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「アキバレイド」 (Akibareido)
“Akiba Raid”
What’s better than Akatsuki? More Akatsukis!
Kiting the Boss Around Town
Rieze’s plan was a clever one. Rather than group all twenty-six people together and try to burn Nelreth down through overwhelming firepower—which probably wouldn’t have worked because he could have just teleported if he got into too much trouble, plus it would have buffed his stats out the wazoo—she had whoever encountered him first drag Nelreth through a succession of kill zones, where small groups were waiting to beat him the hell up. Constantly bringing fresh fighters to bear until Nelreth had done too much damage was smart, though to be fair, if he were smarter (and didn’t stick to Akatsuki), it would have all gone to shit in no time. Mostly I just cheered when Rieze explicitly referred to what Akatsuki was doing as kiting. As someone who had to kite raid bosses in EQ more than once, I can tell you it’s harrowing as fuck, so good on you for taking it the whole way, Akatsuki.
Akatsuki’s Overskill, & the Truth About Overskills
It has been hinted at before, but the truth of the Overskills is revealed: they are, at their root, the application of spells and abilities in ways that weren’t possible when this was a game. What’s interesting is that they’re actually incorporated into the game framework, or the UI if you will. That makes them not so much hacks as an evolution of the system the adventurers are used to. Nazuna’s Divine Step is a great example—a creative use of existing mechanics to do something that wasn’t possible before. Though maybe she just learned it from her time with Illya.
The birth of Akatsuki’s overskill was one of those great “Fuck yeah!” moments. Combining her desire for speed with her Tracker skill Hide Shadow (and probably other stuff), she can create doubles that do damage when they attack. Akatsuki has never been the sneaky, baskstabbing kind of Assassin, so this one fits her well. Also, lots of Akatsuki-chans WOO!
Accepting Weakness, False Strength
Akatsuki’s narration about the nature of weakness and strength is fascinating, and I don’t think I can do it justice. The critical point is the difference between Akatsuki and Nelreth. They both started at the same place, thinking they needed something else—a weapon, in both of their cases—to obtain the power they desired. But as luck would have it, Akatsuki was too poor to buy the crutch, which meant she had to pursue another path.
Accepting one’s weaknesses is an invaluable skill, because once you realize how weak you are, your dissatisfaction fades away, and you can focus on becoming the best you you possibly can. Akatsuki realized she was weak. That doesn’t mean she stopped striving, but she did stop beating herself up about it, which is an unproductive pastime. Rather than raging against the world like Nelreth did, Akatsuki learned to accept her inadequacies, and so quelled, at least in part, her jealousy of Minori. She refined herself, practiced her skills, and in the moment when she needed to take it up another level, she rose to the challenge and achieved something great.
Look, I said I couldn’t do it justice. What I’ll say is that I’m a man who believes in the power of stories—they are what teach us how to be human. And in this episode, there’s a lesson that we should all take to heart. Rather than chase after tools to make our lives better, it’s best to see those as the crutches they are, and improve ourselves instead. Though granted, the tools can be nice too (I say as I type this on a computer). It’s a balancing act, just one we should all probably tilt toward self-development.
No Boys, New Blade, Broken Sword, Victorious Battle
In the comments last week, KaleRylan mentioned how the lack of guys in the twenty-seven maidens actually reflects a bit of general sexism. While it’s obvious why Shiroe and Krusty had to get out of the way for others to shine—their gender aside, those two are really damn competent—there was no reason why Soujirou, Nyanta, or others couldn’t help out as grunts under Rieze’s command. It wouldn’t even have changed the flow of things, it just would have swapped a few of the nameless characters out with ones we recognize. Or they even could have stayed as nameless characters, just male ones. Erh, male and not fabulous, that is. I’m all for girl power and the ladies getting the spotlight even more, but this backfired somewhat.
So that’s a bit of an annoyance. But past that, the whole battle was awesome! And the one good thing about not including Souji is that Nelreth got to live, whereas his sword did not. Which led to the best moment of the episode for me:
Reforged by Tatara, the blacksmith of Amenoma, for the personal use of a quiet, unsocial wielder. That this earnest girl may go forward without bending or breaking, repelling evil curses and this world’s tragedies, so that man may support blade, and blade support man.
I teared up y’all. That was beautiful. The friendship between them is beautiful, all the more because of the changes it has inspired in Akatsuki. Encore!
The Pajama Party of Victory & Shiroe
I had to laugh when the battle was over, and it went to … a pajama party. What! I guess that’s why Touno-sensei didn’t want more guys than just the one, which seems silly, but super perverted Henrietta makes up for a lot. And Akatsuki and Lenessia laughing together … hng~!
Looking Ahead – Back to Shiroe
Better yet—and second only to Tatara’s flavor text gift for best scene of the episode—was when Akatsuki spoke to Shiroe. She’s so cute when she’s nervous, and her calling him a “stiff blockhead” …. HNG~ / HAH! She’s more lively than she ever was before. Akatsuki has had her character development, so I’m looking forward to Shiroe reclaiming the spotlight, so we can get the other half of that dream conversation, and so they can eventually be reunited.
