The Overlord Season 4 release date is confirmed for July 5, 2022, the Summer 2022 anime season.
Overlord IV will have a total of 13 episodes released as three Blu-Ray/DVD volumes. Crunchyroll will be streaming the new episodes.
On May 13, 2022, it was announced that the Overlord Season 4 OP (opening) theme song music “HOLLOW HUNGER” will be performed by OxT, which is mysterious and passionate! The ED (ending) “No Man’s Dawn” will be performed by Mayu Maeshima, who sings with passion for grief and despair!
(Yes, that does mean that MYTH&ROID itself is not returning. But Maeshima was the lead singer of MYTH&ROID from 2015 to 2017.)
The exact Overlord 4 release date was confirmed by a new Overlord Season 4 trailer PV on June 13, 2022.
The broadcast time frame for Overlord Season 4 was announced during a special live YouTube program on March 12, 2022. Overlord Season 4 voice actors Satoshi Hino (Ainz), Yumi Hara (Albedo), and Eimiri Kato (Aura Bella Fiora) were featured in a funny skit about the characters where they even did live dubbing of some scenes.
The event also featured a second Overlord Season 4 trailer. (Crunchyroll released the official English trailer later in the day.)
The event also discussed the light novel Overlord Volume 15 release date and the Isekai Quartet: Another World movie release date.
The first Overlord Season 4 preview trailer was released on December 17, 2021.
The initial announcement of the Overlord 4 anime TV series was made back in Spring 2021. What’s more, an Overlord movie covering the Holy Kingdom story arc was also officially confirmed!
Director Naoyuki Itou said that the production team is already hard at work at making the Overlord sequel.
“At last, the fourth season of the anime and the theatrical movie are in production,” Ito said. “We are working hard to ensure that the show will be satisfying to both fans of the original versions and those who only follow the anime. You’re going to love it.”
It’s also been confirmed that the new Overlord anime projects will cover the story arcs of Kugane Maruyama’s light novel series up through the Paladin of the Holy Kingdom arc.
“Total episode count and how far the story will go are still a secret, but honestly, it seems like I hear the clamor of footsteps charging up from behind,” said Maruyama. “Yikes. But ignoring the pressure that an author feels, I will genuinely be delighted to have you all enjoy the show. But really, yikes…”
Light novel illustrator so-bin is excited that Overlord Volume 10 is “finally” being adapted.
“At last, Volume 10, one of my particular favorites, is being animated. I sure would love to experience that impression of gobsmacked ickiness I felt when reading the manuscript, now in anime form,” so-bin said. “Looking forward to it!”
The announcement of Overlord Season 4 was made during a streaming event on NicoNico on May 8, 2021. It featured the Japanese voice actors for Ainz (Satoshi Hino), Albedo (Yumi Hara), and Shalltear Bloodfallen (Sumire Uesaka).
This announcement was leaked ahead of time by anime news leakers mere days before Overlord 4 was confirmed.
“Overlord will be receiving a TV series Season 4 and new Anime Film,” tweeted Sugoi LITE.
Before the May 2021 announcement, the last time we had any major update on the anime was from the anime series’ creators during the AnimagiC 2019 convention in Germany. Overlord light novel creator Kugane Maruyama, illustrator so-bin, and Overlord anime series scriptwriter Yukie Sugawara reportedly discussed the production of the Overlord 4 anime.
“Incidentally, on Saturday at the Overlord panel, our guests of honor announced the fourth season of Overlord!” tweeted out KSM, the German language publisher of the anime discs. “No more information at this time, though.”
At that event, Maruyama reportedly discussed his plans for the ending of the light novel series! (See below for more details.)
However, other AnimagiC attendees claim that they did not directly announce Overlord 4. It’s claimed that when a fan asked about Overlord Season 4 Maruyama said he wouldn’t know anything about the anime production. When scriptwriter Sugawara took over the microphone, the scriptwriter simply said that it was “extremely likely” that Overlord Season 4 would be produced.
(Keep in mind that even though Sugawara wrote the scripts for all three Overlord seasons for Madhouse the scriptwriter is still a freelancer who has worked with many Japanese animation studios including Lerche and A-1 Pictures. In 2021, Sugawara was working with Studio J.C. Staff on the Combatants Will Be Dispatched! anime TV series.)
