First Impressions / Log Horizon

「混乱」 (Konran)
“Chaos”

Shiroe flails about, trying to figure out what game is being played, only for a friend to inadvertently give him a hand. Shiroe is back, baby. You’re all screwed now!

Destroying The Round Table

So the attacker’s plan isn’t to overrun and conquer Akihabara or anything so crass as that – as if it would even be possible – but to destroy the Round Table’s reputation and undermine the talks with Eastal. This strikes me as extremely clever. After all, the Round Table is an unelected government, and a very new one at that, so not only are they vulnerable to attacks via paperwork and organization that more established organizations would be able to handle, any perceived weaknesses in their problem-solving ability could destroy their citizen’s confidence and bring the government down. Smart, smart. There’s just one problem: Adventurers don’t think like People of the Land.

Typical Adventurers

In many ways Akatsuki typifies the typical adventurer. When Shiroe mentions there’s a fight, she immediately draws her weapons and gets ready to crack some faces. I don’t blame her – when Shiroe first mentioned an attack on Akihabara, my first thought was of a martial attack as well. Adventurers are self-selected to have a certain straight-forward, no-nonsense, action-biased attitude when it comes to problem-solving within the games they play. This is what makes them uniquely suited for some tasks, but not so great at others. For example, adventurers are suited for killing NPCs, but political subterfuge aimed at toppling a government? Shiroe is right, sounds like a boring quest. That’s all People of the Land stuff, whose culture has made them a lot more suited for that boring (but potentially dangerous) stuff.

Random Attacks

I totally lost it when Shiroe freaked the hell out! As one who personally enjoys blindsiding his adversaries with unexpected moves – it’s a devastatingly effective tactic in the corporate world, and hilarious when you one-up someone from a direction they never expected, believe you me – I laughed my ass off at his intense frustration. Shiroe is a schemer, and schemers prefer to fight against other schemers, because then they know what kind of battle they’re fighting. In this though, there’s no rhyme or reason to most of the “attacks”, the People of the Land are just winging it. It’s like a master going up against an amateur in a sword fight – yes, usually the master will win, but an amateur can be very dangerous because they don’t know what they’re not supposed to do. Unpredictability can be killer, and when no one knows what someone will do – even the person doing it – it can be frightening to be on the other side of that battle.

The Hard Worker vs The Natural

It’s no surprise that Shiroe ended up irritated at Soujirou. More than a schemer, Shiroe is a hard worker – even the things he’s good at, like scheming, require a lot of hard work. Soujirou on the other hand is a natural – he’s a natural leader, he’s a natural ladies man, and he’s a naturally nice guy, all things that he does so naturally he doesn’t even have to think about it! The hard worker vs the natural always ends up with the hard worker being irked, even when they’re on the same side. I feel you, Shiroe, I feel you. You’re still pretty scary, though. I think you’re a natural at that.

It’s Hard To Be An Ass In Front of Pretty Girls

Shiroe’s plan to fight the random was inspired. When you’re dealing with randomness, fight it with obliviousness! Though that’s a pithy oversimplification. In reality what he was doing was deploying the rare adventurers who were well-suited to deal with the problems all the other adventurers were terrible at. When you’re dealing with people who are determined to be jackasses, you can toss them out like Nyanta did, but they’ll just move on and keep doing the same thing. No, it’s better to soothe their spirits and make it so they don’t want to be such pricks, and there’s nothing better for that than pretty girls! That + the Soujirou fangirls’ love-soaked brains making them the ideal highly empathetic people to deal with domestic disputes allowed them to put out fires no one else could. Your evil plan worked Shiroe, and Soujirou still doesn’t have a clue. Well done!

Lord Marves…May I Hit Him?

As for the insane clown merchant, may I hit him? I don’t know what Lord Marves is like normally, but it was clear to me that he was trying to provoke the adventurers, both with his cargo and him acting like a total creep. His act was so good I found myself wanting to slug him as he harped on the commoner/noble thing and picked fights with the whole banquet with everything he said. All because Westelande fears the effects of an alliance between Eastal and Akihabara…clever, but also loathsome. Seriously, can I hit him?

