Like, did you actually, honestly, think it was just fanfiction mary sue wank?
Absolutely and unconditionally.
There were wisps of other stuff inside the blatant wank stew, but it didn't use most of them very well. I noticed and could talk about a whole bunch of stuff, but most of it ends with "it didn't really go anywhere."
1. One of the big problem in Isekais and many anime in general is the fact that the protags asspull powers whenever the need to. They go up against a strong enemy and then the power of friendship or whatever gives them the strength to get through. This makes them feel marysue-ish because there's no limit to their power and no limit to what they can do, they can just pull new powers and skills whenever they need it and it leads to stupid levels of escalation. Overlord begins with its characters being overwhelmingly strong but that strength stays consistent. The main character can fight just about anything with little effort but when he does face threats his power level doesn't rise out of nowhere and he wins through the use of exploiting known things as opposed to bullshit. At least thats how it feels.
Bullshit!
The anime is arguably more
honest about the main character being blatantly overpowered, but even with that confession it's not very interested in remaining consistent. To start with, his power level is "D&D style wizard with a shitton of magic items." We don't get a clear sense that he deals X damage per round or only has Y hit points. Outside of, as usual, a few trivial details: He's weak to holy, weak to melee combat, and dependent on MP for damage.
Oh, but: He can cover up and then lie about the holy weakness, because people can't tell if they're damaging him or not without a spell, which he can counteract with a different spell, which we know he has when he explains he's already used it. Also he's only weak to melee combat if he hasn't, and I'm not making this up, changed his class with magic and then equipped legendary artifact armor and weapons. This also reduces his need to rely on MP for damage, obviously, since he can just brawl in the frontlines. Less effectively than a character supposedly of his strength level and built for that exact purpose, but still.
You might notice I got sidetracked from talking about how pulling scrolls out of your ass is not "consistent" by the need to point out that every single concrete detail is the setup for an asspull reversal of what we've been told. The point here is that
even claiming he's super strong at the beginning and
even with that strength being ridiculously broad and vague, there are
still asspulls the show relies on heavily. They call it "strategy" rather than "friendship" after the fact, but the pattern remains: We're told X, we get Y. X being a ridiculously large number to begin with didn't save us.
2. Most Isekais focus on the overpowered protag fighting some evil force and beating them. Part of the reason they seem like fanfiction is they focus entirely on this protag and how great he is. Meanwhile Overlord actually spends a lot of its time focused on other characters. You barely see Ainz during the entire second season, instead the story focuses on those around him and those effected by him. Despite him being ostensibly the main character they frame the series more like a group story where he is the connecting element rather that the protagonist. And Ainz' story isn't some generic fight the evil guy thing, none of the sides in the story are depicted as just mindlessly evil (Besides maybe Clem and her necrobuddy). There's a lot of moral gray area including with Ainz. Everyone has their own motivations and desires and despite Ainz overwhelming strength there are relatively few fights with him in it.
Are you just quoting that terrible video to trigger me? You have to tell me if you are, that's the rule.
The anime indeed spends a lot of time on the other characters, but the other characters spend a lot of time focused on Ainz. I haven't seen the second season, so if the show "really gets good" six hours in I suppose I'm really missing out on a masterpiece, but otherwise if Momon-sama isn't on screen, everyone should be asking where Momon-sama is. You don't
need to be doing stuff to be a Mary Sue if everything everyone else does is about and/or because of you, and especially not when none of it matters unless you're one of his slavishly loyal retainers.
The story indeed avoids being cliche, and is instead just kind of incoherent. Ainz wants to find other players, if any. So instead of looking for them, he'll spread a name they'll recognize. So instead of doing that directly he renames himself to his guild and then becomes famous. So instead of using his immense wizard dick to do that he just kinda faffs about undercover getting people to love him. So... the plot is basically just a contrived glory hound/universally beloved champion thing.
