By: Robert Murphy
Words cannot express how deeply I enjoyed my first MMO/anime
experience in Sword Art Online and to
my surprise I found myself stumbling across another show much in the same style
called Log Horizon that made me love
this style of anime even more. The story takes place in the massively
successful MMORPG called Elder Tale and in the wake of the upcoming game
expansion thousands of players gear up to play it once more along with many new
players as well. As soon as players log into the game though they find
themselves in their virtual avatar selves, more realistic than ever before and
they find it is impossible to exit the game and that they’re now trapped within
the virtual world in an event the players call the Apocalypse. Our story
follows Shiroe, a veteran player of the game and a brilliant tactician who is
quite well known among the players of the game, alongside him are his friend
Naotsugu, another veteran player that has known Shiroe through many hours of
playing the game and Akatsuki who joins Shiroe early on and befriends him as
well as Naotsugu. Together, they all face the new troubles that Elder Tale his
for them and how to live and survive in this new reality that they have to be a
part of.
Where I find so much love with Log Horizon is with the immersive MMORPG angle to the show, where SAO focused on the action, Log Horizon focuses on the world and how
the adventurers must now be a part of it. The characters in the show get to do
this though because unlike SAO you
don’t die permanently if you’re defeated in battle this time around. No,
players respawn at the in game cathedral much like they did before they were
trapped here, the adventurers find lives and purpose in Log Horizon and the looming fear of death doesn’t pose any concern,
at first. A fantastic part of the story came early on when the adventurers find
out that the in game food taste horrible when made using the food crafting
system like they’d always done. When they end up finding a way around this, it
was a fantastic part to the story because it started making you realize that
this show is in it for the long hall. The prospect of escaping their situation
doesn’t come up as often as you might think in fact it frankly never does
because they just aren’t told what’s happening to them and how they came to be
trapped in the game in the first place unlike SOA where they players are told how they can escape and that takes
up all the focus. I preferred this method because it leaves much more to be
done with Log Horizon’s story and
world.
Speaking of the world in Log
Horizon, every aspect to it was extremely well done especially the way the
show explains how players spells, magic and abilities work. We see such a
detailed explanation of everything each player can do without it being boring
or dull, we learn what players abilities are and what they can do such as
swashbuckling and much much more. Alongside of this though and perhaps the most
interesting part of the show is the NPC’s that the adventurers refer to as the
People of the Land, these people use to be nameless quest givers that players
cared very little about but who are now more alive than ever. It’s a role
reversal of sorts for the adventurers who in real life are normal humans with
no power but now they’re living in a world where they have supernatural
abilities and the NPC’s are the meek ones and they know it. These people have
their own rules, their own leaders and now their own lives and the adventurers
are the unknown and frightening ones and the interactions that arise between
them now are much more complex than they were before.
Log Horizon is
also a show that is very much about the massive community of people and players
that are around, everyone works together now and uses their skills like they’d
never done before. The massive amount of characters and people you come to meet
are just another great aspect to be admired about Log Horizon especially when you see them all and how strong they
each are as characters. There was not a single character that I hated in the
show and the fact that there are just so many that you see throughout the first
season of the show is something truly impressive and makes for a rich
experience.
Log Horizon was
such a deeply impressive show for me that took the MMORPG style anime to a
whole new level by making it feel just like a real game with thousands of
players to see and to love. Each character has real depth to them and use the
in game skills they have acquired to make them an essential part of the story
in one way or another. Even when the main characters are off doing something
crucial at a summit with the People of the Land’s nobles, they’re working hard
to improve their craft and make Elder Tale a nice place to live in. In the back
of my mind I do wonder if they’re going to bring up how they will all get home
but for now the story was just too rich and enjoyable. The first season has
just concluded not too long ago and I hope and am eager for the next because
there is just so much more that can be done here with Log Horizon.
Good:
- Focuses less on death and is able to enjoy the MMORPG
experience
- Rich and ever expanding story
- Strong characters all around and so many to fall in love
with
- Tells more about the skills and abilities used by the
characters, explaining the mechanics behind things in Elder Tale was something
I really enjoyed
Bad:
- I’m racking my brain about this but I really can’t say much
negative for the show
Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10
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