I should be talking about the story now, but... I don't know, it's a clusterfuck.
We basically have 2 halves, first one is about a questionably motivated genocide carried out by the main cast, mostly from the POV of the victims and focused on Cocytus. Not the most enjoyable narrative, but executed quite well. I have no idea how is the outcome relevant to the story in long-term, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt, at least there was an outcome... on the other hand...
The second half is about... about what, exactly? Royal intrigues? Underground crime? A simple boy unknowingly haunted by a yandere genius? Ainz doing his undercover stuff? Sebas getting game by being a badass? Demiurge being a fuckboi in all of that? Evileye being cute?...
Well, whatever it is, the pacing of the second half is all over the place. It's dragged-out, then suddenly rushed, then dragged-out even more and then again rushed to the finish. What's even worse, nothing from what I've mentioned comes to any kind of conclusion. Ainz gains some prestige, Sebas gets the kitten. Wow. That's literally it.
Not sure what I'm thinking about the general consensus that Madhouse releases tend to be polished and beautiful... I guess the animation is okay-ish, but nothing worthy of special praise.
Soundtrack is totally plain, I didn't ever notice music playing during the scenes. Nothing amazing in the VA department, either, they are all being overly melodramatic as always. OP is meh, ED is quite memorable on the other hand.
Characters are the redeeming quality of this series. Almost every single character introduced and developed in both halves of this season is to some degree likeable and/or interesting. Except for Climb (the aforementioned simple boy), that guy's only ability is to steal screentime from relevant NPCs. Considering that the show's success is heavily reliant on fanservice, the lack of Albedo and Shalltear sucks major balls, even though they are substituted by various cutiepies in their absence. Shame that we don't see much character development, too.
Even though this anime is average at best as a whole, I wasn't bored at all while watching it, didn't skip a scene. That's some alien shit. I guess the fanservice was done properly afterall.
However, I feel like they went for "low effort, high profit" kind of production, that's why I'm giving it a below average score. The source material does deserve better.
Story 3/10
Art 5/10
Sound 2/10
Characters 6/10
Enjoyment 6/10
Final 4/10
