「この自称女神と異世界転生を!」 (Kono Jishou Megami to i Sekai Tensei o!)
“The Self-Proclaimed Goddess and Reincarnation in Another World”

Are you tired of the main protagonist of your RPG-inspired anime being overpowered? How about one who’s not competent at all? Everyone’s personality is broken, and it’s a lot of fun.

An RPG-inspired World. What’s The Hook?

This is another anime inspired by RPGs, and sorry, I haven’t seen the first episode of Hai to Gensou no Grimgar yet, so I won’t be able to compare it to that. (I’ll get to that when I have free time tomorrow.) But I can quickly summarize the biggest difference between this and all the other [MMO]RPG-inspired anime (.hack, Sword Art Online Log Horizon, Overlord, DanMachi, etc): This is a comedy.

While the others usually have funny elements, or make use of humor, the first episode of KonoSuba was a total lark. HikiNEET Satou Kazuma (Fukushima Jun) is killed in the most embarrassing way, reincarnated by an impatient goddess, drags her along out of petty spite, cackles evilly while he’s doing it, and she’s as dumb as a bag full of bricks. There appears to be a dramatic structure to this, i.e. the whole “Kill the Maou [Devil/Demon King]” thing, but it’s not the point of the story. The point is to watch two (soon, four) dysfunctional adventurers do dysfunctional RPG things.

The other big difference is that, like Overlord and DanMachi (and possibly others), the fantasy world here is real. And, much like DanMachi, all the blatantly RPG-derived elements are justified because SHUT UP, real RPG-style world!! Which is to say that they’re flagrantly copied and justified in the most gamey way possible, but I find this world a lot better than it did in DanMachi, because everything about the episode is screaming, “Don’t take this seriously. Have fun!” (Granted, DanMachi’s system ended up working pretty well because “The gods did it” is a pretty good reason when the gods are walking around, but that came later.) So while it’s not breaking radical new ground, it’s having fun with a goofy idea. I can dig that.

A Level One, Underpowered Protagonist

Another thing I hear about that frequently annoys some viewers is when the main (usually male) protagonist in a magical-fantasy-action-harem series starts out overpowered and unbeatable. Just this season, both Luck and Logic and Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle did this, to varying degrees of success—Luck and Logic justified it by making the protagonist a widely-known veteran (which worked well), while Bahamut took the more clichéd approach. Here, we have something more along the lines of Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, but with a twist—not only is Kazuma starting from level one, he’s pretty much incompetent. Which means a completely different viewing experience! We’ll not only get to see him claw his way up the ladder—starting with nothing but a tracksuit, so that even the acquisition of a weapon or proper adventurer clothes will feel like a victory—but we get to see the world utterly crap on him as he does it. Which will probably be fun, because…

Everyone’s Personality Is Broken

What got me excited about this show comes from Takkun’s preview:

Its colorful cast of characters is what brings the whole thing together. And by colorful cast, I mean how atrociously bad everyone is at what they’re trying to do.

I can already see what he means! The comedy started a little slow for me, and the pacing might be a tad pokey, which makes sense since another show director Kanasaki Takaomi helmed, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, was oddly lethargic at times. But it started to come into its own when Aqua (Amamiya Sora) started freaking out about Kazuma picking her as his item, and how he did it out of petty spite in the first place. And then he started cackling, and he won me over! Sorry, I have a soft spot for a petty protagonist who knows when to deploy a satisfying evil laugh, even if the universe went out of its way to puncture his ego at every juncture. I’m looking forward to meeting the other broken losers, especially the mage who apparently loves explosions. Hey, I love explosions too! Let’s be friends.

Other Considerations

The animation can get wonky at times, though I’m not an animation fetishist, so it didn’t bother me much. I also really liked the goofy work montage at the end, and I’m not sure why. It was uplifting in a way, ya know? The hiki-NEET went from being a shut-in to having an outside job, getting along with his coworkers, partying, and sleeping with a goddess (not that way). And Aqua apparently goes hard, which warms the heart of a drunk beer aficionado like myself. The ultimate punchline was, once again, a little slow coming once it was there. I still laughed, I just felt it didn’t maximize its oompfh.

