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「絶望の幕開け」 (Zetsubou no makuake)
“The Dawn of Despair”
Talk about ringing the New Year in with style. This season’s official start may not be for a few days yet, but Overlord apparently decided to get a head start and begin cashing in on the hype. Yes everyone’s favourite tale of skeletal domination is finally back for more, and no character was left out in this early feast for the eyes. It might have been an exposition-drenched return heavy on new faces, but lacking in Albedo (Hara Yumi)? Definitely not.
As anyone reading this probably already knows (and if you don’t go watch the first season, spoilers may be prominent hereafter), Overlord is the story of one kid trapped in a game world as his skeleton avatar Momonga (Hino Satoshi), otherwise known as Ainz. He doesn’t know why, doesn’t know if he is the only one, and has no firm idea where to start finding an explanation beyond conquering the world. For reasons. It was an intriguing twist on the well-worn SAO/Log Horizon-esque story, although I personally felt the first season was more teaser material and light novel advertisement than standalone show. Overlord certainly had its moments, particularly later on with Ainz’s fights against Clementine and Shalltear (Uesaka Sumire)—especially Shalltear—but for me it cut off just as things were getting good. Lo and behold then the surprise season two announcement which promised (if only partially) to fix those issues round one left behind.
While this episode is unlikely to change those of a similar mindset, it’s a good refresher overall for Overlord. All of the main cast makes an appearance in one shape or form, the soon to be critical political situation is succinctly described, and future developments teased in all their glory. In effect a good episode “0” not unlike Youjo Senki’s premiere; nothing new really given, but everything you could want to whet the appetite. Glorious Albedo preemptively proclaiming victory in the perpetual war for Ainz matrimony because Shalltear did a naughty? Damn right I’ll take all of that (and more cute drunk Shalltear too please and thank you). Still not sure how she intends on making a baby with a pile of bones, but really, who’s concerned about those superfluous details? It is slightly annoying how much time was given to new characters and secondary developments here (some entirely unconnected to previous events), but it’s arguably a suitable way to show Ainz’s growing influence and reach across the known world while teasing later developments. We won’t know how Overlord intends on adapting the upcoming arcs (and the importance of those lizards) until episode two, but I do know right now if mystery girl isn’t shown again I’ll be quite sad. Three girls in a free-for-all over skeletal baby-making? I can already taste the glorious catfight(s).
While we may have a bit of a wait for the next episode, you can be sure I’ll be back to see just what Overlord has planned for this season. Three episode rule or not, this one is being covered come hell or high water. After all, with MYTH&ROID doing the ED and Madhouse seemingly back in form, it’s only looking up for Overlord going forward. It’s about time to see just how fun this series can truly be.
Note: Please refrain from posting spoilers if possible. If you need to mention one use the spoiler tags, that’s what they’re there for. Any comments with untagged spoilers will be liberally edited as fair warning.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「HYDRA」by MYTH＆ROID
Show Spoiler ▼
Early Surprise for 2018 for me XD. If it’s 13 eps and based on the S1 pacing we’d prolly end off at vol. 6, if they speed it up a bit they could link Vol. 7 and 9 and Skip vol.8 (as vol. 8 is mostly a world building filler vol.)
It’s being released in three Blu Ray & DVD volumes in Japan. The first(Episodes 1-5), the second(Episodes 6-9), the third(Episodes 10-13). That’s all we’re getting for this season.
so safe to say we’ll be getting the entirety of the kingdom arc. Vol. 7 is where things get really dark and leads into vol.9 (well good enough for me XD)
Yeah pretty much. I don’t think they really intended to do much in this episode. The good stuff should start next episode.
Well the Dragon isn’t entirely unrelated in season 1, since he was the reason why Ainz encountered Shalltear in her 2nd armored form already was due to his remote armor triggering her to fight. (they fixed that in the compilation movie 2)
Heh not surprising I’d miss that, I’ve forgotten a lot of the details from the first season and avoided watching the compilation movies. Might have to change that I guess 😛
well you can prolly skip the compilation films as it mostly focuses on the Ainz vs shalltear fight, the major additions was the add of the remote armor scene attacking shalltear (shown here) and fixed the error of Ainz encountering her in her Dress mode (switched it to her armored mode)
Best bone Daddy is back baby!!
Sasuga Ainz-sama!!
Think you misspelled ‘Elias’, bud.
Easy mistake to make I’m sure.
You crazy Guile? Elias has nothing on Ainz-sama. Our overlord has returned and I’m going to enjoy the chaos he brings.
Nice to see you got Season 2 Pancakes, you seemed eager to do it. No doubt you’ll do the show justice with your excellent(As usual) coverage.
Yeah I am, hard to deny haha. For all my criticism of certain things I quite like this series, it’s different enough from the usual alternate world stuff that I cannot help but enjoy it.
Really happy you enjoy my ramblings too, half the fun of coverage is the discussions it spawns with everyone 🙂
https://randomc.net/image/Overlord%20II/Overlord%20II%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
So this is where Neo from RWBY is! havent seen her since the end of season 3!
https://randomc.net/image/Overlord%20II/Overlord%20II%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2029.jpg
Shaltear is my waifu! Hands off or I’ll chop your hands off!
https://randomc.net/image/Overlord%20II/Overlord%20II%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
Spoilers:
If Season 2 is based on Volume 4,5 and 6 of the light novels, then prepare your boners people and praise Ains with all of your might!
