Overlord

Obligatory spoiler warning because Overlord is a masterpiece that must be experienced first-hand. So apparently what Sword Art Online needed was for Kirito to be a skeleton wizard and Asuna to be Mahouka's Miyuki. The concept of this series is the same as what most people are already familiar with; A guy is playing a game, and then he's suddenly trapped in it because of some unexplained reason. Overlord does absolutely nothing original aside from having a few aesthetic and irrelevant differences from the rest, and people seem to consider it as a brilliant masterpiece because it apparently managed to appeal to those who wanted ... to play as the bad guy in a roleplaying forum.

The original LN has some pretty nice art and cool character designs. That's about the only good thing about the series as a whole- Everything else, including the writing, ranges from mediocre to genuinely awful. Apparently when Madhouse realized that they were going to be animating One Punch Man, they saw Overlord's amazing budget saving potential- Most notably, zooming in the unmoving skeleton man's face so they don't have to animate anything at all while he's talking. The animation is really subpar, and there's a lot of terrible looking CGI in the show while it's not focusing on Momonga's face. It only truly picks up in quality at the very end of the series, and even then, it doesn't manage to be very impressive. The OST is very forgettable to the point that I might even consider it one of the worst in the shows I've seen- Basically take whatever Yasuharu Takanashi does and make it even more generic than some of his worst works. That about describes it. Visually and aurally, it's definitely below average.

But surely despite all that mediocrity, the writing must be amazing. After all, the main character is a skeleton wizard and leads an army of Saturday morning cartoon villains. Despite the series attempting to present the protagonist and his group as evil, the best it does is having them kill completely unlikable characters that barely get more than a minute of screen time. That's some evil right there.

Momonga is an incredibly boring character. Aside from providing exposition after exposition through his internal monologues from his experience with the MMO when describing what's happening on the screen, he really does not have much personality. His entire character motivation is to find out about the world he's trapped in, just like the viewers- Basically, it can be summed up that his motivation pretty much does not exist because it simply exists as a parallel to the plot itself. Furthermore, he's very powerful- Apparently overpowered MCs are acceptable as long as they're not designed like teenage boys, which makes it admitedly harder for neckbeards to relate to. But Momonga's degree of power exceeds even that- He's powerful to the point that nearly nothing poses a serious threat to him. This is a problem in storytelling because no conflict is ever relevant- Momonga's powerful enough to just solve it easily without any effort. One could say that it was the writer's intent to make Momonga seem powerful and impressive, but it doesn't even do that correctly. Power is relative, so when Momonga just one-shots random fodders that spend more time boasting about themselves than actually showing what they're capable of, it's not impressive in the slightest. A key example of this happens in the fourth episode, where the bad guy summons what is supposedly a super-powerful monster, and when Momonga kills it, it's supposed to look impressive. But the audience doesn't know what this monster was even capable of, outside of the bad guy boasting about its supposed strength, so it just feels completely flat.

While he makes all these unnecessary convoluted plans about how he would spread his name around the world to catch the attention of those who might have been trapped in the world like him, he essentially just solves all his problems through his raw power. His problems are more self-imposed than anything due to his tendency to be incredibly paranoid due to his fear of something that “might” be more powerful than him. And to make it worse, he just outright contradicts himself near the end of the show by risking his life in an unnecessary one-on-one combat due to his ego. Brilliant.

And to make it more brilliant, there really was no reason for the MMO backdrop at all- It's a completely unnecessary addition. The series could have worked just as well with Momonga being a genuine evil skeleton lich in a genuine fantasy world instead of “some guy trapped in a MMO world that became REAL.” All this does, essentially, is to give an excuse for some parts of poor storytelling to exist, such as exposition dumps from Momonga based on his experience with the MMO, and floor guardians being completely, unquestionably loyal to him for no reason. The series never references back to the real world, so it might as well not exist- And since the audience has no idea about the said MMO, it only emphasizes the point about this just being a pointless hook, and a justification for awful storytelling that relies on the backwards idea of “Tell, don't show.”

All the floor guardians and Momonga's lackies are uninteresting and flat- They have some interesting designs, especially the maids, but all their personality is about as interesting as a rock. First few episodes make it clear that they absolutely adore Momonga, and they spend their entire screen time thinking and/or talking about how great Momonga is. One of the worst examples is Albedo, who spends every moment of her screen time doing just all that. She never does anything outside of praising Momonga, whether he's in the same scene as her or not- Comparing this to Mahouka, she's basically this series' equivalent of Miyuki if Miyuki did absolutely nothing outside of praising Tatsuya, which makes Albedo far, far more annoying. Remember how people absolutely despised Miyuki because she wouldn't shut up about her onii-sama? There's an exact same character here, if arguably worse, but Albedo gets a free pass because her target of affection looks like a skeleton wizard and has a fanservice design.
There's also nothing interesting about floor guardians' interaction with one another, as all they talk about is how great Momonga is and how they should do their job and serve him. I guess the assumption the author made was that his target audience was so stupid that they needed to be reminded of the obvious every scene, every line.

Another awful aspect of this series is the pacing- It's always painfully slow. A lot of people seem to defend slow pacing by claiming that it's character development, but there's no development. I'm not sure where people got the idea that character interaction equate to character development, but I guess just listening to pointless filler dialogue gives some people a false impression that something must be going on even though nothing is really going on. This is especially noticeable in the episodes where Momonga teams up with a lower class group of adventurers to complete a quest- The show spends several episodes attempting to develop this group of nobodies by giving them cardboard personalities, but in the end it's completely pointless. They're not likable because they haven't really done anything, their interaction with Momonga is pretty bland, and the series makes it clear that they're not important to begin with. And surprise, it turns out they were completely irrelevant. Amazing character development for characters that never mattered with pointless, drawn-out character interaction that did nothing for everyone in the cast.

If all that wasn't enough, the series doesn't even tie itself up properly- The last part of the show involves one of Momonga's minions, who is just as powerful as he is, suddenly being brainwashed through the power of plot convenience because the author thought an actually threatening conflict was needed around this time in the series. Despite taking all the safety precautions with all his power previously, Momonga decides that he needs to make a point about how he's the leader, even though there was absolutely no need for him to do so when all the floor guardians already adore him unquestionably. Basically, Momonga is not very intelligent- Everything goes as he plans because of his raw power and having so many tools to work with- Not because he's actually skilled at strategizing. It also should be noted that this last part of the show was incredibly grating, because the brainwashed minion still sucks up to Momonga while still opposing him. Really, Overlord?

So to summarize what happened in this entire cour: First quarter spends its time on just introductions on characters that have no personality whatsoever outside of all sucking up to Momonga in perfect unison. Second quarter is about Momonga effortlessly beating an army of literal nobodies that won't matter for the rest of the season. Third quarter is about Momonga effortlessly beating an army of zombies and two bad guys that won't matter for the rest of the season. And finally, the last quarter is about Momonga beating a brainwashed minion only because he handicapped himself even though it would've been just as effortless because he's a poorly written character. I can't even really claim that this is a pacing issue with the show itself- This is more like a pacing issue of the novels because the show covers fair amount of the novels. Remember that statement about how MMO setting is used as nothing more than an exposition tool? Yeah, it's apparently being used as a filler as well in the novels, explaining things that nobody gives a shit about to pad out the content.

I really don't understand the praise for this series- Aside from simple aesthetic differences, this series has all the flaws that all generic light novels have. The MC is just yet another generic Stu protagonist that has next to no character motivation, the side characters are cardboard cutouts that constantly suck up to Momonga only because they were quite literally made to do so, and the storytelling is a complete mess where the MMO backdrop is only used as a convenient excuse to make way for exposition through Momonga's inner monologues. Instead of being from a perspective of a genuine evil villain, it's from a perspective of a generic MC that only looks like a villain with underlings who are about as laughably as evil as Akame ga Kill's antagonists. As an adaptation, it fails- And as for the series as a whole, it's just another generic fantasy novel with a gimmick element as a hook. There's literally nothing positive about the series, aside from the LN's art and character designs, which all just seem like a waste of talent and effort. Both of which are not present in the adaptation or the writer.

The spin-off series, Ple Ple Pleiades is actually far more entertaining. Go watch that instead.

[NO SPOILER REVIEW]
Let me start this review by stating the reason I started watching Overlord; it had an 8.14 on MAL. I figured it must be pretty damn good, considering it was the second highest rated new anime of the Summer 2015 season. Wow was I wrong to assume that.


Story: 3 - Poor
So this anime starts off with a really generic crappy MMO story, nothing amazing about it, nothing that hooks the viewer. However, you can't always judge an anime by its first few episodes. Gurren Lagann had a pretty slow beginning; as did Rokka no Yuusha and numerous ... other shows, so it's nothing to be ashamed about.

About 4 episodes in, I found myself thinking, "Oh Boy, I bet something cool's gonna happen and this show is gonna become amazing to overcome it's lackluster start!". But the story just never hooked me. Ever.

Was there a story?
It's been 10 minutes since I finished watching and already I'm beginning to wonder if there was any semblance of plot in that giant pile of garbage. But you know what? Story isn't everything. K-On!, WataMote, Gintama, all lack a straightforward and cohesive story, yet they are some of my favorite animes of all-time.


Art: 1 - Pathetic
So in terms of artistic design, it's probably the worst anime I've ever seen. I am taking into account that it's 2015, and this anime looks like a garbage-tier animation product from 2001. Seriously the original Yu-Gi-Oh looks nicer than this. The CGI is actually great 100% of the time, 10% of the time. So I guess it has that going for it, which is nice.


Sound: 3 - Poor
Was there an OST? I can't recall. I know the Opening was pretty good, and the Ending was so bad that I skipped it half the time. So all in all, sound is one of this anime's better aspects, because it makes itself scarce.


Character: 4 - Decent
I feel like if I had read the manga, the characters might have been okay. But I didn't. I watched this anime.

