Welcome
The story 'caught in an MMO or another world', after the success of SAO, has been repeated enough to become a genre in itself. Give Studio Deen a story like that and we'll see something relatively new
KonoSuba, abbreviated from Kono Subarashii Sekai or Shukufuku wo, is a message of satirical love for fans and cynics of power and magic in the otaku culture. It succeeds not only by parodying stories with fantasy worlds, but by forming a world of its own that feels genuine and attractive. The cast and the plot flow naturally from one escape to another, all in the irony of never leaving the initial city
But as powerful as the characters turn toward the end, the show begins to lose track of what makes it special, like an adventurer who forgets the skills he has gained. In the battle to keep his audience hooked, KonoSuba tightens and ends up relying on a dead humor that not even the necromancer of the highest level could revive.
The premise is more than hilarious, it immediately laughs at itself. Kazuma, an otaku unsure about his hikikomori lifestyle, drags a goddess named Aqua, from her comfortable throne, into an MMORPG world that promises a dream of adventure, but not everything is delivered on a silver platter apparently for them, the pair could not be more perfect for each other.
Its objectives are well defined and, naturally, lead its characters to collaborate or collide with each other. Kazuma wants a rich and comfortable lifestyle, while Aqua always competes for attention. But they are condemned to ironic failure. The goddess continues to land our cast in poverty, far from the monetary devotion of the deity she once was. As for our hero, we hope that his ability to 'steal' slowly yields his wealth, but with a statistic of maximum luck, the only thing he can steal from the girls are his panties.
History finds impetus immediately. Instead of going into exaggerated battle sequences, our heroes are first caught in manual labor, and sleeping in a barn. It is both idyllic in how comfortable they are, as it shows a good pace of assembly, but tragic for Kazuma, as he expected a 'genuine' adventure in this world. The first deep note of KonoSuba's satire is unexpectedly sober; it does not matter to which world you escape, you have to work to earn your livelihood. The early conversations about the danger and the minimum wage of the missions to kill monsters, enhance this pleasant realism that sustains a large part of the comedy of the program
The imbalance of the world takes realism one step further; the first kill missions, such as eliminating giant frogs, which can barely even deal with as a team, such as moving to a more difficult event, where the cast must defend itself from a seemingly unstoppable war machine that seems ready to level the city tutorial as What's up. The use of the configuration of the show is fun but intelligent, maintains a constant irony in each encounter, but also reinforces the idea that you can have great adventures from the moment you start something. It is very distant from any game you have played for hours, before you feel free to explore. Even so, the message is marred by a cast that becomes a group typecast, which are remarkably, little adventurous
It is not long before the duo is joined by more members to form their stereotyped role party (Caballero, magician, monk and the protagonist of "Que todo lo puede"). Following with the 'luck' of our hero who snatches the panties, this is where the cracks really start to appear. Megumin, a chuunibyou sorceress, is undeniably tender and fits into the pathetic nature wherever you look. She manages incredible power, but falls in one piece in each battle, while her spells take away all her energy. As a physical slogan that is repeated once it attacks, this joke never ages.
However, what feels really uncomfortable, is how often she talks about her magic, there is an exoticism, an illicit witness, a lust behind her "magical explosion". It is difficult to look the other way with the connotation of orgasm, particularly in the way it is shown, at a given moment, embracing your cane seductively. A more mature character would make this not a problem, but it is established that she is in her early teens. This 'loli' aspect of your character may be popular for a certain part of the audience. She already has the qualities to spare, to be the public's favorite, without having to use, the tempting sexualization of her power.
This goes for worse, the other member who joins this duo, Darkness, which is a masochistic maniac. We have the aspect of "giving" the sexual tone in Megumin, and the element of "receiving" in her, however, although Megumin is more a rather light Fanservice, Darkness aspires to be something else. Why is Darkness like that? Is his clumsiness with the sword, a phallic symbol of sexual sadism, due to a Freudian contradiction with his masochistic desires? .... No one cares about that, it's the same superficial joke that she finds pleasure in the assault and the torment, as she imagines being "punished" in a thousand ways by her enemies, this joke quickly becomes obsolete and somewhat sickly to watch.
