For a while now, fans of the popular isekai series Konosuba: God’s Blessing On This Wonderful World have been clamoring for a third season to follow up after the most recent episode aired in March of 2017. Though the quartet made an appearance in the crossover series Isekai Quartet alongside characters from Re:Zero, The Saga Of Tanya The Evil and Overlord, this was apparently not enough to satisfy the fanbase’s desire for a continuation of their fight against the Devil King’s army. As of 2021, no plans for that have surfaced; however, the closest we have gotten to that regard is a theatrical release, titled Legend Of Crimson. Although I had my eyes set on this film for a while, it would not be until May of 2020 that I could devote time to this on a late summer night; a revisit of this film a year later would only bring out the same results as that from before.
KONOSUBA: LEGEND OF CRIMSON
Konosuba: Legend Of Crimson was theatrically released on 30 August 2019, which was just a few days after my trip to Fan Expo Canada, and also the day when I created my first Twitter account. Although Studio Deen had been in charge of the animation for the first two seasons of Konosuba, for this movie that role was passed over to J.C. Staff of A Certain Magical Index/Scientific Railgun fame; however, many of the original cast members such as Rie Takahashi (Megumin), Jun Fukushima (Kazuma), and many others were still retained for this production. In terms of its box office performance, the film did rather modestly, raising at least $6 million in both Japanese and overseas markets.
Unlike most of the films which I’ve reviewed recently on my Anime Review section, unfortunately Legend of Crimson did not have any notable awards to bring home, considering its recent timestamp; however, some minor accolades included being named “Best Anime Film” at Anime Trending’s Anime Awards in March of 2021. Needless to say, that’s a sizeable step up as the anime itself has only been nominated for various obscure categories at Newtype’s and Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards competitions.
PLOT
Several months have passed since Kazuma and his team (Megumin, Aqua, and Darkness) destroyed the livelihood of the people of Arcanrentia by wrecking their hot spring station. Since that debacle, things have not been smooth-sailing for the party, and become more heated (no pun intended) following a run-in with Megumin and Kazuma over the former’s obsession with explosion magic, which prove effective in killing their town’s tuna supply, making them the talk of the town. Suddenly, Yunyun, Megumin’s friend from the Crimson Demon village, arrives and announces her intent to be the mother of Kazuma’s children – which greatly pleases him until Megumin realizes that the shtick is nothing more than a part from an in-progress story her friend was writing. In any case, Megumin’s concern for her only friends leads them on a journey to said village, of which they request the help of Wiz and Vanir to get them there. However, things don’t turn out quite as expected; not long after they find themselves on the run from a group of horny female orcs who want to mate with Kazuma, only to be stopped by Yunyun. Another run-in with some of the Devil King’s army is thwarted once some villagers arrive to help them, and lead them to their town.
The quartet find shelter at Megumin’s home, where her parents, who are initially suspicious of their motives, gradually warm up to them once they realize about their daughter’s feelings towards Kazuma, and upon learning that he’s on the verge of becoming the richest man in town, the family offers his crew a place to stay while sightseeing across the place. Our lead hero, in part encouraged by Megumin’s mother, uses this opportunity to hit on an exhausted Megumin, though he goes nowhere past first base, but their moment is thwarted when Sylvia, a general of the Devil King’s army, arrives to spoil the fun with her army. At first, Kazuma drives them away claiming to be a powerful warrior named Mitsurugi, but this facade is immediately cut down once his sword’s identity is exposed. Sylvia captures Kazuma, who at first is pleased to be at the hands of a buxom demon overlord, but becomes averse once the latter reveals its chimera identity. Undaunted, he is taken to an abandoned fortress wherein he traps Sylvia using his video game knowledge. He is rescued by his troupe, but disaster ensues once Sylvia merges with the Mage Killer device located underneath the fortress, and rains down fire and brimstone upon its inhabitants.
Sylvia’s new form proves itself to be effective against the Crimson Demon people; for example, it negates the effects of their magical powers, which send them running away and leave the former free to continue its destruction. While Darkness is left to lead the remaining army, it’s only after Kazuma, Megumin and Aqua discover a weapon, named the Railgun (TBD), which they last saw being used as a clothes hanger, that they can finally charge up enough energy for Komekko, Megumin’s younger sister, to make the killshot that defeats Sylvia. This victory, however, is short-lived as Sylvia returns in an even more powerful form: a hybrid of season 1/2 villains Verdia the Dullahan and Hans the Deadly Poison Slime. Because Megumin’s power was used up to charge the Railgun (TBD), she’s left at Kazuma’s mercy until Wiz and Vanir arrive to hold off Sylvia’s wrath.
