Overlord

*This review contains no spoilers* Disclaimer: This is my first review and contains my opinion, which may be different then yours. Story: 9 Yes, this is another stuck in a game anime. But don't fret, as it takes a different path than other anime of the same scenario. I say this because instead of following a protagonist trying to escape the virtual world, we get an "antagonist" trying to take it over.Or is he? Hes just a desk worker stuck in a Lichs body. I'd rather not go into deep detail about it and end up spoiling this amazing story, so ill end this portion with the only reason it scored a 9 is because some small portions were cut out from the Light Novel, and the story is left unfinished. Season 2??? **Quick Tip** If you're one of the 2 minutes and I quit watching people, I recommend waiting one full episode, you wont regret it. Art: 10 Now of course Madhouse did this, so outstanding art is to be expected, but much credit should also go to so-bin, the illustrator for the Light Novel, and a truly amazing artist. Madhouse did a great job of bringing his characters to life. Sound: 10 In this section, id just like to point out that both the Opening titled Clattonia and the Ending "L.L.L." are truly amazing, and on my iPod and throughout the whole season, i didn't skip either, which is quite rare. They both go along with the anime so well that its hard to believe they weren't made for the anime itself. The voice actors are also quite talented, and have been in many other anime besides Overlord. Character:8 This is the lowest scoring section because character development is rather hard to do for a 12 episode series, when the focus is on more than 4 people, and i have bias because I've read the LNs. Unfortunately, you dont get to see some characters expand past the original tropes, though, of course the MC is quite fleshed out and the other characters are quite fun as well. If you'd like to see more character depth, join my Overlord Season 2 Prayer Group, or pick up the light novel. Enjoyment:10 This would be a shoe in for anime of the year for me if One Punch Man wasn't currently airing. Overlord was the first anime I actually stayed up whilst constantly refreshing my page, to see if the new episode was uploaded. Its also the only anime which succeeded in making me read the light novels. Overall: 9 If your on the fence about watching this anime, I beg you to watch it, its truly amazing, and to miss out on it due to a slightly over done premise would be a true shame. If you have any specific questions about the anime, or have any advice for reviews, please message me, as it would be much appreciated.

Starts out semi-promising but goes literally nowhere. There is no coherent narrative, and the main character is annoying with no real drive. Each story-line you go "wow! Maybe this will actually go somewhere!?" Just to realize that you could of just skipped it and nothing would of changed. Most of the episodes seem to be about sucking up to the MC. I dropped this somewhere in season 2, the first season is tolerable. The second is just crap. I only review the first season though cause honestly that's what people look at. I only watched it that far because for some reason this show generated hype. Can we get a tag for cringe harem girls? That should be a tag.

Overlord offers an unoriginal storyline - the usual lines of a player being stuck in a virtual MMO world, which is rather unnecessary as a setting. The main character Momonga seems to have little or no motivation in returning to his homeworld whatsoever. The entire story seems centered around his immense power, and spreading his name throughout the world his guild of NPCs were transported to, littering every few minutes of the show with his declaration of the might of "Ains Ooal Gown" either by himself or by his minions. It may appeal a little at first, but it just gets repetitive over time. Story: There were some attempts at light humour, sometimes sexual in nature. Overall, the storyline was rather bland, although the MMO setting was interesting (with the magic items and talents and all), but the story, at least within the confines of the anime, fails to develop sufficient intrigue with regards to the plot. I found myself forcing myself to complete the show for no purpose in particular, nothing compelled me to want to continue watching, i just wanted to get it done with. Perhaps the lack of a challenge was the main problem, think of the show as a combination of One-Punch Man's overpoweredness and Mahouka's mental fapping "Onii-sama", except that it now extends to an entire dungeon full of NPCs worshipping the "Supreme Being", not just one imoutou. Momonga literally wiped the floor with just about everyone, Aizen-sama fashion, with even some "all according to plan" reference. Art was okay, never had much requirements to begin with, although perhaps the use of a skeleton face/helmet was to save animation costs. Sound wise, the OP was alright, didnt bother listening to the full ED. Characters are bland and single-dimensioned. Overall it was an average show at best, lousy if you wanted to be really critical. Would not really recommend this unless you have plenty of time to burn.

This is pretty much "D&D: The anime". Lots of humor. This is clearly a show that doesn't take itself seriously. For a show about impossibly strong beings, they are all cute and amusing in their own ways. Solid writing. The premise of the story itself interesting enough, but the execution was perfect. Situations will occur where philosophical what-if questions will be answered. Interesting characters. The show has a diverse cast of characters yet the viewer gets a solid understanding of each of them. This is quite the achievement given this show's short run time of 13 episodes. Good music. The opening song is great, the background music sets the mood for every situation. Nothing here that I could find lacking. While the animation isn't spectacular, the art is very charming. If you're a fan of fantasy in general, then you will find this show enjoyable.

