KonoSuba – God's blessing on this wonderful world!!

Episode 6

A party of beginner adventurers shouldn't be even thinking about challenging a Dullahan-style death knight. Fortunately for everyone, the group of weirdos surrounding Kazuma has even less common sense than they do fear and a whole lot more power than they are actually probably competent to use.

The whole affair arises because the Dullahan – who now introduces himself as Verdia – returns to the city to complain both that no one has come to avenge the supposedly-dead crusader and that someone is still EXPLOSION-bombing the castle. This time Megumin has Aqua's help to carry her back (unbeknownst to Kazuma), and Darkness is, of course, not dead, both of which miff Verdia to no end. He tries to intimidate, only to get answered by Aqua's apparently-painful Turn Undead effects. He tries to raise an undead army, only to see it blown up by Megumin after chasing Aqua and Kazuma around for a while. He does succeed in apparently striking down some other adventurers who try to help, only to have Darkness face off against him and once again luridly paint what he's doing according to her own masochistic fantasies. (The dead heroes do get quickly resurrected by Aqua, since the series wouldn't want something that weighty to linger.) When even a flood of water (his apparent weakness) generated by Aqua doesn't stop him, Kazuma does what only he could do: he Steals Verdia's head and uses it as a soccer ball.

Anyone who has been a fan of the show so far probably saw that last one coming eventually, as it's just too perverse to not happen in a series like this, especially given Kazuma's power and luck. The follow-up to it can also be reasonably anticipated: that the massive reward Kazuma and party wins for defeating Verdia is going to be offset by the repair cost for the wanton damage they did in the process. (That joke has been around in anime for, what, about 30 years now?) Still, it suits the mood and style of the series quite well, resulting in an odd mix of humor and melodrama that is not anywhere near as funny as the series' best episodes to date but still proves quite entertaining. Kudos in particular go to Hiroki Yasumoto (the voice of Chad in Bleach, Germany in Hetalia, and Agil in SAO) for delightfully hamming up the role of Verdia, and to the writer and director for including little tidbits like how the arrogant knight from last episode was supposed to be the city's ace in the hole against threats like Verdia, but darn it all, didn't Kazuma steal and sell off his sword last episode? The artistry is even a notch better than normal, too, and the music hits the marks just right.

Looked at from a serious tactical sense, Kazuma's group actually did pretty well for as dysfunctional as they may seem. For all that she gets beat around and cannot hit the broad side of a barn, Darkness does effectively keep the enemy occupied, while Aqua and Megumin land the big blows and Kazuma both provides the strategy and uses his own gimmicks to set up his strikers. The execution may have been madcap, but that's still classic fantasy RPG gamesmanship. Maybe there is hope for them as adventurers after all.

Rating: B+

KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.