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Akatsuki kites the boss, finds her Overskill, and saves the day with the help of her friends. Friendship is beautiful ;_; #loghorizon s2e8
Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: The allure of magic, Import, don’t recycle, Impostor syndrome, and Save it for your daydreams. For book updates, sign up for my mailing list.
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Woots Akatsuki finally got her Teachings.
Ahhh, the Enjoyment of Raids. To Work like a Wheel in a Giant Machine of Trust and encouragement. Trusting the Class with doing their Jobs.
Raids, are the ice cup of the Cake, when you reach your High Level, saw all things you could do alone. With Raids your Journey will real begin, because they show you a hole new World, where you cannot reach alone (or being a Hacker, like this People of the Land and stole a Guardian Armor)
When Akatsuki gain her own special Skill, that reminds me of Claire in Claymore, when she gone Overdrive in the Battle of the North, to protect her Nakamas, she even risked he Human Sanity
But… A well, you should read it for yourself. But i think this point was also in the Anime. But nothing beat your own personal Mind Pictures (manga)
Yea I got reminded about Clare as well. When Akatsuki was saying Motto Motto Hayaku. Its exactly what Clare said and desired. To be faster and faster so they could overcome their enemies
This Sexism you mentioned. Well, in MMO’s it is not important if a Boy or a Girl is playing. Sure their behavior would be different. But a Avatar of a Boy, example a Warrior with 90 STR would hit with the same points as an Girl controller Avatar Warrior with the same 90 STR points.
The borders of Nature differences in strength is no more. The Digital World only define the players through, Skill (in PvP a must!), Willpower (Raid failures and retry) and a little bit of Effort (Farming for Items)
So, as you see. nothing what separate a Boy from a Girl in the Real World. So, these Girls here ingame are equal competent as the Boys. it is the “Brain” of the Avatar controller that give them Power
Imagine a weakling as Shiro would play a Big Heavy Tank 🙂
or a Girl playing a Male Berserker. Appearance in real World is not important, it is how you define yourself in the Virtual World. But then again, the Fame in Virtual Worlds, can they pay your RL Bills and fill your stomach?
Ah, gome-ne. I am about to drift offtopic. i stop here 🙂
So, do not Trust to much Ingame Avatars. Not all Male or Female are the equivalent in the Real World. In Short? It’s a Trap!!
I don’t understand why the red marks. He’s fairly right regarding in game mechanics.
The sexism comment is ironically funny as in the Western world especially at this point it’s a double standard where the term is only ever used when a group is found to be “lacking” in female numbers. I never really noticed it during this arc as the setting is still largely a game where real world limitations are not present (i.e. physiological, psychological differences) and the fact that the female characters may be males in real life (traps). I wouldn’t call it sexism as much as another example of Japan’s love for sticking girls into every role and plot line imaginable (something third wave feminists seem to overlook when crying wolf over their daily examples of “misogyny”).
As an aside I see you’re making up for lost time by posting this episode summary early Stilts. Must feel guilty for depriving the mob for these past few weeks 😉
If females are only allowed to be strong when men (men meaning Shiroe and Crusty) are not around to solve the problem, what does it mean for all the men who were not Shiroe or Crusty?
This is also setting aside that there was an actual valid reason (omitted in the anime) that the raid consisted of people who happened to be female. Show Spoiler ▼
Stilts edit: Fixed the spoiler tag for you.
So that last sentence had spoiler tags around it, testing
I would call it sexism, albeit slight and amusingly reversed … until I read Longhaul’s spoiler above (it’s not much of a spoiler really, but it’s appropriately tagged since it was only in the LN. Thanks!). In light of that little tidbit, it only becomes a bit sexist because of lost context. So Touno-sensei had it mostly right, but the anime team fumbled the ball a little bit.
@ Pancakes, on post speed:
Lol, a little bit :X Also have some plans tonight, but wanted to get back on track. Been a little too lax for my own tastes on post speed lately
So the whole (non)issue was just a fluke then, that’s interesting to know. Does make sense considering the circumstances though. Slightly disappointing the anime didn’t include it with a small quip, but can’t have everything explained I guess 😛
Building off of the point I wouldn’t say the girls are only allowed to be strong when the men aren’t around, more like it’s only noticeable here because LH to a large degree so far (until this arc) has been focused on Shiroe and his friends and hasn’t shown what has clearly been hinted at in many of the girls (i.e Henrietta and Marielle) providing support from the rear lines. Showing the planning of community events, keeping people on track through moral support, and providing services from healing to cooking doesn’t make for much audience entertainment, but is a key part in keeping people together. Many of the girls may not be involved in a lot of the direct fighting, but the show has successfully pointed out through several background scenes that they ain’t damsels in distress.
Biggest examples of this are of course Akatsuki and Lenessia, but even Rieze and Minori (from last season) have shown substantial development away from the ubiquitous “reliance” upon men to solve everything to coming into their own. The author IMO has been pretty even handed in showing struggle and perseverance in both the male and female characters.
To be fair, the ladies getting marginalized was a new development for Log Horizon … and a mistaken one, apparently, but new nonetheless. They’ve always been heavily involved, and if they’ve played second fiddle it has never seemed out of some ingrained sexism, but because these specific characters have decided they would rather support, or really, that a few males decided they wanted to take up the mantle of leadership, but so many female characters had such an effect that it didn’t seem weird. It just seemed like this was the particular mix of decisions that this particular mix of characters made.
