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WRITING: 5/10
I do admit that the writing for this anime is rather lackluster at times, but honestly, I admire a lot at how much it fought generic anime cliché unlike anything I've ever watched before, such as one of the most generic tropes of a character always saying the other character's name. Whenever his name was spoken, Kazuma would go "Yes?" or acknowledge it every, single, time. And I thought that was hilarious for some reason. Speaking of, I admire his quirks throughout. He has small commentary during the female rant sequences that make them very enjoyable and his very essence brought so much life to most of the scenes. Very rare for a character to do that.
Though, sadly, this is where the positives end. One thing I did not like was that, near the end, it started to slowly migrate over to the generic "male character gets boned" shtick where Kazuma inevitably suffered the most out of any of his other allies. I think this correlates with how Japan sees women to men, so the male characters normally get screwed all of the time. And I don't mean sex. Kazuma really suffered a lot near the end, but I admire his charisma in that he didn't really become a sad sack and was also not afraid to speak up for himself. However, as good as his charisma was, he was not able to fight all of the cliché, but he did tackle the more annoying ones.
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ARTWORK: 6/10
The art in this anime is quite gorgeous, but maybe that's also because I am not used to the people that animated this. The way the mouths look during the comedy scenes, the eye design and more feel unfamiliar to me, as though I genuinely haven't seen such a style before. And this certainly applies to more than just design, cause eye-catches come quite a bit as well. I loved how they did certain comedy scenes as well and, overall, the style is simple, yet gentle. It's a nice flow that fits the (mostly) lighthearted nature of the whole thing.
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ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: 5/10
I have such a moderate score here cause, well most anime normally have memorable OSTs to me, this one kind of fell flat. I really loved the ending song and how well it conveyed the calm situation of the town, with everyone walking around, some of the allies trying to do basic tasks and some of them being appreciated by the townspeople. It just brought forth a very pleasant atmosphere that I really liked and I could really see myself coming back to it. Not just to listen, however, but to also watch. Cause, well the song is peaceful, I feel listening to it without watching doesn't bring forth that same experience. And I find that kind of sad, but also nice at the same time.
Aside from that, however, the soundtrack you hear in the anime itself is rather bland. With the exception of a certain sad piano song that plays during the more serious scenes, which I thought sounded very lovely, most of it sounds pretty generic. Perhaps, the opera theme that plays almost exclusively for Megumin is pretty comical since it can take the comedy and shift it into a state of seriousness at the most bizarre of times, but I sadly can't see myself remembering it. If I can find it at all, I'd probably want to add the piano song to my anime song playlist. But, everything else is pretty forgettable and, despite finishing today, I've already forgotten most of it.
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CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 6/10
This score is honestly so high cause, again, Kazuma. He alone gives this score a really high rating cause, really, he just fought all of that cliché as I said earlier. there's not much more to be said about how funny he is.
However, the main female ally of his was quite obnoxious. I didn't mind her personality so much, since I thought it was hilarious how she would slide from cocky to pitiful. I simply disliked how, despite her being the one to blame for a good amount of the damage caused to the town at times, Kazuma was still the one responsible for paying for it. She did have her own debts at first early on, but eventually, Kazuma became the scapegoat and that bugged me. And, honestly, some of the other allies felt a bit bland and had one-sided personalities, although I've taken quite a liking to Megumin due to her exotic nature. Definitely the highlight of the females.
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OVERALL: 7/10
This anime will make you laugh and that's just about all it is trying to do. The animation is peaceful and fits the atmosphere, the soundtrack can be pretty good at times (I actually do like the theme that plays before a quest starts cause it sounds so epic and like you are in an actual video game) and I will, unarguably, say that it is miles better than Sword Art Online, which had very peculiar pacing and a lot more that, well, would take up tons of paragraphs in that certain review to go over.
But, KonoSuba is not something I would recommend to just anyone. One thing I never mentioned is that it gets rather sexual near the end, even having what I would almost call a scene ripped right from a hentai in one of them, but you can just watch that for yourself to judge. The sexual nature doesn't take away from it, but it is rather peculiar that it is not listed under "ecchi" at all, despite the aforementioned episode I brought up. And I feel I had to mention it since, again, it is not listed under that genre for whatever reason, so you deserve a proper warning before you dive in. It also has moderate sexual humor all around, but the central story will still be intact and it's not too bad to watch.
However, if you really don't like that kind of stuff, I would go so far as to say you shouldn't be watching KonoSuba at all, cause it has quite a bit of that stuff in there later down the road, despite how innocently it starts off. If you have a high tolerance for it, or even enjoy it, then by all means watch this and you will not regret it.
