Overlord Season 4 Episode 8 Review: Punish The Dumb

Last week wasn’t very good for Overlord, so let’s see if Overlord Season 4 Episode 8 does things a little better than that. Let’s get right to the review!

Overlord Season 4 Episode 8 Overview

The original, actually good MMO-based isekai show is back for its fourth season with Overlord Season 4. The series is again being produced by Studio Madhouse, which has produced all of the previous seasons of the show alongside other highly popular shows such as Death Note, One Punch Man, and Sonny Boy. This new season is also referred to as Overlord 4 and Overlord IV.

Naoyuki Itou is directing the show again. He is known for also being behind all of the original seasons alongside several other well-known shows such as Chihayafuru and Kanon. Overlord is based on a Light Novel written by Kugane Maruyama and illustrated by “so-bin”. This episode is also known as Overlord 4 Episode 8 and Overlord IV Episode 8. Click here to read the review of the previous episode of this season!

– Overlord 4 Episode 8 Review does not contain spoilers –

Overlord Season 4 Episode 8 Review- Boring Politics

This was another snoozer for the series. I don’t know what to think about it at this point, except that it has run out of all its steam and is just cruising along on the little momentum it had retained from previous seasons worth of good worldbuilding. However, the more it digs deeper into that particular well, the faster it seems to be running out. Overlord feels directionless and has been this way for a while now. The flaws are just easier to spot now that they’re happening more consistently.

Read More- Summer Time Render Episode 19 Review: Death Flag

This was a heavily underwhelming episode, especially since some assumed this would make up for the shortcomings of the previous one. There was not much to this one, as all it featured was a lot of conversation and not enough action. Conversations are only interesting when they happen between people you care about and on topics you care about. Sadly, the politics that the show is currently involved in is not interesting in the least, although your mileage may vary depending on the character’s likability.

This is the issue with having so many characters on a show that doesn’t have the time to flesh most of them out. There were several characters featured in this episode who were familiar as we had seen them in the previous seasons (and some even earlier in this season). Still, their motivations and prior developments were very hard to remember because they never got one, other than being built up a little for use in this particular arc. That is not the right way to do callbacks, especially since the show did it with plot details that it didn’t bother explaining at that point.

Read More- Classroom Of The Elite Season 2 Episode 8 Review: A Bet Decides Your Destiny

The politics of foreign affairs, with all of its vassal states and backstabbing, is not entertaining in the slightest. Who gets pumped by seeing people writing letters to each other and turning their backs on each other faster than you can say “boring”? There are way too many players in the game that haven’t been established properly beyond being pawns in the game that Ainz is playing against his own comrades, as the only thing he ever struggles with is what Albedo and Demiurge are plotting.

The series needs a series shot in the arm right now to take it out of the rut it has put itself in. Overlord isn’t an anime that can afford to have many more of these misses, as people still watching by Season 4 of a series are usually much less casual than your average anime viewer. The story needs to start making some sense sooner rather than later. The complexity and multiple character perspectives aren’t what we signed up to watch this show for anyway, and it is about time we get some real development.

Verdict

Overlord Season 4 Episode 8 was an outing that was frankly boring to consume. The show doesn’t have much going on right now, and it better straighten that out, lest it risks losing the attention it has retained up to this point.

Click here to read the review of the next episode!