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KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! 2
Episode 7

by Theron Martin,

How would you rate episode 7 of
KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! 2 ?
Community score: 4.7

If you want to see what comedy anime looks like when every single one of its jokes – even the jokes within jokes – lands, then you need to watch this episode of KONOSUBA. There may be more raucous individual scenes in the franchise to date, but I think this is the most consistently funny episode so far – and for this franchise that's saying something.

One thing about this series that I don't think that I've given enough credit so far is its voice work. Week in and week out, Jun Fukushima knocks it out of the park with his perfectly-measured rendition of Kazuma. In every scene, his inflection and tone is exactly right to milk the maximum value out of a scene's comedy potential, such as in this episode's opening scene where he's trying to act like a laid-back elitist rich guy, or a later scene where he's refuting complimentary things that other adventurers say about Darkness's actions (because they don't understand her real motives). The female seiyuu are nailing their roles too, but many scenes in this series wouldn't be half as funny without Kazuma's dry wit as the slightly-less-crazy center of a crazy maelstrom. When this series eventually gets dubbed, I will be very curious to see how an American voice actor handles that.

There's not much going on this week story-wise, but for a series like this, plot progression is only a secondary consideration. The promise of riches from selling objects from his world that Kazuma can manufacture is going to Kazuma and Aqua's heads, as they realize that they might not ever have to adventure again, which leads to the stuffy behavior that Megumin finds horrifyingly creepy, and leaves Darkness practically unable to contain her glee over how much more pathetic it makes Kazuma look to her. (Her behavior in the background while contemplating this is one of the episode's funniest moments.) Aqua and Vanir have a spat of one-upmanship on demonic vs. holy power, after which the group winds up taking a trip to a city famous for its hot springs and dragging Wiz along. Losing rock-paper-scissors over wagon seating allows Aqua to put on one of her classic shows of being pathetic as well. Predictably, the trip doesn't go uneventfully; in fact, they don't even get to the hot springs city because of the threat posed by a pack of Running Hawk Kites, which like to play “chicken” with hard objects when in a mating frenzy. What's the hardest object around? Either Darkness or her armor, take your pick.

I still continue to be amazed that the writers aren't yet close to exhausting the potential comedy value in Darkness's masochistic streak. After all, what else would a supreme masochist do when binding ropes are fired past her than to jump in their path so she can get wrapped up instead? For the “joke within a joke” I mentioned earlier, look at the way Aqua seems incapable of making proper tea during the elitist segment at the beginning, because she accidentally keeps purifying the water. (The very notion that purifying tea would turn it into regular water is a wonderfully ingenious bit, so that's actually a joke on three levels.) There are a lot of fun possibilities with these characters and this situation, and the series isn't letting them pass by. That's definitely a good thing.

Rating: A

KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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