Oh, look!
Another wish-fulfillment, power fantasy, Isekai anime about a guy getting trapped in an MMO
and being a complete badass that no one can defeat.
NEVER SEEN THIS ONE BEFORE.
This is going to be so much fun [Sarcasm]….
Okay yeah, no that was far better than I expected.
Well done!
Well done…
Overlord is an anime that’s been around for a number of years now but I ended up avoiding
it largely because Isekai anime have increasingly become boring to me over the last little while
and there are only so many power fantasies that I can take.
We all wish that we could live in a fantasy world.
Our world sucks, I get it, but variety is the spice of life and this genre is one that
gotten saturated by the same kind of shit hella quick.
So do you want to know how to get me interested in a “From another world” anime?
BE BOLD!
Be bold, even if it fails.
Bringing the fantasy to the real world? O-Ki.
Fantasy world but with a magical smartphone?
Not O-ki.
Teaching fantasy denizens the glory of otaku culture?
O-ki!
Sword Art Online!
Not O-ki!
I know I’m just beating a dead horse with jumper cables by mentioning SAO, but it really
is the most well-known example from the genre that’ll help me get my point across.
I'm not gonna mention it again, anyway, SO!
OVERLORD!
It is the story that makes your protagonist a villain.
In Overlord, our main character Momonga is getting the last few hours of entertainment
that he can out of his favorite MMO before it apparently goes offline...
FOREVER.....
He looks after his spoils of a long-fought career.
Last minute upkeep on the guild hall for memory’s sake.
Screwing around with your friend’s custom built NPC because hey the servers are closing
down anyways, who's there to get mad?
Only problem being that the server didn’t stop, or maybe it did, but that becomes quickly
neither here nor there.
At the moment of shutdown, instead of being logged out our protagonist finds himself living
in the body of his Lich avatar, sitting on his throne, surrounded by... suddenly very active
and emoting former NPCs.
What follows is the traditional Isekai story.
Character finds the limits of what used to be the game but is now “real life”, he
uses his overpowered abilities to show the world how awesome he is, etc, etc.
Overlord’s twist in the genre however is that our protagonist is playing a character
who is, traditionally, a villain.
Lich’s are evil, he has demons and aberrations under his employ, all of whom despise and
loathe the smelly humans.
But this Lich is technically a regular Japanese citizen thrust into a fantasy world.
So how evil does that make him really?
Over the course of the series, I’d say that he’s less evil and more so just trying not
be bored while doing his best to discover the limits of his circumstances.
He doesn’t know why he lives in this world now, nor what about it is similar to the game
he remembers.
He doesn’t know if anyone else got transported with him, what their thoughts and motivations
on the subject will be.
But he does know that he is thus far the most badass evil overlord in the land and no one’s
power seems to come close to his own.
Which begs the inevitable question that I doubt will be directly asked: Even if he figured
out how to get home, will he want to?
Probably not...
Because that in essence, is why this genre has been so popular.
Everyone to some extent has dreams at some point in their life about living in another
world, a better world, and stories about characters getting to do just that are engrossing because of it.
But Overlord rides a fine line between a fantasy that you could follow along with and be interested
in, despite it not being about you,
and masturbatory fanfiction about what the author wishes their
life is like.
Mechanically, Momonga is all-powerful, but the way he lives acts as guidelines that keep
him in check.
Could he start a harem at his home base between all the female minions and demons currently
living there?
Sure, he is a great and powerful overlord!
But he doesn’t.
It doesn’t fit the character he is trying to portray.
Which is important.
He’s playing a villain, a traditional fantasy villain at that.
You can’t imagine Sauron, Dark Lord of All, starting a harem out in Mordor.
Just because he can.
It’s not...
IT'S NOT DONE.
So being able to stick to his character is what makes him intriguing.
Audiences love a good bad guy.
But at the same time, he was originally human, a closeted nerd, and some of those
tendencies end up surfacing from time to time. That's what makes him relatable.
He’s not necessarily good at interacting with people, and even less so when they are
ones who used to be his unmoving emotionless NPC characters.
So at first he struggles with how he should interact with them.
But eventually he starts to form bonds with those he spends time with, and if you try
to take those bonds away from him his wrath will be swift and without mercy.
But I’m not saying he’s perfect. That's what I like about him.
The subject of the power he wields is still a tenuous one.
He still has yet to face any enemy that even came close in power level to match him, and
hasn’t had any real challenge in that regard.
