Jeoffrey

This is a visually stunning movie. However, story-wise, it is a bit weak and too predictable. It was also quite charming, even though it certainly did not charm me as much as I would have liked, so I think 7/10 is about right. The ending itself was a bit disappointing and left me with only one thought "Why the hell did she wait so long?". Anyway, it was a very interesting and pleasant movie.

What can I say? Well, first of all, this is a very powerful movie! The movie’s makers have managed to portray emotions perfectly, and help the audience get really immersed in the whole of the movie. It is interesting how little it takes sometimes... For example, just that in one typical scene they actually skip the traditional dramatic slowdown and just serve up what happens as a punch in the audience’s face. At other times, the scenes can transition seamlessly from one mood to another, however, it is still done in such a way that it fits perfectly with the character's motivation and the logic of the moment. This sudden change of atmosphere again actually leaves a much stronger impression than if they had built up a sad and dramatic scene several minutes in advance…  In other words, everything works really well, and once again after a really long time, I had to hold back the tears and spend a good part of the movie going crazy with impatience regarding how it was all going to turn out. Just like the anime series, this movie is also very sophisticated and if the anime series reminded you of the best of the Monogatari anime series mixed with a twist like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, then definitely add some Steins;Gate here to finish up the cocktail! I think it still holds together and is still similarly great and I did not get bored for a minute. Sure, I could start looking for its various shortcomings, dealing with the paradoxes and analyzing the various aspects of all the phenomena in the movie, and whether I got it all right (it is not quite that straightforward after all). However, even that would not be able to overcome the intensity of the effect this movie had on me. The characters are excellent, the narrative is very strong, and the animation and soundtrack are also very good - I do not think I have anything else I need to say here - 9.7/10.

The third season was probably the most fun I have had so far. Part of the reason for that is all the beautiful and rich flora and fauna of Xadia - it was just obvious that someone had really gone to town designing this fantasy world. It is also due to the rather well-crafted and, for me, interesting final conflict, which I thoroughly enjoyed (Gandalf, are the eagles coming?!? No, those are...) and I am going to add points for the decent and entertaining romantic subplot, which, like the characters, I found very likable... Sure it was terribly clichéd in places, a lot of things were again predictable some episodes in advance, and the whole anime series is so inoffensive that I would hand it over to the PC Babies with a clear conscience. However, despite that, I surprisingly did not mind it at all! The fantasy genre, for me, has to have an enchanting atmosphere above all else - this show has that. The characters are still likable and fun, and they develop the way I imagined they would. The animation also gets a little better every season in my opinion. Keep it up! 8.4/10.

With the second season, I thought a lot about whether it was better than the first. I found it much more predictable, the jokes did not seem to suit some moments as well as they did before, and there were not as many memorable scenes. Still, I binge-watched it in the morning and look forward to watching more future episodes. 7.5/10.

Well, I quite liked this. So I can therefore forgive the poor and sometimes choppy animation (really bad FPS) and sometimes the jokes were too puerile. After all, the pretty decent narrative of the show has an interesting setting, and there are some good characters. I thought that the female characters were especially very likable (and it does not matter if there was Rayla, Claudia, or maybe aunt Amaya on screen - they were all charming in their own way). I am curious to see where they will take the narrative next (if it will be something as epic and brilliant as Avatar: The Last Airbender) and after the first season, the prevailing feeling is one of satisfaction, 7.8/10.

For me personally, this is an absolutely brilliant show! Just the fact that the main male protagonist chose the Necromancer as his avatar and started a guild with only non-human-looking characters is enough to indicate he is an interesting character, and the fact that he almost immediately decided to conquer the entire world here and the methods he used to do so indicate to me that he has got his head screwed on straight. In other words, having a seven-foot-tall skeleton as the main male protagonist is a really great idea! Plus, I just skimmed the first seven chapters of the manga and even that was really really good. It is also quite dark, which contrasts nicely against all the cheerful and colorful fun shows like Sword Art Online and Log Horizon. Granted, some clichés and tropes crop up, like the "Boobie Grab" in the very first episode even though they at least justified it well... Also, despite the fact it is a harem anime series, this show looks really original and Albedo especially is just awesome, plus Shalltear and Nabe are also very interesting characters. In addition, there are also various little things and interesting twists that have managed to entertain me so far (the user with the nickname "Touch Me", Hamsuke - The Wise King of the Forest, etc...). I found the manga and the anime series were really appealing, and so if I have time I am probably going to pick up the LNs somewhere. In other words, I was completely satisfied, even the fight scenes looked really good and the CGI "Skeletal Dragon" was probably one of the best CGI creatures I have seen in an anime series so far. All in all, maybe if I tried hard I could find a few minor shortcomings, however, I do not want to spoil my enjoyment of something that managed to appeal to me and entertain me so well. Along with Gangsta, Overlord is the best anime series of the anime season Summer 2015 for me. 9.7/10.

