「あの背中を追いかけて」 (Ano Senaka o Oikakete)
“Chasing After Them”

All of the promise the newbies embodied was paid out ten-fold. From the battle of Krusty’s army to the newbies stand on the Choushi bridge, these were some of the most exciting battles I’ve seen in a long time!

Berserker In Glasses

I love to see someone who enjoys their love, and Krusty was having a damn good time. Now we know why he’s called Berserker Krusty! Tanking with a two-hander, at the tip of an entire army battling out with hordes of goblins, nuking better than some nukers and taking on raid bosses like it’s nothing? All in a day’s work. Damn!

I am curious to see where Lenessia’s comment about Krusty being sad and lonely will go. Is it just him being lonely at the top, him missing his home, or perhaps some measure of guilt in himself for enjoying death and combat so much? I’m not sure, but they opened up an interesting question to be explored later on.

Shiroe’s Plan & The Defense of Choushi

Some of my favorite battles are the kind of strategic back-and-forth we saw here. My editor recently crystalized this, when he was giving me advice on a battle in my own book I was having trouble with. He said that the best battles are like a chess match, where each side is acting reasonably given the information they have at hand, and where cause flows immediately from effect. That might seem obvious, but rarely is it done so well as it was here.

Take Shiroe’s plan. The adventurer’s goal is to wipe out all the goblins with as little damage to the People of the Land as possible, while the goblin’s goal is basically to kill and rampage as much as they can, because they’re dicks like that. This gives the adventurers the harder job – they not only have to kill all the goblins, they have to contain them. The first goal is relatively easy for them, while the second is tricky. Hence their plan to encircle the goblins and exterminate them all at once, a plan which will go all to hell if the Sahuagin attacking Choushi get loose and attack the adventurer’s flank. All of this provides the background that makes the battles in Choushi so exciting, because we know the stakes.

Minori: Shiroe’s Protégé

This episode was filled with badassery, so it’s all the more notable that Minori topped the lists. We’ve seen her go strategist before, but it’s mostly been outside of battle. This though, was something else entirely. She’s going full-on Shiroe, controlling every element to the benefit of her team. I did find it a bit silly how she juxtaposed her 5 seconds ahead in 5% increments to Shiroe’s 30 seconds/1% increments – I mean really, it’s not that easy to measure or scale those things, especially in the heat of battle – but it’s undeniable that she has the skill.

One thing though. At first I was going to say that Minori’s micromanaging might end up backfiring on the team if they become to reliant on her, but seeing as this is the first time she’s operated at this level, either A) she wasn’t confident enough that she could do this before, or 2) she doesn’t micromanage in every battle, just the important ones. Hopefully the latter, because the others need to learn if they’re ever going to have the instinctive rapport of Shiroe, Naotsugu, Nyanta, and Akatsuki.

The Newbies Rise

Not that the other newbies weren’t impressive too. Serara in particular has come alive as she uses more nukes (Dismissal, fuck yeah!) and crowd control to become the true versatile player that a druid should be. As someone who played Druid as my main in EQ, I know I spent at least as much time nuking, snaring, and buffing as I did healing…usually more, to be honest. (And casting Spirit of the Wolf. I still wake up screaming about people bugging me to cast SoW…) I never got a kawaii AoE wolf nuke though. Whyyyyy!!

Also, fuck yeah Rudy! I’ll get to him more later, but I just wanted to say that as awesome as Serara’s Dismissal/kawaii wolf nuke were, his Burned Strike is my kind of spell. The Sorcerer is supposed to cast from the back? Screw that, it’s point-blank AoE time bitches!

Bonus: I liked how they justified Naotsugu and the others standing back and praising the newbies by them needing to regen their mana, because otherwise I would have been screaming about why they weren’t in the fight. I still kind of was, but still, understandable.

The Stand on Choushi Bridge

When it started raining, I knew they were in for a shitty time. We’ve all had battles like this before, in some game or another, ones where we’re doing everything we can, but no matter what we do the tank’s HP keeps dropping and it looks like someone – or everyone – is about to go down. Once again Minori really surprised me, from cracking out that massive protection spell with the 24-hour cooldown to her getting in and off-tanking the goblins while Rudy and Isuzu took them down, but I really felt for her when it seemed like everything was falling apart and there was nothing she could do. And then…

Rundel Haus – Adventurer To The Core

Rudy, nooooo! Sorcerers aren’t supposed to tank! Bad dog, down!

The question is, why did Rudy do it? Why did he sacrifice himself when he was the one person who couldn’t afford it, the only one who wouldn’t get back up after a death? Because he wanted to be an adventurer more than anything else. He worked hard all the time, he put all of his emotions and passion into it, because he wanted the life that adventurers have, and because he wanted to be one of them. In any other story that would be enough to make him an adventurer, but in this one they’re a breed apart. He was desperate because saving your friends is what an adventurer would do, even if it costs you your life. Unfortunately for Rudy, for him it’s permanent. Damn if he didn’t look like a badass doing it, though.

But when all seems lost, Minori keeps a clear head and calls in the one man who can think his way through anything. Shiroe, it’s your time to shine! (Again)

Looking Ahead – We Will Change The World

They stuck with the “Look thirty seconds ahead” line for the end of the episode for a while, and finally in this episode we found out why with Shiroe and Minori’s Full Control Encounter. Now, as Rudy is down for the count and barely holding on, they switch to “We will change the world.” Chills man, chills. I have an idea of what will come next, but I won’t ruin things with my guessing (and watch those spoilers, all). I think it’s safe to say that next week is going to be another excellent episode though.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – The Berserker in Glasses, a young Strategist, & a Sorcerer who wants to be an adventurer more than anything else. Rudy, no!! #loghorizon 19

Random thoughts:

Check out my blog about storytelling and the fantasy novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: I’m that guy, Unexpected directions, The market has spoken, and I can quit anytime, so I don’t have to. My current combo counter: 29 days long.

Full-length images: 46.

 

Preview

147 Comments

    1. It felt like I was watching the biggest, most awesome battle in The Lord of the Rings with magic incorporated and the craziest-most awesome overpowered bastard the universe has ever seen in charge of the whole thing. And I love every second of it!.

      haseo0408
      1. Shiroe’s better than Gandalf. He’s a true leader / general / commander / strategist, not just an occasional interloper. His direct powers are not so much, but his influence on the world changes it completely.

        He’s bloody Napoleon, except capable of training other competent commanders.

        Drasca
    2. Finally an MMO anime that feels RIGHT to me, after both .hack and SAO series simply falling short of the line that differentiates good (or even bad…) animes from great ones.

      Krusty enjoying his curbstomping of goblins is something anyone who mastered a high class character will understand. Not much moments in gaming rival facing on a veritable horde of enemies, and realy owning them.
      I wonder what Lenessia meant by him looking lonely though, hopefully the series will explore the topic (and the series certainly delivers on following with startd topics!)

      Shiroe managing the battle from his HQ was impressive on another level, that of general moving his troops into battle. Especially poignant was his “coup d’oleil” which allowed him to instantly recognize the importance of Choshu for entire battle. Historical battles buffs: think Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte at Waterloo – or Bastogne at Battle of the Bulge.
      And he wasted no time in sending reinforcements via the steamship, another hallmark of master strategist being having reserves, but not hesitating to use them when needed, and getting “fastest with mostest”.

      Speaking of strategist: Minori is sure becoming one. The way she manages battle definitely shows Shiroe’s influence, even if she is definitely far less effective yet. Still, without her guidance – and own skills developed in training camp – our newbies team would not last a minute on the bridge, let alone defeat enemeies – but at what cost…

      So, Rudy was a Lander. Yeah, the show did a lot of foreshadowing, and certainly we can’t really be THAT surprised. Still the shock of truly, definitely losing to death a friend of the party is hitting us like truck. But there is a glimmer of hope, if there is someone who can defy the very laws governing this strange bnew world, it is Shiroe, and theyare lucky to be his friends.

