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This special is just pointless. The premise: the main character of the main series, Kotoura, briefly interviews the 5 main characters of the show, effectively providing a basic character synopsis for each. No matter which order you watch this special with the main show, it doesn't make sense: if you watch this before the show, it spoils the character dynamics and how they develop, and this provides nothing new for after you're finished watching.

For positives: some of the jokes are somewhat funny, I guess? Oh! It's less than 10 minutes long, so it at least won't waste a ton of your time!

Yeah, don't waste ... your time with this one.

TL;DR — 5/10: Competent, but uncreative.

"Snow White with the Red Hair" is a show that unfortunately never could develop beyond shoujo romance tropes into a unique work of its own. The story of a foreign prince falling in love with a tough-and-smart girl of modest means sounds like the premise of a Hallmark film, and while "Snow White" had the potential to become more than that, it was sadly never reached.

When we first meet the eponymous lead Shirayuki working at a city apothecary, attention is immediately drawn to the unusual and enrapturing red color of her hair. This will become a running theme of the ... show: others judging Shirayuki only through her appearance, while she endeavors to prove her worth as a person independent of her looks. Her motivation is thankfully handled with some subtlety, which unfortunately does not extend effectively to other characters or the plot at large. Immediately afterwards this theme is cemented, when a soldier enters her apothecary, stating that Prince Raj demands her as his concubine, having been enamored by her hair — again, this cements her desire to be valued beyond solely her appearance. We are introduced to her briefly, and immediately given a conflict where she has no choice but to abandon her old life, within the first 3~4 minutes of the show. This is not bad per se, as the plot gets moving immediately, though more time learning about Shirayuki and what life she is forced to leave behind could have developed the stakes and sacrifice of her choice.

Now, this is a nitpick, but I just have to draw attention to the lead character’s name: “Shirayuki.” This name remains untranslated in the Japanese version, as is typical when Japanese media is subtitled. But perplexing to me is that her name remains “Shirayuki” in the English dub, as well. Considering both versions explicitly draw attention to the fact her name translates to “Snow White,” which is obvious inspiration from the fairy-tale character of “Snow White” (even nearly eating a poisoned apple early on, the plot foiled by her Prince Charming). So why, at least in the English version, is she not simply called, “Snow White?” The name is in the public domain, so perhaps it is to distinguish itself from the fairy-tale? But then, why name the lead after the character at all? This is a minor point, and does not detract from the quality of the series, but it’s a question that has befuddled me throughout my viewing.

Having cut her hair in a scene frequently compared to "Yona of the Dawn" (which I feel portrayed the symbolism and emotion of the lead’s choice much more effectively), Shirayuki departs her homeland of Tanbarun incognito for the neighboring kingdom of Clarines. The differences between her former and new homelands are not relevant to the story, and so they are not expanded upon — a story should stay focused of course, but I feel this was missed opportunity to both show the personal difficulty of moving to an unfamiliar environment, and add another layer to her fish-out-of-water situation. On the road we are introduced to Shirayuki’s Prince Charming, Zen (who we later learn is a prince himself), who also makes note of her red hair after removing her disguise, despite having an aqua-haired retainer in tow. He suspects the medical balm she offers to be a poison, which she assuages by injuring herself with the very weapon he is pointing to her, then applying a balm to her own injury. This is a great character moment for Shirayuki, showing she is more than willing to tackle problems directly and forcefully, which does come up throughout the rest of the series, but does not cause enough further conflict in of itself which could have lead to more interesting drama moments and pushed the characters to act creatively. Now trusting her intentions, Zen and Shirayuki begin to hit it off, and here we see what will become the weakest element of the series: the relationship between the two leads. While it is functional enough, neither are written in a way that brings out or develops the strength of the other. Zen is particularly enamored by her, to the point where it seems he hardly discusses or thinks about anyone or anything else. While she is able to have significant development independent of him, Zen’s character is completely dependent on his relationship with her. It’s a real shame too, because the few moments we see of Zen solely focused on his motivations or relationships with other characters show much more depth to him, which we really needed to see more of.