The returning Japanese voice actors for the Overlord Season 4 cast:
- Satoshi Hino as Ains
- Yumi Hara as Albedo
- Sumire Uesaka as Shalltear
- Emiri Katou as Aura
- Yumi Uchiyama as Mare
- Masayuki Katou as Demiurge
- Kenta Miyake as Cocytus
The May 2021 announcement also confirmed that the main staff at animation studio Madhouse would be returning to produce Overlord Season 4. The main staff for the Overlord movie hasn’t been announced yet.
Studio Madhouse is best known in recent years for No Game No Life, One Punch Man, No Guns Life, and The Irregular at Magic High School (the 2020 Mahouka Season 2 anime was produced solely by Studio 8bit).
In 2021, Madhouse is releasing the original story the Sonny Boy anime. They’re also adapting the Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu manga series into the KyuuShi, The Vampire dies in no time anime.
The Overlord Season 4 project will feature returning director Naoyuki Itou (No Guns Life). He’s been an episode director for many productions and has worked in various roles on popular franchises like Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter, and One Piece.
Writer Yukie Sugawara is also returning. As previously mentioned, Sugawara wrote the first three seasons of the script and series composition. The writer has worked on popular anime like Hina Logic, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Kino’s Journey, No Guns Life, Radiant, and Sword Art Online.
Character designer Satoshi Tasaki (Hunter x Hunter movie, Ace of Diamond) is returning. The Overlord Season 4 music composer hasn’t been confirmed yet, but in the past Shuji Katayama (Knights of Sidonia: Love Woven in the Stars movie, The Saga of Tanya the Evil, So I’m a Spider, So What?) created the music.
- Updated July 8, 2022: Added total episode count and Blu-Ray/DVD info.
- Updated June 13, 2022: Exact Overlord Season 4 release date confirmed!
- Updated May 13, 2022: Added Overlord Season 4 OP/ED info.
- Updated March 12, 2022: Overlord Season 4 release time frame confirmed.
- Updated February 26, 2022: Added Overlord Season 4 release date event.
- Updated January 7, 2022: Overlord Volume 15 split into two books.
- Updated December 17, 2021: Added Overlord Season 4 trailer and release year!
- Updated May 8, 2021, Overlord Season 4 confirmed!
This article provides everything that is known about Overlord Season 4 (Overlord 4/Overlord movie) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Why the Overlord Season 4 release date is in Summer 2022
From a financial perspective, the third season actually did significantly better than the second season with initial Blu-Ray sales. When Volume 2 released in December 2018 the Blu-Ray box set topped the Oricon charts, beat only by Incredibles 2.
Therefore, it could be argued that the anime production committee never had a reason to cancel the fourth season. Back in 2019, we predicted that the production of the fourth season of Overlord could be delayed until 2021. The only issue at the time was the lack of source material.
The question is, why did anime fans have to wait so long for the boning to commence in Overlord Season 4? The elephant in the room is that the next part of the story is too large for a single-cour anime season.
Titled Overlord: The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom Parts 1 and 2, Overlord Volume 12 and 13 are literally a two-part story, so Madhouse’s formula of adapting three books per anime season will no longer work.
During a 2017 interview, Maruyama explained why it took so long for those books to come out.
“I thought the [story arc] was going to be long, which is why I split it into two volumes. But the schedule isn’t set in stone, so you’ll have to wait a bit,” he said.
Arguably, Madhouse could have rushed the anime’s pacing, skipped a lot of book content related to side characters, and tried to cram the four books of volumes 10 through 13 into a single season composed of 13 episodes. But light novel readers have already been unhappy about how much light novel content has been cut for the story to fit into an episodic TV format.
Apparently, the anime production committee decided to split up the next part of the story. Overlord Season 4 and the Overlord movie will apparently cover only volumes 10 through 13.
Therefore, it seems likely that Overlord Season 4 will adapt Volumes 10, 11, and 12. Then the Overlord movie will adapt Volume 13, finishing off the Paladin of the Holy Kingdom story arc.
That means Overlord Season 5 could pick up the story again by adapting Overlord Volume 14, The Witch of the Falling Kingdom arc. The benefit to that plan is that Overlord Season 5 would once again have four books to adapt assuming the light novel series finishes with Volume 17 as currently planned. Thus, if the pattern is repeated, the best option is to finish the final book off with an Overlord movie 2.
