Title: Overlord Vol. 5
Author: Kugane Maruyama (Story), Hugin Miyama (Art)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 148
Genre: Shounen, Battle
Publication Date: January 30, 2018
The Story
Volume five of Overlord starts off by concluding the battle between Ainz and Shalltear. Ainz defeats and then resurrects Shalltear, hoping to gain insight as to who placed her under the mind control spell, but Shalltear can’t remember anything. Ainz then lays out a map of the land and details the different countries surrounding the Tomb of Nazarick. Ainz concludes that this attack shows that they are vulnerable to all surrounding countries and that they need to strengthen their defenses. At the same time, they need to put others on notice and decide to send a messenger to the lizardmen tribes, hoping to coax them into a surrender.
This is where the volume shifts and does some nice world building by taking us into one of the lizardmen tribes. Ainz’s messenger arrives and tells them that they have 8 days to decided and then they will be the second tribe to be destroyed. This causes the council to gather and after the decision is split between fighting and surrendering, the chief’s brother Zaryusu, speaks and states that he’s all for fighting, but not alone. He wants to join all of the tribes together to fight as one, which is something he feels the enemy didn’t plan for. The only problem was that there was a war between the tribes over foot shortages not that long ago so Zaryusu proposes that he will go speak to the tribes himself since he is a traveler.
Zaryusu visits the Red Eye tribe first and recruits their acting chief Crusch by flat out proposing to her, claiming it’s love at first sight. I’ll admit that I didn’t see that coming at all! I also couldn’t believe she fell for it, but something tells me that Zaryusu was actually sincere! After getting the Red Eye tribe on his side, he goes to the Dragon Tusk tribe, but since they are known for their strength, their chief states that he will not join unless Zaryusu can prove his strength first and asks him to take up a blade. This is how our volume ends.
A little bit of an odd stopping point, but I like the world building that is going on here. It’s not all about Nazarick and Ainz’s determination to take over the world. They are showing that there are other stories to be told here. Most of the time, some series will just gloss over characters like this and just state the facts you need to know to understand why something is happening, but Overlord is going through great lengths to detail a whole other tribe, their characters, their history so that the outcome of this warning that Ainz sent will be even more impactful! This is how you build worlds and tell great stories!
Characters
All of the development went to two of the new characters that were introduced in the lizardmen tribes.
First off was Zaryusu who is a traveler, even though he is the brother of the leader of the Green Claw tribe. After the war over food shortages, he took up the profession of farming and raising fish. Now, he is acting as the messenger to try and unite the tribes together to fight back against this unknown (to them) threat. Zaryusu does have an alternative motive, though. He hopes that this war will bring some casualties as it will keep the population down, thus preventing a future war over a dwindling food supply. At the same time, though, he knows banding together would be their best odds for survival. He’s pretty cunning. He also keeps being referred to as the bearer of Frost Pain, which isn’t really explained. Hopefully more light will be shed upon that in the next volume.
Crusch is an albino lizard and the acting chief of the Red Eye clan. Even though there was a war among tribes, the Red Eyes even had to deal with in-fighting amongst themselves. Crusch ended up slaying their chief, knowing that it was for the best as even the chief understood that dwindling numbers would be the answer to solve their problem. Crusch became acting chief and has decided to accompany Zaryusu on his journey from tribe to tribe to try and unite them all.
The backstory was certainly interesting. I want to see if they can pool all the tribes together, but I have a sneaky suspicion that they are playing right into Ainz’s hands. He probably counted on this happening.
Final Thoughts
Like volume four, I wished this volume of Overlord was a bit longer. I was really getting into the lizardmen story and wanted to see if Zaryusu could unite the tribes. I felt that the tribes should have been united and then the volume ends on Ainz’s attack. Another stopping point could have been at the end of the battle between Zaryusu and the Dragon Tusk’s chief, Zenbel. Be that as it may, it was still a good read that has me intrigued.
As for the battle with Shalltear, I kind of saw an ending like that. I didn’t think Ainz would have killed her and then resurrected her, but I did foresee him sparing her in some shape or form. From the very beginning, it was just the kind of character I saw Ainz being. It goes back to the duality of his persona. On the outside, he’s this ruler who wishes the conquer the world, but on the inside, he’s still a human trapped inside of a video game so it’s natural that he would have human compassion residing within him.
Can’t wait for volume six!
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**This item was provided for review by Yen Press