Well I have finished watching all 13 episodes as well as i read the light novel too and if the story goes like that in the light novel of Overlord then the anime will no doubt become one of the top anime like onepiece , Fairy tail or the attack of the titans. Thought Overlord anime can be compared to the Anime Attack of the Titans but I liked Overlord more than the attack of the Titans. Btw there should be some improvement on the Graphics but the rest all seems Good to me and i am waiting for the second season which will consists on the Topic of Attack on the LiZard's Mans Village.{A nice Spoiler here :)}

Overlord is known as Japan's Game of Thrones. It is a tragedy that went beyond being an isekai before It was even an anime. The fact that it's only its story and characters carrying this anime speaks volume about the quality of the writing. There are only few shows at its level or beyond it. There is no harem masquerading itself as shallow romance, there are stakes, there is no loser protagonist to self insert into, there is no plot armor, there is no fake villain protagonist (edgelord), there are no happy endings, there is no power fantasy. It's refreshing. Every action makes sense and affects the plot. The level of foreshadowing is unmatched. A plot point introduced in the first Season becomes relevant in the fourth Season. Most importantly, there is conflict and consequences for everyone. Each action Ainz takes has a consequence on him and the World. For example, the fight against the Undead has an impact on Ainz, causes the appearance of a hidden character and the departure of another character. Also, Ainz has real conflict. His conflict is not fighting someone stronger than him which is a boring conflict for a protagonist. He has the best conflict, inner conflict. Ainz has to find ways to conquer this World while maintaining stability between the different kingdoms under him. This is Real conflict which does not depend on training or getting stronger through a powerup like a lame shonen protagonist. This is also a conflict which will never get resolved because the different races under him have different characteristics and preoccupations. Also, Ainz has another conflict. He is constantly at War with himself if he should be cruel or merciful. Sometimes, he does not know what methods to use, the carrot and the stick. Ainz, having two internal conflicts make him one of the best protagonist of all Times not only in anime but in cinematography and the best isekai protagonist of all times. Also, Ainz will do good and terrible things sometimes depending on the situation like a real human would. It's not being bipolar, it's called being a complex character. The way Maruyama uses Ainz in the story is great. Ainz is an unreliable narrator. This kind of writing is tricky because it can be confusing if not done well. This proves the genius writing of Maruyama. Ainz was already a monster before becoming an Overlord. Maruyama doesn't ever shrink responsibilities for Ainz. Ainz literally walked past dead orphan corpses before his transformation. This is why I like Maruyama's writing. Even his guardians are test subjects in his eyes. This guy is a mad scientist, not a poor soul forced to act like the bad guy that some Overlord fans paint him as, lmao. Overlord is one of the most unpredictable shows of all times. There are characters you even don't know exist acting behind the scenes. How can you guess their next move ? Ainz himself being a complex character is unpredictable. You never know what he is planning to do next episode. There is plot twist on top of another plot twist. Every character in Overlord is unique and tied to a theme and each has a character arc. This Season, Ainz,Enri, Clementine, nphirea, Brain, Albedo and Shalltear grew as characters. And the best thing about Overlord is it is not the end of their character arcs. They will keep growing in future Seasons. All these reasons make Overlord a masterpiece. Also, Overlord is not for shonen lovers. If you are a fan of bullshit like Attack on Titan, Chainsaw man, Jujustsu kaisen, Dandadan, don't watch it. It is a bit pretentious but it is true. I am helping you to not waste time. If you are a fan of these garbage shows, overlord will be boring to you. So, save your time and continue to watch the same slop.

