Overlord IV

Episode 12

This episode presents to us the last calm before the storm. The human characters are facing down an unstoppable army full of monsters and undead. They all know that they are on the cusp of genocide, and that nothing they can do will gain them victory. They are all facing a true no-win scenario. The thing about facing their own mortality so directly is that it serves as a catalyst: it forces them the focus on what is most important to them in what looks to be their last hours.

For Brain, it's trying to emulate what Gazef did and have a direct duel with Ainz himself. He started off as an almost amoral narcissist, confident that he was destined to be the greatest swordsman of the age. However, when he faced true strength in the form of Shalltear, he became a coward and ran away. Since then, he has step-by-step rebuilt himself as a humble warrior. This hopeless battle is to be his final test—his proof to himself that he is not what he once was. And while he doesn't manage to fight Ainz, he does stand fast against Cocytus, even if his strongest attack fails to reach the insectoid monster in the end.

The Blue Rose adventurer's guild, on the other hand, have no plans to go out in a meaningless blaze of glory—well, not most of them anyway. The members of the guild are torn between what their leader wants—i.e., to fight to the end for her country—and their desire to all get out of this alive. In the end, they decide that living to fight another day is the most important thing, so much so that they are willing to betray their leader and put her under mind control to do so.

Lastly, we see what Renner finds important in these dark days. But it's not comforting orphans or doing the duties of a princess as it appears on the surface. Rather, it's what her focus has always been on: pretending to be a perfect princess for Climb. Nothing has changed from normal as far as Renner is concerned. She only cares about Climb and how he sees her. There's no doubt that she has already brokered some sort of an agreement with Albedo to secure her and Climb's survival (or she would have escaped with Evil Eye). At this point she is just going through the motions—though getting the Razor's Edge back from Brain and learning where the Blue Rose guild is escaping to are likely ways to sweeten the deal she has made.

So, with Brain dead and Blue Rose out of the picture, the only thing that stands between Ainz and total victory is an aged king and a naïve young knight. ...Yeah, not much of a match there.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I'm glad that Albedo pointed out the whole groveling thing from last episode—and I'm glad that Ainz is pragmatic enough to not care.

• It's interesting that while NPCs and normal people can be resurrected with magic, players cannot. In a meta sense, it's a good way of balancing their overpowered nature.

• Didn't Renner make the orphanage in order to gather recruits for Ainz—or am I getting confused with another orphanage?

• It'll be interesting to see Renner's plan come to fruition. Is she planning to be a spy as a refugee princess in other countries? Or is she planning to somehow switch sides in a way that she still appears to be the uber-kind princess she always was in Climb's eyes?

• Well, I guess an AOE attack that freezes everyone in their homes as you walk by is an effective genocide tool.

• I loved that Cocytus not only preserved Brains body but also took another route around him to show that his warrior sprit had stopped Cocytus—if only for a moment.

• Since Brain was frozen moments after death, can he be resurrected whenever?

• I wonder if we'll ever see the fallout from Blue Rose's betrayal of Lakyus. Will she be able to forgive them for what they did or will they have saved their friend only to destroy their friendship?

• I wish they had spelled out what Aura's mission was. Is she just looking for magical artifacts to loot?

• Can we have more adventures with Aura and her pet T-Rex? Please?

Overlord IV is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.