      NB: Drasca – Napoleon was actually having one of the best teams of subordinate officers in history. Marshalls of the Emperor, Ney, Davout, Poniatowski – all of them of course did not have the skill of the Little Big Man himself, but were still amongst greatest generals of the time.

      ewok40k
      1. Rudy know he would not get back up standing after Dead? *Spoiler through the Back door* Sorry Men

        is Rudy not an Adventure and he will be revived in The Cathedral? *wink wink* 🙂

        Germanguy
      2. Rudy knows he’s one of the People of the Land. People of the Land can’t be resurrected. Ergo, he knows he can’t be resurrected. Why don’t you try watching the episode before telling people they’re spoiling things?

        Wanderer
      3. The point you seem to be missing is that Stilts hasn’t read the novels so he can’t be using novel information to spoil anything. You, who clearly do know something, are the only one at risk of spoiling anything here, so kindly hush.

        Wanderer
    1. Actually, what I got from the ending is a hint that
      adventurers are much more than participants in this
      world they found themselves — Specifically, Shiroe
      can alter the very rules of game-play somehow. I don’t
      think it applies to all adventurers, but I bet we’re
      going to learn that Shiroe has some special quality
      the will allow that to happen.

      With that there’s a cost, and I’m sure it’ll be played
      out. I can’t imagine that the writers will kill Rudy
      off – he didn’t have a proper death flag.

      Either way, very exciting episode and I can’t wait for
      the next.

      mac65
      1. Well, he’s not entirely wrong: it’s true that the preview gives/implies a major spoiler. Saying that Stilts is spoiling stuff is quite a stretch though, and he could have pointed it out in a better way.

        Anonymosity
      2. Okay, a couple of things:
        1. Germanguy is wrong and needs to drop this discussion.

        2. You’re being a bit rude. He has the right to an opinion, this one just happens to be wrong and he’s dragging it out.

        3. Guessing about the future is not a spoiler unless you know the future. This is what all of the ‘hints’ and spoilers from people who’ve read the novel have done to these reviews. People can’t try and discuss what might happen because people who’ve read the books come in and either spoil it themselves or get mad at the (correct) guess for being a spoiler. The second thing is the mistake Germanguy made.

        People need to stop using book knowledge to say anything either way. Don’t spoil things, and don’t accuse others of spoiling things. Guessing what’s going to happen is half the fun of a website like this.

        KaleRylan
      3. Germanguy, don’t think that if you change your name and email address that we can’t recognize you. You have a very distinct way of writing in English. I have had many classmates from Germany, they don’t capitalize every word in the sentence and use proper grammar.

        Taiyo
      1. There was a class datasheet posted somewhere, but Druids (Serara’s class) are heal-over-time, and Shamans (Minori’s class) are damage prevention (barriers that absorb set amounts of damage). They just don’t have enough between them to regen more hp than Tohya’s tanking.

        Shiden
      2. Germanguy is right. They were simply outperformed in the fight. Spamming heals is largely pointless, since you’ll just pull aggro off the tank and healers die very fast when that happens.

        And as others mentioned, neither of them are the crisis big number healers (that’s cleric) so they’re designed to keep a battle going smoothly, there’s not a ton they can do once it’s already fallen apart.

        KaleRylan
    1. Yes. It’s the moment in the show where they remind us that, while she may be trying to emulate Shiro, she’s not there yet. She doesn’t have the experience needed to improvise to that degree and she’s never been in a position where she had to handle the downside of “seeing 5 seconds ahead”: how to hold it all together when all you see is everything coming apart. The prospect of losing her brother as tank probably didn’t help either.

      Dave
    2. the mob’s dps was higher than their combined hps .. so yeah the tank was gonna die .. was just a matter of time , Minori estimated he was gonna die 2 seconds before the cd on her shield was out soo yep nothing she or serara could have done… she even tried offtanking the adds but still the wolf’s dps was too high , the difference on level showed when we see the tanks’s hp went down right after the heal landed.

      I used to play Paladin and Shaman in wow .. so yeh there were cases i had to get out and tank some mobs cus the damage was too high on the tank (normally pugs tho)

      considering they average level 22 and they took on 2 mobs 10 lvl high (plus 5 hobs) …

      ok besides all that i just have to say: epic, episode was epic.

