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

Isogai, Noritomo Producer

Reviews

Jul 21, 2024

BadPsychologist

Recommended

Seasons 1-4. Overall good and worth a watch. A lot of what people bash it for misunderstands the premise. They treat the power setup as a shounen adventure type thing, when it's much more kingdom building. Still, it does have serious flaws. I'll do a concept description, then frequent critique that isn't valid, then pros, then cons, then suggestions. SPOILERS INCLUDED

The start is pretty classic, stuck in a video game as overpowered, with the direct twist being inhuman and evil, at least by appearance, and having an established base with powerful and devoted NPCs. From the beginning it's not a story directly about our protagonist's ... actions, but the plans he suggests or rather the plans his servants interpret. Many events and storylines don't include Momonga at all. While Momonga's stated motivation is finding his friends, the actual goal of Nazarick is world domination and power. Momonga is very careful about this, especially after an unknown enemy uses a world item to control a powerful member of the tomb, leaving him constantly worried, as he doesn't know what we do: no one is even close. He starts off quite human, saving a village and protecting people with no problems with death or violence, but an intact human side, ethics and care for humans. Over the series this slowly drops, mostly just as a transformation into this lich.

Things that aren't problems:
-The video game aspect explains his cateogorically different understanding of the world, his approach, and the loyalty of the guardians. Their mindless devotion to him irregardless of his traits is part of the setup, and thus not a con. Fine or even good to have.
-Guardians, Albedo especially, doesn't feel like a usual harem because he cannot act on it as a skeleton and treating them as friends' children. That means it's generally played for comedy. On the opposite end, having their wishes to be with him and have kids etc is kinda unfortunate that he can't/won't ever. Like being offered tasty food when you cannot eat.
-Him being OP is fine. It's not played for the amazement of the viewers of how amazing he is, or the great things he will overcome. He doesn't get stronger and we know from the start that he's the pinnacle of everything present.
-Animation: I don't really care considering it's more politics and conversation than actual magic fighting

Pros (in no particular order):
1) Characters: the non-human aspect means the guardians and Ains himself can have varied appearances, even if they often show a humanoid form. These are also differentiated enough. Traits beyond loving Ains stand out, such as Sebas helping people in need due to his creator's personality.
2) The empire building is the biggest joy of the show I would say. While that only explicotly becomes a theme later on, the establishing of connections and information early plays into it. Watching steps taken to take over kingdoms and establish relations is interesting, especially when the plans are good.
3) Allusions to the NPCs acting like their creators, whether Sebas or NPCs who's creators were siblings, are rare but fun and sweet.
4)Over time, it becomes sort of a running gag that his servants, especially Demiurge, always assume the most genius plans from him, and assume any good outcome was the result of great foresight, even if it was just chance or a random thing Ains did. Enemies like often share this attitude, and Ains' reaction as he pretends to have planned it while trying to inconspiciously find out what his genius plan is supposed to be, is entertaining
5)Normal people's NPCs reaction to the ridiculous power of Ains and his guardians can be fun. A simply joy of isekai, but enjoyable in reasonable doses
6) Ains is actually smart a lot of the time, and makes reasonable plans that show his understanding of the world and foresight

Cons (in no particular order):
1)Ains' motivation is weak and even annoying. His own motivation is to find his guildmates, if any are out there. For one this doesn't make sense, as he knows he was the only one that stayed online until the end. Plus, they'd spawn at Nazarick or search it out relatively quickly. As the plot moves towards Kingdom building and world domination, the occasional random insistance that he's doing this "to find other players" just gets annoying and pointless. With the lack of humans and these people as strangers, what's the point?
2) As they progress, Ains remains borderline paranoid about the enemy that used the world item, while in reality everyone else is way below him. It feels like that event was mostly there to justify him being very careful as they move on. This can get annoying.

3) Sideplots get completely dropped after resolution, which is unfortunate. The lizardmen, Nphirea's potions and most notably Sebas and his human maid completely disappear once done. That makes the arcs feel somewhat wasted, as the whole point was supposed to be things that benefit Nazarick
4) At some point we know well enough that the guardians love Ains, and some further elaboration would be nice. We get a little bit here and there, but more would be nice, especially character relationships between the guardians or even guardians and humans. Aura has a little something with Shalltear and Albedo with the princess, but it remains just touched on and everything returns to chain of command + worship ains

5) The last invasion felt stupid. In earlier seasons we had Demiurge's inside plan had 4 total benefits, which Ains smoothly asks for by saying he only guessed 3. But in general, there were politics. His dwarven interaction was good and showed much more of that. But the last invasion had horrible justification and response. The justification was this "carrot and stick" philosophy quickly introduced, but this is executed with 70 iq dictator level logic. This end approach also retroactively makes previous plans pointless.
I had hoped there was an underlying plan before it began. Either some intricate plan by demiurge, or an accidental genius by Ains. But no, they actually justfought. Pointlessly destructive, self-detrimental too.