You know how there are a plethora of extremely generic anime male leads with the same look and personality? Brown short-medium hair, with a plain looking face, and a very bland personality, with no real character at all? Well this anime tries to cover up its extremely generic male lead by putting him in this "cool" looking MMO Undead Lich skin. But it doesn't work. He's still generic. He's still uninteresting.

The side characters all have okay aesthetic designs (besides Shalltear, who is just stupid amounts of cliche), but we don't get to know any of them on a personal level, so the design is mostly wasted.

If you are interested in the really bad acting that pornstars do in the beginning of their videos (like pretending to be a pizza guy, a mailman, a nurse, an innocent virgin schoolgirl) then you will be pleased to know that 2 of the 3 "main" female side characters emulate this form of acting every time they're on the screen. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is not quite my cup of tea, so I'm only adding 5 points to this category's rating for it.

In terms of character development, there is none. I'm trying incredibly hard to think of one example where a character is different from how they were when they were introduced; but there is no example. I'm reaching for stars that don't exist.


Enjoyment: 2 - Dreadful
I think watching this anime was the first time I seriously considered gouging my own eyeballs out. I might need some sort of third party confirmation on this; but was this show supposed to be funny? I felt like it was missing a laugh track. I didn't smile a single time during the course of the show, but I feel like it might have attempted to be funny a few times during each episode.

Again if somebody could PM me to confirm my suspicions that'd be great; because I honestly couldn't tell.


Overall: 3 - Poor
I have years of MMO experience. I regularly watch shows of the same genre. I am a straight male. I am this show's target demographic. I feel like my words have to carry some amount of weight here. And so this is my final verdict:

This show is a work of "Art"; if you consider "Art" smearing your own feces all over a wall and then furiously licking it up whilst listening to the the Barney Theme Song on loop for 5 to 6 hours.

Otaku power fantasy #doesitreallymatter - overlord

Overlord is the anime that was adapted from a LN which is adapted from a WN (web novel), and frankly it suffers from almost all of the problem of a WN or LN power fantasy. So your enjoyment lies entirely on whether you are the type to like a PF or the type that hates it. And I hate PF from the bottom of my heart, so this review would mostly focus on how bad a PF is.

A bit of background first, Japanese WN adapted LN usually have the problem of being a power fantasy, famous (or infamous) examples include ... SAO (though Kawahara said he would fix some of it) and Mahouka (which the author would throw a tantrum like a 5 year old every time someone says something remotely bad about his work). This trend originate from the harshness of Japanese society, due to the strict system and poor economy, so people wish to escape from the suppressive feeling of their daily life. Understandable, but it makes for poor entertainment for the rest of the globe who watch their works.

Story - 3

First good point, the premise, a man becomes a skeleton overlord ruling over a lair of evil servants and try to take over the world. Man that premise seems so refreshing in a sea of mediocre works, it would be dark, exciting, awesome and etc.

And then you get trolled...

The premise is not a complete lie, but it is a lot boring than you imagined it to be. First thing that should tip you off this is a very bad PF is the fact none of the enemy poses a remote threat to Ainz and his OP servants, that right, NONE! It took the author, 4 to 5 books to introduce a character that can maybe beat one of his servants if his servant doesn't wear any armor and only throw super weak spells while this character suit up in full gear and unleashe her full might. (Man I wonder who will win....) This is the beginning, later on we would get entire arcs just so at the end of it all we could, suck Ainz's non-existent penis and see how "awesome" he is (or his servants is, but they are all his yes-man so it's the same)

This is like watching fully armed soldiers killing kindergarten students and telling you to cheer since it is an awesome fight. And it is as boring as it goes. It is conflict and competition that make a story, and since Ainz don't have a rival I guess there is no story.

Character - 3

Meet Ainz and his group of yes-man that have little in life beyond kissing his ass. There is the pretty vampire (who is totally into him), the succubus (who is totally into him), the dragon butler, the demon butler, the cute mascot twin night elves, the big bug thing, a group of maids, and a bunch of other minions who are not important enough to get a lot of screen time. And all of them are loyal to the core (with little other purpose in life), which fixes the problem of possible betrayal that every other dark lord need to face. Yep life is sweet for Ainz beyond the fact he doesn't have a penis.

Ainz for all of his amazing Powers and other things, is a beta pussy harem protagonist with the new "how to be a emotionless robot" input that came from Tatsuya and the MC of AZ (the egg guy). Two wrong doesn't make a right, and beyond his appearance, Ainz have little separating him from the pool of mediocre MCs.

The guardians of the floor and by extension all the other servants serve only as his yes-man, with little personality beyond that. Every time they show some individuality, it goes "nope I should be a slave, fuck personality, lol". Ainz is this thing that is completely blocking their development, which is a shame, cause they would make much more entertaining MC than he would. And before you ask, NO, quirks are not personality, they are quirky, but still 2 or 1-dimensional.

The other characters serve as jobbers and ants to die or gaze in awe at Ainz, with little influence on the plot if any at all.

Art, sound- 9, 7
Don't really care but it is madhouse, so good job for them.

Overall - 3
I did a review for the novel as well, and I hold my view from back then, it is a decent PF, I just hate PF and think it is cancer of novels. It's like a blowjob, empty pleasure, and that is all it ever will be.

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

Hanging out in the front of Ironforge. Karazhan runs. The snowy hills of Northrend. World of Warcraft is not just a game, it is its own, complete world. Beasts to slay, treasure to find, and quests to complete. Dailies for gold. Instances for gear. Fishing for fun. There is so much to do that it more or less became my second life for a sizeable chunk of my teenage years. After going to school, chatting with friends, and taking care of what needed to be done in the real world, I would hop onto the computer ... and become someone that was not technically me but might as well have been.

That sounds bonkers, but it is the truth. The amount of time, the resources, and the effort I sunk into that game were enough to make my avatar a natural extension of myself. Of course, I did not don armor, I did not ride an undead horse, and I did not have a gray beard, but I shaped my character into the kind of person I saw myself to be.

I was always big on questing. I loved going to the different countries like Stranglethorn Vale and Tanaris, searching high and low for those distinctive yellow exclamation marks above Hemet Nesingwary or the Goblins of the desert. I will never forget, for as long as I live, how I was one of the earliest players (within the first year or so) to earn the “Insane in the Membrane” achievement before it was nerfed. The requirements were being near or at “Exalted” reputation for some of the most obscure factions. Ones like Darkmoon Faire, which needed thousands of gold and cards, and Ravenholdt, which needed me to make a brand new “Rogue” class character specifically tooled to steal over 2000 junkboxes from enemies. Getting the “Feat of Strength” took months, but it was worth it.

The tedious work earned me a sweet new title of “the Insane” next to my character’s name. But that was not what ultimately made the game worthwhile. What made World of Warcraft worthwhile were the people around me. The guild I was a part of, my brother going with me to get some levels, and the various friends I made throughout my time in the Eastern Kingdoms is something that I will always hold dear. The game is way too addictive and way too much of a time-sink. And the game was not always smiles. But the memories I have of the game and the people I played alongside are and will only ever be positive.

Overlord gets at the same notion, how the past, while no longer with us, never truly leaves. However, unlike my time in World of Warcraft, Overlord is not all positivity.

STORY

Unfortunately for Overlord, its narrative is somewhat sloppy in its execution. Plot lines are unresolved, entire areas are ignored, and its overall purpose is lacking. Often relying on the same trope – that Ainz Ooal Gown is impossibly strong – the show stops itself from doing much of anything else, severely hampering the experience.

The anime has essentially three arcs: the opening arc, the undead arc, and the Shalltear arc. The beginning arc is mostly setup. Characters are introduced, parts of the world are explained, and Ainz Ooal Gown’s absolutely overpowered self is made known. Nothing wrong exists at this point since the anime is simply gearing itself for the rest of the season.

The problems start with the second arc. First, the anime moves away from the literal home base of Nazarick. This would be fine but the show introduces and works with another new character (Nabel) rather than using the already-established and yet-to-be used rest of the cast like Albedo, Cocytus, and Demiurge. Second, the anime then continues to introduce more people, like a bunch of random adventurers and the protector of the forest, that further detract from what the anime provided earlier. Third, and worse still, these adventurers are killed and the protector of the forest is hardly referenced again, meaning their inclusion means little in the grand scheme of things. Fourth and furthermore, simple tactics like explaining more of the world – how the magic works, the various factions, and so on – and not fully showing specific moments – the assassin attacking the adventurers, what happened immediately after saving the alchemist’s grandson, and so on – create holes in the narrative that stop the narrative from staying afloat. The point of this arc is to extend Ainz Ooal Gown’s reputation further, in order to attract attention and gain fame. But because the following, final arc does not build off of what happened in the second arc, the plot comes off as directionless. Having this problem already occur between the first and the second, and then having it occur again between the second and the third, disjoints the narrative, thereby ruining the tale Overlord is telling.

This third arc, featuring Shalltear’s “betrayal,” does not stop Overlord’s downward trend. Disregarding the shift from spreading reputation to saving Shalltear, the plot introduces another new character (that is used only once), the background forces-at-work are very briefly alluded to (while still making next to no sense), and the outcome effectively returned everything to how it was before the debacle (meaning it was a diversion that minimally affected the narrative). All the while, the rest of the cast is still underutilized, the world is still unmapped, and the previous plot points – like the original general he helped and the need for more reputation – are forgotten.

The cause for these dilemmas: Ainz Ooal Gown. More specifically, it is his elite status that causes the narrative to tumble over itself. Interestingly, the point of the show is the overpowered-ness. Watching him wreck a group’s trump card with just his finger. Seeing him literally hug a woman until her insides explode. Witnessing him going through legendary weapon after legendary weapon. The anime always has to showcase him in his ridiculously unfair state but doing so takes away from the rest of the anime. He is super-strong, so the rest of the cast is unneeded and thus is not shown. He is super-smart, so going into detail about the world and the magic is pointless for him. He is super-awesome, so diverting attention to other plot lines that do not involve his esteemed abilities would ruin the magic. Paradoxically, the anime’s biggest strength is also its biggest weakness.

