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Season 3 |
Episode Guide
Episode 1: God’s Blessing On This Bright Future -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 2: A Smile for This Dour Girl! -|Review Score – 4/5
Episode 3: A Re-education for This Bright Little Girl -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 4: Divine Punishment for This Handsome Gentlemen Thief -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 5: Nefarious Friends For This Sheltered Princess -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 6: A Farewell to this Lavish Lifestyle -|Review Score – 3/5
Episode 7: Rest for this Up-and-Coming Adventurer! -|Review Score – 3/5
Episode 8: An Eternal Rest for the Master -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 9: A Talking-To for This Runaway! -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 10: Blessings For this Selfish Bride! -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 11: God’s Blessings for These Unchanging Days! -|Review Score – 3.5/5
Isekai anime became a popular trend in the mid-2010s. Although some argue this anime genre’s gotten stale, anime like Now and Then, Here and There, Inuyasha, and other great Isekai anime prove that the genre can produce entertaining and refreshing takes on that genre. On that note, Konosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World (Konosuba) won fans over with its comical take on fantasy.
It’s not the first anime to do it, see The Slayers, but modern audiences argue Konosuba is one of the few that pulls it off brilliantly. Nevertheless, Konosuba’s first season became a smash hit in the mid-2010s. Eventually, several sequels and spin-offs were released, giving fans more satisfying content to digest. Although Konosuba Season 3’s not a fabulous entry, it has its nuances that’ll leave fans happy.
Konosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World Season 3 is an 11-episode sequel to the 2019 film Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! – Legend of Crimson. It’s set sometime after Kazuma and his friends defeat Sylvia and save the Crimson Demon Village from doom. In Axel, Kazuma tells his allies that he wants to abandon his adventurous lifestyle to pursue a peaceful existence as a monk.
However, our hero’s argument over the issue gets placed on hold when Princess Iris gets involved. As Kazuma and his friends indulge in kingdom affairs, viewers will see if the bond they’ve established since Season 1 will remain intact. As with prior entries, Konosuba Season 3’s humor will entertain many anime fans. It contains the same erotic gags, mean-spirited comments, fun slapstick, and bonkers situations as other entries.
Moreover, this season fleshes out Konosuba’s world to a degree. From reintroducing old characters like Lord Alderp in meaningful ways to slightly expanding upon the show’s established kingdoms and artifacts, fans will be thrilled to see what the series’s author, Natsume Akatsuki, does here. Additionally, Konosuba Season 3 contains heartfelt slice-of-life scenarios fans can resonate with.
From Princess Iris’s desires for freedom to Darkness abandoning her friends to fulfill a debt, fans may pause and reflect on this season’s emotionally charged predicaments. Lastly, the show contains a touch of action. This comes in the form of exaggerated reactions and team-based battles. While these story components sound promising, Konosuba Season 3 has problems worth addressing.
Firstly, Konosuba Season 3’s world developments lack significance or proper pay-offs. Several topics that come to mind include the Divine Treasures, Emperor Zell’s purpose and role, our heroes’ initial hydra fight, and Luna’s warning about the Silver-Haired Thief Brigade. While one can argue Akatsuki could delve into the Divine Treasures and Emperor Zell’s importance in a future season, the same can’t be said for the latter two entries.
The story blitzes through those debacles without a care in the world. It transitions to a subplot involving Alderp and the Dustiness (Darkness’s) family, which is arguably, more interesting. Segments like Luna and the hydra should’ve been removed in favor of focusing on the engaging content. Also, Konosuba Season 3’s humor will leave audiences mixed, mostly regarding its erotic content.
Although fans should expect Kazuma, his friends, and others to get into “raunchy” situations, some scenarios in Konosuba Season 3 may leave folks uncomfortable. Moreover, the series unconcernedly develops a semi-romance between Kazuma and Iris in episode six. This, alongside the bathhouse gag during Kazuma and Iris’s body-swap fiasco, may convince some folks to tune out.
On top of having unnecessary and occasionally long discussion sequences, repetitive jokes, and boring cliches, Konosuba Season 3’s storyline may satisfy many, but not, all. On the subject of the anime’s cast, their core traits remain intact, which should please this property’s fandom. Kazuma’s still as snarky, lazy, and funny as fans remember. However, Kazuma undergoes slight growth near the season’s later half. It’s nothing too major, but it’s a step in the right direction.
After Kazuma, there’s Darkness and Megumin. Darkness is still a masochist like in Season 1 and stands up for her friends a few times throughout Season 3. Additionally, Season 3 dedicates a good chunk of its runtime to Darkness and her family’s monetary dilemma with Alderp. This allows audiences to grow more attached to her character outside of her quirky fetishes.
As for Megumin, she has her appealing instances throughout Season 3 from the action and comical side of things. Also, the story wonderfully builds upon her potential romantic relationship with Kazuma. Much like Kazuma’s development, it’s nothing too extreme, but it adds charm to Konosuba Season 3’s narrative. As for Aqua, fans shouldn’t expect much. She’s as useless as can be, which can be great or disappointing, based on fans’ desires for her.
All in all, the main cast has their time to shine, but not all shine the same. The same can be said for the supporting cast. Besides Princess Iris, the other characters feel as flat as a piece of paper. This is because the supporting cast doesn’t contribute to the story heavily enough or is inserted in scenarios to make people laugh.
Fun fact, Konosuba Season 3 wasn’t animated by DEEN Studios or J.C. Staff this time. Instead, Drive Studios animated Konosuba Season 3 and the visuals and animation look on par with their work on 2023’s Konosuba: An Explosion On This Wonderful World. Unlike that spin-off, Konosuba Season 3’s character models remain superb and never looked jarring in scenarios where that wasn’t the intent.
Despite their average results, the battles and verbal confrontations appeared engaging and eventful. The same can be said for the show’s slapstick-heavy scenarios too. One example includes Kazuma and Dust’s bedroom situation with one of the royals. The photography session in that scene will leave fans in tears because of the boys’ expressive body movements.
Musically, Konosuba Season 3’s OST is fine. The music that played during its casual and thrilling scenarios fit the story’s atmosphere. The music won’t hamper one’s enjoyment of a scene nor does the soundtrack do anything to exceed one’s expectations for a specific story beat. The voice acting is top-notch and the returning and new cast members do a nice job bringing Konosuba’s characters to life.
Konosuba Season 3 is a huge step up from 2023’s subpar spin-off. It doesn’t capture the heights of Seasons 1 and 2, but it serves as a fun continuation that’s worth rewatching for its enjoyable offerings alone. Although our bumbling heroes’ journey is far from over, we’re optimistic the next Konosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World anime will provide fans with a “wonderful” time.
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Verdict - 7/10
7/10