The second season was a step down, with limited animation, a plot that was all over the place, the ideas and new concepts were going nowhere and everything felt just so disconnected and lifless.
This season was the point for me to take my leave from this francise for good. Not that it was this aweful experience or anything like that, it´s just so unremarkable and such a drastic step down from season one. Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai has all the problems of season 2 and there is no sign that it will get better any time soon. Let me explain.
The story:
And here starts the problem. What story?
The first episodes were focused on the Round Table of Akiba and how one of it´s members was about to destroy the organisation to force a new order on the region. So far so good, sounds like a season 1 conflict, right? Sadly not. The great change, that took half the episodes to reach was that the Round Table was now declared as a government, with absolutly no changes to the political side of things, no changes in the city, no conflicts within the city, the antagonist just leaving the region for good and just two faces changed in the organisation.
The middle part is a complete side story of Krusty hanging around in the China server with Kanami and the final few episodes were focused on a new ,,Genius" that was attacking the city AGAIN and forcing the adventurers into a Raid. But don´t worry, the kids swept the floor with him on their first try.
All in all it was just three very loosly connected stories, that changed nothing about the status quo or had no real weight on their own.
The character:
Well, maybe it was good for the character side if things? No. Not at all. We got Rayneshia standing up to the aristicrats and her parents AGAIN, with little development. Aside from that we also got the girls still having crushes on adult men, adult men having crushes on women who look like little girls and that´s about it. Oh, some people miss Krusty.
Let´s say, there was little change and little to like this time around.
Animation:
The animation is sadly rather limited and lowers the enjoyment even more.
Sound/Music:
This can be considert to be the saving grace of this show. Pretty good most of the time and the OP is nice too.
Conclusion:
Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai juggles with ideas, concepts, characters and plot lines, but has problems to keep the balls in the air. It has the exact same problems as the previous season and at this point we shouldn´t expect much of this series anymore.
It´s a weak 5/10 and that only thanks to the music, that saved it from falling even lower.