Bonus: Lenessia mentioned something about a revolution in the west, and Westlande is in the west, as is Minami. Very interesting. I feel like we’ll be dealing with them more soon…that is, if the show wasn’t ending in one episode. D’oh!

Looking Ahead – They Need To Have Even More Fun!

Ohhh man Marves, you’re really fucked now! When Shiroe walks in that casually and then has that look on his face… Well, Lord Marves is a schemer. Maybe the random attacks can befuddle Shiroe, but against another schemer, he is the bee’s knees. I can’t wait to see Shiroe give him the smackdown with an (evil) smile on his face!

But it looks like Lord Marves isn’t the kingpin here. The coal-black queen, who is blushing as she looks at Shiroe. I have my guesses who she’ll be, but I’ll hold my tongue for now. I do know one thing, though…this season is going to end on one hell of a cliffhanger, isn’t it? Damn!

Either way, the root of Shiroe’s plan is brilliant, because it shows how well he knows his people, adventurers. If the enemy’s plan is to tear down the festival, their only recourse is to have more fun! Because as long as adventurers are having fun, you can’t tear them apart. You can believe in that.

Note: I’m going to be out of town next weekend, so expect the finale post on Sunday or Monday. Thank you for your understanding.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Shiroe has trouble with the random attacks, but with a little help from Soujirou’s fangirls, we’re back in the game! #loghorizon 24

Random thoughts:

  • A rare mistake from Henrietta – there’s no way they can cancel the festival. When your competence is being called into question, you can’t fold entirely and give up. You have to press on, and outmaneuver them without most people being any the wiser.
  • Akatsuki-chan’s pouty face is so kawaii!
  • Customer service is the front line. It always is, and they take the damage to prove it. Healers!
  • Pizza and cockroaches. I agree Shiroe… (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ Screw this noise!!
  • Cakes vs girls. Is this going to replace ninjas vs pirates? Because that would be awesome.
  • Nooo Shiroe, don’t add another to your harem! The girls like it now, but they’ll kill you if it goes any further!
  • I liked how Lenessia prefers the awkward but honest adventurers to the two-faced nobles who treat her like a doll, and after seeing Lord Marves, who can blame her. Give me the sword-wielding nerds any day.

Check out my blog about storytelling and the novel I’m writing at stiltsoutloud.com. The last four posts: Realism, cynicism, & the unreasonable man, Weak business models, Combat scenes – Blocking & initiative order, and Critical flaw.

Full-length images: 26.

 

Preview

77 Comments

    3. Soujirou is so innocently naive… I don’t think anyone could hate him.

      Speaking of which, the other girls from the other couples were probably swooning over him and the guys probably just quietly admitted defeat…

      Goodwill Wright
      Reply

  2. yeah… i can imagine who the coal-black queen is.

    also … yeah seeing THAT one show up so far down the line it just means cliffhanger ..and that we really gonna need a season 2!

    glasses glasses! i wanna learn to make mine shine like that too!!!???!!

    haha that reaction when Shiroe grabs Soujirou… all the girls went from “doki-doki” to “..scary!” soooooo fast!

    PS: i had a LOL moment when i saw the cake-lady’s face at Soujirou’s Hare erm… GUILD i mean Soujirou’s guild! really!

    PS2: just realized Soujirou is the biggest player ever.. wow.. how many? 20 x 5? LOL … and i thought Ichika was bad with 8 ….

    inanis
    Reply

    1. I was wondering why the coal-black queen was blushing when she met with Shiroe in the preview, does that mean she also loves him?

      If that’s the case, I wonder how Akatsuki/Minori/Henrietta will react to her or how she would react towards them? I swear she looks like a yandere…

      Ryner
      Reply

      2. Not really a spoiler but in the novel there showed a lot more cleavage on that character. Oh well -_-, since there’s only one more episode I guess all that will be for the next season.

