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「この痛々しい街で観光を！」 (Kono Itaitashii Machi de Kankou o!)
“Sightseeing in This Pitiful City!”
A stunning city of water and hot springs, with one tiny downside.
I’ve said it before, but it must be said again: just when you think you know how KonoSuba is going to play it, it chooses another path. Oh, the first half of the episode proceeded largely as expected, with two differences, one of them crucial. First, we have officially found Kazuma’s line. You know, that moral line he won’t cross? Apparently he does have one! Kazuma actually feels guilty—yes, Kazuma, of all people!—when his team is lauded for saving others from a situation that’s their fault. I never thought we’d see it. A moral stance from Kazuma. Wow, and hah!
(The other one? That nice little moment when Kazuma is repairing Darkness’ armor. It was a nice way to throw down some exposition while wrapping it in a nice character moment. I still saw it primarily as exposition, so I guess it could have been done better, but I still approve. It didn’t feel like a waste of time.)
But then we get to Arcanretia, and I was expecting fanservice hot springs time, but nope! It’s lousy with Axis Cultists, and they drive the point home. And it was hilarious! Maybe a bit overdone, but for some reason I don’t grow tired of repeated jokes as quickly with KonoSuba, as evidenced by Darkness’ perversion, which is always funny despite being largely one-note. I’m not sure why that’s the case, by the way; perhaps it’s the halo effect the show has from generally being so funny, or that they vary the gags just enough to keep them from going stale. (Or maybe comedy is just subjective, which it is.)
Whatever the case, I was cracking up at the Axis Cultists’ antics, even if the little girl at the end was predictable. Sometimes, knowing what’s coming just increases the anticipation. (Darkness knows what I’m talking about.) I still want to get to the hot springs fanservice, but I don’t mind taking time to get there if they’re going to hit us with funnies like that. We deserve it, and Kazuma’s team definitely deserves it too.
Random thoughts:
- “Don’t yell my name in that context!” Mid-sentence interjections like this are just something you can’t do as well in text, so I love it when visual/auditory mediums take advantage of them. And not enough do! Good on KonoSuba & Kazuma for reliably rocking them.
- Vacation clothes Darkness is nice. Jealous Darkness is nice too. Perverted Darkness is always nice. Never change, Lalatina! *snort*
My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for exclusive content. At stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: The Carcer Principle; Fire, further; Fire; and Starting a story with a bang—and when not to.
Preview
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Nature or nurture? That’s the question! Does the Axis Cult attract crazies, or does it just drive those who join insane?
-Arcanretia-
The city of water, hot springs, and con-artists!
Hello, my name is Elder Price
And I would like to share with you
The most amazing book
Hello, my name is Elder Grant
It’s a book about Arcanretia
A long, long time ago
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2040.jpg
Is it just me, or does the Axis Cult remind me of certain door-to-door missionaries?
Then again, considering Aqua is a shameless self-promoter (Trope!), this isn’t probably too surprising.
Jehovah’s Witnesses @ your door early on a Saturday morning trying to hand you a Watchtower magazine and tell you about the Glory of the Lord while you are still trying to become fully awake and wondering if your coffee is ready yet.
Someone at reddit pointed this out but one of the magician escorts in the caravan has the best chest armor. Only a belt.
Really drives home that full plate armor is mostly useless and the more revealing it is the more buffs it possess.
Well she is a mage and original dice and paper and early computer Role Playing Games had mages with no armor. I find the light armor of MMO’s fairly stupid but understand the limitations of computer games that makes them in use. Original D&D used rings of protection for mage armor and paper and dice games your better armor class can actually block enemies by standing in the way so mages get less attacks on them. Why computer games still cannot give characters space so they actually cannot be walked though is interesting.
So if your not wearing armor naked works fine. Reason mages spend all their time studying so they cannot even handle the weight of leather armor. Reason I have not seen back then, I played the original D&D late 70’s on, is that out side of formation the amount armor slows you down makes even naked, Celts and others, works in fights. Now I like the belt but no way it is staying on outside of magic, well they got magic here, and a fair number of men bare chested in the story so I say keep doing it.
Perhaps, the idea is that the exposed skin areas allow a magician to absorb more mana from the surounding air. Thus, magicians with lower magic capacity wear exposing outfit to supplement their inner power.
It was interesting that Wiz saw Beldia on the other side of the river Styx when she almost croaked this time. I think in the LN she saw her old adventuring buddies waving at her, didn’t she?
