I recently watched the third season of the anime Overlord. Overlord is an asinine isekai that embodies the idea of power fantasy and "fake it till you make it". The show is great fun because of the great unbelievably unhinged lengths it goes to explores these ideas. Its not enough for the protagonist to be bland and an obvious self-insert - no - hes also super powerful (and every character he comes across is just another pawn to show off his awesome power) and every women ends up creaming themselves in awe of him. The power fantasy it is employing is not hidden in anyway; they're not pretending that there is a worthwhile mono-myth narrative here, everything presented is done to further its power fantasy. This aspect of the show isn't the problem with it - its the selling point. This is why I take great issue with the reviews for the show and its subsequent seasons on MAL. Many of these reviews claim that Overlord is no better than a show like SAO because of its power fantasy nature. These claims are idiotic because they state - in essence - that the concept of the power fantasy is the issue not the execution. SAO's issues are not the result of the concepts and ideas it attempts but how it fails to present those concepts in the context of its narrative. Overlord has a lot of leeway and excuses to make up for any plot contrivances in its narrative because the show doesn't take itself seriously at all and doesn't have anything at stake. SAO does take itself seriously and presents itself as something to be taken seriously. Overlord is goofy. Overlord is stupid, but its stupid fun - which makes all the difference.
I don't know where people got the idea that what a series sets out to do is what determines its quality. The themes and messages something attempts to get across should be irrelevant to one's critique of something. They seem to get the first step of critique down at least - identifying intent - but they forget the - how well do they do it - part which is where the actual critique comes in. Maybe this is why people see AnoHana or Your Lie in April as good shows, because they explore themes they deem as worthwhile.
I don't know.
