KonoSuba 3 – 07 – Shadow of Destruction

Back in Axel, Kazuma and Aqua spend their 300 million Eris reward freely, constantly dining out at the finest restaurants. But while they try to put on the air of rich hoity-toity patrons, their less moneyed backgrounds rear their heads in the form of making remarks about their food that fall completely flat—complete with 10-second-long silences that again made me think the picture had frozen.

It’s unlikely they’re convincing anyone that they’re fancy, but the bottom line is they’re back home and having fun, and that’s fine with me! They also walk in on Megumin seemingly in the middle of a sexy torture sesh with Darkness and get the wrong idea. In truth, Darkness is training for the next annual Endurance competition, for which she is the reigning champion (no surprise there, as she’s turned on by punishment).

Fools and their money are soon parted, and Aqua spends a chunk on what appears to be an ordinary chicken egg. She was sold on its seller’s claims it was actually a dragon egg, and both his complimenting her beauty and her desire to raise a sacred white dragon led her to making a dubious purchase. Still, there’s a chance that it could be a dragon’s egg, isn’t there? I for one hope it is. Why should Chomusuke get to hoard the mascot role?

The gang stops by Wiz’s shop to collect their share of the stores sales as per their previous arrangement. Vanir throws in a fortune telling session for Darkness gratis, because he senses a “shadow of darkness” enveloping her. He asks her a bunch of questions she must answer honestly, leading to the others learning she’s now shredded, held up Megumin’s dress in a mirror to see how she’d look, and wears form-fitting armor knowing Kazuma will be looking at her.

But with all that silly stuff out of the way, Vanir does warn Darkness that disaster is about to befall her father and family. That’s probably why she’s so eager to undertake a super-high difficulty quest: defeating a Kowloon Hydra and claim the massive bounty. When calling him a hero and bashfully promising him a kiss on the cheek doesn’t work, Darkness bows before Kazuma and simply gives him her most pained, about-to-cry face.

Whether it’s genuine or not, it works, and the gang is back in the field. Aqua is the only one ho has to be dragged kicking and screaming; she’d rather stay with her “dragon” egg, which was left in Wiz and Vanir’s care. Megumin is excited to earn the title of Dragon Slayer. And Kazuma? I’m sure he figures he could always use more money, even as Vanir warns him he should spend what he has on developing new sources of income to avoid his own bad fortune.

We all know Kazuma cares about Darkness, just as he does the other three, and so he agrees to go on the quest. The plan is for Aqua to float around the lake, purifying the water until the Hydra that dwells beneath is roused, then Megumin will Explosion it to hell. KonoSu-Bing, KonoSu-Bang.

This plan wrecked when Aqua falls asleep in the middle of the lake and ends up on top of one of the Hydra’s many heads when it rises out of the water. Megumin can’t Explosion with Aqua there, so the gang’s in a bit of a pinch. But they’d dealt with tougher foes before. They just need to focus and trust in their talents!

KonoSuba 3 – 06 – The Man in the Mask

When Kazuma and Iris switch bodies again, it leads to Kazuma being banished from the palace, which is when Chris meets up to discuss Divine Treasures. Kazuma tells her about the body-swapping necklace, and learns that it can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, as one can kill the person you’ve swapped bodies with and keep switching bodies to gain immortality.

This leads to Chris and Kazuma dressing up in cool clothes and go on a palace heist to steal Iris’ necklace. They gain access easily enough, but when Kazuma starts grinding on Chris under the pretense of maintaining the lowest profile possible, she raises her voice and they’re discovered by guards, leading to a chase through the palace.

The duo eventually ends up cornered by Claire and Rain, which is when Kazuma decides to finally “get serious.” With his Devil Army General-defeating powers, he’s able to easily dodge Claire’s charge and overwhelm her with magic that seems to deliver a pleasurable kind of pain.

When Kyouya shows up, he proudly proclaims the Steal ability won’t work on him anymore, so Kazuma uses Freeze instead to seal his sword in its scabbard and get him to lose his footing. Kazuma then gorges him with water, such that he and Chris can slip away when Claire and Rain are busy helping him.