Looking Ahead

Like I said, I’m excited to this mage teammate that’s coming up. This episode about met my expectations, and we’ve got a couple of writers considering this show, but a second episode will tell us more how the adaptation will go. Tell us what you think about this episode, and whether this is something you’d like to see blogged. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets at least a second post.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – An RPG-inspired fantasy adventure where everyone is hilariously bad at their jobs. No overpowered protagonists here #konosuba 01

Random thoughts:

  • Kazuma is voiced by FukuJun. Not the FukuJun, but a FukuJun. I definitely get Manabe from Kotoura-san vibes from him occasionally.
  • There’s definitely a stereotypical RPG vibe with how the adventurers—usually the female ones, though not exclusively—often wear unrealistically scant clothing. Though to its credit, not only do some men get the treatment, but none of the main characters do, obligatory skirts aside. That + the lampooning tone = no problem (for me).
  • There were lots of close-ups of Aqua’s mouth. Also, this. The camera tells me this is important.
  • What was with the pause? That was odd. I don’t know if it was tongue-in-cheek or a hint that this really is a video game, but it was certainly odd. I just appeared, disappeared, and went uncommented upon.
  • She may be kinda dumb and have a weird way of dealing with the world, but she is cute. Give in, Kazuma-san. It’s your destiny.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: $%&@* cuss words, Stephen, what is best in life?, It depends, and Momentum & mental space.

 

OP Sequence

OP: 「」 () by ()

Preview

67 Comments

  1. I tnink the pause thing might have worked better on the original broadcast if my suspictions are right and it was to introduce a commercial break (So, pause starts, commercials, back to the show and pause ends)

    bassgs435
    1. Ohhhhh, maybe you’re right. I can usually tell where the commercial break is by the scene transitions, but that one was just so abrupt that it threw me off. It was in more or less the right spot, though.

      Good catch.

  2. I came in expecting nothing and was pleasantly surprised. A spiteful protagonist who doesn’t drool over the attractive female lead is refreshing enough but the comedy really hit home for me.

    I don’t really agree with calling Kazuma “incompetent” (awkward death aside), it’s clear that he’s genre savvy about the world and how it works, it’s just that he has some trouble adapting to certain roadblocks. Starting off with literally nothing is certainly unusual in an RPG but at least the pair had the sense to build up some cash with their day jobs.

    The pause scene gag, while out of the blue, was pretty congruent with some of my own game experiences. As much as I enjoy JRPGs, there’s no shortage of times where I feel the need to pause, sometimes literally, to just stop and think about whatever asinine or embarrassing thing is happening on-screen before resuming. The gag seems like Kazuma’s character insert for that same sort of thing where his brain just shuts off while this deranged goddess has a panic attack in front of him. Maybe it is hinting at a more artificial world, but for now I’m thinking it was just a bit more abstract joke.

    Looking forward to more.

    MrB
  3. Grimgar’s protags are not quite as incompetent as these two, but you’ll see that they aren’t that far off. Unless you’ve already heard about the first ep of course. That’s all I’ll say on that.

    zrnzle500
  4. @Stilts: LN readers say the comedy’s the selling point, especially it making fun of the usual “LN fantasy harem/sent to a RPG world” cliches. The Demon King plot’s more secondary, and there’s over the top fanservice.

    Grimgar’s more serious compared to this, Stilts. I’ve heard people say it’s like a darker, death-filled version of Log Horizon.

    zztop
  5. Definitely not the strongest of openers. Although knowing it was a comedy going in, the episode still felt slightly off and “weak” to me. Whether due to the initial lack of substance or the characters themselves I’m not sure, but Shukufuku just felt incomplete, even compared to Grimgar’s arguably sparse pilot. Nevertheless, however, many of these issues should be rectified in the next couple of episodes as the cast is rounded out and the plot commences. Cannot help it, I’m a sucker for these shows.

