Review of KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!

Explosions, Chunibyou, and Other Explosions. The explosion prequel spin-off to the KonoSuba series that follows the rise(?) of arch-wizard prodigy, wielder of explosion magic and everyone's favourite worst girl (except mine, that would be Darkness) Megumin, a delusional chunibyou who hails from a village of delusional chunibyou’s called the Crimson Demons, and her self-proclaimed rival Yunyun, the Crimson Demon village chief’s daughter and the only member of the village who thinks all of the delusional chunibyou antics are embarrassingly cringe and is therefore mostly ostracised. If you’ve never watched the original KonoSuba, all you need to know is that this is the comedy isekai that every othercomedy isekai that tries and usually fails to satire the isekai genre has been aping off of since 2016. With its incredibly sharp writing and twisted sense of humour, this prequel is a great re-introduction back into the world of idiots and no place is more hilariously stupid than the best part of the honestly, pretty mid KonoSuba movie, the Crimson Demon Village.

There at the Crimson Demon Magic Academy, Megumin, Yunyun and the rest of her classmates learn how to look an edgy twelve-year-old's concept of cool in combat and in life for reasons which are spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie. Seeing the culture explored in more depth along with all the nut jobs around the village and how demons and outsiders exasperatingly deal with them is delightfully hilarious.

I’m also happy to see Studio Drive picked up the baton from Studio Dean and J.C.Staff and managed to keep up the incredibly expressive and over-the-top animation the series is known for despite not keeping the original director. If you’re an old fan, you’ll feel right at home as the original Japanese voice cast and soundtrack have all returned, too.

When I try to put myself into the head of someone watching this as an introduction to KonoSuba, I have mixed feelings. The Crimson Demon village part of the story is different enough from the main series so anyone can jump on board and not feel like they’re missing out, but after Megumin and Yunyun leave the village that’s when the show starts to rely on reference humour which newcomers probably wouldn’t get. Also, like all prequels, this suffers from being a prequel. We all know what happens to Megumin and Yunyun from the main series and it affects some of the jokes and their punch lines more than you’d think.

Despite that, KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World is a fantastic re-introduction to the series and a good though flawed introduction for those coming into the series fresh. I was slightly worried over the change in studios and the loss of the original director, but my mind has been put at ease and now I can look forward to season 3 of the main series.

8/10 Great.