konosuba

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

I was expecting more comedy this time around, and I was right. There are lots of very funny moments in this volume, sure to please the fan of KonOSuba. Chris’ secret is now known, but that doesn’t mean that she and Kazuma are not playing Robin Hood on the sly, burgling evil noble estates in order to acquire sentient armor that proves to be far more trouble than it’s worth. Meanwhile, the Eris Festival is upon us, and a jealous Aqua wants to have a festival dedicated to her as well. The result is the subtitle, a parody of Pokemon Red vs. Blue, in which the traditional religious festival gets turned (mostly thanks to Kazuma) into more of a giant blowout, complete with food stalls, beauty contests, and giant killer cicadas. However, just because it’s a full-blown comedy does not mean we can’t have character development.

It feels odd to be talking about character development in a series like KonoSuba, but it’s true. Megumin has come a long way from the start of the series, and despite the occasional explosion has become the most sensible of the group (Kazuma forfeits this title enough that you can’t use it for him anymore). Meanwhile, Darkness, after the events of the last volume, is acting Governor of their town, and is thus drowning in responsibilities (including having to police Kazuma and Aqua). The gag here is that, for a moment, you think the same thing might be happening with Aqua, who spends much of the book actually being sensible and responsible. But of course it can’t last – Megumin and Darkness have room built into their characters for growth, but Aqua’s “useless goddess” properties are much harder to move on from. She’s too funny not to keep it up.

And then there’s the love triangle. It’s clear from this book that both Megumin and Darkness have come to terms with their love for Kazuma and want to take things to the next level. It’s also clear that Kazuma knows this… the question is whether he’s too immature to actually be able to take their feelings seriously, as he brags to Chris about harem ends and the like. Of course, his words are bravado for the most part, and by the end of the book, where the cliffhanger seems to imply Megumin wants to confess properly, he seems almost terrified. I do wonder if a series like KonoSuba can bake an actual relationship into its premise. Can Kazuma answer either Megumin or Darkness properly, or will there be wacky comedy confessions and then back to the status quo? As for “harem” ends, the series thankfully still seems to be avoiding that sort of thing… Chris/Eris’ relationship with Kazuma is not the “bratty siblings” that he and Aqua have, but it doesn’t feel romantic, which is a good thing.

For all the romantic potential, at the end of the day KonoSuba still runs on its comedy, and there’s lots of that here. Fans of the series will get a kick out of this book.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

For all that KonoSuba is occasionally called a harem manga, it’s more clearly a love triangle. And having given Megumin her due again in the 5th book, we’re back to focusing on Darkness, who is dealing with the realities of being the daughter of a noble. As the title may imply (it’s a parody of the “My Bride Is a Mermaid” series), she’s getting married off in order to clear a family debt, one that hearkens back to events of the previous books. This is actually very well handled, as it looks more closely at the “we saved the world but there was massive property damage” trope from various fantasy titles. Knowing Darkness’ sense of duty, it’s no surprise that her first thought is to sacrifice herself for the sake of everyone else. Of course there’s no way that Kazuma is going to let her get away with… oh, he’s sulking. OK, he may actually let her get away with it. Fortunately, Megumin and Aqua are on the case. (Fortunately?)

Before the wedding, Darkness is trying other avenues to earn cash, including taking out a hideously dangerous (and thus high bounty) monster, which naturally likes to attack and eat people, leading to Kazuma dying – again. This helps to emphasize something that we saw in the previous book – Kazuma and his partners work better in a large group than they do as a quartet. Unfortunately, this also means the reward is divided among various adventurers, so she has to go through with the wedding. Which is, naturally, to the evil Lord we’ve seen before, who is pretty much the bad guy behind nearly everything in the series. To Kazuma’s credit, he does try to rescue her from this plight, at first, but he simply cannot resist running his mouth off, which leads to a fight, which… well, you know. Kazuma.

