Eanki said:Log Horizon is an anime with a worldbuilding prowess that had impressed me, and I'm weaned on the best of Western fantasy literature. If you know Brandon Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic, then all you have to know is that it understands and embraces that fully. It's Chekhov's Gun the Anime.
MMORPG-based isekai series have a distinct advantage over other isekai types: MMORPG mechanics allow for a pretty strong backbone in constructing a hard magic system. In fact, it’s one of the easiest ways of establishing a hard magic system, really.
Hard magic systems, as opposed to soft magic systems, have clearly defined rules so that the reader can understand and predict them, in accordance with Brandon Sanderson’s first of three laws of magic:
“An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.”
Log Horizon understands this, more than any other of the recent wave of isekai stories. And this is what enables the core strength of the series: interconnection. The author has a solid established system that he then gets to mix and match. He has established ingredients and then how he uses them determines his dish. And by god, he's making a lauriat. As per Sanderson's Third Law of Magic:
"Expand on what you have already, before you add something new."
It is important to consider the effects that a magic will have on a world. If for example your magic can create food out of thin air, what will that cause, what will happen? How will it affect trade, politics, warfare, education and social norms? Asking these questions and working out what effects your magic system will add depth to your world.
And that is where the series shines the most. It's about payoffs to amazing little buildups that snowballed hard into importance. It's a series that continually expands on what it builds up and it doesn't end in just one payoff.
It's also an ever evolving world. It's not static, where discoveries are forgotten and the world is continually and forcefully stuck into one dynamic. No. Unique interaction of the game rules becoming reality slowly in multiple aspects, as well as character actions, shape and continually reshape the rules of the world.
And it's not done yet.