Recap

The Round Table organizes a festival to lighten things up, but it only ends up causing more problems for Shiroe.

Iro’s Thoughts

Firstly, sorry about the lack of coverage for Log Horizon – it’s been a tough time lately, and not much was actually happening in the show, either! Or at least, not much worth even talking about. There’s a festival going on (labelled the “Scale Festival” by CR subs, but apparently the fandom prefers “Libra Festival”), partly to just cool everyone down from nearly being wiped out by hordes of goblins and partly to boost Akihabara economically. And lastly, considering how things actually go, to give everyone an excuse for stupid anime romance antics. Bluh.

The bulk of episode 22 basically consists of Akatsuki and Minori (and Henrietta, we’re told in 23) fighting over Shiroe’s affections, in what is by far the weakest episode of the entire show. Throughout the show, Shiroe has been shown to at least be fairly savvy with other people, but he lapses into full-on idiot clueless harem protagonist once the girls start to try and drag him on dates. It’s so far removed from the secondary-world politics and action of Log Horizon that it feels like it’s out of a completely different anime, and Minori bursting into tears upon realizing she likes Shiroe (what, you didn’t notice WHEN YOU ASKED HIM OUT ON A DATE?) was laughably silly,

Thankfully, things pick up in the next episode, with more enjoyable and friendly slice-of-life moments throughout the episode and the arc’s plot starting to kick into gear. It’s great to see Naotsugu actually get some dialogue scenes again, and during his conversation with Akatsuki there’s a great sense of two friends playfully jabbing at each other, which is a feeling a lot of things tend to lack with conversations. The upcoming plot seems to be focusing more on the economic and logistical aspects of Akibahara, as per usual, and I’m hopeful it will lead to a sufficiently exciting climax to bring the anime to a close.