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.

KonoSuba 3 – 04 – Mansion Life

Lord Aldarp grudgingly welcomes Kazuma, Megumin, and Aqua to his mansion to investigate the noble thief, but only because he still has the hots for Lady Dustiness. He’d even set up a magic mirror to view her in the bath, which Kazuma condemns while vowing to spend the night there. Darkness smashes the mirror, but it’s only the start of her troubles.

Between Aqua stuffing herself and getting loaded on all of the lord’s booze, Megumin frightening the residents of the city with her practice Explosions, and Kazuma essentially lazing about, Aldarp gets more than he bargained for. That said, I did enjoy Kazuma and Megumin’s sweet interactions as the latter all but admits she was worried about him before inviting him on a “date”—which is just her casting Explosion and him carrying her home…which isn’t a bad time at all!

While grabbing a midnight snack, Kazuma encounter what he believes to be the noble thief, but it turns out to be Chris, who assures him she’s there for a very good reason. Kazuma insists that he doesn’t want to hear it, as he knows the more he learns, the more trouble he’ll get pulled into. Chris agrees not to tell him the next time they meet. Kazuma doesn’t want to hear it then, either!

He does have Chris cast Bind on him to make it look like the thief got away, but when Aqua, Megumin and Darkness find him, none of them are in a hurry to untie him. Aqua first apologizes for breaking a bunch of his stuff while he was gone, while Darkness force feeds him flan and makes him apologize for putting her through so much hell throughout this trip.

After making a report to Princess Iris, Kazuma and his party are denied further access to the castle and end up at an inn. Before that Mitsurugi Kyouya gives Aqua the gift of a beautiful sapphire ring, but Aqua forgot who he was, and the ring doesn’t fit. Then in the middle of the night Chris visits Kazuma again to tell him what she’s been up to, whether he wants to hear it or not: she’s been collecting “divine treasures”, i.e. cheat items like the one that created money. She wants him to help, but he’s unenthusiastic about doing so.

Then an alarm sounds, indicating another Devil King’s Army attack and calling all high-level adventurers to joining the knights in repelling the attackers. At first Kazuma has no interest, leading Darkness to call him a coward, but then she begs him to help her get Aqua out of bed and keep Megumin from running off and Exploding everything.

Kazuma eventually determines that if he puts on a good show in this battle, he might just be allowed to live in the castle again, which is currently his primary goal in life. So he suits up, grabs Aqua kicking and screaming, and leads the party to the city gates where the other forces are stationed.

KonoSuba 3 – 03 – The Princess’ Playmate

When Kazuma asks Rain if he’s technically been kidnapped and brought to Belzerg by Princess Iris, she asks that he indulge her desire to have a companion for a few days, as she rarely makes selfish requests of anyone. At first, Kazuma’s conscience directs him to comply, but after telling her some stories about his friends and his school in his old life, and she calls him “onii-chan” and repeats it several times at his request, he decides to stay.

Thus begins a period of Kazuma waking up in his cavernous chambers looking like a shoujo character, calling his butler by the wrong name and refusing to get out of bed so the maid can change the sheets. His days are spent playing with Iris, whether it’s hide-and-seek or tag or chess (which she’s very good at). And while perhaps Kazuma is getting something out of this by having an adorable royal little sister, it’s still very nice for him to keep her company.

That’s made clearer by the fact that she isn’t able to attend school, nor can she leave the palace grounds, without an armed royal guard, due to regular surprise attacks from the Devil King’s Army. But after a week, Kazuma’s friends come to bring him home, with Darkness asking Iris in as diplomatic and polite terms as possible that he belongs back in Axel with them. Despite Kazuma dispatching four spirit clones to subconsciously persuade her, Iris agrees to let Kazuma go home.

That’s not before she hosts a banquet in his honor, which turns out to be anything but due to the nobles not knowing who he is and being far more interested in courting the still-unmarried Darkness. That includes Lord Alderp, whose palace was destroyed in a previous season.

When Kazuma jokes to Darkness about being her lover, he’s exiled outside, but he’s soon joined by Iris. While her reasons for liking him sound like insults, they’re not: she’s valued their time together, and the fact he’s vibrant and honest and rude like no one she’s ever met.

