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Year: 2015-2022
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Episodes: 52
Rating: 4 out of 5
Many people in the world would like to become a ruler. Controlling a massive country, but with world domination, you become an overlord. A ruler of rulers. One who has supreme authority over all and can wield that power in any way they see fit. You can probably think of a few real-life people or anime characters who could’ve been or were overlords. Overlord is a fun and fantasy anime where a person gets trapped in their favorite game and has all the powers and some of the strongest NPCs. What does this player do? Decide to rule the world.
Overview
The year is 2126, and the world of games has changed. YGGDRASIL, a Full-Dive massive multiplayer online role-playing game, has dropped on the world. After twelve years of being the game of games, the developers have decided to completely shut down the game servers. During that twelve-year run, a guild called Ainz Ooal Gown, consisting of 41 members, rose to the top of the mountain as the strongest guild. Like most games, one by one, members quit until only four members remain in the guild. One of the final members to the end is a skeletal Lich “Overlord” character named Momonga, the guild master who maintains the headquarters in The Great Tomb of Nazarick.
In the final minutes before the inevitable shutdown, Momonga invites the remaining guild members for one final goodbye, but only one shows up for a minute before logging off. Sadden, to the end of a great twelve-year run, the person controlling Momonga accepts that his friends have lives outside of the game. The player decides to stay logged in until the server’s shutdown.
Momonga realizes that the game wasn’t deleted when the shutdown time passed. It appears that Nazarick has been transported to another world and that NPCS are now actual living beings. Momonga also realizes that he is trapped in his game avatar and, better yet, has all the powers and world-changing items that his guild has obtained through the years. With a new world to explore, Momonga takes the guild’s name as his own and decides to do what many have dreamed of……. WORLD DOMINATION!
Review:
The story of Overlord starts off a little slow, but eventually, it speeds up and gets going. The first season is dedicated to setting up the world and the situation. The main character, Momonga, spends much of the season learning about the new world where the game was transferred and noticing that he is trapped in his avatar. As Momonga, he has all his administrative abilities but is also one of the most powerful beings in all the lands. Momonga spends his time doing two things. The first is spreading fear of the guild’s name, Ainz Ooal Gown, and the second is a mercenary who takes on missions. Also, Momonga kills this villain with a straight-up bear hug. It is insane and intense as Momonga speaks with such ease.
In the first season, we learn about all the guardians who protect Momonga’s headquarters. Each one is strong and relevant in their own ways. What Momonga wants from them is for them to make their own decisions and not rely on him to make them. The first season goes off with a bang when Ainz Ooal Gown must battle against one of his guardians, Shalltear Bloodfallen, who is mind-controlled. It was a true battle of magic and skill.
The second season picks up after the first. The second season is better than the first because there is a lot of death and violence. You can tell that the person controlling Ainz Ooal Gown’s mind is changing as he becomes more like his avatar. The first half of the season is Ainz Ooal Gown and his crew taking over some lizard-like creatures. We even have a freakin sex scene, so this anime is about to get real. Ainz sends out Cocytus to have the lizard people submit, but then his weak army is defeated. When Ainz sends Cocytus to handle the situation on his own and battle the leaders in a battle royale, Cocytus chops people in half, showing it in full detail.
After the lizard people are controlled, the story becomes the Sebas Tian story. This dude was insanely powerful. He is the head butler of Nazarick and overseer of the Pleiades. He looks like an old man, but he wastes no time in killing people or showing his killing intent. When this group of four tried to stop him, he killed them in ten seconds. Dude played zero games with people. He slapped around one dude and blew his head off with a single punch. After he saves a girl, the story quickly switches, with the crew battling a demon who wants to control a kingdom. The demon is Demiurge, who makes a plan with Ainz to gain more prestige.
