Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Shukufuku O! (Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings!)

This post is being made late since the workload is getting worse now. Like I said, I no longer have the capability to make weekly posts. With that out of the way, I will now talk about an anime out for this season which has amused me enough to give it more attention. The name is on top of the post but if the reader needs further clarification, it is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Kono_Subarashii_Sekai_ni_Shukufuku_o%21_light_novel_volume_1_cover.jpg

(Huh... No English words there... So much for using the picture from the Wikipedia article.)

Kono Subarashii Sekai Ni Shukufuku O! (Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings! or Gifting) is an anime adaptation of the light novel with the same name and follows the story of Kazuma Satou, a shut-in, who after dying due to the shock from the imminent collision with a tractor while attempting to save a girl (with a similar result to Yu Yu Hakusho) is granted an opportunity to be reincarnated in a fantasy land with magic and different races by a bratty goddess named Aqua who continually mocks him during the briefing. Granted a boon to be granted a gift for using in the fantasy land, Kazuma, in retaliation for Aqua's mean-spirited treatment of him, chooses her as his boon, resulting in Aqua being ripped against her will from her high pedestal as a result. Both are left with the task to defeat the Demon Lord of the fantasy world and Kazuma soon learns that his choice of a boon was a terrible decision.

Initially, I did not pay much attention to it and probably would have not since it is made by Studio Deen, an animation company infamous for having some of the worst animations for a company that produces average content (Fate/Stay Night is an infamous example). However, the first and second episodes have left a good impression of the show and after doing some additional reading about the source material (the light novel) from TV Tropes, I can admit that I probably should not have preemptively judged this anime along with Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi). So, what makes or breaks this show based on the first three episodes? Let's find out. (This is a first impressions)

What makes it
The characters, while seemingly generic, do have entertaining quirks and hilarious flaws. The main four characters consist of Kazuma (an Adventurer with low stats and thief skills), Aqua (an Arch-priest with high stats except for intelligence and luck), Megumin (an arch-mage) and Darkness (an oddly named crusader). While the male-to-female ratio seems to make them appear as a harem, the show presents why this is not the case. To avoid going into details so quickly, Kazuma, with lousy stats and a rotten personality winds up being the only useful member of the party since each of his companions wind up being completely useless in their roles (save for one who barely fits into her party role) and have far worse personalities than the (mostly covert) perverted shut-in who is useful at least. Adding the fact that none of the girls have sensible personalities or tend to be on the wrong side of sanity makes a recipe for a disastrous role-playing game (RPG) adventure that the show touts as a premise. As a result, they wind up being hilarious to watch especially if you decide to compare them to a party of scrub lords (or ignorant newbies) to an RPG. I found myself laughing throughout an episode, mostly due to the ineptitude of the three and how the main character is also a relatable prick for having such party members stuck to him like an inoperable tumor rather than a Marty-Stu character like Kirito from Sword Art Online (SAO). The show's utilization of flawed adventurers with ridiculous flaws is a decent idea while giving people with gaming experience an analogy of Kazuma's suffering, which can be compared to playing a RPG with noobs who are unwilling to learn but the main leader is forced to continue with the party since the leader knows these noobs IRL (in real life).

