Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2

When Kazuma Satou died, he was given two choices: pass on to heaven or be revived in a fantasy world. After choosing the new world, the goddess Aqua tasked him with defeating the Demon King, and let him choose any weapon to aid him. Unfortunately, Kazuma chose to bring Aqua herself and has regretted the decision ever since then.

Not only is he stuck with a useless deity turned party archpriest, the pair also has to make enough money for living expenses. To add to their problems, their group continued to grow as more problematic adventurers joined their ranks. Their token spellcaster, Megumin, is an explosion magic specialist who can only cast one spell once per day and refuses to learn anything else. There is also their stalwart crusader, Lalatina Ford "Darkness" Dustiness, a helpless masochist who makes Kazuma look pure in comparison.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2 continues to follow Kazuma and the rest of his party through countless more adventures as they struggle to earn money and have to deal with one another's problematic personalities. However, things rarely go as planned, and they are often sidetracked by their own idiotic tendencies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Megumin Main

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Satou, Kazuma Main

Fukushima, Jun Japanese

Aqua Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Dustiness, Lalatina Ford Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Wiz Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Yunyun Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Vanir Supporting

Nishida, Masakazu Japanese

Eris Supporting

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Chomusuke Supporting

Nabatame, Hitomi Japanese

Chris Supporting

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Ogura, Rie Producer

Urasaki, Nobumitsu Producer

Kanasaki, Takaomi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Reviews

Mar 15, 2017

MetaThPr4h

Recommended

KonoSuba’s second season is here and it’s a fantastic follow up to last year’s fantasy/comedy series which deservedly became a massive hit among the anime community.

One of the strongest points of this series is the characters and their interactions, Kazuma is one of the weird cases where I find the protagonist to be the best character of a comedy anime, he’s just such a lovable troll that has to deal with the weirdos around him, the first of them being Aqua, a cute but useless crybaby that has a godlike talent for performing party tricks. However, outside of that she lacks any other abilities ... despite being an actual goddess. Most of the time she’s a hindrance to the group but damn she’s great. There is also Megumin, a chuunibyou that wants to see the world explode (and she will be the one doing it, one explosion at a time). Last but not least there’s Darkness, a holy crusader that does her best in the front line, blocking the attacks of the enemies in order to defend her allies… well, that and to enjoy the pleasure of being hit, just masochist things.

While the main cast are great, the side characters are certainly capable of stealing the spotlight. For example, there's Wiz, who is supposedly on the bad side but is probably the nicest person around, and Yunyun, another crimson mage like Megumin that really needs some love and headpats, poor girl.

The characters are very enjoyable to watch and their wacky, random adventures are always hilarious. Their gags stay fresh and funny due to all the different situations the characters are thrown into.

The RPG-like world adds a lot of variety to the comedy via fantasy elements and characters/monsters. Most series that use this type of setting tell a more serious story but KonoSuba uses it for comedic purposes. It’s a great, well-executed parody of the genre. Even the supposed ‘enemies’ are hilarious characters that add a lot of fun moments to this anime.

Excluding the first episode, that for some motive had a derpier look, the art of this sequel was like in the first season, shining in showing the multiple reactions of the characters with comedic faces that add a lot to the humour of this anime. The music is similar to the first season, with a special mention for the new opening "TOMORROW". It does a great job of showing what the anime is about, a bunch of weird people having lots of random, fun adventures. It's so easy to get in the mood for an episode once that opening starts playing.

As someone who really enjoyed KonoSuba, this sequel offers the same great comedy while putting the characters into new different hilarious scenarios. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the first season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 15, 2017

Veronin

Mixed Feelings

Konosuba is pure, unbridled stupidity. Kazuma and crew are so unbelievably lacking in their mental faculties that it is a wonder how they are even capable of putting their own clothes on every day. That they even know how to breathe is surprising in its own right.

Where most other anime in the fantasy genre-- Danmachi, Re:Zero and others of its ilk-- attempt to be absolutely and relentlessly serious at all times, Konosuba does away with the very notion of seriousness. It exists solely to be laughed at. And sometimes it does a pretty OK job at creating said laughs. It never aims to be ... a 'good' anime (least not in the traditional sense), and criticising it for not being such is kind of missing the point.

It just becomes a bit difficult to keep laughing when they repeat the same jokes for the fifth or fiftieth time.

