KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! Part 3 Episodes 7-9

Megumin’s grand adventure isn’t off to the best start.  Short on money and stuck in Arcanretia, the prodigy of the Crimson Demons finds herself in a tug of war between two warring churches and a diabolical mystery surrounding the towns beloved hot springs.  To make things worse, Arnes is still searching for her supposed Demonic mistress who may or may not be Megumin’s pet cat, Chomusuke…who has also shown up with Yunyun in tow.  But Megumin’s determined to get to Axel and begin her adventures with a party of her choosing and she will get there…no matter what terrible deed or despicable tactic she needs to use to get there.

Schools out and its onto the open road for the penultimate chapter of Megumin’s explosive origin story.  As sort of sad as it is to leave the classroom setting (and the wacky teachers) behind, it’s nice to see Megumin have some actual adventures before her inevitable meet up with Kazuma and the gang.  Said adventures included returning to one of my favorite spots from the original series and a caravan under constant demon attack.  It feels a bit too familiar at times but I’m still enjoying the ride and the change in the status quo.
 
Ah Arcanretia.  This might be my favorite town in KonoSuba and certainly home to some of the best moments from KonoSuba 2.  It was nice to see things haven’t changed much with the Axis church and their overwhelming devotion to trying to snag new members to their religion.  Father Zesta was a fun stand out, never missing out on a chance to make any situation super uncomfortable with his perverted fantasies, even against an officer of the law (and apparently his charms some how worked on the incredibly sexy Sena, the lawyer who tried to convict Kazuma in Season 2 who made a brief cameo).  Honestly, the one thing that surprises me the most about the Arcanretia visit here is how much they don’t seem to remember Megumin in KonoSuba Season 2, especially considering all of her “ideas” on how to ensnare new church members we’re used to terrorize Kazuma and Darkness during their visit.
 
This is probably a good place to talk about how much familiar ground this set of episodes was covering.  We started in Arcanretia and then followed a caravan bound for Axel, complete with demon attacks that poor Yunyun had to fend off solo cause Megumin knows only one spell and sees nothing wrong with that.  It feels like we’re doing a reverse playthrough of Season 2 just without the usual faces around.  There’s still plenty to be mined from Megumin’s overconfidence hiding how ineffective she is most of the time due only knowing Explosion Magic and her always reliable moments with Yunuyun.  Still, maybe some fresh locations without any tie ins to the original series could help make KonoSuba Explosion a bit more fresh?  It’s like they heard my potential criticism about the series being a run of the mill Magical School show and tried to back pedal on that by revisiting some of KonoSuba’s Greatest Hits.  That said, I’ll never pass on a visit to Arcanretia, especially if I get to see people lose their minds over the insanity of the Axis Church.
 
The convoy episode kept things lively with the return of Arnes, now clad in a very hot outfit and still out to take Chomusuke away.  Yunyun really got worked to death thanks to Megumin.  I’m right there with her having to do all of the work while someone saves their biggest (and only) attack for a bigger threat.  Even poor Chomusuke wasn’t safe from Megumin never failing to use her as bait to try and lure Arnes away before trying to blow both of them up.  Megumin’s a menace but a menace we love and her verbal sparring with Arnes was great, as was Megumin’s big win against a powerful demon.  Well I say powerful we never got to see Arnes do anything truly apocalyptic like some of the other Devil King Generals weve seen.  Heck, she even got fended off by the perverted priest Father Zesta (who battled his own religious beliefs to try and resist how hot Arnes looked).  I guess in hindsight, Arnes was all style and little substance but still, a win is a win for Megumin and Yunyun (and Chomusuke lives to be nearly sacrificed another day).
 
And as we close in on Axel, again the show tries to build up like this is the end of the story when it’s not.  Maybe if this were released as an OVA it’d make more sense but for a TV series, it feels like another false flag.  While we do get the announcement that Aqua and Kazuma have arrived in this world, something tells me Megumin has more shenanigans to get up to before she meets them in the tavern.  Plus Yunyun and Chomusuke are still with her and they have to all go their separate ways at some point.  Let me be clear: I do like this show despite the misteps it took this week and I’m curious to see what Megumin gets up to before she takes her place amongst Kazuma’s crew.  What that is exactly will be covered Next Monday as we check out the Series Finale of KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.