Recap: Our trio continue to practice their abilities and are ambushed by a group of PVPers. Once dealt with they embark on a journey to rescue a player from a nasty location. In this MMO death isn’t permanent, but travel is long and tedious.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: For better or worse Log Horizon is the most true to life MMO in an anime I’ve seen yet. The fact that players can’t really die adds an element of boredom that most people who have played an MMO for a long time will relate with. PVP ganking noobs because there is nothing else you can do? Yup, there are totally tons of people who really do that.

The infodumpy nature might turn some people off from this episode, but I can appreciate its importance. For my own part it has simply confirmed that Elder Tale is well grounded in the way MMOs really do work. I won’t be surprised if other people feel like this makes Log Horizon slow, but I also see the need for getting these things established. Unlike Sword Art Online, understanding how MMO’s work is a vital part of the experience here.

The direction of the story seems a bit loose at the moment, but I like this trio of friends. Akatsuki is so cute with her role-playing and Naotsugu is dependable despite acting like an idiot. I also greatly appreciate the fact that Shiroe, our protagonist, is a support class.

I am curious to see where this story will go from here. Great characters and an interesting setting do not make a great story, but I’m willing to give this anime more time before I get worried. I assume we will reach the end of the first light novel soon and get a better picture of what Log Horizon is trying to be in the long run.

Iro’s Thoughts: Now this is what MMOs are really like. Buffs, debuffs, drawing aggro, stopping movement, teamwork, flying mounts… this is the kind of minutiae I want from an anime with this subject. Alas, while infodumping what each spell does immediately after using it is a necessary evil, I wish there were some way to handle it better. Still, the teamwork between our little group was fun to watch, and they have a pretty good dynamic going on, I love scenes where trust is communicated without words, so the part at the end where they already know what Shiroe is thinking put a smile on my face (even if it was rather cliche). I’m not sure where Log Horizon‘s actual plot is headed, but so far I’m still onboard.