“but Overlord apparently decided to get a head start and begin cashing in on the hype.”: It didn’t. The broadcast begins on January 9th (http://overlord-anime.com/onair/). This episode is from a pre-screening event from December. Therefore the 2nd episode will be out on January 16th.
I know, but it’s not often we get the pre-screening posted online, let alone fansubbed. Makes for a great New Years start either way.
.. i do hope there is no watermark hidden in the pre-screening or he/she had one Job…
Probably not in this case, the episode was also aired early on TV which in part explains why the raw popped up so quickly.
As a minor correction, Ainz is not a kid, he is a adult that had a full-time job. He even mentions being a salary man this episode.
It was a rule of their guild after all.
Heh figures, I always forget something else 😛
Thanks for the correction!
They show him in real life with his headset on too in the first Overlord movie. The technology looks more advanced than what you see in SAO. The headset seems to connect to an interface at the back of his neck. It looks really cool.
As i wrote, i stumbled about some translated manga chapter. And i did like the way it is going. So i put it on my curiosity list and see if it can lit my fire. because in his own past, Overlord has the same problems like One Men Punch. Not real enemy’s on his level, so that one of his NPCs hat to fill the gap.
Let see
As One Punch Man is a comedy the overpowered nature is part of the joke so not a problem it a feature. But I don’t know if intended but One Punch Man also acts like a cartoon hero for really small kids who want the hero to show up and save the day and the hero to never really have a problem. I actually started to enjoy this nature watching the villain of the week go on about how tough they were thinking in my head just you wait for One Punch.
I think this waiting for the fools to be crushed is part of the fun as well in Overlord. Another fun part is to see Ainz, who is the evil the last villain of the story, take things so carefully, unlike a normal story evil Overlord. Normal story hero going vs Ainz is dead. For all the complaints about how the villain does something dumb to lose in many stories, Overlord is the story about what if the villain was not dumb.
Actually, Overlords are highly intelligent and analytical. They usually rise up because of their own skill. It is only when the story starts that they turn stupid, probably because the Heroes would not have a fighting chance otherwise.
The clearest example of this is the Big Bad of Star Wars: Palpatine was a damn great villain and it was a joy to watch him pull his strings, but as Darth Sidius he was stupid and boring.
Not that it is unrealistic. Anyone who has played Grand Strategies where you try to conquer the world plays strategically while weak, but then gets full of themselves once they become the strongest kid in the neighborhood. But Ainz’s subordinates seem to suffer from this and I feel they will regret it someday.
Does the animation quality for the subs going around right now seem off to anyone else? Maybe the quality of the video for the pre-airing is just off but everything seems just slightly blurrier and more jittery than it should and it’s throwing me off a bit.
Yeah the animation is definitely jittery and blurry in spots (particularly the beginning). Probably just chalk it up to the source raw though, I imagine the official release next week won’t have the same problems.
“The spooky scary skeleton is back for round two”
I cant lie, i LOL’ed!
SASUGA AINZ-SAMA!!!
I am relatively surprised they decided to continue on to Season 2, I thought Season 1 did average. Now I can enjoy my weekly dose of Albedo (but hopefully best girl Entoma gets more screen time)
What’s even funnier is that Madhouse chose Overlord s2 over One Punch Man s2 (which was a hit, but will be made by another studio). Extra funnier seeing as Madhouse usually does not make sequels. I guess one of the bosses really loves Overlord.
That’s because Overlord outsold One Punch Man on BD/DVD. It broke 10k sold per volume.
SASUGA AINZ-SAMA!!!
If this season is adopting light novel volumes 4-6 that means that it will probably end strongly at the very least. I have my doubts about Volume 4 but from the looks of things they might spend an entire 4 episodes on these scaly bastards. Honestly I never cared much about the Lizardmen and Volumes 5 and 6 allow for a bunch of new characters to shine who had relatively little screen time in the first season or were introduced in this one. It does seem that the anime designs are quite faithful to the Light Novel illustrations too.
Truthfully Volume 7 could very well function as a stand alone movie with volumes 8, 9 and 10 making a very solid Season 3. While 8 is more of a set up Volume, 9 and 10 are heavily linked so separating them into two seasons would be pretty bad. Volume 11 has a less strong storyline link to Volume 10 while it looks like Volume 12 and 13 are going to be a two parter. So a theoretical (FOR NOW) Season 4 would be best served by adapting Volumes 11-13.
Unfortunately, none of this will come to be. Light Nobel publishers make sure that the Anime adaptations end incomplete and with viewers feeling unsatisfied, all to make them buy the Light Novels.
Which makes sense. Relatively many people read comics (so Manga publishers aren’t as strict about this), but very few people read books. Have to make motivate them in any way possible.
That really is up to Madhouse. Even if the show lost half of its season one sales it would still be huge for them. I think at the very least we’ll see three seasons and maybe another movie or two. It makes sense to adapt three novels per season too if Madhouse intend to produce the show yearly from this point.
Looks like every time an Anime need an faithful and professional Butler that can do all kind of things without asking… then “Sebas” is some default character.. Animegataris, Fate and here Overlord use some sort of Brother version…
Its a nice touch..but we really should have slowly some change in the standard “Sebas” Butler design.. But, they can still use it as an running Gag.. as long all play along and do not sue each other out
https://randomc.net/image/Animegataris/Animegataris%20-%2007%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%20Zwei!%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
this will be a tough slugging match
in one corner, overlord s2
in the other, grancrest senki
let the duel of epics begin!