Overlord

Episode 11

Although it mostly takes itself seriously, every so often Overlord does show that it can have a sense of humor. Typically this only shown up in very brief snippets, but episode 11 reverts back to that for a bit with the introduction of an underling character Momonga created himself and is now thoroughly embarrassed about: Pandora's Actor, a pretentiously-named and pretentious-acting shapechanger who serves as the guardian of Nazarick's vault and its treasurer, too. The whole sequence where Momonga desperately tries to get him to behave (and yet still comments about how he thinks the Actor's military uniform looks cool) is the series' most prominent dash of humor since the introduction of the giant hamster a few episodes back.

Sadly, there isn't a whole lot else going on to distinguish this episode, which has almost no action and not even much for impressive magic use. It does have some bloodshed when Ains ruthlessly eliminates an adventuring company which gets too nosy about Shelltear (and then has their bodies taken back to Nazarick to see if high-level adventurers will make stronger undead!), but then we come in at the end, after the deed has been done. There's much talk about using top-level wish magic, but it fizzles unimpressively in the face of something even stronger. And then there is the introduction of Pandora's Actor, who simply does not look as robust as nearly any of the other major Nazarick guardians.

What the episode does have is a lot of talking. Momonga theorizes about what could possibly exist in the world that could thwart even the tenth level wish magic he uses to attempt to break the mind control on Shelltear, which has essentially left her a statue; apparently whoever put the control effect on her didn't stick around to give her any instructions. (Think a PC whose controller has gone out for the day without logging out.) He concludes that World Level items, which did exist in Yggdrasil and are the only things powerful enough to deny tenth level magic, must also exist here, so he goes to fetch his guild's own stash of such items while explaining various things to Albedo along the way. Before that there was discussion at the adventurer's guild about what to do about reports of a vampire. After that there's a long talk between Albedo and Momonga about whether or not he's a worthy leader and Albedo begging him not to ever go anywhere. In the midst is contemplation about what it implies that World Level items exist. And that's really about it. All this episode amounts to in the end is a slow-burn set-up for the (presumably) big battle against the controlled Shelltear which is coming next, albeit with a bit of comedy aside.

The one interesting thing that this episode does do is to bolster a speculation that has been growing on me lately: that Momonga could still actually be in some form of a VR game world, that the venue has come alive within itself rather than he being transported anywhere. Too much of the world just cleaves too closely to game mechanics, maybe even more so than DanMachi did. But that will be fun for idle chat while once again waiting for the series to actually do something.

Rating: C+

Overlord is currently streaming on Funimation.