So I’m glad it was all just an adaptation mistake. That’s more the Log Horizon I know and love.
it’s still an interesting observation though, regarding how Japan treats its women. With America they tend to put women in roles of weakness. Not simply as damsels in distress, but even as aggressors women tend to be not as violent, or not as morally detached. When was the last time you saw a female character in a video game or movie be unrestrained and brutally violent, as opposed to a man?
With Japan it’s almost always a position of power, like female power fantasies. Either the females assert dominance in their personality, or via some sort of skillset. But, they always have that one emotional vulnerability that will make them almost always fall in love with the main male character. It’s part of the gap-moe archetype, and the tsundere/kuudere/*dere archetypes fall under that as well, that no matter how individually strong the girls are, in the end the guy always gets the girls with almost no effort on his part. See things like harems, where the male character is usually woefully inferior in terms of skills, but somehow cluelessly manages to make everyone fall in love with him. I think that’s a kind of sexism as well. *prepares for thumbs downs*
I’m not saying Log Horizon is sexist and bad, it’s doing a very good job with the female characters, and romantic subplots are always nice. It’s just an observation on anime in general, and it seems like something so ingrained in Japanese culture that people don’t think twice when they implement it in their romantic subplots, Touno-sensei included.
Not to mention the disaster that is the representation of trans/nonbinary people in Japanese media. *shivers* I’ll never not feel uneasy with the way Dolce is portrayed in Log Horizon.
Very odd to see my comment pointed out in the review itself. I did a double-take when I read my name.
That aside, to Nitro: Japan does have a number of different anime genres that have ‘strong’ females (as in they fight well or something similar). Harem anime, Magical girl, a fair number of action series with female leads, and so on and so forth. Do not confuse this with Japan somehow being fair and equal regarding women’s roles in both media and society. This (I live here, happily) is a VERY sexist society, and the Japanese by and large would be the first to tell you that.
There are a lot of very fascinating texts on the rather reversed depiction of Japanese women in their media compared to how women ‘should’ act in real life. Regarding harem shows I’ve seen it said that it still has to do with how the men view themselves. The women play some role in ‘unlocking’ his true manliness (most harem leads save the day in the end, even if they do nothing else the whole series).
As for Log Horizon and how it relates: this show has generally been very good about depicting well-rounded female characters. There are sexy ones, there are (marginally) frumpy ones, tall, short, strong, weak. They’ve passed the bechdel test numerous times and they’re fun characters.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that these kind of ‘girl power’ arcs do rely on an undercurrent of sexism that basically says girls only get a chance to shine when the men are away. In-story explanations can help a bit with this but they only count for so much because you have to remember, ever explanation was made by a person in order to justify the story he’s writing. He wanted a girl power arc so he removed the men, because he thought he needed to remove the men in order to do a girl power arc.
Again, I enjoyed the arc. I really didn’t think I was starting a discussion that would go anywhere when I said that last week, I was just making an observation, really. A true sign of ‘equality’ in media is when girls can take the spotlight while there are still men in the picture, not removing all the men. And Log horizon is actually okay about this, as Akatsuki was fairly epic in the first few arcs of season 1 before she fell into her funk.
TL;DR: Hey, I’m in the review!
I think you’re reading too much in the sexism situation. Up now the whole story treated well both the male and the female cast equally, and it was said here and there how females too were powerful enough and not weaker than any men, cause everybody is an avatar and fighting stat alone make strength in a game.
This is just Akatsuki’s (and a handful of other female chars’) development arc, and the incident also calls that with a vengeful spirit that chases after girls at all. Just notice how the Raid just hunts Akatsuki leaving the others pretty much alone. That was not convenient nor random event.
Show Spoiler ▼
With Dolce notice how accepting everyone is of him, this is not a bad thing. Queens have had from what I’ve seen a centuries long exception to the fake conservative front Japanese society maintains. That is Queens in Japan have had the ability to be out as long as they fit that role. Otherwise gays are expected to act straight in public. So I definitely understand the frustration of not having an out non queen gay character in anime, at least those anime aimed at the general public and kids. The Japanese are not homophobes though as until gay marriage was legal Japan was the most gay friendly culture on earth. As far back as we can tell the Japanese have always thought gay sex was ok as long as it along with the very many varied sexual things Japanese are into are confined to private and love hotels. Females do have it better as Class S tradition expects all females to explore same sex love while they are teens, on the surface not sexual but clearly in typical Japanese style sexual in private. Class S is so normal that having Henrietta lusting after all the females is shown with this show on a “family friendly” network done by the government.
There are a good number of gay anime, unfortunately for gays most of these also try to please the large female fan base of watching gay male romance. Funny at 51 I grew up being told females did not like stripers and only men were interested in watching girls do it with each other. Turns out the females were a lot more like us guys than was believed then.
Of course I’m old enough to have thought the lead Freddy Mercury in Queen and Liberace were straight, and old enough that these names might not ring a bell.
