Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom

I watched Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom (2024) on theaters last night. The storyline follows the Sacred Kingdom which is attacked by an almighty demon. The kingdom and world quickly comes under the demons rule until undead Sorcerer King Ains Ooal Gown arrives and offers to help the kingdom, but only if they follow his rules...

This picture is directed by Naoyuki Itô, who also directed 45 episodes of the original series, and contains the voices of Kristian Eros (Chainsaw Man), Nasim Benelkour (My Hero Academia: You're Next), Douglas Gill (One Piece) and Sean Letourneau (One Piece).

I'm one of the few people who went into this without watching the series first...but I will definitely watch the series now. The animation and universe is magnificent and really captures the imagination with a nice blend of super natural and fantasy genres. The battle and fight scenes are tremendous and make the movie, and I'm sure the series, and absolutely must watch. There's gore, a wide variety of weapons and cool dismemberment scenes. The storyline has an air of mystery over the picture but comes together well and keeps the audience intrigued. My only complaint would be the anticipated cheesy dialogue at times.

In conclusion, Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom is an elite addition to the anime movie genre that I would strongly recommend. No would score this a 9/10.

While this is a good addition to the Overlord series, I'm afraid it falls a bit short of the series. The lack of the guardians and the interplay between them and Ains is completely lacking in the movie, as Ains is going in alone. So many of our favorite characters are either missing or minimized. The battle sequences with Ains are also a bit lack luster, more of a firework's display rather than the epic thought out battles of the past. Also, the running joke of the Hard Sell is funny but may get somewhat annoying as it goes on and on. This film does contain several truly gruesome moments far beyond what the series contains, so expect some splatter. All in all, it is a decent film and Overlord fans should enjoy seeing Ains back in action.

When a demon and his army of demihumans attack the Sacred Kingdom, the humans have no choice but to turn to the Sorcerer King for help. As they battle their way back in hopes of securing the Sacred Kingdom, the humans must come to terms with the morality and ethics of war. The Sorcerer King seems benevolent, but more is happening than meets the eye.

This is another anime movie in place of a season for the series. Prior knowledge of the series is required to understand and appreciate it, but it can be watched without it. With the previous knowledge, the two-hour and fifteen-minute runtime may feel shorter; without it, the movie drags a bit. Fans of the series will enjoy it; others might be inspired to watch it to appreciate it truly.

I love the overlord series. It is fun and the plot is intriguing. The DND references and the overall characters in the series are just quite amazing for a fan of RPG games like myself. I watched the anime series and did some revisit from time to time. That might be the reason because for me, compared to the anime series, the movies have to leave out a lot of scenes just to make it to the runtime and it kind of ruins the overall vibe you would get from it and the sequences of the plot. I know it would be quite demanding for the editors to put all of the scenes and even though they did have to leave out a lot, the movie is still fun to watch with a lot of action going on. It is just that for me, I did not get the vibe I usually get whenever I watched the series and I kind of hoped that they could have done it somehow. Overall, it is an appetizer before the main dish of season 5 comes out.

I am a huge Overlord fan, and The Sacred Kingdom is a movie that I very much enjoyed watching. The movie's pacing of the story is quick and leaves out much of the Light Novels original source material, but is still effective in telling the story involving the Sacred Kingdom. The new characters introduced, Neia and Remedios, are both well written characters directly adapted from the Light Novel, and each have their own unique charm and characterization. Ainz himself is also great in the movie, as he always is, and continues to dominate as being the strongest. The visuals and animation used in the movie are also incredible while being accompanied by an amazing soundtrack, effectively capturing the grandeur and spectacle of the fights and setting. One critique I have for the movie is that the fights are way too short, and that I would've loved to have seen more action up close instead of the panned-out camera shots used during the fight scenes. Overall, the movie was very good and was well worth watching twice.