    Also Stilts it may be worthwhile looking at Shukufuku from a satire perspective rather than simple comedy. The blatant use of RPG mechanics (guilds, levelling, equipment, quests, etc.) in such an overt, “serious” manner (while blasting out jokes constantly) is all but a tongue in cheek rip into every other similar series, especially regarding Kazuma. It’s kind of funny, we get the opposite ends of the RPG spectrum this season with Grimgar and Shukufuku. Might make for a good comparison post at the season’s end 😛

    Pancakes
    1. Oh, aye, I guess I didn’t mention it but I do consider it a satire. Which is why so blatantly using the mechanics works, whereas it drew some serious side-eye from yours truly when DanMachi so flagrantly did the same.

      I do think this’ll be a lot stronger when more characters are added to the main cast. Then there’ll be more ways for the comedy to unexpectedly hit us.

  6. Well that explains why the off-kilt humor reminded me a tad of Kore Wa Zombie and why I enjoyed it so much. They picked the perfect person to do this anime.

    There’s this part that no one talks about though that made me laugh. You see this lady with this huge piece of meat, that she heaves over to her back but she has a baby she’s carrying also on her back and the meat kinda smushes the baby. I dunno why I found that amusing but I did.

    Diyedas
    1. I noticed that too! I almost include a screencap of it, but cut for space. That + how Aqua finished the chip she was eating after Kazuma chose her were just so strange and out of place/unexpected (in a good way) that I laughed at both.

      1. I want gifs of both of those scenes.

        The episode had a few little quirks I guess you could call them that kinda give you a chuckle to go along with the bigger funny moments. I hope they continue that cuz I kinda like it.

        Diyedas
    1. I would. We’re not doing the monthlies anymore, as we mentioned in the previous two posts. Too much of a time sink for too little interest, I’m afraid. Cherrie and I damn near burned ourselves out on ’em last season.

      1. Hadn’t realised that, but I hope you guys can at least do seasonals or something since especially the first monthly of a season was one of my primary methods of seeing which good anime I might have missed.

        HakumeiJin
      2. Right now, what we’re doing instead is doing more episodes two (and even three) posts on shows we might not ultimately pick up, so we can A) make more informed coverage decisions, and B) give readers more than a single episode’s insight into a show. That gives you half/three-fourths of the first month for most of the shows we’re eyeing. We’ll also continue to do finale posts at the end of the season (and more than last season, since we won’t distracted by the monthlies), so we can talk about good shows one last time.

        We have been thinking of other fun things we could do, it’s just that the monthlies took so much time for relatively little interest, so we ultimately decided they weren’t worth doing (especially not if Cherrie and I wanted to keep our sanity). Which sucks ’cause the only reason we did them is ’cause we LIKED them, and wanted to see them exist, but they’re too costly (in time) for people who are perennially behind in EVERYTHING like us.

  7. That RPGish music that usually playing when the hero start going on his/hew destiny lol lol

    It really remind me of old RPG game I had play… ( Ex. seiken densetsu 3 )

    But this guy need to work various job like construction lol

    Mick
  8. Count me in as another who went into this with zero expectations and was pleasantly surprised to the upside. *Requisite disclaimer that comedy is subjective* With that out the way, the comedy just worked for me right from the start when Aqua showed up. No slow start for me on that front. I laughed a lot this episode – more than any show thus far this season and (importantly) for the right reasons (i.e. laughing with the show, not at it).

    I thought the RPG stuff was fine – especially since this show clearly is not trying to be all serious, but rather the RPG stuff taking a backseat to the comedy as the primary driver. Another plus for me is that I thought Aqua was great as a ditsy goddess. LOL at how she had amazing ability scores… except low intelligence and luck. Yep, that’s our baka-adorable, no-pan goddess.

    Speaking of stats, as others pointed out, Satou isn’t really incompetent, but simply a very average except for a little above average intelligence. Nothing wrong with that from my perspective, especially if you’re going to do the whole “RL person comes to RPG land”. At least he’s got RPG gaming knowledge to help out a little. If you did want to take a more serious look at things, working construction and sleeping in a barn given their situation does make sense so some credit there as well. Long story short, I didn’t like Satou as much as Aqua, but I did like him well enough, and I thought the two had good chemistry as a comedy duo. Not a bad start at all.

