There are as many isekai stories out there today as there are stars in the sky and old volumes of Naruto in aging otaku closets. Still, of all the stories and series about unsuspecting people being sucked into a world of roleplaying fantasy, Overlord stands near the top as one of the most memorable of them all. Many people likely know the series from the iconic three-season anime about the powerful skeleton wizard Momonga and his crew of loyal subjects. That action-packed and delightfully written anime series is an adaptation of a slick, long-running series of light novels that go by the same title. It’s an incredibly successful novel series published worldwide, and now, we know exactly when the story is set to end.
Back in May of 2019, Overlord light novel author Kugane Maruyama hinted at the possibility that he would be wrapping up the nearly decade-old series with the 17th volume. Then, in August of that same year, at German anime convention AnimagiC, Maruyama stated once again that he planned to end the series with volume 17. Now, those plans have once again been cemented by comments from the author shared in the most recently published 14th volume of the series. In the book, which launched on March 12th, Maruyama officially confirms that the last volume of the series will be the 17th volume.
While it may be sad to hear about the impending conclusion of such an iconic series, Overlord fans shouldn’t be preparing to say goodbye just yet. While volume 14 came out just a couple of months ago, volume 13 released way back in April of 2018. Considering the gap between these releases, it’s safe to say that we can still expect the climax of Overlord to be many years away.
Overlord was first launched by Maruyama as an online novel series back in 2010, but eventually, Kadokawa would pick the series up and publish it in Enterbrain as a proper light novel series in 2012, with insert illustrations by so-bin. Yen Press currently publishes the novel series in North America, and describes it as follows:
For twelve years, the virtual world of Yggdrasil has served as the playground and battlefield for the skeletal lord Momonga and his guild of fellow monsters, Ainz Ooal Gown. But the guild’s glory days are over, and the game is shutting down permanently. When Momonga logs in one last time just to be there when the servers go dark, something happens — and suddenly, fantasy is reality. A rogues’ gallery of fanatically devoted NPCs is ready to obey his every order, but the world Momonga now inhabits is not the one he remembers. The game may be over, but the epic tale of Ainz Ooal Gown is only beginning…
