surveying the vast swathes of light novel options out there, when you spot a familiar face it's only natural to want to seek refuge in it. especially welcoming was the fact that it seemed to be quartered solidly among the (allegedly) easier group of light novels. yes, many years ago i had watched konosuba, and i won't pull any punches, i was a fan of megumin. so of course when i stumbled across this apparently-easy light novel focusing on her, it was a quick sellinterestingly, the same day i wrote this, they announced an anime adaptation of this light novel. you're welcome. some parts of it have already made it to the screen, however, which i noticed when i watched the konosuba movie on a whim the other day. most of it takes place in megumin's hometown, and so there are some characters and brief references to events from the book. really felt like i was in the secret club, knowing the full context of the brief snapshots they showed. of course i'm almost positive this one has been translated, but then again, does anybody even read these days?.

did it deliver on the promises of the past readers/the seemingly-objective difficulty ratings spat out by the mysterious Algorithm? i would say yes. the fearsome kanji count is tempered by furigana almost to the point of excess in some cases, making me worried that i will lean on them too much even for the easy readings i do know and thereby forget them. one thing that did occasionally throw me for a loop is the running gag of the crimson demons all having outrageous names, however at this point i'm not able to tell the difference between "ridiculous funny name" and "japanese onomatopoeia or slang" as both would be written in hiragana. so i'd end up fruitlessly looking up some odd hiragana word, before coming back to the text and realizing that in fact, it's just another crazy crimson demon name. otherwise, the going started out rough at the beginning, but i think you eventually start to acclimate to the author/the book's writing style, and it gets easier as you go on.

as for the contents of the book, i had a lot of trouble at first describing the basic premise or structure of the book. there's sort of a villain, some enemies, and dramatic action at the climax, but during the slow build-up to that, the majority of the book ends up being about the relationship between megumin and yunyun. as an isekai parody, the humor in the original konosuba is centered around turning isekai tropes upside down, while at the same time playing other isekai tropes completely straight. when a trope appears, you never know what you're gonna get, and the unexpected subversions are what's funny. approaching bakuen from this perspective, it seemed to me like the main subversion was that it was ostensibly an isekaior what some might term a "native isekai", or just plain fantasy as we used to call it, although i will concede isekai has managed to establish itself as a distinct subgenre of fantasy, with distinct common elements like video game mechanics and characters reincarnating from the "real world", however most of it just takes place in school or at various shops/restaurants around town, at times feeling just like an isekai coat of paint over the real world.

but then, during my second most important idle thinking time of the daywaiting for the train, it occurred to me. i did a lot of thinking about the relationship between megumin and yunyun, on which volumes could probably be written. when they are introduced, as the top two students in the class, megumin is the aloof high-achiever fixated on her goal of learning explosion magic and becoming strong, and yunyun is similarly distant from the rest of the class as she is socially awkward and doesn't fit in with the rest of the chuni crimson demons. megumin, who is poor, largely seems to see her as a free lunch, as yunyun challenges megumin to a contest every day, betting an extra lunch that megumin always wins, often using underhanded tricks. but as the book continues, it seems like megumin and yunyun end up together an awful lot, and some of their actions seem to indicate they care about each other a lot more than they would ever admit. they keep testing the waters and then heading back to safety, both getting flustered and mutually retreating when things get dangerously close to the f-word (friends). it was like a will-they-or-won't-they, i thought, except for friendship. that's when it hit me: it's actually more like a romcom than anything, but in classic akatsuki style, megumin and yunyun comedically tiptoe around confessing to each other and acknowledging to themselves that they are/should be friendsi'm well aware that girls can love girls, believe me, but it's clear from the text that it's not "like that". really it's a testament to akatsuki's parodic ability that he managed to create romcomesque situations based on friendship rather than romance..

the megumin-yunyun relationship and interactions i talked about above form a strong comedic foundation for bakuen, which is why i ultimately recommend it: it's actually pretty funny, like most of akatsuki's work. it's a precious find as a lot of humor in animanga and light novels tends to fall flat, as the jokes tend to be as formulaic as the plots or characters, if they even succeed in being recognizable as jokes rather than just being a character making a funny face or somethingyou could chalk it up to cultural differences, but i do believe there are some things that are just universally funny, judging from the enduring popularity across countries and the rift of centuries of humorous masterworks like don quixote. konosuba at the very least seems to enjoy a good reputation currently for comedy both at home and abroad.. the one caveat i must acknowledge, as before with the doremi light novels, is that it may not be as enjoyable if you're not already familiar with the characters or the world from the original work, konosuba. unfortunately, rare is the spin-off that manages to stand completely on its own. even i was only sold on this one by its relationship to the original work.