One of the better examples is when Kazuma, Darkness, and Aqua first meet people from Megumin's town and Kazuma puts aside his embarrassment to deliver a chunibyo-like introduction like they do-an act that earns him respect and gratification as he's one of the first outsiders to not mock their culture. Granted, there are moments when this theme shines through. But the overall message-that two people in love will accept each other regardless of their faults-falls flat when it turns to almost any other relationship in the movie. It's a nice development for the overall story, especially since the first two seasons of Konosuba primarily focus on Kazuma's growing platonic friendship with Aqua and sexual relationship to Darkness. Legend of Crimson focuses on Kazuma and Megumin in order to inject some actual character development into Konosuba, structuring the duo's deepening romantic infatuation with each other around the core theme of the movie: acceptance. As a result, the movie grows rather dull after its exciting opening (with very few standout moments of genuinely funny jokes scattered throughout its runtime) until it reunites Kazuma, Megumin, Darkness, and Aqua in the finale and once again leans into the strength of Konosuba's formula. The movie even repeats one of its set-ups, Kazuma and Megumin locked in a room together and Kazuma wondering if it would be alright to make a move, twice within the span of a few minutes. In Legend of Crimson, where it's mostly just Kazuma and Megumin, there's little variety in terms of humor-the movie repeats the same type of jokes over and over because it's only focusing on one relationship. As often as the first two seasons of Konosuba split up its main characters, it typically reunited them rather quickly or switched up who was with who to maintain a regular dose of the wide variety of dynamics that exist within the core cast. As Megumin and Kazuma are the main focus, Aqua and Darkness are left out of the picture for long stretches of time. The movie stretches out this one storyline by interjecting several side-stories throughout-such as Megumin's mother trying to get her daughter to sleep with Kazuma and Megumin introducing her new friends to her old classmates.Īfter its opening act, Legend of Crimson largely struggles to capture the same tone as the anime series because it splits up the core group of characters. As is the case with most of Konosuba's stories, Kazuma and his party only manage to make the situation much worse upon their arrival, and so they decide it's up to them to fix the wrong they unwittingly set free upon Megumin's home. In this case, the four are drawn back to Megumin's home village after a letter warns an approaching army is set to destroy it. The four have settled into a natural comedic rhythm at this point and the opening act of Legend of Crimson leans into the familial bond shared between the band of misfits, quickly delivering jokes as the main conflict is being set up. Scumbag Kazuma continues to lead his party of dysfunctional adventurers-self-proclaimed goddess and selfish crybaby Aqua, masochistic Darkness, and explosion-obsessed Megumin-on missions in hopes of recovering from their massive financial debt, but with little success. The opening act of the movie is the best part of the story, mostly because it leans into the best aspect of Konosuba: its main cast. And though the movie does manage to capture some of what makes Konosuba special, for the most part, it veers too far off track-abandoning the main series' traditional formula to deliver a story that's not very fun to watch. As a movie, Konosuba: Legend of Crimson is the anime's first attempt at stretching its style of story-telling across 90 minutes. For two seasons, Konosuba has delivered plenty of laughs and attracted a huge fanbase in spite of its you-love-to-hate-them characters and an almost distractingly large amount of sexual fanservice. Konosuba has made a name for itself in the jam-packed isekai subgenre with its series of interconnected, humorous skits that poke fun at both fantasy anime and video game tropes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |