KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie Review

An action-adventure anime set against the backdrop of a ORPG

Konosuba! The Complete First Season and OVA explores an action-adventure fantasy world that will appeal to fans of online role- playing games with its quirky storyline. Produced by Rie Ogura (Strike Witches: The Movie, Konosuba!: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! - Legend of Crimson), the series features adventure, action, and comedy aimed at a male teenage audience (i.e. there is plenty of so-called “fan service.”)

Kazuma Sato (Jun Fukushima) is an ordinary teenage boy who dreams of nothing more than to be the hero of his own story. Kazuma gets his own chance to shine when he (rather unexpectedly) dies and becomes tossed into a meeting with drop-dead-sexy Aqua (Sora Amamiya). The goddess gives him some interesting options to choose from: go to an after-life or enter a massive ORPG (online role-playing game) fantasy land with one mission before him: defeat the vicious devil king. One asterisk: Kazuma is to pick someone to go with him... and he cannot return until victory is found.

Kazuma picks Aqua (much to her imminent surprise!) and is tossed in to a game-world where there are dragons, vicious villains, and beautiful maidens all around. The journey is only just beginning. An epic quest of adventure begins to unfold. Along the way, Kazuma will meet and befriend a 13 year old wizard, the mega-smart Megumin (Rie Takahashi) and a zany crusader with a “dark” side named Darkness (Ai Kayano). What dangers and fun await Kazuma? And can he defeat the Devil King?

The animation on the production is generally solid. Though the character designs are nothing to write home about, the production is certainly reasonably well animated and produced. There are some nice elements to the art: the background art work is especially well-drawn and the colors are quite vivid in the fantasy realm. The series never manages to seem as unique or special as one would hope. Though it is passable, the animators seem to be going through-the-motions here. The end result is only average at best for an anime in this genre. The art direction by Masakazu Miyake (The Helpful Fox Senko-san, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kono Subarashii Choker ni Shukufuku o! ) might have some ambitious moments (especially during the pilot) but the animators seem to lose out of steam rather fast.

"How many writers does it take to make a great anime?" Perhaps more than the number involved on this one.

Edited by Kashiko Kimura (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Okko's Inn), Konosuba! The Complete First Season is a mixed bag on the editing front. The series manages to feel over-long and boring during so many moments sprinkled throughout the series. Kimura should have managed to cut down on overly drawn-out sequences and focus more on the action-humor quotient. The series is not a total disaster. However, the editing could have been significantly tighter.

The score by Masato Kôda (Radiant, Maria the Virgin Witch) is another disappointing element to the production. The music never manages to grab hold. The background music is no more inspired than what one would find in an uninspired video- game (not to be confused with the great game scores in epic adventures found in the Zelda franchise and other JRPG's). While the music is never grating on one's nerves, it similarly doesn't manage to leave much of a positive impression either. Sadly, it is a missed opportunity.

Natsume Akatsuki (Isekai Quartet, Kemono Michi: Rise Up) serves as the chief screenwriter of the series. The biggest problem the program has is the lackluster storytelling. The foundation of a great anime series is a great screenplay. The storytelling here is simply uninspired. While the concept of the program is interesting, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The lead character is altogether obnoxious and uninteresting. The female characters aren't given unique personalities and are simply stereotyped. The program would have benefited from a better writing staff. Unfortunately, Konosuba! does not deliver on a solid story.

Takaomi Kanasaki (Is This a Zombie?, Tokyo Ravens) seems to be an adequate director for the project but the lack of a cohesive vision for the program manages to bring down the otherwise decent quality of direction. If Kanasaki had only managed to bring in better storytellers, perhaps the program would have been more entertaining to watch unfold. Instead, Konosuba! seems to start of with a somewhat interesting concept and first-episode before it rapidly deteriorated. The last episodes of the season are particularly uninspired and the humor is heavily aimed at young adolescent men simply hoping for the fan-service to carry the program. For anyone else: the series is a total drag. Meh.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from anime distributor Discotek Media, Konosuba! The Complete First Season and OVA is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.77:1 widescreen. This was a stunning presentation of the series. The encoding was top-notch and manages to present the high-quality animation with extremely bright, colorful, and detailed imagery.

There was never a moment during the presentation where it was not a strong encode or where it seemed to be lacking in fine detail. Compression seems tight and managed well throughout the season: there are no egregious issues to report (such as macroblocking or over-the-top banding). Though there are a few scenes of minor banding (source-related), Konosuba! The Complete First Season and OVA looks splendid overall.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes two lossless audio options: English and Japanese uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo. The 16 bit depth audio tracks are quite sufficient for the presentation. Dialogue is crisp, clear, and consistently easy to understand. If there are any drawbacks to report, it is that the tracks were not impressive from an LFE standpoint. The bass levels were simply less robust than expected and can sometimes sound a little flat. The track is still crystal clear sounding. Though the sound mix is fairly subdued, the detail is well preserved.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Title-free Opening (HD, 1:31)

Title-free Ending (HD, 1:31)

Promotional Videos and Commercials (HD, 5:01)

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World!: The Complete First Season & OVA Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Konosuba! is for teenage boys who want to watch an anime series with plenty of fan-service. That is all. The program has a poor storyline, weak characterizations, and lackluster production elements. I thought the concept was interesting and had potential but the show-runners clearly failed to make it succeed. The program loses steam and is not worth one's time. Fans will appreciate the solid video-audio presentation but newcomers might want to rent it first.