It seems to be the end of the road for the kingdom in Overlord Season 4 Episode 13, as the cruel attack has finally sunk its feet. Let’s see how long it takes to bring a country down in this review!
Overlord Season 4 Episode 13 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 13 and Overlord IV Episode 13. Click here to read the review of the previous episode of this season!
– Overlord 4 Episode 13 Review does not contain spoilers –
Overlord Season 4 Episode 13 Review- Bad Plan
This was an extremely conflicting episode for me, as I am unhappy with how things played out. However, that might be what the show intended to happen in the first place, making it a successful outing based on the future plans for the show. No matter what the thought process behind ending this season like this was, it is hard to deny that it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable watch, and it left a bad taste in my mouth as the episode came to an end. There are multiple reasons for me feeling like that, and I’ll try to explain all of them in this review.
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First, there’s the futility of it all. Half the things that took place this season didn’t even matter by the end, which has been a trend throughout this show’s lifetime. It moves at a glacially slow pace that doesn’t fit well with the story it is going for. There was a plot point in this episode that was heavily hinted towards back in the second season, but other than that, the entirety of building up the empire has been for nought, now that it doesn’t exist anymore. What was the point of everything if nothing mattered?
There is something else that I’d like to discuss the plot point that actually was hinted at the start, but the spoiler rule stops us from discussing the specifics. I’ll just say that we have seen plenty of character arcs come to an end in the show, whether it be the reptiles from the second season, the explorers from the third season, Gazef Stronoff, Sabas and his lover, or even Hamusuke- none of them ended up mattering after their arcs were over. I expect the same to happen to the characters from this season. Overlord is known for its side characters, but it does tend to throw them all away.
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Then there comes the matter of inconsistency. Like the last one, this episode was extremely dark in tone and featured some extremely harsh deeds by Ainz and his gang of jabronis. However, does the show really expect us to believe this is the same guy who gets shy every time Albedo comes near him or hides behind her and Demiurge whenever a political decision needs to be taken? Are we to assume that guy did all this? Especially one episode after that hilarious confrontation with Pandora’s Actor? Even if he did that, the drastic tonal shifts benefit no one here.
At last, there is the twist to talk about, which we’ll be careful of lest I spoil something for you. Let’s just say that was no twist at all, and we have already discussed how insignificant every side character in the show is. We can be sure that this twist will also be forgotten by the time the next season rolls around. The musical number (yes, really) was extraordinarily cringeworthy and almost unbearable to watch, especially since you knew the show was trying to take it as seriously as possible. I hope that you understand why I was not too fond of this by now. Even if you didn’t, I’d like to hear why in the comments.
Verdict
Overlord Season 4 Episode 13 knew what it wanted to be and perfectly executed its plans. It is just that those plans were bad to begin with and couldn’t be saved by anything the show did.
i can’t agree more with your review !
Thank you for your comment! I’m glad that we agree!
It was so shit, the overall season was slow. I swear from reading the light novel there was more on the destruction of the kingdom but I feel they skipped/didn’t put enough attention to it.
What is mare doing, you never get to see him use his spell he’s just cheering “I can do it” I also thought finally I’m able to see cocyutus in action and destroy some stuff.
Overall it was pretty boring. I’m hoping they adapt the rest of the light novel a bit better.
I wouldn’t mind them making it a slow show if they made more episodes
Absolutely, this felt like it was horribly adapted from the light novel, even if I couldn’t really tell since I haven’t read it.
I completely agree, everyone is praising this shit and it’s wild. I keep seeing these justifications on why what Ainz is doing makes sense and I’m sorry but no it doesn’t. And even if it did, if you’re not going to introduce proper stakes and conflict then why not have him crush the Kingdom in one episode and move on rather than taking the ENTIRE season along with building up side characters he’s just gonna kill or crush by the end anyway. There are almost no stakes this whole season just Ainz going around squeezing peoples hearts. I’m noticing something with many of the light novel based anime I enjoy. Many of them have AMAZING first arcs or acts and then slowly taper off and lose direction after. It’s like these LN writers get an amazing idea for a first arc and start writing it without totally fleshing it out for longevity. Then after the big thing happens, the series (and anime) goes to shit. This is applicable to Overlord, Reincarnated As A Slime (Currently on Vol 13 and disappointed), Shield Hero etc.
The comment about light novels having great first arcs and nothing else resonates very well after two seasons of Shield Hero and now Overlord. I guess it says something about success affecting the quality of the writing, so much so that the writers want to extend the series.
I like reading reviews after I’ve watched something interessting.
However, when i like something, then I don’t want to read through hateful comments about it.
Generally it’s embarrassing when people write reviews and make fun of something they obviously overlooked or didn’t understand at all.
Don’t you think it would be better if, instead of just telling me that I missed something, you told me what I missed? Just a thought.
I’ve never read the light novel so i dont know where they were tryna go with it but, nah this season sucked ass. i even ended up here only because i googled up a review for the last episode because it was so dumb i felt there had to be more.
Well, I’m glad that we agree, and I welcome you for having ended up here. I write about a lot of other shows, check them out if you’d like!
Glad I found this review. I agree with the points made and you brought my attention to other things I agreed on such as Ains’ personality or the side characters that ceased to have importance. Throughout the episodes I was waiting… waiting for it to get good because there was constant buildup on top of the buildup from the previous season, that Ains would take over the world and a guardian or two was cooking up things in the background. All I got from this season was “Grasp heart!” and we will show them not to mess with us. Yeh yeh, you’re strong and we all know that, but there was no difficulty for him at all. His conflicts were too easily resolved and it felt like “Introducing this big bad fother mucker- oh, and Ains has grasp heart/mercied him. Onto the next!” I liked the internal conflict with Guardian v Guardian or Ains v Guardian or Ains v Ains when it comes to his shortcomings as a ruler. Nothing was memorable. Not the dwarves, dragons, mysterious warriors who were possibly players, and I was excited about his encounter with the dragons and warriors. How could the writers resolve all of this with grasp heart and playing safe? What happened to taking risks against the odds like with his battle with Shalltear? Where was Momon? What happened to the princess wanting to chain up her boy thing or whatever freaky shit she was into? I really did not care about the ending and big reveal. I don’t know what the hell that ending was. What a disappointment of a season.
Everything in your review was spot on. Interesting characters disposed of poorly e.g. Prince Zanac. Weak justification for wiping out the empire, Prince Zanac’s strong rebuttals for the invasion were lazily ignored. The MCs characterization was all over the place – from a bumbling and confused MMO player to an unlikeable and genocidal general, whose plan is so grand and wise, we are supposedly and purposefully left in the dark as to what it is. A pointless conclusion with the princess, which plays out like some creepy schoolboy fantasy and last of all – terrible battles. Spending time with so many increasingly unsympathetic and detestable characters, whilst cheering for the losing side makes me wonder how on earth this show got so popular in the first place.
That’s a great write up. Thank you for your comment!