Weakness continues in Overlord’s shoddy attempt at creating a theme. Throughout the season, there are distinct moments of reminiscing. Ainz Ooal Gown has recollections of the past, he feels longing when trekking with the random group of adventurers, and near the end he clearly wishes for his old comrades to still be with him now. The show is trying to get at the notion that nothing lasts forever. Life eventually moves forward, people come and go, no matter how much one wants it otherwise. The problem, though, is that he is still there, he is still lasting. He is performing the same role – leader of a guild – as he has always done. In essence, he wants the old days back. But when so little is given about his past escapades let alone his past comrades, this theme, of cherishing what once was yet looking forward at what is to come, loses value.

A potential argument in favor of this theme is that foregoing the past is difficult. It is not easy letting go when those days gone by were so memorable. However the anime never makes this type of thinking clear. For example, there is a what-should-be tender moment where his lackeys invite him to berate Shalltear, the purpose being to get him standing and moving forward. But the reversal of authority in that scene – where his followers, especially Albedo, “help” him – is too contrasting with the entire rest of the season’s “Ainz Ooal Gown is the greatest” motif. Another example is his reaction to the death of the random adventurers. Initially he is more annoyed than caring since they were tools to further his reputation. But his offhand comment calling himself a “hypocrite” makes it confusing since forward movement is seemingly made but then immediately taken back. Beyond these moments, and perhaps more of a problem, is that the show rarely explores this theme to begin with. Again, since the anime is determined to push the overarching, overpowered idea to the front, it never places aside adequate time to talk about or investigate this theme. Thus, what is given are these minor moments that, when compared to the rest of the anime, make up a very small and therefore inconsequential portion.

What does make up the “rest of the anime”? Overlord includes a nice amount of action sequences in the form of dragon battles, zombie knights, and vampire warriors. Other scenes focus on “ecchi” and comedy, sometimes both. For instance, Albedo straddling a body pillow that has Ainz Ooal Gowns’ face on it is both sexy and hilarious. These sequences would seem to get repetitive considering that these and the previously investigated events surrounding them have little substance. But because the outcome is already known – that Ainz Ooal Gown will decimate whosoever stands before him or will effortlessly command them – that the anime gains an alluring quality. The anime becomes less about seeing where it ends up and more about how it gets there. The awe of the passersby, the utter annihilation of foes, and the complete servitude of minions is something that is easy to revel in, and since the show achieves these effects through its regular happenings, the anime likewise engrosses the audience on a regular basis.

Granted, Overlord is not a complete tale, meaning it is unfair for the audience to expect the narrative to be wholly fulfilling. Still, the anime’s need to lean on the same, overpowered trope hurts where it should help.

ANIMATION

Overlord’s art is similarly lacking in appeal. This is mostly due to the bland backgrounds that the show incorporates for most of its scenes. To be fair, the show is dark in tone so the artistic direction likewise follows this pattern. Gloomy woods, haunting caverns, and gothic interiors are common but quickly become repetitive. Especially so when the lighting is constantly dreary, making each location the same as the next. The anime can switch it up now and again – a sandy plain, a weathered road, a view from way up high, and so on – but these moments are few and far between.

However, the anime can pick up its artistic direction when it chooses. Camera shots, like a decapitated head seeing its own body as it floats through the air or viewing the world through Shalltear’s eyes while she is in her ravenous state demonstrate the show’s ability for flair. Other moments, like a black hole evaporating an archangel or Nabel squaring off against some skeletal dragons push the boundaries of the anime’s lighting, action, and detail. Furthermore, the CG elements – like the death knight near the beginning and the ogres near the middle – are not overly obtrusive in their presentation, meaning they do not distract the audience when they do appear on-screen, keeping attention on the aforementioned pizzazz.

Pizzazz of the fight choreography, however, is often subpar. The reason, per usual, is the overpowered nature of the characters involved. Nearly everything takes one hit. To put it differently, these are not so much skirmishes as they are one-sided romps. Little time for extensive or prolonged fights is had, and the only one that can call itself thus – the fight between Ainz Ooal Gown and Shalltear – is mostly magical, meaning the two of them stand around for roughly the majority of the duel.

Actual animation remains about average throughout the experience. Ainz Ooal Gown in particular barely moves. He is a skeleton, so his skull, jaw, and other body parts rarely jostle. When he does move, his actions are often choppy, lessening his overall impact. Once again, there are exceptions: many of the fights feature explosions, ruffling robes, and sword dances that elevate the animation considerably. Yet these, like the art, are not frequent, with the majority of the show resting rather than moving. Facial expressions sporadically increase in quality from time to time, with incredulity, scorn, and anger plastered across faces for the given situation. However hair swaying and other minute details are generally missing, a trade-off for the higher detail placed on the characters and their designs.

This is not an understatement: the character designs are quite detailed. Ainz Ooal Gown (he is always the odd-man-out) sees the most, his black, yellow, and purple robe, his myriad of rings, and his immaculate, golden wizard’s staff portray him as the king that he is. The contours on his skull, as well as his black-and-red eyes, maintain his demonic disposition. The rest of the cast, while not as detailed, are still very imaginative. Albedo’s normal attire – a pure white dress, devil horns, and black angel wings on the small of her back – contrasts with her dark brown and concealing battle armor. Cocytus’s teal carapace matches his bug-like form. And Shalltear’s gothic gown, umbrella, and ribbons, each mired in purple and red, highlight her pale skin well. Unfortunately, while the designs are elaborate, they do not have much value in terms of symbolism or representation. In other words, they are more for show rather than for expounding further on the characters.

CHARACTERS

Arguably Overlord’s weakest aspect are the characters that inhabit Nazarick and the surrounding area.

It is very difficult to talk about Overlord’s characters. They all worship Ainz Ooal Gown. They all hate humans. They all hold strength of immeasurable magnitude. Therefore, at a surface level, they are identical to one another. Digging deeper, the cast does have character traits that separate them. Albedo would literally do anything for her master, her love for him unable to be matched by anyone ever. Cocytus has dreams of being an “Uncle.” Shalltear is a vampire who pads her bra to give her a larger bust. This list of characterizations goes on. The problem, though, is that many of characters go unused. Yes, Albedo’s unfathomable love for Ainz Ooal Gown reoccurs indefinitely, as do some of the other known traits of the servants. But since the anime spends so much time away from the main group, the consequence is that nothing else is known about them. A huge issue, to say the least, because the characters turn from being people into being slots to fill. This speaks nothing of the development of the Albedo and the rest which, understandably, is nonexistent. Understandable since, if the bare minimum of characterizations were provided, then development of any kind will not occur. Devil’s advocates would argue that, as it was with the story, the incompleteness of the overall tale obviously infers that the cast would not undergo extensive development at this point. However, unlike the story, where attempts at constructing a coherent adventure are apparent, the anime never does the same for its characters.

Less important side characters exist, such as Enri (the village girl), Ninya (the girl posing as a boy in the random adventurers’ group), and Clementine (the assassin who is hugged to death). But, once again, very little is given or known about them outside of the offhand comments they or those around them make. Enri has a younger sister and is loved by Nfirea, and that is it. Ninya seems to have lost her older sister and fights to protect the land, and that is it. Clementine is demented and cocky, and that is it. Hyperboles, but so little is given outside of these facts and so little time is spent on these characters that these types of generalizations are warranted. Here, the argument is that these people are so inconsequential that they are practically pointless compared not just to the rest of the cast but to the entire series.

This is true; Enri’s romance, Ninya’s backstory, and Clementine’s psychotic behavior are utilized at most once or twice, constituting “enough” for each person relative to their importance. But because they are unimportant, the purpose of their characters has no meaning besides adding superficial feelings that barely affect the viewer. A case for Ninya and her group is possible, how they mirrored (to an extent) Ainz Ooal Gown’s own, original friends, but this quickly crumbles since, due to their inconsequential status, they are neither referenced after their arc concludes nor are they used to further him or any of the other characters.

So it stands to reason that Ainz Ooal Gown, the almighty ruler and destroyer of men, requires adequate attention since everyone else around him received none. This is the final nail in the figurative coffin: he as well is a markedly weak character. Part of the problem stems from the recurring overpowered motif; Ainz Ooal Gown is so perfect that there is nothing to fix. His character has no flaws which, from a literary standpoint, is automatically an issue since without conflict he is unable to grow or change throughout the season. Taking into account that this is the whole point of his character – simply being overpowered at everything, from fighting to strategizing – the anime does try to convey the change in his personality. Before, as a human playing a video game, killing people was not real, meaning he was not attached mentally to his actions. After, having become a skeletal warlord of another world, this disconnect is still present but has manifested as a part of his personality rather than him consciously making the decision to not care. So, in the very beginning, he changes, but at no point afterward do the events affect him. He does have a split persona, one for his internal monologues and one for his external portrayal. But the former exists purely to understand what he is truly thinking and the latter is how he had always acted, meaning neither side sees noteworthy development, thereby stagnating his character from start to finish.

Still, no matter if it is Ainz Ooal Gown’s inner or outer self, the remembrance of the past is a theme that persists. Despite having complete loyalty of everyone, despite having the capability of crushing anything in his path, he still feels alone, wanting the past to come back in one form or another. His servants are on the opposite end. They know of their personal creators and they know where they came from, but they do not dwell on the past. Instead, they devote themselves to Ainz Ooal Gown. For them, what happened before should be celebrated, but still they understand that then is not now. This is interesting because of the dichotomy: the master is worried about this trivial matter while his servants are not. But once again, Ainz Ooal Gown and the rest of the cast is not expounded on enough to support this theme between the characters. Albedo and the others are rarely shown interacting with their previous masters, Shalltear having just about the only scene where this happens. As for the ultimate ruler, he likewise is barely shown interacting with this old buddies, making it hard to empathize with his feelings. The combined result is a broken link within the dichotomy, fragmenting the theme instead of unifying it. Worst still, Albedo and the others are the result of code. Therefore, their loyalty and outlook is not by choice but by circumstance, meaning their relationships are fake which in turn reduces their thematic presence.

