KonoSuba

Plot

Following an untimely and embarrassing death, Kazuma Satō, a Japanese teenage shut-in NEET, meets a goddess named Aqua, who offers to reincarnate him in a parallel world with MMORPG elements, where he can go on adventures and battle monsters. Despite being offered a godlike item or ability to use in this new world, Kazuma, following some provocation, chooses Aqua herself to accompany him to the town of Axel, quickly finding her absent-mindedness to be less than beneficial.^{LN 1.P}. With Aqua unable to return to the afterlife until the Devil King is defeated, the two form a party and recruit two other members; an explosion-obsessed magician named Megumin and a masochistic paladin named Darkness.^{LN 1.2} Due to the party's dysfunctional abilities, Kazuma quickly gives up on the idea of defeating the Devil King and tries to live a luxurious lifestyle, only to find the circumstances of his daily life force him and his party to encounter and battle the Devil King's generals.^{LN 2.3}

Main characters

Kazuma Satō (佐藤 和真, Satō Kazuma)

Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka (drama CD), Jun Fukushima (anime)Kazuma is a 16-year-old game-obsessed shut-in, having had his heart broken over his childhood friend during middle school.^{LN 5.2} After dying from acute stress reaction, he is sent to the parallel reality where he becomes a role-playing game character.^{LN 1.2} As an Adventurer class, he learns basic skills such as stealing, archery, monster detection, and magic.

Aqua (アクア, Akua)

Voiced by: Kaori Fukuhara (drama CD), Sora Amamiya (anime)Aqua is the goddess of water who judged humans to send to the RPG world, up until Kazuma dragged her along with him.^{LN 1.P} She is an energetic and inattentive girl who likes to receive reverence for her status and gets upset easily. As an Archpriest and a goddess, she is powerful against demons and the undead, and is able to resurrect recently deceased people as well as purify water supplies. Rather than learning skills which would benefit her party, she spends most of her skill points learning party tricks.

Megumin (めぐみん)

Voiced by: Maaya Uchida (drama CD), Rie Takahashi (anime)Megumin is the 13-year-old arch wizard who is descended from crimson demons; powerful humanoids who possess black hair and red eyes, and sport chūnibyō characteristics.^{LN 5.5} Megumin only knows a single spell, an incredibly powerful Explosion spell that immediately incapacitates her for the rest of the day when cast, and refuses to learn any other skills.^{LN 1.1}

Darkness (ダクネス, Dakunesu)

Voiced by: Marina Inoue (drama CD), Ai Kayano (anime)Darkness is a crusader who possesses powerful offense and defense, but lacks the accuracy to deliver her attacks.^{LN 1.2} She is a masochist who dreams of being ravaged by monsters or married to an abusive husband; regardless, she becomes serious with issues involving her friends. It is later revealed that her actual name is Lalatina Dustiness Ford (ダスティネス・フォード・ララティーナ, Dasutinesu Fōdo Raratīna), and is a noble from the influential Dustiness family, who became a crusader against her father's wishes.^{LN 3.3}

Eris (エリス, Erisu)

Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa (anime)Eris is a goddess of the RPG world who Kazuma first meets after he is killed during a battle. She is kind-hearted but is prone to embarrassment from Aqua, who is jealous over how much more Eris is worshiped despite being Aqua's junior goddess. ^{LN 2.1} It is later revealed that Chris is her persona in this world.^{LN 7.E2}

Wiz (ウィズ, Wizu)

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (drama CD), Yui Horie (anime)Wiz is a powerful lich wizard who, despite being one of the Devil King's generals,^{LN 2.3} is a timid and kind woman who uses her powers to assist civilians and lead lost spirits to the afterlife.^{LN 1.2} She runs an unsuccessful magic shop which is later managed by Vanir, in which she is treated like a slave worker.^{LN 4.1}

Devil King's generals

Verdia (ベルディア, Berudia)

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (anime)Verdia is a dullahan and one of the Devil King's generals. He becomes hostile towards Kazuma's party after Megumin keeps using his castle for explosion practice. He is weak against water and is defeated by Aqua's purifying magic.^{LN 1}

Vanir (バニル, Baniru)

Voiced by: Masakazu NishidaVanir is one of the Devil King's generals who ends up taking over the management of Wiz's magic shop.^{LN 4.1} He is the devil of foresight and one of the dukes of hell and his ability is to read everything about anybody, but he cannot read anthing about people that are as powerful (the Devil King's generals and other dukes), people stronger (Aqua and other gods) and people who are a little weaker than him have their readings clouded and incomplete (YunYun). An exception to this is Kazuma, whose cunning nature makes him hard to read. He also has very powerful combat skills that he refuses to use on humans.^{LN 3.4}

Hans (ハンス, Hansu)

Hans is a deadly poison slime variant type with the ability to devour anything, taking the form of those he devoured and a strong body of poison, which he used to destroy hot springs. ^{LN 4.5}

Sylvia (シルヴィア, Shiruvia)

Sylvia is a growth chimera, with ability to modify his own body.^{LN 5.4}

Wolbach (ウォルバク, Worubaku)

Evil goddess of violence and sloth, Wolbach is worshiped by Devil King's subordinates.^{LN 9.4} She used her vast reserves of mana to cast explosion magic on fort then teleport to safety. She was also one to teach Megumin explosion spell. Before the start of main story of KonSuba she was split into two entities one of them is humanoid and other is Chomusuke, Megumin's cat.^{LN 9.5}

Supporting characters

Yunyun (ゆんゆん, Yun'yun)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (drama CD), Aki Toyosaki (anime)Yunyun is Megumin's former classmate and daughter to the crimson demon's chief. She has a normal personality, causing her to be estranged from her chūnibyō peers. Yunyun is a highly skilled arch wizard and uses a rivalry with Megumin as an excuse to create a friendship. She is one of the main protagonists in the spin-off novels.