A guy is isekai'ed into a world that superficially resembles a game he played. He's evil. That's about it. I have no idea what people see in this, unless it really is the case that simply making the lead evil is considered genius by virtually everybody. There is barely a plot, there is absolutely no character development, what happens is frequently driven by the lead or his minions simply overpowering anything in their path or by his minions figuring things out but assuming that the MC was five steps ahead of them the whole time - a lame plot device that would be funny if deployed sparingly but here it gets old really fast through frequent overuse. The lead is as OP an MC as any, which requires finesse to be interesting, but here he's actually not very bright and so there really is nothing to be interested in, as I say most problems are simply brute-forced through or his minions figure it out for him. Being evil (Oh, the genius of having an evil MC!) he does some despicable things, committing murder and ordering slavery and a teensy bit of genocide too. Well, clearly, given that he was just some sort of middle manager last week this must call for some serious soul-searching or PTSD or something, right? Nope. He's an evil lich now so all is a-ok, he can simply send his arch-demon #2 off to conduct breeding and torture experiments on thousands of captives and not miss a wink of sleep. Any possibility of serous commentary, character development or storytelling is completely ignored. In fact any time the MC starts getting emotional, some unknown effect literally kicks in and turns his emotions off. So that a modern guy who is a product of a modern educational and ethical system can go straight back to ordering the deaths of thousands of people without having to ponder for a second if this is the best way of doing things. What fabulous writing. Let's talk about the supporting cast: they all worship the lead, literally, are completely sycophantic and totally uninteresting. But they're evil, so they must be the best characters ever. No. They're boring as hell. Let's talk about how and why he was isekai'ed. No let's not, because Overlord doesn't care about that stuff. We're here to be unremittingly evil for no good reason so you should just lap it up. The character designs are about the only redeeming feature, the CGI is legendarily terrible, everything is grindingly dark and boring. The first season finishes off with the MC having to fight one of his absurdly strong minions himself - we're now in season 4 and we still don't know why this happens other than MC's speculation that a MacGuffin of some kind is responsible. The fight is settled by the MC using other MacGuffins in his possession - and which he owns because as a player he simply purchased them, because the game he was playing was explicitly as pay-to-win as they come (so the whole crappy mess is ironically originating from a crap PTW game). If you took everything that people think is crap about bland generic isekai - girls who do nothing but fawn over the lead, lack of threat because MC is too overpowering, poor world-building, no elaboration of the 'game' systems, no exploration of why the isekai event happened, no examination of the consequences of actions - this has all of them. But without the fanservice. Basically, it's rubbish.

When I first started reading/watching this series in the summer of 2015, I had already consumed a lot of media, in the form of anime, webmanga, and just a little bit of webnovel and visual novels. And I enjoyed (I still do) "genius protagonists" in the series I have watched that make smart decisions, think rationally, and do the best thing that fits the situation. Examples are things like KR webnovel Reincarnator, Emperor of Solo Play, warlock of the Magus World, Death Note, Kaiji, etc etc. Basically, a smart MC that is able to make the perfect action in response to a situation no matter what has occurred to them.I aspired to be like those smart MCs. I figured that I would also act like those MCs if I was caught in a similar situation. If I was reincarnated into a different world, there is no way that I would fare poorly, and die as a mere common peasant. Rather, I would slowly level up my power just like those MCs would have.However, reality would be different, and Overlord  expresses that beautifully. Compared to those genius protagonists, I am unable to match. I am no genius, I wouldn't be able to keep calm during a dangerous situation like those MCs would, I do not have the prose, fineness, nor the intellect to scheme as well as any of those smart MCs would have.  In reality, if I were transported to another world, I would panic. I would be under distress. I would not know what to do. Rather than thinking about what I should do next, I would wonder how I got there and express disbelief. I wouldn't be able to rein my emotions in, nor would I have any sort of plan going forward. Muruyama Kugane expresses what a person would actually do in a situation like you see all the time in reincarnation novels in the form of Suzuki Satoru. Just like me, Suzuki Satoru is a normal man, and he does what a lot of other normal people would have done. He acted flustered. He acted foolishly, He couldn't rein in his emotions without the help of his species characteristic, and even then, he was unable to rein in his libido. Satoru didn't have a plan either. Satoru is just like one of us. He represents all of us, on what we would probably be doing if we were transported to another world like he was. No master plan, No massive intellect, and no calm and collected mindset. Rather, a panicked mess of a person that eventually fumbles his way around in the world through time, and even then, that fumbling around was only achieved due to the massive advantage given to him.  While I don't like writing reviews often, I have to give a mention to my #1 novel of all time since 2015. While I could go rambling on for a many more pages, this is the innermost core of why I like this series.

Overlord is an RPG anime ancient art. The way in which the characters are portrayed, as they vary from person to person, even through their makers is very intriguing. The fact that there are conflicts between them makes the spectacle almost perfect. Ainz Ooal Gown resp. Momonga is very refreshing between the different fantasy characters. And for sure, I rly love Albedo. Such an main character of ecchi fantasys! realy lovely! The one negative point I see at Season 2, for someone who isnt familiar with this Anime, its lil bit hard to understand how the anime works at the beginning. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Have fun and have a nice day!

