After slaying Verdia
the Dullahan, Kazuma and company’s rep has skyrocketed…as has their massive
debt for damages incurred to the town.
Though desperate for money, Kazuma relishes in his newfound fame even if
he still cant shake his danger prone party of beautiful disasters. But when a massive mechanical Mobile Fortress
sets course for Axel, Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin and Darkness must prove their
earlier victory wasn’t a fluke (even if it kind of was). This is the time they become true heroes…or
meet a horrific end, and one is more likely than the other.
Well we’ve
reached the end of KonoSuba and Kazuma and company are no closer to defeating
the Devil King than they were when Kazuma and Aqua first came to this crazy
world. And you know what? That’s perfectly fine. I’m in no hurry to see this series reach its
ultimate end goal and clearly, neither is the show itself. There wasn’t even a major build up to the
climactic boss fight against a giant mechanical Mobile Fortress. Instead we got four very fun, mostly stand
alone adventures of different kinds that continued to pile on the comedy while
also doing some fun world building. Oh
and Kazuma and the girls got a place to live so progress was there too. I’m super eager to get into Season Two but
first let’s break down what went down in the Season One Finale.
For their stand
alone quests, the gang went up against Snow Monsters and evil Dolls in a
haunted mansion. The Haunted Mansion
episode might just be one of my favorite episodes of the season just for the
atmosphere alone. For a show absolutely
nailing the comedy, it had a surprising scary streak with the endless
assortment of Dolls plaguing Kazuma and Megumin. Every close up on those things faces sent
chills down my spine, so the humor was a nice safety net in a way. On the brighter side, sort of, Kazuma got to
meet his dream girl in Eris, the other Goddess worship in this world, after he
was killed by the Winter Shogun. I’m
with Kazuma on this one, I like Eris a heckuva lot more than Aqua. She’s kinder, prettier and more considerate
of the constantly put upon Kazuma compared to Aqua either bossing him around or
going stir crazy when things don’t go her way.
It’s almost a shame Eris cant be swapped out but maybe having her back
every once in a while wont spoil her specialness.
\
I’m kind of
shocked we skipped over an entire adventure that introduced a pivotal new
character to the mix, Wiz the Litch. This
gorgeous, undead Shopkeeper might just be one of my new favorite faces in Axel:
gorgeous, shy but very kind and wicked powerful, that last bit coming from Wiz
secretly being a General for the Devil King but not a wicked person, and
hopefully that doesn’t change. Still,
not getting to see the gang handle a graveyard of spirits alongside Wiz feels
like an episode is missing, reduced to only a couple of quick flashbacks. Heck, I’dve taken that over Kazuma being
scary creepy with Darkness in what he thought was his dream. Look I like the guy but even his perversions
can go a bit too far and he didn’t even realize he wasn’t being given the
Succubus dream because Aqua and Megumin had captured her. Poor Darkness having to obey him was
cringy…and I’m surprised she wasn’t enjoying it because she always talks about
being turned on by situations like that were she to be captured by Monsters. Btw, Darkness’ real name is Lalatina
Dustiness Ford, don’t know where you get Darkness out of all of that but
Lalatina is a very beautiful name imho.
As for the final
battle, well let me detour for a second.
There’s a funny story from Comic Book Fan Legend Kevin Smith about his
working on the script for the abandoned Tim Burton’s Superman Lives. He discusses some conditions placed on him
for the process: Superman couldn’t fly and for some reason he had to fight a
giant Spider in the third act. I only mention this because that’s become a bit
of a cinema joke when that kind of plot point somehow emerges and I couldn’t
help but chuckle at that as Kazuma and the Adventurues took on the Mobile
Fortress Destroyer…which looks like a Giant Mechanical Spider. And in keeping with KonoSuba’s well
established formula, even when the situation is at its most dire, there’s always
time for laughs. Probably one of the
best moments of the Season came from the origin story of the Fortress
itself. Not only was the long dead
Creator still inside the thing, he was trapped there because he was forced to
admit his failure at not being able to leave the Fortress because he didn’t
make an Off Switch. “Who’s the idiot who didn’t make an off switch? Oh right
me” followed by Kazuma screaming, “WHAT AN A*****” is another reason why this
script, especially the dub, continues to shine the brightest in KonoSuba.
Seriously, this
show would not work as well as it does without the clever writing and chemistry
of its four leads (along with an equally entertaining supporting cast). There were little bits of what felt like left
in adlibs kept in because they were just timed so well, like everytime someone
called for Kazuma he’d say low key “Yep,” or, “That’s my name.” Same goes for that aforementioned line about
the “Off Switch”, taking a tragedy, turning it into hilarity and having fun
with the line delivery is a tough to master mix. It almost reminds me of the English Dub for
an Anime called Ghost Stories. From what
little I know about it, it’s basically the closest we’ve ever gotten to an
official dub basically being an entire riff on a series. Only here KonoSuba is sticking to the script
but everyones just having fun saying some fun dialogue. I could listen to the bickering and wails of
disaster all day.
Alright, let’s
wrap this one up. Despite some nitpicks,
mostly from this set of episodes as it turns out, KonoSuba has more than lived
up to its reputation as the true Issekai rival to Sword Art Online. By refusing to take itself seriously, the
show is allowed to really cut loose and have fun with some wild adventures that
also lead to some smart world building.
The comedy is golden. The casting
is perfect and the characters are icons in the genre for a good reason. This really does feel like Slayers reborn for
a new era of Anime fans (especially with Megumin firing off Dragon Slave level
magical spells). Every episode in Season
One is a delight to watch and I’m glad I’ve got more to look forward too cause
I’m not ready for my time in this Fantasy World to end…there’s too much fun to
be had watching Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin and Darkness fail miserably as much as
they succeed.
KonoSuba: God’s Blessings On This Wonderful World gets a
9.5/10
But wait, we cant just leave things at Kazuma being
arrested for crimes against the Kingdom, can we?
Heck no, we’re getting right back into things
on Friday with Part 1 of
KonoSuba: God’s Blessings On This Wonderful World
2 right here at
the Gundam Anime Corner.
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