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I was surprised to see this show had as many negative reviews as it does. Obviously you should not expect a progressive story from this show, if you do then you just don't understand that comedy isn't supposed to be taken that seriously. Well for me personally it hit all the right notes in comedy. And I hate 90 percent of anime humor. Demon Slayer's "humor" for example literally degrades the show to unwatchability, and the show is already unwatchable. The typical loud person screaming and yelling and getting overly emotional over literally nothing and repeating lines that you see in anime is just straight ... up painfully unfunny. But Konosuba doesn't do that.The characters work off each other cohesively. The jokes are all earned and never forced. The jokes go against your expectations not for the sake of subverting tropes, but because doing so is actually funny. Do the jokes get repetitive? I mean yeah, the characters personalities exist so they react to certain things as they were made to do. But over the 2 seasons I've watched the show, it never got old. The worldbuilding, or the world feel, was surprisingly amazing. It absolutely felt immersive and convincing. Lots of series lack the energy and worldbuilding for you to truly be immersed even if the plot is somewhat interesting. But Konosuba, this non-serious comedy anime just felt so real and great. Even if the show wasn't funny, the show just makes me feel happy. The energy of the show just exudes happiness, the show in one word IS "joy". What anime are you laughing to if not this?

Bad ending. I would say that everything before the ending is amazing. But I can't. The ending recontextualizes everything preceding it, explicitly changing the meaning of every chapter in which we thought different. As a result the story and especially the characters were wasted and ruined. So much was put into Eren's character, just for it all to be thrown away. So many hastily unfulfilled plot points that were tied up in an absolutely horrificly unsatisfying way. The way the loose ends and plot holes were lazily concluded was jawdropping. Added clichés where they didn't need to be. Forced a happy ending for a happy ... endings sake, not for a good story. If the story was going to end up like this, it would have been a better read if it was consistently poorly written throughout, no joke. Isayama said he wanted to "hurt" us with his story. Well he did, with a conclusion like this.

Disappointed.
(Note: I consider every chapter before 122, ignoring the recontextualization from the proceeding chapters, to be basically flawless and amazing)

This season suffers a lot compared to previous seasons in terms of animation, sound design/usage, and direction. But the source material is so good that the season is still good anyways.

The CGI does not look good. It doesn't matter if it's comparatively good to other CGI anime, as animation, it does not look good. In fact it's quite jarring, unpleasant to look at, and unimmersing. I just wanted to quickly get that out of the way, only people in denial think the 3D is on par with real, quality animation. Even the 2D animation blatantly lacks polish and consistency. Compare the hand drawn work ... to previous seasons or even MAPPA's other series(Jujutsu Kaisen) and you can tell there is much less polish and time put into even the hand drawings. Yes I know Kodansha is bad and MAPPA is a unethical studio that overworked and rushed their animators, but it still doesn't make it look any better.

The chilling soundtrack incorporation seasons 1-3 is longer here. Instead we have strange or underwhelming song choices. Personally I wasn't upset over the Declaration of War transformation OST, but I wasn't impressed either. It was just an easy re-used song. That's a common theme this season, underwhelming or re-used songs. A few songs are also overused in moments to create dramatic effect and it just does not feel natural at all. In terms of sound design outside of OSTs, there are just strange sound uses throughout the season. For example, when Eren unplugged the War Hammer Titan, it sounded like some shitty SFX noise, I have never heard or expected such a low quality sound from this series. The season also uses the thriller acceleration noise sound effect at ANY chance it can(e.g. revealing that Sasha died). The overuse of this thriller sound effect makes the show seem so much more juvenile than it needs to be.

Although the story and plot has deepened tremendously since seasons 1 through 3, this season can feel weightless at times. Scenes just are not hitting, even though more intense plotlines are occurring. The movement and animation choreography is extremely basic and simple, the ODMG movement scenes were butchered. If you watch the first episode of AOT, or the episode in which Erwin lays down his life, you can instantly tell the difference in direction, cinematics, and beauty that is put into the important scenes of the show. Season 4 in comparison is flaccid, weightless. Halfway through the season the pacing slowed to 1 chapter per episode. This season was mostly exposition, and the slow pace did not help either. Because I watched this weekly, It wasn't dragging for me. But in a rewatch you would definitely be able to tell the pacing of the exposition isn't as fast and intriguing as you would want it be. They decided to leave all the climaxes of the show to be shown in part 2, that's fine with me, but as a result this season(part 1) suffers as a result.

Even though I have ALL this criticism, I still believe this season is an 8/10. this is solely because of Hajime Isayama's story carrying the show, not the the production studio for the anime.

The overall and final message of this story is touching. The message and theme the author puts out is relatable, heart-wrenching, and puts a pit in your stomach thinking about regret of what could have been. However the manga doesn't focus on just displaying this message, it also has its own sci-f survival setting. Honestly, I didn't find the setting and incidents within the story to be all so charming or beautiful. The world and characters were unlikeable, disturbing, strange many times. The main character and the girl(Kaho) he loves are amazing characters, and the girl is drawn beautifully as well. Kaho is one of ... the best female character designs I've ever seen. If you're a fan of his works, definitely check this manga out, it has good reread value and its strengths definitely outweigh the flaws.

