Reviews

In the near future, thirty thousand Japanese players of the hit MMORPG Elder Tale suddenly wake up and find that they have somehow been thrown into the game world with no clue how to leave. Soon named “The Apocalypse”, this means that players have to learn new techniques and strategies to deal with the newfound reality, as opposed to looking at Elder Tale from a screen. Now, when first announced in the Fall Season, most people chalked it up to be another Sword Art Online clone, and never really gave it a fair chance. While it’s true that Log Horizon takes place inside of a MMORPG, that’s about where the comparison stops. Whereas SAO focused on the relationship between Kirito and Asuna, Log Horizon focuses on the socio-political effects of living in a new world. By this I mean that the MMORPG format almost takes a back seat to government. Log Horizon could easily take place in a fantasy setting with the characters trying to build a kingdom, as, though the action scenes were made well and interestingly, the real glow of Log Horizon is the depth of political strategy.

Log Horizon focuses mainly on a level-90 Enchanter/Scribe named Shiroe. Before the Apocalypse, Shiroe was the lead strategist for a party named “Debauchery Tea Party”, one of the most infamous groups in all of Elder Tale. Despite his many invitations however, Shiroe chooses to never join a guild for his own reasons. Shiroe is an absolute strategic genius, though his aggressive strategies have earned him the nickname “Villain in Glasses”. Using his skills as a strategist, Shiroe beings to shape this anarchist world into a place worth living in.

The other characters are numerous and very well presented, with believable relationships and reactions to stimuli. One thing to remember is that in the final episodes, several love interests are formed, which, normally a bad thing, was presented well. By the end, most important characters are crushing/being crushed on by someone, though there was just enough foreshadowing throughout the series to make this okay.

The music in this show was done well. Nothing too above ordinary, as it only has a few different background tracks, but what it does have is presented well enough to help stimulate my emotions to wonder what was happening next. The ending theme in particular has a bit of bleeding onto the final seconds of each episode, which really got me excited for next week’s episode. Though I’ m not normally a fan of Engrish/English openings, Database was enjoyable, and I even have it on my iPod.

I’ve stressed before that the ending to a series is important, and unfortunately, Log Horizon did fall short of my expectations. Though a good episode, the final episode left many loose ends, though this was (hopefully) done to allow a season two.

*UPDATE* It has just come to my attention that a season 2 has been confirmed, in which case, I do approve of the current season 1 ending.

My final thoughts are this: don’t simply write off Log Horizon as a Sword Art Online clone, as it truly isn’t. I would certainly recommend it to any action/magic anime fan as well as anyone who enjoys watching character interact to reach difficult decisions. All-in-all, I’ll give Log Horizon an 8/10 because it was enjoyable, though not the series ever.

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