I have to confess. I have become a binge-watcher since this COVID-19 mess has erupted.
I binged all 3 seasons of Overlord in one and a half days. Kyousougiga was easy. Kill la Kill and Promised Neverland were one day each. Serial Experiments Lain is taking longer. I have put on 5 lbs since this shelter in pace requirement started.
Our protagonist’s name was Momonga. Originally he was in a DMMO-RPG called Yggdrasil but didn’t log out when the server shut down. The game didn’t end but rather his base, the Tomb of Nazarick and its inhabitants, were transferred to a new world. Now he lives in his character, a vastly overpowered skeleton which he has decided to name Ainz Ooal Gown after a magic staff he and other previous game players assembled.
The world he is now in shares many of the same rules as the original game but the geography, the politics and a few of the rules are different. There are the same NPCs created as servants. He feels no need to quit. His real-life as a minor salaryman in a dead-end position holds no interest nor any future for him. His purpose in now to spread his fame so widely across his newfound world that, should they still be in the game, any of his other previous partners in the game will find him.
Overlord was very interesting in that it breaks a pattern for anime. The protagonist in this isekai is not a “good guy”. From what I can see, he is almost completely amoral. Once in awhile his humanity leaks thru – especially when he thinks of his fellow players. Most of the time he doesn’t feel the slightest compunction of killing vast numbers of people, even good people we’ve had our sympathies built up for.
But it makes sense. It appears he is limited in emotional response by the mechanics of the game he’s in. When it varies too much from what is allowed an undead, he glows and calms down. He also considers himself to still be in a game. It isn’t real to him. We’ve all been in role-playing games where we’ve slaughtered enemy troops in vast numbers. If it occurred to us that each of those NPCs was a father with a spouse and children at home or a beloved offspring or sibling with family who needs them, we wouldn’t be so cavalier about it.
Albedo, his very sexy number two, is extremely seductive. She competes for his affection with Shalltear Bloodfallen, a cute vampire. He doesn’t respond because he rewrote her character at the beginning of the show to be in love with him. Taking advantage of someone who lacked free will in that way feels too “wrong” to him. Another sign that his human self is still there at some level.
One can only wonder how he would fulfill the temptation if he wanted to. He’s just a skeleton. He doesn’t have flesh, let alone genitalia. Maybe he’d bring new meaning to the concept of having a boner.
April 12, 2020 at 10:19
I really should give this another shot. This unfortunately got killed for me by my friend absolutely adoring it, hyping ut up so much.. that it did not live up to that for me. I watched trough about three quartes of the first season and some important episodes of the second one. I think for me it’s having the expressionless protagonist. I love when the show is not about him.. but his fights lack suspense. When he used cash items and used pay to win items as a narative deus ex machina I basicly lost what sense of suspense I had left.
Still it would have been watchable for me if my friend wasn’t constantly gushing how amazing she found it, each time I felt like “Oh it will get super exicting next” and I’d end up with a meh again. Shalltear is bae though!
April 14, 2020 at 07:09
Sounds like your friend found it to be really amazing anime and is trying to confirm their judgment with you. If you aren’t equally amazed, they think their judgment is being disputed. I thought it was a fun anime with slow spots and even s few sad spots. YMMV ought to be a part of any review.
April 14, 2020 at 10:08
Well, I did not dispute their judgement persé.. but it is like the oppositive of going in without expecation or low expectations, if you go to the dr suspecting the worst.. you can’t really be let down and things can only go up. When someone super hypes a show , it can only dissapoint. People who adore it will always watch it faster than me as well.. so it keeps happening.
Death Note, Attack on Titan , Geass and Overlord have been hyped to death for me.. along with Sword Art Online, and none are even remotely close to being memorable to me because of that. While I’d put them all (cept SAO , which I strongly dislike) at a 6/7 for me.. I feel way more dissapointed in them. Like when you get a 6 anime when you expect a 9 , you are three marks off. I can hardly enjoy them for what they are because of the fact I can’t see what others see.
Like going to a restaurant everyone praises.. and they end up witch Mac and Cheese. and Schnitzel on the menu.. The “is this it” experience can ruin the food more, than when you go in blind and taste actual worse food.. but without the dissapointment.