Konosuba, Season 2 – Episodes 8 and 9

The 2nd season of Konosuba has come and ended, as episode 10 was the last episode of it. No Season 3, as of now, has been announced. However, I was kind of behind on my previous recap of it, so I fell behind. Now, I’m making up for lost times by doing the last 3, including a double recap of the episodes 8 & 9. Let’s have some fun with the city of water and hot springs, Arcanretia.

Episode 8 – “Sightseeing in This Pitiful City!”

The episode begins with Kazuma describing a “chicken race,” which he points out is what Darkness is doing, trying to be the target of the Running Hawk Kites. Darkness wants to fulfill her kinkiness by having the Kites run her over. They don’t as each one jumps over her instead. She thinks they’re teasing her, which is also thrilling to her. Instead, Aqua is using Blessing on her to make them jump. It makes her mad, but it helps get the job of Darkness taken care of (and gives Aqua Kazuma’s wagon spot). The other adventurers do get some of the ostrich-like beasts, but most run past them, and still come at the group. Kazuma has an idea and asks the old wagon man if there are any cliffs around. There isn’t, but there’s a cave nearby. It works for Kazuma, as he goes and gets the tied-up Darkness, but she’s too heavy for him to carry onto the wagon. Darkness does have an idea how to get her around.

They’re out of time, so Kazuma does. The wagon takes off, dragging Darkness as she loves this, as Aqua and the rest of the girls glare at Kazuma. The birds follow them. They try to stop them, as Wiz’s “Bottomless Swamp” attack only gets a few, but they keep coming. As Darkness still enjoys being dragged along (with Aqua fruitlessly Healing her,) they get near the cave, as Kazuma forms a plan. He tells the old man to slide near the the front of the entrance, has Aqua boost his strength, gets on top of the wagon, and Snipes some of the Running Hawk Kites. The wagon gets to the cave and power-slides near the front of it. Kazuma gets off, and with all his strength, throws Darkness at the front of the cave for the birds to follow/jump over. They get the cave, where Megumin uses her Explosion Magic to finish them off.

The adventurers have a party to celebrate the victory Kazuma’s team got. They praise them, and even the old man gives Kazuma a reward for their efforts. Kazuma turns it down, because he knows it’s their fault for causing all this. This makes the old man think he’s a “true adventurer,” making Kazuma cry in grief. Aqua entertains the impressed adventurers as Kazuma fixes Darkness’s armor, impressing her and Megumin. As they go to sleep, Kazuma wakes up to a weird feeling. He tries to wake up Wiz and Megumin to it, with his own weird way, for Darkness to stop him. It’s not long before others are up because they sense it to. Something is stiffly coming, as a guy throws some fire at the intruders, they are revealed.

The undead arrive, as Kazuma believes this is their chance to pay back the others for what they done. However, Kazuma quickly realizes what’s the cause of the zombies as they surround Aqua. She uses Turn Undead on them, as they (and poor Wiz, being undead as well) get affected by it, as the adventurers all praise Aqua for stopping them. The old man wants to give Kazuma the reward again, but Kazuma tells them all he’s sorry, for he knows it’s Aqua’s fault for this. Back in town, YunYun tries to challenge Megumin again. Like before, she still doesn’t know they have left.

Wiz: “I’M DYING!!!” Chomusuke: “Does this mean I won’t be able to play with your boobs again?”

The next day, the group finally arrive in the city of water and hot springs, Arcanretia. The homes are nice, the scenery is different, the air is clean. It even has elves and dwarfs there. The famous place is beautiful, making Kazuma think they should’ve visited other places before. As they say bye to the old man and Jarippa (the name Megumin gave to the baby dragon), Aqua tells them she’ll lead the way. Arcanretia is home to the Axis Church, the cult full of weirdos that worships Aqua. This is why Aqua wanted to come here. Some people come and offer Kazuma and co. a chance to work at the Axis Church, praising their goddess and how wonderful the church is. Kazuma wants to leave these creepy folks.