What’s also notable is that Madhouse is involved in making Overlord Season 4. The anime studio is not exactly known for making sequels, so for them to produce four seasons is quite the treat.
All in all, the biggest factor influencing the release of the fourth season happens to be the coinciding timing of the Overlord: Holy Kingdom movie release date. November-December and May-July is typically considered the best timing for a tentpole film to have a chance at being a blockbuster premiere whereas January and February are considered the “dump months” for bad movies.
Therefore, since Anime Geek successfully predicted that the Overlord Season 4 release date will be in Summer 2022, it’s also predicted that the Overlord movie will come out in late Fall 2022 or mid-2023.
Overlord Volume 15 release date in June 2022: The Half Wood Elf God-kin is split into two books
The anime’s story is based on the Overlord light novel series by Japanese author Kugane Maruyama. The story first started life as a web novel back in 2010, but starting in 2012 Kugane teamed up with illustrator so-bin to adapt the story into the light novel format.
Japanese publisher Enterbrain released Overlord Volume 14: The Witch of the Falling Kingdom on March 12, 2020. The newer light novels followed the web novel pretty closely but then began to diverge significantly starting with Volume 10 (which also just happens to be the starting point for the anime Overlord Season 4)
In the past, Maruyama had been consistently releasing at least one Overlord book per year. However, in recent year Maruyama had trouble keeping to his planned schedule. Volume 12 was delayed by a month and Overlord Volume 13 was supposed to come out in December 2017, but it was not published until April 2018. Overlord Volume 14 was similarly delayed by a year.
Maruyama and publisher Enterbrain never offered an explanation for the delays. To be fair, Volume 13 was also a longer book, numbering 574 pages compared to the 410 pages of Volume 12. Similarly, Overlord Volume 14 is 584 pages long.
Based on the last page of Volume 14, the Overlord Volume 15 release date was originally planned for Spring 2021. The title of the book is The Half Wood Elf God-kin.
On January 4, 2022, Maruyama tweeted that the first draft for the Volume 15 manuscript had exceeded 700 pages. As such, the book is being split into Volumes 15 and 16. He also assured fans that he was working hard to ensure that the book was published as soon as possible.
The publishing date was finally announced during the March 2022 live program. Considering the history of publishing delays, it’s not surprising that the Overlord Volume 15 release date is on June 30, 2022.
While some fans may bemoan any delay, at least they can go look forward to the story becoming more action-packed. Volume 9 gave a taste of total war, but future volumes will have even more large-scale warfare.
“I have some vague ideas floating around, for example; there are multiple countries in the middle of the continent, and they will eventually make an alliance and will fight against the floor guardians in a huge war,” Maruyama explained. “And the reason for making Gargantua is to make it fight a company of golem cavalry.”
The story also spawned an Overlord manga series by writer Satoshi Oshio and illustrator Hugin Miyama. Serialized in the monthly magazine Comp Ace, the Overlord manga is up to Volume 14 as of November 25, 2020.
The official English translation for the Overlord manga and light novel series is handled by Yen Press. The English Overlord Volume 14 release date was on June 21, 2022.
The English manga was up to Volume 14 as of November 16, 2021, with Volume 15 scheduled for August 23, 2022.
Years ago, unofficial fan translator Skythewood announced that they have discontinued the English-based fan translation project due to the Yen Press acquisition. However, the English translation of the web novel continues unabated.
Overlord light novels ending with Volume 18?
In the past, author Maruyama had not given many hints about his plans for an ending but said he has “no intention to drag the story on and on” despite having “50 volumes worth” of ideas. He just wants “readers to relax and read.”
However, the author is “writing with an end in mind” and at one point he was shooting for ending the novel series somewhere around Volume 20.
“I think the fact that Overlord managed to even come this far is due to the fans. If you’ve seen the special thanks in the credits for the first episode of the anime, you can understand that I thank you from the bottom of my heart and hope that you will continue to watch what happens next.”
But Maruyama’s plans began to change. In May 2016, he tweeted out that he was planning on ending Overlord with Volume 18.