Kazuma discovers that the only way to defeat Sylvia once and for all is not through combat only, but by reaching into her heart. (Yeah, I don’t understand that either, it’s literally straight out of a crappy 4Kids story) As such, he offers himself as a sacrifice to Sylvia, merging with her and proclaiming his love for her, which allows Megumin and Yunyun enough time to create a powerful explosion/magic hybrid which wipes out Sylvia and Kazuma once and for all. Luckily, Kazuma is revived, becomes celebrated as a hero (which he dubs the true start of his “popular phase”) and Megumin, whose trust in him is further enhanced because of this journey, finally opens up to him and allows him to advance her magical experience – thus sealing away her explosion abilities, and our crew continues to move forward towards whatever wacky quest awaits them.
WHAT I LIKED
GAME. 
SET. 
MATCH. 
BOOM. YOUR LIFE IS OFFICIALLY OVER.
- In true Konosuba fashion, the film retains the parody allure of the anime, and keeps everything rather consistent to it. Expect to see the same funny faces, joke ideas, and animation styles present from the former, and they even managed to get every member of the story – from major characters like Kazuma/Megumin/Aqua/Darkness to minor ones like Yunyun, Wiz and Vanir in the fray to fight the evil forces that threaten their world. All this world’s a stage, and everyone’s merely players to it.
- My favorite part of the show was how well it handled the romance between Kazuma and Megumin, who are my two favorite characters from the original anime. In the segment when the gang arrive at Megumin’s humble village house, we see how her parents practically set up the two to spend some time together and hopefully get somewhere with their relationship, and it managed to go from both charming, with the two developing a further understanding and appreciation for having each other’s back, to downright terrifying with Kazuma’s constant attempts to woo Megumin through magic and controlling his urge to kiss her – which lead to Aqua and Darkness calling him “Kazutrash” and “Kreeperma” in recognition of his failure. At least they make up for it in the end.
- The backstory of the Crimson Demon clan that Megumin belongs to was not only a good world-building component, but its introduction is totally worth a laugh. Essentially, a Japanese scientist and his abusive assistant were the first to develop a series of genetically modified humans who then proceeded to embrace the current Crimson Demon identity. One day, after coming across a weapon the scientist was working on, they randomly declared it their “natural enemy”, and choosing to go along with their insanity, built a railgun to serve as its deterrent. This scene was funny because of the absurd backstory, the horde of retarded villagers, and all in all: Kazuma’s reaction as he tries to shield Megumin’s ears from learning the truth behind her race. Not to mention, that thumbs-up from the scientist at the end of the story with the explosion in the background.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
- This film is one of the hardest movies I’ve ever had the misfortunate of watching, let alone recommending. Two scenes in particular, I will write about in order to warn viewers of the reasons why I almost puked watching this.
- Sylvia’s appearance in the film easily makes it to the worst villain so far in the Konosuba franchise. 95% of her existence is simply for fanservice purposes and “plot”, especially near the end when Kazuma has to merge with her in order to destroy her. Twice in the film does it accost Kazuma by putting him in a rather comfortable position (for which I’m not going to describe in full), which ends up being used as a major device to lead to Sylvia’s downfall in the battle. (Fair warning: you will not see any pictures of Sylvia on this post because I don’t want to turn my blog into a harbringer of scandal)
- The part where Kazuma is chased down by a horde of horny female orcs was downright disturbing. To broaden the context: the orc species is in decline, and as a result, there are no more male members left to sustain the pack. As a result, the females have to mate with other male members from different species to try and stay alive. If that’s not bad enough, in the rare instance a male offspring is produced, they literally work it to death instead of nursing it to good health. Kazuma nearly gets molested by the pack, but is saved by Yunyun whom he thanks with fervent gratitude, and uses as a lap pillow to fend off his trauma.
- Disturbing plot points aside, we never get to see Kazuma’s 300-million-dollar deal with Vanir get a proper conclusion. After all, it was touted by the latter several times in the film, and knowing about the group’s financial troubles, you’d think including this in the movie would lead it somewhere good. Needless to say, it didn’t, and I’m left disappointed at the cliffhanger towards this matter.