Wiz has a dream (read: near-death experience) that involves being near a river in fog with Verdia, the dullahan the gang beat. She comes to as Kazuma heals her, and thanks him for helping her, even if Darkness was the one taking care of her. As for Aqua? She’s going to Axis Church headquarters to be fawned over, as Megumin goes with to keep her outta trouble. Since Wiz is fine now, Kazuma and Darkness explore the town, and see that it’s lovely. A girl trips and spills her apples, having the two help her. For helping, she asks if she can do anything for Kazuma. This gets him excited, until she starts blabbering about the Axis Church. He tries to leave, but she gets creepy/crazy trying to keep him around, saying she can tell his fortune. Darkness herself isn’t interested in joining, since she is part of the Eris Church. Showing her charm causes the woman to glare/spit, walk away, spit again, and leave. Kazuma knows the two churches don’t get along and sees that Darkness got turned on by the end of it. As they continue, they run into another girl being chased by a red afro dude. She says he’s “probably” with the Eris Church, trying to steer her to his faith. Darkness and Kazuma can see it’s a ploy from the two to make them join the Axis Church. They talk of Aqua, and even give them sign-up sheets for the church. Darkness shows them her charm, they do the same as the chick from before, and Darkness, again, is turned on by it. The whole town is like this, as more try to convince them to join. One even says she was a classmate of Kazuma. Kazuma is done with this crazy town. But not Darkness. At a restaurant, she is given a bone in a dog dish because of her Eris faith, and she now wants to live here. They run into a little girl, who trips and hurts herself. The duo help her, and she thanks them. She wants their names and gives them a piece of paper to write it on. Thinking he found the only sane person in town, it turns into a nightmare as Kazuma sees the paper is a Axis Church sign-up sheet. He rips the paper, cursing the town.

Episode 9 – “A Goddess for This Corrupt Hot Springs Town!”

Kazuma is still furious at this town, as more church followers keep on trying to get him to join. He wants to see high priest Zesta, but he’s out screwing around-I mean, spreading Aqua’s name. So, he asks where his two companions are, and he gets pointed to Megumin. She looks like she was in the middle of all the bloodshed of a brutal war, while Darkness is being stoned outside by kids. Do I really need to say it?

“I seen Hell. And its name is the Axis Church.”

Kazuma goes to a confession booth where Aqua is listening to confessions for her followers, and Kazuma wants her to control her nutjob followers. But Aqua is enjoying all this, and doesn’t listen at all to Kazuma’s plead. He gets pissed, thinking she is just “acting priestly” for a the glory. She tells him to leave, so Kazuma decides to confess to her. He says he broke her cup, drank all the liquor she had in a rare bottle and replaced with cheap stuff she wouldn’t notice, and posted a notice for a replacement priest, one of Eris faith. Aqua has enough of this, even if he was only joking about the last one. Also, Megumin just wants to go home.

As Kazuma joins her in her booth, a guy comes to confess to her about a painting of Eris’s …. umm, goods, he saw that led him astray. Aqua goes into a bunch of stuff that is … yeah.

Basically, she forgives the guy, as long as he follows/spreads this message to her followers if anyone else feels like leaving: “Eris pads her chest.” She basically sells out her fellow goddess, but shall do anything for all her many faithful followers she has and to keep their faith in store. So basically, just like Twitter. Back at the inn, Wiz is fine now, as Kazuma is about to take a bath. The mention of mixed bathing has him wanting the girls to join without him saying it, but they’re not. There, we meet an elf girl who is enjoying the bath, but another dude who is worn out by this “demon city” like Kazuma is. Speaking of, he’s been staring at the naked elf chick the whole time, and tells her not to mind him.  She leaves, while the dude with her loses his mind over the Axis cult members. After he and the dude get harassed by more Axis church people, Kazuma is going to leave until Megumin and Darkness enter the bath and OH DEAR GOD!

