is a Japanese

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English langua ...

series written by Kugane Maruyama and illustrated by so-bin. It began serialization online in 2010, before being acquired by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

. Sixteen volumes have been published since July 2012. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

adaptation by Satoshi Ōshio, with art by Hugin Miyama, began serialization in

Kadokawa Shoten , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing based in Tokyo, Japan. It became an internal division of Kadokawa Corporation on October 1, 2013. Kadokawa publishes manga, light novels, manga anthology magazines s ...

's manga magazine ''

Comp Ace is a Japanese computer game and manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten. ''Comp Ace'' began as a special edition version of another one of Kadokawa Shoten's magazines, ''Comptiq''. The first issue was released on March 26, 2005, and was publ ...

'' from November 26, 2014. Both the light novels and the manga are licensed in North America by

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published ''Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

since 2016. The novel has been adapted into an

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening o ...

television series adaptation by Madhouse, consisting of four seasons with thirteen episodes each, with the first season airing from July to September 2015. Two compilation anime films recapping the events from the first season were released in Japan in February and March 2017, respectively. The second season ran from January to April 2018, the third season ran from July to October 2018, and the fourth season ran from July to September 2022. An anime film has been announced.

Plot

In 2126, a Full-Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game or DMMORPG called YGGDRASIL was released, standing out among all other DMMORPGs due to its unusually high ability for the player to interact with the game. After an intense twelve-year run, the game servers are about to be shut down. Within the game exists a guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, once consisting of 41 members and credited as one of the strongest guilds in the game. Now only four of the members remain, the other 37 having quit the game, and only one, a skeletal "Overlord" character named Momonga, continues to play as the guild leader, maintaining their headquarters in The Great Tomb of Nazarick. In the minutes before the shutdown he invites the remaining guild members, but of those only one appears and only for a short while before leaving. While saddened by this, he accepts the reality that his friends have their other lives to take care of and decides to stay logged in until the servers shut down. When the shut-down time arrives, Momonga discovers that the game hasn't vanished; instead, it appears as if Nazarick has been transported to another world altogether and its various NPCs becoming actual living beings. Momonga has been trapped in the form of his game avatar, leaving him unable to use the normal player functions such as General Message, or even log out. With no other option, Momonga sets out to learn if any players like himself are in this new world. Taking on the name of the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, as a message to any other remaining players, Momonga begins exploring the world in an attempt to figure out what has happened while searching for anyone or anything that could help him solve this mystery, while ensuring the safety of Nazarick. Ainz Ooal Gown seems to have modifications made to his behavior by in-game mechanics, because he demonstrates no moral qualms with killing and other actions that are taboo in the real world. This is a story about the psychology of a creature with near-limitless power who is beyond ethical concerns.

Media

Light novels

The

series written by Maruyama, with illustrations by so-bin, began its serialization online in 2010 via the novel publishing website Arcadia. It was also uploaded to the novel publishing website

Shōsetsuka ni Narō is a Japanese novel self-publishing website created by . It was launched on April 2, 2004. Users can upload their novels free of charge and the novels are also free to read. As of December 2022, the site hosts close to 1,000,000 novels, has ove ...

in 2012, prior to

's acquisition. As of July 29, 2022, the series has been published by Enterbrain in sixteen volumes, with the first volume releasing on July 30, 2012, and the sixteenth volume releasing on July 29, 2022.

announced its license to the series in October 2015 for North America and began publishing the novels in English, with the first volume releasing on May 24, 2016. Maruyama has stated that the series will end at its seventeenth volume. In the afterword in the second part of the 16th volume it was announced by the author that the series will end at its eighteenth volume.

Manga

adaptation by Satoshi Ōshio, with art by Hugin Miyama, began serialization in

's manga magazine ''

'' from November 26, 2014.

Anime

A 13-episode

television series adaptation by Madhouse aired between July 7 and September 29, 2015. The opening theme is "Clattanoia" by OxT, and the ending theme is "L.L.L." by

Myth & Roid Myth & Roid (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese pop rock band centered arounTom-H@ck(guitars, bass, composer, production) and hotaru (keyboards, lyrics, story planning), featuring multiple vocalists. The band made its debut in 2015 with the re ...

. Both are bands of the musician Tom-H@ck. The anime adaptation covers light novel volumes 1 to 3. A 30-minute

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

was bundled with the eleventh limited edition volume of the light novel series, which was released on September 30, 2016. Two compilation films acting as a recap to the anime television series were released in 2017; the first compilation film, titled , was released on February 25, 2017, while the second compilation film, titled , was released on March 11, 2017. The films' theme song, titled "Crazy Scary Holy Fantasy", was performed by Myth & Roid. A second season was announced at film screenings of the second compilation film. It premiered on January 9, 2018. It ran for a total of 13 episodes. Outside of Asia, Funimation has licensed the second season for a simuldub. Following

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. In South and Southeast Asia,

