Log Horizon: Entaku Houkai – 09

「あこがれ」 (Akogare)
“Adoration”

Ah nothing like a midweek romantic outing. Except not really romantic. Or so much an outing as an excuse to splurge. Or one yielding tangible social development. Yeah, it was a Minori week alright. To be fair, however, some attention for the girl is better than no attention, because given the gears at work in some other people’s heads, something would’ve snapped sooner rather than later.

As much as I dislike the kids and the focus on them (per last week’s musings), episodes like this show why I don’t outright hate them. Isuzu for example may exemplify the issues courtesy of her very teenage romanticism and strong attempts at matchmaking, but Rudy (bless his Golden Labrador self) is one shrewd kid. He knows perfectly well Minori stands no chance with her crush and that encouraging her will only end badly, but is not naïve enough to think he can put a real stop to Isuzu’s attempts without running up against stubborn female pride. Such action could easily impact their group dynamics, and with raid training being the current focus, such impact would inevitably hurt their growth. In the end it’s something that Minori will have to accept for herself, however I don’t anticipate that taking too long. Deep down Minori knows her real chances, and the likes of Akatsuki will only reinforce the point and force her to openly recognize it as time goes by.

Getting to such harsh realities though will take come time thanks to the latest Akihabara raid event. No real shocker here: kids doing raid training and Minori thoroughly doing raid prep work will obviously yield a situation requiring use of said learning and growth (and thanks to galactic idols especially, some learning it was). Again it’s not really clear right now why we have yet another Genius targeting the city, but I don’t think the exact reason matters all too much. With only three episodes to go a good season finale fight is due, and if Shiroe and friends cannot do the honours (politics is hard work, who knew?), might as well let the squirts have some more time to shine.

It may not be the game changing event to define where Log Horizon is heading next, but as a bit of proper isekai action I think this Genius showdown will do what’s needed.

Preview