So while the cast of Nazarick might be unbelievably strong in a physical sense, they are unbelievably weak in a writing sense.

SOUND

Overlord’s strongest area is easily the sound it uses throughout the season.

The opening theme is hard rock, but takes on a semi-spooky vibe to coincide with Ainz Ooal Gown and the tone of the anime. The rising and falling lyrics, the catchy beat, and the rapid drums work together to create an arrangement that is simply cool. The random English bits are somewhat jarring and do not mesh all too well with the song, but the piece hypes the viewer for the inevitable awesomeness that awaits.

Awesomeness such as the ending theme, which is downright wonderful. The ED, like the OP, adopts a rock or metal vibe to make the piece more aligned with the gritty and cool aura that the show gives off. However the ED, unlike the OP, has English bits whose emotion and meaning fit the Albedo-centric track well. The breathing part in the middle is weird but oddly satisfying, since it stops the song and builds it up for the final half of the piece. Alongside the strong vocalist, the background whispering, and the catchy beat, the track comes together, being filled with nothing short of “love and passion.”

While the rest of the soundtrack is not filled with as much love, it still manages to encompass the same feeling of MMORPGs and overpowered-ness that the anime thrives on. A fluty tune for the downtimes that relaxes both body and mind like a famous inn. Choirs and hard drums fill other tracks, maximizing the splendor of Ainz Ooal Gown and his battle prowess. Violins and pianos to follow the gothic feelings. Many of the tracks are steeped in gloomy sounds that heighten the dark mood while also keeping the events cloaked in a veil of mystery that improves the darkness further. Despite how atmospheric the pieces tend to be, none are particularly memorable, serving as appropriate background music and not much more.

Voice acting, however, is superb, with the majority of the cast providing stellar performances. Yumi Hara as Albedo uses a sultry voice that amplifies Albedo’s sexiness and thus her attractiveness. Satoshi Hino as Ainz Ooal Gown uses two voices, the first higher pitched and younger to match his normal self and the second lower pitched and older to match his overlord self, demonstrating his large vocal range. And a special shout-out is deserved for Aoi Yuuki as Clementine for nailing the psychotic inflection and way of speaking, making Clementine creepier in the process. Altogether, the voice actors and actresses performing so well immerses the audience, a much-needed outcome given the immersive undertones of the anime itself.

ENJOYMENT

While I find the story and the characters to be severely lacking in meaningfulness, there is one reason why I like this one so much: Albedo. She is amazing. Her sacrificial servitude, her sexual spark, and her sensual self won me over immediately. Watching her get extremely mad whenever Shalltear tried to do anything with Ainz Ooal Gown, hearing her go on and on about the clothes she made (up to five years old) for their future child together, and seeing her almost completely lose it after the enemy merely scratched her beloved was hilarious, ridiculous, and endearing. Other moments, like her screaming at the top of her lungs for receiving a ring from Ainz Ooal Gown and her “so freaking cool” line followed by her goofy grin made me love her that much more. She may not be a well-written character in the slightest, but I do not care. She makes me swoon regardless.

The rest of the cast was also fun. Cocytus’s singular moment where he gets lost in his Uncle fantasy, Nabel constantly calling the humans some variation of insect, and Shalltear believing that Ainz Ooal Gown was going to have his way with her in the middle of the throne room were all scenes that made me smile and laugh. I was therefore disappointed that they – and Albedo, of course – were not around as much as they could (and should) have been. They are an interesting bunch of characters, so not including them as much as possible made the moments when they were not nearby less exciting.

The rest of the events are actually entertaining despite them not having much substance whatsoever. It was a lot of fun watching the enemy cower in fear, unable to grasp how powerful Ainz Ooal Gown was. The death knight stabbing the captain guard over and over was gruesome but funny. Albedo deflecting the pebble back at the mage and literally exploding his head made me love Albedo even more. And Shalltear going berserk in her vampire form was chilling, gross, and crazy all at once. The anime definitely understands how to create scenes filled with entertainment, proving at the minimum that the show could do well when it wanted.

Overlord has prevalent problems in both its narrative and especially its characters. The art and the animation also has issues, though they are not as glaring as the first two. Still, strong music and enjoyable scenarios stop this one from immediately being put up for auction at the Stormwind Auction House.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, disjointed plot, individual arcs lack purpose, overarching theme is improperly explored, with the overpowered trope simultaneously harming and helping the narrative

Animation: Fine, a mix of boring and interesting artistic decisions, subpar fight choreography, about average actual animation, and detailed yet meaningless character designs

Characters: Terrible, the side cast is barely investigated, the minor characters are inconsequential, Ainz Ooal Gown stagnates very early, and the dichotomy between him and his servants has no foundation

Sound: Good, good OP, great ED, okay OST, above average VA performances

Enjoyment: Good, Albedo is amazing, the rest of the cast is fun though not around enough, and the overpowered action was really entertaining

Final Score: 4/10

The good reputation of this show lowers my opinion of the anime community.

Before you scroll down, let me insist I'm not turning my nose up at you. I understand you like Isekai. Even if the vast majority of these shows are potato chips, I endorse potato chips, and if you want some, I'll happily direct you to Sword Art Online, Log Horizon, Tensei Slime, Oda Nobuna no Yabou, No Game No Life, Zero no Tsukaima, etc. For the most part, every recommendation you'll see in the bottom navigation bar of these titles is also worth a weekend's entertainment.

Overlord, on the other hand, is god awful. ... Its main character isn't even a character. Momonga doesn't have identifiable traits, long-term goals, or a consistent personality. The supporting characters are slightly more developed in the sense their trait is lusting after the MC, their goal is pleasing the MC, and their personality is fawning over the MC. These supporting characters are in reality all the same character. They are dressed in different costumes to appeal to different fetishes in the promo material. (For example, you have the big tits vanilla option, the jailbait, the trap, the reverse trap, and even some beefcake for the ladies in the audience.) Again, I'm not turning my nose up at you. When I say there's nothing else to their characters, there is *nothing else* to their character. Not even being afraid of lightening, or being bad at cooking.

Overlord's story doesn't make sense. I'd go as far as to say Overlord doesn't have a story. After being transported to another world, the main character spends the season undercover to quietly scout information about his new surroundings. And yet he conspicuously obliterates every legendary enemy he finds in his path to "spread his name" while undercover. So is he trying to be stealthy, or is he trying to be ostentatious? I don't know. The writer doesn't know. But the plot kills some NPCs to remind you the show is supposed to be edgy.

As for its setting, Overlord doesn't have one. I have no sense of the lore or politics of this universe. Overlord's world is less developed than the most by-the-numbers fantasy setting I've experienced in any medium.

So, here's your tally. Overlord has no characters. Overlord has no story. Overlord has no setting. This show is garbage. If you're looking for an evil protagonist isekai, *Saga of Tanya the Evil* is infinitely more worth your time.

How does this happen?

How can a series with so much potential just roll over and die, failing to achieve even the basic level of its premise?

Welcome to Overlord, the master at poor writing, completely soulless characters , gratuitous CG and lacking sound.

Where does Overlord fail? Does it have any redeeming qualities? Let's find out!

Story: Overlord sells itself as a story about a evil mastermind trying to cement his legacy. The lead character, Momonga, is a computer-gamer turned trapped dictator who wants to "learn" about the world around him and how its different from the game he used to know. The story is made up ... of small little arcs that have little to do with each other and feel more like side quests than anything. However, unlike other episodic series, Overlord shows you none of the culture of the world, none of its vivacity, and instead gives you a tour of a hollow, pre-made shell of a fantasy world. Along the way, viewers get complementary exposition dumps, random game terms and long strings of dialogue that succeed at only taking up precious air-time, all free of charge!

There is no meaningful conclusion, no real progress in the story. Furthermore, due to the sheer difference of power between Momonga's team and their foes, there isn't even any tension in the battle scenes. They (Momonga's band and their foes) just whip magic/skills at each other until one side gives up in the face of the undead might of Momonga's team.

What the show does succeed at (barely) is portraying a feeling a loneliness within Momonga. Being trapped in a game all by one's self should be a harrowing experience and the very few moments I believe Overlord got it right was when I saw the cracks in Momonga's ice-cold exterior and saw the human underneath...of course, the show never does anything meaningful with that and that possible character development is just conveniently forgotten.

Art: CG has always had a bad rap when it comes to anime and Overlord is a prime example of CG done...well, decently. The CG skeleton guards and dragons were not actually that bad, but the CG soldiers, on the other hand, are jarring against the drawn landscapes, which, by the way, don't show much variety. Iconic set pieces are extinct in the world of Overlord. Prepare for forests, forests and more forests. Oh wait, you like graveyards? We got you covered! How about castles? Castles IN your Graveyards? Graveyards IN your Castles? Whew. So many choices!

But seriously, the only aesthetically good part of the series are the character designs for Albedo and Momonga. Everything else is...well, empty. The animation is sub-par to downright ugly at times, even.

Sound: OP? Unremarkable. ED? Meh. BGM? What BGM? I literally took no notice of it. I actually tried to listen for it a few times near the end, but between all the dialogue, it got kind of drowned out. The voice acting was okay, but with subs, that shouldn't be a problem in the first place. The only character who I thought had an exceptional VA was Clementine, a minor villain.

Character: There is a massive cast although the majority of Momonga's grunts hardly get screen time for the important bits. Oh, you get Albedo. Tons of Albedo. Her and her obsession with the big bony MC himself...and that's all you really get from her. Oh, and everyone on his team hates humans. Why? Because they were made that way. Not exactly a compelling reason, is it? What do you really know about Nabe? Cocytous? Shaltear? Probably not much more other than their first, generic impressions, huh?

