Basking in the
glow of another major victory, Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, Darkness and Wiz take a
trip to the town of Arcanretia, famous for its Hot Springs. What should be a nice bit of R&R becomes
anything but when Kazama discovers the real reason why Aqua brought them
here. Soon, the crew is accused of
sabotaging the Hot Springs and an angry mob is ready to burn them at the stake. Of course, there’s something else fiendish at
work here. Can Kazama, Megumin, Darkness
and Wiz clean up another of Aqua’s messes and save Arcanretia before its wiped
off the map?
When it comes to
ways to top your previous seasons epic final battle against a walking Spider
Tank, I have to hand it to ya, KonoSuba continues to surprise me just when I
think it cant. The Season Finale took us
the furthest from Axel we’ve ever been, had some extra friends join in on the
fun, present yet another hilarious character from the Devil Kings entourage and
personally gave me yet another episode I would easily slot into a Top 5 list of
Best KonoSuba episodes…across these first couple of seasons anyway. Let’s not waste any time getting into the
climactic finale of a very strong overall second outing for this Issekai
legned.
For all the fun
the crew has been having in Axel, it was long overdue for us to see more of
this world that Kazuma’s been reincarnated into. Heck, it isnt even until we reach Arcanretia
that we see Elves and Dwarves for the first time in the entire series, it’s
wild. We’ll talk about the chaos behind
the inviting lure of Arcanretia in a
second. The actual Road Trip to get
there was great. Even when they’re far
from their usual stomping grounds, Kazuma’s team cant help but literally
attract danger wherever they go, whether it’s a heard of Running Kite Hawks
being drawn to the material used to make Darkness’ armor or Zombies in need of
Aqua’s purifying. Poor Kazuma, to his
credit he did deny any rewards for fixing their messes. Also Wiz is along for the ride and after this
entire adventure, I don’t see why she doesn’t just become an official fifth
member of Kazuma’s party.
Anyway Arcanretia
is where the true hilarity began. While
it looked like the pristine and perfect Hot Springs Resort you’d love to visit,
five second in you’d want to run as far away as possible…unless you’re Aqua. Turns out this place is hometown on the Axis
Church, aka the Church that Worships Aqua.
Literally everyone is a devout disciple and will go to any lengths to
convert you to their faith. Every
person in Acarnretia is an Axis Disciple and will go at any length to convert
you from staging accidents to faked assaults to a little kid needing help and
handing out a flyer when your guard is down (honestly that moment got me
laughing pretty hard.)
I would say “Poor
Darkness” but it was much to her delight that everyone hated her and even threw
stones at her for being a member of their rival Eris Church.
This joke should get old but oh my God the
insanity just keeps ramping up and up you cant help but laugh.
I’ll be upfront, of four main characters, Aqua kind of
gets on my nerves because of her increibdly selfish personality.
Arcanretia
shot these qualities up to 11 because, as I said, she’s worshiped her and is at
the center of attention…or so she thought.
It was funny to see her denied by even her loyal followers and accused
of being the one to sabotage the Hot Springs cause she cant help but purify
everything she touches. It’s also kind
of hard to gauge whether or not Aqua wants to save the town to preserve her
status as a Goddess (that no one believes she is) or if she’s genuinely
concerned about the town itself.
Whichever stance you take, seeing a pissed off mob with torches and
pitchforks yelling in true Monty Python fashion “BURN THE WITCH” is easily one
of the funniest moments this show has given me.
Naturally, since
this was a Season Finale, we needed another big bad to deal with. Enter Hans and wow…its it wrong I sympathized
with him a bit? Ok yeah, poisoning the
Hot Springs is very, very wrong.
However, when an entire towns population will not stop at trying to
convert you, somethings bound to snap.
That said, Hans is just as wacky and entertaining as his fellow Demon
King Generals and comes with a scary and very awesome monstrous form, one
that’s pretty elaborate and intricately designed, one of the best looking in
the series if I’m honest. Even though he
was only around for a short while, Hans did leave an impression and worked well
as the Seasons final boss. Wiz also
brought out her true power to help Kazuma handle Hans and wow, I’ve always
liked Wiz but I love her even more when she brings out her true power of Ice,
she’s such a dangerous beauty.
And that’s kind
of where the Second Season of KonoSuba ends.
The bad guys defeated. The gang
gets kicked out of another town and its back home to Axel. Once again, it feels like there’s been
minimal progression on the main mission to vanquish the Devil King but the
journey continues to be worth the prolonged conclusion. KonoSuba 2 might have had a bit of a stumble
with one episode in the beginning and Aqua’s bratiness tested its milage big
time. But overall, it’s just as good as Season One. It felt bigger and sometimes even a bit
bolder with its humor, especially in the case of bringing out more of Darkness’
naughtier side into the light. The core
quartet still shines and plays well off of each other in almost any
situation. The jokes are funny, the
dialogue is smartly written and the animation is colorful, vibrant and never
dull. The back half of the season with
the trip to Arcanretia was a particular highlight for me and makes me hope that
future seasons see more distant adventures for Kazuma and the gang. Honestly, the further they go, the
better. I’m definitely not ready for
this journey to end and I’m sure we’ll see Season Three here sometime in the
future.
KonoSuba 2 gets
an equally strong 9.5/10
While I’ll
eventually get to KonoSuba 3 (maybe in 2025?), there’s still one more little
adventure to embark on with Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin and Darkness. We close out 2024 tomorrow with a Special New
Years Eve Review of KonoSuba:
God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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