You may have been led to believe that Overlord is similar to Sword Art Online.Well,it isn't. At all. Calling them similar is like saying that a cat and a dog are similar because they are both pets.It's actually closer to One Punch Man than SAO. So now that we clarified this let's break it down in categories. -Story 7- The idea of the anime is very good but the anime lacks closure.You get the feeling that the anime is ~52 episodes long but actually it's actually a quarter of that. It starts with the MC who's Magic Caster Skeleton in the once popular DMMORPG (Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) "Yggdrasil" (What's up with Japan and European Mythology?) admiring the Guild House of the greatest faction in the game, acting on his role of Guild Master until the servers will finally close. Surprisingly (not really) after the timer hit 00:00 the game interface disappeared and he was no longer able to bring up the console. Stuck in this world he now tries to make a name of himself in search for any old allies. It should be noted that his Guild House is no longer in the game but in a whole new world he has to learn about. -Art 9- The animation is outstanding with beautiful landscapes, the battles are great and all the characters are well defined...well all "main" characters. You can somewhat see what characters are important by looking at how distinguishable they are. This is why the Art can't get a perfect score. -Sound 7- The sound is nice, the voice actors are good and so on but there's nothing memorable. I binge watched all 13 episodes back to back but I can't remember the intro or the outro. They were pretty plain and uninteresting but good enough to be worth at least a 7. -Character 7- I saw a lot of reviews and recommendations that state the MC is overpowered. Well he is not overpowered at all. The reason he is strong is simply stated in the first episode : He was max level and had God Level items. In addition the NPC's that guarded the guild (and are now alive) are pretty close to his strength. Anyway the one problem with the characters is the fact that there is little to no character development. All the characters are slapped in the viewer's face with almost no background story. The (now ex) NPCs were created by the MC ex-colleagues and act on the personality they were given. The rest of the characters have a slight trace of background story since they mention a few things about them. -Enjoyment 9- I liked watching it since I like stories that are set in the middle ages and include magic and a lot of fighting. The problem is nothing major really happens and there were episodes where boredom was the defining word. -Overall 8-ish- I believe it is a score fit for this anime since it manages to make you watch it then leave you deserted because there's no 14th episode even if anime like One Piece has millions of episodes without ever completing the fucking story either. If there's no season 2 , the producers deserve to burn in hell.

Overlord has a special place for me personally, while the overarching idea behind it is nothing new (as anyone that's read a summary well knows) it approaches it in a rather new and interesting way. The art, sound, and animation are all well done I'm not going to pine over them beyond that. It's the characters that were strangely grabbing to me, while they all fill known archetypes I found something unique in each of them. I wouldn't really call what happens 'character development', but overlord has a way of giving you more and more insight into the characters without requiring the characters themselves to actually develop. For fear of giving away too much I will remain a bit fuzzy on that. Needless to say there will be no shonnen style power ups as all the main characters start out at the 'top of the food chain' so to speak. I don't feel saying that much is a spoiler as it's made rather obvious from the start. The only real question that persist is exactly how strong are they? The beauty of this particular anime for me is that it kept me interested and held me even though it never gave me a sense of real tension. There was a certain something here I can't quite put my finger on that had me watch all 13 episodes 3 times over. Back to the basics though, there is plenty of action, the only sad part is what is available now is very much an incomplete story, and ends rather abruptly just as you are really starting to get involved. --and right as it's revealed there may actually be a real antagonist on the horizon. Sadly because it is madhouse, in addition to the solid art and animation we get the downside, we may be forced to wait sometime for a second season. This show was well received and the serialization is also selling well though. The fact I am truly looking forward to more is the best endorsement I can give this show. 8/10 overall, mostly losing points for that sudden cutoff at the end and the iffy status of it continuing at this point in time.