This is one of those books that’s all about the climax, though. It’s also very much about Darkness’ specific masochism fetish, which is on display throughout the book. It can be very difficult for both her and Kazuma to draw a line between “you are being mean and embarrassing me and I find it really arousing” and “you are being mean and embarrassing and I am pretty furious”, and after the events of this book, I don’t think either one has really gotten closer to figuring out where that line is. In terms of the reader and KonoSuba’s sense of humor, though, nothing can quite top Kazuma’s declaration that she’s his property now and he plans to use her body to the fullest. This is in the middle of the wedding, and is essentially followed up by Darkness having an orgasm. It’s strangely heartwarming too, in that KonoSuba way. Also heartwarming is the way that everyone in the town arrives to help Darkness.

This series has been very consistent lately, which I’m quite happy with. And the cliffhanger shows that Kazuma has finally figured out who Chris is, which is nice. The next volume seems to feature both Eris and Aqua, so I’m expecting less romantic comedy and more just plain comedy. KonoSuba will make any reader who likes funny stuff happy.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

The subtitle of this volume should be very familiar to Yen On fans, as it’s a take on the light novel series Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers. Whereas in the Rokka series you spend each novel wondering who’s going to be accused of being a traitor, in KonoSuba you spend each novel wondering who’s going to be the designated straight man. Here it’s Darkness, who is forced to act the noble lady far more than she’d like, given that most of the book takes place in a royal castle or in the homes of noble lords. That said, Megumin is mostly under control here as well, with a few notable exceptions. Heck, even AQUA, of all people, shows off her skills during a big battle and is revered by the city for keeping casualties to a minimum. Yes, the entire cast are fantastic… with the exception of Kazuma, who as usual needs to descend to his lowest point before he can rise again.

The cover girl is Iris, the young princess of the realm, who Kazuma desperately wants to see as a little sister so he can add to his list of fetishes (no, really, that’s basically what he says, though at least he has no romantic interest in the 12-year-old princess). She is, for the most part, content to go along with this, as her real big brother is away fighting the demon lord and Kazuma treats her like a normal little girl rather than a royal princess. Unfortunately for Kazuma, he rapidly runs out of cool stories to tell her, and the stories he does tell, as we’ve seen, involve him being clever but the others doing the heavy lifting. And then there really IS a demon lord attack, and Kazuma proves why whenever he’s headstrong and impetuous, he is the absolute worst. Given the rest of the squad saved the day, he’s basically ripped a new one by the princess’ bodyguard in a vicious yet 100% accurate takedown.

She has a point. Aqua, Megumin and Darkness, in a group of four, are all eccentric, impossible to handle weirdos. The same group, however, in a pack of 200 adventurers, are able to function far better. But of course, for better or worse, Kazuma *is* part of their group, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. And he does get to show off his actual talent, finally, in the last quarter of the book, where he helps Chris the thief (remember her?) try to steal a dangerous artifact that has made its way to the princess. When he’s in trouble and actually thinks, Kazuma is very impressive. He’s the opposite of a hero like Luffy. There’s also the standard KonoSuba humor here, which most of the audience is expecting, but it’s a sign of good writing that I’m ignoring it in favor of discussing Kazuma’s character and how he can be incredibly frustrating at times.

A cliffhanger makes me think that the next volume will be Darkness-oriented, and I hope she gets to be silly again. Till then, KonoSuba fans will like this even as they yell at Kazuma for being… well, Kazuma.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Another new KonoSuba novel, another obscure yet nerdy subtitle for the volume. This one never even got licensed in North America at all, it’s for the kids’ series Bakusō Kyōdai Let’s & Go!!, which is about mini-car racing. Fortunately, the novel itself has no actual car racing, but it does introduce us to the rest of Megumin’s Crimson Magic Clan, as we head to her hometown after there is news of an attack that will destroy the village. As it turns out, Yunyun and Megumin are the staid, sensible ones in this group, which consists entirely of overdramatic nerds living out their grand magic fantasies – only they actually have magic power to back themselves up. Even Megumin’s parents don’t escape this, though they’re more concerned with her relationship with Kazuma. And, as it turns out, it’s a good thin they came, as there really *is* a demon invasion happening, though at first it seems like the Clan has it under control.

