Recap: Shiroe finds himself dissatisfied with the status quo in Akibahara and resolves to change it. To do this, he forms his own guild: Log Horizon.

Iro’s Thoughts:
Lifesong has decided he was covering too many good shows, so he decided to hand this one over to me, since I covered the ever-infamous Sword Art Online. Thankfully, I hold Log Horizon in much higher esteem and thus might actually enjoy covering this show! Huzzah!

This week, Log Horizon seems to be migrating from the ostensible action-oriented show it has been the past month or so into a more contemplative one. Considering the author’s pedigree consisting of the much-lauded Maoyu novels (which famously focused on the economics and logistics of a fantasy world rather than the hero-beats-shit-up parts) and the studio apparently lacking the budget to do anything more than have people stand around, this seems to be a good thing.

A bunch of exposition about what’s going on is dumped into our lap, including a level cap increase and the emergence of a stratified society among the players, but it’s all presented without being too egregious. Some emphasis is placed on how things that would be acceptable in a game aren’t considered as such now that it’s a “world”: the exploitation of inexperienced players is viewed as something akin to forced child labor, and fighting boss monsters is now a serious endeavor when you have to stare down massive creatures. And it all works somehow, mostly because it’s believable as a legitimate concern for the characters. They seem like logical problems for people trapped in a game.

Lastly, unlike SAO, we have a protagonist who actually goes through self-reflection and growth! He’s still somewhat skeptical of joining guilds because of his backstory, but looking at the Crescent Moon Alliance and remembering the Debauchery Tea Party (still the worst/best group name ever), he realizes that they aren’t all bad, and that by forming a large guild he can do more good than ever before, probably through the power of friendship or something. The sense of unconditional camaraderie that stems from this realization and the actions that follow it end up leading ino great character moments and the best title drop of the season. I’m looking forward to more.

Lifesong’s Thoughts:
I love the middle of a good anime season. The first few episodes are always fun, but often times an anime will take until around the halfway point before we really have a good representation of what it is all about. That seems to be the case with with the end of this last episode and the title drop for Shiroe’s guild “Log Horizon”. Politics and class differences were arguably the best handled aspects of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha and so it’s neat to see some confirmation that Mamare Touno also built this story with some degree of that same direction in mind. This show has been fun until now, but now the gauntlets come off so to speak as the first 6 episodes were a framing device for what comes next. I hope that it can live up to all the promises it has given us.