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.
Mar 19, 2016
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 ... |
