Movies & TV / Reviews
Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom Review
Image Credit: Crunchyroll/KADOKAWA/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Loading...
Directed By: Naoyuki Ito
Written By: Naoyuki Ito; Based on the light novel series created by Kugane Maruyama
Runtime: 132 minutes
MPA Rating: N/A
Satoshi Hino – Lord Ains Ooal Gown/Satoru Suzuki
Masayuki Katou – Demiurge
Yoshino Aoyama – Neia Baraja
Hitomi Nabatame – Remedios Custodio
Saori Hayami – Calca Bessarez
Haruka Tomatsu – Kelart
Asami Seto – CZ2128 Delta
Yumi Hara – Albedo
The Overlord franchise makes its long-awaited theatrical debut with the new anime feature, Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom. Based on the popular isekai light novel series created by Kugane Maruyama, The Sacred Kingdom continues events from the equally popular anime adaptation. The Sacred Kingdom picks up after Season 4. Series protagonist Satoru Suzuki, aka Momonga, has established his own empire called the Sorcerer Kingdom. The catch: Satoru was formerly an average salaryman who happened to be one of the top players of the popular MMORPG YGGDRASIL. Together with his fellow players, they established one of the best guilds of the game, Ains Ooal Gown, a player-killing guild composed up mostly of demi-humans and monsters.
When the servers of YGGDRASIL are about to shut down, Satoru finds himself locked in the game world and unable to log out. Not to mention, he’s stuck in the uber-powerful body of his undead player avatar, Momonga. Somehow, Satoru was magically transported into a genuine world of fantasy, monsters, and magic. All the non-playable characters Satoru and his guild painstakingly built in their headquarters, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, are now fully realized and they worship Momonga as their supreme dark lord. Not fully understanding what has happened, Satoru decides to go with the flow, assuming the role of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s supreme being.
In assuming the name of his guild, Ains Ooal Gown, Satoru hopes to find other “Supreme Beings” [AN: players in the New World are recognized verbally as “Supreme Beings”], or perhaps his fellow guild mates who may have suffered a similar fate. His team of loyal Floor Guardians now seek to spread the influence of their divine Lord Ains Ooal Gown across the New World, and they are ready to annihilate anything in their path. And that is just the plot of the light novel.
In The Sacred Kingdom, Lord Ains’ Floor Guardian, Demiurge (Katou), acts under the guise of a Demon Emperor called Jaldaboth, invading the Roble Holy Kingdom. After subjugating the Sacred Kingdom’s monarch, Calca Bessarez (Hayami), the Sacred Kingdom’s remaining Holy Knights, Remedios Custodio (Nabatame) and Neia Baraja (Aoyama), seek out the aid of Lord Ains’ Sorcerer Kingdom. Lord Ains graciously offers assistance to fight on behalf of the Sacred Kingdom when they desperately need a savior. The Holy Knights fail to realize that Demiurge and Lord Ains are playing out a gigantic game of Fantasy Risk, with the Sacred Kingdom as their playing board and real lives hanging in the balance.
Japanese isekai stories are a dime a dozen these days, including those that have received manga and anime adaptations. However, Maruyama’s Overlord stands out among the pack, thanks to its intricate world-building and unconventional plot. Overlord depicts the characters usually viewed as the villains as the main characters. Overlord is not the typical fantasy story depicting good versus evil. The “good” characters are often unwitting pawns or display a darker, twisted side under their shimmering veneers. The best isekai stories feature a unique twist or protagonist, and those are areas where Overlord excels.