        Vandsy
        Reply

    2. They are not actually all in his guild xD
      (note: most of this info is from the extras in the novels, so don’t worry about story spoilers)

      Soujiro’s guild has 64 members, including at least one who (very minor character spoiler from one of the first chapters of the Soujiro-centric manga)
      Show Spoiler ▼

      However, his fans number far beyond that. There’s an “unofficial guild” called Sou-kyun Fan Club (SFC), whose numbers hit 3 digits, rivaling DDD and some of the production guilds.

      Anonymosity
      Reply

  4. One way to look at Shiroe’s frustration here is from the eyes of the RPG gamer. Every enemy has a specific move set they will use, either randomized or in some order. Of course Shiroe will be using a similar method of deduction, attempting to find out the enemy’s habits and then building up a plan of attack around that. Although wonderful for bosses, it falls short in “organic” scenarios and battles such as this where often the objective is hidden behind deception, trickery, and often cunning dead ends designed no more than to get you to miss what is in front of your eyes.

    The main purpose of this “attack” is of course to implode the Council, but the random squabbles are not how it will occur; they simply serve as the distraction to stretch resources, sow confusion, and test the waters of the enemy. No, I’m guessing that the cargo so casually hinted at by our new clown lord is likely the main weapon. What better way to wreak the intended havoc than by using the naivety of the Princess to get the cargo unloaded before the Council can even respond? Unfortunately for our clown lord though, Shiroe managed to involve himself before this could take place (unbeknownst to him that the squabbles are not the main weapon).

    One final thing too is now the very likelihood of our clown lord not being the main enemy. First he is accompanied by three Adventurers from the west (mention was also made that no quests involve attacking cities/governments) and Shiroe has hypothesized the desire to break the treaties between Akihabara and Eastal, something not needed when simple diplomacy could simply forge a new set of bilateral agreements. No, more likely is a desire to sour the relations between the two so neither comes to the aid of the other when physically attacked. No need to show yourself for such a trivial task when you can simply coerce a Person of the Land to do so in your stead. Not only do you remain out of sight, but you further distract from the actual enemy by pointing Shiroe and friends in the wrong direction.

    Now just to find out if my armchair theoreticizing is completely wrong or not. Hopefully not 😀

    Pancakes
    Reply

    2. Once the last episode finishes airing, I plan to start reading the LNs from volume 1 (I got hold of up to volume 6). I am so very curious about the coal-black queen character (I’m only partially spoiled about her) but am resisting online spoilers and skipping to the relevant part of the LN. I’m thinking that it would be 2 years before the second season will come out. I should be finished with the available LNs by then.

      Gaaahh!! I want to see the final episode!

      Monimonika
      Reply

    3. The problem lies in that there are only 6 volumes out, (the 7th may have come out recently), and the anime covered 5 volumes quite competently.

      So for another full season, we’re going to have to wait at least a couple years.

      Rasen
      Reply

    1. They have bags of holding and whatnot, and it’s scientifically proven that all anime proven can pull weapons out of hammer space when necessary. Nothing to see here, move along…

      Stilts
      Reply

    2. Ninja clothes. She’ll have arm-sheathes with quick-releases for throwing blades, blades straped to her legs and sides with hidden slits in her clothes to allow quick access, weapons strapped to her back (both behind her nack and her lower back), hidden sheathes on the inside of the clothes themselves, etc.

      Wanderer
      Reply

    1. Yeah I was glad that it seems like the Akiba adventurers have accepted her and her aids or other people of the land, enough to want to protect her against other people of the land and adventurers that would insult her.

      It seems that I was mistaken that at first I thought it was going to be an Adventurers vs People of the Land conflict that will erupt, but now it seems more likely that it is going to be both adventurers and people of the land from the East vs West conflict, seeing as it seems that the adventurers and people of the land in Akiba are somehow getting along well especially with the treaty going on, so now the other people of the land from the west wants to stop it from happening. I’m guessing they even made a pact with the adventurers from the west, or they are both simply using each other. So I’m guessing that this cat girl queen is the leader of the adventurers in the west then?