Reminder the females can only do something when the men are not around is progress from the traditional females are totally helpless that dominated the media for centuries. So never hold the concept in complete contempt it just a necessary step in the progress. Japan is very slowly thawing from it’s very tightly held traditional gender and sex roles in public. So I do see the females doing things in anime as a positive trend that will slowly break down the Japanese traditional view. It will still take a bunch more time.
@Solaris
As I mentioned, in-story explanations are irrelevant. Nothing in the story is ‘real,’ every single line, rule, law and story choice is decided by a person (the writer) to justify the story being told. They have no intrinsic value that changes any actually ‘real’ thing that is affecting why the writer may be choosing to write the story.
He did not ‘have’ to write a girl power arc that removes all the men in order to let the girls develop and/or shine. He ‘chose’ to write it that way. I am not examining the internal logic, I am commenting on the decision making process of the writer and even my original comment was just in response to a comment on last week’s review where someone commented on how men helped with the practice and then all left.
And the writer’s choice to do a ‘girl power’ arc is completely fair game for examination. I haven’t flamed anything or even internet ranted. And frankly, defending the author’s decision by saying that it’s ‘just an arc to let akatsuki and other females develop’ and ‘it’s a game so their avatars are equal anyway’ is just furthering the underlying sexism. You don’t have to remove men to develop strong female characters (that’s lazy) and you don’t need to have artificial bodies for women to be ‘strong’ or pull their weight in combat (that’s just ludicrously sexist actually, but I’m going to mostly ignore that).
As I’ve said, this is still my favorite show in a long time. This doesn’t change anything and is in fact an arc I like a lot.
Cool down KaleRylan. I don’t want to flame with you at all. I’m just saying that all of this debate over sexism is just some kind of over-analysis. It’s there, but I don’t think the author wanted to discriminate against men at all. He just wanted to write an all arc girl.
On the contrary, I disagree totally regarding in-game explanation. You can’t disregard them like that. Given a fantasy settings like this, you have to build a proper fictional world somehow and stick to the rule you created yourself. Over than that, if there’s something you want to bring from real life world you got to link it to the fantasy world rules so that the fabricated fictional world doesn’t show any logical artefacts in the plot or settings. This is called coherence and it’s far more important than realism in a fantasy settings. If you put Dragons in the plot you got to make them believable, but there’s nothing wrong in putting them in: Likelihood was proved more important than truth when building a fantasy settings since Ages. And the reason is that this is a fantasy tale. A realistic story has a very different structure. You cant put Dragons there in any case.
On the other hand the author culture and preference come in when building any fictional world. That is the case with queens with which I agree, but Japan society’s sexism is not where you think it is. There’s nothing sexist in an all girls arc like this. That’s just a the author’s choice and nice filler if you like (and, if you read the novel, you know the number of girls involved is far more modest than what the anime show us). Lenessia is the character for what you call sexism: A girl that lived a life as a decoration without any meaning just because she was so unlucky to be born a girl. (and last week SAO episode too about Ojousama’s destiny)
Akatsuki’s development has started from the very first arc and made so that she was always dependent from Shiroe, but that was not meant to last forever. Finally it’s her moment to shine, but, unless you cut away Shiroe from Akatsuki, how do you change that? Yet, it’s all the Author choice, because it’s fiction. It’s all because it’s fiction…
I didn’t flame anyone so I’m not sure why you brought that up. The ‘their bodies are avatars so they’re actually equal here’ really is a sexist argument though since it implies women can’t fight when their bodies aren’t avatars. Which is silly even with size difference since most real battles don’t involve arm-wrestling or submission matches.
And I’m sorry, but in-story explanations only matter if they are long-established rules that essentially require a certain kind of story be told. Nothing in existing Log Horizon lore requires a story about a lady-chasing monster that only women can fight, and really even with that argument it’s not very strong as he has been shown fighting men, so he can and will do it. The writer chose to do that.
Add to that Sojiro’s random observations about the strength of women and the underlying message is fairly clear. Whether that’s the novel writer or the anime creators is hard to say, but it’s a very normal Japanese ‘good-hearted’ sexist storytelling thing. It’s meant well, but half a second of analysis can unpackage the built-in sexism. Again, it is the IDEA that women even NEED an ‘all-girl arc.’ It’s highly unusual for a writer of anything to decide they need to do an ‘all-boy arc’ and if they did so it would be considered pretty ridiculous.
I actually find nothing sexist about Lenessia. Her background is a plot point. The fact that she comes from a sexist background is a matter of world-building, not the writer making some statement about women. And the fact that her overall arc is about her coming out of her shell shows this. You are completely right about Akatsuki’s development, and the way you described it is why I really like this arc (it’s possibly my favorite single arc of the show) but nothing about removing her from Shiroe’s shadow requires removing all men from the story.
Frankly, I’m not sure why I’m defending this so much. I made an off-hand comment that Stilts decided to bring up in the review itself which caused everyone to suddenly try and tear it apart because people get up in arms about things being called sexist. Something can be sexist without being mean-spirited or offensive.
Part1: ‘their bodies are avatar’ just because it’s a game, and given how there’s no hint about gender affecting stats as a game, a female body just equals a male body in build stats. This is just game mechanics just like Everquest which the author took inspiration from, and it’s not sexist at all.
