Let's talk about KonoSuba. I think everybody here knows about this show but not everyone has watched it, so straight to the point: Is it worth it?
Well, to be honest I have mixed feelings about it and I will tell you why:
This show makes some good things but for every thing it does right, there's also a thing it does wrong.
If you don't want to read the whole thing, skip to the "CONCLUSION" part, 'cause this gonna be long.
Ah, by the way, this review will contain some spoilers, so watch out!
Let's start with the things it does wrong.
First, the NEET main character.
I mean, why do male main characters nowadays are otaku NEETs? Why don't we have a dude who likes anime but he has a decent job or maybe a boy who doesn't even like anime or games but is still in a fantasy world? that would force him to believe in fantasy and maybe we could get some potential but no, we have our gamer otaku NEET instead.
Second, and I should admit this is goofy and irrelevant but it bugs me a little: Aqua's squirt. Really, girls in anime tend to have short skirts and that's fine, it looks cute and I like it but Aqua's skirt is waaaaaaaay too short; it's like at half of her butt and it seems like she is not wearing any underwear but for some reason in this show it's fine, nobody seems to care, they don't even joke about it so why they dressed her like that? I don't know, maybe is some goddess rule or something.
Now, forget the two first points, they are actually not important, you can easily ignore them but the next ones have more influence in the enjoyment of this show.
The fantasy world.
This world full of magic and adventures gotta be one of the most unoriginal ones I have seen. I get that KonoSuba is a parody of RPGs and for so, the world it shows us like one of said games but this one is too basic; like they could have put more imagination into it, we have pretty much everything that we have seen in other fantasy worlds and probably the only different thing is the Destroyer (though, if you think about it, it is a bit like Etrian Odyssey's FOEs, but more brutal)
The art.
Don't get me wrong the art doesn't suck but there are two things I have to say about it: First is that the characters's faces are extremely similar; in fact, in some parts it looks like they just copied the facial features in A character and then they did paste it in B character just changing the eye color. I know that if they are drawn by the same person of course they would have the same style, but in other anime you can easily tell the difference between how they draw the character's features, expressions, etc. Here it seems like they used the same model for all the characters.
The second bad thing about the art is the graphics, and again, they don't suck but we are in 2016 and still Angel Beats looks better . Six years have passed since Angel Beats and it still looks better than a lot of shows airing; How can this be possible!?
Hey, don't worry, I haven't forget it has good things, but I'll talk about them later. Be patient.
So let's continue with the not so good things. And this one is actually very important and I think I'm not alone with this. If you are new to anime or you are young you'll probably laugh hard with the jokes and funny situations but if you are a veteran or, let's say it, you are old you will find that all those jokes and situations are predictable. That's actually the most fitting word: Predictable. In the moment an episode starts and it show us what the situation will be in it, you can almost say how it will end but even worse is that when they are trying to make a joke you can predict them; we have seen those jokes one hundred times before and we know how they will end so when you predict the funny part, it is actually not funny at all. And that's brutal because every episode is full of those jokes! They joke about how cliché it is sometimes but the fact that they are mocking about how cliché it is doesn't mean it is not cliché.
And the last thing I didn't like about KonoSuba and it's actually personal: It is too long.
"Wait, what? how can it be too long? It's 10 episodes long? It's even more short than most anime!?", well, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how every chapter is 24 minutes long. I'm not going to lie, there were some episodes that were great but also others that felt so heavy, like I was constantly checking my clock (yeah, you read that wrong) and I was like "c'mon, just end already!". 24 minutes for some chapters were ridiculously long, you can get up, go to the bathroom and come back and you don't lose anything important, because they didn't do anything important in that time. Did you watch "Ooyasan wa shishunki"? Well, that's a 2 minutes per episode anime, and in every episode they managed to give you the scenario, the jokes, the problems, the conclusion, the fanservice and it still worked! If you blend all episodes together you have something like 20 minutes and hell, they do a lot in 20 minutes! But in some KonoSuba episodes you can easily skip 10 minutes of it and you will still understand what's going on, heck, even in some parts they are clearly doing time to fill the 24 minutes. But yeah, 2 minutes is too damn short, but I think the balance would be between 10-15 minutes, like some western cartoons. It is time enough to tell good stories and being shorter would give it a faster rythm but not enough to be rushed and it would be more enjoyable. Probably.
