My Thoughts on A Wild Last Boss Appeared!
This anime was compared quite a bit to Overlord when it was airing. And it does definitely have some similarities. They're both video game esque Isekai about overpowered "villain" type characters that are trying to conquer the world, (except Ainz is a man and Ruthfus is a woman). But honestly that's where the similarities end, as far as I can tell. Including the quality. I didn't think this was a terrible anime, but it does pale in comparison to it's very clear inspiration, in my opinion. The first episode was great, which sets up the MC being a villain protagonist, just like Ainz, and being defeated, then the MC, who was playing a game, loses the game, and later is transported physically into the body of the character that he was peviously playing as. It provided lots of intrigue and great animation. But after that it falls into many standard Isekai traps that makes it difficult for a lot of people to take the genre seriously. One thing this series is definitely missing, since it was obviousy influenced by Overlord, is the humor. Overlord wasn't just about the action and Ainz and his followers committing evil, destructive acts, it was genuinely funny. Whether it was Ainz reprogramming the NPCs, particularly floor guardians of the Great Tomb of Naarack, to obsessively, and in some cases lustfully, worship him, or Ainz himself only having somewhat average intelligence, but whenever something goes right with their objectives everybody around him thinks it's his genius plans when in reality it's just blind luck but he goes along with it.
This series doesn't really have any of that. And that's not inherently bad. Despite the surface level similarities, the series tries to go it's own way, and I think that's fine. In fact I'd prefer that rather than it just being a carbon copy of Overlord with a female character. But it doesn't replace the great stuff in Overlord with anything substantially intersting or fun. Ruthfus herself isn't that interesting of a character unfortunately. Midway through the anime we get such a cliche backstory with her father being abusive, blaming her birth for all their problems, and her mother was a bit more sympathetic to her. I swear I've seen this exact same backstory so many times that I've become numb to it. The only thing substantial about this episode was the admittingly impressive, fluid animation when Ruthfus is running away from her home in tears. Speaking of which, there's quite a bit of great animation throughout the series that does set it slightly above many other Isekai in this realm. But aside from that it was pretty disappointing in my opinion, especially considering how good the first episode was.
This series doesn't really have any of that. And that's not inherently bad. Despite the surface level similarities, the series tries to go it's own way, and I think that's fine. In fact I'd prefer that rather than it just being a carbon copy of Overlord with a female character. But it doesn't replace the great stuff in Overlord with anything substantially intersting or fun. Ruthfus herself isn't that interesting of a character unfortunately. Midway through the anime we get such a cliche backstory with her father being abusive, blaming her birth for all their problems, and her mother was a bit more sympathetic to her. I swear I've seen this exact same backstory so many times that I've become numb to it. The only thing substantial about this episode was the admittingly impressive, fluid animation when Ruthfus is running away from her home in tears. Speaking of which, there's quite a bit of great animation throughout the series that does set it slightly above many other Isekai in this realm. But aside from that it was pretty disappointing in my opinion, especially considering how good the first episode was.
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On a more personal level I also vibe with it more- Overlord initially presents as Ainz being a good person at heart who has to do some bad stuff to stay in character while trying to keep his subordinates from doing stuff that's TOO heinous. But by Season 2 they have him baiting people into Nazarick to meet horrible fates worse than death on the grounds of invading, and while few of them were truly good people they didn't deserve what they got especially when he deliberately baited them. And from then on they kinda drop the idea that Ainz is trying to keep his people from committing atrocities, in favor of just presenting them as relatively fair people who keep order well and only do atrocities to people who aren't under their rule. It just... isn't the kind of tone I vibe it. Feels icky. I prefer the idea Last Boss goes with, that Lufus had a just cause behind her but because the army behind her were monsters and the Demon King above her was a bit of a bad guy, she was seen as evil by most of humanity and this was solidified by the actions of her upset subordinates afterwards. But in the modern day people have begun to question the narrative that formed in the years since. It also introduces an interesting twist in the fact that the world is based on essentially a narrative spin on the actual events of the game that inspired it, and Lufas and the guy who became her are in fact two distinct people and he has to grapple with the blurring barrier between the two- that last part something Overlord sort of lightly toys with, but I feel like never really explored.
I’ll eventually get to the manga I suppose but I really enjoyed it and put it near the top of last (admittedly weak) season.