Originally published on The Fandom Post

What They Say:
“Two Leaders”

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Well, that was slightly underwhelming. The bulk of this week’s episode is taken up by the attack on Carne Village, which goes about how you’d expect. The one leading it is the Giant of the East, who seems to have been zombified (likely by Ainz). The goblins fight him and the bulk of his forces at the gate, while Nphiria and Enri struggle to evade and delay one of the trolls that broke through, only to be saved at the last minute by Lupisregina. During the battle, Nphiria finally confesses his love for Enri, and the two of them finally open up about their feelings in the battle’s aftermath. Afterward, Ainz invites them and Enri’s sister to the castle, where he treats them to a hilariously extravagant dinner.

After the fun of last week’s episode, I can’t help but be kind of disappointed by the battle this week. We already know from last week that the Giant is a nobody in the grand scheme of things, and that Lupis was watching over the village to protect Enri and Nphiria. Those two details together leave the battle feeling pretty toothless. The animation is a little too reliant on its awkward CGI for the battle to have much spectacle; outside of a few nicely choreographed moves, it’s mostly a mixture of small movements, still frames, and CGI monsters. Overlord’s general structure, which I’ve already discussed at length in previous reviews, means that there also isn’t any tension, even when the anime tries to set up some intense confrontations. Knowing that Lupis can step in and destroy the troll chasing Nphiria and Enri gives them such a large safety net that none of it leaves any impact. Nphiria staying behind to stall it while Enri goes for help should be a heroic moment for him, but it rings hollow since we know Lupis is eventually going to get involved and save him, which she ultimately does. There are a few highlights, like Enri and Nphi taking advantage of the troll’s keen sense of smell to trick it, but the battle largely feels limp and uninteresting.

Things pick up a lot more afterward. Enri and Nphi’s conversation about their feelings rings true to how two kids confessing their love would act. They themselves don’t completely know how to label what they feel for each other, but the way they open up and try to explain it is really sweet. Their visit to Nazarick is also a step up from the battle.

Having Ainz once again appear in the story hammers in just how much more entertaining he and his minions are compared to Overlord’s human characters. The former isn’t necessarily better developed, but their designs and personalities are so colorful that they always outshine the more restrained supporting cast. Ainz’s invitation, as well as the hints about his involvement with the attack, do raise some interesting questions. He obviously has some kind of plan for Enri and Nphi beyond just sponsoring them, so it’ll be interesting to see what he decides to do with them and how they react to learning what he actually is. We probably won’t find that out for a little while, though. For now, we’ll just have to be contented with Enri and Nphi’s shocked reaction to Ainz’s overly fancy dinner plans for them.

In Summary:
As a conclusion to the Carne Village arc, this episode does an okay job. The battle itself is pretty tedious, especially compared to Ainz’s showing off last week, but the aftermath is far more interesting. Even though their relationship doesn’t have a ton of depth, Enri and Nphiria have a lot of cute scenes together as they work on making sense of their feelings. Their visit to Nazarick also brings up some interesting questions about Ainz’s plans, which will no doubt come up again later on. On the whole, Carne Village was a decent enough side story, but I’ll be glad to return to the main plot now.

Grade: B-