CHARACTERS
The movie has some good and bad points to them. Starting with the good, we have the obvious relationship development between Kazuma and Megumin. I’ve always loved how the two characters interacted with each other in the series, and it was nice to see them continue to grow fond with each other as well as get annoyed with each other; whether it’s Kazuma regarding Megumin’s pyromania or vice versa with his exaggerated advances on her. It’s both adorable and zany to watch. This aside however, another character that worked out well was Yunyun, who, unlike in the anime, becomes an integral member of the cast especially during the film’s final battle, and we got to see a bit more about her personality, origins, and her relationship with the other members of her village. Should Konosuba get a third season in the future, I hope to see her have a bigger role given how the movie heavily involved her.
Now moving on to the bad part: Sylvia. If there’s any villain that’s insufferable, it’s got to be this… whatever this thing is. To put it short, the character is of the chimera variety, with the ability to merge with anything or anyone; as a result it possesses both male and female physical traits – much to Kazuma’s shock. In other words, we have a hermaphrodite. Even if I were to take away that horrifying bit of information, the villain is completely stale, void of any redeeming personality traits or genuine comedy. It’s like the creators of this show wanted to make a villain that’s so different, yet so shocking compared to previous ones, that they came up with the most disturbing design for such, of which Sylvia is the result. All in all, a boring villain that admittedly does put up a tough fight, I’ll give it that. Yunyun’s friends also weren’t that interesting to begin with, apart from the fact that they were just there for introductory purposes.
MUSIC
If you’re expecting to hear the same, adventurous soundtrack from the original series to be incorporated to this show, then I’m happy to say that you’re in the right place. This movie makes good use of those sound bytes and helps to preserve the original atmosphere provided by the show. In addition to the familiar background music, there comes two wholesome vocal tracks that you can include as part of the Konosuba repetoire; these include the fast-paced theme song 1 Millimeter Symphony by Machico, the singer of the opening themes. I found this song to be very upbeat and its lyrics demonstrated well the show’s premise on adventure in an unknown world. You could put this song over shows like Digimon Adventure and it still would fit well; that’s how universally fitting this song is to that genre. In addition, the voice actresses of Aqua, Megumin and Darkness return to reprise the tradition of playing the ending credits song; which in this case is titled My Home Town, which, although is a far cry from the slow, sentimental melodies of earlier ending songs, is nonetheless a comfortable piece to end off what’s otherwise a fiery flick.
FAVORITES
Favorite scene: I’m definitely not going to forget the sequence where Kazuma nearly steals a kiss off Megumin; I’m convinced further by this even more of the fact that they should be shipped with each other. Another one I best enjoyed was when Kazuma traps Sylvia in the dungeon by inputting the famous Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left. right, B, A); as someone who enjoys retro video games, that was a nice Easter egg to put in.
Favorite Kazuma funny face: No Konosuba post is complete without a funny face from our lead hero, Kazuma. Behold, therefore, the face of a project manager who’s so done with his team:
Favorite quote: Megumin’s heartfelt gratitude for Kazuma for what he did definitely deserves this spot. It’s one of the cutest things I’ve seen from this show, and believe me – that’s saying a lot. Were it not for this, I would have used the whole shtick about the scientist and the Crimson Demons’ etymology instead.
Back then, you accepted an aimless, insecure archwizard to join your crew. You’re always there to carry me on my back anytime I get tired from using my special Explosion magic abilities, and no matter how much trouble I cause, you’re never going to abandon me at whim. So, I guess this is thanks for everything. Don’t feel shy about it, why are you blushing when you’re the one that demanded it?
Megumin displays her appreciation for being Kazuma’s fellow guild member and friend
Too bad that Kazuma’s desperate attempts to get laid prevent this from becoming a wholly romantic moment a few minutes later.
CONCLUSION
Since Konosuba: Legend Of Crimson worked its way into the big screen, I will admit I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the visuals were great, the humor was knocked down nicely, the character relationships were deep and the fight scene was entertaining; however I just can’t get over how extra the fan-service was in the film. Sadly, right now this film is the only way the Konosuba saga can go forward in terms of story; but were it not for this feature I would have definitely ranked the score about on-par with the series. One thing’s for certain though: I hope that the next installment from this franchise is another episodic series: one which allows the story to forge forward, continue with better character progression, more villains to fight and introduce new bits of humor to lead on.
SCORE: 6.3/10
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