The Sacred Kingdom maintains the fascinating dual-sided nature of Satoru’s personality. On one hand, he is an average, blue-collar worker who enjoys video games, stuck in the body of an all-powerful lich. The story frequently switches to his inner monologue, which depicts his “real” voice and mild-mannered personality. However, after gaining an undead, skeletal body, a passive ability lessens his “humanity” and compassion for human life. Apparently, a greater force is forcing Satoru further into his role as an undead dark lord. Under his Lord Ains persona, Satoru cares little for the innocent lives of the New World, focused only on reuniting with his friends from the real world. Ains does, at times, show some genuine affection for his now-living subjects of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
The Sacred Kingdom‘s narrative is a double-edge sword. It’s nice that the story dives right into the action without focusing much on recapping or establishing the plot up to this point. The Sacred Kingdom unfolds as another chapter in a much longer, epic dark fantasy saga. However, knowledge of the anime series or greater storyline becomes crucial to understanding the nuance and finer points of the plot.
Viewers who enter The Sacred Kingdom completely cold without familiarity with the light novels or anime series might become utterly lost with the various characters and subplots. While The Sacred Kingdom features a self-contained adventure for Lord Ains and his crew, the events continue off of the previous seasons of the anime and set up events for future storylines.
Fans of the franchise might be disappointed to know that fan-favorite character Albedo (Hara), a succubus in service to Lord Ains, only receives a small role in The Sacred Kingdom. The narrative largely revolves around the newbie character, Neia, a knight of the Sacred Kingdom who eventually comes to revere and idolize Lord Ains. Neia, despite her optimism and pure heart, doesn’t realize the grander design at work, but she seeks to liberate her kingdom from Emperor Jaldabaoth. Despite her naivete, Neia forms an amusing bond with Pleiades member CZ2128 Delta, or CZ (Seto) for short. In one of the more exciting sequences, Neia and CZ execute a glorious team-up to infiltrate another kingdom under Jaldabaoth’s control. Plus, considering CZ has previously served more of a minor part in the anime series, it was fun to see her take a more active role here.
The Sacred Kingdom wisely utilizes is its dry sense of humor. One of the film’s more strange, hilarious subplots involves a running gag previously introduced in the anime series, as Lord Ains seeks to gain attention for Runecrafted items. Ains’ subjects act melodramatically whenever such an item appears, attempting to build a mythical hype around these items so the Sorcerer Kingdom can corner their market on their sales and production. Essentially, Lord Ains’ minions attempt to create a fabricated demand for luxury-crafted items for which they control the supply. Again, a lack of familiarity with the previously introduced subplot from the series might create a barrier to its humor, but the the story’s funniest moments occur when the Runecrafted items repeatedly coming up in conversation during the heat of battle.
Studio Madhouse provides exceptional work expanding the world of Overlord in the theatrical canvas. Writer and director Naoyuki Ito, who also worked on the anime series, provides some epic-scale battle sequences, showcasing the might and power of the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s forces. The Sacred Kingdom does not shy away from dark thematic material, much like the source material
The main drawback of The Sacred Kingdom stems from a removed sense of suspense. Although the story usually unfolds from Neia’s perspective, she is simply a pawn in an elaborate chess game played by Lord Ains and Demiurge. The stakes for the people of the Sacred Kingdom and Neia are real, but Lord Ains never faces a genuine adversary or challenge. A significant aspect of the Overlord series, and many isekai series in general, is that Lord Ains is uber-powerful, meaning almost no enemy poses a legitimate threat to him. As a result, stories such as Overlord utilize other narrative proxies to showcase more vulnerability. Only one person comes close to piecing together the grander conspiracy, but even if a character did uncover Lord Ains’ plot, they would likely meet a terrifying end.
The other drawback regarding The Sacred Kingdom is the lack of grander narrative progression and development. There is still no clue about what happened to Satoru and why he’s stuck in a real iteration of YGGDRASIL. Is Satoru’s predicament even real, or is he merely stuck in a giant fever dream? It’s frustrating that the story does not seem interested in these ideas. The focus veers more to Lord Ains expanding his empire and his interactions with his Floor Guardians and the key figures of neighboring kingdoms.
The series often gives the impression that it will never answer the burning questions it presents. Nevertheless, Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom provides a fun extension to the anime series, introducing a fresh set of compelling, new characters and enabling the grander unfolding saga.
Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom will be hitting U.S. theaters on November 8.
