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EP. REVIEW: KONOSUBA - God's blessing on this wonderful world! 2


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Snakebit1995



Joined: 25 Apr 2015
Posts: 842
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:42 pm Reply with quote
I just got caught up on season 1 and this episode over tha last two days, Boy what a fun show that I can't wait to see where it goes.
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Parsifal24





PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:45 pm Reply with quote
Season one was my pick of Anime of the Year and season two looks to be on the same strong footing of being a mean comedy while the off model runny animation style continues to be charming in it's ineptitude.
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Lord Dcast



Joined: 07 Nov 2014
Posts: 644
Location: 'Straiya
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:05 pm Reply with quote
In a season that's shaping up to be pretty boring, I'm glad that I at least have this and Little Witch Academia.
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Joshua Zarate



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 2061
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 7:22 pm Reply with quote
Season 1 was quite a surprise for me (An enjoyable one at that). This first episode looks to continue right where the first season left off and I'm very much looking forward to watching these guys' adventures again.
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CheezcakeMe





PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:11 pm Reply with quote
Seems like every season my favourite shows air on Wednesdays for whatever reason.

Konosuba was a pleasant surprise last year. It really feels like one of those shows where everyone working on it is just having a blast.
And sure the animation is a** but I'll take vibrant and energetic yet sloppy animation over beautifully crafted but stiff and lifeless talking mannequins any day, especially for a comedic show like this.
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 9:17 pm Reply with quote
From what I've heard, the animation was done like that to facilitate the expressions and to a lesser degree as a joke in and of itself. Whatever the case it is enjoyable if you don't expect perfectly clean animation closely following the designs.

The main draw, the comedy is unchanged, both in style and quality. I enjoyed Kazuma's dejected monotone during the interrogation and how it didn't let him get away with the most innocuous lies. I like he had the good sense to chuck any escape tools after the failed jail break attempts. There is just so much I could list here but I'll just leave it at the loveable bastards are back and just as good (bad?) as ever.
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kinghumanity



Joined: 03 Nov 2014
Posts: 365
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 9:31 pm Reply with quote
I have no doubt that if Kyoto Animation did this show instead, it would have sold twice as much, at least. The commercial success was despite the show's visuals, not because of. And no, the basement quality visuals does not make the comedy funnier.

This is quite possibly the worst looking “hit” anime that I’ve ever watched, and it really irritated me the first season. Ok fine, the committee and studio DEEN didn’t expect it to sell, so they put in the bare minimum effort. But what’s the excuse for the second season? You can possibly tell me that the off-models, the ugly character designs (look up the original character designs for the LN, seriously), and the atrocious in-between frames. This really prevented me from fully recommending the show last season, and it only seemed to get 10x worse for the second season.

Should have given the job to KyoAni – the opposite of Studio DEEN. Because whoever was in charge of the show, whether it was the character designer, director, or the production committee - made a cynical, calculated decision to do as little as they could get away with. How else do you explain the 10 episodes, and not the normal 12-13?
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zrnzle500



Joined: 04 Oct 2014
Posts: 3767
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 9:45 pm Reply with quote
^There are a number of 10-11 episode anime (including last season's Haikyuu 3 and Fune wo Amu respectively) so it is neither too unusual or indicative of putting a minimum of effort into it. And they could not have done as much with the expressions has they not played fast and loose with the designs. Same reason the designs in Akiba's Trip and the most recent Pokemon series were changed, to make them more conducive to animation. They might not look as good standing still, but they are made to be easier to animate and look good in motion. There are better people to explain why, but I will say this approach is definitely not without fans in the sakuga community from what I understand.
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kinghumanity



Joined: 03 Nov 2014
Posts: 365
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:36 pm Reply with quote
zrnzle500 wrote:
^There are a number of 10-11 episode anime (including last season's Haikyuu 3 and Fune wo Amu respectively) so it is neither too unusual or indicative of putting a minimum of effort into it. And they could not have done as much with the expressions has they not played fast and loose with the designs. Same reason the designs in Akiba's Trip and the most recent Pokemon series were changed, to make them more conducive to animation. They might not look as good standing still, but they are made to be easier to animate and look good in motion. There are better people to explain why, but I will say this approach is definitely not without fans in the sakuga community from what I understand.


If this was originally planned to be 10 episodes then there wouldn't be that dumb back-insert story at the end of season 1, they would have actually used an episode to show that story. It was obviously done to cut costs, and cut as many corners as possible.
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 11:07 pm Reply with quote
Ooookay.

