This really made my day.

Impression

Has the quality gotten even worse from last season? And why has that resulted in Konosuba actually getting funnier? I’m now starting to think it’s intentional. Even the OP looks like it was half-assed. Imagine how huge the returns must be for Studio DEEN. The input costs are so low that, even if Konosuba were to only sell moderately well, it would still be unusually profitable overall. All the director has to do is to tell his key animators to do a terrible job on purpose, and bizarrely they’d end up making more money than if they’d put in some effort and made sure everything looked nice. With the first season (it should be the same director) he must have been testing the waters to see what the reception would be like – it could have been chalked up as an experiment of sorts if things went horribly wrong, and DEEN have a reputation for being kind of a shit studio anyway so people would just laugh and forget about it. As we all know, it sold so well that it’s unsurprising a second season was immediately announced, scheduled for exactly a year in the future. Here we are, one year later and it now looks even worse. But that’s exactly it. It’s so fabulously bad it’s good.

I was worried that its charm would have faded away after so much time off, but I really shouldn’t have. The parody Star Wars intro all but indicated that it had no intention of being any less funny than the first season, although I have a feeling the password at the start might have worked if they’d tried ‘MEGUMIN’S REALLY THE BEST KONOSUBA CHARACTER’. I probably laughed the hardest to the combination lock and the guy in the turban accusing Kazuma of doing those creepy hand movements all that time ago, although the entire prosecution scene (complete with SHAFT-level body contortions) came pretty close.

Long story short, everyone’s a scumbag. Except Wiz, Yunyun and maybe Darkness. Although that’s not to say Kazuma isn’t a scumbag too. In fact, he’s a scumbag of the highest order. Everything that happened to him this episode basically amounted to a whole season’s worth of comeuppance from everything he’s inflicted upon the town and the people around him. I wasn’t quite sure how his sexual harassment crimes were strictly relevant to the accusation that he was a terrorist or related to the demon lord’s army, but they were still hilarious to hear about again. In the end, Chris or Kyouya don’t actually want to see him dead – Kazuma’s not a paragon of virtue, but they don’t hold grudges to the point that they would take advantage of the situation to get him executed. Not so for those two other girls, though. I’m surprised they could speak so boldly when clearly neither of them were wearing any panties, but I guess that way Kazuma can’t steal them. Also, the red-haired one with the pigtails is kind of cute. Speaking of nopan, there’s also Aqua as usual. The irony being that Kazuma’s shown zero interest in Aqua no matter how she’s been dressing.

Why was he even so terrified? Being executed will hurt, but Eris can just resurrect him even if he dies, right? Even if she doesn’t want to, Aqua will blackmail her into doing it. Admittedly, I’m not sure how far the slapstick elements of Konosuba actually extend – will everyone in the town and guild not question why Kazuma is somehow still alive and well despite having been beheaded in public? Is resurrection something Aqua can pass off as being one of her archpriest abilities? If we take several steps back, everything was Kazuma’s fault to begin with. If he hadn’t been such an asshole to Prosecutor-chan, she may never have asked that last question and the lie detector wouldn’t have gone off. Even if he had, he could claim that he’d spoken to Dullahan and that technically counts as having contact with the enemy too. But really, asking this guy to actually use his head is a bit much. Just you wait, he’ll probably pin the blame on Wiz later and use it as an excuse to bury his face in her crotch and take deep sniffs again.

Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed

This Post Has 14 Comments

  1. Wanderer

    …Was the quality worse? I didn’t notice. I was too busy enjoying the episode.

    Also, Aqua’s miniskirt seems to have gotten even mini-er. At least in that scene… Geeze girl, doesn’t that get chilly?

    1. Yithar

      I did notice the difference in quality when they dragged him, but until I saw the still images I didn’t really notice. I think it’s because of how our eyes work. “The eye perceives more detail in still objects than when they’re in motion. Because of this, a video compressor can apply more compression (drop more detail) when things are moving.” Also, I didn’t realize how bad DEEN was but I googled it and found this (https://anijubo.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/studio-deen-hate/).

      As for Aqua, I think it’s her personality as to why he’s not attracted to her. Megumin is sort of the same reason. Darkness also has her problems, but at least she tried to act normal when she first met him and she does act normal from time to time. Plus, it might also be his preference that her hair is the longest and has that adult charm and she’s a female knight.

