If you are not bored by the intro I just gave, allow me to tell you why “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!”, or KonoSuba for short, is awesome and you should watch it.
Story and Characters
If you’ve been paying attention to the anime community at least in the last two years or so, you’re likely to have noticed a trend that has become infamous among light novel adaptations: an incredibly bland and overpowered main character, who blazes through the story effortlessly obliterating his enemies, while developing a harem for himself with the gravitational pole of his Mary Sue genitals. This trend is specially exemplified by titles like Sword Art Online, Asterisk Wars, Overlord, The Irregular at Magic Highschool, etc, and as much as it has been gathering very vocal hatred, it also seems reluctant to fade away. KonoSuba, in the other hand, seems to be a title crafted in diametric opposition to such trends, having a set up that is, on the most surface level possible, similar, but diverging highly in how it plays out.
If you are curious about why I called this series a comedy of wrong people, it’s because none of the characters that receive the focus of the story is characterized as fit for the tasks they face and the plot itself doesn’t care about raising them as unlikely heroes, but instead on exploiting them in the silly RPG-like situations they find themselves into. KonoSuba is a parody in its simplest and most charming form: it’s not focused on big and over-the-top events that take the piss out of the genre by relying on absurdity, but it builds its narrative on small comedic events that stack up, creating multiple consistent punchlines that don’t cease being a part of the world the series created. From the giant frogs that lead the crew to find a new member, to the Succubus prostitutes that motivate the warriors to defend the city against overwhelming odds, every joke has an in-universe purpose.
All that aside, let’s talk about the characters a bit.
The main protagonist, Kazuma, is the unlucky male lead who got thrown into this phantasy world by his unwillingness to go to heaven and staying a virgin for the rest of eternity. Can’t blame the guy, I’d do the same in his place. Despite what I said in the introduction, Kazuma is not exactly a lead designed with the purpose of being unlikeable, although being still a snarky prick (I can actually relate to that!) and somewhat of a troll, with no shame on taking advantage of the situation in ways that lead to embarrassment to others. A former shut-in and the most frequent voice of reason of his group of air-heads, his situation of the world of KonoSuba is surprisingly relatable: he is constantly facing failure, with only occasional moments of success and hardly earned achievements to motivate him and his group to stay on the journey.
Aqua is an idiot, and one of the best kind. Unlike other shows where the idiot of the bunch is only responsible for bringing misfortune to his colleagues and never becomes aware of how much their stupidity costs to others, Aqua faces first-hand the effects of her actions. Being the lovably greedy and selfish twat she is and desperate to get out of the world she got stuck in, Aqua is constantly making reckless decisions and engaging in equally ill-thought out actions, only to have Kazuma stop or save her, so that she can incur in the same mistakes again, in the vain attempt of getting some easy money and more confortable situation. The contrast of such egocentric behavior with her lack of wit and constant misfortune makes some of the best comedic takes of the series.
Next is Megumi, the overly-confident, but hopelessly underprepared mage of the group. Prideful of her alleged “crimson demon” origins and unconditionally infatuated with explosive spells, the most powerful brand of offensive magic, she refuses to learn any other kind of spell, even though her body is clearly unprepared to handle such taxing kind of magic. The comedy of her character comes mostly from passing out whenever she unleashes her attacks, being made completely vulnerable against enemies and putting the burden of her protection on her colleagues. I now realized that this doesn’t sound funny at all, but trust me, in context in works wonders, especially in contrast with the already precarious state of her party.
Lastly there’s Darkness, the noble swordswoman with high stats in offense and defense, but laughably low accuracy, which means she’ll be swinging that sword a lot, but rarely hitting anything besides the punch line. She is also a massive masochist, a trope that I’ve personally become very fond in recent times. She latches onto the party under the belief that Kazuma is a perverted sadist who mistreats and humiliates the other girls, essentially all she wants for herself. In the long run she ends up placing great trust on Kazuma, and the series even hints of a possible romantic development between them, although that is not completely reliable, being this also a harem style comedy.
