar language and overall "profane" scenes and scenery which at least for me lead to a more mature overall setting. Although for some viewers this statement could be contradictory.

The production sources from Studio Deen. This by itself should be enough of a statement. It's does not look particularly bad overall it's just unloving and or inconsiderate. Effects are copy-pasted whenever possible. The scenery is mostly plain and boring. Characters look and move ok. 

The soundtrack is pretty good. It underlines actions, scenes and emotions really nice and contributes to the "self awareness thing" I've tried to explain.


Konosuba is not meant to be a serious anime with a pseudo deep backstory or meaning like many other isekai try to be and kinda fail to achieve. It’s a silly clusterfuck and that’s good.

On a side note: I recommend watching this show with a friend or two while having one nice drink or three... It can't be a coincidence that dozens of pages come up when you google "Konosuba drinking game" (all responsible and to your own delight of course yada yada yada).

If I was a boy, maybe I would have enjoyed it a little more. Provided that I'd be interested in stealing panties on daily basis and other perverted stuff.
The characters have little to no personality. All they have is enough to only satisfy 14 y.o boys watching it. Of course it's quite obvious what kind of an anime it is, just by reading the genres or the description.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to watch it to know everything about the show, even the slight comedy can't make up for it.

The art style is pretty nice though. Which ... is why I was a little dissapointed when I realised it's so boring.

KonoSuba takes the standard premise of a regular japanese NEET being sent into a fantasy world to quest and adds a twist - he was given the option of taking any single thing or person with him by the goddess of the afterlife, but the goddess was so insensitive to his plight that he decided to spite her by bringing her along. It's a smart idea, and the predictable jokes that result, focusing on how the goddess is actually fairly incompetent and unhelpful, are pulled off well, but it doesn't live up to the comic potential of its premise.

Most of the comedy in KonoSuba comes ... from the characters, who are all incompetent and delusional in different ways, with the protagonist - Kazuma - usually serving as the straight man, trying to stay alive when their idiocy makes all his missions go tits-up. Aside from that, some of it comes from Kazuma himself, with his cunning rule-breaking approach to solving problems in this RPG world, as he lies and cheats with merry cynicism in order to get money, level up, and defeat the Devil King. The setting itself is completely generic, and almost no attempt is made to mine humour from it or make it more specific and interesting.

Episodes usually follow the pattern of Kazuma and his team accepting a quest after some initial bickering, assuming it's going to be fairly straightforward, before it goes sideways on them and they have to improvise in order to win. The epilogue usually involves them losing the money they earned in some way, either to pay off debts or pay for the damages they made while fighting, so they go back to square one. With that obvious lack of development (although some incremental progress is made - they do each get slightly stronger and more accomplished), the show needs to be smarter and more engaging than it is to really work, but it's consistently funny enough to never actually be bad.

Pros:
The OP was good

I liked the animation. Maybe this wasn't intentional but when people used magic, some parts were CGI which felt a little like it's another world.

Kazuma was funny

Indifferent:
The humor wasn't bad, just didn't really make me laugh that much

... Cons:
We don't learn anything about Kazuma before he's teleported to the new world

I didn't like Megumin and Darkness as characters. Megumin liked explosions and darkness was a pervert, and that was it.

One episode made me genuinely creeped out (if you have seen the show, you probably know which one)

Some spoiler stuff:


Didn't like how the last battle consisted of "a monster is coming. We killed it. It's going to explode. We disarmed it. Now it's really hot. We're going to explode it" (after reading this again it felt very badly written. I meant that I didn't like how there's a problem and they fix it 3 times in a row. It doesn't really feel that threatening.

Hopefully, season 2 is better than this

Take Fairy Tail, mix in a little Re:Zero, and that's pretty much what Konosuba is. It uses the Quest-of-the-Day format and fan service of Fairy Tail, and the fantasy world that the main character likens to RPGs in fourth wall breaks from Re:Zero. While the characters are interesting, and the dialogue is funny, Konosuba falls pretty flat. SPOILER FREE:

Story: 5/10. Kazuma says, at the end of the last episode, "that was like one long tutorial," and he described it perfectly. 10 episodes, and in the course of them, it felt like no progress had been made in the plot. The goal is to hunt the ... Demon King, but it never feels like they ever get past the first steps.
Pacing is also all over the place. The first half of the episodes follow a loose overall plot that steadily introduces each of the main characters, but the last four episodes all just feel like filler. They're self-contained snippets that are entertaining, but never building towards anything. Too many jokes about how the show is like a video game. Sometimes, there was witty dialogue, but it was littered with over-the-top innuendos and lewd shots. If you want fan service, one scene straight up borders on hentai. Also, many of the spells that each character uses just suddenly appears in their repertoire. Imagine if Naruto just started using the Rasengan, or Goku could drop a Spirit Bomb on a whim in every episode. It never feels like the characters earned something, it just fell in their lap.

Art: 9/10. The scenery is pretty. Characters are well animated. Spells look neat.

Sound: 9/10. OP was very hype. ED was ok, but it was slow so I didn't stick around for it that often. Music during the scenes, esp the fight scenes, is usually on point.

Character: 6/10. The main character, Kazuma, leaves a lot to be desired. He's snarky, rude to the women around him, and constantly complaining about the situation he put himself in. In sum, he's a flat, unrelatable version of Natsuki Subaru of Re:Zero, to the point where I would call him "Subaru" in my head. Two of the girls are great, Aqua and Megunim, as each has funny quirks. Darkness, unfortunately, basically only talks about how she was to be degraded by men to get off. It's funny at times, uncomfortable as it reaches the line. Luckily, all the other characters comment on how weird her behavior is. The supporting cast, however, is great. They're likeable, dropping funny one-liners, etc.
The main characters are at least interesting in that they are all balanced regarding abilities. The healer has basically no combat prowess, the tank can't do damage to enemies, the mage is a one-time nuker, and Kazuma is just an amateur at everything. They mesh well in combat scenes.

Enjoyment: 5/10. While I thought it was funny, I ultimately felt like I wasted my time. I was at ep8 and thought about quitting, but since there were only two left I pushed through. I found it so forgettable that I had to go back and look at what the main character's name was, even though I had literally just watched all 10 eps.

Overall: 6/10. There are reasons to like this show. The sexual humor is pretty funny, even if low-brow, but it gets worse as the show goes on. Worse, and worn out. I think if you really love fantasy, or really love Fairy Tail, then you're going to like Konosuba. If you want something simple to follow, watch this. If you like complexity, or rather depth of any level, save yourself the time. I don't think I'm even going to watch Season 2.