Note: This review only covers the first season of Overlord. Original writing date: 05/11/2015.

After a while watching shows you start to see them repeating past works over and over. You see no originality, even if they have it, and only a few within thousands can truly make you smile. While watching Overlord I was certain this was a parallel story from Log Horizon or a tribute to Disgaea. I mean… it lacks originality in most of its aspects. The stuck-in-a-MMO start certainly makes you sad, the anime tropes of sexy demons, vampire lolis, traps, and obsession with pairing all of them with the protagonist leaves you tired, and the game terms forced into the world always make you lose any hope of realistic progress.

All of that, however, manages to be covered by a decent execution of a tale where the protagonist tries to be a villainous hero and the mystery of the world makes up for the lack of its originality. It could even be said that, among all MMO-inspired shows, Overlord can perhaps share the higher echelon with a selected few.

It all starts when the servers of the game Yggdrasil are about to shutdown. Momonga, the leader of a monster-only guild which amassed wealth and power in the game, remains alone to see off the legacy he and his friends built. When the servers finally shutdown, however, Momonga finds himself still inside the game and with all the custom-made NPCs of his castle gaining life.

A mysterious world and a insane protagonist

Overlord is initially about discovery. The fortress from Momonga’s guild is warped to a foreign place he knows nothing about. He must learn about where he is, what happened, and what exactly are the rules of this new reality. Unlike other shows where you wish to know about what is happening in real life, Overlord quickly throws off any reason to worry with that, as Momonga simply doesn’t care he is stuck in the game, for him that was already his life.

Momonga, in fact, starts off with the typical japanese style and is interestingly shaped through the episodes to become the undead necromancer he is in the game. This slow transformation from man-who-played-MMOs into an evil overlord makes him far more interesting than most other protagonists you see around like the annoying Kirito or the cold-but-cute Shiro. His knowledge of Yggdrasil and his power are massive, but faced with the unknown he starts to make careful advances in this new territory.

NPCs given life

One thing that really made Log Horizon interesting was the fact the NPCs were like real inhabitants of the game and the players were more akin to alien superheroes from another world. Overlord uses a similar concept, making the world around Momonga a place that is alive and not just a random virtual world. It goes even further and surround him with NPCs he and his friends made to protect their fortress, and they now all pledge loyalty to Momonga as their supreme ruler.

Kingdoms filled with their own agendas, shady assassins, war between nations of religious belief, and many other things fills the land where Momonga and his servants now reside. This, as in Log Horizon, makes the show much more likely to feel as your old-school type of “boy in a parallel world”, which is always a good thing these days.

However…

What is the problem with Japan and immortal lolis? Damn… there is potential in having his own horde of superpowerful NPCs, but Momonga’s crew is half-filled with your average and annoying ecchi stereotypes. I could stand the sexy succubus, but here she is insanely obsessed with having sex with her master even if he is just a bunch of bones with no flesh to give her pleasure. There are twin lolis, one of them being a trap, that play the role the genki type and the cute-always-sorry vassal. Then there is a vampire loli who is also obsessed with the lord of bones. Seriously, why? Why? This crew offers one or two funny dialogues, but the focus of the show lies elsewhere so they are just there to remind you this was made in Japan and it is likely the vision Japan has of demonic/undead villains, as if this was a copycat of Disagea’s netherworld.

It is kinda slow as well

Once again we have a show divided in seasons that we never know when they will get a sequel, but Overlord manages to pick his first dozen episodes and deliver only very little content. You end up knowing just a tiny bit of the seemingly interesting world and the only real threat found by now lies within Momonga’s own cavalry. For an overlord who quickly sees he is a powerhouse in a world of worms, he could certainly change his careful tactics to something that would broaden his view in this short span of time. I truly hope the next season offers a better pace, but even with this slow season it manages to catch your attention.

Madhouse pedigree and generic sound direction

Madhouse is a certainty of consistency and quality. Overlord is a great experience to the eyes with solid animation when it is required, which means little, even if when paired with Log Horizon and SAO, this seems far more frantic. Sadly though, Overlord does not escape the colorful palette that does not pair well with all the villains, undeads, demons, and dark magic within it. The rare moments where it gets gritty and dark are certainly where Overlord shines the most, so being mostly colorful and vivid is a huge let down. The same thing happens with its sound direction, offering generic themes much like what happens in the other MMO-inspired shows and rarely makes you remember this is an MMO in this regard.

Overlord was a decent surprise for me. It is far from being a masterpiece, but it manages to pick the good heart of Log Horizon and the villain-inspired protagonist to make something worthwhile. Considering other MMO-inspired shows, Overlord certainly sits among the very best, which is not exactly a feat, but a good thing nonetheless. You have a guy who slowly becomes a villain, a mysterious world, a welcome lack of focus on MMO terms, and a good execution.

For a first season this is certainly a decent start, but many things now can turn the second season into only yet another MMO generic show. I am quite certain they will fail to keep up Momonga’s transformation into a true villain and overlord, and I am more likely to see him turning into yet another Shiro, loved by everyone else as the guy who slays the evil empire and free the people. The world that sits below him and which just by chance manages to give him a challenge is more likely to ass-pull some heroes or resources enough to pose a true physical/magical threat to Momonga, which will make the whole idea of the show a mess. So, for being disappointed with most second seasons of recent shows, I cannot expect Overlord to do what it should, meaning embracing its title and crafting a mastermind overlord. But hell… I can still hope it will do that, can’t I?