Despite Yunyun being on the cover and jumpstarting the plot, this is not really her book, it’s Megumin’s. And Kazuma’s, of course. I’ve talked before about how his group feels more like a close-knit (if dysfunctional) family than anything else. That’s definitely changing here, as Megumin explicitly says that she’s fallen in love with him, something that Kazuma somehow manages not to quite understand. it’s a bit difficult for Megumin to admit it anyway, mostly as Kazuma is still several shades of terrible at times, though usually every time he tries to do something stupidly selfish it comes back to hit him in the ass. But Kazuma is Kazuma, so you also see exactly why it is that she fell for him anyway. Darkness is likely in the same boat, though this isn’t her book, so we don’t get much of that and instead get more of her being totally useless at anything except defense. As for Aqua, I’m relieved to say that there is no sexual tension there whatsoever. Let’s keep it that way.

This is the first book that hasn’t (yet) been adapted into an anime, but the adaptation, when it comes, should go very smoothly – there’s going to be a lot of fun set pieces here. Leisure Girl was particularly amusing, and the female orcs wanting to ravish Kazuma is a nice reversal of the standard fantasy “orcs want to rape the women all the time” trope. There’s also a few nice fights, particularly the one at the end, even though it consists of the whole Clan essentially dodging the demon lord while Kazuma tries to figure out what can stop them. The best scene, however, is right at the end. I will try not to spoil it, but it involves Megumin recognizing her own shortcomings and trusting Kazuma to help her get past them… and Kazuma realizing that Megumin’s happiness is more important. It’s really sweet.

Next time, to Darkness’ horror, we will be meeting the princess of this land, and I have no doubt fresh new disasters will ensue. Till then, KonoSuba remains a funny, light read, and anyone who likes to see the standard fantasy light novel tweaked on the nose will want to pick it up.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

KonoSuba returns with its fourth light novel, though unusually there’s plenty of manga in this volume, which adds an extended ‘what you will see in this book’ manga chapter (none of it is seen), as well as a two-page spread in the middle. This is perhaps not surprising given that our heroes spend much of their time at a town devoted to hot springs. The subtitle this time around is a parody of the manga Yozakura Quartet, started by Del Rey and finished by Kodansha Comics digitally in North America, from the artist behind DRRR!!. You would think, given Wiz’s presence on the front cover, that she is the fourth member of the group to merit the title, but no, Wiz is sensible (and quite powerful) throughout, except for her horrible shopkeeping skills. No, Kazuma is just as bad as the rest of his crew, and this volume is happy to emphasize that.

We’re on a vacation this time around, ending up, as I indicated, at a city renowned for their hot springs. Sadly, Aqua keeps turning their springs into plain old hot water whenever she uses them, so things aren’t going well. You’d think she’d be happy, given that the town is filled with Axis Church followers – i.e. HER followers – but she’s as whiny and put upon as ever. Darkness, meanwhile, is having a ball – as a follower of Eris, she’s treated like absolute dirt, which makes her incredibly happy (and by happy I mean aroused). She’s a bit less happy with the fact that the group is now perfectly willing to use her family name to get their way, something she’s really rather avoid. As for Megumin, aside from a few stray moments, she’s the sensible one this time around. Kazuma may seem a better candidate, but not only does he die AGAIN, but he also gets everyone in trouble by not realizing that this ISN’T a transported-to-a-game world and that some “easy-level” monsters are in fact not so easy.

