Special Review: Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom

Unlike most other movies connected to anime series, The Sacred Kingdom is not a compilation, sequel, or original side story. It is, instead, an interstitial story, one that takes place between the two main arcs of season 4 but was skipped over during the airing of season 4, presumably to set up the end of the Re-Estize Kingdom as the season’s much more dramatic finish. (There are even a couple of brief references to the events in the Roble Holy Kingdom in the second half of season 4, so they are now referring to the events depicted here.) Seeing up through at least the end of the first arc in season 4 before watching this movie is recommended, though in honesty, the events here stand well enough on their own that not being fully caught up not hinder the viewer much.

The story here focuses exclusively on the northern half of the Roble Holy Kingdom, which is facing an existential threat from a massive army of demihumans led by the demon Jaldabaoth (aka Demiurge). Faced with a foe they can’t handle on their own, the paladin defenders of Roble reluctantly seek the help of the great hero Momon, and so travel to the newly-established Sorcerer Kingdom. To their surprise, the Sorcerer King himself, Ains Ooal Gown, decides to assist them personally, and the young female squire Neia is assigned to be Ains’ escort. As she assists and speaks with Ains in his endeavors to face off against Jaldabaoth, Neia gradually becomes more impressed with the Sorcerer King, even to the point of using him as a standard to define her sense of justice – much to the dismay of head paladin Calca, who (more rightly than she knows) doesn’t trust an undead.

Like with some earlier story arcs, the perspective here isn’t that of Ains or any of his chief minions; in fact, beyond Demiurge, the only Nazarick minion which has more than a cameo appearance (if even that!) is the little-used-in-animation Pleiades member CZ2128. Instead, the viewpoint is primarily that of new character Neia, and to a much lesser extent Calca. But the franchise has shown multiple times before that it can function well based on outsider perspectives of Ains and his people, and that works at least as well in this case, too. Neia deserves the bulk of the credit for this, as she is both an engaging character and makes for an interesting study in how an ordinary person can gradually become a zealot through circumstances. One of the multiple juicy ironies in the story is that Ains wasn’t deliberately aiming for this; he was just being congenial with Neia (as he was with the Swords of Darkness members back in season 1), and his dramatic help to Neia’s cause was, at least in part, staged, but it’s not hard to understand why Demiurge would interpret that as deliberate intent. That Neia had such a favorable view of Ains certainly contributed to her getting along so well with CZ; their teamwork in the movie’s later stages is arguably more of a highlight than the big, flashy battle scenes.

The substance of the roughly 135 minute movie comes from the various ruminations on justice scattered throughout the film. Paladins form the core of the Roble Holy Kingdom’s defenders, and their very existence is bound to the pursuit of justice. When this starts to be used against them by the demihuman forces, various key characters on the Roble side – most notably Neia and Calca – have to consider if their definition of justice needs to be modified or even re-thought entirely. Is justice based on idealism still functional, or does it have to be based on practicality in order for it to be achievable? In dealings with Ains, Neia going in the latter direction is only natural, while ironically, the justice and distrust maintained by Calca proves to actually be correct even though no one around her will believe that Ains and Jaldabaoth are working together to stage the whole thing.

Like the series, much of the content has grim overtones to it, with no shortage of bloody slaughter and graphic deaths involving even children. However, also like the series, it makes room for various bursts of both ordinary and dramatic action sequences (though the biggest battles are commonly trimmed in favor of emphasizing smaller, easier-to-animate action sequences). Also like the series, the movie does find its opportunities for humor, too, especially in the curious emphasis that various figures put on “rune technology” (this is the reference that seeing the first part of season 4 is most necessary to understand), Ains’ reactions to Neia at times, and CZ’s comically bad acting, which Neia doesn’t seem to pick up on. The nearly-full theater I watched this in was chuckling or laughing out loud at multiple points.

The animation effort is a step up from what the TV series accomplished, while the musical effort was in line with the styles used in the series. I watched the English dubbed version, which worked perfectly fine; veteran Sarah Weidenheft (Black Clover‘s Charmy, Zombie Land Saga‘s Lily) is a great fit for Neia, while Michelle Rojas hits just the right delivery cadence as CZ.

I can’t speak to how the movie serves as an adaptation, since I have not read that deeply into the source material, but from an anime-only perspective the movie serves as a capable and entertaining display of the franchise’s strengths. Its main weakness is some somewhat choppy editing, which results in what might be expected to be featured battles being cut out entirely and thus some abrupt scene transitions. Even with that, though, it’s a worthy addition to the franchise that’s well worth watching by any franchise fan.

Overall Rating: B