Overlord II is the second season based on the light novel series at 13 episodes long. The background of the plot is that when the Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Yggdrasil had its servers shutting down, one player stayed logged on right until the very end. As the time ticked over, he realized he was still in the game. However, soon after, it dawns on him that he isn't in the game anymore, but rather transported to a new world. All the NPCs in his guild have gained their own personalities and are able to learn and grow.
He takes on the name Ainz Ooal Gown and sets out to spread his name far and wide in this world. His aim is to find other Yggdrasil players, particularly on the off chance the ones from his own guild, who had quit playing years ago. That aim quickly takes on the form of taking over the new world. One mistake you shouldn't make is assuming that this is still a game world because it is not. While it has its parallels, such as various tiers of magic, vague levels and items, it's pretty much like every other non-game fantasy world. Effort has to be put in to make items, there is no menu screen and no visible stats.
The first arc feels like a massive sidetrack at first as you have no idea how it links to the overall plot. The first season was already alike this with a vague distant objective and it's even vaguer here. It spends a few episodes introducing and focusing on a new character that is part of another race, the Lizardmen. Zaryusu is a "traveler" and an outcast as he had left his village to learn about the world and then return. We quickly learn the Lizardmen's customs and history as Zaryusu travels out to other tribes to ally together and defeat the dark forces that had promised to wipe them out.
It takes a while to find out how this links to Ainz and what is his role in all this. Ainz's reasons and his actions involving the Lizardmen is weak at best as while his Guardians are convinced that he had a plan all along, this doesn't feel like the case as a viewer. It feels like Ainz is aimlessly executing his plans but it lacks explanation on how his plans will further his objectives. The anime defies your expectations on what happens to the characters. It is not afraid to kill them off, even if significant amount of time was spent in developing them as characters. It is a bit heartless of Ainz though when he does this and is not something you'd expect from a protagonist.
The next arc, which takes up the second half of the season focuses on Sebas and Solution. It continues on their plight from the first season as they are blending in gathering information (but on what exactly, is not revealed). They are living in a large mansion with Sebas as the butler and Solution as the Lady. A big part of this season is allowing the members of Nazerick to think for themselves and this causes Sebas to (in Solution's eyes) go astray and help out a human girl for seemingly no benefit and only out of the goodness of his heart.
This actually uncovers a significant plot about a powerful organisation pulling the strings behind the scenes. Sebas' involving drags in Nazerick but like the rest of the arcs, it's hard to see where it is supposed to be going towards. On the one hand, we get heaps and heaps of new characters that turn up, in different factions, either for or against the organization. On the other hand, you don't feel much for these characters because they seem to be characters who are only important to this one arc and then forgotten until they are needed way down the track that is typical of this series so far.
However, there are a few touching scenes, especially one where it ties together one of the new characters with a previous one. It will come as no surprise that all the characters are either mentally unhinged or hold onto some sort of extremely righteous ideal. The season constantly hammers home how powerful (and overpowered) the residents of Nazerick are. After a few episodes of hyping up some human warriors from the supposedly evil organization, it takes all of one second for someone from Nazerick to defeat them all at once. Despite the fights being over in a second, it actually remains satisfying in a way.
The last few episodes ramps up the pacing with tense scenes, surprising developments to the plot so far and mixing in some lighthearted humor for good measure. It works well and you thirst for more. It has a strong ending and wraps together the arcs so that they don't feel as segregated as before. Overall, Overlord II serves as a pretty good second season. While the first arc felt like a bit of a detour, as does the first half of the second arc, the ending helped in remedying some of that. It's cool to see Ainz and his followers absolutely destroying their opponents with overwhelming power but does paint them in an antagonistic view making it hard to cheer for them at times.
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