The closest yet wasn’t even all that close because with the “masterful planning”
and strategy that he has – because power fantasy protagonist – he had the fight on
lockdown from the get go!
But there’s a new season in town, which is odd considering how long it’s been since
the first season wrapped up.
With any luck in this new season Momonga will finally have a good proper challenge,
one where he could and does lose.
That’s the next scenario I want to see.
But we’ll get to that.
Another nice thing that Overlord as a series does that has a leg up on other enjoyable
shows in its genre (like say Log Horizon or King’s Avatar), is that they never spend
a lot of time trying to explain the minute details of this MMO world our villain finds
himself in.
It’s just kind of assumed you know.
But at the same time there’s just enough remnants remaining to make it believable that
this was at one point a playable MMO world and not just some fantasy world look-alike.
Just enough to flesh out the world, but not so much that it feels like it needs to educate
its audience.
Which is its own kind of refreshing.
But there’s a slight disappointment with the show.
The Animation.
Now having said that I need to be perfectly clear, the animation in Overlord is not bad.
Hell, by most standards it’s actually really good.
So why would I call it a disappointment though?
Because this is a Madhouse show.
Madhouse for me has a history of extremely stylized and fluid animation, and for years
they’ve been one of my favourite studios to produce anime for television.
They still are, to be clear, but while watching Overlord I had to remind myself that they
produced this, because it didn’t feel like a work they had anything to do with.
Oh hey, it’s the cousin to the Deen/Stay Night dragon!
What the hell are you doing here?
So it's just unfortunate that to me Madhouse is not what it used to be,
but times change, and studios have dropped far lower than this.
But back to Overlord.
Overlord is an example of a series that attempts to invert some of the tropes that made its
genre a hit, trying to give its own spin on a genre that we are slowly getting more and
more tired of as time passes.
Like I'm already kind of spent on it, I know some people aren't, but I totally am.
This is a power fantasy of a guy would could very well be extremely similar demographically
to the audience that the show is trying to cater to, but not overly so and has enough
limits on both his power and personality to stop him from being obnoxious.
His supporting cast may be filled with cliché tried and true tropes, but the method in which
they are integrated into the story makes them far more endearing than they would be otherwise.
Because of course otaku overlords would create a squadron of battle-ready maids to protect
their guild hall.
Wouldn’t you?
Overall I’d like to present Overlord with the recommendation to Buy It.
Although I would have been far more disappointed in this show had I watched it when it aired,
as the first season leaves the story kind of in a lurch, and there’s nothing more
at the end than a massive tease at what could be upcoming in it's future.
This prevented me from recommending it any higher. Even with the second season currently airing.
For the longest time – knowing Madhouse’s track record with sequels – it was unlikely
to ever get a second season…until it happened.
Which is surprising.
A nice surprise, but still surprising.
Far too often we see shows, Madhouse shows in particular, getting released as nothing
more than glorified advertisements for their source material that we as North American
fans can’t partake in because most times said source material isn’t available to
us over here.
It’s a sad and depressing reality that I wish wasn’t the case.
BUT SPEAKING OF ADVERTISEMENTS FOR SOURCE MATERIALS:
Our friends over at Bookwalker
are having a sale on the Overlord manga and light novels to help promote the show’s
second season.
From now until February 12th 2018, buying any Overlord manga from their website will
enter you to win either a Nendroid set of some of the show’s characters or one of
five Shikishi Boards signed by Overlord’s Mangaka.
You can also use the coupon code “grarkada” to get 600 JPY off any ebook in their store.
Though this coupon will only be applicable to new accounts.
And of course the series itself is available to watch over on Crunchyroll, with a dub of
season one as well as a simuldub of season two available from Funimation.
If you’ve watched Overlord and are looking for something else of similar quality, the
aforementioned Log Horizon will fulfil most of your trapped-in-an-MMO needs.
There’s also a show from late last year, Recovery of an MMO Junkie, which offers a
humorous take on MMO gamers specifically, although they are not trapped in the fantasy
world itself.
Unless you consider spending hours on end in front of a monitor playing an MMO, to be
being trapped in it.
Either way, there will be links down in the description so that you can check those two
out as well, should they be to your liking.
As always, a very special thank you to my patrons who make these videos possible and
support my work.
You guys are fantastic and I can’t thank you enough.
But specifically I’d like to thank Patrons: Siri Yamiko, Viktor Ekmark, Joshua Garcia,
and Calhoonboy for being specifically awesome.
And until next time ladies, gentlemen, and others: Stay Frosty.