The feature length anime film of the popular fantasy anime series “Konosuba” is a pure escapist comedy extravaganza that can be enjoyed the most if one does not take it too seriously. Its low-points are, predictably, when it comes dangerously close to those ‘harem’ clichees which are beyond parody and thus cannot be salvaged through humor, yet it mostly manages to avoid them since it establishes that the teenage guy Kazuma would actually love to start a relationship with one of the girls around him—but they are not that interested. The opening act starts off very good: Yunyun storms a tavern, goes to Kazuma’s table and announces in front of everyone: “I want to have a baby with you!” It turns out Yunyun was given a written prophecy telling her that their child will defeat the demon king in the future, and thus she “has to do it”. Kazuma is content with that, and later on even drops his pants in a room, saying: “Do you want me to do it here and now?” However, the other girls quickly discover that the prophecy was just a joke text written by a prankster, shaming Yunyun, while one girl pulls Kazuma’s pants back up - angering him (“My one big break and you girls ruin it!”). In another comical moment, Kazuma is supposed to attack the 7ft tall, buxom demon leader Sylvia, but she submerges his head into her giant cleavage, “converting” him to her side, as he turns around and places both of his hands on her bra above his shoulder, defying now his previous allies. Unfortunately, the second half of the film runs out of ideas, since just a lineup of silly scenes can only go so far, and is not a good of a substitute for a well thought out joke with a point, whereas the obligatory action finale is tiresome, exhausting the attention span of the viewers who have “switched off” by that time. Colorful, wacky and fun patchwork, yet it still does not have that punch of greatness that adorned anime in their hay days.
Grade:++
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