      1. Vantage

        DEEN is kind of infamous for its low budget productions. Their attempt at Fate/stay wasn’t particularly amazing, and a lot of people despaired when it was announced they’d be taking over for Log Horizon S2, although in hindsight it wasn’t that bad in the end. 2016 has been sort of a resurgence year for them in terms of both sales and reputation, with Konosuba, Sakamoto and Rakugo Shinjuu all having been positively received.

        1. Yithar

          Yeah, I watched Fate/stay night, and it was passable, but compared to UBW it was sort of lackluster. I got the feeling that the quality wasn’t as good as the original visual novel. It is kind of unfair to compare something from 2014 to something from 2006, but I would agree Gurren Lagann, which came out a year later, had pretty good visuals that still hold up today. I also watched Log Horizon S2 as well, but I didn’t notice how bad it was until I saw this comment (https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/4brwyy/why_does_everyone_seem_to_hate_studio_deen/d1by4e8/).

          1. Vantage

            Comparing ufotable to DEEN at all is also kind of unfair, especially since the former is often thought of as one of the more ‘premium’ studios. Gurren Lagann has aged really well, in part helped by Trigger’s lively art style.

            Oh dear. At least Log Horizon is better known for its plot and response to the MMO craze instead of its visuals. And Lenessia is still a qt.

  2. zztop

    Konosuba’s the rare anime where the animation quality is inversely proportional to its funniness and enjoyment. It’s almost like how the derpiness of some of The Simpsons’ early 90s episodes made the gags funnier.

    1. Vantage

      Some of the gags were funnier, but the teeth in old art style Simpsons episodes were always really off-putting to me. When I was young, I remember being really confused as to how something in those old episodes felt different, and I could never put my finger on exactly what it was.

      Konosuba OP2 is so shit that it’s amazing. I can’t believe even an OP made me laugh. DEEN is making anime great again in the cheapest way possible. All I’m going to ask for is that they draw some cute Megumins once in a while.

      1. zztop

        If S2 performs as well as 1, it’s likely Konosuba’s entire LN could be adapted for anime. The source WN’s already ended, and is currently being adapted for LN format (subject to editor rewrites/changes etc).

        On another note, will anyone be covering the Chain Chronicle anime? The animation’s much better than Konosuba’s, although the plot’s fairly standard (mysterious demon king and dark army invade fantasy land of many races, Hero must unite the races to fight said king) and relies heavily on the viewer playing its source mobile game (it assumes you know Part 1’s plot, and the various factions and races). It does differ that the Hero suffers a crushing defeat to said king in ep 1, and there’s a new character who may eventually take on the Hero role.

  3. kinghumanity

    The. Production. Value. Is. Garbage.

    This is quite possibly the worst looking “hit” anime that I’ve ever watched, and it really irritated me the first season. Ok fine, the committee and studio DEEN didn’t expect it to sell, so they put in the bare minimum effort. But what’s the excuse for the second season? You can possibly tell me that the off-models, the ugly character designs (look up the original character designs for the LN, seriously), and the atrocious in-between frames. This really prevented me from fully recommending the show last season, and it only seemed to get 10x worse for the second season.

    Should have given the job to Kyoto Animation – the opposite of Studio DEEN.

    1. kinghumanity

      And no, the shit quality doesn’t make the comedy funnier – if KyoAni made this show instead of DEEN, it would have been 9/10 at least and sold double the amount.

    2. Vantage

      DEEN is ironically doing a shit job. To each their own, but to me (and lots of others) the terribly low production values are an unexpected plus for the adaptation, although I will agree it was a real surprise to see what the original character designs were like. It’s particularly noticeable with Yunyun, although that might be because her LN design was the first I saw of her.

      Double the amount? I don’t know about that, especially after Phantom Sales. And as much as I like KyoAni, there’s no way they would adapt something as vulgar and openly lewd as Konosuba. If it had yuri bait, maybe they might look at it twice.

  4. MalRoadkill

    When I think about my top anime, this show is now at the forefront. I think the animation style suits the show nicely. I think one of the most endearing thing, is that these people deserve each other. They’re all total goobers. That doesn’t mean they don’t mean well or aren’t good people but they’re stupid and annoying and their company of each other is the suffering that karma demands upon them. I love them all so much. I couldn’t help it and I’ve read all the light novels cept for the Megumin spin offs.

    1. Vantage

      They really do deserve each other. It’s such a dysfunctional relationship but they work well together. And deep down, the girls all appreciate it (except maybe Aqua) as they were having trouble finding a party who’d accept them before Kazuma came along.

      There are Megumin spin-offs?! I haven’t touched the LNs, but they’d be the first I’d read!

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