Title: Overlord Vol. 2
Author: Kugane Maruyama (Story), Hugin Miyama (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: September 27, 2016
The Story
In the second volume of Overlord, Ainz-sama begins his quest to become the God of this world, but before he can do such a thing, he’s going to need to build up a reputation. He decides to become a common adventurer under the name Momon. Before we get to the adventure, Ainz-sama informs everyone back at the base of his intentions and leaves Albedo in charge while he is away. This gives us some nice side humor as all the women are still fawning over Ainz-sama!
Ainz, as Momon, makes his way to a tavern and checks out a job board. Despite doing such, he realizes that he cannot read this world’s text and accidentally picks a job above his class. When he is denied the job, he requests the toughest job among the copper class. Before he receives his job, a party approaches him and requests his assistance with some monster hunting. Seeing this as a great opportunity to raise his reputation, Ainz accepts the job. Before setting out on the job, a boy by the name of Nfirea Baleare appears and states that he is the one who made the request. Their quest takes them to the village that Ainz saved in the first volume. In fact, the girl that Ainz gave the potion to ends up being Nfirea’s friend Enri. This is where Nfirea learns that Momon is really Ainz, but he agrees to keep the secret.
Meanwhile, a sadistic girl named Clementine appears and confronts on old man by the name of Khajit. Khajit is looking to perform the ritual of death. As a result, she targets Nfirea and sets out to locate him. Back on the quest, the party runs into the Wise King of the Forest, which turns out to be a giant hamster who speaks almost like Yoda from Star Wars. Ainz wisely tells Nfirea and the others to run away because he has an ulterior motive. Instead of killing the Wise King of the Forest, he ends up forcing him to become his servant, giving him the name of Hamusuke. When they return to town, Ainz runs into Nfirea’s grandmother. They journey back to their house to discover that Nfirea is missing and the entire party was murdered. Clementine left behind some clues, but Ainz knows it’s already a misdirection. The volume ends with Ainz heading towards the graveyard to locate Nfirea.
This was a rather short volume as it was only comprised of three chapters, including a special “Chapter 7.5” which showed the characters of the manga making the announcement that Overlord was adapted into a television anime, which I thought was pretty cute. What we did get was good, although not much really happened. Ainz simply began his quest to up his reputation as a knight throughout the land and we were left with one developing plot and a bit of a cliffhanger that didn’t really serve up a lot of suspense. The cliffhanger felt a bit flat because we knew exactly what was going to happen. Ainz set out to find Nifrea and he approached the gates to the graveyard. I’m sure it can be seen as suspenseful since we would like to see what is on the other side of the gate, but I think a better part to end this volume on would be seeing Nfirea’s party murdered and that’s it.
The problem here is that would cut an already short volume even shorter, so I’m sure that played into the decision on where to stop this volume. The length didn’t detract from the quality and I’m still excited for the third volume!
Characters
Honestly, there wasn’t much in Ainz’s development at all aside from Nfirea learning his true identity.
Nfirea and his party members all just seem a bit flat. They have generic personalities and don’t really stand out all that much. They remind me of a pick up group in an MMORPG. They’re just there until they serve their purpose and then you move on. I’m assuming since this is an ongoing quest for Ainz, that everyone here will be treated the same way once this story arc concludes.
Clementine, on the other hand, had tons of personality. She’s a bit TOO excited over the fact t hat she gets to kill people and she also enjoys toying with those she is about to kill. One person even asked why she was crazy and she came off with a lot of twisted reasons right off the top of her head, only to smile and state they were all lies before murdering her victim. She reminds me of Juuzou Suzuya from Tokyo Ghoul in that regard, but a bit more evil if you can actually imagine that. I like characters like her and I hope she sticks around past this story arc because she was pretty entertaining to read.
Khajit, on the other hand, is shrouded in a bit of mystery. We see his personality as the stern and straight-forward bad guy that keeps Clementine in check. Even Clementine admits that she can’t beat Khajit which says something about his power. Other than the indirect picture we are painted of him, not much is really known about Khajit other than the fact that he wants to perform the ritual of death.
Final Thoughts
While short, we are treated to a new story arc and a couple of new characters. The story was still enjoyable and while it wasn’t as exciting or engaging as volume one, it does its job perfectly of setting up events for volume three which is looking to be filled with action. Second volumes are typically a cool down after an intense introduction and that seems to be the formula Overlord is following here. Despite the slight cooldown, things look to ramp up next time and that alone has whet my appetite to see more from this series!
Overlord is shaping up to be a great story and this volume shows that the creators are in it for the long haul with the kind of pacing they are going for. Fans of “Trapped in MMORPG” stories will find something a bit different with Overlord and I think it breathes a bit of new life into an over-saturated genre. So far, I believe it’s definitely worth checking out!
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**This item was provided for review by Yen Press