Also, some decisions the studio made are weird, like [SPOILERS AHEAD, I GUESS] why do we have a chapter about killing living flying cabbages but we don't have the episode where they meet the lich girl? she becomes relevant later but she appeared out of the blue; it was pretty weird [END OF SPOILER]
And now, at last! For God's Sake! The things that I liked about KonoSuba are: Nothing! Nah, just kidding, don't kill me.
The main characters.
I really liked those 4 dudes, like thery tried to make them unique and weird in some aspects and I appreciate that a lot. We don't have the typical party with the overpowered MC, the tsundere, the kuudere, the mysterious girl and the useless male friend, and for some reason, they are all in love with the MC (even the male friend). NO! We don't have that here, we instead have Kazuma: a funny dude who doesn't give a single crap about his party members, Aqua: the goddess that is supposed to be all high and mighty but in fact is and idiot, Megumin: the magician with weird name that is obsessed with explosions but is only able to use her magic once a day, and Darkness: the paladin with a pretty metal name that happens to be a human shield and also a masochist.
Really, these characters are different from anything I have seen before and the fact that they don't give a damn about each other makes it more funny. I actually like that they don't have a tragic backstory or something like that, they are just weird and for some reason they end up together. I like how they make fun of Megumin for being weird and for her name, how Darkness creeps out even the enemies for being extremely pervert, how they make fun of Aqua for being and idiot most of times but they also recognize that she has some cool powers and how Kazuma, despise being our otaku NEET main character, is not overpowered or suddenly knows everything you should know about his new world. In fact, that last part leads to something I really liked about KonoSuba and it's that in the beginning, they don't know nothing about that world, they are poor and they have no clue how the hell are they supposed to defeat the Demon Lord. They have to find a job and earn money like normal persons to actually start their adventure, and even when they finally start their journey they are still too weak and inexperienced to keep moving. And that's nice because in other stories of the like, for example, in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the main character suddenly knows how to fight, meet someone who trust in him, he finds a clan, and everything he needs to start his journey. But in KonoSuba they had to work their asses off if they wanted to survive.
Other thing I like but at the same time I don't like at all about the characters it's that, as I said before, they don't care at all for each other. It makes funny how every one saves their butt first without thinking in the others (except for Darkness but that was for another reason) but I would like to see some development there. Let me be more specicfic, we know that maybe deep in their hearts they care for each other but that's just a "maybe" because the anime didn't show us at all that they actually care. So it would be nice if they start to like each other at certain point. Who knows, maybe in the 2nd season we will see that. Ah yeah, there's already a 2nd season confirmed.
Another thing I find pretty cool but maybe other people would think the opposite is that there is no romantic relationships between the characters (or at least for now). This may sound crazy but when a boy meets a girl they don't have to fall in love! And I greatly greatly GREATLY appreciate that any of the girls falls in love with Kazuma. Sadly, anime has accustomed us to watch how all the girls fall in love with the MC and I'm glad this does not happen here. We have some scenes where the girls blush and all but it's more like they are embarrassed not that they started to love Kazuma, and we have scenes where Kazuma starts to get nervous around some of the girls but that's pretty normal, specially if you are an otaku NEET. The only love relationship here is Megumin x Explosions, and is still a better love story than SAO.
One of the things I liked, that in my opinion is awesome they did is the [EPISODE 9 SPOILERS AHEAD] Succubus chapter. It has been ages since I saw an anime talking about succubus. And no, I'm not counting Hentai anime, just regular anime. And I really liked how they manage the succubi here. We all know what a succubus is, right? And for some reason we have to believe they are evil and that it's awful to meet one. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? I think every single one of us has fantasized about succubus at a certain point. Why are they evil? It is lust actually evil? well, if you don't hurt anyone I don't think it is a bad thing, and of course you are not hurting the succubus because they are lustful beings! So in my humble opinion, they are not evil! And yeah! Back to the chapter! They weren't afraid of show us how the succubus were doing business in that world, and it was in a pretty cool way. You write the dream you want to dream at night, and they use her powers to please you and also they receive their "reward". So everybody is happy! They eat, you have sweet dreams, you win, she wins; damn that idea is awesome. And you may think: "you only say that because you are a freakin pervert!" and you are right! But you have to admit that is a nice point of view when it comes to succubi. Probably the only succubus story that makes something like that it's in a game called Succubus Shelly; you and the lil' devil fall in love (somehow), and you have to feed her 3 times a day, so everybody is happy. Why are you still reading this!? Go play Succubus Shelly now!! [END OF SPOILER]
Now, let's talk about the opening theme, the ending theme and sounds.