Going from the 2nd season to the 3rd, it was very hard to keep track of what was relevant and what were supposed to be important plotlines. I had no idea what the conflict of the season was specifically, or even why it was significant. This was not the fault of the watcher, but of the story. There was so much weight put on words such as "genuine" and "codependence" that completely shaped the actions of the characters.

It doesn't make sense why that is, why do those words, why does Yukino's family, matter. What was Yukino trying to hold a prom for? It was ... not explained fully or well at all in the show whatsoever, all we got for plot explanations was horrifically contrived dialogue between the characters. The Prom arc was a complete drag, and I had no idea what the purpose was of anything happening. Yukino felt so bland and boring. It made me question if I had even enjoyed the first 2 seasons, because the dialogue and plot became too much to bear.

The concluding episodes however, felt really good to watch. It immediately make Yukino likeable because... her personality completely shifted after the confession. I guess she let go of her burdens of... worrying about family? codependence? genuineness? I don't even know. The last few episodes were very fun to watch, and made me happy. It was nothing like the Prom shenanigans which took place most of the season. The story had so many ups and downs that coming to an opinion was very confusing. Maybe a rewatch would help.

The start to this show introduces Kazuya, a horrifically unlikable character from the beginning. We are forced to see his erotic fantasies and the pan shots over his trashcan filled with filthy tissues. Unfortunately, this character never becomes any more likable. From episode 1 to the season finale, he experienced no growth or development.

The show's idea of romance is distasteful. My guess is that the main character was created the way he was because the author wanted to make him "relatable". Well the relatability was thrown out the window the moment they made him a harem. There is no reason for a garbage human being ... to have 3 girls attached to him. On top of that, all the MC cares about is how attractive the girls are. And all the girls like about him, is that he is reasonably nice.

It's hard for a show to possibly lack more depth than this one does.

The other characters are not nearly as bad as Kazuya. Chizuru is a sensible person who looks like a model... that's it. But of course she's an amazing character when you compare her with the MC. Although maybe not entirely sensible given the fact that she starts to feel for the MC. Mami-Chan was the only character I really cared for, as she made realistic decisions, and wasn't annoying. I feel like this show was made for nothing more than for people to say "___ is best girl!" "No, ___ is best girl!"

The art was beautiful and very charming, it looked childish and bubbly. The OST was also kinda unique and modern.

This show was very bad. If you're a lame that watches the new seasonal anime with your brain off, thinking about nothing except about the coolest new "waifu" that gets introduced every few episodes, this is for you.

It's hard to write much about this movie because of how forgettable it is.

The MC is your typical regular dude. It is poor design making the character relatable to the general audience in order to entrance the viewers. It's not exciting, it's boring, it's been boring the first day the trope existed and it's boring now. It's okay to make a character a little less colorful than the other characters for relatability, but you can't leave an empty slate for the MC. He's a walking NPC.

The "love" aspect in this story is just a divine fated relationship, which is a shallow idea of romance, ... and I don't know how that touched anyone's heart. What this story has going for making is different is the premise. It's a body swapping, time traveling blur. It's confusing but not interesting enough to bother to understand what's going on.

The time skip ending was so generic they may as well add a kiss under the fireworks scene as well. It felt as if they were clearly trying to appeal to everyone in the world and in order to do that, they made the characters, emotion, and plot as bland as possible. This movie doesn't have traits that make it a bad, negative experience. It is just so bland to the point of painful mediocracy.

If I had to give this manga genre, it would be both a psychological/thriller and a coming of age/romance. This is because from the first arc to the second arc, a huge tone shift takes place.

The MC doesn't seem like much at first, he's just a boy in a class. But what makes this manga amazing is how the MC and the other much more colorful main characters build up on each other, the setting, and their circumstance. It is as if these characters don't amount to much individually, but together create an extremely immersive and thrilling story. It is incredible how such a ... seemingly typical MC pushes the social outcast(Nakamura) in his class to new lengths, and how she also pushes him. However, Nakamura's character arc is just straight up butchered in the second arc. Left with a boring conclusion to her character, there's no argument to be had, that definitely hurts the series.

The setting is based in the same world as the real one, with the same social norms. There's no weird "anime-like" actions of the characters or strange settings, it all feels pragmatic. So when you see the MC be manipulated and mentally tortured, it makes your draw drop due to the pure audacity of Nakamura, yet it is so immersive. The realism of the plot and setting accentuates the events in the story, making it more impactful and captivating. As the MC develops his relationship with Nakamura, it was if I was as well, growing more attached to the character.

The art of the story slightly changes from the first arc to the next, and it's interesting how it changes. You can say that the first arc's art is not as good as the second. But intentional or not, it fits in with the concurrent plot perfectly. It has a certain charm to it, a little rough around the edges, and something about it seems vintage. It takes place in his younger years, so it makes perfect sense that the art style is reminiscent of a memory. It fits perfectly with the chaos of the story. Move on to the second arc, and the linework is cleaner, the characters and background are more detailed and crisp. It has a clear sense of coming of age, the present, your reality. It is concise and clear, and it fits the smooth plot of the story. And it contrasts to the tone of the first arc.

TLDR: The characters and their interactions are entrancing. The realism/believability in this manga in particular goes beyond most others in my opinion. The events that happened within it made me feel at awe. The tone shift from the first part of the story to the second was a change of pace and added variety and progression. The ending left me empty, wanting more(in both good and bad ways).