Overlord is A High Fantasy anime set to an Online RPG Theme, with a large

focus on worldbuilding & exposition, & follows many of the traditions of

D&D that you've come to expect from an anime in this genre.

The Blurays are currently doing so well on amazon, that most people are

already claiming it to be anime of the year, & with Halloween creeping up on

us, why NOT review a show about spooky skeletons? I don't think it's THAT

good, but it did keep my attention over it's 12 episode run, so that has to

count for something right?

The year is 2126, & the world's most popular online RPG

is nearing the end of it's long 12 year run. With the servers about to close,

& the game at it's end, our main character momon decides to invite his

guildmates back to their base, & reminisce about old times while counting

down the hours until the game shuts down for good.


Sadly, of the 41 members of the great tomb of Nazarick, only a single person

shows up to wax nostalgic, & even he's surprised that momon has kept the place

running for so long. Suspecting he may have been the only

person who ever really cared, Momon gathers the NPCs, & leads them to the

final floor of the dungeon to wait for the time to run out.


The clock hits midnight, & To momon's surprise the game continues to run,

when the unthinkable happens. The game has come to life, & Momon is now the

skeleton character he has played as for so many years. Not only that, but

the entire tomb, & everything in it has also come to life, including the

Characters his friends helped create.


Coming to the realization that everything he once knew as a videogame has

become real, momon does what any great leader would. He panics, takes things

one step at a time, & then slowly assesses the situation as the series goes on.


Overlord brings many questions to the table that it never fully answers.

Has he really been transported to the world of the game?

Do the rules of the game still apply?

and most importantly, is he alone in this new world,

& have any of his friends also been sent there?


The first few episodes are spent introducing us to a Cadre of Monsters that

live in the tomb of nazarick.

The Twin elves mare & aura, the Buttler sebas, the Devil Demiurge,

the insect warrior cocyutus, the vampire Shalltear, the imp Albedo,

& a handful of maids, most of which we only see in passing.


Completely Loyal to momon, they all think of him as their almighty creator,

a supreme being that can do no wrong, & they never run out of superlative

compliments to throw his way. If he told them something was black, even

though it was clearly blue, they would never question it & that would be that.


This presents one of the largest problems in the series, but is also

the driving force behind the story. Being the only real person around,

he has no one to bounce ideas off of, & subsequently most of the story is

presented either through expository cutaways of Momon thinking to himself,

or people telling him the way things are with him silently listening.


We know just as little about the world he's been transported to as he does,

& get strung along for the ride. Fortunately for Momon, his guild's

philosophy was pay to win, & being max level in the new world too,

him & his monster generals are absolutely untouchable, which offers them

many chances to infiltrate the neighboring countries to gather information.


Where a LV 50 character in this would would be concidered a

legendary hero, he & his subordinates may as well be gods to the rest of

the world, & could easily wipe out entire nations in a few hours if they

wanted to. Despite this lending the series such a huge opportunity for large

D&D Style battles, & high fantasy magic fights, overlord is more preoccupied

with things like worldbuilding & information gathering than the action

packed intro suggests.


Many people may feel they've been given the old bait & switch; promised a

show about an overpowered skeleton warrior decimating everything in his path,

 & instead were given an anime where most episodes are spent leisurely

building to a handful of battles; the majority of which take

place in the final 2 episodes.


Overlord was adapted from a series of Japanese light novels, & normally

this wouldn't be an issue: but what we have here is essentially a super

condensed version of the first 3 books of that series. Where the novels

had plenty of time to explain character motivations, the inner workings of

the surrounding kingdoms, & did an excellent job of explaining momon's actions,

being Restricted by a 12 episode runtime just doesn't give this show any room

to breath.


Overlord is forced to forgo much of that buildup towards many of it's fights,

as well as much of the character interactions that explain how these

the characters act among each other. It even goes as far as to drop a few

characters entirely from the story in order to get to the final battle

before the end of the series. What you're left with is an incomplete

story that raises more questions than answers, & it essentially boils down

to being a 13 episode advertisement for people to buy the light novels,

instead of a self contained story with one overarching plotline.


I would have been much happier had this been an OVA so studio madhouse

could have created a standalone side-story separate from the rest of the

series so it could have at least has a more solid ending. speaking of madhouse

they've been well known in the anime industry to do this sort of thing.


In general they produce a single season of a show as an advertisement for

something else, & one of my favorite anime from them (ultimate survivor kaiji)

only received a 2nd season from them as an advertisement for the then airing

2nd live action Kaiji movie. If you're dead set on watching this anime over

reading the light novels, Don't be surprised if it never gets followed up.

UNFINISHED

MENTION MUSIC

MENTION CHIBI JOKE SHORTS

POSSIBLY MENTION THE DIRECTOR & A FEW OF THE WELL ANIMATED SCENES