I wonder if Beldia (being an ex-knight) was one of her old comrades. I mean, she had to get mixed up with the Demon King somehow… or maybe the show is just focusing on conservation of characters, which works pretty well. Beldia’s pretty much the only guy we know who’s died, so having him there gets the point across quickly and concisely as to exactly what river that is she’s floating down.
Almost certainly conservation of characters there. Showing new characters would have required clunky exposition as to who they were, this didn’t, so it worked better.
In the novel she did see adventuring teammates but they were shouting “don’t come over”
Beldia is not one of her old companions.Show Spoiler ▼
Actually, we saw about Kazuma’s line that he won’t cross before didn’t we?
When they got rid of the ghosts that haunted the mansion or something because Aqua put a barrier around the cemetery. Still, it’s nice to see him still stick to his code.
Again so funny. I believe the cultist joke was ran so much is to put believability into Kazuma’s breakdown tearing up the paper. The writers had to risk running that joke into the ground to get the punch line of Kazuma blow up and I to me they got it just right.
I see attract undead when you can easily curb stomp them as an advantage not a disadvantage so he should take the reward as they are providing the service of removing something that will bother someone if not that day another day.
Yep Kazuma got principles or he would no longer be a virgin many times over. Heck I’m sure he could have gotten plenty of Axis girls but turned them down for same reason as he does not go for Aqua. Darkness would be so easy.
Guys who wear skirts do not wear anything underneath mainly because it is more comfortable. Know from old girlfriend that no panties is more comfortable. I believe that most of the time the reason females wear something under skirt is modesty and social pressure. Tampons even take care of that time of the month except heavy flow. So I see Aqua standing for female rights in her no panties wear. The other females in loin cloths are probably some form of barbarian class so nothing underneath probably mandatory. Megumin in screen cap from second season anime cannot be wearing them, and last episodes bowing sort of indicated none. Darkness clothing damage has shown little possibility she is wearing panties. So between Aqua telling the girls how comfortable it is and how little she cares if someone sees anything and Kazuma stealing all the panties I happily note that the panties are missing more and more.
That nopan paragraph sure came out of nowhere o.O
Yep Kazuma got principles or he would no longer be a virgin many times over. Heck I’m sure he could have gotten plenty of Axis girls but turned them down for same reason as he does not go for Aqua. Darkness would be so easy.
You didn’t see the 1st Season OVA did you? He:
1. Turned Wiz into lap and chest pillow.
2. Had Megumin and YunYun do a strip rock paper scissors match. Later had them cosplay. Yunyun can cosplay as a playboy bunny very well.
3. Had Darkness strip out of armor and do calisthenics so he can see her boobs bounce.
4. Had Aqua be his errand boy/girl and doodled on her face with permanent marker.
What he really wants is someone SANE!
I am disappointed that you did not get a screenshot of the caravan guard casting windblade, ha. But the episode was a lot of fun.
Honestly Darkness has never struck me as being so bad. She is a sweet girl at heart and only needs(and wants) a firm hand to deal with her. However she does seem to be rather high maintenance which I think keeps Kazuma away more then the crazy.
Is there some reason they can’t invite Yunyun to join their party?
If she showed up everyday and then actually asked Kazuma would probably get forced to say yes, but right now she’s too busy tsundereing while she pops in and out. Given her and Megumin’s “rivalry” and how Kazuma thinks he already has enough headaches his side won’t ask first.
^ This. None of the characters communicate well enough to solve their problems, this one among many others.
Damn AQUA! You scary! Darkness pretty much got treated really REALLY nicely throughout this entire trip. Also, Kazuma party might be earning a bit of fame there, they dispose of the enemies in style. Granted they were also the root cause of it….
Surprisingly, the merchants are nice… though I don’t get why Kazuma wouldn’t take their money, he’s shameless after all. Someone told me last week was done by the ugly art guy but judging by darkness breast and art style this week seem to be done by the ugly art guy instead. Perhaps it was mislabeled?
I don’t get why Eris sect is considered subordinate when Axis cult is so much smaller and well, off putting.
Has anyone actually said Axis is smaller? I can’t remember but I don’t think so.
Size here probably doesn’t matter to the Heavenly Realm anyway since Aqua was also in charge of at least Japan in Kazuma’s world, too. It’s also probably less about people, more about the actual goddesses, like how Hera is superior to other Greek goddesses. Even if she might not have been the most popular, she was still recognized as the bigger authority. And we’ve seen first-hand that Eris really does view Aqua as her superior.
It’s mostly explained in the manual but Aqua was in charge of Earth because Earth is 70% water. And while the Axis cult is certainly smaller than the Church of Eris, all of the members are fanatically devoted to Aqua while most of Eris’ worshippers are in name only and aren’t even remotely as similarly devoted to Eris.
