What’s the show? KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! (2016).
Right, and what’s it about? Just like the best goddamn breast physics I’ve ever seen in an anime, like seriously this shit is mesmerising.
…Can you go like five fucking seconds without being a complete and utter pervert, and what do you mean ‘physics’ this is an anime, not a video game. Right, so jiggle animations, I don’t know what you call it in an anime but seriously I am obsessed with how the breasts look in this anime.
You’re talking like you’ve never seen boobs before, what gives?! Listen, I’ve seen a lot of fan-service in my time on this earth from the gravity defying to the laws of physics defying, to the reality defying, but never have I seen breasts like these.
…We’re still talking about breasts, oh my god, if you’re reading this I am so sorry, I literally can’t stop him even if I tried… Like, I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m into boobs in a big way and that’s not a pun or euphemism, I don’t care what size they are I’m just totally into boobs! And there’s just something about the boob animations in KonoSuba that makes me so unbelievably contented! It’s like watching a lava lamp, it’s mesmerising and relaxing and I just can’t get enough of it!
Please stop. It’s like braless and free and really loose, which I never really realised was a fetish, but I think this is a new fetish?! At least for me…
*incoherent mumbling* A-And what about the actual show? I mean… I… err, can we please talk about the fucking show for a moment? Oh…err, right, the show? Well, it’s amazing, probably one of the most carefully produced, artfully written parodies of the whole Isekai genre while simultaneously feeling completely connected to it in a way that beggars belief. Like, it pokes fun at the tropes but it still fully commits to them and by extension becomes better than both the most adept of deconstructions and the most faithful of the genre.
Okay, good, an actual review, let’s keep this going, uh… so what’s the show about? I don’t know what ‘Isekai’ means so please explain it to my poor normie brain. Right, so gamer, otaku, NEET Kazuma dies in the real world trying to save a girl from a tragic accident and finds himself before Aqua, a smarmy goddess who offers him the chance to be reborn in another world, a fantasy world where he has the advantage of keeping his memories of his previous life and taking one thing with him. Annoyed by the goddess’ callous disregard for his sacrifice and general ambivalence to the situation, he picks her to accompany him in his new life and so begins Kazuma and Aqua’s journey to defeat the Devil King in the hopes of returning to their ordinary lives some day.
Okay, cool. But you still didn’t explain what ‘Isekai’ means… It just means ‘In Another World’, its the name of a popular narrative trope that has a protagonist ‘waking up’ in another world than the one they were originally born into.
Fair enough, so this other world… It’s basically a video game, or an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) just without the video game interface and the more present threat of death, be it from being overworked, or killed by giant toads or frozen to death by Winter’s cruel embrace.
So the stakes are high? I mean high enough, it’s no Re:Zero, but at the same time it at least feels like death is a genuinely bad option rather than just a respawn point.
Why do I feel like I’ve inadvertently stumbled over a new can of worms? I have things to say about Re:Zero that will wait for another day, we’re talking about KonoSuba now!
So who are the characters, aside from the one’s mentioned. Well, aside from our smug protagonist Kazuma and our equally smug, if somewhat insecure goddess Aqua, there’s the incessantly dramatic explosion obsessed loli Megumin and the delightfully delusional masochistic crusader Darkness who just wants to be ~punished~.
Yikes, this show is starting to sound more perverted than you! Oh, you have no idea!
*gulp* But here’s the thing, I never feel like this show is taking cheap shots or being lazy about anything. It fully commits, whether it be about the story which has a wonderful sense of continuity throughout all the episodes without being convoluted or the characters who all act uniquely and amusingly but never against their own internal logic.
How do you mean? Like the show gets wild, especially in later episodes (I’m looking at you episode 9 with your Succubus dream brothel) but it never feels outside the realm of possibility for this show, even when Kazuma calls out things for being too much like video games in his own world it never feels cheap or too obnoxiously fourth wall breaking.
Like? Like, Kazuma is aware he’s in an MMORPG inspired fantasy world but he’s never aware that he’s in a show about an MMORPG inspired fantasy world. It offers a kind of restraint while being loose enough to not take itself too seriously.
So it’s comedic? Sublimely so! This show has the best comedic timing of any anime I’ve ever seen. Specifically, Kazuma who has the kind of droll and cunning delivery of a line that is so otherwise sorely missing in most anime. It’s an utter joy to watch!
So final score and recommendation? I want this show to go forever, I know it won’t but it’s the kind of sublime experience that I never want to end. It’s just so much fun that I can barely find the adequate words to describe the experience, and… and those boobs—
NO! Just… stop! We’ve gotten this far without further sullying this review— I don’t care! If I could give a seperate score for ‘boobs in an anime’, Konosuba would get 100/100 but I know this isn’t Anime boob reviews (spin off blog maybe?!). So, season 1 of ‘Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World’ get’s a well earned, 94 out of 100, I never wanted it to end! Maybe I’ll sober up and make a half-way decent review, or maybe I’ll just let this slide as passable entertainment! Either way, KonoSuba comes heavily recommended for all and sundry! You don’t need to be a pervert to enjoy this show, but, well… it probably helps!
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