English Dub Review: Overlord “The Ultimate Trump Card”

The end of season two is upon us, and all hell is about to break loose.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The forces of E-Rantel have gathered to deal with this mysterious ring of fire that has emerged in the center of the city. Within the ring, a band of demons led by Demiurge has emerged, cutting off the city within the ring from the outside. Adventurers great and small, along with the cast of heroes we’ve grown acquainted with in the last few episodes all stand ready to cleanse this fiery ring of its demonic inhabitants.

We open on Momon dispatching with some grotesque demons, trying to rally the city guard to stand strong against the infernal horde. Meanwhile, Brain and Climb are running through the area, when Brain suddenly stops, sensing that Shalltear Bloodfallen is near. He tells Climb to go on without him and heads to the rooftop to take on Shalltear. On the rooftops, he finds a masked lady in a dress with long, flowing hair, who he’s assumed to be Shalltear, though she doesn’t remember him. Ready to take on his new foe, he is more than willing to die fighting her to give his friends a little more time. With a deft strike, he cuts the fingernail of the masked woman and is overjoyed at his ability to make even a dent in his ungodly foe. Brain then heads down to the streets below, but the masked woman soon follows, using some kind of time magic to catch up to him.

Momon and resident Blue Roses mage, Evileye, soon engage with Demiurge and the Nazarick battle maids, all in ominous blue masks. Evileye takes on Alpha and Delta, while Momon goes after Demiurge. Meanwhile, the other members of the Blue Roses are dealing with the demon foot soldiers. They’re about to be overwhelmed, but reinforcements soon arrive. Gazef and the king, along with Gagran and Tia, recently arrived from their defeat at the hands of Demiurge. Meanwhile, Evileye is having a hell of a time taking on the battle maids. Her magic is powerful, but Alpha and Delta combine their respective close-up and long-range attacks to put the mage on the ropes. She resolved to keep fighting and buy as much time as she can.

Strange dealings are soon afoot, as we see Momon meeting with Demiurge in a hidden room in the city. Demiurge takes his mask off, and addresses Momon as “his lord”, revealing that he’s fully aware of who Momon actually is. They discuss the greater plan at play here, as Demiurge explains that this whole invasion is a distraction to obtain funds from the city and demolish Eight Fingers. To finish their task, Demiurge plans to plant a powerful magic item used to summon a demon horde in the city, to make it look like this invasion was all Eight Fingers’ doing, at the behest of “Jaldabaoth”, Demiurge’s demon persona. Furthermore, this gives them an opportunity to take prisoners back to Nazarick for experimentation. Lastly, by defeating Jaldabaoth, Momon will become an adventurer of incredible renown, gaining national prestige. All according to plan.

This staged battle begins with Jaldabaoth being tossed out into the center of the city by Momon, who quickly rushes into battle to meet him. Their fight is intense, with Jaldabaoth giving his all to make him a proper villain for Momon to defeat. His hellfire magic puts on a good show, but Momon counters by pulling out Frostpain. Realizing that he can’t defeat Momon, Jaldabaoth decides to retreat with the rest of the battle maids, leaving Momon as the victor. The forces of E Rantel look upon Momon with awestruck eyes, and its clear that his reputation as an adventurer has been cemented in the city.

The episode ends with us seeing the fates of the many characters involved in this complex operation. Momon heads back to Nazarick, while Evileye looks longingly on at the departure of her newfound crush. Eight Fingers is firmly under the thumb of Nazarick, and Tsuare is entered into the Nazarick maids as a new recruit. With his work done, Ainz Ooal Gown sits upon his throne and contemplates his next move.

Our Take:

Well, Overlord season two has come to a close, and while I’ve been quite fond of this series up to this point, I actually found this final episode to be somewhat lackluster. The big problem here is the sheer number of different characters weighing down the episode and making it impossible for the story to have a strong focus on any one of them. Things feel rushed like they just had to find a way to squeeze all these different plot threads into one episode, and it really weighs things down. Furthermore, the fight between Jaldabaoth and Momon is so brief that it feels kind of pointless, along with the larger battle for E Rantel as well. It’s ironic that this episode might be one of the worst, but sometimes that’s just how things go.