Overlord (2015)

Available in light novel format, and now, as a serialized anime.

Oh, Sword Art Online, what have you started. Log Horizon, No Game No Life, Accel World, etc.

Yggdrasil, a popular online virtual reality video game is shutting down its servers today. What is our hero, Momonga, to do? His guild is desolate, and all that's left are the NPC's he and his friends gathered over their playtime. Momonga decides not to log out just yet, and spends time watching over his subjects one last time.

He wakes up inside the body of his player avatar, a skeleton proclaimed as "the most powerful wizard". The world changes with him, NPC's expressing actual emotions, some for the better. Having no parents or family in this society, Momonga strives to take over this new world.

edited 16th Oct '15 4:30:13 PM by Soble

Watched the first episode, which was decent/pretty good. Not terrible but not amazing. It did, however, get me interested in the light novels, and I started reading volume 1. Have to say, it's probably the best fan translation of an LN I've read thus far. Besides some minor typos, it flows and reads really well. Not so stilted like other LN translations I've read. I was impressed.

Anyway, the story and world building's pretty interesting so I'll be following the LN and anime simultaneously. It's awesome that the MC is a lich overlord.

Also, I think the Overlord (LN) tropes page needs to be removed from the Overlord (video game) pages. They're incorrectly linked with each other.

I didn't like the anime at all, but it had the kinds of faults that make me think the novels might be decent. Not sure if I want to verify this, though

Specifically, the series seems to be marketed as Over Lord (note the space) rather than Overlord (one word). So I think capitalizing the "L" in this case when creating the LN page will help immensely.

Already moved it to LightNovel.Overlord 2012 (it's when the light novel came out).

I'll fix the capitalization in a second.

Love the premise so far. It's an interesting take on the Villain Protagonist trope if the OP is any indication. I wouldn't mind finding myself in his situation, especially with Albedo.

I was looking forward to this series for a couple of reasons. the whole "trapped in an mmo" thing has become pretty popular in the last few years, with log horizon probably being the best thing we've gotten out of that up until this point. it was a cool series but i never really finished it. overlord had a somewhat similar setup but the trailers/aesthetic made it seem like it took place in a more dark fantasy type of MMO, which I liked.

anyway the premiere was actually pretty decent.

momonga isn't a terribly interesting main character right off the bat but i feel like they did an alright job in selling the audience on who he is and the premise of the show. There are a couple of cool things that help sell him as an actual person:

1. there's a big disconnect between his appearance in-game and his personality. he's about as everyman as you could get, a mild-mannered japanese salaryman who's passionate about his hobby of videogames and is understandably confused by what's going on. his player avatar is like a big evil-looking skeleton lich pope with a deep voice, which contrasts with the boyish voice and confused inner monologue he has that the NPC's aren't privy to.

him groping albedo would be pretty gross in most other situations but in this particular case i don't feel it's especially disgusting. Momonga is confused by what's going on and the idea that these NPC's might be actual people now hasn't dawned on him. plus there's a well-endowed character who seems smitten with him and well, he's only a man, and apologizes to her afterwards instead of taking further advantage of the situation. he even feels bad about "dirtying" the npc that his fellow guild member created. it's this type of thing that helps sell him as well, a person, even if not a particularly remarkable one.

2. we initially see the world through Momonga's HUD. This is actually a pretty significant detail that other shows like SAO or LH understandably didn't do, since their focus was different, but it actually helps a lot in connecting with momonga as a character and selling us that this is an actual videogame that people played.

looking forward to the rest of this series.

edited 10th Jul '15 4:55:07 PM by wehrmacht

Watched it, enjoyed it. The sheer melancholy in the first half of the episode almost bowled me over. Through his reminiscing, forgetfulness, and ambling about his old fortress, Momonga felt like an old man whom the world had passed by, and the frozen Lich face only helped.

And then I got hit with the Mood Whiplash train. Not that I or Momonga minded. 8]

I look forward to seeing how this goes.

Precisely. Regrets, he's had a few. But then again—too few to mention.

edited 12th Jul '15 10:40:45 AM by TheHandle

I just started watching this. I don't much care for trapped in an MMORPG because I don't like the idea of false Fantasy, but I really like the setup for this one. It's giving me some serious Dungeon Keeper Ami vibes, and even if it's only a tenth as good as that, it'll still be excellent.

I do love the contrast between the regal, confident persona Momonga exudes while he's with the dungeon inhabitants and guardians, and the goofy salaryman who's barely taking things half-seriously. The change in tone of voice whenever he's just thinking to himself really helps.

It helps that he has an epic poker face.

Always with a gleaming white smile!

Okay, watched the second episode last night. Might as well be titled, "How to get your Villainous Minions to do Everything you ask, and Love Every Moment of it."

Also, cripes, I think I counted three powergasm climaxes between Albedo and Shaltear.

I rather like both Cocytus and Demiurgos too. Both are mostly practical men, but Cocytus has hidden goofiness.

"AHHH, TO BE CALLED 'UNCLE!' AND THE CHILD WOULD RIDE UPON MY SHOULDERS AT TIMES..."

Honestly, I hope he's given a Terminator Marine-style voice if/when this show gets dubbed.

edited 15th Jul '15 12:01:11 PM by Colonial1.1

Jamieson Price would not be out of place in the role.

What I wouldn't give to be an uncle... Or better yet, a gruncle...

I'm just finishing up the third chapter of the first book, and a problem that I suspected would happen has. He's a living god with the ability to curbstomp anything in his path and no angst about his situation or what's happened to him. There's no stakes, there's no tension. All I can hope is that these mental changes he's noticing actually start to cause him some distress.

edited 15th Jul '15 3:17:38 PM by CDRW

For me, the tension is in the fact that I don't entirely trust the NPCs.

Ah, but is he a showy living god? Because Alucard fits that mould well, and if the trope is played in that way here...

This is a great show, so I started reading the manga too. LOL I don't know where I can read the novel though, I doubt it however.

Search for Skythewood translation or Overlord light novel in google and it should be the first link that comes up.

I've caught up to volume 4 and it's been a really addictive read. It doesn't read like typical L Ns I've read (e.g. tons of dialogue with one or two sentences of description in between), and also takes me longer to finish.

Anyway, episode 2 was good. It's so rare to have an adaptation in this day and age that's not super rushed, especially when it's only 1 cour. I think it's on course to finish up to volume 3 material, which would be a good place to end the season.

NPC hijinks is what's keeping me here.

I know exactly what I'm getting from this show.

Well this is different from what I expected *cough*SAO*cough*

It is worrisome that the MC is OP... which is giving me Kirito vibes

Unlike Kirito though, Momonga is explicitly said to be max level already. Less SAO, more Log Horizon.

overlord is a story that seems to be built around the idea that the mc is "op", unlike SAO.

the trope page indicates that there might be other similarly high-leveled players in the game too, so...

plus momonga is already more interesting than kirito is, though that isn't very hard to accomplish.

edited 17th Jul '15 10:51:07 AM by wehrmacht

Technically he isn't OP. As mentioned in the page itself, it's more of being Dangerously Genre-Savvy.