The third season of Overlord is when things go up to a new level. Ainz sits back and wonders what his crew wants to do next. He thinks they will chill, but when they say the plan is world domination, Ainz is like, “WTF?” but then he jumps on board because he is the ruler. During this season, Ainz and his crew start setting up their forces. Ainz establishes the Sorcerous Kingdom of Nazarick and asks other countries and empires to recognize him. The major scene in this season is when Ainz and his crew set a trap for several people, and the crew that comes upon Ainz is like he’s not strong until Ainz pulls off his ring, and homegirl pukes and cries that they have no shot. The war scene was crazy. Ainz and his army rolled up to face another kingdom. Ainz sacrifices like 30k souls and summons 5 massive monsters called ‘The Dark Young.’ These freakin things look like they are straight from Berserk. They went savage on everyone. The season ends with Ainz declaring the rise of the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Season 4 is where Ainz and his crew go all out. Ainz rolls up on some dragons, dominating them to submission by crushing their hearts. Oh, and in this season, he wants to conquer runes and decides to form an alliance with the dwarves, but before he can do that, he has to take down some doglike creatures. Of all the people to send, she sends Shalltear, and you know it’s not going to end well. She straight up kills so many of those doglike creatures that she stands on a mountain of their corpses. It was crazy. Ainz’s forces crush this one kingdom, and the backstabbing princess gives it up. The season was a little bit more violent, but not by much.
There is something about the seasons that felt a little off. I think Overlord is a good anime to watch, but it could’ve been like Berserk and extremely dark. It can leave out the rape scene, but Ainz and the series creature could’ve gone all out with the violence. You did see people chopped in half and arms flying all over the place with heads exploding, but I wanted more. Maybe if they do a fifth season, we can get more.
Where the anime could’ve improved was with the tone and animation. Don’t get me wrong, the animation improved and became crisper with each season. What I wanted was for it to become darker with each season. I wanted the tone to be like the one in Ainz, which is somewhat kind in season one, but his mental state is now villain mode. You see it, and it comes out more and more, but I wanted ruthlessness and the anime to show it. Like I said, I wanted it like Berserk, and when everyone went into the God’s Hand dimension, you know, shit went off.
As far as the characters go, this anime has some crazy ones. First is Ainz Ooal Gown. He is the leader and sole remaining member of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown. In the real world, dude was a salaryman named Satoru Suzuki who loved the VR online game called YGGDRASIL. When the server is going to shut down, he decides to stay and do the whole SAO thing and gets trapped. In the New World, Dude is overpowered and knows almost all defenses and powers. Dude is OP. He is a funny character as he is intimidating and should be this ruler, but he wants the best for his NPCs. When he blushed, a green-like healing aura came over him. He is a great character and shows development while balancing the line between good and evil.
One of the craziest characters is Albedo. Albedo is a succubus and overseer of the Floor Guardians. Ainz changes her coding, and she falls madly in love with him. Even though she is FOINE, homegirl has a dark side to her that you do not want to meet. Which brings me to her chief rival, Shalltear Bloodfallen. Shalltear is a vampire who is a straight-up BEAST. She is one of my favorite characters. She is a pervert and a necrophile, but in battle, she is OP and ruthless. Another one of my favorite characters is Demiurge. Demiurge is the most intelligent and evil of Ainz’s floor guardians. He is a brilliant tactician and strategist. He has no problems using anything he has to accomplish his goals. Thinking about it, I also really like Cocytus. Cocytus is a four-armed, humanoid insect that is the noblest of all the floor guardians. He respects anyone who has a strong fighting spirit and will pay the utmost respect to his opponents. I found him to be the best and breath of fresh air.
With the music, I paid little attention to it, but there is one song I want to highlight. It is the opening theme of season three, “VORACITY” by Myth & Roid. I LOVED the beginning when they sang, “I am very, very, very crazy.” I will have to start using that as my theme song.
Overlord is one of those anime series that is good. Hell, it has four seasons right now. It’s about a man who does the whole SAO thing and becomes one of the most powerful beings in a game. The anime is decent in terms of story, but you wait for it to become dark as hell. It has a dark period during each season, but I want it to go all out dark and menacing. All the characters are fun to watch and enjoyable. The animation does become better with each season. Give this anime a chance and think about ways you can become ruler of the world.
BONUS CLIP!!!!
