English Dub Review: Overlord “Army of Death”

Who would’ve thought a skeleton overlord would be such a cool dude?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Its a night of celebration for the united lizard tribes, feasting to their victory over the undead forces of Ainz Ooal Gown the day before. The chiefs make merry and discuss the power and heroism of Zaryusu and his legendary ice sword, Frost Pain. Zaryusu and Lulu are conspicuously absent, resigning themselves to their private tent. Of course, its not long before Zenberu, the rapscallion that he is, storms into their tent, drink in hand, asking how their baby making is going.

Meanwhile, in more pertinent matters, the floor masters of The Tomb of Nazarick meet before Ainz Ooal Gown, wherein he introduces a new floor master, Victim, Guardian of the Eighth Floor, who looks like some kind of flying hippopotamus fetus. But, despite his appearance, it seems Victim has some kind of power that can be used in the case of them being attacked by someone wielding a World Item. Addressing Demiurge next, Ainz asks about the progress the devil has made in regards to creating scrolls. Demiurge says he’s been using beasts called Abelion Sheep to make the scrolls, some kind of chimera derivative. Ainz then goes to Shalltear, who’s still penitent over her forced rebellion against Ainz; she begs for punishment, a request which Ainz decides to acquiesce.

Cocytus is up next, and he’s in trouble for his failure to defeat the lizardmen. Cocytus is ashamed, but Ainz is less concerned about that and more concerned with Cocytus realizing how he could have fared better and defeated the lizard people. Thinking about the battle, Cocytus theorizes that he made numerous strategic errors when deploying his forces, and gravely underestimated the ability of the lizard people to fight back against him. In addition, he notes that his leadership on the battlefield was weak, especially considering how his army consisted mostly of low-level undead minions.

To everyone’s surprise, Ainz is pleased about the whole affair! He admits that the army he provided to Cocytus was so weak that their loss is of no real consequence and that by learning from the experience, Cocytus has cemented his position as a competent general in Ainz’s eyes. But, punishment for failure must be given, so Ainz commands Cocytus to destroy the lizard men by himself, without anyone else’s assistance. But Cocytus, strangely enough, is not down with this. Despite Albedo’s protest, Cocytus asks that Ainz not order him to slaughter the lizardmen, having a newfound respect for their valiance and strength in battle. Ainz hears Cocytus out but concludes it would still be better to kill the lizardmen and raise their corpses as zombies for their army. Demiurge chimes in, however, and proposes using the lizard people as live specimens for their experimentation. Ainz agrees with Demiurge, and settles on occupying the lizardfolk instead of murdering them. But Demiurge isn’t satisfied and notes that Ainz must have known all this already. Then, the reality of this bit of theater is revealed, that Ainz’s true goal was to promote Cocytus’s independent thinking, and he uses this moment to teach a valuable lesson to his generals. His orders are not infallible, and it’s more important for them to think for themselves on how to best benefit Nazarick than it is for them to blindly follow orders.

The Floor Masters are delighted at Ainz’s inspirational charisma, a true display of his benevolent leadership. Concluding the meeting, Ainz assigns Cocytus to occupy and ruling over the lizardmen, not through fear, but through strong leadership of his own. Calling them to action, Ainz teleports out of the tomb, and the remaining generals discuss the brilliance of Ainz’s ability to plan out this whole affair.

Ainz heads back to his room and falls into his enormous bed. Revealing his inner nerd, he giggles to himself how cool that whole conversation was. He postulates to himself that Cocytus might be able to learn strategy skills he previously wouldn’t be able to in Yggdrasil.

Later, we return to the lizardmen, who stand in awe at the new army of undead warriors surrounding them. This is a far cry from the skeletons they fought off before; veteran undead, magical armor, high-level magic, the whole nine yards. Soon, Ainz steps forth from the ranks of skeleton soldiers and uses his magic to cover the topography of frost. The lizardfolk realize their chances of fighting off this new enemy are quickly fleeting. Soon, a giant at Ainz’s command throws an enormous stone cube onto the battlefield. His skeletons take a new formation, stacking onto each other to form a giant staircase, which Ainz and his generals proceed up to occupy this new throne. Ainz summons more spooky talking heads to announce his presence to the lizard people and demands to speak to their leaders so they may talk of their surrender. Bravely, Zaryusu and Shasuryu go to speak to Ainz, confident in themselves. After introductions, their confidence soon fades, as Demiurge uses his powerful magic to force the lizard chiefs into kneeling before Ainz, teaching them the proper posture to address their new king.

Ainz congratulates the lizard people on taking part in his experiment. and informs of how this is all going to go down. He tells them that in four hours, he will send Cocytus to fight them for the future of their village. Shasuryu tries to surrender instead, but Ainz counters that he would much rather watch them do battle. Soon, Ainz and his generals depart, leaving the lizard chiefs to debate.

They decide to fight together, to stand as one against Cocytus, knowing that it will most likely be their last stand. Crusch protests, demanding to go along with them, but Zaryusu says that he’ll never let her be put in danger, and asks her to abstain from the fight, as his dying wish. Crusch agrees, but before the episode ends, asks Zaryusu to impregnate her. Surprise!

Our Take: 

This is another solid episode for Overlord Season Two, finally bringing Ainz and the lizard people together in a singular plot. Good writing, solid characterization, and empathy for both the leaders of Nazarick and the lizard people give this episode a nice sense of plot importance. Can’t wait for next week.