He and Lalatina have even inspired her to possibly pursue adventuring once she’s older, as her family possesses innate skills useful to that profession. But before that, her offhand comment about a Robin Hood-like mysterious “noble thief” running lurking about the capital gives Kazuma an in to stay put in this cushy palace with servants.

He asks if he can investigate and catch the thief, and while Claire’s approval is hesitant, the nobles are extremely excited that someone, even an “unremarkable lad” like Kazuma, is on the case. Aqua and Megumin are also on board, but both they and Kazuma get a rude awakening, as they’re assigned to Lord Alderp’s residence for the mission.

In other words, no more palace servants or all-you-can-eat banquets. Instead, what Kazuma has done is given himself and his friends more work to do. That said, if they do manage to catch the noble thief, it will improve their rep in Belzerg. That can’t be bad, right?

KonoSuba 3 – 02 – Guess Who’s Teleporting for Dinner

After a successful sale of pocket lighters at Wiz’s shop, Kazuma & Co. prepare for a formal dinner with Princess Iris. As the only noble among the party, Darkness takes point in this venture, and impresses upon everyone how their usual repartee isn’t going to fly in front of royalty: one wrong word or look and they could literally lose their heads.

As you can imagine, things don’t go that well. Aqua tries to whip out a card trick and drinks too much, Magumin does her Crimson Demon schtick, and Kazuma’s look and tone insult the princess. It’s only thanks to Iris happening to like the sand portrait Aqua made of her (ahoge and all) and Darkness’s manners manage to smooth things over.

When Kazuma won’t show the princess his adventurer’s card, she accuses him of lying about defeating Mitsurugi, speaking out loud instead of relying on the help to speak for her. Darkness responds by slapping her, and blocks the sword of her attendant with her wrist. Then she gently takes Iris’s cheek in her hand and calmly scolds her for insulting Kazuma.

Moved by both Megumin threatening violence on his behalf and Darkness defending his honor, Kazuma finally decides he’ll show Iris’ attendant how he beat Mitsurugi: with his Steal ability. Unfortunately, whether due to lack of focus or something else, rather than steal the attendant’s sword, he ends up stealing … her unmentionables.

While everyone is scandalized by this, both the attendant and Iris are sufficiently impressed that they admit Kazuma must have what it took to beat Mitsurugi. Iris even apologizes out loud and hopes Kazuma will regale her with more stories of his adventures. When he says that he will, she takes that to mean right now, and before she’s teleported away she grabs his hand and he ends up at the royal palace with her. It’s a Kazumanapping!

This was a comedic tour-de-force in which the KonoSuba gang butted up against royal manners and propriety and more or less came out on top. The tension of the earlier parts of the dinner have melted away by the end, and Iris is precisely the cute and curious princess Kazuma hoped for. If he plays his cards right, she might even start calling him Onii-sama!

KonoSuba 3 – 01 – The Dawning of Our Age

While I love Megumin, the spinoff focusing on her and Yunyun just didn’t do it for me. A True KonoSuba needs the whole team involved: Megumin, Darkness, Aqua, and Satou Kazuma. And yes, Kazuma still says “Yes, I’m Kazuma” when the others address him, which is never not hilarious.

Also funny? That due to all of the female attention Kazuma is getting due to his heroic deeds, and his various recent “close encounters” with certain aggressive women, has led to him developing a complex to the point he decides he’s going to change his job from adventurer to monk and live a life of chastity and service.

The gang accompanies him on his journey to the strictest order Luna (whom he had a crush on) could find, with the goal of dissuading him from uprooting his life to such an extreme. When he says his will is as strong and unmoving as a mountain in the distance, Megumin uses her Explosion magic to stylishly reduce the mountain to dust.

When Aqua and Darkness enter a fitful sleep, Kazuma keeps watch by the campfire with Megumin, who puts her hand on his and tenderly expresses her wish that thinks simply stay the way they are for everyone. When Kazuma takes this move as some kind of overture, he enters a cycle of overthinking to the point Megumin eventually simply falls asleep.

As their journey continues, they encounter an adorable and apparently wounded little girl from whom Kazuma instantly senses danger. She’s actually a “Tranquility Girl”, a type of plant monster that preys on good-natured and caring people by turning their protective instincts up to eleven, then preying on them.

Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin fall for her hook, line, and sinker, but Kazuma stays lucid, and they survive the encounter. Kazuma doubles back and observes the girl in her normal state, in which she bitterly laments letting his party go unscathed with the most teeth-sucking I’ve heard in a while.

When Kazuma recovers a mallet from her deceased last victim that creates gold coins when you make a hammering motion, he suddenly decides to abandon his desire to become a monk and heads home with the others. Unfortunately, by the time they return to Axel having planned all the ways they’re going to spend their newfound cash, he realizes he’s lost the mallet.

Oh well, at least he’s back home where he belongs. Just before bedtime, Hagen, from Darkness’ household, stops by with a letter for Kazuma from First Princess Iris, inviting him to regale her with tales of his heroic exploits. While Darkness is weary, Kazuma, Aqua, and Megumin are eager to accept the Princess’ invitation.

KonoSuba is so back, people! In fact, t’s like it never left, despite the second season ending seven years ago. The rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, the over-the-top facial expressions, and of course the epic explosions—it’s all there, and all the voice actors remain at the top of their game. There’s even the odd wholesome moments like Kazuma and Megumin by the fire. I can’t wait to watch what happens when these goofballs have to interact with legit royalty!

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 03 – Signs Point to Maybe

For an academy formally known as the “Red Prison”, it sure is laid back! For the second episode in a row there are no real classes; the adults are all out hunting monsters, so it’s free study time at the library. Yunyun is super excited to make two new friends in Funifura and Dodonko, who even do her hair! But when a spider taunts Megumin, she leaps on Yunyun, steals a hair tie to sling at the haughty arachnid.

The vibes are ruined for good when village NEET Bukkorori teleports in—an impressive display of magic by a deeply unimpressive man. He notes how he used to check out the same books as Soketto back in the day, and one of the three locations he can teleport to is the front of her house. The students are so disgusted that they bury him with books, to which I say: What the heck did the books do to deserve such shabby treatment?!

Inexplicably, both Megumin and Yunyun allow themselves to be roped into Bukkorori’s pathetic attempt to court Soketto, first by watching her sweep her front yard from a tree, then becoming invisible and sneaking up on her while she’s training in the forest. For her part, Soketto regards Bukkorori’s behavior as a sign that he hates her. When a pack of “One-Punch Bears” arrives, he uses a flashy Inferno spell to dispatch them in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, Soketto ends up caught up in the flames, which is … suboptimal.

When Soketto hears that Bukkorori wanted a reading (she’s a fortune teller) she decides to give him a freebie, since she technically saved her life (she’s still alive; the bears are not). He asks about who his future romantic partner might be, and she fires up her crystal ball…only no one appears. She apologizes for the somber result and says her fortunes aren’t always accurate. Left unsaid is that there actually was someone in the ball … Soketto’s own reflection.

While he’s problematic on a number of levels, Soketto still considers him “interesting” to the point where she might not immediately turn him down were he to express the desire to grab a cup of chuunibyou coffee some time … but I seriously doubt he’ll ever do any such thing. For one thing, NEETs can’t afford fancy coffee!

During another free study period, Yunyun and Megumin chat about her own romantic futures. Yunyun wants a quiet boring guy who listens; Megumin expects she’ll be too busy exploding things but won’t rule out falling for a peerless hero in a future adventuring party. When the students are ordered to go home in pairs due to monster sightings, Yunyun starts to ask Megumin, but Dodonko and Funifura invite her instead.

Megumin starts walking home on her own, but Yunyun chases after her. She may be Megumin’s self-appointed rival, but she still wants to walk home with her and get something to eat on the way. For that reason, Yunyun will surely embrace the value of truces, during which she can set aside their “rivalry” and revel in their friendship.

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 02 – Augmentation Surge

After picking out a new dagger for Yunyun and failing to get her to see how quickly she can stab between her fingers, Megumin returns home to find that the slightly feral Konekko has caught a black cat “for dinner.” Yes, the origin story of Chomusuke is she rescued her from a little sister who wanted to eat her.

