Overlord III

Episode 11

It was pretty much a given that things were not going to go well for Prince Barbro at Carne Village, to the point that I didn't expect him to survive the scenario. (And really, would he be missed? Even his father, the king, seems to regard him more as a burden than a successor.) However, I doubt anyone who hasn't read ahead expected that he would be defeated in such a manner.

Him getting finished off by Lupisregina makes total sense, but things got to that point in an eye-popping manner. I liked the way things were handled up until the big reveal, with both sides making somewhat sensible decisions. The village having been saved from destruction by Ains assured their loyalty (he should probably care a bit more about the village as a whole, since it's the first population that he won over in this world without the use of force or bald-faced deception), but they also thought their strategy through, while on the Prince's side they were savvy enough to realize that some kind of deception might be going on when only five ogres showed and thus sent pursuers around to the back side. The problem was the Enri still had an ace up her sleeve, one much more potent than either she or Ains realized.

And man, what an ace! Instead of a small troop of goblins, this horn gets her a full elite goblin army that's plenty capable of taking on a 5,000-human army, all fully loyal to "General Enri." The seemingly-endless parade of all of the elite goblin units was a bit overdone, getting so ridiculous that it actually became amusing, but Ains' shocked reaction at seeing what all appeared was well worth it. The notion that one of his cast-off items had an incredibly potent hidden ability that only triggered under special circumstances (that he was unlikely to ever meet) is an interesting additional twist, though with only a couple of episodes left in the season and a major battle to be fought, I can't see that going anywhere. Still, the presence of the goblin army effectively makes Carne Village into a military new power and will inadvertently bolster Ains' position. I have to wonder at how the logistics for the army will be maintained, as this is a whole 'nother level of providing housing, food, etc. over the existing goblins, but I'm also guessing that's an issue that the series won't get to this season, either.

There were a couple of nice character moments too, especially Enri's embarrassment at being called Chief by all of the villagers and the first real romantic tension with Nphirea. The artistry, however, did not impress. While I've definitely seen worse in the past couple of years for CG, this definitely wasn't a high-end effort for massed troop movements. Ultimately it was only a minor distraction, and now we should all be set for the big battle against Re-Estize Kingdom.

Overlord III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.