one of the benefits of actually being as
involved in anime and video games from
Japan as I have been is that whenever a
show wants to be self-reflective of
otaku culture I can actually understand
and appreciate what they're trying to do
I loved welcome to the NHK where I
learned about needs and he qicang more
reason how much of a drain on society
they are despite my personal tendencies
that are kinda similar like sitting
around and just playing video games all
day I do that probably far too much than
I should sometimes I love the outbreak
company where that same character
archetype was given just a bit more
charisma and told to teach this fantasy
world all about otaku culture and now
I'm presented with another anime that's
almost like a parody of other anime with
videogame fantasy type settings while at
the same time being decisively retro
about its archetypes of course while the
gaming mechanics that they are ripping
on are definitely retro the breasts
physics are assuredly not take that as
you will so today we are looking at a 10
episode anime produced this year in 2016
from Studio Dean
the question is is it only 10 episodes
because it was crap and they just didn't
want to waste money on more or is it
only 10 episodes because it was designed
specifically to advertise a light novel
and they figured somewhat incorrectly
that 10 episodes was all we would want
I'm hoping for the latter so ladies
gentlemen and others my name is Arcada
and welcome to glass reflection today
kono Suba God's blessing upon this world
let's jam the show starts on a bit of an
absurd angle but as you'll come to learn
this is par for the course for the show
layabout / neat japanese adolescent
Kozma on his way home from picking up a
new release of otaku products is killed
tragically he believes that his
sacrifice was necessary to save this
young girl in their middle of nowhere
country town in
he pushed her out of a way of a
slow-moving tractor and shortly
afterwards died of shock thinking that
he got run over he is sent for judgment
in front of a deity named aqua who
offers him a chance for redemption take
the traditional route to that of being
reborn as a child and starting live all
over again or volunteered to take his
current body memories and all and live
in a heavily dangerous fantasy esque
world honestly for an otaku like him
this isn't much of a choice what is a
choice is that he is allowed to take one
miracle like favor or item to bring with
him and because Kazuma actually has some
[ __ ] like tendencies rather than take
some weapon or superpower with them he
elects to take the deity aqua herself as
a form of payback for laughing at his
cause of death talking down to him and
in general being a right [ __ ] so they
are teleported to the world and our
adventure begins a lot of the mechanics
of this world are very reminiscent of
tabletop RPGs because every character
has stats and abilities and job classes
and they level up by defeating monsters
and despite being advertised as just
another random fantasy world Cosmo seems
to have hit the jackpot by being thrown
into a world that's very much like the
fantasy RPGs that he used to play so in
actuality it is very interesting parody
for the shows like sword out online and
log horizon that have similar settings
the tabletop elements become more
prevalent when Kazuma and aqua start
recruiting and adventuring team and the
composition that they are left with
looks like something out of a bit
theater aqua ends up being the group's
healer due to her high healing abilities
unfortunately being the complete
blockhead that she is she ends up
spending more for skill points on
useless abilities or rather party tricks
that make her look like a cheap magician
Kazuma is the closest to actually being
competent though he never sticks to one
discipline he gains the skills of a
rogue much to the chagrin of the female
characters when he accidentally becomes
a panty thief beyond that he has no
unique combat skills to speak of despite
being the one to do most of the fighting
and that's partially because of their
tank darkness a paladin type knight who
while having probably the highest
endurance of any character in the show
also has the lowest accuracy meaning
that she can take a hit but not give
them back well this makes her use in
combat very situational she
actually perfectly content with being
the team's punching bag as she gets off
with this perverse masochistic pleasure
of being beaten and brutalized lastly to
round out this traditional yet unique
adventuring troupe we have mega mean the
mage mega mean specializes in explosive
magic a particularly powerful kind of
dark magic that has the potential to
almost instantly vaporize all in her
path her main spell is akin to Lina in
verses famous or dragon slave as it's
just one giant big pulse of damage while
this sounds amazing and it really is
mega mean is also a quite literal glass
cannon her magic leaves her dead on the
ground after one use and it's the only
magic she knows not because of any
inexperience but because she believes
that anything besides the biggest and
most powerful explosive magic is a waste
of her time not thinking for a second
about her survivability post cast for
those situations where her magic either
misses or is just not enough so you may
have noticed the varying levels of
incompetence here and that's kind of
deliberate the show is in large part a
parody and as with most comedy it's all
subjective each of these characters
obvious flaws are used greatly to
comedic effect and even just plainly
watching an exasperated Kozma deal with
all this [ __ ]
he's entertaining in and of itself he's
trying to form a decent adventuring
party with a stage show magician a
one-trick pony and a masochist combined
they are for the most part just not
capable of doing things properly and in
some cases only goodbyes through sheer
dumb luck thankfully for Kozma luck is
actually his highest stat so that works
out for him rather well
comedy through failure is a good mantra
for the show but at times I feel like
doing that is a detriment to some of the
characters darkness for example never
gets much development beyond her initial
personality trope in a couple of offhand
comments about her past awk Y is well as
I mentioned she's a complete stuck-up
[ __ ] with little in the way of
redeeming qualities she's supposed to be
a benevolent goddess of this world
worshiped by thousands when she acts
like a spoiled brat that has a silver
spoon stuck up her ass Kozma is just
plainly an [ __ ] though thankfully for
him his douche bag like qualities don't
tend to stand out that much in part
because he isn't the word
around and also because most of his
disagreeable actions are done because of
spite and not actual malice this can all
be negated however by how it all gets
balanced Kazuma may be an [ __ ] but it
gets redeemed by the pure amounts of
[ __ ] that he deals with on a regular
basis and by the end alko gets to the
point where even her companions wonder
