In the return of Konosuba, the first two episodes were great on the comedy aspect, and a return to what the first season was like. It may be even better than the first season already. Was this one any different? Maybe it was, in a way. Let’s go dungeon exploring with a goddess that isn’t a loli/best girl.
The episode begins with Megumin and Kazuma being all fun and joyful, with Megumin doing what she does best: EX-PLOOOOOOOOOOOOO-SION!!!!
She does this on any day with Kazuma, and he wonders why the hell he is doing this. They’re still starving and poor, so Kazuma signs them up for a dungeon quest, which Megumin doesn’t want to do. Because dungeons and Explosion Magic don’t mix. Geez, I wonder why. Plus, they can’t wait for Darkness to get back to do it, because they will starve to death before that. Anyway, the dungeon is Keele’s Dungeon. It’s a dungeon that has been explored before, but a new passage was found to it. There was going to be a large-scale quest to check it out, but Kazuma decided to go ahead first to collect the treasure. No one else knows this, and when a drunk guy stumbles into hearing this, Kazuma gives him a ticket to the succubus pleasure house to make him go away. And so, the Exploration Quest for Kazuma and co. begins, with an unknown difficulty level.
As the duo gets there, we learn that Keele was one of the greatest arch-wizards, but don’t know why he took refuge out in a forest. Kazuma tells Aqua and Megumin to wait as he enters first (Megumin is still not going in, and wants to practice Explosion Magic outside), and as he goes, he uses his skills to good use. Using “Enemy Detection” and “Lurk,” Kazuma can avoid enemies. And with the skill “Foresight,” he can see in the dark easily. This is working well, right? Yeah, no. Because Aqua joins him too, and you know how she is. She thinks she’s the best goddess, but Kazuma knows she’s trouble. At least she can see in the dark. And she does know how the un-dead can see the life force of a person, so Lurk won’t work on them. Maybe she is good this time. Meanwhile, Megumin passes her time by trying to play use Explosion Magic, while not using it at the same time. She does this later playing with the cat. The two inside the dudgeon finally reach their destination, and enter it. There, they get greeted to the roars of these cute critters.
Of course, the two fight over who’s more scared, with Kazuma thinking of leaving Aqua here altogether. He’s not lying about doing it either. He hears the monsters coming and tells the dumb goddess to leave, but she doesn’t. They get attacked by them, and beat them. They’re low-level demons called gremlins. Aqua could see them herself, so she can see in the dark. And see other stuff, too. As they explore some more, they come across a skeleton. Someone did explore this earlier, and Aqua purifies his soul to rest in peace. It’s different from how she usually acts. As they make their way to another room looking for treasure, Aqua finds a treasure chest, but Kazuma knows it’s a trap. He throws a rock at it, and sure enough, a giant wall creature appears behind the chest, freaking them out. It’s a Dudgeon Mimic, as Aqua tells them some could become human to prey on adventures. We see Darkness again being tortured by a bunch of women (or dressed by maids, as it really looks).
The undead Aqua mentioned attacks them, and she uses “Turn Undead” to beat them/have their soul rest beyond, before finishing it with a “God Blow” attack. It’s good for Kazuma to see her be useful. Seeing how weird it is for how many undead are here, Aqua LITERALLY sniffs them out to find more. She accidentally stumbles on another room, and finds Keele, the guy who made the dungeon, there. The show flashes back to Keele’s past. It is said he was an evil wizard who kidnapped the noble’s daughter. However, the kingdom praise him for helping out, so he wanted one wish in return: To be with his love and give her happiness. Who also happened to be one of the king’s “forced-marriage” wives. He treated her like dirt, and he faced the whole kingdom to just elope with her. That was a long time ago, for he looks a lot different now.
Keele was actually a good guy. So much so that even though he was badly injured, he still fought for his beloved, and became a lich doing so. His love is here too, as she is nothing but bones as well. She passed away peacefully, and Keele wants Aqua to purify him to join her in the afterlife. Aqua agrees to this, surprising Kazuma cause he usually never sees this Aqua at all. After telling him to meet his beloved in the afterlife, she uses Sacred Turn Undead, and purifies him and his love. The two head back, with Keele’s treasure also in tow. Keel mentioned that since he was waiting to decay (he couldn’t kill himself at all), he got woke up by a holy power he sensed. Kazuma asks if Aqua is the source of this. If so, then the undead attacking them, with the dullahan’s undead minions chasing her in Season 1, wasn’t a coincidence. Speaking of undead attacking, they come again, along with the gremlins. Kazuma uses Lurk to vanish and hide, leaving Aqua to face the threat all by herself. They do make it out of the cave, and place blame on each other and diss each other like usually. The Exploration Quest is completed though, and they got a bonus reward in the treasure.
Back in town, the group celebrates their accomplishment with a feast, as most of the treasure is going into their debt payment. Of course, they get to party now, and have a wild night of drinking, attempted drinking, Steal abilities taking girl’s panties, and throwing drunk guys around. It’s crazy night that ends like this.
Kazuma may have fun at time being an adventure, but he still questions what the hell he is doing.
With Konosuba, you expect the shenanigans of Aqua and Kazuma being mean to each other, dissing each other, and Kazuma loathing his goddess acquaintance who sent him/he forced her to come here. That we saw in full again. But, what we never see is Aqua doing what she is meant to do: Be an actual Goddess. Just like Kazuma, it was weird seeing her do her duties as one. But it was very refreshing to see these rare moments from her where she isn’t a total you-know-what. Plus, the character of Keele was something I didn’t expect. I thought he was gonna be a menace to the duo, and mess up their adventure. However, it was quite opposite, and pretty great to see Keele actually have a sense of duty and loyalty to someone he loves. He may have been there for only a brief time, but Keele had some good character development in his 5 minutes of action. Keele shows that Konosuba can be more than just shits-and-giggles. It can have some heart once in a while, and deliver it exponentially. I thank the boney lich for this. Other than Keele, this episode was basically an Aqua-Kazuma episode. Seeing how they are having Kazuma interact with the girls one-on-one so far, we might see one with Darkness later on with she returns. Although, we did see that in episode 11 last year, in all its glorious bath scene glory. Also, we have the return of “Kazuma reacts to his name being said.”
They’re short and stupid, but for reasons beyond me, I always like when he does this, as it adds to his character. The episode, while not as funny as the first two, did hold up, and was more relaxing and full of heart with the Keele story. Konosuba is still kicking butt as one of the best animes this season.
Konosuba S2 is simulcasted on Crunchyroll. It can be seen Wednesdays at 1:45 PM