Darkness is a thundering masochist who mentally orgasms and gets foamy-mouthed whenever she is treated poorly. The first season already made this joke several dozen times, so I get it. Kazuma will threaten her by promising to do unspeakable (!) things to her body, and, the deviant that she is, squirms in delight! No, look, I get it already-- I really, truly do. Her mind is so perverted that she will twist a friendly conversation into a suggestion of her being sexually assaulted by monsters and--- PLEASE, KONOSUBA. I GET IT. I get it, OK?

For as much of a joke as Konosuba's characters are, there is only so much comedy they can create by repeating the same punch-line until the ends of time. There are other, more interesting things that can be done with Darkness' character, surely. If this were pornography then maybe, perhaps, her characterisation would get a pass, but comedy requires considerably more effort than "oh gee golly I am like so horny right now."

Aqua, as tantalising as her mini-skirt is (and I have spent many a moment admiring her womanly curves), falls into much of the same issues, with her two defining traits being that she is a narcissist with an ego the size of Darkness' breasts, and a crybaby who falls on her knees and wails at the top of her lungs when she doesn't get her way. Her gags, almost invariably, follow a pattern of these two traits: she uses her status as a goddess to demand favours and respect, and then breaks her character and cries immediately after. A little bit more involved than Darkness' 'gag', sure, but it is still repeated to the point of nausea.

Kazuma is likely the more interesting of the lot, since he at least exists as more than a vehicle for a single joke. He is not developed by any means-- lord, no, he is a complete dunce from beginning to end-- but his frequent switching from idiot to straight-man does at least provide some variety to the gags. Kazuma is a jerky little twat, incapable of respect and prone to molesting the opposite sex, and his assertive nature does well to set him apart from all the other spineless protagonists of the genre. His over-reactions to all the ridiculous nonsense around him (often the direct result of Aqua's or Darkness' actions) are often still amusing, too, even if 'dude yells at stuff' may not exactly be the most artful style of humour. You almost feel bad for the little bugger - I would probably want to off myself in his situation, too.

There's not a whole lot to say about Megumin, considering she is pretty well non-existent for 90% of what happens in the second season. She's unquestionably the most sane of the four (though that isn't saying a whole lot...), and the one least susceptible to repeated gags. While the first season pushed it a bit by making her defective explosion magic and chuunibyou nature a recurring theme, the second season has next to none of it. And that's a good thing. I just wonder if, cute as she is, she might be a bit too normal the second time around.

Konosuba just never capitalises on what made absurd comedy series like Osomatsu-san and Gintama so clever. There is wonderful opportunity here for it, as one of the only non-serious fantasy anime, to take the piss out of other titles in the genre and properly satirise them. Part of the joke is that the Gang of Stupid are woefully incapable of combat, unable to progress as one typically would in an MMO or fantasy world, and are able only to defeat monsters and enemies through luck and by surprising them with their colossal stupidity, provided they don't just scream and run away altogether. That's an amusing reversal of the genre's tropes. But that's all there is. There's no actual "satire", no parody to be found in Konosuba - it is standard manzai comedy, living, and dying, by its own strengths and weaknesses.

That isn't to say that Konosuba is without merit, or that watching it can't still be a fun time. If you enjoyed the first season or just want a short, easygoing anime that doesn't require much thought or focus, then, hey, it does its job just fine, even if it may at times feel more like a greatest hits compilation. Konosuba is a big, dumb show and it knows it. I just don't think that being dumb is an excuse for laziness.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 15, 2017

CodeBlazeFate

Not Recommended

And now, I, the contrarian buzzkill present to you, Kono2ba: A middling, even less funny, and overall lower quality product that actually wants to be taken seriously at times. It fails by its predecessor's standards and it makes me feel like Kazuma. I'll grab the rotten tomatoes...

*SPOILERS FOR KONOSUBA 2*

I'm gonna come clean. I do not like Konosuba. The first half was really funny but the second half was so stale and infuriating that I would not be looking forward to any more. Hell, I only came back due to the fact that I follow all franchises I've seen, even the ones I dislike or ... hate. Even still, one can't deny that Konosuba had some novelty and genuine laughs, as well as a lot of heart. Kono2ba on the other hand, is a middling season that ends up being a downgrade in almost every way imaginable. It's more of the same things that made the second half of season 1 vastly inferior to the first half, only with some badly done plot, and a surprising amount of people seek to agree that this is at least inferior to the first season. Now, why the buzzkill viewpoint? Is this season as bad as I say? Well, before I get pelted like an Eris cultist, let's find out, shall we?

