Overlord 2 left off right where the first season did, where Ainz is now trying to find the person who mind controlled Shalltear with a World Item and in the process kinda forgot his intent of finding his friends in the new world he's been transported too.
The second season by all means actually did something that LA wanted desperately to happen in the first season, that in looking at and focusing on the Guardians especially Cocytus and Sebas, sure the first season gave us the introduction to not only Ainz and the Tomb of Nazarick members but the new world as well, this second season looks in-depth to Cocytus and Sebas through them "subjugating" or befriending the Lizardmen and the royals of the kingdom of Re-Estize (respectively) thus we get character development as well as world building throgh the Guardians interactions of the new denizens of the world Ainz has been transported into.
Cocytus deals with the Lizardmen and though he takes the backseat and we look more into the Lizardmen culture through the eyes of Zaryusu Shasha voiced by Hiroki Touchi and due to Ainz making the call to "subjugate" them and leaving it to Cocytus. Through Cocytus watch and learning of the Lizardmen as great warriors, he DOES sympathize with them but with the entire deal of subjugating them...becomes a bit of a conflict wwith Cocytus and Ainz.
Sebas does something similar but this time with royalty of Re-Estize where he befriends and helps save Tuareninya Veyron voiced by Yuu Shimamura and because of this, he gets swayed into unintentionally destroy a criminal syndicate within royalty. Sebas also gets into "conflict" with Ainz due to him needing to keep his cover as Momon and with Tuareniniya, becomes a big problem to Sebas due to his preset personality of wanting to save or protect the weak.
Albedo was and still is LA's favourite character in Overlord but Cocytus and Sebas were great characters and thanks to this second season, it only helped them even more and with some more in-depth perspectives of Ainz, in a ways the Guardians themselves are seen as an insight to Ainz's guild members and in a ways makes the Guardians rather complex for their own right, sure Shalltear gets a small stint with Brain and Albedo is behind the scenes for all her screentime while Demiurge plays more bit parts to Cocytus and Sebas' situations and a bigger part at the finale but thanks to the second season and Ainz taking the backseat until he's really needed, Cocytus and Sebas got the focus they sorely needed.
Not only that but the factions more specifically the Lizardmen and the royalty of Re-Estize really drives the plot forward in their respective arcs, the Lizardmen banning together to face against Ainz' undead army and Re-Estize's royalty trying to destroy a criminal syndicate in which it's FUNDED by the kingdom itself. For the Lizardmen, Zaryusu and Crusch Lulu voiced by Sora Amamiya are prominent players while first season characters Gazef and Brain are back but newcomers and perspective of in the roylaty side are Climb voiced by Ryota Osaka who is a non royal knight to Princess Renner voiced by Kiyono Yasuno who is the leader to the rebellion and eradication of the black spot of royalty and she too isn't who she seems...
So really both the character development and world building of this second season was a massive step up as well as stakes towards the plot, especially since Ainz is taking the bench for most of this season.
LA also does find it almost a coincidence that Cocytus was the one taking on the Lizardmen because you know Cocytus, the coldest level of hell and Lizardmen are "COLD" blooded species while Sebas has an arc with Re-Estize royalty because, you know he's a butler, so even in some thematic sense it's works out.
The animation done once again by MADHOUSE did itself consistently from the first season and yes, the CGI is still there but toned down this season as it's much more talk-heavy but the CGI used were on the undead army so LA can give the CGI a bit of grace, same CGI but at least consistent....blatantly consistent in that department.Nonetheless great backgrounding, great battles even with some of the odd but rare CGI moments and the always consistent character designs.
Voice acting is greatly expanded upon thanks to the plethora of old and new characters in this season but stand outs are Kiyono Yasuno as Princess Renner, Shigeru Chiba as Sebas, Kenta Miyake as Cocytus, Yumiri Hanamori as Evileye and Yuu Shimamura as Tuareninya. Really because this season looks in-depth to some of the minor and new cast taken centre stage, they get to shine as well. Nonetheless it's an impressive cast list and they do their worth into it, yes even the minor cast.
As always there are some flaws but more or less nitpicks and the first and most obvious one being that due to the major focus of this second season being towards Lizardmen, Re-Estize royalty, Cocytus and Sebas, many of the other Guardians especially Shalltear (thanks to the finale of the first season), Albedo, Mare, Aura and Victim voiced by Nao Touyama the newest Guardians who appeared in this season, the majority of the Pleiades maids to have little to no screentime or play bit parts much like Demiurge who DOES have some screentime thanks to Sebas but he's more or less reacting to Sebas' actions and he's got his own stuff to do as well. Aura, Mare and Albedo do stuff behind the scenes and Narberal being a satelitte character when Ainz is Momon, but to this end, LA can forgive this nitpick as this seocnd season IS focusing on Cocytus and Sebas and this IS something LA wanted in the first place and is greatly remedied with the world building of the Lizardmen and the royalty of Re-Estize having their own share of problems. Lastly would be, well yeah as much as Ainz is on the bench and is behind the scenes for most of the season, Cocytus and Sebas are STILL OP in their own right to the point that the Lizardmen and the Eight Fingers (the criminal syndicate) are NOTHING compared to them thus you can guess the outcome unless Ainz interferes.
Ainz with his ulterior motive of actually not wanting to kill but no thanks to his status and the Guardians wanting to rule the world and looking down on ALL races thus they think Ainz wants too, becomes a HUGE dilemma with Ainz and it was touched upon on the first season but this season really brings this into focus through Cocytus and Sebas and how Ainz handled the Lizardmen and Tuareninya. With how Ainz is taking over and how his appearance his shaken the order of the world itself for better or worse with how OP the Tomb of Nazarick members are and seeing more and more of Ainz' unintentional evil side even though his ulterior motive is getting more and more distance with the situations that arises in this season. It's kinda because of that that makes this kind of isekai anime rather interesting, looking at an all out anti-hero who wants to save people but his accomplices thinks otherwise and the anti-hero hero deals with the ramifications.
Overlord 2 gave what LA wanted and was by all means greatly satisfied and enjoyed this season, giving LA more character development and focus to the Guardians especially Cocytus and Sebas, great world building thanks to the extended main cast and all the working cogs of events occurring within this second season making it an intricate interesting plot of Azin unintentionally taking over the world when really he just wants to find someone from his world if at all.
What else can LA say even with all the flaws and all but "SASUGA Overlord 2", bring on the third season.