This review contains SPOILERS, which is why no one should read it (that is if they want to take a serious look at this anime series)... It is hard enough to watch one supposedly "ordinary" main protagonist in an isekai turn into an exaggerated version of themselves and defeat everything even if seemingly impossible thanks to incredible coincidence (often a deus ex machina plot device). They also usually have extraordinary abilities that they acquired somewhere, somehow (and usually not in a very believable way). However, in this anime series, you are going to find there are seven such main protagonists. Sure, these are not ordinary people, this is the "elite" - but still, more than half of the situations leave me feeling I just cannot "buy it" as I have to watch how a power station, rockets, handguns, or a working cellular phone network can be made in a few minutes just from some random stuff... After all, I can barely handle all that logic behind the scientific advancements in the Dr. Stone anime series, and they serves it up to me piece by piece with an emphasis on how complicated the process is. But in this show, everything all just suddenly happens by itself. Are they gonna kidnap your girl? In a few minutes, you are gonna have some hardcore shields (which nothing can penetrate) and weapons ready for the whole village! Where did they come from? Come on, you really do not need to think about that! There is even a character who can fly! Sure, he is a magician and uses tricks - even though it does not look like a trick really. There is a girl who can run alongside a moving rocket that has just been launched and do weird shenanigans like that. In other words, compared to all this, Princess Leia's journey through space from Star Wars: The Last Jedi actually seems like a quite normal, natural, and logical thing... If the main protagonists were "excused" for having supernatural abilities like, say, superheroes have, then I guess I would not have a problem with it (just like if the origin of it was traditional and all-powerful magic like in many anime series), however, these are supposed to be just geniuses in certain fields, in other words, people who just simply excel at something, even though that still has its limits (because of "people"). I just did not find that anything really made any sense in this show, because I could not get rid of my own logical thinking and the main protagonists’ plot armor with the "every good politician wears a bulletproof vest and carries a handgun for self-defense" trope left me with my eyes just rolling and a facepalm... Sure, it has its positive aspects, it is like watching someone play Civilization and just jump from the medieval era to the present day just easily dealing with the different cultures, military, science, politics (and massacring their overdue opponents)... It is also quite interesting to watch the battle between technology and magic, even if the results of this battle do not make much sense in most cases... Once again, I think it might not be so bad if it did not take itself so seriously, but alas... Add to that the fact that I am not really interested in any of the seven protagonists, and even the fan service could not keep me interested in this anime series anymore, then the logical consequence (after tonight's rocket episode) is to just give up on it and go play a game about the evolution of society in, say, the aforementioned computer game... Drop after the eighth episode and 3.4/10.

OK, that is quite enough! It is so sad when someone takes the original subject matter, shortens and condenses it, and then just flies through several chapters of the manga at an insane pace, only to offer us an episode devoted to the "pajama party" as compensation. Even so, it is not a gem of a show, the characters are flat (and no, that is not related to the fact that they are mostly ten-year-old girls), and when the biggest plot twist of the first few episodes is the discovery that Kufa Vampir is actually a vampire, you give up and realize you are really too old for this kind of shit… The fight scenes are really poor, I could not feel any real tension in them. There might be some mystery hidden away somewhere, however, the erratic and confusing pace, interspersed with strange attempts at a romantic subplot and fan service, makes it sink like a stone in a swamp. Plus, when the most pleasant (and original) surprise is just the depiction of the world it is set in (the cities look like a pretty flashy chandelier, it is a shame you only see them maybe twice), the most gripping thing here is the opening, and the only thing you are left wondering is if the school tournament arc is ripping off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire too much, then it is obvious that there is no point in wasting any more time on it... Drop after the sixth episode and 3.3/10.

If I compare this special to the other episodes of the first season, then this would be one of the weaker episodes. Basically I thought that the only two stronger scenes were the previously mentioned scene from the shop and then Renge saying goodbye to the whole village...7.5/10.

The movie prequel to the ONA series delivers some nice action scenes, very good animation, however, it also has an otherwise pretty obvious and ordinary narrative that rarely surprises. 6/10.