The girls talk about him, as how he is mostly cowardly, sometimes strange, and can be faulty at times. But he is very reliable and does care for his friends, too. He is a overall good person. Of course, they also think Kazuma is listening in to this conversation. Which he totally is. It’s to make him feel bad after hearing all the good stuff said about him. Of course, the girls messing with their bodies make him want to peep, and the girls get him for it by kicking the wall he’s on. He returns it by using Create Water on them, and they counter by throwing random things at him. Including Chomusuke. When he gets done, he sees a Axis Church sign-up sheet for him, and he loses it too.

Get you a friend who shares in your eternal suffering of annoyance.

As we see Aqua crying on Wiz (Poor Wiz can’t get a break), we find out she’s been kicked out the church’s secret bath. Why? Because Aqua purified the hot springs into hot water, like she did with the tea a couple episodes back. As she tried to apologized to the high priest, she told him she was the actual Aqua, which he’s smirked at. Kazuma does the same thing.

The next day, Aqua says the “town’s danger is in peril” as the hot springs have been dropping a bit. She believes the Devil King’s army is behind it, since they can’t beat her looney followers. The gang doesn’t believe this crap, but Aqua is standing tall and will help the town. Just without Kazuma and Megumin, because they want no part, and Wiz is fading away again cause of Aqua. Too bad Darkness is too hesitant, and Aqua’s begging forces her to join in. Kazuma and Megumin try to enjoy the town, but the people drive them nuts. They get in their faces and pester them at every turn. It has not only driven Megumin to the depths of insanity, but the dude from the bathhouse as well, as both talk of soap and detergent. The dude vanishes as Wiz arrives, but the group hear some talk and find Aqua gathering the town up with the words, “Slay the demons! Defeat the Devil King!” She tells them her stupid idea of how the Devil King is sabotaging the town, with Darkness helping out, but being very shy. Even though she purified the “evil” from the hot springs, she tells the town not to use them. A problem since it’s their whole income. Unfortunately for her, two guys from the church identify Aqua as the one turning the hot springs into hot water. The town quickly turns on her, thinking she’s part of the Devil King’s army, and it’s all a scam. In desperation mode, Aqua reveals that she is their goddess they all praise. However, the town ain’t buying it and thinks she’s a fake. Even going so far as to wanting to tie her up and throw her into the lake.

Aqua cries as they’re back at the inn, after being stoned by the townsfolk (which Darkness loved, being Darkness and all). The others blame her for calling herself a god too much, and yet she still wants to help the townsfolk because they follow her. That changes as the town says the same words Aqua told them, but right back at her. They want the “witch” Aqua, and are ready for a witch hunt.

Both of these episodes delivered the main thing that has been sort of a mystery all along: The Axis Church. The show has said since the beginning that the Axis Chruch is basically a cult of nutjobs, and these two episodes really showcased that and then some. Me just typing this up isn’t enough to really tell how much of a screw-loose these people were. It has to be watched to really experience the insanity of them. Megumin expressing what seems like a Vietnam flashback and Kazuma going nuts in the pictures show little of how annoying they were. In their faces, going to all lengths to make them join. Just being a menace to everyone who wasn’t a part of them. In fact, the townspeople could be a metaphor to some animes. As in, the way it presents itself in either animation, storyline and/or voice acting (in this case, the town itself) is a thing to behold, but it gets bogged down by the crappy characters and annoying, anime cliches they have (AKA, the nutjob cultist). I’m very glad that Aqua got her karma in this episode for the town not thinking she’s the real deal. I always love it when Aqua gets what’s coming to her, and her being more of an ass throughout the last few finally got to her when the town though she was a fake. Other than them, the overall two episodes with Darkness being Darkness, Kazuma being everything in every way, and poor Wiz being mistreated were all a delight. Hell, the cultist town were hilarious throughout for how they treated the gang. A very fun two episodes as I head into the final episode of Konosuba S2.

Konosuba S2 can be seen on Chrunchyroll.

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