      PS: ok this shows reminds me too much of older days
      definitions:
      -dps: damage per second
      -hps: heals per second
      -mob: mobile or monster. Enemy NPC controlled by the game
      -cd: cooldown
      -offtanking: a secondary tank. not the main tank
      -hp: hitpoints
      -“… landed”: took effect

      inanis
  1. That battle scene in the beginning just…damn…. Whole episode was just overall good and badass and awesome… I got nothing else. Just some shit right here. (berserker Krusty and badass Rudy were my personal highlights, though minori being shiroe the second was pretty cool too)

    Catsrofl
  2. Question here. Am I the only one who’s totally upset with the way they dealt with such an important twist? I mean, what the hell, let’s show the death scene of a character in OP and foreshadow the reasons for it for 10 consecutive episodes, with anime original additions to make the foreshadowing effect stronger! They totally seem not to care about any elements of surprise with this anime.

    brajt
    1. The OP thing was annoying, yes. A lot of the time they’ll put things in the OP that only spoil in retrospect, and those are fine, but that one was a bit blunt. All the foreshadowing leading up in the show proper didn’t bother me though.

      Stilts
      1. I add to that the fact of hinting so early and so obviously that Rudy is not an Adventurer. In the books there’s nothing like that. It’s not even a known fact for a reader that Rudy is not from Akiba, as the introduction of him in anime was all anime original scenes. Isuzu trying to add Rudy to her friends is anime original too. I don’t have anything against doing original scenes, as Log Horizon makes very good ones (like the giant boar hunting or playing kakurenbo at the castle). But they’re definitely directed on making this a “we’ll guide you by hand through this” kind of storytelling. The same situation was with the lazy and cowardly princess and her foreshadowed awakening.

        brajt
      2. brajt: That is not quite correct. The LN obviously doesn’t animate an “add friends” link failing, Show Spoiler ▼

        So the hint is pretty much the same in the anime as it was in the LN.

        r3dking
      3. Frankly, I disagree completely. If there were no novels, then that scene in the OP wouldn’t have been particularly different than any other anime OP of this type. Mecha OPs for example pretty regularly give you a laundry list of whats coming up in the show. Yes, it’s a strong hint, but not an unusually strong hint if you have no other information.

        As for the hints in the show, that’s just writing. It’s not like it HAD to be a twist that you don’t see coming at all. That’s just author’s prerogative. And this twist has been spoiled so many times on this website that I don’t think many people that post here are even able to judge the real nature of the hints in the show.

        KaleRylan
    2. @brajt:

      You’re preaching ot the choir (i.e. agree 100%). Can’t remember which EP review (wasn’t too long ago), but that was the “major spoiler I won’t mention in detail” I complained about. This show’s OP IMO is far too spoilerish for no reason. Watched plenty of shows which avoided that. IIRC, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha had a similar spoiler w/ Head Maid as well.

      daikama
    3. You could also criticize the preview for next ep. spoiling that he’ll be revived (maybe as a Shiroe’s familiar, who knows).
      A nicer cliffhanger would have been the death without any mention of hope for him, but that might have been too much for the target audience (kids).

      boingman
      1. Yeah *sigh* the preview. I think you hit the mark with the reason – the “target” audience (e.g. lack of blood/gore, mature themes).

        LOL at the idea of Rudy as Shiroe’s familiar – perhaps revived as a real golden retriever (dog). 😀

        daikama
      2. It’s not necessarily because of the target audience. You ever notice how movie previews give away all the best parts? That’s because the most important thing to the creators is that people watch the show (and in this case, buy DVDs/BDs), not that it be the absolute best story they could possibly tell. Thus, it’s more advantageous to slightly spoil things as long as it will make people go “Oh, that seems interesting. I want to keep watching!”

        Or that’s the thought, at least. It’s shortsighted in my opinion, but it’s still fairly common. It also doesn’t excuse the OP, which was too much.

        Stilts
      3. There once was a CSI episode where one character got buried alive, and the trailer showed a scene that seemed to make it clear they’d find him at spot X. I was pretty pissed. But then in that scene in the show, it turns out they’re not at the right spot yet. So even a scene that seems like a spoiler might not be one.

