Review of KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!

I wouldn’t say An Explosion on This Wonderful World is “more Konosuba” like you’d expect. It’s actually mostly tame. While having (almost) no bad Konosuba jokes is great, it apparently comes at the cost of the sheer attitude that made Konosuba enjoyable in the first place. It retains some of that DNA, but otherwise it’s a surprisingly generic experience. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to like Megumin then I think this anime does a good job. Personally Megumin never struck me as much of a character before this. It was very nice to see that she’s actually kind and thoughtful behind her smug pride.(And thank goodness for the movie for endearing me to the Crimson Demons’ smug pride before this anime’s focus on them!) But at the same time, Megumin’s character doesn’t entirely stand out to me. If anything, this anime felt more like a Yunyun spotlight — which was actually my favorite part of it. Yunyun gets a good amount of depth, making her more than the relatively one-dimensional "wimp joke" she was before. The characterization on these two was done pretty well, although there aren’t really any other notable characters on display....

As far as it being a Megumin backstory, there’s nothing too interesting going on there. It really is just a Megumin and Yunyun adventure more than something that sheds a light on why Megumin is the way she is or the like. Not that the events of the anime are bad per say, but some parts definitely felt like a slog.

I wouldn’t get excited for An Explosion on This World, but I also wouldn’t entirely write it off. If you want to get a better understanding of Megumin and Yunyun then this will probably be a good watch. But if you don’t really care, I don’t think you’re missing out on much else by skipping it.