‘Overlord,’ ‘Re:Zero’ Anime Crossover Releases First Trailer

Kadokawa is celebrating their big light novel adaptation boom in a big way soon with a major crossover featuring four of their major Isekai fantasy series with a cute chibi filter.

Fans didn’t really have an idea what it would look like until now, as Isekai Quartet has revealed its first trailer teasing the crossover between Overlord and Re:Zero among others.

Isekai Quartet is a special crossover that features characters from Overlord, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, Konosuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!, and Saga of Tanya the Evil in cute chibi forms. The crossover project is currently scheduled to release in Spring next year, and will be scripted and directed by Minoru AshinaMinoru Takehara will act as character designer and animation director with Studio Puyukai animating the series.

The story is a bit simple, but definitely opens the door for cute shenanigans as a mysterious red button (which fans can see in the trailer) pops up in each of these worlds and pressing it brings them together. The “Isekai” in its title refers to a subgenre of fantasy anime in which a normal human is brought into a fantasy world through magical means, and each of these series are reflective of this genre.

The series have sold more than 16 million copies in print altogether along with popular anime adaptations for each of the series. Originally created by Kugame Murayama with illustrations provided by so-bin, Overlord is a series of light novels beginning in 2010 under Enterbrain. The series begins when the popular MMORPG Yggdrasil shuts down their servers after 12 years of service. One of the game’s most powerful guilds, Ains Ooal Gown, is waiting out the game’s final moments at their hideout, and their leader, who calls himself Momonga, remains in the game until its final seconds.

He soon wakes up in the real Yggdrasil in the guise of his undead sorcerer character. Now, with 41 powerful entities under his command, he has to portray himself as a dominating overlord while also trying to figure out the rules of this new world.

As for Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World, it’s a series of light novels originally created by Tappei Nagatsuki with illustrations provided by Shinichirou Otsuka in 2014. The story follows Subaru Natsuki, a homebody who wakes up in a fantasy world. Meeting a silver haired elf named Satella, he decides to help her on her journey to recover a stolen item.

After the two are mysteriously killed, Subaru wakes up to realize that he has gone back in time to the point when he first entered the world. Realizing he has a new power called “Return by Death,” which sends him back in time every time he dies, Subaru decides to use this new power to try and make a better life for himself in this world with the mysterious silver haired elf.