The graveyard that was purified by Kazuma’s party where they met Wiz is a symptom of the lack of piety on the Church of Eris side, the priests who’s supposed to do the purification out of duty won’t lift a finger unless they’re paid.
Aqua’s worshippers put the Mormons to shame.
Aqua certainly considers Eris to be a lesser goddess, but Eris has the bigger church at least in this world.
What if it’s all Aqua’s delusions that she’s a better goddess and Eris is small time compared to her?I’d believe that Aqua is just arrogantly proclaiming her superiority with no basis in actual fact.
Well, the thing is all the way in Episode 1, the Eris priest said the relationship between aqua and eris is one of that of Superior and subordinate. So he gave money to Aqua because aqua member asked for money.
Kinda messed up, but that right there shows Eris know they are server the lesser goddess.
@Duzz
As I mentioned in the post, even Kazuma has lines he won’t cross. The guilt was too much for him, hence why he didn’t take the money. He’s often shameless, but he’s not perfectly, 100% shameless.
@Guile
Eris called Aqua sempai before. It may be more that she’s older than better, necessarily . . . which of course Aqua would conflate, because she’s an egotistical idiot.
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2031.jpg
I loved this part. It actually started out somewhat believable, but then quickly just breaks down into the total obvious, lol.
What I like is that so many of the Axis cultists are a healthy brown that comes from living in a hot springs town, comprised mostly of beautiful women and at least muscular able-bodied men. If they just tried to sell you on the health benefits of their cult being based in the resort capital of the country, they’d probably reel in plenty of new hires.
But instead they go so overboard on the hard sell that they lose anyone with sense, because Aqua’s followers shoot themselves in the foot just like she does.
Oh, oh, and it’s not just Aqua being a goddess! One of the stated benefits of joining the Axis Church is being ‘beloved by undead!’ It’s something about Aqua’s stupid power that gets passed down to her priests.
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2026.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
Ah, that feeling you get when you see Fate/Stay night turn King Arthur into some genderswapped young girl or when they turned Gilgamesh, who is supposed to be some bearded guy in the legends, into some pretty blond boy. Notably toaru majutsu no index did the same thing with Odin. I can’t imagine how many anime/manga has done that.
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2042.jpg
I can’t blame Kazuma for his reaction. I would go mad too if this happened to me in a fantasy world. I keep forgetting what that paper is for; however, it almost feels like that feeling when a scammer tries to trick you into signing something stupid.
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2018.jpg
Notably, I am shocked in Kazuma’s “honesty”, he refuses to take money due to how it was his teammates that were causing the trouble. Notably, I don’t know what makes those birds harmful to begin with since they did a VERY good job in avoiding obstacles, if only that sort of stampede could appear in lion king with mufasa T_T
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
And seriously author, just make Yunyun part of Kazuma’s harem. It’s getting too sad for heaven’s sake. I am getting that same vibe when Naruto ignores, for the most of the serious, Hinata.
I love how Konosuba transitioned so well into the anime. I was kind of worried how they’d pull of the Axis Cult members, but DAYM! They pulled it off in spades! As expected of the religion even the Demon Lord is terrified of. I mean, LOOK AT THEM!
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2040.jpg
how many of you noticed Kazuma constantly shifting his weight when he was carrying wiz to feel up her boobs against his back.
I initially thought that was because Wiz was a bit heavy. But now that you mention it…
Kazuma you magnificent, sneaky bastard… o7
Well he was using her as a chest pillow in the OVA ^.^
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
Man, if members of the Axis cult are like that, then it’s no wonder why Aqua’s the obnoxious jerkass goddess that she is…
https://randomc.net/image/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo/Kono%20Subarashii%20Sekai%20ni%20Shukufuku%20Wo%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
Mmm… Roasted piglet on a stick… (So they have lechon in this fantasy world?) Tastes real good (more so when freshly cooked as the skin is rather crunchy), but it’s a killer on one’s cholesterol/fat levels. XD
Also… “Isn’t it sad, Yunyun?”
“Perverted Darkness is always nice” – Stilts
To quote Noble-sempai (That beautiful son-of-a-gun…):
“Everybody loves female perverts!”
Fridge logic irony: their scam “join Axis cult and that bandit will run away from you” is actually 100% true – bandits avoid Axis cultists like plague!
I wonder if Aqua is behind this. I can see Aqua trying to screw with Kazama.
Take a lot of pictures to that elf from chapter 9