Medialink Medialink Group Limited is a content distributor and licensor based in Kowloon, Hong Kong specializing in the distribution of Japanese anime and brand licensing. Its offices are located at Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Registered from Hong Kong ...

holds the rights to the series. The opening theme is "Go Cry Go" by OxT and the ending theme is "Hydra" by Myth & Roid. The second season of the anime adaptation covers light novel volumes 4 to 6. A third season premiered on July 10, 2018. The opening theme is "VORACITY" by Myth & Roid, and the ending theme song is "Silent Solitude" by OxT. With 13 episodes as with the previous seasons, the third season of the anime adaptation covers light novel volumes 7 to 9. On May 8, 2021, a fourth season and an anime film were announced, with the film covering the Holy Kingdom Arc of the series. The staff and cast members returned to reprise their roles for the fourth season, which aired from July 5 to September 27, 2022. The opening theme is "HOLLOW HUNGER" by OxT, and the ending theme is "No Man's Dawn" by Mayu Maeshima. On July 18, 2022, Crunchyroll announced an English dub for the fourth season, which began streaming on July 19. Fourth Season covers light novel volumes 10, 11 and 14, while the movie adapts volumes 12 and 13. A comedy crossover anime,

Isekai Quartet is a Japanese anime series that serves as a chibi-style crossover between the light novel series ''KonoSuba'', '' Overlord'', '' Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World'', and '' The Saga of Tanya the Evil'', all published by Kadokawa Co ...

featured characters from ''Overlord'' in a Chibi style, much like the

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

. It also featured characters from the

series ''

KonoSuba is a Japanese light novel series written by Natsume Akatsuki. The series follows Kazuma Sato, a boy who is sent to a fantasy world with MMORPG elements following his death, where he forms a dysfunctional adventuring party w ...

'', '' Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World'', and ''

The Saga of Tanya the Evil ''The Saga of Tanya the Evil'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese light novel series written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki. It began serialization online in 2010, on the user-generated novel publishing website Arcadia. ...

'', all published by

Kadokawa Corporation , formerly is a Japanese media conglomerate that was created as a result of the merger of the original Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2014. History The holding company known today as Kadokawa Corporation was origin ...

. The anime began airing on April 9, 2019.

Games

A mobile game ''Mass for the Dead'' was launched in late 2019 in Japan, with a global (English) version launched in early 2020. It received poor reviews, with reviewers noting it was rather simple and did not offer anything new compared to many other similar

gacha Gacha may refer to: * Gashapon, a kind of toy that originated in Japan which is sold inside a plastic capsule. Commonly sold in vending machines **Gacha game, video games that are monetized via a concept that is similar to gashapon. Comparable to L ...

games. The global version has been shut down as of March 31, 2021. A

Metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of platform video games focused on guided non-linearity and utility-gated exploration and progression. The term is a portmanteau of the names of the video game series ''Metroid'' and ''Castlevania'', with games in the ...

game titled ''Overlord: Escape from Nazarick'' was announced on December 17, 2021, for

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

and PC via

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. ...

and was released on June 16, 2022.

Reception

In June 2015, prior to the release of the anime and manga, the light novel series had about 600,000 copies in print in Japan with eight volumes. By August 1, 2015, the light novel and manga series had a total of 1 million copies in circulation in Japan. On August 4, a 600,000-copy reprint of the novels was announced. As of August 20, 2015, the nine-volume ''Overlord'' light novel series and two-volume manga series have, together, more than 1.5 million copies in circulation in Japan. As of September 18, 2015, ''Overlord'' light novel and manga has over 2 million copies in circulation. As of May 2016, the Overlord light novel series had 2.5 million copies in print. Overlord has since been named the top-selling light novel series of 2015. As of April 2018, the light novel and manga combined had over 7 million copies in print. The light novel ranked first in 2017 in

Takarajimasha is a Japanese publishing company based in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is known for publishing subculture-oriented fashion magazines aimed at teens, fashion magazines in general, as well as guide books. History The company was founded on September 22, ...

's annual light novel guide book ''

Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! is an annual light novel guide book published by Takarajimasha. The guide book publishes a list of the top ten most popular light novels according to readers polled on the Internet and votes from "collaborators" (critics, influencers, and other p ...

'', in the ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

'' category. It ranked fourth in 2018. In reviewing the anime adaptation,

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

called the ''Overlord'' anime a "magnificent power fantasy" which "brings up a very relatable theme for anyone who has played an MMORPG before."

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Studio Puyukai 2012 Japanese novels Anime and manga based on light novels Book series introduced in 2012 Dark fantasy anime and manga Enterbrain Fictional guilds Crunchyroll anime Isekai anime and manga Isekai novels and light novels Japanese fantasy novels Kadokawa Shoten manga Kadokawa Dwango franchises Light novels Light novels first published online Madhouse (company) Madman Entertainment anime Massively multiplayer online role-playing games in fiction Medialink Novels set in the 22nd century Seinen manga Shōsetsuka ni Narō Studio Puyukai Yen Press titles Norse mythology in anime and manga