Chris (クリス, Kurisu)

Voiced by: Ayaka Suwa (anime)Chris is Darkness's friend and a thief who teaches Kazuma the Steal skill.

Kyōya Mitsurugi (御剣 響夜, Mitsurugi Kyōya)

Voiced by: Kōsuke Toriumi (drama CD), Takuya Eguchi (anime)Kyōya is another human who was sent to this world by Aqua. He was given a cursed sword known as Gram as his chosen item upon entry, but he loses it in a fight to Kazuma, who used his Steal skill to swipe it. Kazuma later pawned it off for extra money.

Luna (ルナ, Runa)

Voiced by: Sayuri Hara (anime)Luna is the official quest giver of the Axel guildhall.

Ruffian (荒くれ者, Arakuremono)

Voiced by: Tetsu Inada (anime)An anime-exclusive character. The first person Kazuma speaks with in Axel's guildhall.

Sena (セナ)

Voiced by: Hitomi NabatameSena is the special prosecutor from Capital in charge of serious crimes, such as treason and conspiring with Demon King's Army. So she was sent to arrest and investigate Kazuma, when the teleported Destroyer core blew up the local aristocrat's mansion.

Alderp Alexei Barnes (アレクセイ・バーネス・アルダープ, Arekusei Bānesu Arudāpu)

Voiced by: Takashi NagasakoA Lord, whose mansion was destroyed by Kazuma's decision to randomly teleport the Destroyer's core, and later attempts to manipulate the trial to sentence Kazuma to death

Walther Alexei Barnes (アレクセイ・バーネス・バルター, Arekusei Bānesu Barutā)

Voiced by: Kaito IshikawaAlderps' son, a kind, courteous and noble-minded knight of the realm, who was to wed Darkness as arranged by his father (much to Darkness' distaste). When Darkness invents the story that she cannot marry him as she is carrying Kazuma's child, he decides to tell his father that he declined the match.

Ignis Dustiness Ford (ダスティネス・フォード・イグニス, Dasutinesu Fōdo Igunis)

Voiced by: Kazuhiko InoueA prominent Lord of the realm and Darkness' father.

Novels

The original web novel series written by Natsume Akatsuki was published on Syosetu between December 2012 and October 2013. The author also wrote a side story featuring Wiz and Vanir. A light novel version with illustrations by Kurone Mishima began release under Kadokawa Shoten's Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint from October 1, 2013, with eight volumes released as of January 1, 2016. The light novel diverges significantly from the web novel's plot from the sixth volume onwards, and also features changes to the characters' ages. A spin-off light novel series, also written and illustrated by Akatsuki and Mishima respectively, titled Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo! (この素晴らしい世界に爆焔を！^?, lit. "Give Explosions to This Wonderful World!"), which takes place a year prior to the main series and focuses on Megumin, began release from July 1, 2014, with three volumes released as of June 1, 2015. A sequel novel for this series was released December 28, 2016, named Zoku: Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen wo! (続・この素晴らしい世界に爆焔を！^?, lit. "Sequel: Give Explosions to This Wonderful World!"). Another spin-off series featuring Vanir was published on April 1, 2016, called Kono Kamen no Akuma ni Sōdan wo! (この仮面の悪魔に相談を！^?, lit. "Consulting with the Masked Devil!").

Yen Press announced on May 20, 2016 that it had licensed the light novels for release in North America.

Volume lists

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Beautiful World!

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen o!

Zoku : Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Bakuen o!

Kono Kamen no Akuma ni Sōdan o!

Manga

A manga adaption of KonoSuba illustrated by Masahito Watari began serialization in the October 2014 issue of Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine on September 9, 2014. Four tankōbon volumes have been released as of September 2016.

Yen Press announced its acquisition of the manga adaptation at the same time that it licensed the original light novels.

Volume list

Anime

A television anime adaptation by Studio Deen aired on Tokyo MX between January 14, 2016 and March 16, 2016; later broadcasting on eight other networks and several video on demand streaming networks. The series was simulcast by Crunchyroll in several regions such as North America, and by AnimeLab in Australia. The series is being directed by Takaomi Kanasaki and written by Makoto Uezu with character designs by Koichi Kikuta. An original video animation was bundled with the ninth light novel of KonoSuba in June 2016. The anime's opening theme is "Fantastic Dreamer" by Machico while the ending theme is "Chīsana Bōken-sha" (ちいさな冒険者, lit."Little Adventurer") performed by Sora Amamiya, Rie Takahashi, and Ai Kayano. The second season premiered on January 12, 2017. The second's season's opening theme is "Tomorrow" by Machico, and the ending theme is "Ouchi ni Kaeritai" (お家に帰りたい, lit."Want to Go Home") by Amamiya, Takahashi, and Kayano. A second original video animation will be bundled with the twelfth light novel on KonoSuba in July 2017.

Other media

A radio drama CD, featuring a different voice cast to the anime, was released by HobiRecords on March 1, 2015. A PC video game developed by game creator Tachi, titled Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! in the life!, is bundled with the first Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume of the anime series on March 25, 2016. The game is developed using software RPG Tsukūru VX.

Reception

Reviewing the first few episodes, Anime News Network's Theron Martin praised the anime adaptation for its comedy, calling the second episode "the funniest episode of anime I have seen since Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun aired". Martin also praised the series' musical score though criticised the artistry for occasionally inconsistent character animation.

As of March 2, 2016, the 11-volume series has a total of 1.5 million copies in print, each volume selling 136,000 copies.