KonoSuba – God's blessing on this wonderful world!!

Episode 7

For a little while there, KONOSUBA looked like it might actually be taking itself seriously. Then yet another well-timed perversion of common fantasy tropes reminds us of exactly what kind of series this actually is.

The gimmick this time is that Kazuma winds up dead (again) by the mid-episode break. This comes about because, due to the debt-laden status of the group thanks to the damage Aqua caused last episode, they decide to go out on a winter quest, something that no one else is doing because such quests tend be dangerous and everyone else is well-off for the moment because of their shares of the bounty from Verdia's defeat last episode. They choose one that seems harmless enough but is suspiciously being ignored: a Snow Sprite kill. Cleaning up the cute Snow Sprites does indeed prove easy – until the “boss” Snow Sprite, the Winter Shogun, shows up. Kazuma gets careless during an effort to appease him and, by all indications, dies messily. (This is described but not shown, because graphic content isn't what this series is about and the “head cut off” perspective shot is pretty cool anyway.) That puts Kazuma back in a familiar place, only this time with the goddess Eris, since she is the patron of that fantasy world. Kazuma finds her a lot nicer and more pleasant than Aqua, and despite a few fond memories of his fantasy adventures, he's quite willing to be reborn favorably in Japan. Problem is, Aqua has already shown herself quite capable of bringing someone back from the dead, and she does it here in her own inimitable style, getting a jab in at Eris in the process. (And one that hits home quite effectively too, given Eris's reaction.) So Kazuma is back in the fantasy realm once again, for better or worse.

This episode would seem to put to an end the ongoing speculation that Kazuma might actually not have died back at the beginning of the series, as it's pretty clear he died in this case. It also reaffirms the stark contrast between how this series handles the “transported to another world” gimmick and how Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash does; in fact, this is almost a diametric opposite way to handle an in-story character death. It makes the coincidence of these two series both hitting in the same season all the more remarkable.

Of course, it doesn't pass on other good opportunities for humor, either. Darkness proves again that her masochistic streak really has no limit, as even being cold or having her face forced into the ground against her knight's pride excites her, and the whole Aqua/Kazuma exchange while he's dead is worth at least a few laughs. This definitely isn't one of the funnier episodes, though.

As a final thought, I don't think that I have been giving enough credit to the music in this series. It consistently makes some wonderful choices, including light-hearted pieces and numbers that are just enough over-the-top-dramatic to play into the humor. That also includes the low-key, offbeat sound of the closer “Chiisana Boukensha” (A Little Adventurer), whose spirit seems appropriate to the series even if its lyrics don't.

Rating: B

KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.