The story is a direct continuation of the previous season. The first episode follows Kazuma as he gets arrested and tries to clear his name. This whole season will essentially follow Kauma and his adventuring band as they face (many) hiccups along their ultimate goal: defeating the demon king. A pretty standard goal for a fantasy setting, but we all know that KonoSuba differs when it comes to its execution.
The characters are what made the original season of KonoSuba so unexpectedly entertaining. KonoSuba is a parody of anime set in a fantasy world (see: Sword Art Online), and most of the entertainment comes from how the character tropes from that setting are either subverted or exaggerated. Part of the reason why the first season seemed so entertaining was because of the novelty; what KonoSuba was doing felt like a breath of fresh air in a stale room filled with innumerable "set in a fantasy/game world" anime . However, by now, the novelty has worn off. KonoSuba is doing the same thing with its characters as it did in the first season, but it is no longer as entertaining as it was.
The characters have a few quirks that provide for most of the comedy in season 2, but by now you should've noticed how the characters' personalities are defined almost only by their quirks and nothing else, which starts to become stale. In fact, most if not all of the characters can be summed up in one sentence. Buxom masochistic knight. Chuunibyou explosion loving loli wizard. And so on. So far, there is little character development to speak of. I know that that is par for the course for comedies. Character development isn't very funny, so it is sacrificed for comedic antics, but KonoSuba is not a plot-less show. As the plot develops without the characters significantly developing, the discord between the character and plot development becomes more and more apparent. And mixing comedy and character development is not impossible, it has been done before.
Moving on to the art and animation, this might actually be the worst part of the anime. The art was a significant step down from season 1, even for my untrained eyes. The episodes aren't consistent either in terms of art quality. Talking specifically about the character designs, they aren't detailed enough. From certain angles, the characters have a shadow of a nose (which is just a speck) instead of having an actual nose. And the boob sizes were unnerving and unnecessary. I was left wondering how all those women weren't wearing back braces to deal with the back pain caused by the weight of those boobs. You may think i'm exaggerating, but some of the characters had boobs that were bigger than their heads and had the movements of sturdy water balloons. It was comical, and not in a good way. The anime isn't following the source material in this regard, so that isn't the reason. The art otherwise is more or less the same it was in season 1. Bright colors with each main character having a particular color scheme, and pretty backgrounds.
The music was decent. The OP is upbeat, the ED is lullabylike, and both fit the show well. The other situational tracks aren't memorable, but they serve their purpose well.
One more point of contention before I wrap up this preview is how KonoSuba is slowly (but surely) going from a parody of the fantasy anime genre to becoming one of the anime it parodies. Assuming you consider parodies to be separate, it is possible to be both the thing you parody and a parody of it (Seto no Hanayome did it, and it did it well), but my first impression from season 1 of KonoSuba was that it was a clear cut parody. Let me clarify: KonoSuba slowly starts incorporating those fantasy anime tropes that it previously lambasted, and rather than a parody it starts becoming a comedic anime set in the fantasy world.
To conclude, I know I may have criticized it quite a bit, but KonoSuba 2 is so far still a decent show which will definitely be a source of entertainment for people who enjoyed the first season. I know I will finish watching it (eventually) when it finishes. I just think it could've been much, much better than what we have so far.
Edit: I ended up dropping KonoSuba 2