This is very weird for me. Before I binged all of KONOSUBA I was consistently told "it looks pretty bad" and through all the episodes I was wondering "When?". It looks excellent for me, not just out of "irony", I can tell it's all a completely deliberate decision to enhance the show, and there's quite a difference between exaggeration and caricaturization with off models, it's especially obvious in this season's OP how most of the characters look barely on model yet they look perfectly for the moment they're supposed to be in, contrary to off model moments, in which they don't exactly match what the scene is trying to convay and rather distract you from the scene, rather than enhacing it.

Quote:
This is quite possibly the worst looking “hit” anime that I’ve ever watched, and it really irritated me the first season. Ok fine, the committee and studio DEEN didn’t expect it to sell, so they put in the bare minimum effort.


They put zero effort

You are free to not like it, but please, don't make up assumptions out of nothing.

Quote:
Should have given the job to KyoAni – the opposite of Studio DEEN. Because whoever was in charge of the show, whether it was the character designer, director, or the production committee - made a cynical, calculated decision to do as little as they could get away with. How else do you explain the 10 episodes, and not the normal 12-13?


Hyouka by Kyoto Animation, directed by Ishidate (Haruhi Suzumiya and Amagi Brilliant Park), had 22 episodes. Did he also make calculated and cynical decision ot get away without full 24 episodes? Astounding revelations.
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Luke's Yu-Gi-Oh! Channel



Joined: 11 Dec 2016
Posts: 159
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:28 am Reply with quote
So happy to see this back, I thought it was the best comedy last year.

Pretty good 1st episode, I thought it was funny and enjoyed it.
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timber



Joined: 12 Dec 2014
Posts: 132
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 4:59 am Reply with quote
I am glad to see new episodes of Konosuba but quite frankly, I just don't remember having seen anything as badly animated as this episode. Did they even have key animators in their team? The drawings look vague, very sloppy, animation is jerky, broken. I liked the humour in the episode but its a bit painful to watch.

I have no problem recommending season 1 to my friends but now it looks so bad I would ashamed to to do so for season 2.
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kinghumanity



Joined: 03 Nov 2014
Posts: 365
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:16 am Reply with quote
Valhern wrote:
Ooookay.

This is very weird for me. Before I binged all of KONOSUBA I was consistently told "it looks pretty bad" and through all the episodes I was wondering "When?". It looks excellent for me, not just out of "irony", I can tell it's all a completely deliberate decision to enhance the show, and there's quite a difference between exaggeration and caricaturization with off models, it's especially obvious in this season's OP how most of the characters look barely on model yet they look perfectly for the moment they're supposed to be in, contrary to off model moments, in which they don't exactly match what the scene is trying to convay and rather distract you from the scene, rather than enhacing it.

Quote:
This is quite possibly the worst looking “hit” anime that I’ve ever watched, and it really irritated me the first season. Ok fine, the committee and studio DEEN didn’t expect it to sell, so they put in the bare minimum effort.


They put zero effort

You are free to not like it, but please, don't make up assumptions out of nothing.

Quote:
Should have given the job to KyoAni – the opposite of Studio DEEN. Because whoever was in charge of the show, whether it was the character designer, director, or the production committee - made a cynical, calculated decision to do as little as they could get away with. How else do you explain the 10 episodes, and not the normal 12-13?


Hyouka by Kyoto Animation, directed by Ishidate (Haruhi Suzumiya and Amagi Brilliant Park), had 22 episodes. Did he also make calculated and cynical decision ot get away without full 24 episodes? Astounding revelations.


Hyouka told a complete, structured, flowing story in 22 episodes. Your Lie in April told a complete, structured, flowing story in 22 episodes. Konosuba did NOT tell a complete, structured, flowing story in 10 episodes because they had to back-insert something that happened through a flashback that we never got to see. Get the difference?
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:33 am Reply with quote
I like this show too, but they've got to start coming up with new gags. I'm hoping they will but the first episode wasn't too promising in that regard. They can't just continually mine the Kazuma is trash, Megumin is an idiot, Darkness is an M and everybody is a jerk (except for the Undead chick) forever. Yes, by all means keep hitting the old gongs, but bring on some new schtick as well, please.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18136
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:08 am Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
I like this show too, but they've got to start coming up with new gags. I'm hoping they will but the first episode wasn't too promising in that regard. They can't just continually mine the Kazuma is trash, Megumin is an idiot, Darkness is an M and everybody is a jerk (except for the Undead chick) forever.

Actually there are plenty of examples both in anime and out which prove that they can do exactly this and still remain funny.
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