Review of KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!

After 4 years of absolutely nothing, Konosuba returned with this little spin-off prequel starring Megumin, the "Crazy Explosion Girl". Most episodes follow the same structure as any episode of the main series, with some crazy thing happening that is resolved by the end of the episode, similarly to a sitcom. However, the exclusion of the rest of the main Konosuba cast hurts the execution of this structure to an extent. The show isn't bad, I highly recommend it if you're a Konosuba fan, but there are some issues that should be taken into account. The anime starts off with Megumin enrolling at the Crimson Demon Village'smagic academy, the Red Prison. There, we're introduced to the starting cast of the show, Yunyun and the rest of Megumin's classmates. These characters fail to work as "replacements" of the dynamic Konosuba cast, most of them being primarily stale and not offering much to the comedy aspect. Yunyun is an amazing character, but her role as a deuteragonist doesn't offer much for most (but not all) of the show, considering that she primarily follows Megumin's footsteps, as can be seen in the main show. Some characters that are introduced later on do manage to work very well with the show's comedy, and could have been utilized more.

Characters aside, after a really boring set of 4 episodes, this anime starts to tell a pretty compelling story, which gets better and better each episode that passes. I can't say much as this is a spoiler-free review, but there's a pretty good amount of world building which is heavily appreciated. Megumin's personality without a Kazuma around to stop her leads to some pretty insane situations which wouldn't be able to happen in the main show, making this spin-off different enough from the main show to offer a different experience. It also seems to be a tad bit more serious than the main show, especially in the latter half, which gives way to some very nice Megumin and Yunyun content.

Now that the cast and story has been cleared up, there should be some attention taken to the studio. The studio that worked on this spin-off (Drive) is a different studio than the one that worked on seasons 1 and 2 of Konosuba (Studio Deen). I was a little worried over the quality or style being affected by this, but surprisingly there's no noticeable differences. Same goofy faces, same coloring, same artsyle, and so on. The animation is as great as the main show's animation always was.

Conclusion: Konosuba: An Explosion On This Wonderful World! offers a familiar but different view on the Konosuba world which, while boring at first, becomes interesting and comedic enough for an enjoyable watch, even though the comedy would be better if it wasn't weighed down by a weak supporting cast. This show is a must-watch for any Konosuba fan.