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Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom Movie Review

Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom is a 2024 fantasy anime film directed by Naoyuki Ito. It’s a flawed, but pretty solid addition to the Overlord universe.

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Ainz Ooal Gown leads the Sorcerer Kingdom’s undead forces to ally with the Sacred Kingdom and Slane Theocracy against Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth. This movie is a continuation of the story after the fourth season. Apparently, we will be getting more seasons and even movies, but for now this is it. The movie should be watched by those who saw the show first and foremost as anyone else would be entirely lost watching this.

This film has those elements that I personally liked the least on this show – political and palace intrigue with an overabundance of characters and a huge focus on dialogue. I prefer action-adventure elements, world building and goofy humor over politics on this anime. This is why I didn’t love the last season and why I didn’t love this film too.

It’s a solid flick that did not wow me at anything that it did. The main issue here is that they benched the supporting characters from the main story in favor of focusing on these new characters. I liked both of the little girls that were introduced and both were so well developed. The dynamic that develops between Ainz and Neia is a lot of fun for sure. But I missed seeing the old crew as Albedo, Shalltear, Aura and Mare are nowhere to be found.

You can have your new characters, but you also should be including the old favorites, which this one failed to do. I really liked that female paladin. She was actually the only one who did manage to realize what Ainz was doing and it would have been more interesting for her to fully uncover his plans instead of ignore her questions. The palace intrigue here was quite good, but again overwhelming.

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The Sacred Kingdom is very well animated and scored per usual. This kingdom was brought to life so well and I appreciated the memorable buildings, the colorful creatures and the cool effects during action scenes that are sparse but cool. The score is great per usual and the voice acting is top-notch. It’s a long, but mostly engaging movie that featured some solid instances of humorous dialogue and strong characterization, but I needed a more interesting plot and even more humor overall.