Konosuba

What will you do if you are given a chance to reincarnate in another world taking a mythical item of your choice with you? Could you imagine just what kind of over-powered cheat item you could bring? How about you just take this goddess and her goddess powers instead?

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!—God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! in English—or Konosuba for short is a light novel, written by Natsume Akatsuki, turned into an anime series. It is a typical story of a shut-in NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) who died in a rather pathetic way, so he was given a chance to reincarnate into another world in order to defeat the demon king or that's how it was suppose to be. However, unlike other reincarnation series where the protagonist turns into a cool, righteous hero with a powerful beautiful all-knowing goddess assisting him to complete his missions, this series plays the audience by turning their expectations and stereotypes around. As opposed to other this-loser-was-brought-into-a-fantasy-world stories, Konosuba focuses on the humor of living in a different world rather than resolving the conflict of the world (like defeating the demon king and its minions). From a shut-in NEET reborn into a struggling adventurer with an incredibly unreliable goddess by his side, Kazuma does his best to live in this wonderful world which leads him into forming a party with a couple more of weird companions keeping some hopeless quirks of their own.

The series has grounded the characters by giving them such strong and weird personalities. The Hero is quite the perverted loser, his partner Goddess is rathet useless and is often the cause of misfortune, a powerful Mage who stubbornly limits herself a one kind of magic because it is the coolest, and a Knight who loves to protect others by indulging herself in her own fetish. By simply having the fundamental understanding of each character's personality, their personal priorities and way of reasoning already give the audience a good grasp of how the scenes will unfold. That anticipation, the build up, the hanging sensation at the back of one’s mind waiting, combined with the right timing to throw the punchline makes each comedic moment genuinely hilarious.

Directed by Takaomi Kanasaki (Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?, School Rumble), the animation makes use of the squash-and-stretch principle that complements the goal of the story, which is to make the people laugh out loud. Just watching each episode gives the viewer the feeling of how much the staff enjoyed working on this anime. In fact, Kanasaki decided to adapt the light novel after reading it in one sitting. Having enjoyed it himself, he wanted to share it to more people. Like the director, watching some behind the scene recordings and promotions, shows how much the voice actors/actresses (Jun Fukushima, Sora Amamiya, Rie Takanashi, and Ai Kayano) loved playing their role. Being the voice of these rather unique characters is full of fun.

From one misfortune to the next, failures after failures, mostly brought on by their own stupidity, this anime will surely take you along in an adventure of uncontrollable laughter. Within this magnificent world of dorky characters, along with the hilarious OP that dances in tune with the music, and a solemn ED sang by the voice actresses, the only downside of this series is that it has very few episodes. The series’ animation makes great use of its “toony” technique which suits its comedic nature so well that it captures all of their comical reactions and exaggerated expressions. It is that one anime that will wash away the stress of daily life from our weary soul.