The still-unnamed black cat, whom Megumin assigns as her familiar, is an instant hit with her classmates, pretty much making her super-popular by extension. When the teach denies her a familiar (after all, she can’t even use magic yet), Megumin makes up a colorful enough chuunibyou story that he lets her keep the cat in class after all.

But today’s class is special: the teacher asks the students to meet him out in the woods, where they’ll choose from a selection of very large (but also oddly light) weapons and level up quickly in a traditional Crimson Demon “Augmentation Surge”. Megumin is the first to try to slay a weak-looking lizard already encased in ice, but it ends up being a tougher customer that she initially thought. No matter; she ends up the victor in the end.

When a much larger monster appears in the form of a vicious gargoyle, the students freak out and make a run for it. The gargoyle is blasted by one Bukkorori, son of the village cobbler who dug a pitfall in order to ensnare Soketto, the fairest of the Crimson Demons. He creeps out the girls so much they refuse to help him get out of the hole he dug.

More gargoyles come to life and attack the town, which is utterly destroyed not by them, but the completely over-the-top attacks of their teacher and headmaster, along with four local businesspeople. But as powerful as their magic is, Megumin just isn’t quite as impressed as she was by the Explosion user she met years ago.

In a world where Crimson Demons can completely level their village and rebuild it back good as new in one day, how radical is she really for wanting to master Explosion magic? I’d say not really! Rather, she’s a quintessential Crimson Demon, risking it all to be as big, bad, and inspiring as possible. Still, she has a long way to go.

KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World! – 01 (First Impressions) – The Eleven

After the KonoSuba Movie expanded on the origin of Megumin’s chuunibyou style, this third full season of the series takes us back to before she met Kazuma, Aqua, and Darkness, and before she mastered her beloved Explosion magic. One day she witnessed it being used by a beautiful mage to destroy a giant monster in one fell swoop.

From that moment, Megumin decided that’s the kind of mage she wants to be. In the meantime, she lives a simple but carefree life in the village of Crimson Demons, catching crawfish with her little sister and #1 Fan Konekko by her side.

Megumin’s first encounter with Yunyun is when she notices a “hungry look” in her face while passing her near a sunflower patch. Megumin shoves a crawfish in that hungry face, even though Yunyun insists that’s not what she meant. Megumin didn’t know it yet, but she’d just met her top rival.

Megumin’s family is by no means rich, but it’s a house full of warmth and love. When they make a big payday off their magical wares at a far-flung bazaar, her folks make a huge feast, and then present Megumin with a new uniform for attending magic academy. Watching their daughter strike poses in her new cloak brings no shortage of joy to their hearts.

The academy for Crimson Demons known as the Red Prison, features a class of eleven, which may be magically auspicious, but also means there’s an odd girl out: Yunyun, whose name no one can quite remember. Despite being the village chief’s daughter she has very little presence. But she still makes a strong impression by declaring Megumin her rival. Megumin is happy to be challenged.

When Megumin notices it’s missing from the textbook and asks her professor Pucchin about Explosion magic, he tells her and the class that they should avoid studying it, as it’s a kind of “joke magic” with limited applications. Everyone in class assumes Megumin is joking and laughs…except Yunyun, who can tell Explosion magic is important to her rival.

In the Red Prison equivalent of P.E., Pucchin tells the students that the most important part of magical combat for Crimson Demons is looking cool. Thus, their answers to his questions are scored not just by their factual content, but the style with which it is delivered. With everyone else paired up, Yunyun ends up with Pucchin, who shows little patience for her hesitation in trying to look cool, saying it’s embarrassing.

That may not be a common Crimson Demon sentiment, but Megumin pretends to be ill and sits out the rest of class so that Yunyun can get paired with her partner, Arue, who is actually better than the teacher at getting her to come out of her shell. Then Rain falls, the headmaster’s ambulatory tulips scatter, and the students get drenched in mud tracking them down. Once that’s done, Yunyun tells Megumin that whether Explosion magic is a joke depends on who is wielding it.

Megumin’s response is to tell Yunyun not to get too friendly with her rival, bringing a smile to Yunyun’s face. Later, at sunset, Megumin again remembers the day a mage fired off an Explosion spell that changed her life. She can’t cast it yet, but I’m looking forward to watching Megumin, Yunyun, and their nine classmates becoming the best damn Crimson Demon mages they can be!