Behind the clunky, forced interactions of the various characters, unexplained backstories and other holes is one of the most empty cast of characters you'll ever see in an anime. You know they're loyal? And? What are their roles? What do they do? Some of them are on screen enough that one would think they'd development some how, but nope. It's like they're on a loop. "I love you, Momonga-sama!" "I hate humans!" "Momonga-sama is so powerful!" Seriously? Is that ALL they can say? They can't even pull of their generic roles with finesse. The filler girls from SAO had more characterization than that.

Enjoyment: Looking back, other than for a decent first episode, it's hard to recommend this series to anyone. The characters are completely hollow, the story is an clustered mess of generic spirit, the art and sound are barely decent and the premise itself does not come to fruition.

Inferno Cop was one thing, but Jesus Christ, how did this show even get the green light for production? That's about 6 hours of my life I will never get back.

I cannot, in good confidence, give this anime anything higher than a 3/10. It is a borderline failure as both an original work and even as a clone of SAO, which looks like ambrosia compared to this seething pile of sewage. Thank goodness it at least looks and sounds passable or I'd give it a 2.

All I can say is this: If you're looking for an evil mastermind, look no further than the staff behind this show. They're out to waste precious minutes of your life, one pathetic episode at time.

Starts out semi-promising but goes literally nowhere. There is no coherent narrative, and the main character is annoying with no real drive. Each story-line you go "wow! Maybe this will actually go somewhere!?" Just to realize that you could of just skipped it and nothing would of changed. Most of the episodes seem to be about sucking up to the MC.

I dropped this somewhere in season 2, the first season is tolerable. The second is just crap. I only review the first season though cause honestly that's what people look at. I only watched it that far because for some reason this show generated hype.

Can ... we get a tag for cringe harem girls? That should be a tag.

I'm gonna be totally honest here and put it all on the table right now before I start this review: this show was basically garbage. I do not, and probably will not ever understand the hype and critical success that this anime got. I can't even give it points for creativity since it's basically just a ripoff of SAO with a few minor changes to effectively dodge copyright. But if I'm honest, even SAO had less annoying and redundant characters than the disaster that was Overlord, and a plot that made even a smidgen more sense. I'm a huge fan of Madhouse and everything that ... it does, but this show was legitimately hard to watch from even episode 1, with a dull and poorly-paced story, pathetic and bland characters, and a protagonist that made me wonder how this author thought he was a good idea to place in the reins of narration.

Story: 3
Let's start off with a bang, rating the story at 3. It revolves around Momonga, the fictitious and other-worldly persona of our protagonist, who we scarcely are ever reminded of throughout the plot of this trainwreck. Momonga is caught inside of a game he played with some friends after it is unfortunately shut down. That is really the only explanation we get as to why he is stuck in the game, and even that makes no sense whatsoever. So right off the bat we have a huge plot hole that leaves a lot to be desired, but hey, not very many shows can accomplish it all.
Momonga longs to get out of the game and return to the real world, so he decides that if there are any other people like him left in the game, maybe getting his name out there will help them find a solution. He gets caught in a lot of side-quests along the way, which is pretty realistic to how MMORPGs can be sometimes, admittedly. But some time between episode 1 and episode 13, something goes horribly wrong. The story takes no real direction and gets no real antagonist or major plot arc. Any villain is easily outsmarted and out-strengthened by Momonga and his posse, making all the major battles feel so flat it's like they were just there to blow some time. We're introduced to villains that look like they could be strong and foreboding, but they never get any actual time to show their stuff before they're blown to pieces, so we never know exactly how strong Momonga or the villains are.
A lot of people compared this show to One Punch Man on the basis that they had very similar premises and plots. And this is true, but the difference of quality in the two shows is extremely noticeable, just by they way they are executed. OPM never takes itself too seriously, and our overpowered protagonist is actually bored with the power that he has. His goal is to find a real challenge, and when one potentially comes in its last major arc, it turns out he was just sympathizing with his enemy and really could punch him into the sun at any given time. In addition, Saitama just looks goofy, so the show is meant to immediately come across as almost parodic. This makes the emotional or awesome moments just that much more impressive. OPM's central conflict revolves around the fact that nobody notices the amazing stuff that Saitama does, which is jarringly different from the way everybody just kisses Momonga's ass the entire show. In contrast, Overlord takes itself far too seriously, considering Momonga suffers the exact same symptoms as OPM's Saitama. However, Momonga continually serves as internal exposition, and leaves little to the actual plot or other characters, or even the viewer's own intuition. Momonga doesn't give us time to think or breathe before he's doing something new (and usually extremely effective), and it makes you wonder how this guy was ever just a normal dude. He possesses crazy strategic advantages over his enemies, which is strange even for an avid RPG player.
I could get into all the little plot holes and issues that this show presented, but a lot of my issue lies within other areas as well, and saying everything here could cause potential spoilers.
In addition to everything stated above wrong with the plot, Overlord uses the fact that it's an RPG as a scapegoat for a lot of the shit it pulls. If it weren't for a few details of the show and its exposition, it would be easy to forget that it's all a game. That is, without Momonga reminding the viewer of it in his head every 5 goddamn minutes. It uses its game-based setting to excuse its shitty background character designs, lazy character writing, and overall poor story structure throughout the entire show.

Art: 9
Not gonna lie, Madhouse (very briefly) delivered a lot of beautiful visuals with Overlord. The character designs are all so unique and diverse, and the animation was pretty good for the first few episodes. The quality significantly drops over the course of the show, but it keeps its interesting color schemes and awesome designs all throughout. The background characters are all pretty boring-looking and flat, but I'll leave that to the fact that it is an RPG and most NPCs are just copy-pastes of all the other ones.

Sound: 4
The OST for this show was pretty much dreadful, with a lot of jarring music that just did not fit the scenes and atmosphere I'm sure it intended. Besides that, the voice acting was overall pretty flat as well, while the OP and ED were good to a certain extent. The OP was extremely generic, full of bad CG skeletons and blocky transitions. In its defense, the song was pretty damn catchy. The ED was also horribly simplistic, with just a lot of blinding, creepy shots of Albedo (arguably the most annoying female character in anime) and, while the song in the ED was also pretty catchy, it just didn't fit the tone of the rest of the show, nor Albedo as a character. I'm sure they intended for her to be creepy and edgy, but everything she did in the end just turned out embarrassing and comically obnoxious. I was either facepalming or laughing at the stupidity of her writing. Overall, the only thing that brought this OST up from a 1 to a 4 was the fact that the OP and ED were catchy.

Character: 1
I would give this a 0 if I could. Easily some of the worst-written characters in anime came from Overlord. I could say so much, but let's start with the protagonist, Momonga.
Momonga is the flattest, least dynamic MC I have seen in any anime. And, yes, I did watch SAO. Kirito was better somehow. Momonga just seemed to know EVERYTHING and was able to do EVERYTHING and he was idolized to the point that it made me sick and bored as hell to keep watching. He left no room for competition or a proper fight, and for a guy that's supposed to be evil, he really only kills the bad guys or characters that are just so unlikeable you don't care if they kill him or if he kills them. His moral compass is all over the place, as he only seems to keep the peaceful NPCs around for information or for spreading his name. I get it, he wants to go home and these NPCs can help him. But he's also supposed to be a human, so you'd think he'd show a little more compassion or anger or SOMETHING besides just what you'd expect any fantasy overlord to be. He holds no value as a protagonist, or as a character in general that we want to follow for 13 episodes. He is basically any generic game-based, light novel adaptation anime protagonist except now he's a ~~skeleton~~ ooh.
His posse consists of a bunch of people that are absolutely crazy for him. That's it. That's the extent of their characters. They are just so horribly hard to watch, and you'd think that they'd eventually gain their own personalities as time goes on and become more dynamic as they go on. Nah. Instead, we just get some weird brainwashing (for REASONS that are not explained) that is supposed to turn them into antagonists for Momonga to defeat and have remorse over fighting, but instead they still fall over their feet worshiping him. Albedo is the worst of it, as she is literally programmed to be horribly in love with him. She gets in his way and never listens to his orders, and is unlikeable as a character, love interest, or anything else she may have been intended to be. These characters never change in any direction and hardly have any personalities outside of, "I love u momonga please let me lick the ground you walked on." This is another thing that the show tries to excuse with the fact that it's a game, but if I'm honest, that is no excuse for shitty writing. They could have at least made Momonga a bit more interesting, but nope, that takes too much effort and they just want to make some money selling off sexy Albedo body pillows to gross neckbeard otakus.
When the show introduces new characters/NPCs and gives them background and plot relevance, it kills them off just for the sake of doing so. However, the general atmosphere of this show and how it lays out its extremely one-dimensional and flat characters makes it hard to feel emotional when they die, even with the show constantly pushing it into your face and saying, "HERE, BE SAD, IT WAS A SAD SCENE!" The "emotional" music and colors it uses clash heavily with Momonga, who treats everyone he meets as either necessary for his plans or something to ignore or kill.
The first major villain you ever meet has her own arc for a few episodes (rather late into the show, might I add) before she is discarded just like all the other minor villains. She doesn't seem to mean much to the plot or Momonga and in general just feels like a waste of time and money, even if her premise and design was pretty cool. The only other threat to Momonga would be when his subordinate gets brainwashed, but even that doesn't go very far since she still would die for him at any given moment even when she's supposed to be evil.

Enjoyment and overall: 2-3
I pretty much only sat through all 13 episodes of this just so I could tell people how bad it was. Once I got around to the first major antagonist, I knew there was no way this show could redeem itself from its trainwreck of a beginning. Don't waste your time with this show, no matter how high it's rated or how many people say, "well the art is pretty!" There's a million other shows that have done this concept way better than Overlord could've ever hoped to do, so go and find those instead.

