Overlord II Series Review

Overlord is an anime about a truly overpowered character who is trapped in a game and tries to find out what exactly is going on. The second season started on a weird note but slowly, as it progressed, made its way to something completely awesome.

Synopsis

Yggdrasil, a Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or DMMORPG, is about to shut down its servers and Momonga, a player who was part of a guild called Ainz Ooal Gown decides to stay logged in until the last minute. He soon finds out that he can’t log out of the game and he has been trapped in an alternate reality where his true form is his own character. NPCs came to life and little information is given to him as to what exactly is going on. As he gets used to the idea of living within the game, he makes up a plan to figure out if any other players are trapped in-game like him.

Plot & Story

The story carries on exactly where it was left in the first season. Ainz is still trying to get information about the world and its rulers. The first part of the season is dedicated to the Lizardmen arc, where Ainz tries to take over their land in order to make them his allies and obey him. Later on, we follow Sebas who is sent to the capital to find out more clues about the society and the people who run the country. He discovers by chance a shady organization by the name of Eight Fingers, an underground syndicate that holds quite a large amount of influence and is effectively controlling the entire nation from the shadows. Due to various circumstances, Nazarick decides to take them down and Demiurge is forging up a plan. Half of them are to attack the city as part of his demon force and Momon is to help Blue Roses, an adamantite ranked adventurer group that works for the Kingdom, to defeat him. The pace of the plot is quite slow but the ending of the season was very satisfying. Good humor, dialogues, not much action but with an interesting character development that gave you a bit of insight for the guardians of Nazarick.

Art & Music

Once again, good animation quality from Madhouse and decent use of CGIs. The aesthetic is exactly the same with the first season but it’s quite apparent that the character design and overall animation has greatly improved. The Lizardmen look nothing like the ones represented in the first opening of Overlord. It was great to see that they still try to produce quality content. Music was also good and the opening theme was as catchy as the first one. The ending song ‘HYDRA’ by MYTH & ROID was amazing, it fitted perfectly the ending credits and gave an amazing vibe to the female characters.

Themes & Trivia

The Pleiades force: The Pleiades originally come from Ancient Greek mythology. They were the companions of Artemis, the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione born on Mount Cyllene. They were thought to have been translated to the night sky as a cluster of stars, the Pleiades, and were associated with rain. More about the Pleiades force is mentioned in the Overlord II Episode 6 Review.

Light Novel: The second season of Overlord is the adaptation of Volumes 4, 5, and 6 of the light novel. The fifth and the sixth volume are some sorts of mega-arc. However, the fourth volume connects only slightly with the fifth one. Both of the arcs involve a lot of new characters and conflicts that it’s very hard to establish in only 13 episodes. So you can understand now, why everything felt a bit too rushed even though the pace of the plot was slow.

Comments

I will be honest that in the beginning of Overlord II, I was so mad that the Lizardmen arc was given so much spotlight but the rest of the season really paid off. I loved how we got to see more of Sebas, the rest of the Pleiades and the guardians of Nazarick. It felt nice to see some character background about them even though Momon didn’t have much screen time which was a bummer. While watching this season of Overlord, I truly understood why it feels so different from all the other anime of the same genre and the reason for that is that you don’t know if they are the good or the bad guys in any scenario. A detail which makes everything instantly refreshing and exciting. Also, the fact that everyone is more powerful than any enemy they encounter makes it more engaging, since you just see the side characters struggle while dealing with the main characters and not vice versa. Sort of like the same feel you get while watching One-Punch Man.

Overlord Season 3, here we go!

Plus:

Excellent humor
Awesome characters with interesting design
Decent effects

Minus:

There weren’t many great battles in this season
Not enough badass-ery
Too many new characters

This season of Overlord was not that bad, even if it left me with some gaps and I would have liked to see more things happen in depth, for example, I feel like the last few episodes had so much more to offer but they looked a bit rushed which let me down a bit. Nevertheless, in general, it was nice to see in action most of the characters and this time even taking more initiatives and not just praising Lord Ainz without speaking their minds. The third season of Ovelord has been confirmed and it is to air in July 2018. We will soon get to see more about Momonga and his adventures so until then try and get your hopes up!