Overlord IV – 13 (END)

「滅国の魔女」 (Mekkoku no Majo)
“The Witch of the Falling Kingdom”

Out of all ways this season could’ve ended, I think Overlord went down the right path. Barring the confusion (read: chuckleworthy moe infused yandere confusion) this finale was all about highlighting just how brutal Ainz and Nazarick are as whole. It’s not so much that Floor Guardians and skellie boy both are capable of crazy actions and copious bloodshed, it’s that they have no qualms about it and fewer cares about the consequences. Hell Ainz himself even summed it up, Re-Estize chose destruction, and as long as everyone else sees why that was a bad thing then it all went according to plan. This is an enemy you don’t want and likely cannot beat, so do the smart thing and bend the knee – or you know in Renner’s case, sucker your boy toy into eternal damnation for the sake of love.

Oh yes, I’m certainly looking forward to Overlord’s movie continuation and inevitable fifth season.

Final Impressions

With four seasons now under its belt Overlord is at this point a fairly understood commodity. If you’ve watched this season you have watched the previous ones, if you’re reading this you’re also likely a fan. It’s the Overlord everyone knows and loves (or hates), but that doesn’t mean everything stayed entirely the same.

Right off the bat the big seller of this season is a combination of material and production. Although still plagued with middling animation and the second season turn to CGI, Madhouse was decent enough (or funded enough) to keep things visually interesting this time around. The dwarven arc for example did not give into the 3D allure for its dragons, and even the later showdown with Re-Estize kept the animation streamlining to a minimum. Couple on this production work falling into the more narratively and thematically intriguing story material of Overlord and many of the glaring deficiencies in earlier seasons were made up for. Mind you little here comes close to reaching the heights established by Overlord’s first season, but we’re getting there.

All that said, however, does again cover up where things stumbled in terms of pacing and chopping. There’s no getting around it, at heart this season is advertisement first and solid standalone story second. Anime-only viewers can find plenty of enjoyment here (as I have), but it comes with the caveat of multiple details being glossed over or certain sections being outright cut. You can see this best with the dwarven arc and certain parts of this season’s latter half, characters were introduced to be almost immediately discarded, certain plots quickly rushed through, and the usual issue of developments coming down to infodumps never being far removed from the adaptation cookbook. This leads to a tide-like progression week by week, where one episode might be incredibly fun and intriguing, only to give way to boredom central the following week and a return to fun the episode after that. I wouldn’t have covered Overlord if this bothered me exceptionally, but it’s hard denying that this franchise’s story could benefit from either tighter writing or more imaginative adaptation choices. After all, sometimes the best choice isn’t to follow the source to the letter.

For all the usual issues though, Overlord pretty much did as Overlord always does and I have no regrets about the time spent covering it once again. This remains one isekai which is at least doing something different from the rest, and while no fifth season announcement has happened (likely given the earlier movie sequel announcement), given the popularity – not to mention the increasing improvement with each new arc – I expect to see one before too long. Give it a couple of years and Ainz will certainly be back for another season – and rest assured that I’ll too be here to see what the bony boy gets up to next.