Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom is for the most part an incomprehensible anime film. Much of the film is full of bizarre plot holes in which the film just skips important plot points and even whole battles after much preparation for them. The ending of the film does actually resolve the plot, but in a way that just leaves you further baffled. Unless you are already a diehard fan of Overlord, this is not the anime film for…well, most anyone.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom ~ Details

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom US theatrical poster.
This key art makes the film look a lot better than it actually is.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom is the third anime film of the Overlord dark fantasy and isekai anime series after the first two compilation anime films: Overlord: The Undead King and Overlord: The Dark Warrior. Said anime series is the anime adaptation of the light novels of the same name by Kugane Maruyama. Madhouse (One-Punch Man season 1, Hunter x Hunter, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End) is the animation studio behind this anime.

Production Cast

Naoyuki Ito is the director behind Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom, with Yukie Sugawara as the writer. Satoshi Tasaki is the character designer and chief animation director, with so-bin as the illustrator, and Shuji Katayama (Team-MAX) responsible for composing the music.

Voice Cast

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom features the voices of Satoshi Hino (Chris Guerrero in English dub) as Ains Ooal Gown, Yumi Hara (Elizabeth Maxwell in English dub) as Albedo, Masayuki Katou (Jeff Johnson in English dub), Yoshino Aoyama (Sarah Wiedenheft in English dub) as Neia, and Hitomi Nabatame (Corey Pettit in English dub) as Remedios.

Other notable voice roles include Saori Hayami (English dub voice unknown) as Calca, Haruka Tomatsu (English dub voice unknown) as Kelart, and Brent Mukai in English dub (Japanese voice actor unknown) as Gustav.

When and Where to Watch

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom made its original theatrical debut in its home nation of Japan on September 20, 2024. However, the IMAX screenings took place a week earlier on September 13, 2024. As for the NA theatrical premiere, that will happen on November 8, 2024.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom ~ Synopsis

Pope Skeleton, perhaps?

Alas, Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom has not even had its NA theatrical debut yet. Thus, I shall give you all the official synopsis for this anime film from Crunchyroll instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary. You can check out that synopsis below:

After twelve years of playing his favorite MMORPG game, Momonga logs in for the last time only to find himself transported into its world, playing it indefinitely. Throughout his adventures, his avatar ascends to the title of Sorcerer King Ains Ooal Gown. Once prosperous but now on the brink of ruin, The Sacred Kingdom enjoyed years of peace after construction of an enormous wall protecting them from neighboring invasions. But, one day, this comes to an end when the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth arrives with an army of villainous demi-humans. 

Fearing invasion of their own lands, the neighboring territory of the Slane Theocracy is forced to beg their enemies at the Sorcerer Kingdom for help. Heeding the call, Momonga, now known as the Sorcerer King Ains Ooal Gown, rallies the Sorcerer Kingdom and its undead army to join the fight alongside the Sacred Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy in hopes to defeat the Demon Emperor. 

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom ~ The Good

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom still 21.
At least the lights are pretty.

Now to be fair, there are some good points about Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom. The most notable of which is the visuals. Madhouse definitely spent much of its budget on production values. The animation is very high quality, and the battle scenes (when they actually occur) are pretty fluid and feature that same high-quality animation. At the very least, you can just turn your brain off and enjoy the view if you so wish.

Oh, and the music is also nice. Shuji Katayama did a good job with the music, which feels quite appropriate for the scenes. Most of the time, that is.

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom ~ The Bad

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom still 4.
My reaction to the entire anime film.

Honestly, the bad parts of Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom vastly outnumbers the good. To start with: the story is nigh-incomprehensible for the first two-thirds of the anime film. There are numerous points where the story prepares you for an important conversation or battle, and then skip the actual conversation/battle itself and just move on to the results. This leaves the plot highly unsatisfactory, feeling like it’s as full of holes as a block of Swiss cheese.

Now granted, the plot does make sense by the end of the anime film. The problem though is that the plot makes you go “WTF” by that end. It’s just…baffling as a story. I can’t even go into details without spoiling that story. The most I can say is: the story feels like it’s all edge and no point to me. It’s just grimdark for the sake of being grimdark.

At least one reason why I feel that way is in how the anime film treats the…antagonist(?) Remedios. I still can’t go into detail about what is wrong with her story due to spoiler reasons. As much as I can say though…she feels like a character with so much wasted potential. She could’ve been a fascinating antagonist and a study of how someone in a high position does when they’re faced with their own incompetence and the loss of their loved ones. Instead, the story just uses her as a cheap throwaway antagonist. All with the implication that she’ll be killed offscreen to boot.

Honestly, there are far better anime films than this to watch. Spy x Family Code: White is my biggest recommendation.

Tune back in to THS to find out more about Overlord and other anime series when we do.