But Mamare just went beyond that and added a game to reality morphing mechanics, so that now build and (likely) gender start to affect combat ability (and more) not unlike the real world. And that’s why Akatsuki had to adjust to a different fighting style to her short build. Cause reality and game are now mixed. I don’t see how sexism is related to this. I was just speaking about game vs reality mechanics difference before.
Part2: Any fiction is the author’s invention. Also realistic stories are invention at all. The thing is, let’s add a trial monster that chase girls (mainly) and so let’s develop Aka end Lenessia without anyone else be in the way. And it developed in an all girls arc because it’s explained how just water maple house girls actually knew all the story and chose to kept the secret to cut out foreign spies. How is it so bad, I still don’t understand. Just because men are cut out? The story is good, so why care about little details?
Part3: I tell you Again, an all arc girl is not sexist at all, but a simple author’s choice. Beware that there’s actually a (mostly) all boy arc and it’s Shiroe’s one. You have several boys as main though there are female no name chars too and a female sidekick in the form of an obnoxious cleric brat. But the main chars are all male.
Part4-5: That’s exactly the point. As per sexism definition Lenessia’s backstory is the Author word about sexism and how coming to terms with a completely different culture can bring awareness and emancipation. But not the fact about the all arc girl. That’s only made as a mirror story to the Shiroe/boy arc regarding character development. The two stories are made so that you can find the same lieit-motif but seen from two opposite points of view, male and female.
I repeat, these two arcs are pretty much twin arc and are meant to be completed with the other’s opposite point of view. I have read the novel, so I’m a little at advantage here, but believe me, all of this discussion about sexism is a little off target.
I also think this is my favourite arc, and I find this discussion very interesting too. Alas, I think nobody else is interested anymore. After all the next episode will come out tomorrow and there’ll be a lot of new material to discuss anyway.
This was a satisfying episode. It puts the button on a lot of personal stories (Akatsuki’s most of all, of course), shows off the way the world’s changing in action and action-wise it was pretty good (I mean, it’s no Fate, but this was still a pretty badass battle). Akatsuki really is up to par with the others now in terms of characterization and development. Awesome!
As per usual, I like how the narrative doesn’t have to bend itself into strange hoops to beat this overpowered antagonist. Kiting is a pretty valid tactic for taking down everything from annoying raid monsters (I remember the zombie chow from Naxx, gah) to big world bosses, and to see it used so effectively was awesome. Then there’s the teachings, which turns out to be just getting creative with your powers and use them in ways the game didn’t intend – and the potential for that has only gotten greater now that it’s all stopped being a mere game. And of course, the flavor text. Akatsuki getting her own personal blade like that was one of the best moments of this season so far.
As for the slight sexism, I can see where you’re coming from. I doubt any actual malice was intended, it’s just that the girl-power message kind of missed its mark because of the situation they’ve created here. Still, it’s a decent effort, and far more forward than, ah, a certain other game-related show I shall not name.
I do wonder about the long-term repercussions of the shutting down of the defense grid though. I mean, technically Minami could invade if they wanted to now. I doubt they have the manpower, but it still leaves them wide open. Ah, the food for speculation that will spawn from that…still, Shiroe time first. Interesting that they’re going for a same-scene-different-perspective approach here, bring it on!
In light of Longhaul’s spoiler above, it’s not really sexist at all. Just lost context.
And totally agreed on how the story doesn’t bend itself into knots to take down the baddie. They had all the resources to beat him, they just had to execute on them well at the right times.
If Minami attacked, Nureha’s threat could be void. Remember she threatened everybody in joining her guild having purchased the cathedral. So whoever dies can revive only if he’s a member of Plant Hwwwhateveritwas. It’s in Nureah’s guild benefit that her minion players stay holed up in
OsakaMinami, so I don’t see how they can wage war at Akiba’s place.PS: Just my speculation.
PS2: It was also the main danger for Shiroe to go to Minami as well. Actually nobody can enter Minami unless Nureha say so. But everybody can go to Akiba if they wanted.
I’m loved this episode, seeing everyone work together with such good spirits was so great. Akatsuki commenting on how cute Mikakage’s Alraune summon is was such a nice touch and really showed how close these girls got =)
The pajama party at the end and Shiroe calling Akatsuki were so heartwarming, great addition from the anime adaptation!
Overskills triggering a “new skill” announcements was an interesting twist.
Also, as a Log Horizon LN and trivia fan, seeing that action summon was great. Before this they only existed in… Whatever mediums Touno-sensei has used to reveal bits of information on Elder Tales. I love it when small details get included like this!
Wow, didn’t know those two had the same VA. Nice catch!
Blame Divine. It’s his fault I started noticing all the seiyuu, lol
A funnier story will be if you connect it even further to Non Non Biyori. Unlike Miyu’s, Nazuna’s voice is almost copycat of Kazuho’s. Imagine Nazuna is actually this lazy teacher “when Elder Tale was just a game”. Voila, hilarity ensues.
True, she’s using more of a Miyu voice for Misa. She’s a busy lady, ufufu~
the reason they went full girls raid is because lore behind the boss weapons.
he got poisoned by princess or something so he went nuts whenever he see girls as u can see in this pic
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
he will chase them = bonus gender aggro
Blast it, I wanted to be the one to point that out. :\
The spirit of the raid boss was betrayed and murdered by a woman. As a result he was seeing the female adventurers who were kiting him as the one who betrayed him. This helped guarantee that they would be able to maintain aggro and kite him properly through the course to the finale. Because there was no guarantee which group he would encounter first, every group had to be female and capable of pulling aggro from him and then keeping it as they ran.