(Some Spoilers) Might I say, just how surprised I am? Like I am legitimately, unimaginably surprised. I've been on an anime Binge recently specifically for shows I had been on hold for a very long time. I did watch the first 2 episodes of Overlord back when it first aired, and I did think it was pretty good, came back, it was still very good. At first, a Solid 8. But then....as I watched on..something...did not sit right...something...was wrong.....by the end of my viewing, I would give this series, a Solid 2. So what happened? Just about everything I don't like about this series so far comes back to one singular thing. The fact that Ainz is being Evil AND EVIL IS BAD- No No No, I'm kidding. I'm not going down that route like others have. I have no problem if the protagonists are evil. Anyways, its Conflict. I either found every "Conflict" very boring, or very unnecessary and not worth even being a conflict. I found no tension, nothing to really keep me going "Ooooo How is he going to get himself out of this?" Obvious this is due to our casts Overpowered nature. Its clear they are all overpowered so there is no reason to even think that they could possibly lose, let alone even struggle. One of the most frustrating moments I found was in the middle of the season when Ainz and Nabe were up against those uh....whatever the old necromancer guy and the edgelord woman's names were. (Goddamned she was such an Edgelord....) I was not mad at all as Ainz was up against the Edgelord and he just crushed her. That was satisfying. It was Nabe vs. the Old guy that got me going, because for a bit, when she was up against those skeletal dragons, and we actually saw it looked like how she was struggling, for the first moment in the series, I felt tension. I felt ENTERTAINED. Finally a fight that doesn't just end in complete Overpowered Annihilatio- Oh wait nvm she was also holding back the whole time and it was just because Ainz had to give her the command to do so, then BOOP, GUY IS A PILE OF ASH! This outcome just feels....disappointing, much more disappointing than if she had just been using her Overpowered Powers from the Start of the fight. I was speechless. There was also the conflict at the end of the season, definitely not as bad as the rest of the season by a long-shot. Might be going off topic here but, but might I say how bizarre I find it that they just spoiled Shalltear fighting Ainz in the opening? And I can easily come up with a way so that it wouldn't have spoiled something so crucial, or at least what I thought would be crucial to the series. So we see how Shalltear is wearing this epic armor during this fight, probably wouldn't be able to tell it was her if it weren't for her face just being out in the open there. Cover it up, put a mask or something there. Not only would this have not given away that for whatever reason Shalltear would fight Ainz, but it would have enhanced the lead up to when it looks like Ainz is actually putting some sort of effort into an actual fight. After all leading up to it, Ainz has had to use little to no effort in a fight. But thats all just being nitpicky I guess. I did find Shalltear and Ainz fighting to be interesting, and I was wondering, "Ooo what happens, Shalltear betrays Ainz and the others? They have a falling out? What reason could it possibly be-" Its mind control....ok got it....And even as she is mind controlled Shalltear will still praise Ainz as she tries to kill him. Thats...cool I guess? Now on the topic of them being too overpowered. I do like my overpowered characters. One Punch Man being a great example, the series itself is about just how broken the Main Character is, I would probably say the same about Overlord, yet I still find that aspect about Overlord being the reason I despise it so much. I think it could be due to One Punch Man's Overpowered aspect being used in a more comedic sense than Overlord. However I have seen people argue that Overlord is actually a Black Comedy, yet I never found any of it entertaining or comedic, even though, I also like my fair share of black comedy. Ok so maybe its because its an Isekai MMO type of anime? Well, no again, because I also love Isekai, and even if they aren't good, I could usually find something that always entertained me throughout them, whether it be something stupid or.....stupid. I also find the lack of Character and Motivation incredibly dull. Ainz is the only one who has any motivation I can really decipher. He wants to gather information on the world, and spread his name in order to catch the attention of possible other players who got trapped just like him. Side note I'd like to point out something I found confusing with this motivation in mind, back when he first joined the guild and was discussing their money situation with Nabe, he talked about how they couldn't use the currency they had from the MMO world, because for one its not their world's currency, which is fine, but also it would "Give away that they are from [Insert the Name of the MMO world that I can't spell] to any possible players" I find this strange because, well, I thought thats what he wanted to do, so either I am incredibly mistaken on what he meant, or even Ainz has no clue what his actual motivations are. Does he want to find other players or not? Is he afraid or other players because they might be just if not as strong as him? IDK anymore. Why does he fight Shalltear towards the end even though they could easily defeat her with all of them in sheer numbers and power, seeing how they will revive her either way? Idk can't be to prove himself able to rule them because by default they're characters were literally written by him and his Guild buddies to always be loyal to them. I could be wrong but thats how they all make it seem. The other characters, mainly Ainz's subordinates, during the beginning, I really did love their characters. Hell I love their designs, I'll give credit where its due. But then I realized something, all they ever do is either a quip or something funny, very rarely of the time which I liked...orrrrr just sucking up to Ainz as usual, 90% of the time. This does make sense, Ainz is their lord/god after all, one of many of their "creators" from the Guild. However, it gets repetitive and annoying at times, seeing them stroke that bone...heh... Anyways I also found it disappointing that not once did I find any of them actually have their characters develop. This could be due because maybe the descriptions their creators gave them are just their entire characters set in stone until the end of time? I hope I'm wrong. Now I know I'm gonna sound crazy, even insane, but I could legitimately think of reasons why SAO! SWORD ART FUCKING ONLINE, does what I hate about Overlord better. For one, Kirito does struggle, he has had his hard times, and his motivation, pretty obvious and standard, to get out of this game, and later to save his Waifu Pillow, (I call Asuna that because her "Character" is basically the equivalent of being a pillow). And overall, I am entertained by SAO more than Overlord. Alright thats all I'm going to actually Praise SAO, I'll wash my mouth out with soap later. But just those few things, are done better in SAO than Overlord from what I can tell. It just boggled my mind how much I dislike, no DESPISE Overlord. I don't even think its just because of all the reasons I've given, it just...makes me want to hate it? I have no clue. This has never happened to me with a series before. Not even the series I would go so far as to say a one have made me feel this way, and remember I give Overlord a 2. Maybe my score will change as I reevaluate things if I do, I could see my self giving it a 4 tops. But either way, I just don't like it. Now all that aside, I do plan to watch both Season 2 and 3...I really do. Because I want to like this series, I want to understand it, why people like it, I really do, I have read on countless people's own takes…

Story: I don't understand why people complain this is similar to SAO, other than the fact that the main character is stuck in a video game, the story is entirely different. That being said, this anime took an interesting turn to making a story involving an op character more enjoyable with development. Even though the story was dull at times, it was mostly enjoyable 8/10 Art: Art style was pretty unique to me since they incorporated 2d images with 3d. Since the anime was mostly 2d, the 3d parts were still really well executed without it being feeling laggy. It's not the most beautiful artwork or most exciting, but I'm giving it a 10/10 b/c it just fits the story really well imo Sound: honestly I dont really know how to grade this, but since I didn't have a problem with the sound im giving it a 8/10 Character: Characters were honestly pretty dull, they could have provided more variety but most of them were just one dimensional and sometimes annoying. There were some interesting minor characters, so I think if they ever have a 2nd season I know that the developers will improve in creating more diverse characters. 6/10 Enjoyment: I had a very fun time watching this, it mostly seems like people anticipated too much from this. I went into watching this show just hearing that it had pretty good fights and didn't have that much anticipation, so I think that's why I could appreciate this anime. I would recommend this if you enjoy watching an op character/ fight scenes/ and some humor. 8/10 Recommend

This was an amazing show, when I first looked at the trailer I thought it was going to be a bad dark themed series. But its more bout the comedy behind it too between the characters. The main character's profile was very honest and didn't seem fake which was amazing because you dont see that alot in these types of anime. The battle scene definitely gave me chills for example the gore was displayed beautiful. The characters were carefully profiled I really recommend you to give the first episode a try before judging it because I'm in love with this anime and I can't wait for season 2. I think the only slight thing that bothered me is the main characters past or real identity isn't clear or portrayed at all in the show which upset me. But as long as it becomes clear in season 2 then it should be fine

So you’re probably thinking, “ok this anime is a little weird…” Correct. It is a little, but weird is by no means bad. Overlord is often likened to Log Horizon or the ever controversial Sword Art Online due to its “stuck-in-a-game” roots. But unlike the aforementioned where one is simply stuck in a game, Overlord places you in a new world. It’s not quite the reality you’re used to, but there’s a few more dimensions than the game itself had. In this sense this anime is more like an exploration of a new world with gaming elements rather than purely a pre-existing game world. Fascinated? Well you should be! While only a 13 episode series this anime covers some pretty cool content. There’s a lot to take in, but it makes the discovery of this new world fun by not giving you all the answers right away. In fact, no one seems to have all the answers in this new world. And with no wikipedia page to turn to you’re left to discover it with the main characters. It may sound a little frustrating, but think of it from the perspective of Dora the Explorer and you’ll realise it’s the most exciting thing since cotton candy. A heavy focus is placed on Ains Ooal Gown, or Momonga, to reference his auxiliary name. And while we get some great insights into his personality, perspective and goals, we also realise he should never have children, because god forbid what he will name them. No but seriously, the focus on him is so heavy that the other characters seem to lack development and differentiating qualities outside of Albedo’s intensely awkward over obsession and Mare’s adorable shyness. There is one final problem with this anime. This is that with Momonga being made so impeccably strong complications barely feel like complications. You know everything will be fine and it slightly detracts from what could otherwise be suspenseful moments. Yet as this isn’t the end of the storyline these harsh comments must be taken with a grain of salt…or a shot of vodka, whichever puts you more at ease. While one can’t say for sure, there’s every possibility if a second season is made it will fill in the blanks of the first. The animation and sound is also done really well with some strong fight scenes to keep you enthralled and appealing colours to keep your eyes smiling. The bottom line? This is an entertaining fantasy anime, yet it has the potential to be so much better by fixing its few flaws. My fingers are crossed for a second season

This show has an intelligent plot, a proven-to-work exciting setting, is full of character, has atmospheric animation and is overall a great change to the ordinary overused everything-i-just-mentioned. All of it's flaws that i can come up with could easily be 'fixed' with a little more budget (holds true to many anime, but some anime are just plain dumb no matter how much cash you throw at it). Some people might compare this with SAO or the like, which makes sense since they could be grouped into the same 'niche' genre, but i have seen some people call this rip-off that and that... which makes about as much sense as saying that all spy movies are rip-off of James Bond (mind you, James Bond was not the first of it's kind, neither was SAO). This show is close to being a masterpiece, i have a hard time putting my finger on exactly what it is that keeps it from a 10, the conclusion of the series wasen't really a conclusion at all, overall in general it's hard to give something 10 that hasen't finished. A season 2 would be much appreciated.

“Overlord? Overrated more like!” – A goblin Jester from Overlord (a 2007 video game). Overlord, is an anime about an extremely, ridiculously, tremendously overpowered so called “Overlord” who is actually…just a MMO player who found himself unable to log out from the game. Along with his uninteresting subordinates, he then goes on a rather boring journey to find his friends that are perhaps like him, trapped in the game world. That’s the story in a nutshell. Not entirely fresh in terms of premise, the only thing that’s new is the protagonist is a generic guy who is stuck in lich form. In terms of action, its does a fair job – however almost fails at it. Since not only Momonga(protagonist), but even his subordinates are outrageously powerful, any adversary are like flies to them, making the fights scenes less enjoyable to watch since the enemies can’t even put a dent on them – of course other than the last battle, where Momonga faced someone who is more or less powerful than him. Still, majority of the fights are very one sided. Many of the characters frequently utter names of random “spells” or “buffs” – any average gamer definitely know what those terms means. Few “skills” sounded self-explanatory to avid gamers, but there were some called “See-through” and “Greater Hardening”, I don’t know what the hell they do, but it sure made me chuckle. The battles are most likely the only biggest redeeming factor in this show. Even so, the action is nothing jaw-dropping or cool and very far from awesome. It doesn't even reach “good”, in my standards. The characters are probably the weakest aspect - I wasn't particularly interested in any of them. Admittedly, Albedo was hot and she’s nice fap material, but other than that, I didn't find her particularly interesting, or unique whatsoever. Most of the time, she was just there to constantly praise Momonga – in fact, majority of Momonga’s servants didn't do much as well. In the first episode, we are already introduced to most of the supporting cast: a giant insect man and a weird guy in a suit, whom both resembles generic villains, two possibly trap siblings and lastly, a vampire loli with fake boobs; that’s what I've been told. I can’t even remember their names too well either, other than having to Google it or probably rewatching an episode, which I’m probably not going to do. Other aspects such as animation & art was alright, but it’s nothing memorable and the overall Sound was good. In conclusion, Overlord is just a passable anime due to its rather mundane fights, combined with a cast of bland characters, while it does have a couple good moments in between, but still not entirely worthwhile. Do I recommend it? Well, I'd say, give it a shot - but don't expect too much.

This is gonna be my first review so ill just get it started. You ever get tired of characters that don't wanna kill or have too many morals? well now you have Overlord. His goal is to take spread his name and he's not afraid to dirty his hands to do it. While the theme of being stuck in a game has been done before this time he doesn't really seem to care. In fact he seems to spend about 2 minutes total considering how to leave then decides it's not so bad. Part of the reason i loved this anime was because sometimes you just want a super overpowered mc that just pulls out skill after skill and seems super badass. And with overlord since he's sort of a bad guy too he can actually use skills that kill people not just knock them unconscious or something dumb like that. But besides the fighting it's also interesting to see how they analyze the new world and come up with strategies and tactics and are able to exploit everything around them. It definately has a tton of action in it but at the same time they try to make the mc both super powerful and really adept at planning and tactics. Overall I found this really enjoyable because I mean how often do you get a super badass overpowered bad guy main character stuck in a game mix up?

this is my first time doing a review, hopefully its not as bad as i thought. i didn't choose this anime to do in particular, but just chose a most recently watched anime. well, this anime will definitely be recommend to anyone who likes log horizon or any other 'travel to a game world' type anime. the story is basically that the MC's conscious got 'transferred' into the avatar of this game he use to play. and will be followed by his adventure in his new body in a new unknown land accompanied by some NPC in the game who are a bit overly loyal to him. i personally quite enjoyed the anime, even though the plot are a bit weird with the MC's contradicted personality and appearance and occasional ecchi scene followed right after a pretty serious talk between characters. however, i quite enjoyed most parts of the anime that were shaped like a classic travel to another world but decorated with over powered characters and decisive personality. which is one element of character i particularly enjoyed. Art- 7/10 art used in the anime was pretty standard. overall it looked alright while sometimes there could be some pretty nice scenery like the milky way or country side. character designs were ok since it has shown most the necessary detail required for each character. but in some cases like Albedo, which in the character summary was described as goddess like features, but most of the time in the actual anime, she looked more like a slut or psychopath with was quite disappointing. Sound - 6/7 unforgettable music in this particular anime is pretty rare. most of the time, you either can't hear the music because you are too concentrated on the story or that the music is just so monotone you can't even remember it after another 5 minutes. characters - 8/10 i quite enjoyed the characters in this anime, which reasons i already said above. i think that in most fantasy anime, the MC always will enter a depression era in some period of the adventure. but in Overlord, we can welcome a overpowered, and non-depression like MC that is actually pretty nice. again, this might be a pretty polar-anime that people will either really like or find it distasteful, but i will recommend this anime to anyone who like to see some nice character building and action but not much emotion confessing.

*SPOILER WARNING* i might have to put some spoilers here and there for this review. I don't think those spoilers are all that relevant, but you have been warned. ----------------------------- Overlord is truly a mystery to me, in that i feel like i just can't understand its appeal. For some reason a lot of people here have given it a really good score and its average is 8.04 as of now, and I just can't understand what this success comes from. I don't like saying that, but when I watched the show, the two main emotions i felt while watching were boredom from how bad it was to me and frustration from all the potential it wasted. Why did i feel like that about our savior Ainz Ooal Gown's tale? Let's find out in this review: The first problem I have with this show is its visuals. Don't get me wrong, the art is decent, the characters are almost always on model when they're not in CG and some character designs are legitimately good. The issue is that the animation itself does not really move that much, and seeing almost still shots of characters talking about things i don't really care about for at least five minutes per episode without clever directing, storyboarding or art direction to back it up makes me sleepy. Most of the action scenes aren't that visually entertaining either. The action scenes in this show either lack impact or are made with jarring CGI. When i say that the action scenes lack impact, i mean that the directing can make a huge explosion look like it wasn't really strong, even though it just blew an enemy right to the shadow realm. At the beginning of the fight against a certain vampire lady in the last couple of episodes, there's literally minutes and minutes of build-up where momonga is basically buffing himself to be the most overpowered he could be, and then the payoff is an enormous laser thingy falling from the sky... that destroyed trees i guess but didn't feel like the massively destructive blast it should have been. Though i have to give credit to the final fight scene for having somewhat good animation, they almost delivered correctly on that. The second thing that frustrates me in Overlord is the under-exploitation of almost everything the show sets up. In the first episodes, there's a couple of plot points and themes that are set up, just to remain unexploited in the rest of the series, which is a shame because if it expanded on them (and had 24 episodes to do so) the series could have been excellent. Here are a few examples of those unexploited gold mines the show had: 1. The loss of Momonga's humanity: after getting trapped in this fantasy world, momonga changes a bit. If i remember correctly, he doesn't need to eat anymore, and he feels less emotions, especially when it comes to killing people. Now if the changes in his mental state were pushed to the point where he or his servants (i'll come back to them later) would start questioning his actions, that would have been super interesting to me. 2. Momonga's servants: from my understanding, Overlord almost did the same thing as log horizon, where the game's NPCs gained a personality and a backstory. Some of those NPCs are what is, for my money, the most underexploited element of the whole show: the servants. A lot of them seem like they would be awesome if they were to fight, and they seriously need some character development. Most of their designs are at least really good and seeing characters like cocytus, sebas or demiurge get a good fight scene would give me the hardest of all boners (especially cocytus, i wanted to love that guy but he has little to no screen time). Even Albedo could have been made into a likeable character if she had her own character arc. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if Momonga was a more interesting character and if the show had other qualities to make up for it but it doesn't. 3. Discovering the world of yggdrasil: one of the things momonga sets out to do when he gets trapped is to explore the huge world he is in to find out if there are other trapped players like him. Unfortunately, this is once again something the show fails to exploit as much as it could. The environments aren't all that interesting to look at, and while some game mechanics are rather interesting, the world building is criminally underdone. Those are not the only frustrating underdone parts of the show, but i feel like they are some of the most important ones. My third issue with Overlord is the protagonist himself, the one and only Ainz Ooal Gown aka Momonga-sama (or just Momonga if he doesn't want to attract too much attention) The main problem i have with him is that i just don't understand what kind of character he's supposed to be. He is supposedly the most powerful character in the story, yet one of his servants evaluates his chances of survival for the final fight to only 30% or less. From what i've heard that one of the main points of Momonga's character is that he acts like a villain, yet none of the things he does are that cruel. He killed Clementine whom is a lot of people's waifu and that's slightly evil i guess but that doesn't make him that much of a villain. I mean he even legitimately cares a lot about his servants and saves some people who were getting killed by random evil knights in a village. He's supposed to have lost some of his humanity or something and then we see him getting embarrassed from times to times, mostly from albedo's sexual needs but also when he literally facepalms about the personality he gave to pandora's actor (the most entertaining character in the show to me) What is so problematic about Momonga being a boring character is that he's one of the only, if not the only relevant appeal of the whole series Another annoying thing is that the series kind of fails at making me care about it. Nothing about the world or characters feels like it's going to be so interesting. Yggdrasil seems at first like a stereotypical MMORPG, and unfortunately it stays that way. As soon as Momonga tells his servants to guard the different levels of his huge dungeon thing where he lives i immediately thought "oh no those cool looking characters are going to be completely irrelevant, what a shame." The slow pacing doesn't help any of the aforementioned problems. In the end, Overlord mostly suffers from its wasted potential. Is it a bad show? Judging from the number of people who seem to like or even love it, it's up to you. Do i recommend it? Certainly not, everything it does has been done better in a lot of shows. Please note that this is my first review, so my writing probably isn't very good. If you disagree with this review (which is most likely the case, i may have missed a few things in the show since i didn't pay that much attention due to how boring it was), i invite you to respectfully comment on my profile about that. Thank you for bearing my terrible writing all the way to the end of this painful review, and have a nice day, whether you believe in the almighty Ainz Ooal Gown or not.