Our Goddess has blessed us once again. Konosuba Legend of Crimson was released in select theaters courtesy of Crunchyroll and Fathom events on the days of Nov 12th and 14th of 2019. I went to go see it with group of friends. Two members of the group don’t watch anime and have never watched any of Konosuba. So here’s is my review.
Konosuba Crimson Legend is a direct sequel to the anime seasons of Konosuba. It covers volume 5 of the book. The movie expects you to have watched the anime or read the books and doesn’t take much time to introduce Kazuma and co. So some of the jokes like Darkness learning something, and Darkness’s reaction (while visually funny) can leave people wondering why. Other than that the plot is easy for newcomers to follow. A group of friends go off to save the village from demons.
Kazuma and co are hanging around the tavern making jokes. Yunyun shows up to kick start the plot of saving the Crimson Demon Village from the ever looming threat of the Demon King. This beginning part is what makes the Konosuba such a great comedy as all 5 of them are in Kazuma’s mansion making jokes, creating misunderstandings, and interacting with each other. Most of the group dynamics is lost though as the story mostly focus on Kazuma and Megumin’s relationship together for most of the run time. Darkness kind of gets shafted in screen time, and Aqua is mostly just doing funny things in the background. It isn’t until the final act that the party gets reunited and fights the big bad.
The general animation quality is about the same as the TV animation made by Studio Deen. The movie was made by J.C. Staff this time though. Animation quality isn’t as important since Konosuba is a comedy first, action-adventure second. However, during the heavy action sequences such as Megumin’s iconic explosion, J.C. Staff went full unlimited budget works with the visual spectacle and fluid animations.
When I saw the movie in theaters, everyone was having a good time laughing at the jokes. The seats were full which surprised me since Konosuba and anime in general is a niche product in America. I can not recommend Konosuba Legend of Crimson enough as a must see for fans of the series, and a good entry point for newcomers get a taste of the Konosuba world.
As of March 25, 2020, you can now watch the movie at crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/konosuba-gods-blessing-on-this-wonderful-world