KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Review

Man, thats a long title but anyway, moving on. This anime is a weird one for me and not just because its a comedy (I don't watch very many comedic anime). Its because well...normally I'd hate 3 out of 4 of the main characters. Its just so well done that I love these jerks. This is also one of those anime where I have to spoil some parts so I'll just give my opinion before hand: I enjoyed this show so much that I found myself sort of heart-broken when the words "Thank you for playing" popped up at the end of season 2 instead of a bumper for season 3. I can't recommend this anime enough. With that out of the way: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!

Unfortunately, this an anime where I'm going to have to spoil the first episode to explain the setup. This is partially because its the first joke and partially because while the show has a plot, it takes a back seat to the comedy and isn't really a major focus. This shut-in otaku named Kazuma goes out to pick up the latest game. On his way back, he sees a girl about to be hit by a "truck", pushes her out of the way, and supposedly gets run over. He then finds himself in front of the goddess Aqua who offers him the chance to reborn on Earth or be brought back to life in another world and go on adventures to slay the Demon King while being given a special power or weapon. This is where the catch and comedy comes in. Aqua mocks him for his death and reveals that truck that hit him was really just a slow moving tractor and that he died of shock because he thought he was gonna be run over. Kazuma is kinda of vindictive so he chooses Aqua herself as the thing he is taking with him simply because she made fun of him. From there we essentially follow their misadventures in this fantasy world. Each episode's main plot is solved rather quickly as a part of the joke and then the episode moves on from there.

Now, as I said above, the plot takes a back seat to the comedy so the characters, their interactions, and the jokes will determine whether or not you enjoy the show. Normally, I'd hate most of these characters but honestly, I love the main four so much.

• Kazuma: Kazuma is a really fun protagonist. Dude thought he'd be some awesome adventurer with incredibly high stats only to end up painfully average. He is in his element in this new world even if it doesn't play out like he thought it would. He constantly comes up with strategies only for him to be exasperated with his party members, particularly Aqua. They prefer just doing their own thing. He is also pretty quick to figure out an enemy's weakness.
• Aqua: Aqua is the biggest jerk of the show. She is whiny, arrogant, insufferable, and kind of stupid. Thats the entire point of her character. Despite all that I don't hate her. This is because the show makes those tendencies of hers a punchline a few times. Due to her actually being a goddess, she has incredibly high stats except for intelligence. She is easily the strongest character in the show yet the most useless at the same time.
• Megumin: Megumin is the Arch Mage. She is basically a glass cannon. She only knows one spell...Explosion! She can learn more spells but she only uses Explosion because its powerful and she just loves to blow stuff up. It is also so powerful that it leaves her unable to move afterwards.
• Darkness: Darkness is the group's Crusader. She is also well...a masochist and its probably the reason she decided to be a tank. Thats pretty much the bulk of the comedy with her. She runs head-first into battle taking hit after hit after hit. She drools at the prospect of being brutally beaten and used by her opponents. Thankfully she has the strength to take those hits and keep going. She constantly misreads situations and implies dirtier and more disturbing things than whats actually being said. Normally stuff like that would make me cringe but it made me laugh every single time the show did it. Her stuff is probably my favorite gag in the entire show.

Sadly this anime only has 2 seasons at the time of this post. Its continued in light novels so if you're hooked enough on the show, you do have an avenue for their further misadventures. I haven't read the light novels yet so I can't vouch for how things go after the end point of season 2 of the anime. Due to it being a comedy, its kind of hard for me to get my point across but I do recommend giving the anime a shot if you don't mind not getting a complete story in that form.