Fast forward to April 2019 when Maruyama released a bonus Overlord book called The Vampire Princess of the Lost Country (Bokoku no Kyuketsu-hime). The novel is a side story focused on an alternate timeline for Ainz/Momonga’s story.
A month later, a Twitter user named RainyCloud pointed out to Maruyama that an English translation had been uploaded to an overseas website. He asked if there was any way the author could take legal measures against this copyright violation.
In response, Maruyama said that his motivation to write Overlord had been going down the drain. He even suggested that he might go back to being a company employee after finishing Overlord!
Maruyama also stated that he was planning on cutting down the amount of story content in order to finish the light novel series. He claimed it would be difficult to conclude with Volume 16, so he decided to take things at a moderate pace and target Overlord Volume 17 for the ending.
On August 5, 2019, German publisher KSM Anime claimed that Maruyama confirmed at AnimagiC 2019 that ending with Overlord Volume 17 is the final plan. However, other attendees claimed that Maruyama simply said that he was losing the energy to write and he is very tired. He would first aim for completing 17 books because even finishing 16 volumes is exhausting.
Fast-forward to when Overlord Volume 14 released on March 12, 2020. The author’s notes in the book also confirmed that Maruyama still planned on ending the entire light novel series with Overlord Volume 17.
Of course, this announcement was almost two years before Maruyama announced that Volume 15 would be split into two separate books. The author hasn’t clarified whether this means that Overlord Volume 18 will now contain the ending.
Even if ending with Overlord Volume 17 is still the current plan, this ending is still years off in the future since Maruyama has three more novels to complete so the author’s plans could change again in the meantime.
Overlord manga, light novel series compared to the anime
At the ending of the third season, Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown has shown exactly why he’s the top of the world by taking on all challengers, but animation studio Madhouse now faces a challenge of their own with producing the fourth season based on the way the story was written.
Studio Madhouse seems to be sticking to a formula of adapting three books for every Overlord anime season. The second season covered the events of volumes 4 through 6 and Episode 12: The Final Battle of the Disturbance was named after a chapter in Volume 6. Overlord Season 3 maintained this pacing, but there were some major reordering of events.
You see, the books had a bad habit of portraying events out of chronological order. Some scenes were written from the perspective of one character only to replay these scenes from another perspective in order to reveal new information.
Conversely, the writers of studio Madhouse have attempted to show all perspectives simultaneously and keep scenes completely chronological in the timeline.
Such rearrangements happened a lot in the second season, but the third season presented a new challenge since entire books are out of chronological order.
Volume 8 of the book series technically took place before and during the events of volume 5 and 6, the Men in the Kingdom story arc, whereas volumes 7 and 9 continue the story in the current time.
The reason that Volume 8 was not adapted during Overlord Season 2 (besides lack of screen time) was due to the nature of Carne Village story arc. Without getting into major spoilers, it’s necessary to build up a certain character since that person uses a magical item bestowed by Ainz and those actions have major repercussions in a story arc that culminates in total war.
Therefore, studio Madhouse decided to start off Overlord Season 3 Episode 1 by flashing forward to the beginning of Volume 7. But then the first five episodes finished Volume 8, setting the stage for adapting the story from volumes 7 and 9 with a total of 13 episodes.
As for the Overlord manga, unfortunately, the story is way behind the anime adaptation even in 2021. Chapter 14 of the manga is when the vampire Shalltear Bloodfallen was resurrected after being mind washed and that event corresponds to the ending of the first anime season.
The lizardmen story arc ends with Chapter 27. By manga Chapter 40, the manga was nearing the ending of both Volume 6 and Season 2.
Never mind Overlord Season 4, the manga series didn’t reach the events of the third anime season until years later. By April 2021, the manga was up to Overlord Chapter 64, which had Erya Uzruth facing off against Hamsuke in a story from light novel Volume 7.
Despite being far behind the anime, the Overlord manga is still worth reading for fans of the anime since the manga contains dialogue and jokes that were not present in the anime version.
The light novel series especially contains more insight into the character’s motivations and provides many more details about Nazarick and the fantasy world that it inhabits.
Overlord Season 3 Episode 12 animation quality disappoints fans
From the get-go, fans were not too happy with the CGI animation being used in earlier episodes. Clone-like characters marched out stiffly, standing out in stark contrast with the well-used CGI from the Attack On Titan anime. The goblin army summoned by Enri was all done in CGI even though other 2018 isekai anime animated entire armies with drawings.