    Only, one episode, but liked it quite a bit. A funny, fantasy comedy with a bit of fanservice thrown in for added bonus? Sign me up. Technically 3-episode rule, but I’d be surprised if I didn’t stick with it the entire season.

    ————————-

    @Stilts: Regarding blogging this show: Per above I liked this episode, but the one reservation is that comedy shows tend to be difficult to blog by nature. That may or may not be a factor for you (or someone else). On the other hand, IMO this has potential to be a fun ride all season.

    daikama
  9. Honestly i found that really boring, not because the episode as a whole was bad but it just felt…soulless. The MC, while having quite a personality, didn’t strike me as being interesting or funny at all. I just found him mean-spirited and annoying at times (and his death is super lame). And Aqua, well, she’s just dull and boring. The jokes didn’t even reach me (If they were even jokes at all to begin with). What really put nails in the coffin though, is the abysmal look of the entire episode; Too much footages being repeated over and again, each characters’ limbs and faces get shaky whenever they move. Hell, the overall look of each characters aren’t even appealing at all.

    Pass on this.

    Amiluhur
  10. I had no expectations before and came out pleasantly pleased with the slapstick comedy. Now I am eagerly waiting for the rest of the dysfunctional members to join and let the comedy chaos ensue.

    Regarding the close up screen shots of Aqua…. is she going commando?

    Allnighter
    1. Whether or not she’s going commando is up to debate.

      However if you pay attention to her upper body you will notice that she – and, as a matter of fact, every other female in this anime – isn’t wearing a bra. Which actually makes sense, considering they are in a medival fantasy world.

      Zannafar
  11. Trying this randomly with no expectation due to previous pessimism (concerning art style adaptation and seemingly low budget mostly), but get pleasantly surprised.

    What I find refreshing about this that it totally does not takes itself seriously. I was suspecting that Aqua would be b*tching about being sent to the world, but thankfully she quickly forgot about it and became a lovable idiot instead. The main character also manages to avoid the annoying tropes without becoming a boring MC.

    What makes the show to be quite enjoyable probably because it is fast enough to make we did not think about anything seriously. The protag and the main heroine already slept together now, but since they did not even let us (or even the characters) to think about it, they managed to make it flows well. In many other series, we could met other results (like unnecessary too-early romance flag, or Aqua complaining that “Why would a goddess like me sleep together with you in this nasty barn!”) which will gets irritating fast.

    In contrary, Grimgar flows too slowly, throwing few jokes that did not flows well, showcasing fanservice that does not really match with the atmosphere and making awkward conversations that does not really matter in the grand scheme of things. Even though it was backed by strong art and ambitious goal, I think I would watch this instead. Better leave Drama attempt to show that seems to be capable to actually pull it like Boku dake ga inai Machi.

    zeroyuki92
  12. https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
    With all this close-ups, I guess we can coin the term “Schrodinger’s panties”.
    You can’t tell for sure if she’s wearing them or not lol.

    and sleeping with a goddess (not that way).

    If you can think of that, surely somebody else already has. *Cough* Doujins.

    Hmm, its not often you see people puking rainbows in anime XD

    Techim
  13. I liked the approach. Rather than come in with the attitude “me and my God are
    going to clean up the place and save your (stinkin’) world,” he really acclimates
    with the local culture. This gives me a lot of respect for the underlying story —
    and a sense of credibility. I guess I really like his attitude of making the best of
    the situation and really trying to turn the tables on his lot – and not dismayed by
    his own clumsiness in doing so.

    Now I do believe his “gaming” skills will definitely come to his advantage later, I
    don’t really believe this is going to be a comedy-slapstick adventure series.

    This seems to be the season of the RPG inspired Anime! And this has strong potential, too.

    mac65
  14. On comedy being subjective: The first few minutes of the series almost made me drop this for two reasons. I found the way his death was handled largely tasteless. Aqua’s reaction I wrote off as character establishing scene, but saying the doctors and his family just laughed at him? Somewhere there was a line for me (although it was implied that was just Aqua making shi*t up).
    The second thing was the excessive “does she wear them or does she not” camera pans which I found stupid. I wouldn’t have minded them that much if there was less and/or my initial reaction wasn’t so bad due to the death joke.
    (So what if the second one has nothing to do with comedy being subjective?)

