Overlord III

Episode 7

Last week we learned about a bunch of freelance adventurers who had been hired to raid a newly-discovered tomb. This episode confirms that the so-called tomb is indeed Nazarick. (So much for the mock-up tomb to be a distraction!) The real question is how much of this is damage control by Ains vs. some kind of setup orchestrated by him or his people, since the source of the raid and the amount of gold behind the quest is rather suspicious. After all, Nazarick was set up as much to be a death trap for unwary adventurers as it was to be the guild's HQ, and what proper dungeon master wouldn't occasionally want to test his stronghold's defenses with the sacrifices of some low-level adventurers?

It's suspicious how easy this endeavor starts out for the victims. No outside traps? Treasure laying out in the open? The lowest form of undead foes sent out for a first encounter? Something smells, and it's not the skeletons. In fact, this reeks of a sucker play, and the adventurers are the suckers. Given how overpowered Nazarick is, the adventurer slaughter that ensues is utterly unsurprising. This was really more of a way for some of the tomb's lesser denizens – the cockroach guy and the unfathomably gross torturer – to introduce themselves and show off their skills, providing an object lesson in all of the unpleasant ways that adventurers can go down. The best scene was definitely the arrogant swordmaster with the half-elf slave girls being soundly trounced by the combat-ready Hamusuke, who puts in some pretty impressive moves for a hamster, although the following scene of the slave girls kicking his corpse while the lizard men and Hamusuke try to figure out what this "ritual" might be was rather satisfying too. I have to wonder if these girls aren't out of the frying pan and into the fire though, since Sebas isn't around to take pity on them.

That just leaves Foresight, which was always destined to get feature treatment since they show up prominently in the opening theme. Last episode spent some time time developing them, and while that doesn't necessarily prevent them from being expendable, I have to think there was a purpose beyond the cliche trick of giving characters backstory right before they're killed off. It's a mystery as to how they might survive this scenario, especially when they're facing down Ains himself. Actually, that probably increases their chance of survival, since he's more likely than most of his denizens to see some value in their lives. My suspicion is that he's going to discover the little mage's ability to judge people's power levels and find that to be potentially useful, since exploiting it would allow him to ferret out potential powerhouses. Besides, she has more specific and less greedy motives than most of the other adventurers. How many of her companions will survive is more up in the air.

With some pretty good fight choreography, strong musical selections, and a little extra effort put into giving these bit players personalities, Overlord delivers another solid episode. The only major flaw is some minor breakdowns in the animation quality, but that's easy enough to overlook given how much is going on.

Rating: B+

Overlord III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.