The opening is your typical opening, it does not stand out too much among other openings EXCEPT for the pre-chorus part where it suddenly changes to 3/4 and then back to 4/4, damn! That part sounds so so so so good, I could listen to that part all day long! If you listen to things like Rush or Dream Theater you know that those changes aren't something new but I think is the first time I hear it in an opening song (or at least since I learned music) and it sounds amazing. The ending theme is a bit different from any ending and it could actually stand out a bit but I actually have not much to say about it, I like it but just that. Both opening and ending are fine, their animations fit them, the songs fit the anime, so I'm not complaining here.
The sounds, they are... fair, like the soundtrack it's not exactly memorable and the effects are well used, nothing unusual or something. The seiyuus though, they did a great job here. Kazuma's voice fits him perfectly, Aqua's seiyuu did an amazing work when it comes to the crying, really, it sounds so dramatic and exaggerated and it's funny as it should be, Darkness's voice is pretty cool and when you see her drooling in some scenes it feels like the seiyuu was actually drooling; now that I think about it it's a bit gross, but that's not what I meant.
And finally, the best part of the show is actually:
Megumin.
Really, is even like the staff behind the anime knew she was the best part and they did a great job when it comes to her. First, her voice, Rie Takahashi, ah, I remember when I started to follow her she only had some Shirobako minnor characters in her curriculum and she was doing Gakkou Gurashi's Miki at that moment, and luckily she now has more important roles and more job in general; and of course, she makes an amazing role as Megumin. She talks soooo cute but she also talks funny when she has to and the best part is everytime she goes "EKUSUPUROOOOOOOOOSIOOOOOOON!!!!" and not only the voice, the soundtrack suddenly becomes epic and probably the only track of this series that you will have in your mind for a while, then the animation becomes top-tier and we see shadows, light, a lot of colors in screen and then... the damn explosions are beyond epic and every chapter they somehow become more big, more powerful and more flashy to the point where [SPOILERS AHEAD] in the last chapter we first have Aqua launching some Gamma Rays and then right after that we don't have a explosion, no, we have TWO SIMULTANEOUS EXPLOSIONS!! and if that is not enough, we have a third explosion to end the day!! That scene was beautiful! Like for a moment I forgot everything I don't like about KonoSuba and I was just laughing of how epic it was!! [END OF SPOILERS]
So yeah, Megumin is probably the best part about this show and you may think "you only say that because you are a moefag!" and well, you are right again!
But really, if you have watched this show, you know what I'm talking about and if you haven't watch it, then make yourself a favor and search for a explosion compilation because they are extremely good, they easily beat the final moves in shonens and they are actually the reason why I started to watch this anime.
CONCLUSION:
In the end KonoSuba is your typical story, in your typical fantasy world, with the typical jokes but with some cool characters.
It's enjoyable and I see why everybody likes it but if you don't like it that much, I can totally see why.
In my opinion it's between fine and good, a bit more to the good side so if we go with the MAL system it would be something like a 6.8 or so.
Regarding the question at the beginning of the review, is it worth it?
You will probably love it if you are new to anime or if you like things like Nyaruko-san, KonoSuba is like that but better.
But you will probably don't like it if you have watched a lot of anime and you want something fresh, or if you don't like slice of life too much.
If you want to watch it I would recommend you to have some snacks or watch it with a friend or something to distract your mind a bit because in some parts is too slow, I couldn't marathon this show to be honest.
I'm glad I watched it and I'll probably watch the 2nd season when it comes out, but I think people over react a lot when it comes to this kind of stuff, is not the brilliant thing some people say it is, it has lots of flaws and some of them are big enough to make you drop it; but if you can stand those flaws, it has some nice things that you will probably remember for a while. But whether if you are going to watch it or not, really, you need to search for a Megumin's explosions compilation, it worth it.
I'm NeverMeltIce. I watch it so you don't have to!