    Anyways, the show got better and by the end of the episode I found I was enjoying the jokes and characters a lot more than I first expected.

    Erimaki
    1. I had the same reaction (wonky at first, but better in the second). The source was still coming into its own at this point in the story, and/or some things might have been lost in translation. Either way, the second half was enjoyable enough to mostly write off the weird stuff at first.

      Though the camera pans didn’t bother me. They were so flagrant that I filed this under “Don’t take this seriously” and let ’em roll on past.

  15. It was kinda pitiful watching what Kazuma and Aqua had to go through in the first half, and Aqua’s sufferings were because of Kazuma. Interesting premise so I’ll likely follow this, that and I’m curious to see that ponytailed blonde swordswoman. The only lingering thought now I got is if Aqua is going commando. First it was Hestia’s ribbon. Now it’s Aqua’s underwear.

    Zhinvu
  16. Really looking forward to seeing where this will go. I hope it has a decent enough story to hold the season together and not just rely on gags or dark humor. That said though if they keep going similar to the first ep I think that this show will have one of the best entertainment potentials of the season

    Juan
  17. I will just make a simple, overlooked fact perfectly clear…. Aqua is an IDIOT. No, not like Naruto idiot, but a grade A, first class, brain dead IDIOT. Kazuma even stated that a certain animal was smarter than her….

    FYI: I love her that way ^.^

    This season has done nothing but please me ^.^

    Ginobi47
    1. There’s something that I didn’t understand though, I was watching this anime with my little bro and laughed at that scene:

      ***After the MC finished his registration, it’s now Aqua’s turn. As Aqua lay her hand over the stylish crystal, the booby girl said…***
      – Booby Girl: “Aside from your intelligence being below average, and your luck being the lowest possible level,…”(xDDDDDDDD)
      – Aqua: “What? Does that mean I’m really amazing?”(xDDDDDDD)
      – Booby Girl: “A-amazing is an understatement!(xDDDDDD)…you can be anything you want!”(xDDDD…?)
      A crusader, sword master, arch priest,…blablablah”(???…)
      ***And so after Aqua finished her registration, everyone aside from Kazuya- errr I mean Kazuma applaud at how amazing she is***(……..)
      ***After that my little bro said:”so amazing means being one of the lowest?” I said:”…perhaps, well I’m amazed by how stupid she is anyway, that goes for everyone here I think…but…” We rewatched the whole scene and saw…
      – Booby Girl:”…all your stats are drastically above average!”
      – Me and my little bro:”Ah…..AHHHHHHHHH! hahahaha ah yeah that was why!!!”
      – Me and my little bro:”HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
      – Me and my little bro:”HAHAHAHA”
      – Me and my little bro:”HAHAH”
      – Me and my little bro:”HA…HAHAH…ha….”
      – Me and my little bro:”…….”
      – Me and my little bro:”…”

      Rhoman
    1. I didn’t compare it to SAO and DanMachi. I contrasted it. Though they all got mention in the same paragraph for the obvious similarity of all being RPG-inspired anime. But the base story type is different, which is why using them as examples was useful.

  18. It’s nice when a show exceeds my expectations, because I wasn’t expecting much of this latecomer. But lo and behold, there were multiple times where I laughed out loud. Whether it was the main characters bickering, the various visual gags or the parodies of genre conventions, I snickered all the way through. Dagashi Kashi was certainly amusing, but I feel this’ll be the show to really scratch my comedy itch this season.

    It’s been avoiding annoying cliche’s pretty well so far too (especially in the way the main characters treat each other – no stereotypical embarassment or tsundere tropes here) so I’m hoping it keeps this up. Will be looking forward to the rest.

    Dvalinn
  19. I love the over-the-top animation and art, especially when Aqua is freaking out and her art is getting all distorted. Yeah, the art isn’t “pretty” by normal standards, but the people making this show know how to draw, and they’re not aiming for “pretty.” (And they probably don’t have the budget anyway.) For a comedy, it’s okay for the art to be a little out there.