Well yes, there’s that. But if I were creating the raid and there was effectively a gender bonus to aggro, I’d want a bunch of lady kiters and male support characters. What would have happened if Nelreth aggro’d on Marie instead of Akatsuki? She doesn’t have Akatsuki’s agility, so she probably would have been crushed. Ditto to any of the other frail casters or healers.
It’s still not bad, the way they did it, and it obviously worked, it’s just slightly subpar in light of the context the anime gave us.
Sadly most willing males are off to Seventh fall or does not know the truth about murderer. The rest of Akiba are crafters, as mentioned in S1 most of them don’t want to fight monsters face to face.
There are very few males who are willing & used to fighting monsters and also knew the truth about murderer. Of all of them the one who was most used to be surrounded by girls Souji back off. The rest probably decided to back off too after that.
Main reason is like Longhaul have said Show Spoiler ▼
My take on that pic is Aggro for him might translate to seeing the tank/adventures with the most ‘hate’ as his most hated person aka Sutu Inaw.
I rather like how Akatsuki’s overskill was animated, it wasn’t simply just copypaste spam of her normal self.
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
When Mariel said “Akatsuki is Multiplying”, I thought “The world is now a better place”
About tools & human skill development:
Tools are nothing without humans, but we cannot do as much without them. There’s certain utility inherent to better tools, and better men, but its not one or the other. Just as digging a hole with bare hands is pretty useless, and shovels a godsend in comparison, a giant machine excavator is useless without a skilled operator. . . and a million monkeys on a million typewriters aren’t going to type Shakespeare. Though I hestitate to think what a million Stilts would produce– just think of all the beer required to feed them! I’d go bananas.
Ultimately they’re a necessary and integral part of our civilized life. Seeking, acquiring, and in particular developing better tools is not a flaw.
Development is inherently an iterative process too, so any one tool (or step in furthering human skill) is not particularly important.
The rate of development, return on investment for time / resources, between improved individual skill and tool acquistion / improvement is a whole other matter– only one is not without the other.
Naturally, which is why I equivocated to make it not seem like I was eschewing tools entirely. It’s just that so many of us lust after tools, gadgets, and tactics which we hope will make our lives better, instead of investing in the self-development to improve the foundation which makes use of those tools (ourselves). It’s a balancing act which many of us have skewed, is all.
I think we should all stop watching this show; i have learned from 60 or so virgins from wizard.chan who post on Kairi’s Yona review that if you don’t come out and decide who you love (such as Shiroe) that you suck and should be downvoted.
No, i loved this episode and seeing what Akatsuki comes up with after she beat her head against the wall for several weeks. It was great to see her solution.
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
Yes I want to give you two high-fives too.
Don’t underestimate girl power!
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
Ninja style!
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
all best girls in one pic
https://randomc.net/image/Log%20Horizon/Log%20Horizon%202%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
don’t forget to include Akatsuki, Lenessia, Henrietta, and more~
Wasn’t that chibi Shiroe when they rang the bell after the raid? Looks like she’ll be making an appearance soon.
“chibi Shiroe”
What what what!?
There’s a third(?) Shiroe?! (<-Since I did not recognize any characters in the bell scene as resembling the second Shiroe from the opening.)
The above are rhetorical questions. Please do not post spoilers unless they are spoiler tagged.
…I so want to see the second (form of?) Shiroe—!!! (<-from opening, so NOT spoiler)
What child Shiroe in the OP? I see a second Shiroe, but not a child/chibi one. Unless the OP screwed up the scales like crazy, that ain’t no chibi. The only points in the OP (other than the beginning) that I can see maybe featuring the second Shiroe are:
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If you are referring to the second Shiroe, please just say so. If not… *wriggles in anticipation of future episodes because things are getting even more WEIRD*
Are you talking about Nagi, the little girl in that pink pajamas standing with the girl in the lion jacket (Masuda-san), watching the bald chap (A.K Hedgehodge) sound the bell?
That be no Shiroe, that is.
I watched it again and yeah, she doesn’t really look like the child Shiroe from the OP after all.
On a side note: who the heck is Nagi?
Nagi is a character from the Log Horizon TRPG Replay novels, based on Log Horizon TRPG sessions held by Touno-sensei (the gm) and some of his fellow LN authors. The others ringing the bell and the assassin with long messy hair joining the Akiba Raid originate from there too.
OH the author is a paper and dice type GM also. Wonderful. And might explain more on this story as back in the paper and dice days you could not be sucked into the computer you could only be sucked into an alternate reality. Also being a GM is great practice for being story teller or a writer as you are building a world and a story line and trying to make things feel real.
>>What’s better than Akatsuki? More Akatsukis!
That was my thought when I saw it.
BTW, one thing the anime kinda gloss over in explanation department. Rize’s last attack was done by exploiting the system too. It’s been explained in the anime that the radius of Nelreth stat boosting power is around 50m, and most of the adventurer skill range can’t reach further than that, hence the need to make small teams instead of having lots of adventurers bombard from beyond 50m.