        Michael Chandra
    4. Calm down guys, don’t be upset with that obvious foreshadowing. It is what a “foreshadow” does. Im sure that the author is not that shallow to give you guys a huge and biggest spoiler in the OP. In my perspective, getting to know WHY and WHEN Rudy died (after seeing the hint in the OP) is much more fun and exciting. Now that we know he died and seeing the hint that he “might” be revived (guessing from the Preview), then Show Spoiler ▼

      . So don’t worry, this twist is nothing (i mean it, its “nothing”) to compare on what to come next.

      Kuroichi
    1. I don’t remember there being much difference with out of combat rezzes back in the day. I wasn’t a HUGE EQ player or anything (my brother was) but the whole ‘rez is free OOC’ thing I believe is a part of the casualization of MMOs. I could be wrong though, I didn’t play a healer.

      KaleRylan
    2. Yeah, I honestly don’t remember if I (as a Druid) had a rez at all, because I never used it. People got a Cleric rez or they waited for a Cleric rez, because taking whatever shitty rez I could toss out would have just pissed away a lot of time regaining that experience. Plus there was probably a Cleric in the group anyway because nobody else could really main heal that well (Druid & Shaman heals were too inefficient, even once they gave us “complete” heals).

      Stilts
  3. Well the action everyone’s been wanting is here.

    And Ser Run.dll Haus code our resident Golden Retrever’s true identity has been revealed. It certainly brings a lot of questions to the fore as to the nature of Landers. Also the relationship between which one is the true abnormality really does sting XD

    Next episode is contract? Will Magical Girl Rudy be born? 😛

    Netto
      1. Not sure what you’re hinting at, but that’s just tea. Japanese bottles of the stuff all look like that. I’ve actually got one sitting next to me right now (I live in Japan). It’s similar to a mountain dew can joke for an American MMO player. Healthier though.

        KaleRylan
      2. As you talk about dedication…
        Surely, sometimes the situation is intense and there’s no time for toilet.
        But maybe there’s also no time for refilling water bottle…

        recycling? (evil grin)

        daze
  4. This episode was (almost) too awesome to be real. The combat was simply magnificent, from Krusty overpowering everything within range to the newbies’ strategies to counter their relative weakness! (not saying Krusty’s side doesn’t have or need strategy, they do. The newbies just need it more.)
    And oh god the end… I’ve read the LN several times, and still felt like I wasn’t prepared for that…

    Now we know why he’s called Berserker Krusty!
    Bit of LN knowledge here, but his Berserker-subclass might also have something to do with it. As well as the fact that his build is mostly built around that too, down to having a set of Berserker-specializing equipment. Berserker indeed.

    I never got a kawaii AoE wolf nuke though. Whyyyyy!!
    Because rl can never compare to non-rl? That being true for rl-MMORPGs and fictional ones was news to me though.

    Anonymosity
    1. As a wise man (lich) once said, “In any battle, there’s always a level of force against which no tactics can succeed.” Yes, Krusty and them are employing macro-level tactics, but on a micro level why bother when you can curbstomp all the baddies? Krusty fzck yeah!

      Stilts
  5. Berserk Kursty beheading Giant Orgs shame this network won’t allow blood.

    Shiro’s communications network is a success. I do wonder why he has to yet for the rest of the squads to deploy before he can go into battle himself?

    Akatsuki taps her blade you can just see she’s inching to get in to battle. Be patient young ninja you’ll have your turn.

    The newbie are newbies no more.

    Poor Rudy all he wanted was to be more then an NPC! Please Shiro save him!

    Dark
  6. That is one badass of an episode.

    One thing of note though, remember last episode where Lenessia got assigned with 12 bodyguards? This happened…rather underwhelming unless we’re destined for the local command position to get overwhelmed an ambush or something similar

    info600
    1. No reason for them to risk her getting close to the battle. Yes, they could get overwhelmed, but I personally doubt it. I think she’s there because it was the right thing to do more than any deeper storytelling reason.

      Stilts
  7. i haven’t read the light novels, so this is speculation based on the comments here and previous episode reveals – but I wonder if it was mentioned earlier in the anime that Krusty really enjoyed combat/bloodshed before everyone became stuck in the game? If Krusty’s title is Berserker (and he’s also died a couple of times), could he be becoming more like People of the Land and not really understanding why he’s beginning to enjoy killing? That may be extrapolating a lot from Lenessia’s statement though.

    cookiethief
    1. I don’t know myself, but personally I wonder if he may not be a little psychopathic. The ease at which he games the princess (she’s pretty damn close to being wound around his finger) and how much he relishes the barbarity of combat (nothing like a few Revy-esque faces to show a love of bloodletting) likely gives him a twisted inner demeanor.

      There is something here not being shown about Krusty’s true self.

      Pancakes
    2. I wouldn’t put too much stock into a bunch of gamers killing goblins as any sort of insight into their minds. They’ve mentioned how the lv90 players treat the world more like a game than an actual world. That they treat PotL as mostly NPCs. And this is basically a quest more than trying to defend and save the landers.

      Lennesia’s view of Krusty is from a Lander perspective. To them a goblin invasion is a matter of life and death. But to adventurers, it’s the reason why they play MMORPGs in the first place.

      baubo
    3. What baubo said. Mind you, Krusty has a few untoward/manipulative tendencies, but to be perfectly frank that just makes him a good leader. Leaders aren’t always paragons of all the best attributes, as Krusty and Shiroe show. Sometimes they’re bastards, albeit for good causes.

      Stilts
  8. Great episode. Good to see that the budget of this week’s episode was clearly higher than for previous one’s.

    Are defeated mobs supposed to turn into rainbowy light like they do in the show, or is that once again censoring of blood?
    I also felt that Rundel’s heroic might have been more bloody in the novel. Shouldn’t he have lost an arm after sticking it in the throat of that one wolf?

    Oh, and Krusty sure as hell didn’t look sad to me. 😀

    boingman
    1. Oh, and Krusty sure as hell didn’t look sad to me.

      Agree. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one who thought that was an odd comment. Makes me wonder if, and if so, to what extent the anime plans to run with that concept.

      daikama
  9. It should be noted that in Minori’s group windows you can see that everyone has gone up 5 levels during the training camp, except Rudie who only went up 2 levels despite how he arguably put in the most effort in training.

    With the big reveal that makes sense though, as well as his mannerisms and unfamiliarity with group mechanics.

    Longhaul
    1. Yeah. That’s one of the things that really makes you rethink previous events. Iirc People of the Land require 5x more xp to level than Adventurers. Remember that scene with Rudy being so proud of his meager level and everybody laughing at him? Well, he worked his ass five times harder than everybody else to get there. Less funny and more poignant in retrospect.

      puppygod
  10. Good episode no doubt, but this is one time I would say that the adaptation altered something from the LN they shouldn’t have. The LN was less OTT theatrical and more poignant IMO when it came to Rudy’s heroics. LN version:Show Spoiler ▼

    One thing I DID like that the anime did was one of those good “attention to details” moments. During the downtime we saw Rudy polishing his gauntlets which reinforced just how much those objectively minor magic items meant to him. How much the party – his friends, meant to him. Rudy’s a interesting character for me b/c on the surface, he’s pretty full of himself and not all that likeable, but when you get down to his real nature, he’s actually quite heroic and thus likeable. In short, as a character he has depth which is always a plus. All in favor of shipping him with Isuzu. They make a cute couple.

    Another thing I think the EP did well was conveying Minori’s panic/horror when she realized that things got beyond her control and Tohya was (excluding heroic last second charges) doomed. Quite realistic and well done IMO. Kudus to the director/seiyuu on that.

    daikama
    1. People were wondering why Minori reacted badly to the prospect of Tohya being killed since he’ll just be revived at the cathedral but for me, it was totally understandable and in-character. In the LN, it was mentioned that Tohya is Show Spoiler ▼

      , therefore making Minori’s reaction really powerful.

      Furthermore, the fact that Minori was shown having a breakdown when her plan didn’t go as planned was such a defining moment for her character development arc. It portrayed her humanity, inexperience and naivety extremely well.

      aeria
  11. lv 80-90 goblin that’s something i have never seen.
    Rudy is hero! but seriously if they really learn something about MMO , On the bridge facing 3 strong enemies , i would recommend using any crowd control spell , or destroy the bridge and run like hell!

    PeTdo
    1. Well, they’re playing whack a goblin around the city, so Minori and co. didn’t get enough rest to recover their MP and there’s high possibility that most of their AoE and CC skills still stuck in cool down mode. Minori even used her emergency spells because they were desperate (annoying weather, mental fatigue because of consecutive battles, not enough MP to spam, skill/spells cool down times, they were outnumbered).

      I don’t know much about the bridge, but destroying them is not an option and will lead into more troubles later… (if they must evacuate.. they’ll need the damn bridge).

      Felice
      1. Plus, I doubt they’re powerful enough to destroy the bridge. Rudy is the only one who probably has a chance, and he’s never shown a spell with that kind of explosive potential. Krusty would be able to, not to mention any high level offensive caster, but these kids are still too low for that.

        Stilts
  12. That was a good episode. And Rudy’s manly as fuck, although he got killed in the end back there.

    Also, LOL, the destruction of the land caused by Krusty reminds me of destructible environments that are “in” with some modern games today.

    TheMoondoggie
  13. Good episode. Much much better than I expected. There are things that annoy me a little. Too many off screen stuff when the action got more interesting :p. The whole Rudy foreshadowing thing started to feel repetitive. Though it’s no surprise that they would try to tone/dumb things down a notch. I only wished this was stretched out to at least one more episode ^^; (I would have liked that they didn’t adapt the next arc, and used more episodes for this arc, but that’s never going to happen :p).

    x
  14. the anime made Rudy quite the badass ;D
    amused by the exaggeration with the Hill Giant’s Lvl. that’s raid Lvl and amusing conidering the goblin’s Lvls. the LN doesn’t mention their actual level though.

    GoXDS
  15. Now lets have a fun guessing game here on the assumption IF Rudy is revived next week… Lets guess on how he is revived LOL. My wild guess: Shiroe come and call all healers to spam revived on Rudy. Since it was revealed previously that reviving is possible on the People of the Land, then i think spamming revive (probably need a high level revive) might do the work.

    Kuroichi
  16. I was cheering the newbies throughout this episode. And to think that they couldn’t even clear a low level dungeon a few episodes back *cries tears of pride*. On the same note, my crush on Krusty is getting ridiculous. A pity that this anime is being shown on NHK since I would have loved to see Krusty being drenched in goblins’ blood. Oh, yeah!

    Also, Serara. Holy balls, Serara. Just imagine how badass she’ll be when she reaches max level, people. She could be like Jesus!Kirito and *dismissed* an entire demi-human army on her own LOL~

    aeria
    1. As someone who played a Druid in EQ, that being the game Touno-sensei clearly patterned Elder Tales after – and because this is how hybrids always work – I’ll remind you that while Serara has a lot of things she can do, and can clearly amp out some nice AE damage on lower-level mobs (she’s Lv 30 now, and I think these goblins are around Lv 20-22 or so, if memory serves), she doesn’t have the healing, nuking, or crowd control potential that specialist classes do. She’s a good all around caster, but not going to be able to do anything.

      Also, she’ll never be like Kirito because A) she can’t tank or melee, and B) she’s not a terrible character.

      Stilts
      1. Oh, I agree. I really like hybrid classes for the most part. I was more talking from the perspective of the show. They’ve made her look pretty cool now.

        Time for Shiroe to get another turn. He hasn’t been in an actual fight since what? Episode 8?

        KaleRylan
  17. Who knew a series based on an online gaming world could be so consistently riveting?

    Really love the pacing so far for the series. You get little bits of foreshadowing and you can somehow feel a culmination, a build-up of things to a bigger event in the story that gets things going. Then there’s the atmosphere change. You know something bad’s about to happen, so what really mattered was the execution…And boy did they impress. I had my suspicions about Rudy, but the way they went about telling it with all the gloom-and-doom air (heavy rain, still not quite out of the woods against the demi-humans, the tension built up with the importance of the poorly fortified Choushi) was brilliant.

    Minori has impressed me at every turn with her astounding growth. From being a scared little kitten to a mini-Shiroe in the battlefield is quite the huge but reasonable leap of character development thanks to the story’s pacing and balanced focus on the various groups in action.