Low effort trash. From the opening scene, this anime felt like something written by an untalented self published writer. The dialogue is heavy-handed and clumsy, the central character is extremely overpowered and invincible, the overt haram theme is out of place, the characters are severely underdeveloped and one-dimensional, and every problem which arises is summarily dealt away with a heavy application of plot armor. The animation leaves a lot to be desired, with computer generated content jarringly out of place. I suppose I could see a preteen enjoying this anime, although the sexual themes and gore put it squarely out of the appropriate realm for ... that audience. I do not understand how this received more than a single-season, but here we are.

I've never understood the Overlords appealing. Nothing is really good here.

The story sucks, it's an SAO or Log Horizon rip-off without explanation (at least in SAO we get information about why are inside a game)
has one of the worst CGI ever made. Dragons, skeletons, and gold look like bad models of a ps1 game.
The characters are a bunch of copy-paste
Albedo is disgusting

The only appealing is that the character is a kind of villain in an isekai but Tanya did the same a lot better and had better production values.

In short, just skip this or at least just hear the op song. It's so good ... .

I wanted to begin without breaking the whole spoiler. First of all. Its a MADHOUSE Studios, legendary studios which develop anime such as Death Note, One Punch Man, Iron Man the Animation, Parasyte, and so on. But this anime, you can say its a downfall and its finest.

Like storylines, it almost related to Sword Art Online related, a Person stuck in a whole game and he had to spend his life in his Guild, and learn what he can do on outside his guild. And I like how the Anime idea was, Evil helping people, even though it was Necromancer class. The anime slowly starts ... getting pumped-up then declined because the anime have less plot ideas than it shows, and the show seems demanding 24+ episodes instead of 13 Episodes.

Character design was nice, such as Momonga, but only Momonga a.k.a Ains Ooal Gown makes its appearance too well. Side character such as his minions NPC's, Narberal Gamma, Shalltear Bloodfallen, are the only character focused in the anime. Others are underutilized. I wish they have more story detail and battle with Albedo, I mean seriously. She's like the first Side Character but only showned as a fan-services big breast girl which is love-stuck with Momonga.

Art and sound design was pretty nice and colorful, only certain parts of art design kinda less good, such as episode 11 - 13 episode. I`m not sure.

Fighting seems great but I think the Magic fight is very underwhelming bland compared to actual sword-fight. But this is just my opinions.

Overall, Its a Decent anime. I really hope they will plan for next season because it really needed for Season 2, to complete the ark of Season 1.

4/10

(Some Spoilers)

Might I say, just how surprised I am? Like I am legitimately, unimaginably surprised. I've been on an anime Binge recently specifically for shows I had been on hold for a very long time. I did watch the first 2 episodes of Overlord back when it first aired, and I did think it was pretty good, came back, it was still very good. At first, a Solid 8. But then....as I watched on..something...did not sit right...something...was wrong.....by the end of my viewing, I would give this series, a Solid 2. So what happened?

Just about everything I don't like about this series so far comes ... back to one singular thing. The fact that Ainz is being Evil AND EVIL IS BAD- No No No, I'm kidding. I'm not going down that route like others have. I have no problem if the protagonists are evil. Anyways, its Conflict. I either found every "Conflict" very boring, or very unnecessary and not worth even being a conflict. I found no tension, nothing to really keep me going "Ooooo How is he going to get himself out of this?" Obvious this is due to our casts Overpowered nature. Its clear they are all overpowered so there is no reason to even think that they could possibly lose, let alone even struggle. One of the most frustrating moments I found was in the middle of the season when Ainz and Nabe were up against those uh....whatever the old necromancer guy and the edgelord woman's names were. (Goddamned she was such an Edgelord....) I was not mad at all as Ainz was up against the Edgelord and he just crushed her. That was satisfying. It was Nabe vs. the Old guy that got me going, because for a bit, when she was up against those skeletal dragons, and we actually saw it looked like how she was struggling, for the first moment in the series, I felt tension. I felt ENTERTAINED. Finally a fight that doesn't just end in complete Overpowered Annihilatio- Oh wait nvm she was also holding back the whole time and it was just because Ainz had to give her the command to do so, then BOOP, GUY IS A PILE OF ASH! This outcome just feels....disappointing, much more disappointing than if she had just been using her Overpowered Powers from the Start of the fight. I was speechless.

There was also the conflict at the end of the season, definitely not as bad as the rest of the season by a long-shot. Might be going off topic here but, but might I say how bizarre I find it that they just spoiled Shalltear fighting Ainz in the opening? And I can easily come up with a way so that it wouldn't have spoiled something so crucial, or at least what I thought would be crucial to the series. So we see how Shalltear is wearing this epic armor during this fight, probably wouldn't be able to tell it was her if it weren't for her face just being out in the open there. Cover it up, put a mask or something there. Not only would this have not given away that for whatever reason Shalltear would fight Ainz, but it would have enhanced the lead up to when it looks like Ainz is actually putting some sort of effort into an actual fight. After all leading up to it, Ainz has had to use little to no effort in a fight. But thats all just being nitpicky I guess. I did find Shalltear and Ainz fighting to be interesting, and I was wondering, "Ooo what happens, Shalltear betrays Ainz and the others? They have a falling out? What reason could it possibly be-" Its mind control....ok got it....And even as she is mind controlled Shalltear will still praise Ainz as she tries to kill him. Thats...cool I guess?

Now on the topic of them being too overpowered. I do like my overpowered characters. One Punch Man being a great example, the series itself is about just how broken the Main Character is, I would probably say the same about Overlord, yet I still find that aspect about Overlord being the reason I despise it so much. I think it could be due to One Punch Man's Overpowered aspect being used in a more comedic sense than Overlord. However I have seen people argue that Overlord is actually a Black Comedy, yet I never found any of it entertaining or comedic, even though, I also like my fair share of black comedy.

Ok so maybe its because its an Isekai MMO type of anime? Well, no again, because I also love Isekai, and even if they aren't good, I could usually find something that always entertained me throughout them, whether it be something stupid or.....stupid.

I also find the lack of Character and Motivation incredibly dull. Ainz is the only one who has any motivation I can really decipher. He wants to gather information on the world, and spread his name in order to catch the attention of possible other players who got trapped just like him. Side note I'd like to point out something I found confusing with this motivation in mind, back when he first joined the guild and was discussing their money situation with Nabe, he talked about how they couldn't use the currency they had from the MMO world, because for one its not their world's currency, which is fine, but also it would "Give away that they are from [Insert the Name of the MMO world that I can't spell] to any possible players" I find this strange because, well, I thought thats what he wanted to do, so either I am incredibly mistaken on what he meant, or even Ainz has no clue what his actual motivations are. Does he want to find other players or not? Is he afraid or other players because they might be just if not as strong as him? IDK anymore. Why does he fight Shalltear towards the end even though they could easily defeat her with all of them in sheer numbers and power, seeing how they will revive her either way? Idk can't be to prove himself able to rule them because by default they're characters were literally written by him and his Guild buddies to always be loyal to them. I could be wrong but thats how they all make it seem.

The other characters, mainly Ainz's subordinates, during the beginning, I really did love their characters. Hell I love their designs, I'll give credit where its due. But then I realized something, all they ever do is either a quip or something funny, very rarely of the time which I liked...orrrrr just sucking up to Ainz as usual, 90% of the time. This does make sense, Ainz is their lord/god after all, one of many of their "creators" from the Guild. However, it gets repetitive and annoying at times, seeing them stroke that bone...heh... Anyways I also found it disappointing that not once did I find any of them actually have their characters develop. This could be due because maybe the descriptions their creators gave them are just their entire characters set in stone until the end of time? I hope I'm wrong.

Now I know I'm gonna sound crazy, even insane, but I could legitimately think of reasons why SAO! SWORD ART FUCKING ONLINE, does what I hate about Overlord better. For one, Kirito does struggle, he has had his hard times, and his motivation, pretty obvious and standard, to get out of this game, and later to save his Waifu Pillow, (I call Asuna that because her "Character" is basically the equivalent of being a pillow). And overall, I am entertained by SAO more than Overlord.

Alright thats all I'm going to actually Praise SAO, I'll wash my mouth out with soap later. But just those few things, are done better in SAO than Overlord from what I can tell. It just boggled my mind how much I dislike, no DESPISE Overlord. I don't even think its just because of all the reasons I've given, it just...makes me want to hate it? I have no clue. This has never happened to me with a series before. Not even the series I would go so far as to say a one have made me feel this way, and remember I give Overlord a 2. Maybe my score will change as I reevaluate things if I do, I could see my self giving it a 4 tops. But either way, I just don't like it. Now all that aside, I do plan to watch both Season 2 and 3...I really do. Because I want to like this series, I want to understand it, why people like it, I really do, I have read on countless people's own takes on why they love it, and I have heard things about season 2 and 3, that may counteract any points I gave about this post on Season 1. So heres to hoping my experience with season 2 and 3 in the future, is better than season 1. Even if the series is just not for me and I do not enjoy it at all, well.....whatever.

Theres your two-cents from a guy who apparently not only just didn't like Overlord, but downright despised it and would give SAO a higher score than a 2. I will accept all forms of insults and threats regarding my "bad taste" to the following P.O. Box: [Insert Nonexistent P.O. Box]

Thank you and have a beautiful day.

*SPOILER WARNING* i might have to put some spoilers here and there for this review. I don't think those spoilers are all that relevant, but you have been warned.

