Review of Overlord II

tl;dr: A sequel series that changes tremendously by focusing on new characters and in a sense flash over substance, but does quite well at it. The second season of Overlord takes place immediately after the first. However, the structure and hence the overall anime feel incredibly different. The biggest difference by far is that Ainz and Nazarick simply aren't the primary focus anymore. That's not to say that they're not important in that the plot still revolves around them. However, it's only partially shown from their perspective, focusing just as much on side characters that get pulled into their various plans, schemes, and experiments. Ainz himselfdoesn't really feel like much of a main character anymore with entire episodes where he doesn't matter at all.

This change has various pros and cons. The first issue with this is that this means that the main characters get less development. Ainz seemed like he was beginning to have a character arc in the first season. However, this season drops that entirely and it doesn't feel like Ainz is progressing at all anymore. Another issue is that though there's still some focus on members of Nazarick, overall less of a focus is placed on them and hence less time is spent on them overall which results in many that were focused on heavily in the first season and that I had come to like quite a bit not getting as much screen time. The last major issue is that it results in a plot that's a lot more scattered and incoherent. When it was focusing on the members of Nazarick in the first season, things were somewhat slow but it was always clear what direction they were headed in. This season, as it focuses on so many side characters, it feels like we're getting bits and pieces of a bunch of plot threads without it really being clear where things are going overall or what Ainz and Nazarick are trying to do long term, which leads to the ending feeling kind of lackluster.

In terms of benefits, the first is that by expanding the scope, it can tell very different stories. The anime can show both sides of each conflict that occurred and how they came to be. It also has simple but reasonably solid character development for a lot of the side characters it introduces. It also allows for improved world building which I think this season excels at as the world is really starting to take shape now. Another benefit, is that it allows the plot to be completely crazy. By focusing on showing things from others perspectives, it results in the entrance of members of Nazarick always being amazing and exciting and allows the show to milk the overpowered angle a lot more without things getting repetitive than keeping the focus on Nazarick would. It also feels like it allows the portrayal of Nazarick, which was as kind of evil in the first season but shying away from truly being so, take that final step wherein they're simple evil now, with those opposing them being developed as not so, resulting in all sorts of weird dynamics to who you're supposed to be rooting for or what you're supposed to be expecting along with a bizarrely entertaining atmosphere. It allows a lot of random twists and surprises, leading to a lot of fights of which none match up to the single Ainz vs Shalltear from the firsts season, but combined are better overall. Overall, it results in an anime that feels like it has less of a purpose, but is simply more fun.

The art and animation were decently improved I think, but overall are still pretty lacking with a lot of bad CG usage. The OP was great and fit really well with the crazy mad tone and atmosphere of the show. The ED was decent enough and transitioned to really well in terms of playing over the main content. The soundtrack was also decent.