...Except it’s… actually… good…?????
(this contains some minor spoilers at best)
Let’s quickly get one thing out of the way. KonoSuba is a stupid anime. It’s very stupid. On the surface, it has the most generic setting and plot imaginable with a few stupid girls orbi--oh wait, I just said that. But what lies beneath its fragile crust is actually a hilarious and self-aware anime that parodies many of the tropes found in the “trapped in an MMO” types of series. It works because it’s so stupid.
The start of KonoSuba, where the main character, Kazuma, dies and later comes to this fantasy world, is where the series makes it clear that it IS just goofing around. The circumstances that bring him here are so absurd that you should probably stop watching the anime if you’re gonna take it seriously from this point on. The crazy train only continues. It builds up characters only to turn them on their heads to continue the absurdity. An early example is the main girl, Aqua, a literal goddess who values herself highly and is shown to be vastly superior to Kazuma until she’s dragged down to his level and is revealed to be a complete dipshit despite her magical abilities. Every other character that joins Kazuma’s party shares a similar theme: they appear to have overwhelming talents and maybe even an intriguing backstory, only for them to be almost completely flawed.
The same things happen with the plot points: things will be built up even to an intense and dramatic level only for said moods to be flung back at you with a quick gag that changes everything. Similarly, the party will achieve some level of success, but they simultaneously screw something up, and the consequence of it negates most, if not all of that success. KonoSuba is basically a funny series of unfortunate events, and its recurrent use of situational irony is the key to its success. But these little gimmicks and japes aren’t just there for the sake of comedy, they’re actually weaved into the plot pretty well; it’s not like a lot of slapstick shows that simply spout memes and force a bunch of out-of-character moments in hopes that the audience will like it; the seemingly random events will actually have an influence on the story in the future, even if it’s just minor.
By the way, here’s one thing that I think might be misunderstood: this isn’t much of an action anime. There are some action scenes, sure, but a lot of them will only show the minimum amount needed to make sure you know what’s going on. I like this move. KonoSuba knows what kind of anime it is and what it’s supposed to do; it doesn’t break its own character by having intense, elaborate fight sequences, it just puts the action on the backburner and keeps the comedy up front. If you’re looking for a comedy anime with some good action, I recommend looking elsewhere. All that being said, I’d like to point out that this isn’t a romance anime, either; but unlike the action genre, KonoSuba’s actually listed as a romance right now. Whether or not we’ll actually see romance in the future is not something I know, but these ten episodes don’t have any of that.
If there’s anything to complain about in terms of story, beyond it being basic as hell, it’s that the unbalance of the world and the general lack of success from the party means that the plot doesn’t really go anywhere; though the hijinks themselves are really enjoyable, it gets a little tedious being in the same place after a while. It starts to remedy this towards the end, as the party will indeed make progress eventually, but then you realize that the anime is only 10 episodes longer, and I wish it were at least 12.
So, while the plot can be glossed over on a basic level, the characters are much more attention-grabbing. I mentioned that they all are introduced as overwhelming people but instead have comically bad attributes instead. Aqua was made to be an annoying character, for the most part, but her personality is pretty effective in this context; she’s overly-confident, but when things go wrong or her weaknesses come into play, she shows a much weaker side of herself. Her scenes with Kazuma are great, too, since Kazuma doesn’t wanna put up with any of her shit.
Megumin and Darkness come into the show in a pretty short amount of time, and are probably the best-written characters. Beyond their interesting personalities, what makes them likable is how passionate they are in what they do. They’re fully aware of their massive flaws, but choose not to fix them and do the opposite--they EMBRACE them instead. It’s amazing. They still have some extremely limited but notable strengths, however, and they capitalize on these strengths instead.
Kazuma, the main character, is undoubtedly my favorite--yeah, yeah, I know everyone likes Megumin more, but Kazuma is truly the crux of KonoSuba. He keeps this wild ride going because he’s the self-awareness of this anime. Kazuma is the character who won’t hesitate to ask himself “what the actual FUCK is going on right now?” At many points, he questions the logic of the world, his teammates, and this whole nonsense. His quick little remarks never failed to amuse me, but he’s not really a straight-up asshole about everything; there are obvious moments where he genuinely cares about his friends and this terrible world. In such a strange, bizarre, non-sensical world, having a main character that’s like a normal person (but maybe a little bit more?) is great. I really think this guy deserves more credit. That’s right… Kazuma best girl.
But if KonoSuba comes up short in anything, it’s the art. The art looks decent at best, with some moments of it being pretty good, like Megmin’s ECKSUPLOSHUN!!!! magic, and looks like the current life of Jared Fogle at worst, which is pretty much the case for the second half. It seems like Deen didn’t put a lot of effort into this and only wanted to do a trial run to see how it’d do, which might be why it’s only 10 episodes instead of 12. They try making up for this by shoving as much fanservice in as they can, which I find to be funny more than sexy. The amount of boob physics, and some wardrobe choices like Aqua’s 2.03 millimeter-long skirt and that one filler character who wore a loin cloth, I felt that the fanservice was a joke in and of itself. I mean, everything else is pretty ridiculous, why not this too? But one last thing that I didn’t like were the mission screens that would pop up whenever a new assignment started, paused, continued, or ended. They were cheesy as hell, and it’s not like we needed to be reminded that this is supposed to be some sort of RPG-themed setting. That’s why we have Kazuma.
The soundtrack is nothing to write home about at all; the only song that was remotely interesting was whatever track plays when Megumin uses her magic, which is as corny as a field in Iowa, but still kinda interesting. The voice actors do a pretty great job with their roles, though; they’re well-casted and each deliver a great performance that never lets up, from Kazuma’s retorts under his breath, to Aqua’s psychotic outbursts, to Megumin’s powerful incantations, and Darkness’ sadomasochistic cries. A talented set of seiyuu for a wonderful set of characters.
To sum things up, I expected KonoSuba to suck and was blown away in pretty much every aspect. There have been few other times where I’ve had such a great time watching an anime and be anxiously waiting for the next episode. If I rated anime just by how much I enjoyed them, MAL would need a new scale. I’m so, so glad this is selling well in Japan, and I really look forward to the second season.
Story - 7/10
Art - 3/10
Sound - 7/10
Characters - 10/10
Enjoyment - 15/10
Overall - 8/10
Favorite character - Kazuma
Favorite episode - 1 (also 2-10)
Recommendation level - Very High
