Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Remember last week when I reviewed Mamare Touno’s Maoyuu Maou Yuusha. I got attacked by Uwe Boll and nearly got killed by an AI. Man, my blogs have been getting violent haven’t they? Anyway, Touno-sensei made another popular series that came out in 2013 that was major it as well. It was called Log Horizon. In 2010 around the time Touno-sensei was working on Maoyuu Maou Yuusha he started working on Log Horizon a light novel that debuted online on the user-generated content site called Shōsetsuka ni Narō. The novel gained a lot of popularity and a year after publishing it online it started to get published in Enterbrain in 2011 and continues to this very day. The novel follows a group of players who mysteriously wake up inside of a popular virtual game and try to figure out what’s going on. Many people including myself called this series an SAO rip-off and. . .technically we’re right. SAO begin in 2009 while Log Horizon began in 2010 but the two novels still have differences and approaches in their stories that separate them from each other. After A-1’s success of SAO the anime studio Satelight (AKB0048 and Shugo Chara) decided they wanted to get in on the virtual reality craze and adapted the well-written series into an anime making it one of the best animes to come out in 2013 and since the anime is scheduled to return this October I say now is the best time to review this series. Let’s get ready to log into the virtual world once more, this is Log Horizon.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this anime is “database” by Man With a Mission ft. Takuma of 10-feet. This was one of my favorite openings from 2013. The song combines rock and rap into one creating an awesome opening that gets you pumped, introducing all of the characters, as well as show off their skills, and what to expect in the anime. We also get some good engrish in the song which cracks me up a little. The ending is “Your song*” by Yun*chi who is a well known respected singer who can hit high notes while staying in control and this song shows it. The song is both peaceful and cute reflecting the thoughts and feelings of one our main female character in the anime and I like how the ending isn’t afraid to show other characters having affection for other characters. Most animes in this genre glance over romance so it’s nice to see an anime not afraid to show that these characters like each other.
So the anime starts off directly in the game world (wasting no time getting to the good stuff huh?) known as Elder Tales (couldn’t come up with anything original could you? Why not Final Quest, Dragon Fantasy, Chrono Scroll, Elder Trigger, Kingdom Warcraft, or World of Hearts? The possibilities are endless) where we see the main character Shiroe a mage class character voiced by Takuma Terashima (Teppi from Princess Lover!) who is shocked to see himself in the game. He explores this world’s version of Akihabara which is a deserted destroyed city completely covered in moss. He walks through the city seeing the other players and finding he can’t logout which he handles surprisingly well (clearly this guy hasn’t seen SAO otherwise he would be panicking). He goes to meet up with his good friend Naotsugu a knight class character who is a pervert voiced by Tomoaki Maeno (Takeru from Maken Ki) and decide to form a party and find information on just what the hell is going on. As they’re looking for information they run across Akatsuki an assassin character who Shiroe used to be in a guild with. They find out that he’s a girl which shocks even Shiroe since Akatsuki never really talked all that much. She’s voiced by Emiri Katō (Seika from Princess Lover!). She confronts Shiroe to ask him for an appearance-changing potion which reverts her back to her true form, a cute chibi girl who hopefully is of legal age otherwise I’m calling the cops or the game administrators. She joins their party saying she wants to repay Shiroe for his kindness (you just wanna sleep with him). The next day Shiroe receives a call from Marielle the master of a guild known as Crescent Moon Alliance. She tells them that other guilds are forming, and that all the servers that connect to the other servers/towns are all shut down so the only way to reach major points in the game is to go there by foot and risk being killed by monsters (so basically like an actual game). She asks Shiroe to join her guild but he refuses because he’s not a fan of guilds (let me guess you caused your other guild members to die in the past didn’t you). Once they leave they decide to test out the mechanics of the game by fighting evil demon possessed weasels (did I really just write that). They quickly see that there’s a difference between mastering and using attacks as well as keeping an eye on your stats and your party members. It takes them a few minutes but they figure out all they have to do is just screw the commands and just go with the flow like water.