For example, the grotesque fanservice of chapter 9 should offer a hilarious investment to his character, since he finally finds himself in a real and oppressive sexual situation, but at this moment we have grown weary of this typical situation that most of the audience knew what would happen. And both the comedy and the characterization are lost, Darkness is the bitter note of KonoSuba, a character who stays out of the fridge for too long, often resorting to gags without imagination, which achieves nothing for the plot. The coolest characters come and go throughout the series; Who would not want more of Mitsurugi, the braggart whose power only comes from his sword?
Often, the only lifeguard of Darkness is the fantastic comeback of Kazuma, Jun Fukushima plays the protagonist with an agile and ingenious tone and a comical timing that is unmatched. But behind the gags of good rhythm of this, Kazuma ends up weighing the show with his contribution to an unpleasant and unwelcome image of gender relations. It is understandable that men who end up in the world of KonoSuba are fans of RPGs, and can easily compare with a pervert, but KonoSuba summarizes all those hormones of mascunilidad under that curtain, even the generals of the demon king, tend to fall in that margin. Our only nobleman seems to be Mitsurugi, but he has been shown to be a weakling and braggart. It could be funny that chivalry is not present in this series, which goes against the stereotype.
Every time one of Kazuma's female cohorts, especially Aqua, needs to rise above him, they resort to feigning acts of indecency committed against them, blackmailing Kazuma with shame or complaining. Along with this, the masochism of Darkness and the collapses of Megumin, work too openly as a general paradigm of feminine submission for male pleasure, only focusing on our protagonist. The moments of Megumin's fan service, like the scene where she loses her underwear (chapter 8), encourage a kind of pleasure that is contrary to the screen plot. It may be a traditional harem / harem show resource, but KonoSuba attracts praise for its mockery of such things. It is not long before you start to feel that this is something that the program should parody, not act.
Only by removing Kazuma from history, and like any harem, does it fall apart. Given how nice Megumin can be, and how much more (infinitely more) could be done with Darkness, in the end, I think you should feel more autonomy with respect to these characters. Aqua is the only girl who can face Kazuma in a level playing field, and although her character is someone spoiled, it is very fun to watch at the beginning, the lack of development she suffers becomes unsatisfactory and obviously plays against her. Maybe the way the cast feels more and more comfortable in their characterization, and define themselves as they really are during the middle of the series, characters with few challenges, but this style goes well with Kazuma's objective of establishing himself relaxed and peaceful, in the tutorial city, which the rest of the cast is also linked to. . our dear cast, I feel that it was not sufficiently molded at the end of all this
The unsatisfactory dynamics of the central distribution, and the constant use of a rather annoying sexual humor, end up stopping the first season of KonoSuba, of offering the absolute hilarity that the first chapters promise. Fortunately, his antagonists are always hilarious, whether it's Beldia's insecurity as a boss, Aqua's excessive communion with the ghosts of the mansion, or how that fortress (Destroyer) was popular with children, the battles of KonoSuba they are wrapped in laughter and in the detriment of what they usually represent. The action sequences are undoubtedly fun, also managing to maintain a sense of how serious each scene is, even with all that humor in between, keeping most of the cast, placed in a fairly realistic life or death situation.
As for the technical, the production of the series, is a sequence of good choices when it comes to music and editing. The opening / ending are magnificent, and the OST puts into effect, every comic moment that is presented.
The world of Konosuba is, at the same time, undoubtedly a great mockery of a fantasy realm and an ideal place to settle down. There are no 'feelings', there is no imminent death, which subverts the whole point of the world to become a terrible place due to the government of the demon king, which is also the end of all this history. We only know the demon king through his generals, well, that is going to be done in that aspect
If the series had avoided the traps of the typical Japanese comedy, KonoSuba would be a perfect happy parody. In any case, the second season showed us a slight change in all this (if you already saw it).
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Thanks for reading the post, and I hope you liked it, bye