Gods Blessings on This Wonderful Work of Art!

Posted by on April 28, 2020

"The essence of lying is in deception, not in words." –John Ruskin

While attempting to maintain the air of a seasoned charlatan at the Guild, Kazuma is approached by Ran, a freshman adventurer who seems taken in by his stories and experiences. Luna has a new quest for Kazuma and his legendary party, and Kazuma finds himself unable to plough this downwards – he gathers Aqua, Megumin and Darkness, taking them to a derelict ruin rumoured to be housing golems, and subsequently successfully destroying information technology, returns to the Guild with nevertheless another story to tell. With the golem threat removed, Luna sets Kazuma on an assignment to see if at that place'southward anything noteworthy in the ruins. With his party, Kazuma discovers that the ruins was once the dwelling of a Japanese adventurer who asked for the power to engineer everything, simply over time, became disillusioned with his task to destroy the Dæmon King and lapsed into creating robots for his own amusement. This private turns out to exist the same researcher who built the Destroyer: Kazuma despairs at reading his periodical, but besides resolves to unlock whatsoever the individual had built. When he opens the vault, he finds an android inside that after begins chirapsia upwardly the political party, forcing Megumin to use her explosion magic, which destroys the ruins completely. Kazuma later learns that his "fan" was really on Luna's apply, falsely praising Kazuma and then they could motivate him to bargain with quests that other parties would non take. Frustrated, Kazuma employs his "steal" skill on Luna and Ran in revenge. This is KonoSuba's 2d OVA, which is set a means subsequently the second season and deals with even so another misadventure of Kazuma'southward: this time, the tables turn, and it is Kazuma on the receiving end of humiliation.

By portraying the life of the head researcher who had built the Destroyer, KonoSuba'south second OVA gives insight into the level of detail that went into Kazuma'south new world. The first season had simply shown this private as an exceptionally talented, if absent-minded engineer who inadvertently destroyed an entire civilisation upon finishing the autonomous fortress, but in the OVA, it turns out that he had similar origins to Kazuma – both were antisocial individuals who hail from Nippon, and while the caput researcher had started out with motivation and an honest intention, seeing the futility of his quest and what he could accomplish alone eventually led him to lapse back into his old ways, although his powers to create avant-garde constructs indicate that at to the lowest degree his drive to build never left him. The contrast between Kazuma and this charlatan serves to testify the importance of companionship, and in particular, how having a party with him has led Kazuma to, often against his wishes, undertake quests that serve a tangible purpose for his current globe. In the absence of his party, and specifically, had Kazuma requested annihilation other than for Aqua to accompany him, it is believable that he may have lost his motivation to undertake quests and do things for those around him. As a result, while Kazuma'south decision to have Aqua with him, motivated by a petty desire to humiliate her in revenge for laughing at his death, seemingly appears to be a poor choice, it has too resulted in the abiding need for Kazuma to fight for those around him, keeping him on the path of being an adventurer and bringing him a considerable ways in getting closer to the Dæmon King.

Screenshots and Commentary

• It is nice to go back to my usual programming: I don't especially enjoy shredding negative reviews, even if it is to brand the point that sesquipedalian criticisms are normally uninformed, and so, I'm going to bask this talk on KonoSuba'southward second OVA. It turns out that, thanks to his hating tendencies in his past life, Kazuma is ill-informed on common food items and even in a fantasy world, is unprepared to order manly food items. He's unexpectedly interrupted by Ran, who appears to be a new adventurer and wants to hear more nigh his stories. Luna then coincidentally appears, and Kazuma feels duty-leap to accept the quest even though he'd wanted naught more than than to do nothing.

• Whereas Megumin is ever game if there's a run a risk to use explosion magic, and Darkness is likely to accept whatsoever quest where she might sustain harm, it takes a bit more endeavor to get Aqua going. Their latest quest is a seemingly run-of-the-factory one – investigate some ruins and deal with any golems in that location. Golems originate from Jewish sociology, beingness animated beings created from inanimate matter, simply beyond this, has been discipline to different interpretations.