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Overlord is truly a mystery to me, in that i feel like i just can't understand its appeal. For some reason a lot of people here have given it a really good score and its average is 8.04 as of now, and I just can't understand what this success comes from. I don't like saying that, but when I watched the show, the two main emotions i felt while watching were boredom from how bad it was ... to me and frustration from all the potential it wasted. Why did i feel like that about our savior Ainz Ooal Gown's tale? Let's find out in this review:

The first problem I have with this show is its visuals. Don't get me wrong, the art is decent, the characters are almost always on model when they're not in CG and some character designs are legitimately good. The issue is that the animation itself does not really move that much, and seeing almost still shots of characters talking about things i don't really care about for at least five minutes per episode without clever directing, storyboarding or art direction to back it up makes me sleepy. Most of the action scenes aren't that visually entertaining either. The action scenes in this show either lack impact or are made with jarring CGI. When i say that the action scenes lack impact, i mean that the directing can make a huge explosion look like it wasn't really strong, even though it just blew an enemy right to the shadow realm. At the beginning of the fight against a certain vampire lady in the last couple of episodes, there's literally minutes and minutes of build-up where momonga is basically buffing himself to be the most overpowered he could be, and then the payoff is an enormous laser thingy falling from the sky... that destroyed trees i guess but didn't feel like the massively destructive blast it should have been. Though i have to give credit to the final fight scene for having somewhat good animation, they almost delivered correctly on that.

The second thing that frustrates me in Overlord is the under-exploitation of almost everything the show sets up. In the first episodes, there's a couple of plot points and themes that are set up, just to remain unexploited in the rest of the series, which is a shame because if it expanded on them (and had 24 episodes to do so) the series could have been excellent. Here are a few examples of those unexploited gold mines the show had:
1. The loss of Momonga's humanity: after getting trapped in this fantasy world, momonga changes a bit. If i remember correctly, he doesn't need to eat anymore, and he feels less emotions, especially when it comes to killing people. Now if the changes in his mental state were pushed to the point where he or his servants (i'll come back to them later) would start questioning his actions, that would have been super interesting to me.
2. Momonga's servants: from my understanding, Overlord almost did the same thing as log horizon, where the game's NPCs gained a personality and a backstory. Some of those NPCs are what is, for my money, the most underexploited element of the whole show: the servants. A lot of them seem like they would be awesome if they were to fight, and they seriously need some character development. Most of their designs are at least really good and seeing characters like cocytus, sebas or demiurge get a good fight scene would give me the hardest of all boners (especially cocytus, i wanted to love that guy but he has little to no screen time). Even Albedo could have been made into a likeable character if she had her own character arc. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if Momonga was a more interesting character and if the show had other qualities to make up for it but it doesn't.
3. Discovering the world of yggdrasil: one of the things momonga sets out to do when he gets trapped is to explore the huge world he is in to find out if there are other trapped players like him. Unfortunately, this is once again something the show fails to exploit as much as it could. The environments aren't all that interesting to look at, and while some game mechanics are rather interesting, the world building is criminally underdone.
Those are not the only frustrating underdone parts of the show, but i feel like they are some of the most important ones.

My third issue with Overlord is the protagonist himself, the one and only Ainz Ooal Gown aka Momonga-sama (or just Momonga if he doesn't want to attract too much attention)
The main problem i have with him is that i just don't understand what kind of character he's supposed to be. He is supposedly the most powerful character in the story, yet one of his servants evaluates his chances of survival for the final fight to only 30% or less.
From what i've heard that one of the main points of Momonga's character is that he acts like a villain, yet none of the things he does are that cruel. He killed Clementine whom is a lot of people's waifu and that's slightly evil i guess but that doesn't make him that much of a villain. I mean he even legitimately cares a lot about his servants and saves some people who were getting killed by random evil knights in a village.
He's supposed to have lost some of his humanity or something and then we see him getting embarrassed from times to times, mostly from albedo's sexual needs but also when he literally facepalms about the personality he gave to pandora's actor (the most entertaining character in the show to me)
What is so problematic about Momonga being a boring character is that he's one of the only, if not the only relevant appeal of the whole series

Another annoying thing is that the series kind of fails at making me care about it. Nothing about the world or characters feels like it's going to be so interesting. Yggdrasil seems at first like a stereotypical MMORPG, and unfortunately it stays that way. As soon as Momonga tells his servants to guard the different levels of his huge dungeon thing where he lives i immediately thought "oh no those cool looking characters are going to be completely irrelevant, what a shame."
The slow pacing doesn't help any of the aforementioned problems.

In the end, Overlord mostly suffers from its wasted potential. Is it a bad show? Judging from the number of people who seem to like or even love it, it's up to you. Do i recommend it? Certainly not, everything it does has been done better in a lot of shows.

Please note that this is my first review, so my writing probably isn't very good. If you disagree with this review (which is most likely the case, i may have missed a few things in the show since i didn't pay that much attention due to how boring it was), i invite you to respectfully comment on my profile about that.

Thank you for bearing my terrible writing all the way to the end of this painful review, and have a nice day, whether you believe in the almighty Ainz Ooal Gown or not.

Nothing really stands out. The characters are all one sided which I guess makes since because the are just programs on a game. There are no stakes or gravity to the story. The main character is over powered and can seemingly do no wrong. There is also no driving force to the plot, things just happen for no reason. Overall just pretty meh. The only thing that is decently interesting is the scenario of a non-human player in a virtual reality game, but anime is not really lacking in this theme.

Worth a watch if you are bored or if ... you want something playing in the background.

Overlord was an anime that I had no expectations going into and yet I was still disappointed.

Pretty much everything about Overlord is mediocre. The animation is worse than the average Madhouse anime, the music is unremarkable, and the characters are pretty uninteresting. The story isn't nearly as bad as something like sao but it isn't any better than your average shounen.

The idea of the protagonist being the villain is an interesting idea but they don't do anything very interesting with it.

All of this mediocrity plus the show consisting of mostly characters standing around talking lead to this being an pretty boring anime that I found ... hard to finish.

Isekai anime like Log Horizon do the trapped in a mmorpg premise so much better so I can't say I recommend watching this anime when it doesn't do anything all that special.

Spoiler free section: The writing in this show is terrible and the author is clearly a hack. The characters are totally unrealistic and only behave in evil ways so they can have the maximum shock value. The characters in this show were clearly designed by a 12 year old edgelord and behave to be as edgy as possible with no regard for their setting or personalities. Skip this show. If you want to see a well written mmo anime watch Log Horizon or The King's Avatar.

Spoiler section (not just for season 1 but some things from the following seasons as well):
The main character is a ... normal person with a boring job and no known desires to kill or torture any real people or game characters. He is the last remaining member of what was once the greatest guild in a dead mmorpg that is being shut down. He finds himself transported into another world as his game character with his guild's base and npc characters brought to life and turned into actual living and free thinking beings. At this point I loved the show, amazing setting and world building and as these characters are at max power they are all basically gods in this world (although it takes them a little while to realize that) and it is incredibly fun to see what they will do with that power.

But then things quickly go downhill. In the first interaction he has with the new world he finds himself in he decides to save a village but not resurrect the people that died in the attack before he arrived even though it is easily within his power and if he wanted he could also erase the memories of the people that died and those that saw them die so no one would know he had this power. He could make a huge difference in the lives of these innocent people but instead chooses not to for no reason other than that he doesn't feel like it. That just isn't a good enough reason. So many cool things could have come from that, maybe those memories could come back at some point/be discovered by an enemy that captures someone from the village in the future, ect. A lot of cool things could have developed from this moment but instead nothing happens just to demonstrate how uncaring the main character is. This isn't a show ruiner but it was the first red flag.

Later he accompanies an adventuring group. A group of friends that band together and go on adventures just like the friends he used to have and lost and misses dearly. This new group is all killed after the adventure and he leaves them dead. Once again he can easily revive the dead and erase memories. He has the power to stop something in the past that traumatized him from occurring again but he chooses not to. (I'm told in the light novel he looked down on the party but in the anime he was friendly enough with them so the adaptations clearly differ and it is wrong to say that he should act the same way in every adaptation even if the events play out differently. The author also agrees because the actions he takes in the anime differ in places from the actions he takes in the light novels so this is clearly not a 1:1 translation of the light novel). Someone that has lost all their friends they used to adventure with and explore a world of mystery together with should see this happening and think "I have the power of a God now and this will never happen again" and bring those dead adventurers back to life. But he doesn't. They remind him of something he lost so his reactions should either be to protect them so he can feel like he protected his friends memories or he should feel like they are a pale imitation of his relationship with his friends and get angry at them for the perceived mockery of that bond. But instead he just shrugs it off. This is the moment the show was ruined for me. I've played a dying mmorpg and lost all my friends one by one. I am a borderline sociopath so I don't give a crap about most of what happens around me. But I would spit in the face of God if it would bring back even a small part of the fun times I used to have adventuring with my friends. The way this character behaves does not fit himself or his personality at all and that is why this show is terrible.

Yes he is a sociopath so he feels no emotions but allow me to phrase it like this: If you see a random object of no use to you lying around do you break that object? Just because you don't care about something doesn't mean you have a desire to destroy and get enjoyment from it. Some people just throw away paper plates when they are done with them and don't crush them up for the thrill of crushing something just because they can. Now imagine that paper plate was a plastic plate and had a picture on it that reminded you of something special to you. It would make a lot more sense for you to clean that plate and keep it when you were done instead of snapping it in half just because you're so cool and edgy. Not caring about something isn't the same as wanting to destroy everything. This author clearly thinks being a sociopath is cool and dark and that honestly isn't the case. Mental illnesses are not cool no matter what the media wants you to think. This is just another failing on the part of the author to display anything accurately. Not his characters, not mmorpg players, and not sociopaths. Everything is just how he wants it to be to satisfy his desire to show us evil characters acting like shitheads.

At the finale of season 1 the main character needs to fight against a npc guild member under mind control (The only challenge these characters have in this world is against each other because they are the only beings even close to the power level of the main character). And you get all excited because you finally get to see a serious fight using their mmorpg spells, items, and abilities. And how does the main character win the fight? He uses cash shop items that are stupidly overpowered and break the mechanics of the game. Do you know what real mmorpg players/gamers in general hate? God damn microtransactions that break their game. Selling game breaking items/xp to make money off the corpse of your game is sickening to anyone that actually loves the game and wants to have fun in it. No real mmo player would be like "oh boy gotta show off those cash shop items in my anime and have them be the main mechanics in how this fight is won". It's terrible.