      Ryner
      Reply

      1. I wouldn’t look for such a clean-cut conflicts in Log Horizon. It has a tendency to grow beyond our petty conceptions of good vs evil and be more complex than that. Besides, I can’t see this series ending on an Easy vs West note. That might occupy them for a while, but I’d wager they’ll move beyond it before the whole thing ends.

        Stilts
        Reply

  8. Well they certainly cut no corners at making Lord Marves a repulsive fellow.

    I have said it before but I love how they keep using the Dread Pack to represent the common adventurers.

    Looking forward to any cameo’s they tease us with at the end of the episode next week.

    Longhaul
    Reply

  9. Economic warfare depicted in an anime is always fun to see.

    Akatsuki is really good for solo play. Dunno if she could handle a full scale raid tho.

    Hehe, Soujirou to the rescue.

    Dat eyecatch.

    And well a certain girl gets a lot of prominence this episode too…

    Also wow, they really are inferring a lot of the other player city in this. Can’t wait to see more.

    Cat lady, my favorite one? Yep it is. Can’t wait to see that awesome…AWESOME discussion.

    Netto
    Reply

  10. Nooo Shiroe, don’t add another to your harem! The girls like it now, but they’ll kill you if it goes any further!

    No of course not, Shiroe is going to add a certain foxgirl into his harem.;)

    viss
    Reply

  11. I believe the word “revolution” to simply refer to the same revolution that happened in the east. That is to the rapid change of pace for industry thanks to Shiroe’s invention of “doing things the normal way” and the new opening in the relations between People of the Land and Adventurers that are connected with that. There surely happens the same thing in Minami.

    brajt
    Reply

  13. Seriously, can I hit him?

    Too late, already did… 🙂

    Can’t wait to see how Shiroe handles this – like a boss I’m sure.
    We’ve seen Shiroe get physical, this clown-guy deserves a good smack-down.

    Ending too soon for me – hope there’s a second season around soon!

    mac65
    Reply

  16. They need to start crafting computers, because that amount of paperwork was just ridicoulus. 😛 Its only the beginning, if Akiba want to hold the fstival frequently, soner or later, they will have to use cargos to bring the applications and set up whole rooms to store them.

    dangreg
    Reply

  18. I lost it when Shiroe ragequit like that. Kinda funny to see him lose his cool, everyone has a breaking point it seems. Luckily, as per usual, the world of Log Horizon is full of competent people, and an oblivious one showed his face just in time. Weaponizing a harem…that’s our villain in glasses!

    And damn, Lord Marves is like an internet troll given life within the game. He’s doing a good job of pissing off pretty much everyone, both the character ánd the viewers. The whole deal surrounding his expensive food reeks of a typical scam as well. I very much hope to see that smug face of his twist itself in terror when Shirou launches his counterattack. And I wonder…are those adventurers with him from Minami? For all we know, they might be there to spy on them then as a bonus to their usual job. Gah, too bad there’s only one episode left, so we won’t get an answer on the whole Minami thing. I’ll miss this show…

    Also, that eyecatch is my new wallpaper. Thanks for the screencap!

    Dvalinn
    Reply

    1. I’m curious on how Lord “Creepy” Marves managed to get seemingly legitimate paperwork prepared (complete with affirmative reply from Maihama) stating that he would be coming by with this large, very expensive, and fragile cargo that needs adequate storage preparations. Hope the anime explains this mystery before it ends.

      Monimonika
      Reply

      1. Isn’t it obvious? Adventurers, if Shiroe can create contracts that change the law of the world I’m pretty sure some other adventurer with the same sub-class can forge fake forms & documents that can pass as real.

        LGM
        Reply

      2. Agreed with LGM. The easiest thing to do would be to forge the things and claim that the unorganized Akihabara/Maihama organization lost them. That’s much easier than actually submitting them and making sure they’re not processed properly.