• Considering of Aqua's reluctance to accept the quest, Kazuma steals her staff, which forces her to back-trail the party out. One random scrap of trivial about Aqua is that her hair ornament resembles a water molecule, mirroring her namesake and powers: I've not cared to encounter whether or not the ornament gets correct the 104.45° bending between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which come up from the electrostatic repulsion of the alone pairs, but the fact that the smaller chaplet on her hair ornament are bent is satisfactory in conveying the shape of a water molecule.

• ThroughoutKonoSuba, Aqua and Kazuma's fights are e'er funny to spotter: the 2nd OVA is no dissimilar, and I certainly enjoyed watching the ii bounce off one another. The 2nd OVA was released iv months after the 2d season ended, in the July of 2017. A glance at my site archives show that this was an interesting month for the blog: I had just written one of the biggest posts of all time forMakoto Shinkai's Your Name, which I consider to exist one of my best posts of all time, and had a few other interesting pieces out, including for New Game!! and Washio Sumi is a Hero's concluding human activity.

• When the golem of the ruins appears, it is in the form of a mecha with a Japanese influence, and after intercepting 1 of its punches, Darkness notices it's much lighter than it appears: it's conspicuously non a golem of traditional lore, having a hollow interior rather than being entirely solid as one would wait. In spite of this, the mecha would be quite potent, and the fact that Darkness tin stand up to it speaks to her own physical forcefulness – had Kazuma continued fighting her during the second season, he certainly would've been annihilated.

• Taken aback at its design, Megumin refuses to nail the mecha, desiring to tame it and have information technology get her pet. Kazuma immediately objects, but ane could make a example that since Megumin had been looking after the cat, Chomusuke, since the second flavor's second episode, she'due south got at least some feel in looking afterward pets and therefore, unlike most childrens' series that use pet care to convey messages of responsibility, Megumin would be able to do a decent plenty task.

• During the course of her tussle with the robot, Darkness' chest piece gets knocked off, and the robot begins to screw with her mammaries. For Darkness, it's simply some other adventure – she enjoys the feel in her own fashion, and the OVA does something that the Tv set series certainly wouldn't in its blitheness. That the robot does this suggests that it has express sentience, and while it'south no BT-7472, information technology does hint at its creator's mindset.

• In the end, Kazuma has to piece of work difficult to convince Megumin that destroying the golem is a necessary evil, and she relents, using her explosion magic to knock it down. While her explosion spell is presented as visually having the same yield as a very modest suitcase tactical nuclear device, that it leaves its opponents intact after one shot suggests that the spell is more bark than bite: even a depression-yield device would inflict severe burns and blast damage at close range.

• Megumin is so utterly devoted to explosion magic that, despite having enough skill points to spend in other areas, she refuses to practice then out of pride, and so, even two seasons in, she's forced to accept someone behave her rather than selection upwardly spells for increased mana regen. This leads ane to wonder if at that place's a difficult cap on how much one can buff certain spells: in most games, there'south a limit to how far one can invest skill points. For instance, in The Sectionalization 2, those running the Demolitionist specialisation can but push their signature weapon damage up to a maximum of 125 percent and further increase explosive damage up to a maximum of 25 percentage, after which they've reached the cap and must spend any accrued specialisation points on something else.

• Kyoya Mitsurugi makes another advent, and Kazuma wastes no time in humiliating him. In any ordinaryisekai, Kyoya would exist the protagonist, going on adventures to prepare himself for facing the Dæmon King and coming to terms with whatever unresolved tensions he had remaining from his erstwhile life.KonoSuba completely discards these expectations, and it is for this reason the series is so successful – a good series isn't most beingness as grimdark or philosophical as possible, simply rather, for doing the unexpected. This is whyMadoka Magica is an excellent series: not considering of its "realistic" portrayal of suffering, and certainly not for the imagery that gave the impression philosophy was a requirement into appreciating the series themes,Madoka Magica took a familiar concept and went in a new direction with it.