6) Ains gets taken along for the ride with little agency: From the beginning, Ains has to act how he imagines his servants see him: an intelligent, powerful, power-hungry, expansionist, perfect and flawless overlord. This leads to him justifying mistakes or basic human decency as great schemes, which is funny and good. However, he becomes a slave to this role. And after 4 seasons, you'd think he would finally grow a bit, but he doesn't. His guardians make assumptions about his plan, and it feels like he's doing things just because the guardians think so. He still can't stand up for himself, not even to a single guardian, and establish that he disagrees with this, or that he made a mistake.He finds excuses for having some care for humans. But then occasionally it seems he shares their views.

7) The waste of Momon: originally just Ains' way into the human world, Momon quickly became a hero. He became a smart in, but the end plans just wasted him.

8) Early on, Ains actually made most plans, with his followers adding things or over-interpreting. But he himself still made intelligent moves, plans and execution. We also often knew the plans, which made seeing them unfold satisfying. Later, when Demiurge deduces a brilliant plan, Ains doesn't manage to just ask for an explanation, leaving us equally in the dark. Towards the end, it feels like he's just a powerful mage.
9) The mech suit at the end was really out of place. Nothing else anywhere was even close. The entire thing has been medieval fantasy, with no country mentioned that has advanced tech or anything.

Suggestions:
1) Give ains more agency and intelligence again, give him actual solid plans, show him as a military strategist once possible
2) Some more dynamics between a guardian or two
3) It's been long enough, give an actual competent enemy. There was some hinting at players having spawned centuries ago, so maybe a powerful guild suddenly spawns in, maybe even with many players. Now Ains and the guardians have to beat an equally leveled guild, maybe with the advantages they've built since coming here (although this does sadly remind us that his accomplishments and gains in power are basically negligable so far).

4) Ains seems to have gotten less human in his level of life killing, but some more growth that's more explicit, and doesn't feel like random variation from scene to scene, would be nice. Most notably confiding in at least 1 guardian like Demiurge, that this isn't all his plan. That would give space for both to grow and create a great dynamic.
This could also grow into a thing of: loyalty to who ains really is, vs loyalty to who the guardians picture him as. Could even delve into full fights among the guardians
5) Boost the relevance of the previously captured things: have the martial arts teachings to hamusuke work, give a guardian some martial arts (like cocytus learning them from the lizardmen as a fellow warrior), have nphireas potions become relevantly powerful, or have his dwarven trip yield relevant results



Summary: Still, 7.5/10
While my extensive complaints may seem negative, the show is still a fun watch. Only the end of s4 is a real low point for me, the rest is still fun, even with its flaws. I have the critique because the potential was/is even greater than the good it already is. Giving characters genius plans is difficult because you need to create those yourself, and international politics is complex. It's worth trying if you like the first episodes, especially if you like empire-building stories like Reincarnated as a slime. I hope it continues in a positive direction.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 20, 2024

PoisonedJack

Mixed Feelings

I can't fathom how anyone would find the premise of this story interesting: An overpowered unfair broken level 100 character gets trapped in this world and decides to pretend to be a novice adventurer, wasting his time defeating weak opponents for minimal gain when there are countless better strategies to achieve his goals. Watching this anime feels like watching an NBA player half-heartedly play against kindergartners. And fighting vs a drunk dude. The characters lack depth, the plot drags on without purpose, the storytelling is disjointed, and the character designs are unattractive and absurd.(the 2 dark elvs lolis changing outfit its disrespectful and pure fan ... service for the pedos) It's riddled with terrible CGI and poor animation, with nonsensical attack names that seem like they were chosen by a child. His followers are one-dimensional sycophants who praise his mediocre plans as brilliant. The action consists solely of beating up unknown characters with no emotional or plot development to make it engaging. This is not how to write a compelling overpowered protagonist story. The only redeeming aspect is that his transformation into a skeleton removes any ecchi appetite, although his follower harem still indulges in pointless sexual innuendos.

This story embodies all the worst elements of isekai and overpowered protagonist tropes.

Its another sword art online crap fest.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 12, 2024

slightexag

Not Recommended

I don't understand how the premise of this story would sound interesting to anyone: OP lvl999 guy gets SAO'd into a new land and then decides to role-play as a rookie adventurer, during which time he beats up weaklings for marginal benefit when there are thousands of better decisions he could make to reach his goals. This whole anime is like watching an NBA player play semi-seriously against kindergartners. There are no interesting characters, the plot is slow and pointless, the storytelling is all over the place, the art design of characters is ugly and ridiculous, it's chock full of terrible CGI and bad animation, ... an endless stream of stupid attack names that seem like they were chosen by letting a 3rd grader pick out "cool" words from a hat. All of his followers are flat cult follower boot-lickers who treat his middling IQ plans as genius. The action consists solely of face-slapping character we don't know with no emotional or plot build-up to make it enjoyable. This is not how to write an OP protagonist story. The only good part of this is that him becoming skeleton guy robs him of an appetite for ecchi, even if there are pointless sexual asides from his follower harem anyway.

Imagine all the worst qualities of isekai and OP protagonist stories and this one has them all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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