STORY: 3/10

Ideally, I wouldn't even try to rate the score of a comedy, as they tend to have stories that take no precedence and that are mostly episodic: a platform for the rest of the episode. However, this season actually tries to make us take this seriously at points and even reminds us that there is a central plot and not just a background for our characters to do whatever in. That means, I must take it into account. I'm a monster, I know. Even still, with this we can conclude that this ain't no "How I Met Your Mother".

Episode 1 has got to be the most simultaneously dull and aggravating first episodes to any anime I've seen to date. Presents everyone acting uncharacteristically douchey (which is a surprise given how awful some of these people are). Logic fore episode 1 is tossed aside as people make purposefully rash and assholish decisions for conflict that gets resolved at the episode, albeit with Kazuma getting the short end of the stick in the end, which is a common theme for this anime, but I'll get back to that. Some of the reasonings behind plot points, such as a member of the Demon Lord's generals surviving an explosion, or the Axis Cult being the worst people ever to their Goddess, or those same people finally worshiping her again and giving her a brand new power (God Requiem), are so damn plot convenient that they hurt. The Drifters level tone-shifts only make things worse, like in the most climactic moment of episode 10. They also like to make us have emotional moments in which we're supposed to feel for a character or see someone die, only for that to be revoked rather quickly, which sours everything. In the finale, Kazuma and a hot springs overseer are dissolved by a sludge monster that gets frozen, but we never see how they got set free and revived (since that would kill them both and we would need to see them getting revived, but Kazuma remains in the show but the other guy isn't seen again). There's that Darkness family subplot in episode 4 that amounts to nothing after all the buildup from the past 2 episodes.The last 4 episodes are spent on a bad Axis Cult arc that hardly does any progression aside from taking down another bad guy and then returning to status quo, because that's what a story meant to progress needs. Progression isn't mandatory to any real stretch in this series, as that is not a major problem like many claim. Even then, the series progresses more than many give it credit for. However, given that the first half is largely just a rehash of jokes that got old in season 1 and season 2 is largely this aggravating detour, it makes me want to opt out.

CHARACTERS: 2/10

Even in a comedy, having your characters be static, one-dimensional characters that only get "flandarised" (or having their main personality quirk get taken up to new extremes while being their only personality trait) over time is a bad thing, and will get on people's nerves, and boy did it ruin everything for me here...again. Let's start with Kazuma. Poor, poor Kazuma is never allowed to win. That is the golden rule. It's annoying to see the only sense of reason and human decency be the ultimate punching bag. He's even more observant this time, bur rarely does that come in handy. Sure, he's a but of a spiteful prick, but when you consider the toxic shits around him, can you blame him? Megumin is still a one-trick pony with a thing for explosion magic. Now, she also gets sexualized occasionally and is now as much of a prick as the rest of the group, especially towards Kazuma, because the only likable character isn't allowed to win. Yunyun (introduced in the OVA) is her hopeless and childish rival who doesn't serve much lurpose aside from being made fun of and having a backstory that, while tragic, is forgotten just as quickly as it was brought up. Darkness is the same as always, but with a little more antagonism towards Kazuma, and her shit was as annoying as ever to the point where it gloriously aggravated one of the villains in episode 5. Sena, the prosecutor that arrests Kazuma in episode 1, is an annoying lady who constantly shouts at him for everything and does nothing because we need an obnoxious authority character. The lord in episode 1 is just your stereotypical sleezebag ruler. Wiz, luckily, is still alright, and has a genuinely badass scene in the finale. Hans is a mediocre final villain, but his reasoning for wanting to fuck up the Axis Cult are reasonable; they are the most horrid, pathetic, stupid, and obnoxious people on the planet, just like their goddess, Aqua. Plus, they hate Eris because we gotta torture an actually decent person more because it's totally funny! Vanir, the villain in episode 4 who survives due to the convenient reasoning of being able to have multiple copies of himself, is an actually entertaining villain and eventual side-character. Now, to what really killed everything for me, above all else.

