Of course a lot of things are omitted, novel is the source, manga is still really great but it is rushed, anime - it looks like there will be more things included in anime than it is in manga now. However i can say that it is epic story whatever novel, manga or anime.

The manga is wayyyyyyy tooooo rush. There are a lot of important stuffs being omitted, which had make the world alive. The first chapter was alright since it is the prologue, but second and third are really bad.

I suggest you read the novel instead. It's more interesting and detailed. The protagonist do explain his reason for doing things instead of just doing it.

... Last updated on February 28th, 2015, 8:23pm

I hate to say this typical critique but it is really true in this case. The first chapter was alright but the second was so rushed that it felt like a barrage of random elements. It is such a shame since the novel really is a great read.

this manga feels like it was rushed and then I mean really rushed. it has taken (almost) all of the background story and the flow of the story does not make sense anymore and a great opportunity to make a good manga has been wasted! my advice is to read the novel:
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=113614 (the novel is amazing)

well, the manga is good but we are missing some interesting plot that exist in LN but not in manga
anyway, the anime series and manga version relatively had same pace,
if i must chose between manga or anime, i chose the anime version (dude, it has colors, LOL)

... Last updated on June 17th, 2018, 7:45am

It's clear that it must've received its ridiculously high score by fanboys and fangirls that didn't even care to evaluate it properly... There's no way it can be rated as above average(6+).

Why? Well, the main issue is the pacing being ridiculous. It's pretty much exactly the same as the anime(everything you read in the manga except for the special chapters are portrayed in just about exactly the same way in the anime), there's hardly any difference, only that the manga omits a lot more details compared to the anime. There's hardly any need to say how much is omitted from the novel since that is the case. It skips over everything so fast that you don't get any important details whatsoever. It's like reading a summary with the absolute biggest details written out and the rest skipped, often leading to false information when comparing it to the LN, plot holes are everywhere and if you didn't read the LN or watch the anime beforehand you'd think "what the hell is this, I don't even understand what's going on". You know when he's starting out playing as an adventurer and that nfirea guy comes along? Yeah, it's summarized as "You got a special request", then they see him in one panel and nfiera goes "yo" and in the next panel they're all traveling together. The ogre/goblin fight ends in a page or two, when they reach the village, the poor goblin henchmen just get one page before enri shows up and enri only gets one or two pages where she says that she's indebted to Ainz and that she got a red potion and then all of a sudden we're in the forest picking herbs and nfiera goes "hey, you're Ainz, right? because that potion is unusual"(albedo wasn't mentioned). Then we'll directly skip to the scene where hamsuke comes rushing and Ainz just briefly says that aura lured him out without giving any other details or showing their meeting. Well, this is just one example of how rushed it is, it skipped over 99% of the content and just went for a summary explanation of some highlights, even going to the extent of changing the story slightly.

Well, as if this wasn't enough, the author of the manga clearly felt that volume 4(lizardman arc), that most people hate and that is almost completely disconnected from the story and will never be really relevant, was extremely interesting and worth spending a lot of chapters on. Up until then, the author had spent 14 or so chapters on THREE LN volumes worth of content, 1-3, that is the complete season 1 of the anime, 13 episodes... So, the worst LN volume of them all got a whopping 13 chapters, about the same as the 3 volumes before it combined. Maybe the author is one of those guys that get really horny when looking at and drawing bipedal lizards. Really, rush like hell on everything that is important and make it so that there's almost no information and the story is all over the place, but slow down on the worst parts to extend the suffering of the readers. This manga version is horrible, no way around it, usually it just becomes shitty like this when the mangakas get liberal with the original stories and starts twisting it and changing it to something completely different, but here the pacing was the main problem since there is absolutely no difference between the manga, anime or novel except for the pacing and amount of information. The changes are minimal, yet it's horrible all the same, it's as if the author tried his best to screw it up without changing the script.

So... I recommend reading this anyway to overlord fans if you have some extra time, but really, it's hardly worth it. 2/10 because of some nice/cool art and the specials which are worth reading since they're not related to the novel.


Edit: Read the newly released chapters and it's the same as ever. Started speed-reading through it all because it was identical to the anime. Rather, it should be said that it's the other way around, the anime is the thing that is identical to the manga, they based it way too much on the manga rather than properly interpreting it from the source novel. Not really worth reading. Even the anime wasn't worth watching after the first season, especially not the third season that somehow became even more rushed and forced, skipping over ALL of the important and interesting details that makes overlord great. It's like a pizza with just the dough, having no toppings. You're left with just plain pizza bread at the end, a rough outline of the story without the interesting parts.

... Last updated on April 12th, 2019, 5:13pm

I was really excited about this, I didnt think it would be possible to ruin this story. I know how to do it now. Just....Dont tell the story. Leave all character and plot development on the floor of the editing room and crap out this hacked up version that makes cliffs notes giggle at its lack of depth.

What a Chunibyo Manga. The Fights are way to long and boring(sic!), every third panel there is a new skill/spell with a useless megalomaniac name which nobody has ever heard of before (with the exception of Fireball). So story don't get forward and if, the story jumps to somewhere not mentioned before. Well, the art is way better than standard manga (which is easy to do IF you know how to draw) and I really liked the depiction of the Lizardman society and the characters there, to name the two positive points. But for example, on the down side, it seems that their Tomb (Basis of the MC which got transferred to the new wold too) gets bigger and bigger with every chapter. At the point where doped this manga, this was the former HQ of a Guild of 41 people in a MMORPG, where Guild has at their disposal an army of many(!) 10.000-s low- and mid-level Monster/NPCs, many super strong NPCs , super rare magic artifacts en mass and gold piled up like in Dagobert Duck Tresor. And the MC is more powerful than all End-bosses in an typical MMORPG together. Yeh, yeh it could be that maybe in near future such a MMORPG could exist under the right conditions, right ... also, it could be that the moon is made out of cheese. Chunibyo in deed.

Left out a lot of details from the novel out (then again, majority of mangas based on novels does that)

Then again, the art is good and the pacing is acceptable. If you want an evil MC, read this; unlike re:monster's MC chaotic alignment- Overlord's MC is absolutely, totally evil alignment. You have been warned.

Infame here because isekai theme and the vrmmorpg theme all together.. but I'm stucked in this lizard man arc that I really hate. Didn't read LN.. I think I would have give this a sub zero instead if I could...