Review of Overlord II

I have never understood why Overlord receives so much praise. It is practically a generic isekai light novel adaptation, but with older characters, giving it the illusion of maturity. Overlord is not mature, it's not remotely well written, its visuals don't even look good. The character designs look cool, and all but that isn't enough to carry a boatload of mediocrity. Both this season and the first were at best disposable entertainment, like any other isekai light novel adaptation. What's the appeal of it? Is it that Momonga is a ridiculously overpowered self-insert protagonist and his legion of ladies all want him? Momonga is a typical isekaiprotagonist. An overpowered character doesn't become good just by not being a teenage boy. Skeleton or kid, there is no difference. Skeletons are cool and all. I like them as much as the next guy, but he's not a very interesting character beyond his intimidating design. He is entirely devoid of substance, only existing to continue the story. Even his character art fails at conveying the intimidation. The light novel's designs look amazing—but this adaptation's art lacks detail. His skeleton face remains unanimated in conversations; his voice is undeniably booming, the actor puts on a fantastic show, but there's no impact.

Momonga being a villain changes almost nothing. Everyone still loves him anyway, and he acts like the generic 'nice guy' harem protagonist. He's always speaking in his friendly guy voice in his head to remind us, he's not actually a real villain. It's lovely how nice of a guy he is really–wait, stop right there... If the villain protagonist isn't even a villain, then this show is literally just the same as anything else… Like the meek voice hiding behind the intimidating demonic skeleton exterior, Overlord masquerades as something far better and more original than it actually is. The philosophy of: "How can I self-insert if my main character isn't a good guy?" breaks any potential this show had to become something original.

It's funny how Overlord shamelessly admits that its female characters are coded to love Momonga, but that doesn't make it better writing. A story's world should ebb and flow without the audience needing to be there. Here it feels like a pandering fest; the characters bend over backward to praise Mr. Skeletor, he wins nearly every fight, and there is no substance.

This new season of Overlord isn't all harem bullshit; it tries a few new things… and fails at all of them. For some reason, whenever the story follows any character other than Momonga, it becomes insufferably dull. We got classic stories to be loved for ages, like the tribe of lizard idiots who inevitably get taken over by Momonga, the compelling backstory for Momonga's butler (aka Plank of Wood), some random knight guy, and a princess with a dark secret! Remember how Overlord's first season had somewhat slow pacing at times? This is 10 times worse! Entire episodes are dedicated to characters that we don't have a reason to care about. We're forced to watch them fighting in their stupid battles and their boring melodrama, and all of it barely connected to the characters introduced in the first season. In the end, the stories come together, but does the moderately entertaining end justify the tiresome means? Not at all.

It's rare for anime to put me to sleep, but Overlord's first three (lizard-focused) episodes truly tested my fortitude. The only plausible reason for the story breaking off from Ainz to follow the lizard people is to keep his harem junk from becoming too repetitive. The thing is, Overlord will be redundant no matter what crap they shove down our throats during the filler episodes. Isekai anime are so oversaturated that only making more of the same isn't enough these days. I've seen so many of these isekai power fantasies—perhaps Overlord was more original when the light novel first began publication, but today it's trite, overdone, a waste of time.

At least the few episodes Momonga gets are slightly more entertaining than the filler ones. He and the people around him have eye-catching character designs, wacky personalities, and enjoyably overdone voice acting. There's almost no substance to any of them, but at least they're fun to watch in small doses. The thing is, this new season is barely about the actually exciting characters. The only one in Momonga's legion who gets a backstory is his butler (the blandest of them all). He has an even intimidating personality but none of the charisma necessary to hold up entire episodes independently. There was a small amount of development seen for a few members of the enormous cast, but it's for the boring ones that no one is watching the show for. An occasional twist in a character's personality following a surprising betrayal may offer some fleeting intrigue, but you will quickly realize that all those twists exist. To momentarily add a fresh coat of paint to a cast of rotting cardboard cutouts.

Momga's episodes were at least better than those about random bland side characters, especially during the last three episodes of this season. We see all-out violence using nonsensical magic to create exciting gorefests and lots of angry expressions. It's still never what I'd call good, but it's passable entertainment. Momonga's storylines do tend to get repetitive quickly. An issue arises among his legion or in the world; he is literally the most powerful being in the universe and kills shit, then gives us a comment on it in his 'nice guy' voice, rinse and repeat. The only reprieve from the mind-numbing formula is the final few episodes, full of gory action, plot twists, and even betrayals that actually had me surprised. Although I struggled to care about the turns the plot took or the characters who took radical changes, it provided a fresh perspective on the tired story, even if for a moment. Sadly, the action-packed moments weren't much better than what we've seen before from Overlord, plagued with issues caused by a rushed production.

The action scenes are lackluster at best. Madhouse is airing three anime just this season alone, so it would be unreasonable to expect flawless quality, but this is just flat out the same mediocre visuals as the first season. Action scenes rely on zoom in on still shots, unanimated motion tweens, and jarring CGI. Environments are dreadfully ugly to look at; dull colors, low res repeated textures, a lack of detail, and defining traits. It all feels so lifeless and flat. It's the kind of show I would have forgotten entirely if I wasn't reviewing it.

The soundtrack is equally mediocre, totally forgettable. The bog-standard sort of booming orchestral music fades into the background. The opening was ok; a generic rock song. The ending track "Hydra" was wonderfully wispy with haunting vocals. It was the best part of the show, the only reason why I was hesitant to drop it all season.

Anything separating Overlord from the hordes of low effort isekai adaptations we see every season is only superficial; neither the audiovisual nor writing are above average. The main character being a 'villain' is just a cheap facade, the setting is lifeless, and even the cool designs are diminished by lackluster visuals. Overlord is overrated. It's just more of the same boring isekai drivel.