• Isekai serial are ofttimes criticised for saturating the market place, and this complaint invariably comes from the fact a fair number of them take the adventure very seriously. When many isekai create this atmosphere, the repetition can make it difficult to tell ane series from another. Withal, KonoSuba never has a tiresome moment and remains very memorable. It seems that when Kazuma's party is not on an assignment, they remain quite able to detect things to practice, such as building apaper mâché mecha from spare milk cartons. Of form, having at present seen the very best of whatisekai can do, I am curious to learn more well-nigh more conventional series.

• I've heard that of tardily,Goblin Slayer and The Rising of the Shield Hero are twoisekai series to go along an center on; the former is about an adventurer who exists to kill goblins, and the latter is about an adventurer whose signature gear particular is a shield, and how he works his way towards saving the globe and coming to terms with himself. Both series does feel like they have a more grim and serious experience to them: hither, I note that I watched Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash some three years ago, only never got much from that series because of how melancholy it felt, and how cold that alternate earth was. Because of this, I never ended up writing nigh information technology afterward I finished.

• Later existence convinced to return to the ruins and see if there's anything worth salvaging, Kazuma takes his party back into the depths to explore. Aqua is immediately attacked by undead dolls and is forced to exorcise them. However, fifty-fifty for their troubles, it seems like at that place's nothing of value in nigh of the rooms. The frustrations of a cleared-out area is 1 I'g familiar with: while I've not touched an MMORPG for over a decade, I recall that in The Division, one of the biggest gripes I had about the Dark Zone were landmarks that were already cleaned out, but towards the endgame, I became powerful enough to articulate landmarks on my own, and this led other four-human being teams to reconsider fighting me. I think that the last time I played a proper fantasy RPG was Elderberry Scrolls: Skyrim. I remember enjoying that game, but for reasons I've forgotten, I've never actually finished the main story mission.

• KonoSuba'due south superb animation quality and artwork means that, when the moment calls for it, Studio Deen tin fall upon deliberately worsening the animation to create a betoken. Aqua usually falls victim to this, and while she'south merely delegating the combat strategy here so she wouldn't have to practice anything, in the 2nd season, after admittedly botching her duties when their political party was tasked with hunting Lizard Runners, she throws a a tantrum and so hard that her fine art style devolves into something that resembles the abominations created by an individual with a streak of infamy the size of Arizona. That KonoSuba does this suggests they are poking fun at that particular mode, and in the interest of not having the individual find this web log via Google's indexing and proceeding to spam my comments with various all-caps threats, I'll refrain from naming them.

• Like Megumin, the summoning circles and sequences whenever Aqua uses her magic are a wonderful sight to behold, rich with vivid colours and visual effects. It looks like being a mage, warlock or equivalent in the world ofKonoSaba would be a fun thing provided 1 specs themselves out properly, although in a classless game likeElder Scrolls: Skyrim, I've actually opted to become with a range of specialisations. My character is a combination of archer and mage, specialising in offensive magic and sharpshooting. Of form, this renders me ineffectual at close quarters combat, only one of the overnice things aboutSkyrimis that over fourth dimension, one could hypothetically level upward different attributes well plenty and so that they are a jack of all trades. Now that I think about it, it could exist fun to get back into Skyrim and really beat out the main storyline.

• Upon reaching ane concluding room, a individual chambers of sorts, Kazuma discovers a safety with a keyed lock, and sets nigh looking for annihilation that might unlock this safe. The party finds a journal of sorts, which follows the register of the fellow who came to this world, asked for the ability to create annihilation through sheer force of will, and sought to stop the Dæmon King, only slowly lost his motivation over time. He was somewhen hired by some other nation and asked to build the Destroyer, but failed to implement any failsafes. On the surface,KonoSuba'southward second OVA provides a flake of world-building past shining more light on the Destroyer's creator, but the OVA also accomplishes something much more.

