Disclaimer: This is a review of Season 1 of the 2016 anime "Konosuba! - God's Blessing On This Wonderful World!," spanning from episodes 1 - 10, plus one OVA.Anime spans a lot of genres, but comedy, pure comedy, isn't common. Sure, a lot of anime features comedic elements, but usually alongside action, fantasy or eroticism being the primary focus. In the rare instances where comedy IS the main genre, it doesn't usually find success overseas, be it due to cultural differences, a poor translation, or just bad direction and writing. "Konosuba - God's Blessing On This Wonderful World" bucked the trend, being primarily a slapstick-farce on the then-trending "isekai" fantasy genre, and arguably being one of the most popular and most talked-about series of 2016.Years later, fans online started asking: why hasn't such a popular anime been released on home video yet in the USA? It's not the first time the "obvious" show to license hadn't been picked up, but what gives? It turned out Crunchyroll had the American license, and the company was primarily known for their successful streaming site; physical discs were new to them. They acquired a bunch of anime like this with the intention to expand their business, but quickly relied on working with other distributors to co-produce and print the discs, with different backend deals that evolved and changed each year. Strangely, "Konosuba" was one of the last remaining hold-outs. It even got a Crunchyroll-produced English dub at one point, years after the original broadcast (much to the surprise and amazement of online fans), but this too was exclusive to their digital site.Finally, a Bluray for Season 1 did release in 2020 (and presumably, since Season 2 was also dubbed, that'll follow in a year or so). So who ultimately worked with Crunchyroll on it? Funimation? Sentai Filmworks? Viz Media? Nope, the obvious choices (despite having worked with Crunchy already) didn't get it. The winner was Discotek Media, who previously helped print a barebones-release for Crunchy with the first season of the popular swimming anime "Free!". Discotek, the popular grass-roots company known for releasing older, more classic titles, and not having the money or influence to license many recent shows, released one of 2016's most popular anime. Yeah, it was a strange choice, and I was surprised that the 11 episodes (dub and sub) were squeezed onto a single Bluray disc (9 was the max I'd seen elsewhere). Don't get me wrong, I like Discotek and they have a reputation for good releases, and I didn't see any major issue with the Bluray copy (aside from a couple awkward clipping transitions in the English dub, primarily in the "next-episode previews," which may or may not be intentional). I'm just happy to have the thing on my shelf, even if it took 4 years to get here.(While I'm on the subject, the English dub is good, and the four main leads, Arnie Pantoja, Faye Mata, Erica Mendez, and Cristina Vee all deserve praise for keeping of with the characters and script. Even so, the series is worth watching fully twice-through to hear both the English and Japanese dubs.)Anyway, "Konosuba" starts with an embaressing death of shut-in geek teenager Kazuma. When he opens his eyes, he's in a dark void, staring at the Goddess Aqua, who explains his situation and prepares him to reincarnated. He could go back to modern-day Japan as a new life, or straight to heaven, but those options are boring! Aqua convinces him to go to one of many alternate fantasy world, with the option to choose one of many beginner weapons, a-la your stadard intro to a JRPG. Not dum enough to fall for any of the choices, and lot liking Aqua's undermining attitude, he decides to take HER with him. The choice is valid, and they are whisked off to a town called Axel, a peaceful town in a kingdom threatened by the great Devil King. Among other things, Aqua can't return to her post until the King is defeated, much to her dismay.So starts the new life for a Japanese gamer, armed with enough experience to know more or less what to do in this new world, and Aqua, dense and ditsy enough to be effectively useless, without any "Goddess" powers to help much. Kazuma quickly realizes that, unlike a real game, they arrived with not even a starter-set of weapons or money, unable to complete any adventurer quests to earn any real money. It's a clever allegory to the struggles of any 20-year-old in modern society, with no money or experience to advance, stuck to "grind" in meaningless hard-labor for years before finally getting ahead. Kazuma and Aqua become hard-laborers for a while, working hard, partying hard, and sleeping hard for many days, before getting fed up and forcing their way into quests. To help them, they manage to recruit two extra party members: Megumin, a cute magician dangerously obsessed with her fire-spell "Explosion," and Darkness, a proud crusader-knight with both bad luck that prevents her from hitting any enemies, and a masochistic side that gets turned on when she gets hit back. 
Yep, that's a bizarre group of misfits. Part of the charm of "Konosuba" is how disfunctional they are, both individually and as a group. Kazuma ain't no hero either: he's a jerk and a pervert. Aqua's arguably worse, more selfish and self-centered than the rest. They're barely likable enough to root for, and this makes it more fun when a character almost gets eaten by giant toads, or when a character dies horribly (and is resurrected by Aqua's magic spells). The fantasy world itself is as much a character as they are, with many of the traits you'd expect from a game (everyone has a "stat card" that tracks their strength, defense, new abilities that can be learned by spending experience points, etc.) and some more unusual ones that make the world's culture distinct from anything we're used to. One example is an episode when an annual attack on the town occurs as a "mandatory quest" for all adventurers: flying cabbages, adorable, but aggressive, and easy to harvest for a tasty season of vegetarian cooking. The humor is a mixture of physical slapstick, slang one-liners, and self-referencial comedy that's fully aware of itself and the world they're in. For the most part, it's well executed, and I haven't seen an anime as successful at pulling it off since 2011's "Nichijou." There are a couple instances when Kazuma's perverted side goes a little too far: for example, when he learns a new "thief" skill, he is unable to control the effect it has on women, being that it always seems to steal their panties and places them in his hand (instead of apologizing, he gloats and holds it for ransom). Even then, it's not as offensive as a lot of other anime, especially since Darkness is usually in the scene (it doesn't seem so bad when the punchline is how she enjoys playing the victim). One downside is that "Konosuba" quickly becomes a "slice-of-life" type of show, where several weeks and months seem to pass, with the gang no closer to even meeting the Demon King than when they started. There isn't any real urgency, and the show could easily go on for hundreds of episodes more... or it could end in the next episode. The story, premise and setting of the series is unique, character-driven and fun, but I grew a little bored after marathoning many episodes at once. I wasn't quite numbed by the comedy, and would be happy to watch more episodes of it, but wouldn't be excited about it either (I recall a similar issue with "Nichijou" for that matter). "Konosuba"'s production values are good... I think. The animation is certainly better than average, with a lot of dynamic character animation during both comedic reaction shots and action scenes. The world is colorful, and in a couple senes, rather beautiful (the ending credits is an inspired example of the world in action). But my issue was how inconsistent the quality was, be it off-model rendering of characters or big changes in detail for different environments. Notably, fanservice isn't as in-your-face as anime like this usually provides (except in episodes 9 and the OVA, effectively ep. 11), but is definitely present, from Aqua's buttocks that stick out from under her short skirt, or a lack of support-bra's in the world causing women's chests to bounce wildly whenever a character turns, like a bad PS2-physics simulation. I didn't fall in love with "Konosuba - God's Blessing On This Wonderful World," but I liked it, and fully understand why it was such a hit with others. The show's humor also lends itself well to the modern world of memes and online sharing, which might have helped spread the series in 2016 and subsequent years. And there aren't many other quality picks to chose from for comedy: for adult fans of the genre looking for an anime, it's easy to recommend getting lost in.