There’s a loophole in the system though, that the 50m also applied above nelreth position, and gravity still works the same in this world. That’s why Rize’s attack was done above a building taller than 50m. Usually, the attack won’t reach the enemy because they’re outside the attack max range, but Rize just cast the glacier attack on an empty space and the gravity will do the work and make the glacier’s attack reach Nelreth.
To be precise, Rieze used a spell with 20m range. I’m not sure, but that might have been commented to be one of the longest ranges too.
A related detail that wasn’t included: Rieze’s spell shoots cold water, not ice. It was Nelreth’s sword and its freezing effect that caused him to be frozen in place. I did find it a bit funny that that was cut, since all the reasons for that working were included in the anime.
Iiiiinteresting. I did think it was slightly odd that she was using an ice attack against an ice raid boss, so that makes more sense. Thanks for elaborating.
But nothing was cut. It was simply showed without explanation.
The only thing that changed was the water detail, but it worked fine too.
they cut a bit the explanation about overskill instead and why it was considered ‘boring’
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I know with the murderer arc over we’re supposed to be happy and all but I feel like them turning off the city’s security walls will blow up in their faces so bad…
Not only the Monsters can now invade the City Walls. Now the Guardians will not uphold the No-PvP inside City order anymore. It is now all in the hands of the Adventures.
or in other words..
Castle siege is now possible. Well, exchange Castle with City
I think they’ll just have to set up a police force like in Real Life(tm). And then a milita army in case of invasion.
And the roundtable owns all the key buildings now including the cathedral so if your killed your not coming back anywhere nearby at a minimum. Definitely an enforcement tool. Our fox lady forced everyone in her town into her guild by owning the cathedral.
They defenatly have problems but maybe the clan that runs the circle with their new open mind might get adventures into getting the magic circle back up a lot faster.
I love that something that is not shown in any game like the city protection, it’s just game mechanics, actually had a location now.
Yes, Round Table purchased any important piece of building before someone else could stir up troubles, but mind how they would never threaten anybody to their bidding so unlike Nureha. (well… Black Glasses maybe … bumble mumble, maybe not… lol)
Akatsuki learned Shadow Clone Jutsu! Well, she is a ninja after all.
Great ending to her arc, while I haven’t been very happy with the previous few episodes, this conclusion was good. Looking forward to seeing how Shiroe’s raid ends up next week!
Yhis episode was probably best so far in second season. For MULTIPLE reasons… (sorry for worst pun ever…)
Epic fights. Akastsuki finding her teachings. A blade reforged. (Complete with new flavor text!). After-raid pajama party!
I fail to see the actual consequences for switching off the barrier that protects the city in this episode.
The Guardians are now powerless. Their Armor do not Work. Aka Teleport, aka Power boost
result
PvP/PK Killers inside the City grounds
contra
Adventures must now patrol the City grounds to prevent PvP/PK
Monsters/Area Bosses can now invade the City. Noobies that run to the Guards to savety get no Help of the NPC Guard anymore.
Monsters also can enter the City boarders
contra
Adventures must now play the Noobie City guards to prevent Mobs entering the City Limits
Other Raid Guilds from other Citys, can now attack the enemy City’s without consequence. Because there is nothing that hinders them. Remember noch Guardians that uphold the anti-PVP/PK Rules. So Enemy City Raids is now possible
contra
Adventures must now protect the City against such Dark Guilds
Let us just Hope, that the Resurrection System still works
if not then Death are permanent
I think only the City protection are Offline, that is massive based on the Guardians Cops. They are now gone, as if the Police and Army in RL stop doing their Work
I hope they can restart this System. But surly will take their Time.. Or it is now permanent Offline, because of the Cataclysm. No one wonders or know, how to bring the City Gates online? It would be long done. So they just can maintenance things that are still Online. They do not have the power to restart game services. or there are some DEV’s hidden somewhere
Basically the Round Table gets even more hard things to do…
Crime prevention and punishment.
External city defences against monsters.
And rival adventurer city-states…
Kinda like switching power off in Jurrasic Park. In hindsight, what a brilliant idea it was! /sarcasm off
In this case they know what they’re getting into (for the most part). No one’s expecting things to be easy from here on out, but this was a problem that had to be solved, and solved quickly.
In regards to restarting game services, remember that Nureha’s folks in Minami were able to restart the teleportation gates: we learned that at the end of season 1. It’s not impossible to get this stuff done.
It also means that ow Akiba is the only city in the world with Adventure’s self governance, with the whole set of advantages and disadvantages. Should a war start in Akiba, it’s the adventurer’s duty to defend their home from any foe. (just like normal world)
I honestly thought that was a poor, illogical development. As we know from the maps and their own mentioning of it, there is another city in the region that they could evacuate to. I get that evacuating sucks, that’s fair. The thing is, by taking out their magic circle, they eliminate most of the benefits of staying in their city anyway. Why not just go live in the woods now? There’s very little difference.
The cities in Elder Tale have value because they provide concrete gameplay benefits beyond just being a concentration of buildings, but to save their city they removed 90% of the benefits of being in the city in the first place. For a story that has had pretty good political logic up to this point, that was a pretty glaring flaw.