The genre subversion refers to the fact that the show often subverts or avoids cliches that arise from these types of anime. Cliches like the main characters starting out as NEET shut-ins becoming dull badasses, immediate familiarity with the world after the few episodes where the character is mostly clueless about said world, a party of characters that have informed flaws that are easily fixed, the ease in paying for lodgings and the harem situation wind up being subverted in these three episodes. The main characters in the show struggle to escape the starter town due to being unable to find nearby grinding spots for money and experience so they wind up not being able to leave the starter town even after three episodes. The main character himself does not wind up becoming a powerful warrior in a short time-span due to his real life attributes that leaves him with terrible stats. As for the other three main characters; Aqua being an arch-priest, Megumin being an arch-mage and Darkness being a crusader all sound like the perfect combination for an RPG but the show reminds the viewer that having a perfect party formation is irrelevant if the party members wind up being useless. Despite being a goddess with high stats, Aqua's low intelligence (as indicated by that particular stat's unnatural low status) makes her detriment to her party rather than a boon with barely any use of healing abilities in combat (by choice infuriatingly enough) while choosing to attack directly in battle and wasting valuable skill points on high cost parlor trick skills. While being an arch-mage, Megumin barely meets the criteria of an arch-mage due to being able to barely cast the high-level Explosion spell. The problem is that Explosion is the only spell she knows of and not unlike a bad RPG player (or a low intelligence character), does not bother learning other spells including the buff spells required to even cast Explosion resulting in her passing out immediately after casting since all her mana is drained with one spell. Darkness winds up being the most useful of the three since she can still work as a tank but that's about it. Her hit chance is mediocre at best even against stationary objects and as it is revealed, she is a huge masochist who enjoys the pain of having opponents hitting her. As a result, the harem around Kazuma winds up being unappealing to him since they only frustrate, annoy or gross him out. This ends up subverting the hero-in-a-new-world scenario (with their inability to escape the starter town due to ineptitude of the majority in the party) and the harem scenario as the girls wind up being unappealing to the protagonist due to their flaws. After seeing a number of shows trying to emulate SAO (which itself is flawed at best), it is refreshing for a show to reflect the reality of a NEET being sent to a fantasy world whereby the NEET would find it difficult to turn their life around even with this second chance since the character traits that made them that way would not simply dissipate right away.

The humour is linked to the subversion. Often, the show displays the painful reality of being part of what I deem as a scrub squad. The inability to manage party members with horrible AI, the terrible allocation of skills and the inability to progress towards the main quest. Not only that the show also reminds the viewer that for all of the appeal in the physical appearances of the females, it does not truly matter if they have unappealing personalities that prevent them from accepting the reality around them. Despite what I say about them though, the female main characters are quite entertaining as their antics often bring about the most laughs and even the main character has enough flaws to bring in comedy like his own covert perversion jinxing the first skill he learns. While humour is subjective at best, I personally found the humour here to be decent as it does have self-awareness of the genre and frequently pokes fun at the genre this show makes fun of.

What breaks it
The animation, from the first episode and some bits of the second episode, can be pretty bad at times with awkward motions, bad focus and still expressions for some characters at times (though less on still expressions thankfully). To their credit, the animation is not as bad as some of Deen's worst animation but that is not really praise considering that Deen has a shaky resume when it comes to animation quality. This particular issue may make it too difficult for some viewers to watch so I bring this up as a flaw.

The lack of action or events has already been indicated by my statements of the characters being unable to leave the starter town. While the first three episodes I have seen have some form of action, those feel like moments to establish characters and the status quo. While events do unfold in the first three episodes, there is a lack of progression towards the main goal which is to kill the Demon King during these first three episodes since the characters are stuck in the starter town for the most part.

The characters while entertaining, can be too annoying for some viewers. Even if characters are entertaining to watch, the traits that make them entertaining can have the reverse effect on some. While I found them hilarious since they reminded me of a guild of scrubs in an MMORPG, some may find these characters annoying, frustrating and/or bothersome with their flaws often acting as significant obstacles to the plot as a whole. Both Kazuma and Aqua have negative traits that shines clearly past their positive traits with Aqua's traits being more problematic to the group. Megumin's delusional obsession with the explosion spell and her unwavering faith in it could get annoying as the rational-minded RPG player would be screaming for her to re-allocate her skill points. Personally, Megumin was starting to annoy me as she reminded me too much of Rikka from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (Chūnibyō demo Koi ga Shitai!) prior to character development and after character derailment in season 2.

Overall thoughts:
While the show does nothing too unique or intriguing nor does it present an intriguing plot to follow (that's what Erased is for), it is entertaining to watch. I do hope that the show can maintain its entertainment quality if nothing else and from the research I did on the show, I pray Deen does not add original content that deviates from the source materials.

Summary:
What makes it - Characters, genre subversions, humour
What breaks it - Animation, lack of action/events, characters