After this first episode, I’m more confident that spinning off the series with Megumin was the right move. I’ve always been a fan of her energy and charisma, and was always impressed she actually managed to master such a ridiculous spell (though not without passing out after using it).

Takahashi Rie and Toyosaki Aki bring out a winning chemistry between Megumin and Yunyun, as we saw their unspoken friendship begin with little gestures of kindness and caring. It’s not often laugh-out-loud hilarious, but it is sweet, charming, and KonoSuba through and through.

KonoSuba Movie: Legend of Crimson – Megumin’s Homecoming

First of all, it’s been some time since I’ve seen Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness in their original non-chibified form, so it’s a rare pleasure to see them in their regular proportions and setting. KonoSuba’s twenty episodes proved you can make an often over-the-top isekai comedy with genuine heart.

If you liked the TV show, you’ll love the movie (as I did), which delivers more of everything. Though it contains roughly a half-cour’s worth of story, the ninety minutes just breeze by. Officially a sequel to KonoSuba 2, we return to Kazuma’s party’s mansion, where notoriously involuntary loner Yunyun has an unusual request: she wants—nay, must—make a baby with Kazuma. She comes to this belief upon receiving a letter from her father, Chief of the Crimson Demon Village.

While that letter turns out to be a work of fiction written by one of her academy classmates, Yunyun is nevertheless compelled to return to her hometown to help fight the forces of the Demon King. Megumin and the others decide to follow her, and rely on Iz to teleport them there.

Unfortunately, they end up far from the village, and in the midst of a stampede of rabidly horny she-orcs (there are no more male orcs) after Kazuma. After Yunyun’s request, this marks the second instance of Kazuma being entangled in romance (for good or ill) which he comes to call his “popular phase.”

What better way to learn more about Megumin than to visit her home? Turns out she’s hardly an anomoly, the town is nothing but overly-dramatic chuuni dressed in cool outfits with an emphasis on reds and blacks. The orcs are scattered by their overwhelming offensive magical power, a quality Megumin also shares with her clan.

Megumin’s parents are each eccentric in their own ways, while her little sister Komekko is adorable as all-get-out. Her family is poor, so the moment her parents smell money on Kazuma (he’s in the process of a 300m-Eris deal with Vanir to sell his memoirs), Kazuma finds himself at the mercy of a mother who wants to pair him with Megumin with all due haste.

To this end, she locks Kazuma and Megumin (sleeping due to a recent Explosion) in a room together. She comes to when he’s about to kiss her after much hand-wringing about how to proceed, and she escapes through the window to spend the night at Yunyun’s, fearing further lecherous advances.

The next day, Megumin shows her friends around the village, including to her and Yunyun’s (very Hogwarts-y) magical academy. We learn that when goblins attacked Komekko, Yunyun sacrificed her amassed skill points to repel the enemy. Because Megumin hesitated, that meant she was able to preserve her points and attain Explosion magic she cultivates to this day.

Megumin finds herself locked in her room with Kazuma again, this time by choice. Kazuma assures her that he won’t do anything, and offers his apologies as well as thanks for all the things she and the others have gone through with and for him.

It’s a very nice heartfelt scene, and Megumin even ends up clinging to Kazuma under the covers, commenting on how he’s really a “wimp” when it comes to making a move. Unfortunately, their tender moment is interrupted by the return of Sylvia, the voluptuous Demon King who leads the attack on the village.

Kazuma managed to scare her and her goblin army off with bluster earlier, but when she learns he’s not really Mitsurugi of the Cursed Sword, she takes him hostage…and Kazuma lets it happen. First, because it’s more proof of his Popular Phase; second, because it’s comfy between Sylvia’s boobs; and third, he has an ax to grind with his comrades regarding his treatment.

Kazuma accompanies Sylvia to the Crimson Demon Village’s underground storage facility, and inadvertently unlocks the chamber where Mage Killer, the one weapon he can’t let a demon king get ahold of, is stored. While he doesn’t intend to make things worse for the village, Kazuma’s so out of it he doesn’t realize punching in the classic cheat code on the Nintendo-style control pad would unlock the weapon.

