Overlord

The final hour of the popular virtual reality game Yggdrasil has come. However, Momonga, a powerful wizard and master of the dark guild Ainz Ooal Gown, decides to spend his last few moments in the game as the servers begin to shut down. To his surprise, despite the clock having struck midnight, Momonga is still fully conscious as his character and, moreover, the non-player characters appear to have developed personalities of their own!

Confronted with this abnormal situation, Momonga commands his loyal servants to help him investigate and take control of this new world, with the hopes of figuring out what has caused this development and if there may be others in the same predicament.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Momonga Main

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Albedo Supporting

Hara, Yumi Japanese

Bloodfallen, Shalltear Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Gamma, Narberal Supporting

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Demiurge Supporting

Katou, Masayuki Japanese

Sebas Tian Supporting

Chiba, Shigeru Japanese

Pandora's Actor Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Zeta, Entoma Vasilissa Supporting

Shindou, Kei Japanese

Beta, Lupusregina Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

CZ2128 Delta Supporting

Seto, Asami Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Kikushima, Kazufumi Producer

Fukao, Satoshi Producer

Reviews

May 12, 2025

PsykoMutt

Recommended

The trend has become as recognizable as isekai- the monster/villain isekai, but this show was one of the ones that started that trend. Seeing a normal dweeby gamer thrust into the role of BBEG, and the exploration of the world through his eyes as he explores his new role is fun, and the action both active and more subtle is very fun.

That said, it does follow into some animeisms that may turn people off. Odds are, there will be one character that just rubs you the wrong way, and a dozen that you’ll wish got more screen time. Not to mention the constant usage of ... video game speak in its implementation is clumsy as hell, and takes a lot away from the immersion. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a great example of it’s niche, and worth a look.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 20, 2025

Capacocha

Mixed Feelings

I’m fairly familiar with the isekai theme, but not in the form of the main character being trapped in a game. It felt different, but not enough to notice any considerable differences between any other series. Basically, a skeleton character is unable to log out, for some unexplained reason. The real kicker is that his past life isn’t shown, which means it is largely left up to assumptions, though it would be fair to conclude that he’s “just your average guy.” The start two to three episodes are a bit slow and dense, but after that, it wasn’t anything special.

His amassment of power previously is ... not shown, and from the very get go, series portrays Momonga as a person worthy of respect. This leads to the story putting him in an awkward situation where he seems to have already “won,” which isn’t bad in itself, it just doesn’t really work in Overlord’s case. This could probably hint at something interesting happening where he would face someone more challenging than him (with him being a leader and all), though this never really happens. Rather than seeking to accomplish something, the series focuses on upholding Momonga’s reputation as an all powerful overlord by preventing himself from becoming bored. Also, the series has a lot of filler. It has quite a bit of setup where a bunch of characters discuss their plans while sitting in a singular area. This leads up to a lot of the action of the series, which is meant to display how powerful Momonga is. The main issue with this is that his opponents are much weaker than him. To summarize most of the action, at first there’s a bit of back and forth monologues, then the fighting begins, and then back to monologues again, and finally Momonga beats his opponent. Sometimes it can drag on for a bit, especially when Momonga essentially prevents himself from becoming bored by giving his opponent the illusion of a fair chance. Basically, a lot of the events felt pointless (or more positively, mindless). The series handles its less glamorized aspects more positively, that being its set up. Well, it is the first season after all, and two of the episodes are solely the exposition. The slow pacing works when it pertains to the background of the story, which helps build the series up for some good worldbuilding. Otherwise, the execution of the story is rather stale.

The characters are decent at best. The main issue with the series is that it places to much emphasis on one character while neglecting the others. The main character, Momonga, is shown to be an all-mighty overpowered ruler with undying loyalty from his subservients. His isekai transition was a bit different than I expected, so I had initially thought it would alter his motivations. However, his motivations make more logical sense given his position mostly revolve around answering the question “why?”. There wasn’t much background before the transition, but given the context with his lust for power it wouldn’t make much sense for him to wish for his return to the old world. A lot of the issues with this series rely on Momonga being boringly overpowered. Given the position he is in, practically all of his wishes are bestowed upon him with little effort. At first it was amusing, but then it became predictable when he became decadent. The reason as to why could be found with him sharing a few similarities to a hypothetical maxed level character went to the beginner level areas. Surprisingly, considering the constant fulfillment of his needs with little effort he acts in a stoic manner, which could be why the rest of the cast likes him so much. The rest of the characters only really exist to suck up to Momonga. The only one who really sticks out is the succubus, who can be prone to a few antics involving her love for him.

Overlord cuts a few corners when it comes to certain aspects of it. For example, a few scenes involve the characters seated somewhere insignificant discussing something that could easily be conveyed while moving. The amount of filler and the lack of animation makes Overlord seem like it had a low budget. Besides that, the art itself isn’t bad. A lot of the action scenes are flashy and fun to watch, regardless of practically knowing who was going to win every single time. Additionally, there’s a bit of gore to make up for the rather uninteresting nature of most of the battles, but it’s nothing too queasy enough to warrant a detailed description of it. It could be the character designs, since the color schemes and the designs being prone to a few quirks helps. Knowing that’s how character designs typically are how certain types of games usually market themselves, I like to think they were well done because of that.

Overlord is probably the most mediocre anime I’ve seen. It’s enjoyable for the sake of watching something flashy to pass the time, but besides that, it’s overall pretty forgettable. The overemphasis on Momonga’s power made a lot of the events feel meaningless. This is mostly due to the series focusing on maintaining his appearance as a leader rather than having him undergo any character development. Ergo, a lot of the series’ faults stem from the gimmick itself. Minus the main character, the rest of the characters mostly stay in the background. I’m aware of the four or so seasons now, but the first season just seems like a really long setup.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 10, 2024

chrisclem85

Not Recommended

Funny

To sum up this terrible anime its like playing world of Warcraft as horde undead just upset over little pvp in game your playing then getting friends being op player joining that world as only player than murdering real people to advance he plans but thing is he has none its never explains why as human with thoughts feelings his undead character avatar why he thinks ok killing thousands yet cant deal with gross monster girls coming onto him seems its to try and add fan service and laughs yet doesn't at all with everything else going on.

The first season he seem to have goal ... searching for his friends but that plot drops off a cliff as following seasons its not even mentioned just more OP MC winning everything nothing going wrong side/support characters basically just cheering squad never achieving or growing as MC does everything all the time his choices always work out 100% nothing backfires he never grows no one questions his choices or puts up any kind of fight nothing can hurt him.

Honestly fans of this show rave about be its from bad guy point view as if new thing in anime which isn't when asked them to plot or why he way he they cant explain as its never covered its just some nerd shut in murdering people who had nothing to do with a game he played because has power to as if that's what normal humans do. ( I mean if backstory was a nazi died in WW2 reincarnated maybe it make sense )

The ark isn't that bad until you start seeing horrible CGI effects they add just cheapens the whole thing.
Spend whole time wanting MC to die so boring op
Side characters are more endearing but air time is short and never really get to grow
Support character are worthless cheer squad/fan service
The whole show is pointless just seem to going for constant shock value rather story driven everything happens to lead into setup for MC win in quick and easy gruesome way just constant filler episodes that add nothing journey/plot just like what was build up for?

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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