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Still some room on that bubble.
A brief post here, because I found this episode of Overlord to be kind of boring. It felt like by far the most generic MMORPG-Anime ep yet, an action episode in a series with mediocre animation and a clear-cut good vs. evil faceoff in a series where ambiguity is a strength. There was some exposition here, certainly, but I didn’t find it tickled my curiosity the way that of the first three eps did.
In the first place, as long as Momonga-Ains is as omnipotent as he is, any fight he’s involved in is going to be of limited interest. And the faceoff between Gazeff and the Slane Theocracy may be important in establishing the parameters of the setting, but it wasn’t nearly as involving as seeing Momonga save the village. Momonga remains as he was – a guy who can basically do what he wants in this world, no matter the opponent. If he wants to play the good guy, he can – for as long as it suits him to do so.
As for the future, it appears Ains (that’s what he wants his NPC family to call him now) has decided on a strategy of making as much noise as possible, hoping somebody he knows will notice and contact him so he can find out what’s going on. I’m hoping something like that happens soon, or we get back to the more interesting character interaction (and introspection) we saw in earlier episodes. Depending on if and when that happens, this show could still go either way for me.
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Simone
July 29, 2015 at 8:59 amOne thing I noticed in this episode was that – for once – there seemed to be a bit more effort put in the technical compartment. Some of the battle scenes were at least nice (though: CGI, CGI everywhere). It wasn't nearly as compelling as episode 3 but at least it was fun action-wise to me. Episode 2 remains the absolute low of the series for now imho. I tend to think the issue with Momonga being so OP right now is also this is probably the final battle of the first LN volume – and a bit like it usually happens in the 1st chapter of any battle shonen manga ever, it is used to display the full extent of the protagonist's strength. Except that being volumes and not manga chapters it took four episodes to get to this point rather than one. I'll give it time. Though it'd be pretty boring if every future battle was as one-sided as this one.
admin
July 29, 2015 at 4:14 pmWow – pretty massive spoiler-dump there. Pretty much no need to guess about anything now, thanks to that comment.
Earthling Zing
July 29, 2015 at 5:06 pmI still find the animation pretty decent, Madhouse does a great job with their different shots. The episode content was pretty traditional though, the most interesting stuff were at the end. I'm looking forward to see how the different servants will react to try and achieve his new goal.
Merry Smithy
July 30, 2015 at 2:36 amFormat-wise, it feels like Mahouka all over again.
Ace-protagonist with adoring female companion finds himself in a setting where they are several tiers above everyone else, and thus will face no real challenges, but the audience is expected to sympathize with some unknowable strife.
admin
July 30, 2015 at 4:39 amExcept that it doesn't have two prominent Mahouka features – a protagonist and politics that are completely insufferable.
Simone
July 30, 2015 at 11:57 amWell, *supposedly* there could be some other players fro Yggdrasil in this world which could pose a challenge to him. I see a scenario with multiple potential Overlords battling over control of the land while the local residents can do little but root on the sidelines as the most likely one at this point.
Kevin
July 30, 2015 at 5:31 pmI've not seen Mahouka but I do see your point and to be honest, I'm not sure why I like this show as much as I do. Considering they spent the entire episode on a battle that was neither suspenseful (for the reasons you describe) nor particularly visually entertaining (thanks to the mediocre animation), I can't explain why my attention didn't wander more while watching it.
I love the idea of the main character being an OP Lich so that was enough to catch my initial interest and I guess now I'm curious to see what the conflict of this story will be about since we're four episodes in and I still have no idea. Maybe that is the answer right there. Instead of the usual storyline of a protagonist overcoming obstacles in an effort to accomplish something, we seem to have a protagonist with no obstacles searching for something to accomplish. While that's not exactly compelling it is new kind of story (at least to me) so perhaps that is why I'm still watching?