We open episode 2 by finding out that in this world when players die they’ll automatically be revived back at the Cathedral in Akihabara (and thus through the power of Christ you are saved and reborn my son). Oh, and the food in this world has no taste, it looks good but it has no taste and if players try to cook their own food it’ll just turn into some dark mucky ooze that becomes uneatable. While the gang is exploring the outskirts of town they get attacked by a group of PK players (oh come on guys seriously? We got enough to worry about, we’re stuck in a virtual world for unknown reasons, the food has no taste, and now we gotta deal with players killing other players for no reason whatsoever. Read the situation guys). During the fight we get to learn about the various different classes of fighters as well as the subclasses they have such as Assassins have stealth and tracking subclasses which allows them to sneak up on enemies unnoticed, Knights have a subclass which allows them to protect mage players, and mages have a bunch of subclasses which allows them to support the party and bind opponents. They fight the PK players and win through Shiroe’s impressive and strategic thinking in which he not only realized that there were other mages hiding in the shadow but he was able to lead Akatsuki to them, subdued the healer of the group, and provided plenty of back-up for Naotsugu who was fighting against 4 people (that’s some pretty good thinking. The guy is almost in the same league as Lelouch, Keima, and Light). The next day they come to the conclusion that the reason so many players are becoming PKs is because there’s nothing to do in this world (nothing to do!? We are in an open world RPG with no idea how we got here, plenty of places to explore and map out, and no communication with the other cities in this world unless we go to said places and establish contact with them ourselves. There is plenty, PLENTY for you guys to do so shape up and get off your lazy asses). Shiroe and the gang goes back to meet with Marielle who is planning on going to Susukino (which is even worse than Akihabara) to go save her friend Serara who is being hunted by other players (again focus your attention on trying to figure out how to get out of this world jackasses) and she wants Shiroe to hold the fort while she’s away. But Shiroe runs the stimulation in his mind and comes to the conclusion that Marielle’s team will fail (it’s because she’s a girl isn’t it) and he proposes that his group goes in her place. So the next day they set out for Susukino riding horses (where did they come from) but halfway there Shiroe and Naotsugu say fuck the horses and use these special flutes they won in an event to call forth 2 griffons and we end with them flying in the sky and taking in the view (it was like Lawrence of Arabia).
Not a whole lot happens in episode 3. The group runs into some wyverns and are force to travel underground to avoid fighting them (we can take them). They travel in a place known as The Depths of Palms an underground labyrinth filled with rats just waiting to come out and kill you (sounds like the internet). In this labyrinth we find out that Shiroe is a grad student studying computer engineering and Akatsuki is the same age as him (hey now potential love interest inside and outside the game) and we see that the person protecting Serara in Susukino is a cat (no I’m serious a talking breathing cat, I didn’t know Puss n’ Boots was a fan of MMORPGs). The group fights a giant rat and make their way out of the labyrinth where their prize is seeing an amazing sunset over a valley (haven’t seen such a great view since I first played Tales of Xillia) We see a few more scenes of Susukino being lawless and overrun with PK players who steal from weaker players and merchants, don’t allow anyone to leave, and are all following this guy by the name of Demikas who is just straight-up heartless and insane even attacking members of his own guild as well as NPCs.
In episode 4 the group finally reaches Susukino and Shiroe is able to establish contact with Serara and the cat-person who we find out is named Nyanta voiced by Jouji Nakata (Alucard from Hellsing Ultimate. Oh shit run for the hills) an old friend of Shiroe and Naotsugu who use to be in the same guild as them and comes across as a sophisticated middle age man with manners. He seems to be respected greatly by Shiroe so much that Shiroe actually calls him Chief. Shiroe, Serara, and Nyanta make their way out of the city where Demikas is waiting for them (international land, do whatever you want). Shiroe coasts Demikas into a one on one fight with Nyanta who uses dual rapiers (this should be interesting, I’ve never seen this sword style before). At first it seems like Demikas is the better fighter because of his strength and spells but Nyanta is quicker and his swords keep dealing aliments on Demikas slowing him down and lowering his defense (damn thieving cat). Demikas decides to cheat and has his healers heal him and has his henchmen join the fight (you dare disrespect a man’s one on one fight). But luckily Naotosugu takes care of the warriors and through Shiroe’s strategy and spells, Nyanta is able to beat Demikas easily and Akatsuki gets her cool moment by silently assassinating the healers (I swear this girl needs to be in the next Assassin’s Creed game as the main character, she kicks so much ass). With Demikas and his men defeated they summon their griffons and fly back to Akihabara (like bosses).