Many other things continue to happen in later seasons as well. For example:

Even if you want to argue that those earlier adventurer group he watched die should have been left for dead because he didn't care about them the same way he cared about his actual friends/guild members one npc of his guild saved a human woman in need. The person that created this npc once saved the main character in the exact same way. Is the main character touched by these actions reminding him of his cherished friend he lost that once saved his life? Nope. He instead tortures the npc, dragging him in front of him and joking about having the girl killed before bringing the girl in and ordering the npc to kill her to prove his loyalty. That is not the actions the main character should have taken based on his background and personality. Once again the author clearly only cares about making him as edgy and cool as possible. It is dumb and written terribly.

Even if you want to argue that him threatening an npc is in character you can't because he previously revived the npc he had to fight at the end of season 1 and showed great concern for her. So not only do his actions not make sense based on his personality and backstory they also don't make sense based on the things he has previously done in the show. The author is clearly a terrible hack.

Later on a village of lizardmen are attacked, they all band together and the main character sees use in keeping them alive but he still kills a bunch of the village leaders who have the strongest abilities just to prove how edgy and cool he is even though this directly goes against the reason why he decided to recruit the lizardmen in the first place.

After that his base gets invaded by adventurers looking to loot the place and he personally kills a group of them that have bonds of friendship so strong all of them agree to band together and try to hold him off so a young female member of their party can escape. As you should expect none of this reminds him of his lost friends that he cherishes so deeply. He cares nothing for their teamwork and personally kills them all, except for the girl they let escape. He orders one of the npcs to kill her instead. (In the light novel she is kept alive and tortured).

All this show does is make you care for characters by showing off how much fun and adventure they have together and how strong their bonds of friendship are before torturing and killing them to show how cool and edgy the main character is. It's a terrible show and I can't suggest skipping it strongly enough.

Now, I tried hard to watch this even though after the first five minutes or so I knew what I was getting into. Surely, I thought, something that is so highly rated couldn't be this generic and shit. Well, after about four episodes I was certain of how wrong I had been. But I still tried and even though I watched a few more episodes I was so bored and disinterested I started reading old newspapers for entertainment.

Needless to say, I consider this to be one of the most overrated shows. The art was garbage, the characters were total shit, the animation was utter trash ... as well (not what I expected from Madhouse). The story... I don't know if there even was one. Even so, if you're the sadistic power fantasy loving type, you'd enjoy this as evidenced by the obscenely high rating this show has on here.

For those who still value brain cells and would rather watch something other than torture porn, avoid this. Or better yet, try it and bring down its rating to a more accurate level (which should be around 5).

Ever wondered how the second Arc of Sword Art Online 1 would be without Asuna? No? Well bad luck, because here you go: Watch Momonga, an OP MC beeing trapped within an RPG-like world, with no actual goal and nothing that presents even the slightes challenge to him.
Also watch him contradict himself and unlike one would expect from the title: never beeing or even trying to be an actual Overlord.
If this would be an anime about an evil Lich trying to conquer the world, it would be fun. If it was another Isekai with and OP-MC who is trying to learn about the world and ... finding his place while building his mandatory harem, also nice. If it would be about someone, who find himself in a new world, has to learn the rules and faces actual challenges, all could be nice and good.

Instead watch the OP-MC, who already knows all the rules of the world, trying to progress without any actual goal, so the writers can try to give him as many contradictions as possible, to have it both ways in any way. Don't forget his love-interest sidekick, who is attractive, designed to love him and made me ask for the first time in all anime I know "Why doesn't he have sex with her?"

My main issue is the story:
We follow Momonga, a nerd who played a SAO-RPG which is about to be shut down. He is the leader of the strongest guild in the game, he himself is the strongest player, the guild still exists with OP NPC guards as well. However instead of shutting down, the game somehow transports him and his guild to another world, where he suddenly is trapped, the NPC come alife and Momonga is... just there.
Momonga finds himself in this new world and with no actual goal. The entire plot is driven by him trying to get known so he could figure out if other player are also transported there - why he wants to know that and what he is going to do once he knows? Who cares, here see him beeing OP agan. The best way to do this, seems to join a guild, try to get a high rank, while at the same time keeping a low profile. Now one might wonder: How can one try to become known as one of the strongest warriors, while also avoiding showing strength? And that is a good question, which the show quite frankly ignores. The MC will at one point try to act normal and make others think he is just a bit stronger, then he will go forth and enslave beasts considered some kind of god or fight an undead army all by himself. You know, low profile stuff.
Also while he does want to make his name known, to propably find others from the old game, he also changes his name and never mentions the name of his old guild - because that somehow helps.

So the story doesn't go anywhere and neither do the characters. The NPC are shown to having a personality designed by the guild and they are also totally OP and have pretty bland characters designs. So they don't get anywhere with a characters arc.
Neither does Momonga, of whom we don't even learn, if he considers other people in the wold as actual people or just NPC. One could think he is transforming into the actual skeleton-overlord his avatar is, because he is super easy on inoocent getting killed or even killing them himself. However when it comes to his guild, he suddenly shows emotions like shame. Which made me ask, why the heck does he have natural emotions towards characters, which he knows as actual mindless NPCs, but not towards all the other people in this new world, which he doesn't know anything about, including if they are thinking, feeling beeings?

Now we have a story that doesn't go anywhere and characters who don't develope in any way or even seem to know what they are actually thinking. Now let's look at the delivery as well. Obviously, since Momonga is not an evil Wizzard, but a RPG-player from another game, he is reacting to the world by comparing it to his old. Which means narrating about spells and monsters and levels and mechanics, so we always know, why he is superior to everything presented.
But beware, exposition-dump narration is not the worst thing, the show is offering to show us the world, no that my friend, it is pointless buffing. You know buffs? Spells people use to strengthen their stats? The new world also contains buffing-spells and everytime they are used, we have characters uttering some spells and after that, do stuff, without giving a point of referrence to understand, what has changed. As someone who knows games, one can make out what those buffs will most likely do. However without a point of referrence on how the fight would go down without the buff, this is just pointless timewasting. It is just a plattform for the writers to show they can make up names for buffs or spells in general - as we are never presented some kind of magical-system or how certain spells actually change the outcome of a fight, it doesn't have any impact.

But the worst part and which shows best at the very end (so spoilers ahead) is how the show actually tries to raise the stakes:
Since the MC and his guild are only OP-characters know, the only hard fight the MC can have, is against his own minions, which happens at the end without any buildup (because that would need character developement). To know the stakes are high, we are shown an item which is said to be super-powerfull. Oh but it doesn't work. So let's get some items which are even more powerfull. Got that? Good. Now don't bother explaining what any of them do or if they are even used in the actual fight. With that out of the way, let's also use a couple of buffs without giving any referrence on what they do, use some super-powerfull spells, which where never mentioned before and no idea how they work and ofcourse a couple of new items which do stuff and make some kind of juxtaposition but acting like they are cheap or whatever but totally usefull.
All set and done? Now tell give us more exposition on why Momonga wins this fight with some more tactics around stuff, that was never mentioned before.

And in case that finale is not worse: after the fight Momonga is known to be powerfull beyond imagination - the one thing he tried to avoid...
Oh but now we know there are others who might have some of the super-super-powerfull items, which can do "stuff" and work "somehow".

To get rid of the obvious (and least important, IMO) first, animation is a disaster. Moving on.

I dived into Overlord on a recommendation from my best friend and a dedicated anime lover who usually has a pretty good idea of quality. Going by what they said, Overlord on a first note seemed like a very wholesome idea of a guy trying to help the remaining players trapped in the now real game-world, sprinkled with the sweet bits of edginess that is our titular character. I guess I thought it was going to be a bit like Goblin Slayer, if perhaps a bit less traumatic, and ... encompassing a bit more of cliche anime tropes and lighthearted bits of comedy/drama. And if it was anything close to that, Overlord would indeed be quite a solid watch.

Alas, Overlord suffers from an age old formula that turns MCs into gods, and everyone around them into tools who serve no other purpose than to further reiterate just how gosh-darn AMAZING their master is. This too, seemed at the beginning like it could be wholesome, because the scene itself is pretty sweet and radiating a "gang getting together" vibe but sadly boiled down to nothing more than servitude.

The little hope I had for a possible romantic sub-plot, the hint of which is in the very beginning of the first episode, was immediately wiped out by the fact there no love truly involved, as much as there is shameless fanservice and lewdness which, on some other genre and some other time, might be fantastic. In this very "edgy" series, it comes of as ridiculous.

At some point, a dakimakura appears and kills all my good intentions towards world building.

It's just sad, because certain scenes in Overlord are pretty amazing. Certain bits a of otherwise terrible dialogue are pretty strong, characters are sometimes interesting. The problem is that it all comes down to that "sometimes" - Overlord is only good at very specific times, when something very specifically interesting or heavy is happening, which, on average, is three to five minutes per episode. It is simply not strong enough to carry on my interest, so the reason for why this series keeps on going remains a mystery to me.

Oh no, wait, of course, it's fantasy fulfillment.

Figures. Because in that regard, Overlord is a fucking masterpiece.

Besides a few relatable moments in the pilot episode that offer a glimpse into this classic sense of nostalgia and sentimentality that accompanies any MMORPG coming to an end, the first season can only be described as incredibly generic low fantasy Isekai. The omnipotent, god-like protagonist lacks both personality and motive, and is surrounded by a fanatical harem of underlings whose cringeworthy devotion becomes tiresome very quickly. Moreover, the protagonist is a villain in nought but appearance, fruitlessly squandering an opportunity for an interesting anti-hero. To be fair, there are some enjoyable moments. Perhaps you might watch it simply to pass ... the time. But I cannot in all honesty say this is any better than 'average'. In fact 'decent' is a stretch. There's simply nothing groundbreaking here.

Of course, someone else might arrive at a different opinion than me, or watch the series solely to explore its premise. If you are curious after reading all the polarising reviews, I wholly recommend watching at 1.5x - 2.0x speed to cope with the slow pacing.