First off, a lot of people compare this show to SAO, just like every trapped-in-MMORPG show these days, which isn't necessarily a good thing. However, since we are on this page, I will explain where I think this show thrived where SAO failed in its setting. Yes, the main character is overpowered, but unlike SAO, the setup for how he became overpowered is something I find more believable. He didn't suddenly gain powers out of nowhere like OP Jesus-kun. Everyone around him suddenly became weaker. This show never pretends like he's unstoppable or infallible (evidence presented later on where he is only able to get
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by in one incident through openly cheating). Whereas Kirito from SAO presents himself to be genuinely cocky, it is made clear the main character's behavior is all an act, and he isn't actually confident in what he's doing at all. He is at worst a chuunibyou (heh).
Story: 8/10
If you like watching strategy games, this is essentially one of them. The name of the game is using deception to make people believe you are who you present yourself to be and further manipulate them to your advantage. In this way, people should be comparing the show more to Death Note. I still feel, however, that parts of the story may be a little convoluted or lacking in explanation. For this reason, I felt the story was overall very good instead of great.
Art: 9/10
I cannot tell people enough how much I adore the art style of this show. It almost feels like I'm back to the old days of watching all the spooky fun characters of Soul Eater, where it is practically Halloween every day. The two art styles are still very different, but the combination of fun, imaginative, dark, and sometimes cute greatly appeals to me. Although I would give a 10/10 for the art style, there were some problems in the CGI for the overall animation quality. For this reason, I will try to give the art a more critical score of only great.
Sound: 8/10
I feel Overlord's instrumentals and use of chorus in their soundtrack fits well with the show's fun and spooky conquest theme. Most of the instrumental music isn't exactly what I would call a masterpiece, but the whole reason for why I took notice to this show was MYTH&ROID's fantastic ending song "L.L.L." It is a band that I greatly favor for its ability to create unique songs that still sound great, and after listening to it a few times, I felt I had to check this anime out. I also greatly enjoyed the opening theme. I'm an anime opening person, so I like that initial hype-up before the show. Between having a decent soundtrack and a masterful beginning and ending, I have given this a rating of very good.
Character: 7/10
I believe my first paragraph explains well how I feel about the main character not being a complete jerk, but what about the rest of the characters? While I enjoy the character designs of the main character and his servants, only some depth of character is explored for each servant. It does not go too far down into their depth of personalities from what I watched in this particular season. The main development focus is instead on the main character. (Particular servants are highlighted in the next season). Their enemies are also ill-defined at this point, and most that do show up are just copy-paste enemies from any generic show. With only one person having any real personal development, I have to rate character currently only good.
Enjoyment: 9/10
If you have been reading my review carefully up to now, it should start to become clear why I particularly enjoy this show. Strategy through deception, fun spooky conquest, the great music, emotional development of the main character. I do find the RPG fighting aspects to be a bit convoluted and wish there was more I could get out of the other characters of the story. That is why I cannot go higher than a great rating (rather than outstanding).
Overall: 8/10
At the end of the day, Overlord is another trapped-in-MMORPG copy with a slightly different rendition, but what ideas are not recycled these days? To me, it's not about being completely original but how you make it your own, and the creator of Overlord took on this challenge, presenting it at a new and somewhat fresh angle where instead of having the main character become overpowered over time, the relative strength of his enemies is completely changed up instead. Overlord is the first trapped-in-MMORPG story that I found genuine enjoyment in without falling flat later on, so I figure they did something right for somebody at least.
The one major problem I have with this anime is its lack of feeling of danger. While there have been times he has come close to losing, most things in their world do not pose a threat to the main character, at least not at this point of the story where his truly (hopefully) powerful enemies live in the shadows. Until he has real, tangible reason to worry for himself and his servants', the show can only be so good for me. I like a more chaotic theme to my stories, and a main character that remains completely in control does not pose anything interesting to me. For this and the other reasons explained above, I will rate the Overlord anime as very good, but it could get better, hopefully, one day. (I am not familiar with the source material.)
Apr 14, 2018
First off, a lot of people compare this show to SAO, just like every trapped-in-MMORPG show these days, which isn't necessarily a good thing. However, since we are on this page, I will explain where I think this show thrived where SAO failed in its setting. Yes, the main character is overpowered, but unlike SAO, the setup for how he became overpowered is something I find more believable. He didn't suddenly gain powers out of nowhere like OP Jesus-kun. Everyone around him suddenly became weaker. This show never pretends like he's unstoppable or infallible (evidence presented later on where he is only able to get
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