Overlord S02E02 Review: Lizardman Campaign

Overlord, Season 2, Episode 2: Departure

Huh, this episode is nearly all about the Lizardmen, isn't it? I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, if the Lizardmen were crushed by Ainz's forces (or win against Ainz's forces, maybe, I dunno) without much buildup to who they are as characters, then it'd be nothing more than "yep, these guys were here", like any random encounter in a video game. So I am definitely supportive of making them characters first and plot devices second. But on the other hand, nearly the entirety of the episode deals with the Lizardmen, and I think that's a bit of overkill. Regardless of what the light novels were like, there is such a huge chunk of lizardmen politics thrown into here that while I appreciate, I was genuinely surprised that this dragged on and on for an entire episode and not spread out a little. I dunno.

Anyway, let's get the non-Lizardmen scenes out of the way. The first is kind of a fluff comedic scene of Demiurge and Eclair meeting each other, and Eclair the penguin apparently wants to become leader of Nazarick, and announces it loudly. I'm not quite sure if this is the beginnings of something genuinely sinister for both these characters, or just a joke because, y'know, penguin butler. The second scene takes place near the end of the episode, focusing on Cocytus in a building (the Fake Nazarick, I think?) with one of the battle maids, Entoma, who has the most adorable voice ever. She's also apparently some sort of bug humanoid with an adorable face that never moves, and little bug-legs for hair. Cocytus seems to be the main Nazarick character we're rooting for here, though, because he wants to prove himself.

Mind you, those scenes combined probably lasted slightly longer than a minute of screentime. The rest of the episode deals with the lizardmen. The two brothers we saw from last episode, Chief Shasuryu Sasha, and the outsider/adventurer Zaryusu Sasha (god damn the names...) are from the Green Claw Tribe, and they are marked for the second tribe to be exterminated. Zaryusu, while initially brushed off as a pariah by everyone other than his brother, gives a plan of uniting the other lizardmen tribes, and gives this pretty long backstory about the seven tribes, the past conflict, and how the two enemy tribes that the Green Claws defeated has been absorbed into the Dragon Tusk tribe. Oh, and there are a couple of other tribes too -- always-neutral Red Eye and the previous allies, Small Fang and Razor Tail. It's kind of interesting, but at the same time not really -- it's like Game of Thrones, if we only saw maybe two characters and had everything delivered in the driest introdump ever and also only took place in a swamp.

Anyway, while I don't particularly care for the introdump, I do appreciate that we're just going to follow a generic hero journey of uniting the tribes and being the big saviour of his people. Zaryusu has everything that a normal video game protagonist has -- an evil threat to overcome, a bunch of potential allies, charisma, a unique backstory that labels him as a pariah, a unique super-special weapon Frost Claw, and even a pretty damn cool beast best buddy in Rorororo the Hydra. It's a fun foil for the bunch of sadistic monsters living in the Tomb of Nazarick.

Zaryusu goes to the Red Eye tribe, and its chieftain is an albino gecko lady called Crusch Lulu, and Zaryusu is instantly smitten, and after some awkwardness that involves thumping tails and Zaryusu accidentally making what sounds like a dolphin cry, Zaryusu manages to convince the Red Eye tribe to join them. We also learn about Crusch's Lulu's tribe's sin (they engaged in cannibalism to survive in the past war), and Zaryusu notes that the fight against their invaders will help 'depopulate the race' and stop the tribes from fighting over resources, and if they survive and escape (the Green Claws actually have designated a good chunk of their tribe as evacuees), the tribes will be able to see each other in a friendly light as they had been allies before.

It's actually a very interesting conversation topic, with the overpopulation and stuff -- it's actually unique and while understandable, it's also kind of alien to our human sensibilities and pretty cold-hearted. Zaryusu and Crusch Lulu (who joins him, because these are RPG heroes, after all) go off to the violent Dragon Tusk tribe where they are challenged to a fight of strength by Zanbaru Gugu.

I dunno. I guess the episode does an admirable job at making Lulu and Zaryusu at least sympathetic, even if the sudden shift in focus is utterly jarring. I'm really curious just how important these lizardfolk are going to be in future episodes, though, and I really did feel that this episode ended up feeling really slow-paced.