Moving on to episode 5 the group begins the long journey back to Akihabara by using their griffons to fast travel and camping at night to stay safe (how can they be safe when they’re camping?). We also find out that you can give food in this world taste if you’re subclass is a chef and it has a high enough level. Luckily, Nyanta has chef as his subclass and has it high enough that he can give the food taste (haha and they said this would be a dumb subclass). Also, Serara has an obvious crush on Nyanta (how obvious you ask, so obvious that everyone can see it. Scene here: //youtu.be/uglezAxn6J0, only thing missing is hearts appearing over her head). While traveling we learn a little more about Shiroe, Naotosugu, and Nyanta’s past. It turns out that they were part of a group known as The Tea Party Debauchery a guild that beat high level quests and earn themselves a name in the game. The group itself wasn’t an official guild since all the members belonged to other guilds, they were just players who enjoyed traveling together (almost sounds a little like Fairy Tail. They’re all part of the same guild but they form groups with other members because they enjoy traveling and working with them. I’m kinda surprise this concept hasn’t been introduced to MMORPGs yet. The ability to form short parties with other players from other guilds I could see that being a huge success). This also explains why Shiroe, Naotosugu, and Nyanta have such a good chemistry with each other. They eventually reach a small town where we see that the NPCs or People of the Land as they’re called in the game have a lot more depth and character to them. They have interesting backstories, families, and feelings they’re almost like real people. Actually strike that they are real people (okay did Oda-sensei help create this game? The attention and detail to making these characters well-rounded is something only Oda-sensei can do). They finally make it back to Akihabara to end the episode and Shiroe sees two young players who he helped trained in the past in a bad guild and gives a disdainful look to the camera.
In episode 6 Marielle’s guild hosts a party to celebrate the safe return of Serara. After the party Shiroe and Marielle talk about the state of Akihabara. Marielle says that things have settle down a little bit, there’s no more player killing but everyone is starting to fall into ranks. What I mean is bigger guilds are starting to take over and pushing out the little guilds so they can get the better hunting spots and areas (selfish bastards), also, some guilds have been taken in new players and having them give away their EXP pots (what they do should be self-explanatory but since I’m a nice guy I’ll explain anyway). Players below level 30 get this gift each day from the developers called EXP pots which helps them level up faster so that they can enjoy the game more (think of it as rare candy you give your Pokémon). Personally I wouldn’t use the item because I’m old school and enjoy leveling up the good old fashion way but still I think this is a good idea for new players who want to catch up to their friends who are already in the game and don’t want to slow them down. Anyway, guilds are forcing these new players to give them the EXP pots so they can level up to the next level faster since the new level cap for the game is 100 now (in the past it was 90 which was pretty stupid if you ask me. I mean, what kind of lame ass game makes the level cap 90? In every RPG game I’ve played the level cap has always been 99 or 100). Shiroe can’t stand this but is hesitant to do anything about it because he doesn’t want to be the guy who everyone comes crawling to for help (in other words he doesn’t like ass-kissers) but Nyanta comes in to tell him to stop holding back and just do what he wants to do (oh~ Akatsuki). He takes Nyanta’s advice and contacts the two young players from the last episode whose names are Minori (a girl) voiced by Nao Tamura and her younger brother Tohya voiced by Daiki Yamashita to tell her that he knows about their situation and he’s coming to rescue them (better late than never I suppose). Shiroe also resolves to turn Akihabara around and make it a peaceful town full of smiles, love, and peace. He goes to Marielle to ask her guild for money a small sum of 5 million (fuck you, I swear that would be my reaction if he asked me that) to enact a master plan (which we’re left in the dark for now). We also find out that Shiroe has officially started his own guild with Akatsuki, Naotosugu, and Nyanta called Log Horizon (and the anime just imploded on itself). Also in this episode Shiroe sold Akatsuki out to Henrietta second in charge of Crescent Moon, keeps Marielle in line, smart woman, and loves all things cute particularly Akatsuki.
Not a whole lot happens in episode 7, Shiroe sets stage one of his plan into motion and that is raising 5 million gold pieces. To accomplish this task he joins forces with Crescent Moon and introduces edible food to the people Akihabara and selling it to them. It was a three step plan, Naotosugu and other members of Crescent Moon would go out and catch monsters, Nyanta and other chefs would prepare the food (which would make Gordon Ramsay happy. Good job you donkeys now fuck off with you), and Marielle along with other guild members would sell the food to the masses for a fair price (5 gold pieces for a hamburger!? Eat my balls! This ain’t the life of the rich and fabulous! The fuck I’m gonna pay 5 gold pieces for a hamburger that has flavor in it! I’ll be back). The plan works and they’re raising money big time but not fast enough (we need to expand into other towns. Go all Walmart on their asses). They even get Akatsuki in on the act. Near the end of the episode Shiroe and Nyanta ask for the help of another ally from their past named Soujirou who is the master of his own guild, a strong fighter, and very popular with the girls.
