KonoSuba: God's Blessing in This Wonderful World! is based on the light novel series with the first season comprised of 10 episodes plus an OVA that was released with the ninth volume. KonoSuba starts off with Sato Kazuma, who is a high school shut-in and obsessed with games. So when he actually ventures out one day to buy a game, he ends up dying a humiliating death. In the part before the afterlife, he is given a choice by the goddess Aqua: 1) continue on into boring heaven; 2) be reincarnated; or 3) as a special case, be transported into a parallel world with RPG mechanics with the aim to defeat the Demon King that is terrorizing the world.
To sweeten the deal, Aqua offers Kazuma any one thing to take into the world. Through a series of jabs and insults, Kazuma ends up picking Aqua herself and thus the pair of them are thrown into the world and finds themselves in the starting town of Axel. Aqua is the water goddess but in this world where she is worshiped, she has lost significant amounts of power. Aqua has a high ranked job class, being an Arch Priest, one of the best healers int he game but has poor offensive abilities.
Aqua doesn't seem to take her plight seriously though, opting to learn useless skills, taking a carefree outlook and recklessly spending, leading to huge piles of debt in which Kazuma has to help repay (much to his annoyance). On the other hand, Kazuma is a lowly adventurer and he has to work up from the bottom, slowly gaining levels and skills. Despite that, it's hilarious when all the others in his party ends up failing despite being better in theory and Kazuma ends up saving the day.
The pair starts off doing mundane work since the kill quests are too high a difficulty. They decide to recruit other characters to form a party. The first to join is Megumin, an Arch Wizard, one o fthe most powerful magical users. She is from the Crimson Demon race, with potent magical powers but looks like a young girl. The second party member to join is Darkness, who is a Crusader (aka Knight) with powerful offense and defense.
Unfortunately for Kazuma, the other three party members each have some significant flaws that hinder their abilities. Kazuma knew something was up and didn't want them to join their party but through various circumstances, they end up getting stuck with each other. Of course, eventually, they learn to work as a team and build up a strong relationship. During the beginning where they stuff up, it is hilarious, since their flaws are unexpected and are a severe handicap, so you are eager to see how they can overcome this.
As the main character, Kazuma is the only sensible one of the party and the only one who is serious and sees things as a normal person would. That doesn't help when totally random unexpected things happen to him, and even when things seem serious, the story finds a way to make light of it and give a stupid hilarious reason. KonoSuba strays from predictability and the main character's actions are completely on the opposite side of anime cliches. Not only is this funny and refreshing, it keeps you guessing such as when Kazuma stole a rare sword, but instead of doing what a typical hero would do by returning it to teach them a lesson, he went ahead and sold it.
The first season is, as Kazuma says at the end, a tutorial. This is because by the end of it, while Kazuma is definitely better off than when he started, he is still stuck in the beginning town with beginning abilities and nowhere near ready to start venturing out and attacking the Devil King's generals. It ends on a weak point in terms of plot since it doesn't provide much closure, even when you consider that there is a second season.
The OVA has Kazuma wearing a choker that would tighten and eventually kill him unless he gets his wish granted. This is just an excuse for him to command the other characters to do lewd things and like a lot of OVAs, it has a heaping of fan service but there are plenty of funny scenes. It's kind of against the character portrayed in the main episodes since there, Kazuma was constantly being blackmailed by various female characters as they falsely speak out loud his lewd actions. Overall, KonoSuba: God's Blessing in This Wonderful World! is a fun, lighthearted and enjoyable fantasy anime. The plot doesn't advance too far but this is about the journey and the journey of how Kazuma meets his weird party and how they solve problems with unorthodox solutions, more than makes up for it.
-------------------------------------------------
For other anime reviews, have a look at this page.