No one really reads KonoSuba for the plot, which is good as there isn’t much. Our villain is seen meeting with a busty woman who is never seen again, so I imagine she’ll pop up as an antagonist in future books. No, KonoSuba is read for the humor, and there are many, many wonderful jokes here – the dog food and “Legendary Sword Excalibur” being two of my favorites. (Let’s take a moment to realize that Kazuma, who is on the verge of being allowed to reincarnate into a nice life on Earth, is literally annoyed into returning to the KonoSuba world.) The cast are all terrible, with the exception of Wiz, and possibly Yunyun, who shows up at the end to deliver the ridiculous cliffhanger. We’re now caught up with the anime, meaning Book 5 should be new to most readers. (I’m going to take a wild guess and say the anime did NOT end with Yunyun’s request.) If you like tremendously silly light novels, KonoSuba is exactly what you’re looking for.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

Another day, another KonoSuba novel, and another manga series being parodied in the subtitle. This time it’s You’re Being Summoned, Azazel-san, a long-running seinen comedy manga with two anime series. Last time I said that we might get a bit more plot, and that’s certainly true, though thankfully that does not mean that things get any more serious. Sure, Kazuma is being put to death for crimes against the state, but honestly, he could have gotten out of that about eight different ways simply by not being Kazuma. And as you may have guessed by the cover, Darkness features heavily in this book. We get a lot more detail on her background, and find that her strong sense of self can even duel with a lesser demon. This, again, does not make her any less ridiculous. Summing up KonoSuba remains one of the easiest things in the worst: selfish protagonists do stupid things, and the reader laughs.

I’m actually very impressed that Kazuma falls into this category as well. It would be all too easy to turn him into a Kyon type, merely reacting against the antics of everyone else. But no, he manages to make some head-scratchingly selfish and foolish decisions throughout, especially near the start, simply by running his mouth off. Of course, he does also save the day at the end – sort of, in reality Kazuma mostly saves the day by directing others to do so – but one wonders how far he’d go if he simply reined in his put-upon ego. Megumin has a reunion with a classmate of hers, and Yunyun seems to be more powerful but in reality may be even more pathetic than Megumin, which takes some doing. The name really doesn’t help, and I was highly amused that Kazuma and I had the same reaction to it.

As indicated above, Darkness gets the most to do here. The revelation of her family background is not all that surprising, really, and I was relieved that she doesn’t really switch personalities too much when she’s back in her home. As for the marriage meeting, it’s the highlight of the book, with Kazuma’s scheming and Darkness’ sabotage attempts combining in the best way, culminating in a duel which seems to end in a wet T-shirt contest. I’d mentioned before how shipping was minimal in the series, but it’s picking up – Darkness’ angry description of her ideal man does sound an awful lot like Kazuma, and the bath scene he has with Megumin gets a lot more awkward when he realized that she’ll grow out of being ‘underage’ pretty soon. As for Aqua, her part in all this is to be ridiculous, and she succeeds at this admirably. She and Kazuma make a great baka duo.

This volume takes us halfway through Season 2, meaning we only have one more till we catch up with the anime. Of course, the series is so popular there may be a third anime before December. In any case, fans of KonoSuba will enjoy this a great deal, as it’s still one of the funniest light novels being released.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Chūnibyō demo Majo ga Shitai!” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

First of all, I would like to state, for the record, that it was Yen On’s decision not to use an oxford comma in the subtitle. I am merely replicating their choice. And if you think that’s a somewhat silly way to start a review, then you’re clearly not the right audience for KonoSuba, whose second light novel is content to replicate the choices of its first, showing that it is quite happy to have its dysfunctional cast behave badly in hilarious ways. Kazuma whines and moans (and tries to get laid with a succubus, which works about how you’d expect); Aqua is the brattiest goddess you’ll ever see (indeed, the book begins with a much nicer example); Megumin cares about explosions and nothing else, and Darkness’ masochism is in full force. There’s a hint the next book will advance what passes for a plot, but in the meantime, enjoy the antics.

The book starts off on the right foot – indeed, it may be my favorite part – with a story about a foolish young man, seeing Kazuma surrounded by hot girls and not much else, offering to switch parties with him for the day. Kazuma, who is no fool, accepts, and you’d think we’d stick with other guy and watch the fallout. But no, instead we follow Kazuma and see his normal day with a normal party. He uses his adventuring powers wisely, helps save the day, gains the respect of his teammates – it’s peaceful, heartwarming, and would no doubt be incredibly dull it it lasted any longer than it does. We then return and see the aftermath of Dust’s day with Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness… and yup, he’s begging to switch back. Predictable, but still hilarious.

