Review of KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3
After 5 years, Konosuba is back and better than ever. While the comedy we know and love is present in S3, the biggest improvement is the story. Darkness is the focal point of the season and goes from being a purely comic relief masochist to a genuinely interesting and developed character. The story arc this season covers is in my opinion, the best yet and genuinely emotionally investing. While it’s a series known for its comedy and jokes, Konosuba can tell a good story too and this season proved it. After the long gap between seasons and the studio shift, a lot of people myself includedwere skeptical about the job Drive would do with Konosuba. Last year’s Megumin spin-off showed they were capable of taking the reins of the franchise and they followed up with a great season 3 of the mainline series. The charm of the series is still very much apparent. Aqua, Kazuma, Megumin and Darkness’ dynamic is as fun as ever.
The biggest selling point this season was the story surrounding Darkness. As everyone knows, in previous seasons Darkness is kind of this dumb comic relief masochist who has the occasional cool moment, but for the most part is kinda just a meme since she lacks actual combat abilities. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that Darkness and she and Aqua went back and forth as my fave characters. But this season, I got to see a totally different side of her that I never knew existed. Despite her actions, Darkness is actually really considerate, thoughtful and an amazing friend willing to sacrifice her own happiness for others. Seeing all the things she suffers with this season in silence and how far ahead she’s been planning ever since last season just gave me such a newfound appreciation for her character and put her definitively as my best girl.
The other girls definitely take a backseat in this season for Lalatina’s development and you’ll hear no complaints from me on it. Megumin recently had a spin-off and Aqua is too damn drunk to get a development, but the cast as usual bounces off each other really well. The banter, the silly moments, the over the top explosions and steal spells, they’re all there and well if you loved em before, you’ll love em now. You kinda know what you’re going to get from Konosuba at this point and it’s definitely not something for everyone, but I do whole heartedly think it’s one of the funniest shows the medium has to offer. Further on the comedy point, I will say though that this season has a little more screaming than I remember in konosuba. The gag is not really funny, but not the end of the world for me, but I’ve seen some people bothered by it and even writing think pieces on it, so just be aware that is a thing.
Production wise Drive haven’t missed a beat. Feels like a perfect continuation of Studio DEEN and honestly an upgrade in many respects. Biggest praise I can give is that you can’t even tell a new studio is doing the show.
By now you know what you’re getting with Konosuba comedy wise and it’s very much confident in its humour. But story wise this is the best it’s ever been. If you’ve ever watched the show and wanted a little more out of it narratively, I think you’ll be quite satisfied here. I’m just happy to have this show back.
konosuba season 3 gets a very easy 10 out of 10