Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to another edition of anime vs anime. This is where I take two animes that everyone likes and see which one is better. Most of you might remember my Persona-mas arc last December where I did a versus blog between Persona 3 and Persona 4, right? Well apparently everyone seemed to like that blog so why not do it again and this time why not have it be between two animes I just spent all month reviewing SAO and Log Horizon. SAO and Log Horizon have become the animes to watch when talking about video games, MMORPGS, and the idea of virtual reality in video games. Even since these two animes came out everyone has been comparing them to each other and for good reasons. Both of these animes are similar but at the same time they’re different from each other enough that you can tell them apart and today we’re here to see which one of them stands out the most. I’m Nitsuj and welcome to anime vs anime where today’s fighters are
SAO and Log Horizon.
The Main Character
Let’s start by looking at one of the most important traits of the anime the main character. Since I reviewed SAO first let’s take a look their MC first, Kirito. Kirito is essentially a computer genius. He enjoys playing video games but has a relatively normal life where he interacts with the real world but feels more alive in the virtual world. Once he gets trapped in this virtual world he takes on the role of becoming one of the most powerful and badass players in the game and winning it all saving everyone’s life. Kirito like I said before is a badass. It’s as simple as that. The guy is just so cool to follow, his determination and skills are amazing, and his clever thinking and quick wits are always fun to watch. Despite assuming the lone player position Kirito is anything but a loner. He has good friends who he cares about and will even risk his life for, a lovely girlfriend who he loves, a cute virtual daughter, and he even has his own little harem going on in the background despite the fact that he’s dating someone. Kirito is a character who plays it cool and strives to be the best in the game all while caring and looking out for his friends.
The MC from Log Horizon, Shiroe, is also a badass but in a different way. Unlike Kirito who’s at the front of the lines fighting tooth and nail with his opponents Shiroe is a strategist. He’s a sorcerer, a character who fights from the distance all while giving his allies support and strategies that will lead them to victory. He’s a character who always has a plan up his sleeve and relies on strategy rather than force to get what he wants and defeat his opponents. While his actions and behaviors may be cold and that of an introvert in truth Shiroe is always doing what he thinks is best for everyone. In fact he’s the guy who actually managed to bring order to a world where order seemed to not exist. This is a character who everyone rallies around, follows, and trust because they know what he’s doing is for their best interest and if there’s anybody who can deliver the results they’re looking for its Shiroe. His strategies are effected and he utilizes everyone perfectly in battle.
So both shows have pretty good and badass MCs but which one’s the best. Well if I really had to pick I say Shiroe. Why? Because he goes through some good character development through the story. At the start Shiroe was a guy who didn’t want to get involved in the big fight, he was content with just watching from the side and doing nothing. However, when he sees all the pain everyone is in he starts his own guild, brings all the other guilds together, and gives people who had no hope in the series hope that they can live in this world and adapt to it while also looking for a way out. He even starts to open up to others as the series goes. At the start of the series Shiroe was kind of a loner, he worked with the team but carried the burden all by himself not really trusting everyone around him. Not even his closest friends and allies. He doesn’t even tell them his full plans he just tells them what to do and they do it. This however changes when he finally dies in the game and he’s forced to face himself and see all the mistakes he made. It’s a pretty well done scene as Shiroe now realizes that he can’t and doesn’t have to do everything by himself. He has teammates who he can trust and who can help him out. Kirito on the other hand really doesn’t go through any character development in SAO. He still remains that same cool badass we met in the first episode. While one could argue that’s good and not really a bad thing because he’s already a good character you do want to see characters in these kinds of anime go through development. Again, just like the MCs from Persona 3 and 4, what made people like the MC of Persona 3 more was his character development and the changes he goes through throughout the game. It makes the character seem more real and someone you can relate to. When a character doesn’t really go through much character development and just remains the same overtime that character becomes less interesting and more removed from reality. Kirito, you’re a badass and you got the girl but Shiroe’s a badass, he’s got the brains, and he’s got the character development that just makes him an interesting character. Point goes to Log Horizon.
