The best ‘Overlord’ watch order

The best time to watch a popular anime is right when it begins airing, the second best time is right now! Overlord has found itself among the top 100 most popular anime according to MyAnimeList and it’s easy to see why. This isekai adventure where Suzuki Satoru is plunged into the world of his favorite video game — Yggdrasil — right as its servers close has many compelling twists on an already popular genre.

The only problem is that with so much supplemental material for the series it can look overwhelming at first for folks who want to watch it for themselves. There are two major ways to check out Overlord – in release order and chronologically.

How to watch Overlord in release order

The exact release order for Overlord is admittedly quite confusing, especially with the absolute deluge of special content that has come out for the series. For those who want to see every part of the show from start to finish, here’s how to make that happen.

• Overlord: “The Maid Tea Party” (2014)
• Season 1: Overlord (2015)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades (2015)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades – “Nazarick’s Great Crisis” (2016)
• Overlord: The Undead King (2017)
• Overlord: Manner Movie (2017)
• Overlord Movie: Ple Ple Pleiades (2017)
• Overlord: The Dark Hero (2017)
• Season 2: Overlord II (2018)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades 2 (2018)
• Season 3: Overlord III (2018)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades 3 (2018)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades – “Fugitive Clementine” (2018)
• Season 4: Overlord IV (2022)
• Overlord: Ple Ple Pleiades 4 (2022)

How to watch Overlord in chronological order

And if you just want to get the basics of the story from start to finish, things get a whole lot less complicated. You can even watch the first episode dubbed for free on YouTube. How cool is that?

• Season 1: Overlord (2015)
• Season 2: Overlord II (2018)
• Season 3: Overlord III (2018)
• Season 4: Overlord IV (2022)

What about Overlord: The Holy Kingdom?

While Overlord: The Holy Kingdom has been announced as a feature film, it currently does not have a release date. The movie is set to adapt the story from volumes 12 and 13 of the manga, thus putting it chronologically after the first four seasons of the show.

So how should I watch Overlord?

For someone just jumping into the series to see if they’ll like it, there is no reason not make things simple and go in the chronological order. For those really short on time, the first two movies serving as recaps for the earlier seasons could also be a great way to dip those toes into the anime waters and see if the whole series is worth investing your time in.

However, if season 1 feels like anime perfection after watching it, or that first movie makes the series seem irresistible, consider checking things out in chronological order. The silly chibi art specials will make much more sense when viewed alongside the proper seasons, after all. Either way, they aren’t necessary to understand the plot in any capacity so skip or enjoy them, your choice!

Overlord is available to stream on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu.