Originally published on The Fandom Post

What They Say:
“Invitation to Death” and “Butterfly in a Spider’s Web”

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the Carne Village storyline complete for now, episodes 6 and 7 shift us to a new arc based around the Empire this time. As Ainz scouts out the capital city, we’re introduced to a group of Workers-unlicensed adventurers-known as Foresight. Tempted by a large reward, Foresight and several other groups of Workers accept a job to explore a mysterious tomb that seemed to appear out of nowhere. This goes about as well as you’d expect, especially with Ainz pulling some of the strings on the mission; the workers are split up early on, and every group except Foresight is captured or killed by Ainz’s subordinates. Foresight is teleported to the Coliseum, where Aura announces that they’ll be fighting Ainz himself.

Episode six is largely devoted to setting up the Empire’s society and the ill-fated expedition to Nazarick, but still has its share of interesting details. We’re introduced to Emperor Jircniv Run Farlord El Nix (whose name is nonsensical even by light novel standards), who promises to be an interesting character later on. He’s violent and seems to have a bit of a cruel streak, but he’s also a social reformer who’s popular with the lower classes and doesn’t care about social status. It’s an odd combination of traits that could turn into a level of complexity that Overlord has traditionally avoided. Hopefully, he won’t be swallowed up by Ainz like most other characters we’ve met.

On a similar note, the four members of Foresight get a fair amount of development leading up to the expedition, especially Arche, who’s stuck working to try and support her selfish ex-noble parents. It’s another interesting detail beyond what Overlord has traditionally done but ultimately fails to garner much investment. Strong as their dynamic is, it’s hard to care about Foresight when it’s obvious that they’re going to end up dead, captured, or otherwise manipulated as part of Ainz’s plans. For all intents and purposes, their fate is sealed as soon as the show sets them on a path to investigate Nazarick. The other Workers we meet are fairly one-note characters, all of whom are disposed of within a few minutes of entering Nazarick.

The expedition itself takes an interesting turn, choosing to adopt a more horror-oriented style than Overlord’s usual focus on action. Scenes of them being chased through confined halls by a mob of skeletons aren’t as flashy as the usual one-sided battles but carry more tension. The tension only increases as the groups are separated and confronted by the various monsters who serve Ainz. The longest one is a fight between one of the Workers and Hamusuke, which doesn’t last long. It’s not one of Overlord’s best fights, but it’s still fairly entertaining to watch an arrogant warrior get beaten by a giant talking hamster. The episode’s best sequence comes when another group is transported to a dimly lit room and faced with someone we haven’t seen before. The low lighting that hides his face does an excellent job of building tension, which pays off when it turns out he’s an anthropomorphic cockroach and the room is full of cockroaches he controls. Unfortunately, this also leads into the episode’s worst sequence, which features another monster capturing one of the Workers and sexually assaulting him. The monster’s voice, appearance, and mannerisms are all based on the “effeminate gay man/okama” stereotype, which carries an unpleasant edge of homophobia that distracts from an otherwise solid episode.

In Summary:
In the end, both episodes are primarily setup for next week, where it looks like Foresight will be forced to fight Ainz directly. Random homophobia aside, both episodes do a good job of setting up plot threads for the coming weeks. Ainz’s exact motivations for luring the Workers in are kept vague but are implied to be related to his and Demiurge’s plan to turn Nazarick into a country of its own. Whether the Workers are meant to be mere test subjects or something more, Ainz clearly has plans for them. With most of the other Workers eliminated and a promising fight on our hands, next week’s episode has the potential to do what Overlord does best and show off Ainz’s power.

Grade: B

Streamed By: Crunchyroll