"Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!" volume 4 by Akatsuki Natsume

2016-06-16 : previous : next : index : [books] [konosuba]


"Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!" (bless this wonderful world!) volume 4 by Akatsuki Natsume. Aqua is still not getting much respect in this volume.

This volume starts off with a quest to resolve the problem of lizard runners, followed by a trip to the hot springs with battles against running hawks and undeads along the way. These events by themselves are probably fairly standard in other fantasy stories, but in this novel, we have the main character somehow ended up dead very early on. The hot springs trip was meant to recover from this injury, but that didn't go well thanks to this party's talent to attract disaster. After a short break from volume 3, this introduction brought me back to the familiar world of Konosuba, where all problems can be solved the hard way.

Actual events at the hot springs resort feels familiar too, but for very different reasons. This city happens to be headquarters of Akushizu sect, the minority religion that worships Aqua, even though none of them would recognize Aqua as the real water goddess Aqua (yet). Besides some shady tactics in tourist shops, all residents aggressively tries to recruit Kazuma's party members to join their religion. This is all done with not at all subtle methods in ways that highly resemble certain real life institutions, it's both funny and uncanny at the same time, and it's an unexpected highlight for this volume. It's so bad that even the henchmen of the demon lord did not want to get close to this city.

One of the henchmen actually had enough of this religion, and conjured an evil plan to poison all the springs as a mean to destroy Akushizu sect's primary financial source. He is the final boss for this volume that was eventually defeated by Kazuma's party, in a very lively and tactical match that is the second highlight for this volume. Ironically, few chapters earlier, Kazuma was already thinking about defeating the demon lord through financial means. Sometimes it's hard to tell who has better ethics in this novel series. There is continuous character development, but hard to say if it's in the positive direction.

This volume maintains the unpredictable and fun spirit, ending in a cliffhanger punchline. Looking forward to volume 5.


Previous (2016-06-07): "Planetarian" by Suzumoto Yuuichi
Next (2016-06-18): Mechanical watches

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