The biggest disappoint was Overlord Season 3 Episode 12, which animated the epic scene showing the Dark Young from Overlord Volume 9. Read the words and you’ll see the scene is supposed to inspire awe and fear.
Based on the artwork of so-bin, fans were expecting to see the Dark Youngs look like this:
Instead, what anime audiences received is this:
3D CG animation has advanced significantly over the years. Let’s just hope that Overlord Season 4 does better.
Overlord Season 4 anime TV spoilers (summary/synopsis)
The aftermath of the massacre at Katze Plains has left Ainz Ooal Gown and his guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick on top of the world. Ainz seizes the initiative and announces the creation of the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Problem is, while Ainz is great at one-on-one PvP, he’s no government administrator that’s versed in legislation and enforcing the law. Ainz can’t even pick out his own attire, never mind run an empire, so the struggling Sorcerer King finds his new kingdom suddenly facing declining resources.
Ainz is also faced with a new question to ponder: What exactly does he intend on doing with this new nation? Eventually, he determines to create a utopia where all races can live together in peace under his rule.
He also desires that adventurers live up their name by exploring the unknown rather than just be monster-hunting mercenaries.
While nobles are frightened by the prospect of the emerging Sorcerer Kingdom, Ainz starts recruiting adventurers, even going so far as to fight by himself in a Colosseum battle while in a weakened state. Ainz fights against Go Gin, a war troll and Martial Lord of the Baharuth Empire.
This display of power causes Jircniv, Emperor of the Baharuth Empire, to officially propose in writing that his empire become a vassal state of the Sorcerer Kingdom. Ainz is confused by this turn of events, but Demiurge and Albedo are shocked that Ainz accomplishes this feat in mere days while their plan had required at least a month.
The two-floor guardians busy themselves with incorporating Baharuth and the Re-Estize Kingdom into the Sorcerer Kingdom. While this is happening, the Slance Theocracy has invaded Elf Country.
Meanwhile, Ainz decides to go on a diplomatic visit to the Dwarven Kingdom. Ainz takes Shalltear Bloodfallen, Aura Bella Fiora, and a lizardman named Zenberu Gugu, whose history allows him to act as a dwarven guide. Ainz is curious about runes that did not exist in the game world and believes the Dwarven Runesmiths can help him.
It turns out the dwarven country is facing an invasion by the Quagoa, a mole-like demi-human race that exists as tribes within the mountains shared with the dwarves. Worse, the dwarves are being threatened by Frost Dragons, the most powerful race in the area.
The dwarves agree to help Ainz if he helps them take back their ancient capital from these fearsome foes.
In the past, author Maruyama has admitted that the more recent book volumes have been focused on Ainz being OP (overpowered).
“Building them up to seem strong and then having Ainz defeating them in an instant is kind of a running gag in the series,” Maruyama said in an interview. “It’s funny. And it also serves to show just how much of a gap there is.”
On the other hand, volumes 12 and 13 are about conspiracy and fooling the enemy into alliances. A religious human nation called the Roble Holy Kingdom keeps demi-humans out with the Great Wall, a 100-kilometer barrier that’s constantly watched over by conscripted citizens.
Disguised as the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth, Demiurge enslaves the nearby races of demi-humans and forces this unwilling army to invade the Roble Holy Kingdom. “Jaldabaoth” even directly attacks the Holy Queen Calca Bessarez and her followers. The fight causes Demiurge to reveal his terrifying demonic form.
The demonic attack causes the Roble Holy Kingdom to seek the help of the Re-Estize Kingdom, but are rebuffed. They are informed that Momon is the only person capable of defeating Jaldabaoth, but this adventurer swore fealty to the Sorcerer King. The Kingdom then sends a delegation to the Sorcerer Kingdom to ask Ainz for “help” against Jaldabaoth.
Within his own thoughts, Ainz is panicked because Demiurge never bothered to tell his lord about any plan. In order to fulfill his promises, Ainz must stand alone against Jaldabaoth.
Unfortunately, anime fans will just have to wait until the Overlord Season 4 release date to watch how Ainz resolves this confrontation. Stay tuned!