@KaleRylan: I can’t say more cause it’s spoiler, but wait Shiroe’s arc to finish, and you’ll understand. We can discuss after that.
Little anticipation:
Show Spoiler ▼
About the other city:
Show Spoiler ▼
@Solaris:
I obviously can’t comment on potential spoilers but all I can say is that any future information would only matter if it’s something the characters already know but we don’t.
Because I was commenting on the cost-benefit analysis of a given course of action, and IMO they paid WAY too high a price to get rid of one enemy that was basically a (admittedly terrifying) frustration.
I get that evacuating sucks, and that’s fair. But when the act of staying means giving most of the benefits that you’re fighting to protect in the first place, what are you actually fighting for? The fact that to eliminate one opponent they now opened themselves up to attacks by any number of monsters, PK-ers, rival guilds and so on is poor strategy. They traded one victory for a potentially infinite number of more battles. AS FAR AS WE KNOW.
Again, some new information which you apparently know may change this calculus and I’ll happily eat my words if that happens, but it only changes if they knew about it now. Otherwise the equation stands: 1 victory vs infinite future battles.
Let me just say that without any barrier, it’s true the adventurer’s lost protection. But that means any adventurer lost protections. Should someone try to mess with them inside Akiba, they can counter attack easily. Let’s say they’re free from a fabricated false shield that limited the Council power of action.
And also.
Maybe a simple wall can defend against normal monsters pretty much well.
There are private zones inside Akiba too, such as People’s homes and Guild Halls. (This was also used as a countermeasure against the marauder to lower the active people in the hunting zones)
Im curious on a certain aspect of the story here. We all know that in a MMORPG rare weapons dropped from raids are almost always owned by many people, unless stated that there is only one weapon in its existence. Therefore, are there other Sento-Byakumaru swords possessing people and is the spirit a single entity controlling all those swords or are they multiple entities?
I don’t remember if this was from the LNs or if Mamare has said it somewhere else, but Phantasmal-class (highest item rank, only raid boss drops), which Sento-Byakumaru is of, equipments are all unique. So no, there aren’t more of them, luckily.
For the record, all players in a server get a system message when someone acquires one of these items.
@Erimaki: Phantasmal-level equipment is bound upon being assigned to a player and cannot be traded or sold, so I don’t think Haganemushi is at that level if it was a raid drop like Byakamaru that found its way into a store. It’s probably Artifact-class, like Naotsugu’s current equipment. Even if Haganemushi was created from Phantasmal items, the weapon probably binds to whoever created it/owned the materials, so Akatsuki wouldn’t be able to wield it anyways.
My fave episode of the series so far.
in the fan subs it’s teachings where as here and the novels its Overskill. personaly Overskill sounds way cooler than the fan sub’s translation
I loved how the episodes many thought were too slow tied together nicely to make this episode great. Action junkies have not learned the way that slow movements in longer works can make the high points of action way better. Now I’m a slice of life fan too so the slower stuff I can really get into without the peaks but the combination of slice of life and action really goes great for me.
As someone mentioned earlier getting a teaching/overskill was zen like. You have to study work hard and then open your mind to find progress.
There a reason most religions I can think of have religious order like systems for some members. It hard to look inward when all the distractions of the world pull you out of yourself.
That black hair girl beside rieze at pajama party is cute.
btw for this season how many episodes we’re having? 24?
25, like last season. Covering four LN volumes, 6-9.
Oh reminded they better not go to far with that force field teaching. Sue Richards of the fantastic four in the 60’s started out the support only female using force field only to protect. Now Sue is one of the most powerful super heroes in the Marvel Universe, able to use force fields as tiny bullets, spears, flying very fast, almost any effect she wants including large explosions and of course cut off all the air to an area. Love the picture of Sue they have on TV Tropes with a pile of knocked out bodies of higher level super heroes behind her including the Hulk and Magneto giving the come at me gesture.
Explosion start tiny circular force field inside object and expand it rapidly.
Sooo… am I the only one who thinks the Kunie Clan’s “debt” is less than friendly and there’s only one potential name on the list they’d like to pay it forward to?
I think he’s talking about Shiroe (since Shiroe put in so much effort into changing Kinjo’s mind about that “ancient treaty”), but I’m not sure since he didn’t say that in the light novel. One of Henrietta’s lines was also cut.
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I must Admit, that some of Shiroe’s thoughts fells back on me. But i do not want to “trust” to much the Net, because in this day and age, the Net can use your thoughts against you. The Bulling from the Spring of the Internet grown to strong now.
Perhaps it has something to do with my Age. I bet the younger Generation, that are more used to Facebook and now Whatsapp, do not mistrust it like i do. Or they do not see the danger, of this open mind
I must say, this Episode of Shiroe’s after death scenes, was touching. The storytelling raised really up from last Season. that’s the Spirit!!
in the Begining there was so much Light. But with time the Shadow becan to grow, too
CC Thief’s, ID copycats and so on. At the Spring of the Internet, the Joy override all Shadows. Now the Shadows begin to eat the Light away
So I’m a bit confused. Can someone explain who and what the 27th maiden is and why she’s so special? Idk if I just missed that part or if it just hasn’t been explained yet