The rest of the season follows the characterizations introduced in the first episode, culminating finally into openly stating their feelings for one another in the penultimate episode, which is done competently. A romantic relationship between the two had already been on the table since midway through the season, when Prince Raj began a rumor that the two were to be engaged. This draws the attention of Zen’s brother, Crown Prince Izana, to Shiriyuki, as he doubts her worthiness to marry into the royal family. Despite being the overarching antagonist, Izana’s actions and motives are in service of the kingdom’s strength, taking a more Machiavellian approach than his brother. Perhaps that is a charitable interpretation of his actions, but he does show himself to be strategic and shrewd throughout the season, so I’ll give this show the benefit of the doubt here. While on that note: the antagonists of the show usually either 1: have their conflict resolved within the episode they are introduced, or 2: become either passive or even ally with the Shirayuki and Zen. Like most things in this show: resolving conflict like this is not a problem per se, but it does hinder the potential for interesting long-term conflicts, which could have spiced up the romance with either clashing viewpoints or a shared strife.

The art and sound are much the same as everything else I have mentioned: while neither stand out particularly, both serve their function without errors that I noticed, and depict the characters’ appearances and mood of each scene effectively.

Despite not getting much out of this show myself, I definitely acknowledge it is by no means a bad show, and I can certainly see how others will enjoy it more. Give it an episode or two — you may enjoy it much more than I did!

"Can an anime with one male main character surrounded by monster-girls vying for his attention actually be good?" "Interviews with Monster Girls" proves that, shockingly, yes it can.

This show opts for a cute and wholesome mentor/student story (WITHOUT predatory and gross """romance"""), much to its benefit. Though the girls do pine for him as young teens sometimes tend to do, Mr. Takahashi (the central male character) acts as a mature and wholesome adult, dealing with these young girls in a professional, supportive, and at times fatherly manner. Seeing the genuine care and interest he has in his students is honestly heartwarming, and could absolutely not ... be accomplished if there was any back-and-forth romantic tension going on between teacher and students. The romantic tension there is is reserved for his coworker Ms. Satou, which is handled in a quirky, funny, and untimately charming way. When even the succubus character is lauded for her characterization, rather than solely her attractiveness, you know this show has done something very right.

I came into Overlord with high but ambiguous expectations, with raving reviews both online and from friends. Though it opened as yet another generic, dull, isekai power-fantasy, it took an interesting turn: the protagonist took upon the role of a villain, not a hero. This excited me, prompting a slew of possibilities. Would he struggle to fight against the growing compulsion to commit evil inside of him, and search for the source of this strange compulsion (demonstrated by a green glow in the show, apparently visible only to him)? Would he struggle to balance a tyrannical desire to use his power self-indulgently against a more ... magnanimous approach, thereby also balancing antagonism of the local people vs. antagonism of his own servants? Or would it be a more simple yet still interesting premise of a standard fantasy adventure told from the villain's perspective, watching the heroes growing stronger on their quest to vanquish him? The further I watched into the first season, the more excited I became.

Oh, silly me. I forgot this was an isekai, adapted from a light novel.

Even during this early period of naive excitement, the cracks were showing. Ains' assistants praised his mundane and oft-incompetent actions with ludicrous amounts of praise and ham-handedly written lust. I excused this at first, believing it to be parody, but it dawned on me that, no, the writers expect us to take this seriously. It wasn't long before "Ains-sama!" caused me to roll my eyes, dreading to think how long Albedo would verbally fellate her bone-brained "master" this time. The human characters offer the conflict this show desperately needs...only to have Ains and the powercreep gang sweep aside every obstacle with ease, completely obliterating every scrap of narrative tension in the process. Dilemmas become a joke, because the audience knows that either Ains will come in and solve everything with no effort (and subsequently be showed with praise and admiration for excruciating minutes on end), or it does not involve Ains, and therefore is unimportant to the story.

I rate this show so low not because it is a generic isekai power-fantasy, but because it had great potential to be so much more.

Season 2 is a general improvement over season1, primary because Overlord works best when the focus is off Ains. The beginning of this season focuses entirely on new characters in a race against the clock to unite with their former enemies to ward off a coming apocalypse. Side characters from season 1 are given more time to be developed and fleshed out, must to the show's benefit. Seeing characters struggle with the looming danger they all have in common is engaging, portraying Anis as this larger-than-life vague entity in which there is little but still existent hope of triumphing against. Unfortunately, Ains manages to destroy ... most of this progress as soon as he appears, acting as the significant detriment to his own show that he always was.