Light Novel Review - Konosuba Vol 1: Oh! My Useless Goddess!

Name - Konosuba Vol 1: Oh! My Useless Goddess!
Published by - Yen Press  
Written by - Natsume Akatsuki
Visual Art by - Kurone Mishima
Translated by - Kevin Steinbach
  
I did watch a few episodes first a while back. I though it was a bit unique, but it didn't really draw my attention to watch the whole series. Then, sometime later I found out the light novel was to be released in English and decided to find out what the fuss was all about. And I am glad I did, cause my first impression wasn't that accurate at all. As the novel is quite a fun read with interesting characters and a plot that is designed to poke fun at the all too familiar transported to another world trope that is so familiar now-a-days in Japanese fiction.

Konosuba tells the story of a video-game loving shut-in Kazuma Sato's whose life as a young schoolboy in Japan abruptly comes to an early end by a tragic accident...or at least it was supposed to. When he opens his eyes, though, he sees a beautiful goddess that offers him a once in an after-lifetime chance to be reborn in a parallel world. The catch is that the world is violent and threatened by a growing evil, the Demon King! Fortunately, he can choose any one thing to bring with him. But instead of a powerful weapon or magical stuff he chooses the goddess, Aqua! And so his adventure with his gorgeous companion begins in a game like world. But it's just a struggle to just get enough money and food to survive, keep his goddess out of trouble, and avoid grabbing the attention of the Demon King's army!

The story tries to poke fun into these immensely popular setting, which has taken the world of Japanese fiction like a storm. From the start it makes fun of how stupidly the protagonist had died in the real world and keeps making fun of him being a 'hikki/NEET'. It also has side characters to make fun of generic hero in such fictions and also makes fun various character tropes in such a setting.

The characters are the driving force of this light novel and the strength which makes the story enjoyable. Kazuma Satou is the main protagonist who used to be a video-game loving shut-in, he is very unlike hero characters as he lacks any special ability and is quite selfish in his ways, aiming to survive in as peaceful a way as possible with no intention of taking part in any conflicts. Aqua is an energetic and simple minded girl who likes to receive reverence for her status and gets upset easily. As an Arch priest and a goddess, she is quite powerful, but rather than learning skills which would benefit her party, she spends most of her skill points learning Party Tricks. Megumin, is an arch wizard who is also quite useless, she knows the incredibly powerful explosion magic that immediately incapacitates her for the rest of the day when cast, and stubbornly refuses to learn any other skills. And lastly Darkness is a crusader who possesses powerful offense and defense, but lacks the accuracy to deliver her attacks. She is a masochist who dreams of being ravaged by monsters and other abuses.

Despite thoroughly enjoying this first novel I wish the author had spent a bit more time on world-building as I would have loved to learn more about the land outside the starter town. And also the novel as a bit short in length for my liking (which is to be expected, as it is called a 'light novel'). Although I am a bit skeptical whether the author will be able to keep up the quality of this first book in the series in the upcoming novels rather than becoming generic like the stories he is trying to make fun of.

All said and done, I really enjoyed my first foray (as a reader) into the world of 'Konosuba' and will definitely check out the future novels as they get translated and might even watch the anime.

This gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.