He manages to lock Sylvia in the chamber, but once she has the Mage Killer and absorbs it into her artificial body, she blows the entire facility to kingdom come, then heads to the village to start blowing it up. Megumin leads Kazuma & Co. to more underground caverns, where they find Japanese carvings that explain the origin of the Crimson Demons, and why they’re so “pretentious yet nerdy”.

Turns out their culture was basically created by another Japanese man sent there by the goddesses. He also built the Mage Killer, but also created a countermeasure for it: something he tentatively called “Railgun” that Kazuma previously noticed being used as a backyard clothesline in the village.

When Crimson Demons march out to defend their town, Sylvia engulfs them in an “Ancient Dispel” field that nullifies all of their magical power. They’re “saved” by a suddenly cool and confident Yunyun, finally taking up the mantle of her father the chief and luring Sylvia away.

Turns out she’s acting as a lure to bring Sylvia in firing range of the Railgun. Aqua fills it with magial energy, but it still fails to fire. That’s when Megumin unleashes an Explosion meant to hit Sylvia directly, but is instead shunted into the rifle, which her little sister Komekko then fires.

Sylvia is killed, and ends up in the same place as fellow defeated Demon Kings Verdia and Hans. She merges with them an is resurrected into a huge, bizarre four-legged beast. Turns out her old comrades Wiz and Vanir have arrived in the village on an unrelated errand, and join in the fight, but even they are barely able to keep Sylvia at bay.

That’s when Kazuma decides to use his Popular Phase for good; by appealing to Sylvia’s innate need to be loved and wanted by somebody other than her adoring hordes of goblins. Kazuma, his luck boosted by Aqua’s blessings, is that person, and stands before her unarmed and ready to be taken into her arms…or tentacles…or whatever.

I never thought I’d empathize with a Konosuba villain so much, but Sylvia turns out to be one of the most dynamic and sympathetic of Demon Kings KonoSuba has served up. Her feelings, and specifically her romantic longing, isn’t entirely played for jokes, but portrayed as a very human side of her that turns out to be the Achilles Heel Kazuma must betray her heart to exploit.

He succeeds in gaining her trust and becomes one with her as Wiz gathers the magical energy from all of the villagers and transfers it to Megumin and Yunyun, who combine their powers to unleash a gargantuan Explosion beam that, combined with Kazuma breaking her heart, destroys Sylvia and ends the threat to the village for good.

Back home in Axel, Kazuma receives a hero’s welcome, proving his Popular Phase still has a bit left in the tank. While having a picnic with Aqua and Darkness, Megumin asks Kazuma to allow her to learn advanced magic, setting aside her Explosion magic so she can be of greater use to the party.

Kazuma may have long railed against her utter lack of versatility and durability in battle, but spending so much time in close quarters with her and meeting both her family and the villagers who shaped her, Kazuma suddenly isn’t so quick to deprive her of her “Explosiveness”. Whatever he does to her skill card, she’s still able to cast a beautiful Explosion that creates a heart-shaped cloud. And for that, Megumin is happy.

Did Aqua and Darkness get the short end of the stick in this movie? Perhaps, but that meant a lot of great development for Megumin, Kazuma, and their unique bond. They may get on each others nerves at times, but at the end of the day they’ll always be there for each other: Megumin blowing up something that needs blowing up, and Kazuma carrying her home on his back.

It’s quite simply KonoSuba at its absolute best, firing on all cylinders with confidence, comedy, and chemistry. My main gripe with this movie is that it makes me long that much more for KonoSuba 3!

Isekai Quartet 2 – 09 – Filo Finds a Theme

Finally, a character from Shield Hero is featured on a mini-ep! To be precise, it’s Filo, who is tasked by Naofumi to ask around school for advice on what the theme of the cultural festival play should be. Unsurprisingly, everybody likes the cute and energetic bird-girl…except Beatrice, who doesn’t like much of anybody.

Beako does seem to be investigating how they all got to this chibi world, asking Mare about how her crew got there. No doubt if and when she discovers the means by which they were transported, she’ll start working on a way to get them back. The good news for her is that Re:Zero season 2 has been pushed back to July.

Another great trait of Filo is giving everyone a personal nickname based on their appearance or presumed age (Skeleton Guy, Wolf-Lady, Black-Haired Ladies, Old Guys), or borrowing someone else’s nickname for that character (Beako). As a pure, guileless character, Filo is a great breath of fresh-air among all the wisenheimers and cynics.

