Overlord and Comparing Fighting Structure
Originally published December 2015
Commentary
Overlord is one of those shows that, despite my general distaste for it (as a thing of enjoyment), ends up being at the top of the list of things I use for analysis. I’ve mentioned it numerous times in many instances elsewhere, and I think it has a special place in my heart for being one of drivers of my channel. I did start off as an anime live reactor, after all, and Overlord was my bread and butter.
Ever since I started the isekai research, I’ve softened on Overlord quite a bit. When you start to see a lot of the patterns in other stories, you also start to value the ones that do it a bit differently, and having a protagonist who’s also a giant, awkward skeleton helps. Gaikotsu Kishi-sama has a similar “fake it until you make it” protagonist, but Ainz and the Nazarick gang rack up a much larger body count.
This video is a byproduct of my enjoyment of Kogonada. While many essayists at the time follow the Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting ) or Evan Puschak (Nerdwriter) style of analysis, Kogonada was always the one I looked up to the most. His ability and willingness to use visuals to make his argument were always wonderful and insightful, and his focus on celebration was something I take to heart. It is funny, therefore, that I would expend my influences and respect for Overlord, this strange beast of a show of whom I purportedly don’t care about that much. Maybe I do? I don’t know.
It is funny that I mention John Kreng’s Fight Choreography, given that much of his focus is on bodies and physicality, but that’s a completely different ballpark when you’re working with animation, and even more so, nonhuman animation. Good job, 2015 Joe; you played yourself.
Stray Notes
This is probably one of the more poststructuralist videos I've done, so my apologies
I didn't count Hamsuke cause I don't know if that really counts as a fight at all
Edited out Nabe and Khajit from Frame-1, if anyone is interested in my methodology
Texts
Longzijun has a fantastic analysis of the fight scene in Hero versus the fight scene in Bourne Identity: https://longzijun.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/fight-scene-cinematography-editing-the-bourne-identity-and-hero/
John Kreng's "Fight Choreography" is a great primer on fight choreography and what it generally means in film, both on a technical and a writing standpoint
Video
Overlord
Full Metal Panic Fumoffu
Samurai Champloo
One-Punch Man
Audio
Lightless Dawn by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100655 Artist: http://incompetech.com/