    I was also happy to hear a different voice doing the male lead for a change. I don’t care who it is anymore, just give me SOMEBODY DIFFERENT. GJ director!

    I’d love to see someone follow this, because while it’s a comedy (and therefore hard to follow because of that), it also has a plot, which should make it somewhat easier to follow than most comedies.

    I love the skewering of all of the really bad LN tropes that are swamping Japanese LNs these days, and I’m really looking forward to watching them fill out the party. (lol.) Can’t skewer enough tropes.

    s_w
  20. Form the way you describe it sounds like a less perverted version Ixion: DT, which was a pretty good guy get sucked into RPG only it had a lot of hentai overtone. He also never level up and is incompetent too.

    Duzz
  21. Poor Aqua! Not that she didn’t have it coming given how she had been treating him, and it’s not like what he did to her is on a different scale from what she did to him, so I can’t argue that it was disproportionate, but still, seeing her scream and cry as she’s dragged away, and after, makes me feel bad for her regardless. I think it’s some sort of instinctive reaction, or something.

    Wanderer
  22. I would ban- *cough* hang with her to some isolated forest everyday if i was him…so that i would earn some exp to lvl up…and obtain money to purchase good equipment…and take off that provocative transparent skirt of her…and change it to another one……………………….ah and buying her some pants too…

    Rhoman
    1. *sigh* Anyway, as for the qualities of the anime itself and my expectation from it, it doesn’t fill what i was waiting for. Yes, I was somewhat tired of always having those OP MC in almost every MMO Anime, but for me it’s not the real problem here…the real problem lies in the growth of the MC (with other Character) and the whole balancing. What I want from an anime game genre (my own ideal) is a MC who strike for competition, the reason why this MC wants power(and please no typical “I want to be strong because I want to save everyone from this death game” *sigh* always death game here and there), I’ve grown tired of those MC who doesn’t have any dream and passion at all in life. And also no jump level, like first Ep he was level 1 and in the next Ep he jump to lvl 60 or more without even seeing how he grow to that lvl. The last one is the balancement of the MC with the system of the game and with other character, protagonist OR antagonist… I saw a webtoon named “THE GAMER”, at first it really strikes my interests as I can see how the MC grow as a gamer, I could see his Stats and Skills regularly as the story progress, but after some chapter it appears that the MC himself was really broken, he was almost invincible, and that invincibility neglects the importance of what a MMORPG is, Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, *Massive* you’re not the only one who get to grow as a gamer, *Multiplayer* you need others to advance, *Role* you fill a role, a job you must do in party, you can’t do cleric and warrior job together… that’s what I didn’t like from those OP MC, the fact that they steal the stage from others and do the whole things alone, that kind of MC tend to destroy the character development of those around him. Well, that’s not all but that’s all I have to say, an anime with an ambitious MC gamer, not broken OP, whose growth can be seen and who allows others to have their own character development and not halfway it.
      If I were to say, if Shokugeki no Souma(SCAN), or Valkyria Chronicles 3(PSP Game), were to transform into a MMORPG Anime game genre without destroying the whole qualities of the story, then I really would like to see it coz those two have such a good storyline alongside a balanced and nice character development.

      Rhoman
  23. Oh, at the moment I think this is something I would like to see blogged. However, I’d like to have another episode to compare, as well as a list of other series you’re choosing from: if you’d have to, say, drop Utawarerumono in order to blog this, then I’d say no, stick with what you’ve already got, for example. If, on the other hand, you think you could handle blogging this, that, and Heavy Object all in the same season, then certainly go for it.

    Wanderer
  24. I like the comedy, and it was funnier than it was in the manga (not sure about the LN). However, there is this sense of unease that I can’t point out. The art is bad (it’s Studio DEEN after all), and Aqua’s character design is bad. Aqua actually wears panties and her skirt length is less obnoxious in the manga.

    I don’t know, but I don’t like it much. I am sticking with the manga.

    Problem Child

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