There are indeed characters that want things, but none of them can get them without Ainz grabbing them off the top shelf for them (if aware of just how amazing Ainz-sama is) or declining to murder them as he is wont to do (if they're mustache-twirling villains who foolishly think they can defeat him before being effortlessly crushed by his grandiose might). Again, classic Sue-Sign: Everyone who dislikes the character is a powerless mook who kills villagers before being effortlessly gibbed, everyone halfway alright can see just how incredibly amazing the main character's brilliance is. The fact that the halfway alright people are also powerless mooks who get effortlessly gibbed by someone else makes things worse, not better.
3. There's a lot of subtle characterization on display, particularly with Ainz. For instance Irony talked about a campfire scene. I just rewatched it to make sure my memory of it was good and I have to say, I think he really is biased in this respect. I'll list the actual events as they take place
The scene is roughly 7 and a half minutes long and contains about 10-15 seconds of talking about Ainz in a way that is reasonable considering the world and the events that have happened. Whats more we get a feeling for Ainz true motivations and desires, his regrets, and aspects of his character. And this is not done by saying them bluntly but inferred by how he acts.
The show as a whole has some characterization. I don't know that I'd call it subtle or claim there's a lot of it. In Ainz's case specifically, they do a good job of one or two things (mainly his devotion to the guild and pining for its days of camaraderie) and feint or waffle on the rest. Like the fact that he has a harem of slavishly devoted minions and bands of wandering adventurers willing and able to fill that gap, but he's apparently uninterested.
For the campfire, I did gloss over the history/characterization part, yeah, but largely because they're still irrelevant mooks and Ainz claims (somewhat untruthfully) not to care about them. It's a better scene than I was giving it credit for, but if you ask what you've missed by not seeing it... well, just Ainz pining, really. Setup for a later event, but one we get inconsistent claims and behavior regarding. Maybe very vague background lore that either never comes up or takes until next season to be relevant.
Meanwhile, I feel like you're trying to gloss over the raw Sue-ness of that scene. For instance, by "reasonable considering the world and the events that have happened" I assume you mean Ainz, the Wizard, effortlessly mowing down ogres with giant melee weapons while wearing heavy armor, thereby justifying everyone exalting that Ainz, the Wizard, is probably a better warrior than the best warrior in the kingdom. Ah. Clearly, this is a sign that he's
less of a Sue than I'd have you believe.
Also, I refuse to let you get away with the phrase "I wonder how I could have been so thoughtless?" for cheerfully telling Ainz he'll find new companions someday. Especially when he's eating dinner with some.
4. There's a lot of political intrigue, season long master plans, secret motivations, and character deaths. The story as a whole feels more complex and thought out than your standard Isekai, with the motivations and actions of several factions and characters dynamically coming into conflict with each other for their own reasons.
You lost me here. I saw none of this. I mean, I saw lots of character deaths, but I assume you meant meaningful and fleshed out. Which, again, is kind of difficult when nothing they do matters because they're so pathetically weak.
but he's running on the assumption that if other players WERE transported to this new world, then all his power probably means jack shit, and he could be killed very easily if he just so happened to run into someone who had a PVP-specced character. That's speculation on my part though, because most fights involving him are just him whipping out his skeleton schlong and beating the opponent to death with it.
That's one of the things that bothered me. He consistently talks about being careful because he doesn't know how strong stuff is, but the whole world he's seen is made of tissue paper and it never becomes relevant. It's just faffing about for no reason.
I liked the end of season one though, it has an actual real fight. Strategy and skill was necessary, and that showed that the Ainz has a cap on his power, that he can't get any stronger and so has to use cleverness and preparation for real conflicts... oh, and the abuse of literal Pay2Win mechanics that he brought over from the game that still function in the fantasy world.
I wanted to like it, and it had a few good parts (bluffing about sky-mines was clever at first), but it still degenerated into vague wizard-wank. The implication that something intentionally stopped her at a pivotal moment was intriguing, but from what I hear it doesn't come up ever again.
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Topic: I like anime, do you like anime? (Read 3082108 times)