        Stilts
        Reply

  19. All my thoughts on this episode have already been spread out throughout the comments so i’ll just say this: according to an ANN article when Touno-sensei did that 4chan QA thing he apparently mentioned “He also acknowledged that plans for season 2 are currently ongoing.”
    So, there is hope out there.

    Catsrofl
    Reply

    1. It’s possible (but not likely) that he might work with the animators so they can go beyond the novels and he can keep them going in the proper direction. I can think of one or two other series that did this, though granted they only went about one volume beyond, not four or five.

      Aex
      Reply

    2. Just because a second season is possible doesn’t mean it’s possible immediately. I can definitely see it resuming in a couple of years once there’s more source material out. Because yeah, stretching one volume with help from the author is possible, but going multiple seems like they ought to just shut up and wait for a while.

      Stilts
      Reply

    3. I’m expecting a year at minimum before we hear anything definitive. It’ll probably be like Shingeki no Kyojin, they’ll wait for enough new source material to fill out 25 episodes. Not many producers like to go the FMA route and create something quasi-anime-original.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  21. Shiroe flipping a table = best moment in anime. Then his face at the end… Next week is going to be awesome!

    And please let them finish all of volume 5! Since *she* shows up then it’s close, but please don’t chop the beautiful discussion(or any other greatness regarding clothes to make room for it). This is already almost a guaranteed cliffhanger, don’t make it worse!

    Aex
    Reply

  23. “this season is going to end on one hell of a cliffhanger, isn’t it? Damn!” Exactly. And now you get why I said I’m glad they’re ending the anime with volume 5 and hoping they’d do the epilogue, which they’re doing. 🙂

    Michael Chandra
    Reply

  24. We got two more shots of the mysterious blonde girl who I assume is voiced by Chiwa Saito? We see half of her face right before the eye catch.
    Or is she voicing that black girl that we see in the preview?
    You ppl saying that you have an idea who that black girl is, I first assumed that you were refering to an eastern adventurer who used a similar world changing magic as Shiroe, but you might as well talk about the Chiwa Saito person.
    I am confused.

    boingman
    Reply

  26. “Shinsengumi” at its finest. Patrolling the streets of Akiba, dealing and solving problems with an ease!.

    Wait sounds like an advertisement to me… Now, I have a different view at “Shinsengumi”.

    Ungas123
    Reply

  30. Just finished watching it. And so I’m sorta right but not quite enough. Guess I was only right about the infiltration part, but even being that much right was absolutely awesome. 🙂 Can’t wait for the last episode because this show is the show of 2014 (unless something later blows me away).

    Couldn’t help but laugh at Shiroe’s table flipping in frustration because Shiroe table flipping in frustration is the awesome. About time he got served up. Been way too confident as of late. Sure, he eventually ‘solved’ the problem, but its more like Soujiro saved his bacon than him doing anything really.

    And oh boy about the preview. So we’ve got the person who suitable as a house-wife (Henrietta), the one who stands beside him (Akatsuki), the one following at his back (Minori), and the mentor of his life (the girl who led the Tea Party). This leaves the new girl to be either the intellectual who understands him entirely or the girl who sees his true worth and wants it entirely for her own. Especially this late in the game. 🙁 I’m not sure which.

    Either way though, I think she’ll probably drop the ending on us. Probably literally. Cliffhanger ahoy~!

    Dorian
    Reply

    1. You can’t sadly, there’s no news on whether there going to be any English or Chinese trans LN of Log Horizon. At a 4Chan Faq not long ago the novelist did say that he did try to have them translated but noone want to do it.

      Hopefully now some publisher out there might think otherwise since the anime since to be doing great.

      LGM
      Reply

      1. @LGM: Pretty sure you can get an official Chinese translated version of the LN. IIRC, the English TL of the LN on Baka-Tsuki uses the Chinese “raws” rather than Japanese. As for an official English version of the LN, JMO but I think this series stands a pretty good chance of getting licensed for English publication. Might be a while though.

        daikama
        Reply

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