Ultimately, Darkness, Megumin, and Aqua are the last line of defense between the masked thieves and Princess Iris (who even brandishes her own adorable sword, unafraid of combat). Alas, Megumin is completely smitten with the thieves’ style, and she and Darkness are quickly bound by Kazuma.

Even drunk, Aqua is able to lift the binding spell and rally Darkness, well aware that Megumin is no longer useful. But Kazuma and Chris are still able to slip past them and cast Steal on Iris’ necklace at the same time as they leap through a stained glass window and into the water below.

Darkness soon tracks the thieves down, and even when she learns it’s Kazuma and Chris, she doesn’t hold back on the face-crunching. That said, when Kazuma tells Darkness and Chris he only managed to Steal Iris’ ring, Darkness gets serious and grabs his arm.

That ring is only meant to leave Iris’ hand when it’s being given to her betrothed. She impresses on him the importance of protecting the ring at all costs, whatever trials come in the future. Trying to give the ring back could get him killed to protect the secret of how it was stolen.

At their farewell ceremony, everyone seems to adopt an opinion of the noble thieves similar to Megumin, only less intense: they are seen as impressive and admirable because they stole the ring to protect the princess. Kazuma gets the sense Iris actually knows he, her Big Brother, stole the ring, and that’s exactly the case, though he never confirms it.

As we saw in their flashbacks together, Iris has grown quite fond of Kazuma, as he alone doesn’t put on airs or dote upon him (though during their goodbyes she nearly gets in a brawl with Megumin for calling him Big Brother too much).

When Darkness tells Iris that Kazuma will defeat the Devil King and Iris’ face lights up with excitement, Kazuma just can’t quite move himself to contradict Darkness. She hopes he’ll return someday so they can continue their chess games and, perhaps, once he’s defeated the Devil King, so he can ask for her hand?

KonoSuba 3 – 05 – Divine Treasures

Kazuma was soaking up the renown from everyone recognizing his name, deeds, and general awesomeness. But once the battle begins, all it takes is for one scared little kobold to lure him into a pit where a hundred kobolds are waiting for him to suddenly lose his life. Darkness and Megumin steal the show instead with their bravery and explosion, respectively.

Eris resurrects Kazuma once more, but tasks him with collecting the Divine Treasures, meant to be used only by the Resurrected like himself and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. And while he unceremoniously dumps the still-recovering Megumin on the bed of his room at the palace he’s once again granted, they still get to have a weekly Sweet Megumin x Kazuma Moment.

They’re both ready to head back to Axel, but when Iris comes in to say hi, Megumin notices her golden necklace is imbued with ridiculous amounts of magical power. Iris shows them the inscription on the back, which turns out to be Japanese, and when Kazuma reads it the necklace glows and flashes, and suddenly Kazuma and Iris have swapped bodies.

I’m on record here as loving any and all body swap episodes, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Iris moves and talks exactly like Kazuma, the latter a testament to Iris’ seiyu Takao Kanon’s vocal talent. Fukushima Jun similarly does a great job sounding like Iris in Kazuma’s body with a higher pitch and far gentler and polite speech patterns.

Both Iris and Kazuma decide that now that they’ve been thus afflicted, they might as well have some fun. Iris heads into town without retainers for the first time in her life, in Kazuma’s body and with Megumin as an escort. Kazuma meanwhile gets to serve up a much more smug and haughty version of Iris that flummoxes Claire and Mitsurugi with her new attitude.

Kazuma also uses this opportunity to be a little perv, heading to the bath to wash Darkness and Claire’s back. Claire’s a little too enthusiastic about this, while Kazuma ends up emotionally unprepared for the sheer amount of noble skin that awaits him in the bath. As Iris gets his body’s ass beaten into the stone age by some toughs Megumin provokes on purpose, Kazuma blesses his luck and decides not to worry about tomorrow … until tomorrow.