Overlord S03E01 Review: Mount Requirements

Overlord, Season 3, Episode 1: A Ruler's Melancholy

We're starting off season three of Overlord! I've really enjoyed the first two seasons of Overlord earlier this year, but waited for the third season to be fully available before watching it. And this third season starts off with... with an episode that's honestly a bit jarring considering how season two ended with a non-stop sequence of a huge battle in the Kingdom's capital with multiple moving parts. This episode seems to be more of a chill one you'd expect to find in the middle of a season, feeling more like a montage of what's going on in the Great Tomb of Nazarick daily when we're not dealing with epic conspiracies and multi-layered double-agent infiltrations.

The episode starts off with a bit of a brief debriefing of the whole Kingdom arc, with rewards to the troops. We get some obvious Sebas/Tuare "get together, guys" jokes from Ainz, whereas Solution's chosen reward is a bunch of humans. The less evil, the better, because she wants to eat them while they are screaming. Yep, Solution, you're one creepy lady! Again, it's in keeping with what we do know of her -- she doesn't really care all that much for humans, and the only reason Tuare lasted that long under the same roof as this psycho slime maid is out of respect and/or fear of Sebas. Kinda wish that the Solution/Sebas working relationship was elaborated a little more, though, after that whole tattletale bit. But I guess Sebas is that much of a gentleman. Meanwhile, Entoma is still speaking in her true voice, and her 'reward' is basically the promise that if Evileye ever becomes an enemy of Nazarick and outlives her usefulness, Entoma wants to be the one allowed to kill her.

And then Ainz takes a bath with a (non-maid) Slime. Do skeletons even need to take a bath? I guess it's something out of habit. Also very interesting to see that the glowing red orb isn't actually part of Ainz's intricate overlord armour but part of his body.

We then cut away to Eclair Eclair Eclair the penguin butler going "I WILL RULE" and the mono-expression robot maid CZ/Shizu kind of just wandering around, and basically treats Eclair like a plushie. There's a bit of a scene that's sort of fluff featuring the even-lower-ranked maids assigned to non-combat maid duties, and some comedy bits with Lupusregina and CZ... fun stuff! We also follow one of these lesser maids, Cixous, as she and Lupusregina sort of discuss the duties of maids. Oh, and Ainz now has an army of CGI robot ants called the "Eight-Edge Assassins" patrolling his room? I confess that other than CZ being an adorable emotionally-stunted robot and Eclair being a penguin, none of these characters really jump out at me.

We then cut to a bunch of more interesting characters, with the three main ladies -- Albedo, Shalltear and Aura -- sort of having a picnic, because Ainz has been telling all of these people to take a break and stop being NPC's 24/7. So somewhere in-between him losing his humanity and shrugging off lizardman genocide, Ainz still feels paternal towards the NPC's, then? Interesting. The NPCs, due to their unique nature  is actually baffled if this 'break' is supposed to be natural or not.

Albedo is a character that is pretty fascinating, by the way. As one of the first characters introduced and one that got the biggest spotlight alongside Ainz in the first bunch of episodes, she quickly got shunted aside as a 'safe' character that can repeat a couple of jokes and is in a comfortable position, but never got the same amount of spotlight as other Nazarick denizens like Shalltear, Sebas or Narberal got, so it's definitely nice to see Albedo actually doing something.

For their part, their little picnic involves Albedo summoning a Bicorn, which is like a demon horse creature... and then when she attempts to mount it, it collapses. Unlike what Aura and Shalltear initially thought, though, it's not because Albedo is fat... it's because she's a virgin, and Bicorns are like reverse-Unicorns. Okay, then? "But you're a succubus!" Aura says, and, yes, that's exactly my question. Also love that little Peroroncino-encyclopedia that Ainz apparently gave Shalltear.

Also, Shalltear apparently has done it with women, which... actually makes sense considering her vampire brides. Yeah, it's definitely a fun little comedic episode, and it's a fun, light-hearted one. Honestly, as much as I really love the heavier storytelling in Overlord, it's very easy to turn this show to take a more comedic turn, and I'm actually a big fan of that.


We then cut to Hamsuke... training... with one of the summoned death knights! And he's being trained by the lizardmen. Apparently Ainz is big enough of a softie to resurrect at least the monk chieftain (Zenberu, I think?) because we get to see him cheering Hamsuke on alongside Zaryusu.

And because an episode that's too happy can't be a thing, we get Mare meeting with this little stout, hooded little plague-doctor dude Pulcinella, whose plague doctor head can instantaneously disappear when he waves around his hands. Pulcinella is a minion of Demiurge, apparently, and he waxes lyrical about how Demiurge is so great for making experiments about breeding humans and non-humans, framing it as a "chance for happiness" for all the Romeo/Juliet pairs among the humans and non-humans. I'm genuinely not sure what is more disturbing -- the none-too-subtle revelation that Demiurge has been conducting pretty rapey "experiments" in his chimera farms, the fact that his minion seems to think that it's for the greater good (and not in the Spock sense either) or that Mare is so blase about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, as we cut to Ainz... he's in a room, practicing poses and writing it down in a little book. Which he hides in a super-secure box with a magical lock that he hides in another dimension.

And then when he sits down, in a meeting, you can totally see the pleasure on Ainz's non-emotive face when Mare compliments how he whooshes his cape like a proper king. Ainz goes into this sentimental speech about how he appreciates everyone from Albedo to Mare to the minor maid Cixous ("Ainz-sama knows my name!").... and this apparently arouses Albedo so much she just rush-tackles Ainz to the ground and tries to basically rape Ainz (but he's just a skeleton, though). Who's too shocked at everything going on. The Eight Edge Assassins try to pull Albedo off, and we just get this slew of amazing facial expressions from her -- the anime staff clearly likes her, huh?  I don't think they actually consummated this bit, though.

We then cut away immediately to Ainz and the other male guardians on a hot springs bath, and apparently this was the "information circular" that was a brief running plot throughout the sporadic events that happened in this episode. We get a hilarious line from Cocytus when the others observe that he's not different because he's always naked anyway "Please do not word it in such a way that I sound like a a pervert." The episode then ends in a lighthearted note as apparently a guardian lion golem installed on the ladies' side of the bath ends up attacking them for being improper and attempting to peek.

Overall, it's a much-needed lighthearted episode, I think. Lots of genuinely fun moments, and some heartwarming bits on the side of Ainz and the other Guardians. Also love the little hints and bits of plot points being addressed -- like the lizardmen, or a far more explicit nod to the horrors Demiurge and his forces are doing off-screen. Next episode will move to a less standalone story arc, though to my understanding the first arc of this season is more of a minor side-story. Or to use a gaming term, a side-quest.