English Dub Review: Overlord “Those Who Pick Up, Those Who Are Picked Up”

New developments, new villains, and not a lizard in sight.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

It’s time for us take a break from the trials and tribulations of bipedal reptiles and check out what’s been going on elsewhere in Ainz Ooal Gown’s strategy to conquer the world. We follow none other than our main man and butler extraordinaire, Sebas Tian, furthering the wishes of his skeletal overlord in the capital city of Re-Estize. He checks in at the local magicians guild (Of which he is apparently a respected member) and purchases a spell called “Floating Board”, which is used to carry objects around. Scroll in hand, he sends his shadow demon to inform one of the battle maids, Solution Epsilon, that he’ll be late meeting her. Walking through the city he comes across a mysterious sack thrown into the alleyway. Stoically ordering his shadow demon to cut the bag, he finds a disturbing sight: a grievously beaten woman, weakly holding onto his ankle. The gentleman that he is, Sebas offers her assistance, but is rudely interrupted by a large man bursting out of the door the sack was thrown from. Realizing that the man has just gotten through beating her, Sebas hoists the bum by his collar and tosses him onto the pavement. The man protests that she belongs to him, and that a butler of position such as Sebas wouldn’t want to start trouble for his master. Sebas agrees, but asks the beaten girl if she wants help. Barely able to speak, she manages to ask for his assistance under her breath. Seeing that she’s struggling to survive, Sebas declares her under his protection, and carries her off, despite the protest of her abuser. The man begs Sebas, telling him he’s in debt to some shadow mob known as the “Eight Fingers,” and that if he loses this girl, they’ll kill him. Thinking it the right thing to do, Sebas gives the poor bloke a satchel of platinum, and leaves him to flee the country.

Returning home, Solution Epsilon questions Sebas’s decision to bring home the beaten girl. Despite her skepticism, Sebas insists that she tend to her wounds so that they might find some use for her. At his room, Sebas ponders if he made the right decision, but thinks back to the words of his creator, “Touch Me”, and how he imparted to him the virtues of trying to do the right thing. Solution reports to Sebas that the woman is quite badly injured and diseased, both mentally and physically, beyond the means of mere first aid. They’ll need to expend a magical scroll to properly heal her, and Solution is not happy about wasting such an item on a mere human. Sebas demands she be healed properly, and that she be bathed and nurtured back to health in their care.

Later, Sebas returns to the girl, who’s recovering in bed after her treatment. The gentleman that he is, he offers her a hot meal and words of comfort, telling her she’ll be safe here. Faced with his kindness, the girl breaks down into tears, lamenting why nobody helped her for so long, letting her suffer in whatever twisted place she came from. Sebas holds her close and learns her name is Tsuare, giving his name in turn. After their tender moment, Solution confronts Sebas in the hallway and continues to press the merit of his decision to keep her here, saying that she’s bound to cause trouble is she stays here. But Sebas is confident; they will deal with whatever trouble may come.

Who should we come across next other than Brain Unglaus, who you may remember from season one; he tried to take on Shalltear Bloodfallen, but was thoroughly bested, despite his arrogant attitude. He awakens from a nightmare where Shalltear beat him once again and heads downstairs from his room to find Gazef sitting at a dining room table. Gazef brought him home after Brain’s crushing defeat and offers him his hospitality. After Gazef asks him what happened to leave him in such a sorry state, Brain expresses his depression in the face of his own weakness. He’s just a human, and seeing the strength monsters like Shalltear posses, he knows he can never be as strong as he wants to be. He’s just about to walk out the door to accept his death when Gazef slams his hands on the table. He demands that he stay, telling him to eat something, move on, and become stronger.

That night, two members of the Blue Roses, Tia, and Tina, enact a raid on some kind of drug production facility, setting ablaze the field in which the drugs are grown. Their mission successful, they report to the other Blue Roses, who explain this field was run by the “Eight Fingers”, and that the strength of their syndicate reaches quite far. Getting a lead from one of their members, Evileye, they resolve to continue taking on the sinister organization.

Speak of the devil, we then see a meeting of the Eight Fingers, reviewing that they’ve lost the cultivation facility we just saw destroyed. Here we meet the bosses of the Eight Fingers: Hilma, Zero, and Cocco Doll; each the head of a different department of the organization. Zero offers t help Hilma deal with the people burning her fields, but Cocco, the leader of the slave trade, has something else in mind. He needs help finding an escaped slave; a young woman, none other than Sebas’s rescue, Tsuare. Grinning like a barbarian, Zero expresses his confidence, retrieval and violence is what he does best.

Our Take:

This episode, while a little dry in terms of plot advancement, was a good start to what seems to be a promising arc. The introduction of the Re-Estize capital as a setting is a nice change of pace from what we’ve had all season, and I’m happy to see Sebas take point as the main character of this one. His characterization was really strong, and it was nice to see a tender moment that really reveals the core of his character. Brain’s return is a nice little thing, too, and I’m stoked to see how they’ll all interact dealing with whatever dastardly dangers are sure to be afoot.

Score
8/10