    If there’s one unsatisfying thing to go, that would be seeing too litle of Shiroe in action (Krusty looks totally badass, by the way), which should probably be settled with the next episode. More MarieNao dynamics too please. :p

    And with all the powerhouse characters up and about, just wanna put out a mention to Lenassia. Love the constantly bumbling character with a lack of confidence who looks to have great potential. Can’t wait for next week!

    Owaranai
  18. This show just keeps getting better and better. Even Rudy is becoming a bad ass. Must refrain from reading the novels until this season’s over…… but I want to know what happens next!

    bakakubi
  19. Woot! Been waiting for this episode and the next, and this was well done. Particularly a relief that they went back to high quality animation, because last week clearly suffered a big drop in smoothness and detail. We’re finally past the point where the opening doesn’t give anything else away, so no spoilers, ne?

    Mongoose
  20. Oh, even my Postings that has nothing to do with it, are now a Magnet for Red Thumbs.. I appreciate your dedication. Really. But Is that a Script doing or Zombie Fans?

    Well. If i feel i need to Jump to the Dark Side, to save someone. Then i do it. And i done it this time. Blame me, Slap me, Down vote me. Perhaps i done more then someone would do here for a Friend

    Please no response Comment, or it will be still Drag out. Just to say my Point

    Germanguy
    1. That’s awesome! A really good write up. I wish I hadn’t been so rushed and had been able to talk about that, though honestly I wouldn’t have done so nearly as well as that anyway.

      Stilts
    2. One ammusing part of that:

      Krusty’s axe grants a damage boost based on drawing Aggro. So he’s out front drawing aggro from the whole goblin army to max the effect of his AOE and one shot the Giants.

      Adam
  21. I learned in 1997 that revival spells and items don’t bring back people to life that get stabbed in the back so I feel their pain. You went out like a boss Rudy, wizards/mages are my favorite class to choose out of them all, you’ve done us proud!

    Magoiichi
    1. it’s not a pure “wanna-be shiroe” acts because she got the talent. but I don’t blame her if she wants to be a good strategist an makes her way to Shiroe’s caliber 🙂

      We can see that Minori is a hard worker (the notes, her attempt to utilize all of Shiroe’s teaching) and she has the talent as strategist. Shiroe even teaches her about full control encounter so it’s not peculiar for Minori to use it because it’s useful in their current battle. If she got enough experience, she can develop her own style later. For now she can only be dependent to all of Shiroe’s teaching. It’s the same as Tohya, who wants to be a good tank like Naotsugu.

      Felice
      1. I know she has a talent
        Naotsugu, Shiroe and Nyanta knows it too

        I just don’t really like how she acts when in battle mode ;3
        Still waiting for the latest vol.(8) to see if she still following the path of “Villain in Glasses” or if she has her own style now

        Tohya is a different thing ;c
        Maybe bec. of the seriousness of Minori lol

        ricz
  22. I hope this series keeps on going & going (like Hunter X Hunter). Wish we had more action like we did here. Now that they’re raised the bar they will have to keep it going at least til the end of this story arc. Such a good show. esp good for former/current MMORPG addicts (like I was). Just a good show for anyone; extra candy for gamers though

    Rick Anime
    1. They did/aredoing 5 volumes in a two-cour season. The full arc will be roughly 15 volumes, however, only 7 are out so far. So until 3 more come out, they cannot do another anime on this. Add development time (they started developing during volume 6, if I interpret the volume 6 afterword correctly) and we can easily add half a year there. So I’m guessing we got 2 years to go.

      Michael Chandra
  23. Summary of Ep. 20:

    Shiore explanation of “Adventures” hit a Nail inside me. men where did the Writer came up with so many Truth of old MMO Players…

    This speeches are very good. First it was Mahou ep 9,Shin Sekai Yori and Now Log Horizon.

    Germanguy
  24. We’re on a boat! And what a boat! From a Newcomen engine prototype to a large steel ship (note the rivets) in five episodes. The smiths guild has been busy. What next, a Battleship Yamato?

    Shiroe is running a war the modern way, with a command net and a tactical direction center. His troops are in the right place at the right time. Eastal is still at the “bring me the reports” level.

Leave a Reply to creaothceann Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *