Zen's #1 Anime for Late 2013/Early 2014
Watching Season 1 of Log Horizon, I couldn’t help but feel that this is what Sword Art Online should have been. Do not take that as a knock at SAO, that was a great… first half of – of an awesome anime, but it fell short for me.
Log Horizon is an anime about gamers, who play an MMO known as Elder Tale, that get sent – body and mind – into a universe that is their MMO brought to reality. This is not to be confused with being stuck playing a game, but literally having NPCs becoming living being.
Our main character is Shiroe, a support mage class who is known as “The Villain in Glasses” due to his involvement as the strategist for a guildless group known as “The Tea Party”. But after being brought into the world, he creates his own guild known as “Log Horizon” as they all try to create order in a world that has become chaos for them. Now, here’s why it’s my favorite for this quarter…
Why It’s my #1:
Characters:
The anime features some very cool Characters (Shiroe, Crusty, Nyanta), but also has some flat boring characters (Naotsugu, Maryele, etc.) but the flat characters still manage to have you fall in love with them for their never changing quirks and loyalty. I also must note that some of the flat characters should appear more interesting in the next season if the anime sticks to major manga points.
While individually only a few interesting characters exist, they really shine when they’re working together. The bond between Rusty and Isuzu is quite cute and funny, while Minori eventually breaking out of her shy shell with her group of newbies and becoming a key member of LH.
The guild itself is basically set with a very unique set of members, each (as apparent by the season 1 finale) quite loyal to Shiroe showcasing a very touching bond.
One of the reoccurring aspects of the anime is characters with glasses. As stated earlier, Shiroe is known as the Villain in Glasses – people think he’s manipulative, cunning, conniving and very sneaky… which he is.
He plays the “Bad Cop” role as the glasses wearing main hitter, Crusty, plays “Good Cop”.
The funny thing is both are extremely manipulative, as well as the third Glasses character, Henrietta =D.
Battles
I was rather skeptical of how battling would be handled with the main character being a support mage compared to other animes in its genre like SAO and .Hack — however, I was pleasantly surprised by both the action and the intellectual tactic-based style!
If you’ve ever played an MMO with a decked out balanced team, then it’s simply just like that. Shiroe plans out the strategy, buffs his allies, and rifles opponents with afflictions – which then his attackers (Nianta being a DPS [aka: Glass Cannon], and Naotsu being tha Tank [aka: Takes all the hits]) use their abilities to triple the damage on the enemy thanks to the spells by Shiroe.
On another note, there’s a lot of political battles over power! The NPCs are now living beings, as such the royal family sees the players (who’re like super natural beings since they can come back to life unlike the NPCs [titled: People of the Land]) as a threat and tries to derail their entire social structure.
If you’re one for battle of the minds, that don’t go to overboard, then you’ll love this!
Adventure
The final, and most important, reason (for ME) of why Log Horizon is my #1 for 2014 first quarter is ADVENTURE! It reminds me of the feeling that One Piece pulls me into. Not knowing exactly what the next adventure is, not knowing what the next battle is – watching the other Guilds show very interesting Character progression as well as fighting skills is thrilling.
It’d also be good to note that for any anime fans who’re into love interests in stories, this anime does feature a bit of a competition between various possible couples – but it travels at a nice enough pace that it’s not overbearing.
Although season 1 is over, I’m looking forward to season 2 — I won’t spoil what’s alluded in the final episode, but I’m very excited. This will be one anime that I’ll try not to fall into reading the manga. (Once I read the manga, the anime becomes obsolete for me). Regardless of which, I will be doing a video review of this when possible.
Feel free to voice your opinions on this anime and tell me what your hopes for the second season are! If you have any other Anime/Manga you’d like to hear about, feel free to suggest them.
-ZenOokami
Please note, I am in no way what is considered a “SAO Hater”. I thoroughly enjoyed SAO and it remains high on my lists of loved animes, but the 2nd half became… hard for me to bare, and to me, Log Horizon has so far done everything right for this type of anime in my opinion. Thank you.
