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A review by fors
Overlord, Vol. 1: The Undead King by Kugane Maruyama
3.5
3.5 for the whole series (v1 - v14)
there are some individual volumes that i really enjoyed, while there are some that are below average; overall was fun, but there were only very few aspects that i found particularly memorable.
TL;DR
An example of a wasted potential. A lot of content has yet to be explored, but there are too little volumes left to probe them all. The character are interesting but they aren't being utilized properly. World-building is good! Some volumes were a bit of a bore, while some were truly enjoyable. Mostly a hit or miss overall, but a nice read if you'd like something with evil-aligned protagonists.
(1)
Story & Writing
Overlord is an isekai story, but it's vastly different from other types of media in this genre. It starts by presenting itself like a typical self-insert harem bait, with female characters that looked to be written for the sake of swooning over our protagonist, but it isn't much like that at all. While the infatuation was still noticeable later on, it's hardly the focus of the novel series. I'd say that the world-building and characters are the really charming aspects of the novel.
The general gist is exactly as the blurbs say - a Japanese man gets transported into an MMORPG and finds that the NPCs, that his guildmates created, turned into real, living beings with actual thoughts and motions. He then attempts to find his other guildmates and figure out what to do. Mixed with world conquering and misunderstandings: you get Overlord.
flaws
exhibit A unnecessary amount of detail;
One of the biggest flaws of Overlord is how it gives detail to the wrong aspect of the story or how it introduces subplots but never gives elaboration.
The author tends to dedicate a whole chapter or two solely for the daily life of an irrelevant/volume-exclusive character. While this isn't an issue itself, the problem comes from how these characters never end up having a significant role in the story. They end up getting thrown away or dead after their purpose, which renders all the exposition of their personality and life useless. On the other hand, the readers never get exposed to the daily life of the characters that are significant. For example, we only ever see the floor guardians and the Pleiades whenever Ainz is in the same room. They are only ever given a sentence or two about themselves and /their/ role, which in turn results to having minimal knowledge about the personality and backstories that were written to the NPCs.
Which is honestly a big shame, considering how the characters are by far the best part of overlord
exhibit B repetitiveness;
Every volume of this novel predominantly follows the same episodic map which goes - SpoilerA chapter about an insignificant throwaway character = The conflict starts to form at the end of this chapter = Ainz starts appearing and ends up on the main stage = Ainz prays and does whatever and his luck or subconscious intellect causes him to have things turn out favorable to him = Ainz is put under immense stress by the NPCs adoration and pretends to be intelligent in which they respond by being in awe of his intellect.
The general gist is exactly as the blurbs say - a Japanese man gets transported into an MMORPG and finds that the NPCs, that his guildmates created, turned into real, living beings with actual thoughts and motions. He then attempts to find his other guildmates and figure out what to do. Mixed with world conquering and misunderstandings: you get Overlord.
exhibit A unnecessary amount of detail;
One of the biggest flaws of Overlord is how it gives detail to the wrong aspect of the story or how it introduces subplots but never gives elaboration.
The author tends to dedicate a whole chapter or two solely for the daily life of an irrelevant/volume-exclusive character. While this isn't an issue itself, the problem comes from how these characters never end up having a significant role in the story. They end up getting thrown away or dead after their purpose, which renders all the exposition of their personality and life useless. On the other hand, the readers never get exposed to the daily life of the characters that are significant. For example, we only ever see the floor guardians and the Pleiades whenever Ainz is in the same room. They are only ever given a sentence or two about themselves and /their/ role, which in turn results to having minimal knowledge about the personality and backstories that were written to the NPCs.
Which is honestly a big shame, considering how the characters are by far the best part of overlord
exhibit B repetitiveness;
Every volume of this novel predominantly follows the same episodic map which goes - SpoilerA chapter about an insignificant throwaway character = The conflict starts to form at the end of this chapter = Ainz starts appearing and ends up on the main stage = Ainz prays and does whatever and his luck or subconscious intellect causes him to have things turn out favorable to him = Ainz is put under immense stress by the NPCs adoration and pretends to be intelligent in which they respond by being in awe of his intellect.
the whole running joke in the series about everything miraculously working out for Ainz becomes tedious when the characters only say the same thing in response to his so-called intellect. nevertheless, if you do enjoy the gag, you wouldn't find it too dull.
(2)
Characters & Setting
BEST PART!
strengths
exhibit A characters;
Most characters are extremely linear; Even so, they are intriguing and likeable enough to compensate for the lack of dimension. The ACTUAL characterization and development is done really slow at a rate of one character per arc, or none at all, but they are done decently when it happens. These characters all have a different moral compass that influences their decisions, and almost everyone in the cast is seen as evil or is evil. The novel follows a strict code of "The strong can trample on the weak", so if you'd like a change from all the good-aligned protagonists, Overlord is a good refresher.
exhibit A characters;
Most characters are extremely linear; Even so, they are intriguing and likeable enough to compensate for the lack of dimension. The ACTUAL characterization and development is done really slow at a rate of one character per arc, or none at all, but they are done decently when it happens. These characters all have a different moral compass that influences their decisions, and almost everyone in the cast is seen as evil or is evil. The novel follows a strict code of "The strong can trample on the weak", so if you'd like a change from all the good-aligned protagonists, Overlord is a good refresher.
the character designs are sososo good, even just looking at them is another form of entertainment in itself. I LOVE SO-BIN's ART
exhibit B world-building & game mechanics;
Overlord does a good job at its world-building! Exploration and adventure are vital aspects of the novel.
Furthermore, the game mechanics of Yggdrasil were lovely to hear despite the fact that it was exceedingly unrealistic. There are both mysteries and spoon-fed knowledge regarding the extent of the game's power system getting transferred onto the New World, and I found it quite enjoyable to read of small and various experiments to figure out what can and can't be done.