Filo stumbles upon the theme of The Ugly Duckling when Tanya’s subordinates cross paths with the famously human-hating Narbarel Gamma (getting some rare screen time with Alpha and Beta). Her reflexive insults will prove useful in a play where the main character receives verbal abuse. Come to think of it, Ram will be perfect in that role, too!

Isekai Quartet 2 – 08 – The Things We Do for Lunch

Hidden by the vertical sign: Ristarte from Cautious Hero!

Lt. Viktoriya Ivanovna “Visha” Serebryakova was a reliable source of comedy in Youjo Senki, but both she (and her seiyu Hayami Saori) been generally underutilized in Isekai Quartet. This week the doe-eyed beauty gets a spotlight of sorts, as the rest of her class wonders where she rushes off to after school. Turns out she’s working multiple part-time jobs around town to earn enough money to indulge in the ¥30,000 “Special Menu” at the cafeteria.

She also mentions that all of her workplaces feed her for free, and that, combined with the mystery of the Special Menu, compel others to seek employment (since the Butcher is present at all these locations I imagine this was a scheme on his part to get some cheap labor). Subaru, in one instance, serves the fully-assembled Pleiades combat maids, a rare sight indeed on this show!

The resulting discovery that the Special Menu is simply the normal menu served in ridiculously huge portions is a disappointment to all but Visha, who looks ready, willing and able to consume the food-mountain with ease in one sitting, garnering some unnerved looks from other characters. As for the others, they know to save the money they earned for something else.

Isekai Quartet 2 – 07 – Let’s Get Physicals

It’s a scary time for a lot of people across the world with the outbreak of the Coronavirus, so it’s somewhat inauspiciously coincidental for IQ2 to come out with an episode in which everyone gets a physical. This physical only seems to consist of taking the students’ height and weight, with no injections or other health tests taken.

What this episode does test is my patience with Pandora’s Actor. In the shadow of fellow Miyano Mamoru-voiced character Betelgeuse, PA’s quirkiness seems forced. He’s random and crazy enough to be annoying, but not enough to be fun to watch. Ram seems to agree.

As for the parties who strive to see members of the opposite sex in their skivvies, Rem prevents Shalltear and Albedo from glimpsing too many of Ainz’s bones, while the normally super-lucky Kazuma is a hair too late in initiating his peeping mission.

Speaking of hair, the prominent ahoge of both Tanya and Filo prevent Wiz from taking accurate height measurements, while Darkness is the only girl disappointed that neither Kazuma nor any other men decided to peep on them. The excessive Pandora’s Actor marred some otherwise funny moments in an unfocused outing.

Isekai Quartet 2 – 06 – Condiment Civil War

Personal preference for something even as trivial as chicken wing condiments can nonetheless cleave normally ironclad alliances. Tanya and Ainz may usually get along, but she’s a salt-and-pepper gal. Ram may love Subaru, but not enough to put mayo on her wings. Cocytus may be a loyal subject of Lord Ainz, but not to the point of using ketchup.

Rerugen sees that he won’t make any progress in class until the conflict is resolved, so he recommends the three factions play each other in condiment preference dodgeball, conscripting Shield Hero, Raphtalia and Filo to round out the teams. Visha and the butcher provide play-by-play and color commentary.

Darkness is predictably the first to be out, as the notorious M makes no effort to avoid a hard-thrown ball. Ram, Rem, and the Bello twins match kick attacks before Rerugen warns them that kicking is disallowed. Aqua’s God Blow is blocked by Albedo’s Walls of Jericho. The cats are not normal.

Eventually, Ainz and Megumin launch an explosive combo attack that Tanya manages to block with a magical barrier, only for the ball to burst. No one remembers what they were bickering about, so they decide to let the matter rest and go out for croquettes…only to start another argument about condiment preference.

Isekai Quartet is all about bringing all these heroes and villains down to a more realistic and normal planet earth, to a place more like where we live, and where in lieu of daily dramatic life-or-death disagreements, we place outsized importance on silly things like Coke-or-Pepsi (it’s Coke, obviously).