why she's around and darkness well okay
no darkness is still left underdeveloped
and it's a problem that I hope they
rectify in the future as her masochistic
schtick gets old rather quickly another
problem that will thankfully somewhat
get rectified in the future is that the
show needed more episodes
kono Suba is a series with just ten
episodes and for a comedy series with
this much quality to it that's almost a
travesty and ends up affecting the
show's overall plot balance as well
everything is nicely paced up until
episode 8 where they end up doing a mini
time jump introducing new character Wiz
who are cast already knows from an
adventure that the show never adapted in
fairness they were able to play off her
introduction much better than other
shows that tried to do similarly however
that doesn't excuse the fact that had
the series been a proper 13 or even 12
episodes in length this problem would
have never needed to occur of course
because the real purpose of the show was
just to sell a light novel I'm sure a
lot of people don't mind the art of the
show is bright and colorful each of the
main cast and even some of the secondary
cast are almost sole proprietors for one
particular color or shade that makes
their individual appearances unique even
when like in the case with Kazuma they
change outfits the actual animation of
the show at times highlights that even a
series that gets shafted in episode life
can make it up in other locations
special-effects comes to mind
particularly mega means explosion magic
the really any of the magic in this
series looks surprisingly beautiful
besides that though most of the general
animation for the series I can't
describe beyond using the word standard
or maybe just expected for the most part
and then at times I feel like that's
giving it far too much credit and of
course there is indeed the worst part of
the animation left for the fanservice
bits particularly the fact that bras
apparently don't exist in this fantasy
world and this somehow changes the
physic
of breasts on the other hand the
animators were able to give the
characters almost bones like levels of
facial animations at times to help with
a variety of jokes and comedy bits that
I think worked out rather well the
soundtrack is generic and in turn
forgettable the opening is likewise
skippable the ending is skippable not
just for its generic feeling yet
uniquely sounding song but also because
the kind of series that this is you're
just going to want to have to reach up
and press that little next button on
whatever controller a remote you're
using to watch the series so that you
can get to the next episode the voice
acting in the Japanese dub however is
worthy of praise I realize that I am an
English speaker I don't speak Japanese
and I know very little of it as a
language but that doesn't mean that I
can't appreciate the performances of the
say you and how entertaining it was to
listen to them
kono Suba turned out to be one of those
shows that I ended up watching because a
group of friends that I hang out with
found out that I hadn't watched it yet
because you know I was too busy with
things like erased and rap ago of course
at that point I just had to watch it so
I was sat down and shown the first
episode afterwards I got this look this
look of toldja was good and there was
much laughter as I myself quickly
reached forward and hit the button on
the controller for the next episode
despite its flaws and annoyances with
several of the characters I did enjoy
this series far more than I expected to
to the point where while watching early
parts of the show I seriously thought
that it could possibly be my favorite
anime of that season of course then when
episode 8 came around I felt more
cheated than anything sure episode 10
the final episode ends off with the
announcement that yes a second season is
on the way but if it was popular enough
to get a greenlit second season before
the end of the final episode don't you
think that it should have been popular
enough to actually have had a full
season run with at least 12 episodes if
not 13 like I really do wonder whose
bright idea it was to only have 10
episodes to properly showcase this light
novel now even when we do get the second
season that doesn't mean that it's going
to hold up to expectations from the few
people that I've talked to who have
actually read the original light novel
you know I don't do that kind of thing
they told me that they stopped reading
it mostly because aqua as a character
got far too unbearable not sure if her
adapted version is any better than the
light novel version but if she gets even
more annoying in the second season than
she currently is yeah I might end up
dropping the series as well but what we
got so far was a fun and entertaining
romp in a fantasy universe that puts
other more recent fantasy universes to
shame as such with all that in mind I
would like to present cono super weapon
to buy it
rather than stream when I get the kind
of show that even my friends have to sit
me down to watch I in turn like to do
the same with others and that's what's
happening here if you ask me whether you
should watch it or not I could go into
this long speech about who might like
and dislike the show but knowing me I'm
far more likely just to scream yes watch
it watch it now so it is worth a place
on your shelf definitely however I
realize this is a rather difficult thing
to do because it actually hasn't been
licensed yet for some reason that eludes
my understanding kono Suba has not been
licensed in North America by any company
and as such even though I recommend you
to purchase it if you ever see it you
cannot do so right now shame that
however you can still watch it which is
good it's available on crunchyroll for
streaming if you happen to have access
to that site and for the time being it's
available for free from them with no
premium service required for alternate
anime recommendations let me start off
with outbreak company a series that
follows a neat protagonist but has him
teach a fantasy world about Japanese
culture rather than have him trying to
face off against the Dark Lord with
irresponsible companions second
recommendation goes to gates as the main
character is also in our taku but
doesn't let that aspect define his
character and the series by comparison
tikona Suba takes a much more serious
look at what going into a fantasy world
would be like especially if you do so
with the entire Japanese SDF at your
back so between those two you should
hopefully find something to your liking
and that's it for me there's no spoiler
room this week though let's be honest
with this kind of show there's nothing
really
spoiler worthy to talk about that isn't
just better explained by you just going
and watching the show I think that would
work out a lot better spoiler room will
come back though for other reviews that
need it
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until next time ladies gentlemen and
others stay frosty
you