English Dub Review: Overlord “Blue Roses”

Even skeletal overlords can have money problems.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Ainz Ooal Gown is back in disguise as Momon, and lamenting the fact that he is very nearly broke. Turns out, the upkeep of being an overlord is pretty high, and despite his fame and ability, he’s only got chump change left in his coffers. Ainz wracks his head over what to do but is soon interrupted by Narberal Gamma. She announces that the ore Ainz has ordered has arrived, and receives payment from Ainz while he explains the purpose of the ore: experimentation with the Exchange Box. Ainz goes over the backup plan for Narberal to follow if things get ugly, and sends her away to obtain the goods, wishing her good luck on her mission. Of course, getting that ore doesn’t make Ainz any less broke.

Later, we join Gazef as he walks in on the training of Climb, Princess Renner’s protector and fair-haired soldier lad. Gazef offers to help Climb train with a good spar, imparting his veteran’s wisdom to the young warrior. In their conversation, Gazef tells Climb of Ainz Ooal Gown’s incredible magical ability and instructs him to remember Ainz’s name for things to come. Soon, their sparring begins, and the two face each other down. Initially, Climb seems apprehensive and unprepared, quickly getting pushed to his limit by the more experienced Gazef. But in an act of turnabout, Climb activates a martial art after drawing Gazef in and reveals he was feigning weakness to bait Gazef off his guard. He immediately counterattacks, impressing Gazef, and their fight takes off properly. Time passes, and their spar ends with Climb beaten and bruised on his back, but feeling stronger for the experience. Gazef commends Climb’s warrior strength, and instructs him on ways to improve his combat style, imparting the experiences Gazef has had with adventurers himself. Soon, they depart, and as Climb walks away, Gazef’s vice-captain explains the difficult political situation Climb finds himself in. Gazef concurs, and also notes that despite Climb’s heroic spirit, he’s what adventurers call “capped at gold” (Rank), and seems to have reached a limit on how strong he can be.

Following Climb, we see him run into Marquis Raeven and Prince Zanac, a couple of foppish nobles with a penchant for cunning and treachery. Zanac openly insults Princess Renner in front of Climb, blatantly calling the princess a “monster.” Climb bites his tongue and continues on to meet the princess. Climb walks into the princess’s room to find her partaking in a tea party with two of her associates, Lakyus and Tina, of the Blue Roses. Lakyus can’t help but flirt with Climb, much to Princess Renner’s embarrassment, but soon they continue on to discussing business. Princess Renner laments her inability to deal with the Eight Fingers, who threaten to corrupt the country from the inside out despite her best efforts. After hearing her plight, Lakyus presents Renner with the coded parchment she retrieved from the Eight Finger’s drug plantation. Immediately, she sets to work decoding it, and soon its contents are revealed to be a list of illicit locations important to the Eight FIngers throughout the city. Renner comes to the conclusion that this message is something of a trap to throw the Blue Roses off the trail of their more vital business interests. Lakyus then notices that the location of the only slave brothel left in the kingdom isn’t on the list, and thus they conclude that that brothel should be the next target of the Blue Roses. Renner is afraid for Climb’s safety in working with the Blue Roses, and express her concern for him, and so is asked to inform the other Blue Roses of what they’ve figured out here. But little do our heroes know, that as their meeting ends, a couple of nosy maids in the pockets of the nobles and the Eight Fingers were eavesdropping on their planning session.

We then go to Sebas Tian’s home base, where the returning butler is greeted by Tsuare, who has been serving as a maid in his house. Tsuare is nervous and anxious about her cooking, but Sebas continues to express the kindness and benevolence he exhibited towards Tsuare the last episode. Her gratitude betrays her, and she’s nearly in tears at the compliments to her food. Soon, Sebas meets with Solution, who is still not totally on board with Sebas’s new refugee, and insists that they tell Ainz about her presence in the mansion and the fact that she’s a human. Sebas maintains that its fine for Tsuare to be there; that her presence serves as a diversionary tactic obscuring their true mission, and that she’s also quite a good cook.

Their conversation is interrupted by a rude knock at the door, courtesy of an oafish constable named Staffan Heivish, accompanied by Succulent, whom we met the last episode. He explains that Succulent wishes to file a complaint against Solution, with Succulent’s testimony that Sebas must have violated the slave prohibition due to his presence at the brothel where he rescued Tsuare the other day. Solution decides to leave this up to Sebas, and quickly evacuates from the conversation. Quickly, we see that Succulent is the owner of the slave brothel Tsuare was resuced from. Succulent presses his complaint, insisting that Sebas pay a high fine or return Tsuare to the service of his brother, which Sebas coolly refuses, much to Succulent’s chagrin. He threatens Sebas and says that he’s only got a day to give the girl back; in response, Sebas marches out of the room, ending the negotiations. When Solution asks what Sebas is going to do about all this, he answers with “take a stroll”, and walks out of the building with a determined glare in his eye. Once Sebas leaves, Solution sends a message to Ainz Ooal Gown, declaring that she believes Sebas to be turning traitor and that she’s got the evidence to prove it.

Our Take:

The stars have shined upon Overlord once again, which has delivered another gripping episode in the saga of Ainz Ooal Gown. Most everything about this episode worked, which gave us lots of quality time to be spent with Sebas, Gazef, Climb and Renner, who all get very satisfying scenes. In addition, this episode also covered quite a bit of ground in terms of plot advancement and had enough tension to keep me interested in what’s to come next. Overlord marches on with the James Bond-esque Sebas Tian at the forefront, and I’m eager to see what else is in store next week.