• With due respect, this is something I was not expecting; both Kazuma and the older adventurer share like backgrounds, simply the stardom of having a devoted, if eccentric, party in his corner means that Kazuma is e'er pushed into adventure whether he likes it or non, and he finds that in spite of himself, he wears the role of leadership surprisingly well at times. This screenshot was chosen in the spirit of showing off Aqua, and returning to the menstruation of things, reading the old adventurer'southward journal does provide the access code into the locked room.

• It turns out that the charlatan had in fact created i robot up to his specifications, although when Kazuma activates it, it immediately begins chirapsia up anybody in the room. Darkness seems to be enjoying herself thoroughly, but Aqua, Megumin and Kazuma are terrified. In the end, Megumin destroys the facility, which fails the quest outright. The older adventurer'due south ability was a well-chosen one, and as I've noted previously, I would've likely asked for the Infinity Gauntlet with all six Stones, plus the power to wield it. With the quest butchered, Kazuma and his political party return to town.

• After having spent some time reflecting on Kazuma's world,KonoSuba'southward 2nd OVA returns to comedy with yet some other surprising twist: Ran is actually doing a quest herself by approaching Kazuma and asking to hear near his stories, and she's dissatisfied with how dull Kazuma is, negotiating for a additional quest reward for her troubles. Kazuma had followed, feeling that he should pace in to assist out, but the contents of Luna and Ran'southward conversation leaves him humiliated beyond all measure when it turns out it was a clever ploy. The folio quote was chosen for this aspect of the OVA.

• Darkness, Aqua and Megumin had felt bad for Ran earlier and resolved to comfort Kazuma when the truth got out, but the reality is fifty-fifty more than amusing, and for one time, viewers become to encounter Aqua enjoy things. Her squeaky laugh is adorable, and upon seeing this, Darkness immediately decides that they'll take to exist kinder to him once things blow over. After the events of the last OVA,KonoSuba'south 2d OVA shows that humour is indiscriminate in this world, and then, no 1 character always suffers disproportionately for their troubles. Instead, anybody can suffer in an unprejudiced, unbiased and fair manner. This is howKonoSuba keeps things engaging, and with this postal service, my last of Apr, in the books, it's time to go ahead and enjoy the movie.

Despite its masterful use of comedy, KonoSuba manages to weave numerous other themes into its story that profoundly enhance the series' enjoyability, and when given the space to do so, KonoSuba demonstrates that it tin can strike a balance betwixt world-building, character growth and comedy – the second KonoSuba OVA is superior to the first in this manner, using a quest to requite Kazuma's party more insight into the human behind the Destroyer, and also to remind viewers that despite his gripes, Kazuma'south party is far more valuable to him than he would care to admit. Insofar, Kazuma and his party have contributed to the destruction of ii of the Dæmon Rex'due south commanders (Verdia and Hans), and farther, take removed at least ane more (Vanir). With three kills under his party's belt over two seasons, KonoSuba shows that in spite of their ineptitude and shortcomings, the unique synergy that comes together in Kazuma's political party, thanks in no pocket-size part to Kazuma's cunning and power to lead, gives him a fighting risk confronting the Dæmon King where others have previously been unsuccessful. While KonoSuba might be known for Aqua's tantrums, Megumin's explosions and Darkness' perversion, also every bit the ensuing sense of humor, the serial as well demonstrates that information technology is set in a globe rich with stories, and moreover, that the series isn't going to squander the opportunity to entertain its viewers in more means than just one.

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Source: https://infinitemirai.wordpress.com/2020/04/28/gods-blessings-on-this-wonderful-work-of-art-review-and-reflection-on-konosubas-second-ova/

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