The meat of KonoSuba’s comedic energy (in simpler terms, the reason why it’s so funny) is its focus on the small moments. The comedy is not so much focused on slapstick, although that is also a significant portion of it, but in quick character reactions that stand on their respective quirks and flaws of personality: Aqua is an impatient, selfish idiot, so she is bound to react desperate and childish when the prospect of financial loss is near; Megumi is overly confident and stubborn, so she boasts her power just to fall flat on her face right after, in more ways than the literal one; Darkness is a masochist and gleefully enjoys her own pain even when embarrassingly trying to hide it. Kazuma, however, is the character that takes the most out of it. Being a snarky douche, he will often be confronted with the girl’s unwanted traits and react in ways to tangentially distance himself, like in the running gag:
“Kazuma!”
“Hi, Hi, Kazuma desu!”
He is also quick to take advantage in the most fitting opportunity, like immediately attacking a knight when challenged to a fight where he is obviously disadvantaged, just to end it in a hilarious slapstick sequence. Huh, I might have killed that joke for anyone who has not watched it already! The series doesn’t slow down in such antics even as it dives into “decisive” battles and it plays its comedy as characters are about to face immense danger. When you think it’s about to attempt some misplaced drama, KonoSuba pull itself back again with a joke built upon the same scene, never fully attempting to be heavy and dramatic, a mistake that other less sharp parody series make far too often.
Presentation
One thing I have often discussed when talking about presentation is the importance of keeping consistency in character models, as it is the most glaring flaw for animation to incur and can be specially detracting to the purpose the scene wants to convey. In the case of KonoSuba, though, it’s somewhat of a pointless complaint to make, since this is one of the aspects the series relies on to drive its comedy. Many of the comedic takes focus on facial expression to emphasize characters reactions, so it’s not unusual for them to have distorted and exaggerated features. This also works in the fanservice shots, when boobs will bounce aimlessly, to the point of killing the sexual appeal and turning it into a joke itself.
Possibly to match the watery feel of the expressions and designs, the color pallet is also very light, with clear shades of blue, green and yellow, for example. Costumes, in the other hand, are quite vibrant and distinguish immediately from the characters themselves. Another aspect that contributes greatly to the action and humor is the movement, very smooth and unhinged, which gives a constant sense of energy at play, helping take the most out of the comedic sequences. It’s actually surprising how little time goes by in the series without any movement happening on each frame.
Sound-wise, the main cast is mostly composed of actors who have yet to reach the hundreds of roles played, with the exception of Kayano Ai, but nonetheless deliver their performances in stellar fashion. Not only being each one a perfect fit for their respective characters, both in tone and pitch, but their delivery solidly lands the jokes with precise timing. Special notes for Fukushima Jun (not Fukuyama, His Highness is yet to appear in this universe), who portrays Kazuma and never misses the point with the characters, both in his detached “I’m not even part of this group” demeanor, as in his mischievous moments.
Personal Ramblings
Humor is a very subjective part of fiction, so it’s hardly ever possible to say that something is objectively not funny. I believe however, it is possible to debate to some extent whether something is good comedy or not. That can be argue not only on the matter of “does it make the audience laugh?”, but also on how is the set up established, is the humor random or streamlined, do the characters stay consistent in their roles, does the writing ever descend into low brow humor, and if yes, does it treat the audience as at least intelligent people, and so forth. These aspect are, of course, open to subversion, depending on the writers talent to pull it off.
Not many shows are able to make comedy out of incompetence without offering some balance. Most commonly, they will focus most of the punch lines on very specific characters while at the same time offering one as the trump card to solve conflict. What makes KonoSuba so endearing is its ability to make all of the characters into irreplaceable components of the jokes, without diminishing the value of any of them in the context of its universe. As much as the main party is overall composed of incompetent misfits to work out the comedy, they are all also important for the progression, even if accidentally. Well, perhaps better off accidentally, as it makes for even more outrageous outcomes, constantly adding up to the fun.
KonoSuba’s crew of incompetent loonies may not be the best folks around when it comes to defeating the Demon King, but they sure were the best to turn a generic adventure into such an endearing trip to a world that is perhaps as wonderful as the title implies.