SAO: O LH: 1
But as we all know MCs are only as great as the side characters and teammates they surround themselves with. The next category is best side characters/teammates.
Sides Characters/Teammates
Since LH won the last round we’ll start with them first. The side characters from LH come in all shapes, sizes, and gender and each one is unique and a joy to be around. The first side character is Akatsuki your typical serious player with a petite female body and a master ninja loyal to Shiroe. Much like how Shiroe goes through character development she too goes through some deep character development where she realizes that she kept to herself and served only Shiroe, she has to venture outside her safe zone and open up to others who reach out to her. There’s Naotsugu the strong warrior of the team who even though may seem laid-back and not the guy who takes his role seriously in truth he’s got a heart of gold, loyal to his teammates, and seems to know what Shiroe is thinking even when others don’t. We have Nyanta the funny but wise mentor of the group who always looking out for everyone and always has something to teach them. There’s also a trap idol who’s always full of energy and the rookie players who could honestly have their own anime dedicated to them. I just love these rookie players and so does the creator and animators of this series as they dedicate a few episodes to them in both seasons. You honestly do feel a strong connection with them because we’ve all been in their shoes. We all know what it’s like to be the new player on the block and have no idea what we’re doing and this anime did a great introducing them to us and giving us time to focus and grow with them. I almost honestly wish the anime was about them as their adventures and growth are just so fun to watch. Out of these teammates we have all sorts of side characters each with their own personality and skills that sets them apart from each other. They all have their own personality that you could honestly sit down and talk about them for hours and even if I were to name them all and write them down this blog would go on forever and even then I would have only just scratched the surface of them.
The teammates and side characters for SAO aren’t as big as LH. We have Asuna the girlfriend of Kirito who is honestly like the female equivalent of Kirito. Liz and Silica are like Asuna’s best friends with Liz being the comedic girl and Silica being the smart little sister character. Sugu is Kirito’s strong little sister/cousin who’s like another female version of Kirito. Klein is that comedic best friend Kirito hangs out with. He’s not as strong or cool as Kirito but he still holds value to the team and is still a strong player. There’s Agil who’s one of the most well represented Black people in anime who serves as a mentor to a group since he’s the oldest out of all of them offers them advice should they need it. As you can see these characters all seem interesting but we never get a chance to explore them. They just have simple and interesting character traits presented to us but never explored. The only side character they explore and develop is Sinon who in all honesty probably have the most character development out of everyone in SAO so far. I mean she actually killed a man as a child. That’s pretty traumatizing and we see how it affected her life and everything.
So let’s do a quick comparison between each respected character. Akatsuki and Asuna are the main female leads in their animes but to be honest the romance aspect between them and their main characters isn’t really done all that well as I originally thought. I personally like Akatsuki because she continues to push herself to get stronger while Asuna started off strong but for some reason has become a rather weak person for no apparent reason and often relies on Kirito and others to save her. Klein and Naotsugu are both the comedic best friends with neither of them getting the right amount of screentime but I do think Naotsugu is the better character just because he has a little more screentime and does become somewhat of a mentor to Tohya. Nyanta and Agil can be seen as the wise mentors of the groups and once again Nyanta comes across as the better character because he has more screentime where we get to know him and see why Shiroe and Naotsugu respect him so much while Agil really doesn’t dish out as much wisdom as he should but instead more of their information guy. There’s also the fact that we get to see Nyanta fight more. The rookie players along with Liz, Silica, Sinon, and Sugu are alike in that they’re the second strings of characters who each have their own side stories in the series. The rookie players are better because despite being side characters they still continue to grow and develop as the main characters and continue to play an important role in the series while the characters from SAO just serve as a mini-harem for Kirito in case things with Asuna don’t work out. So in the end LH’s cast is way better in terms of side characters and teammates as we really do get a chance to explore them and develop their characters a lot more than the cast of SAO who have interesting traits and seem like good people but just don’t get the chance to explore them. Point goes to LH.
SAO: 0 LH: 2
But having a good MC and side characters isn’t all to an anime. They need a villain to bring out their potential. Someone who represents everything they’re not and put up a good fight to push them past their limits. The next category is villains.
Villains
The villains of LH come from all sides. We have PKs, monsters, NPCs teaming up other players who want a war, and now they have these alien creatures who have taken on the form of monsters and want to absorb something from them. The PKs are actually quite common in these types of animes. The characters who just have nothing better to do and just want to cause trouble for everyone. The monsters are your basic monsters you see in all kinds of RPGs. Goblins, forest monsters, mountain monsters, demons, and boss fights. To be fair they do get quite creative with these monsters. We got NPC characters who don’t like the players and are secretly planning a war to fight them and we have other players siding with these NPCs and helping them prepare for war. Finally, these weird alien creatures who are a new addition to the series and are after something. These alien creatures are taking the form of dungeon bosses and seem to be breaking all the rules in the game. We have no idea what their goal is or where they came from but they are interesting and are definitely throwing everyone off their game.
Once again the villains for SAO aren’t as many as LH. All they have is PKs and evil administrators. But despite having lesser known villains they make good use of them. The PKs are a lot more threatening this time around because they’re actually killing people and if you die in the game you die in real life. They know this and are fully aware that their actions are taking the life of another human being and they don’t care. To them it’s all just a game and they’re just playing it. They lack any sense of humanity and just seeing them get a joy out of watching other people die is just sickening. They even take it up a level in the second season with Death Gun where the PKs actually sneak into people houses and kill other players making it look like they have the power to kill people in a video game. That’s pretty messed up and scary. Other villains include evil administrators like the great Sugou who is just an asshole. The guy created a game that wasn’t even in his own design and kidnaps Kirito’s girlfriend just because he wants to marry her and keep her as a caged bird for him and only him to enjoy. He even makes the game unbeatable so that nobody can reach her and even tries to kill Kirito in real life. Probably the weakest villain of the show is Kayaba the original creator of SAO. He trapped everyone in the game for no purpose and killed over a thousand people for nothing. Come on, you have to give us something as to why he did this. That’s where the show dropped the ball big time in the first half of the anime not giving him a solid reason into why he did the things he did. But other than that the rest of the villains are interesting, threatening, and characters you want to see pay for their wrong doings.
If I had to name which villains I enjoyed the most I would have to say SAO’s villains. While it’s true LH had more villains we never really get an idea of what they’re planning or up to. We take time to figure out why they’re doing the things they’re doing but never see what they’re planning and the interactions between them and the main cast is low and not used all that well. SAO on the other hand does explore the motives of these villains quite well and makes them all quite menacing to watch. You really come to despise these villains in SAO and what them to suffer while the villains in LH kind of make you scratch your head and wonder why they’re doing the things their doing. I know LH likes to build things up for a big reveal but don’t leave us hanging for too long. Point goes to SAO.
SAO: 1 LH: 2
Where now that all the characters are out of the way let’s talk about the virtual worlds and fighting.
Virtual World and Action
As you might have already guess both of these animes take place in an MMORPG so because of that we get some pretty interesting worlds and gameplay. For SAO the gameplay is more of a new school MMORPG. Everybody starts off with basic stats and are free to specialize in whatever they want. So if you wanna max out your sword skills while also be good at crafting go for it. There’s no limits to what you can master in the game your only limit is yourself. The combat style is free roam and quite similar to that of the Tales series. You see an enemy and you fight using whatever skills you have and whatever moves you can think of. The virtual worlds in SAO are all quite different. The first world we see is your typical wide open meadow rich with nature. The interesting point however is that it’s on a floating island something that I honestly forgot a few times in the anime because each floor has it’s own theme and different setting. In the floors that we see we get a nice cabin in the woods setting, one floor has a town, and another floor is entirely a flower garden which serves as a romantic spot for players. The second world ALO is pretty similar to SAO’s world only in this world the floating island does seem bigger and you can fly across the world. The only new features the world of ALO have over SAO was a beach and an artic zone which are a welcoming addition and a little Norse God mythology. We also got to see a city within a cave and a fight in the sky which was pretty cool. The third and final world that we’ve seen so far is GGO which has this post-apocalyptic punk hazard feel to it as the setting is in this smug covered city filled with gunman and there’s an air of intensity surrounding this place as you walk the streets. As if everyone was watching you for some reason. While the world of SAO and ALO were rich with life and nature the world of GGO gives us a wasteland and abandoned cities which serve as perfect locations for gunfights. We get a little nature with a small jungle but it’s not really focused on all that much. In this world guns are your main weapons and a light saber apparently but mainly guns. You got hand guns, machine guns, SMGs, LMGs, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, and did I mention you can get a light saber in any color you want? The gunfights were good but some had wasted potential but they were some of the best fights the series has given us so far. Some of the fights can be quite standard but there’s a lot of emotion put into these fights and we do get to see some high-paced action in them which was something I wasn’t really expecting all that much.
In LH the world of Elder Tale is quite similar to that of SAO and ALO. The land is rich and beautiful with nature however this world does seem to be bigger and has that Legend of Zelda feel to it. We got towns with buildings and areas you can buy much like in SAO, mountains, raid areas, areas with different seasons, and your quest which complete the game as a whole. In terms of fighting style the fights are similar to SAO however their class choices follow that of old school RPGs. During the old days of RPGs you were usually only given a selection of one class. The sorcerer class which specializes in magic and healing spells, the warrior class which specializes in physical attacks, and finally the battle mage which was the hardest class to use even though it gave you the best of both sorcerer and warrior class. As time went on they decided to add in a sub-class which is what LH has. You have a main class and one sub class. To this anime’s credit they do have a good amount of classes to choose from and lots of sub-classes with each class having their own strengths and weakness. For example, the monk class which is in the warrior category has high HP but it has low MP skills and defense however it has short cooldowns and has great evasion rate. All of the classes are like this, they each have their own strengths and weakness it all just depend on which one matches your criteria. Do you wanna fight in the frontlines or provide support in the back, do you prefer physical attacks over magic attacks, do you prefer short cooldown times to spam your special skills or do you prefer powerful skills with long cooldown times? Once you’ve decided your class you’re stuck with that class forever. You can change the subclass but the main class stays the same no matter what. The fighting in LH is similar to SAO, the characters have a number of skills in their arsenal and they have to use them to defeat the enemies in front of them. However this time around each character has a function that he or she contributes to the team. You got you’re strategist who will take in all what’s going on and come up with an effective plan, your tankers who absorb the hits, and your nukers who have high attack power and your main attack force.
If I had to name which one I like the most it would have to be SAO. The worlds are a lot cooler and more beautiful to look at. They’re also more creative and visually stunning. The fights are also cool from intense boss fights, to the simple duals between characters, and to the gunfights we got to see in GGO. The world of Elder Tale in LH is nice but we’ve seen this kind of world multiple times in other RPGs so it’s really not all that new. The fights are cool and have a lot of strategy put into them but there aren’t as many as you would like to see. They’re built up quite nicely and the payoff is good when the fighting does come but the build-up can be quite boring and tedious. SAOs fights are build up quickly and give us satisfying payoffs that keeps us coming back for more. Point goes to SAO.
SAO: 2 LH: 2
Well guys we’re tied and have to admit I didn’t think SAO would make a comeback like this. Can they be the first to win 3 categories in a row? Let’s find out in the final category story and themes.
Story and themes
At first glance one might think these two animes have the same story and themes but you couldn’t be more wrong. The story of SAO starts off with a bunch of players getting trapped in a game where if they die in the game they die in real life. In LH the players are trapped in a game for some unknown reason and if they get killed in the game they don’t die in real life they instead lose a fragment of their memories. One could argue that losing your memories is just as bad as dying because a part of you is dying and you don’t know which part it is. In SAO they focus on the MCs interaction with other characters in the game as he tries to fight his way out of the game but also gain friends who not only help him on his journey but also help give him more of a reason to fight. The MC really doesn’t seem to interact with the virtual world all that much. Kirito seems to have an interest in them but for the most part he’s more interested in interacting with his friends in that world. LH on the other hand has the MC not only interact with players but also interact with the world he’s in. He’s constantly learning new things about the world of Elder Tale. The world is constantly changing on him. What he thought he knew about this world from putting hours of playing it with others has only helped him out a little. After exploring the world and interacting with the NPCs and other players in the game he discovers the world of Elder Tale isn’t just a game it’s a whole new world entirely which has its own rules and laws that it follows and that he and the other players are aliens in this world and the world is slowly trying to adapt to them. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad remains to be seen.
Themes for the most part are relatively the same but they both give different views on them. The first theme is the virtual world. Kirito admits in the first episode that he feels more alive in this world than he does in the real world and there are other players who admit that they would rather continue living in this world than return to the real world because their lives are more fulfilling in the virtual world. In LH Shiroe seems to have changed into a better person with the help of the virtual world. In the past Shiroe was relatively a loner. He helped out other players but for the first part he kept to himself. Now, he’s one of the major players in the game who has bought everyone together and has become the voice of reason and hope to those who have given up hope and reason. The world of Elder Tale has also given other players a chance to feel more alive than they did in the real world. One thing that SAO has over LH is a sense of urgency. In SAO the characters have to beat the game or they’re going to die by either killing themselves or dying from lack of nutrients. In the second season Kirito has to stop Death Gun and figure out how he’s killing people before more people die from him. In LH there really is no sense of urgency although the characters want to go home in fact we actually saw how messed up and desperate some players want to go home. A majority of the players really don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave or return. One thing LH has over SAO is the lack of rules. In SAO the characters have to play within a certain parameter of rules. In LH the characters don’t have rules to follow, they’re pretty much free to do whatever they want but they need guidance to get an idea of what they have to do and that’s where LH excels over SAO. LH actually shows us how the characters come together, form a council, and make up their own rules to help other players out and live in a world that’s almost similar to their world proving that we as a society need rules or we’ll fall apart. SAO really doesn’t do this.
So if I had to say which anime has the better story and themes I would have to say LH. LH does a better job at explaining their world more, exploring it, and allowing character development. While SAO’s story isn’t really all that bad I wish they would have focused more on exploring the worlds and developing its characters more. The slower pacing of LH combined with it’s amazing expanding cast makes the anime all the more enjoyable and fun to watch and the ideas and concepts of building a society within a world similar to their world while also interacting and working with the inhabitants of the world just makes for an interesting and enjoyable anime that you could honestly watch multiple times. Point goes to LH as does the victory.
SAO: 2 LH: 3
Log Horizon wins
So in the end Log Horizon is the winner. While SAO has the cooler worlds and better villains, Log Horizon has the better characters who all continue to develop and grow, much better executed ideas that they explore, and explore their world more while trying to find balance and peace with it even though it’s constantly changing on them. SAO still has a chance to catch up to LH and even surpass them if it starts to develop its characters more and explore their ideas and worlds more. I admit SAO has a bigger fan following the LH and that gives the author all the more reason to improve his story more. Other than that I think both of these animes do a good job of showing us the possibilities of virtual reality and what it can accomplish. I’m sure both of these animes will get a third season in the near future and I look forward to seeing where they go next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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