Even when the book takes a turn for the slightly serious, there’s still gags lurking in the background. That’s a good thing, to be honest – this really isn’t a series you want to see depth and feeling in. Taking it too seriously would ruin the point. So when we get the climax with everyone fighting against the giant spider mecha with the bomb inside it, it’s undercut by the creator’s hilariously mopey diary about the building of the thing. There’s even some mild romance in this, though as ever I see the group as more of a family than anything else. When Kazuma requests a “dream visit” from a succubus, he’s clearly expecting Darkness based on his reactions – we’ve heard before that were it not for her masochism, she’s exactly his type – and Darkness’ atypical reactions seem to suggest she’s far more open to this than you’d expect a comedic harem girl to be. Of course, nothing comes of it…

The book ends on a cliffhanger, and the afterword is already announcing side-stories to be released (which have not, as of yet, been licensed here, I add for clarification). Clearly it was a runaway success in Japan. You can see why. It’s mocking a very popular Japanese light novel genre, and doing it well.

By Natsume Akatsuki and Kurone Mishima. Released in Japan as “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!: Aa, Damegami-sama” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Kevin Steinbach.

In the current light novel boom that North America has been experiencing, there have been many novels that fall under the broad category of ‘funny’. They either take a relatively serious plot and give it a funny touch (The Devil Is a Part-timer!), expand on a completely ludicrous situation (Psycome), or are an outright parody (I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused the Apocalypse). KonoSuba’s first volume is most like the latter of these options, but I have to say as I was reading it that I can’t think of a single series, even Little Apocalypse, that was as dedicated to wringing as many laughs out of everything as KonoSuba is. Never mind plot complications or depth of characterization. This series is damned funny, and that’s why you should read it.

The archetype being parodied will be most familiar to readers of the manga Mushoku Tensei. A young man who is something of a loser dies performing one noble act, and is given an option to reincarnate in a fantasy world so he can be a hero. Except here, Kazuma’s death turns out to be so pathetic that even the doctors who tried to save him and his own parents laughed when they heard about it, and the young goddess who wants to send him to a fantasy world seems to be doing it so that she can fill her quota more than anything else. She’s so annoying, in fact, that Kazuma, rather than wishing for a fantastic sword or unbeatable magic powers to go along with him into this world, wishes for… the goddess herself. Fans of Oh My Goddess will be especially amused, showing that the subtitle of the first volume isn’t just for show. Kazuma and Aqua could not be more different than Keiichi and Belldandy, though, and when they both arrive in Generic Fantasy world X, he finds this goddess to be a lot less help than he’d hoped.

Everything that follows amps up the comedy, as it should be. Kazuma, because he didn’t pick an insane superweapon but a useless goddess, as average stats and minimal weapons to defeat a giant demon king. He has luck… but that merely seems to allow him to use thief abilities to steal girl’s panties. (Yeah, sorry about that, it’s still written for guys.) We meet Megumin, a teenage overdramatic girl who likes explosions and not much else. We meet Darkness, a knight with elite defensive powers who can’t hit the side of a barn door with her sword, and who seems to get off on just about anything. Together, these four take on giant frogs (which I won’t spoil), supposedly evil lichs (another great scene), and in the end a demon general who is a dullahan (were these always in anime even before Celty, or is their resurgence all Ryohgo Narita’s fault?). And what’s more, they win!

It’s tricky to review this, because I don’t want to give away the best gags. I will note that, while I’m sure this will change, I was pleasantly surprised at the utter lack of romance in this first book. Kazuma and Aqua act like bratty siblings, Megumin is too young for him, and while Darkness is basically what he finds attractive, her masochism creeps him out. That plus his tendency to yell at everyone and everything makes this party dynamic more family than harem, and I appreciated that. But when all is said and done, you read this book because it will make you laugh. Even if you aren’t familiar with the tropes of isekai and reincarnation novels, you’ll still like this.