Aqua is the worst character in this show by a long mile, and is one of the most unlikeable bitches I've ever seen in fiction. This vain, worthless, problem-causing, obnoxious, pompous, stupid, and pathetic brat gets even worse here with how much they ramp up her stereotypcally bitchy attitude. They even lampshade all of this, but since character development (and, to a lesser extent, plot development) isn't allowed here, the bitch only gets worse with each passing episode. The only reason she helps out the obviously awful and disgusting Axis Cult, they worship her. The only reason she does decent things is because she hopes for benefit. She is the main source of Kazuma's suffering and it was never, ever funny for me. A stereotype of a bitch taken to an extreme that gets ramped up even further this season than last season. Luckily Eris is still tolerable and a safe haven for both myself and Kazuma, but she gets constantly shat on as well. I also hate how in the beginning of episode 1, after trying to help Kazuma not get arrested, and they are threatened, both Kazuma's "friends" and "guild colleagues" rat him out with absoluyte lies and totally betray him. This show often tries to make it seem like the tetrad of party-mates are friends, but they're played for deception to fuck over Kazuma because making a flawed yet decent person suffer for literally everything has got to be funny. You see my problem? The likable and actually decent people are always shit on, and the one-dimensional pricks only get worse and are just a bunch of obnoxious stereotypes in a fantasy world with different classes that they suck at. It's even worse here since they repeat each character joke at nauseum when they were already dry by the end of the first season, so there was a complete dearth of new comedy.

ART: 6/10

And now for the elephant in the room; the main point of division among the Konosuba 2 viewers. Studio DEEN handled this anime once again, and here's what I have to say about the visuals. The characters look far inferior, with how they handled going off-model. I get that they did this in order to make the characters even more expressive during jokes involving their reactions, but they should've did what season 1 did and reserved that for those moments exclusively instead of making it the default design. It doesn't even help out those moments well due to how they don't often fit with the actual emotions the characters have during reactions. The characters are rarely off-model and it becomes really jarring and bad to look at, with the benefits being outweighed by the negatives. Hell, it even effects enemy animals to a lesser extent. Action scenes aren't well-handled either when involving Darkness. I get what the team was trying to go for, but where Klasky Chupo (the studio that did Ren & Stimpy, Duckman, and Rugrsts) could pull it off, this studio can't. There are some fantastic animation moments and on the whole, the 2D animation is about on par, but when the rest of the visuals suffer, boy does the value of this fade.

If that wasn't bad enough, there are a decent amount of moments with bad CGI involved, such as the bad CGI horses in episode 7 and 8, that one moment of bad CGI water in episode 7, or the CGI sword jabs against Vanir in episode 5. Season 1 never had nearly as many moments, as sporadic as they are here. Sure, some of the nice magic and level up effects are still in display, but not done so enough to help counterbalance all of this. The explosions are still cool to look at, though, and the interior backgrounds can look nice. Still, not enough to save all of this.

SOUND: 6/10

Again, the OST isn't anything interesting or memorable. They take way too long to add some new tracks, but those new ones are actually pretty decent, an are some of the emotional tracks used for the moments of tension and sadness we're supposed to have. The OP, "Tomorrow" by Machico, is a decent OP, is somewhat catchy and nice, and is much better than the first season's OP. The ED, "Ouchi ni Kaeritai", is an ok enough ED, and is slightly better than the first season's ED. This is just about the only improvement this show has, and even then, it's not a big improvement, as the music is still overall, meh.

ENJOYMENT: 3/10

After loathing the first episode of this season, I wasn't sure how this season could make me feel anything other than bitterness.I was sorta right, but there were a few jokes here and there that I actually liked, such as Kazuma using his magic against people (for either new and satisfying digs at his douche allies, or for call backs to the better season 1 jokes) or Darkness landing on her neck after reveling in the lovely and rowdy pain she was in. That one actually made me bust. All of the other jokes made me feel aggravated, however. As stared constantly, I hated seeing actually decent people such as Kazuma get the shitter by everyone constantly. Along with all of the other recycled jokes from season 1 that were stretched way too thin this time, as well as the Axis BS, and every moment with Aqua, It wasn't a pleasant time. I was also groaning at how poorly they handled scenes that we're supposed to take seriously as plot and character moments, like when they are revoked just to give Kazuma another walloping. I didn't hate is as much as episode 1 made me think I would, but it was still a bitter experience that I don't want to go back to.

OVERALL: 4/10 RAW SCORE: 38/100

This season was a middling mess of a sequel that embodied everything I hate about Konosuba while taking itself more seriously, and bring an overall inferior product in terms of quality and production. I can only look back at this with cynicism and say that I am actually tired of Konosuba in general, as well as all fantasy "trapped in a fantasy game" light novel adaptations this show parodies. I'll give it one thing, though: it made me respect Season 1 a bit more. Well, with all that aid, I bid you adieu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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