In episode 8 Crescent Moon gets sponsors for their little restaurant and Shiroe moves on to the next stage of his plan which is holding a summit with the big guilds. Honestly, skip this episode it’s pretty boring and all the characters just do is sit around and talk.
In episode 9 we get more talking only this time it’s more interesting. Shiroe invites all the big guilds to a round table meeting in order to get their help in cleaning up Akihabara and while everyone doesn’t seem to be against the idea they have no interest in joining Shiroe in his cause that is until Shiroe drops the bomb on them and tells him he owns the Guild hall. What this basically means is that Shiroe practically owns Akihabara now. He has access to all of the guild’s stationed in Akihabara’s funds, equipment, and guild rooms where the guilds go to meet and stuff. If he wants to he can put them on the blacklist and banned them from the Guild hall meaning they won’t have access to the hall, their funds and equipment, and will have to risk playing the game with all their money and equipment on them at all times with no place to stash or store them and this one of those games where if they get defeated in the game they lose all of their stuff. In short all the guilds in Akihabara have become Shiroe’s bitches (holy shit! Oh my God! Shiroe and Kirito need to team up together and just rule the virtual world! With Kirito’s badass strength and Shiroe’s devil mind these two will be unstoppable). While that’s going on Akatsuki and Naotosugu save Minori, Tohya, as well as the other beginner players who got tricked into joining the evil guild Hamelin (that sounds German. Is that German?). They all reach the door that leads to the Guild hall and make it out safely and since Shiroe owns the Guild hall he can stop the members of Hamelin from following the beginners as long as he knows their names which he does. How does he know you ask? Well all throughout episode 7 Shiroe had Akatsuki follow the members of Hamelin around to get their names and report back to Shiroe (this guy. . .he’s too much. I love it. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite anime characters). However, the guild master of Hamelin Schreider, is able to get through since Akatsuki missed him (and oddly enough he’s voiced by Kazuya Nakai who also voices Zoro from One Piece. Let me guess Kazuya you got lost on your way to the set of One Piece and entered the wrong booth). Akatsuki gets his name and he gets banished from the Guild hall where Naotosugu is there to greet him (*evil demon voice* wel~come).
In episode 10 all the rest of the guilds agree with Shiroe and join his cause creating what they like to call the Round Table Conference (and you can pretty much sum up why this anime is awesome with just this video). In one week’s time all the major guilds establish laws such as no player killing, you’re allowed to leave a guild whenever you feel like it (damn right. They had to turn this into a rule?), you can’t force other players to stay or work for a guild, and no killing the People of the Land (I can live with those rules). Through all of their combine efforts Akihabara becomes livable and life begins to return to the people. We also find out that Hamelin disbanded and the children who were being held captive by them have joined up with Marielle’s guild except for Tohya and Minori who want to join Shiroe’s guild but are just too nervous to ask him (can’t say I blame them, the guy just bought down an entire guild and pretty much made all the guilds in Akihabara his bitch. He is a Boss with a capital B). In the end they finally work up the courage to ask Shiroe if they can join and he lets them in. Everything seems to going swimmingly well except some People of the Land have been spying on Akihabara and it seems that they are preparing for war (balls in their court, let’s see what they do).
Not a whole lot happens in episode 11. First off, the Round Table Conference decides to put together a training camp for players under level 40 (how nice of them) where they’ll have to conquer a dungeon on their own (I like it, teach them through experience) and since its summer they decide to host the training camp by the sea (fanservice). While there Shiroe wants Marielle to talk to the People of the Land and see what she can discover about them. But that’s not where the interesting part of the episode takes place. No, the interesting part is the Round Table Conference receiving an invitation from Sergiatte the king of Eastal and leader of the League of Freedom Towns which basically rules over the People of the Land. He wants to meet them and see what he can learn from them so Shiroe as well as a few other members of the Round Table Conference decide to go to the meeting in the hopes that they themselves will learn more about them. We also get a shot at Sergiatte’s lovely granddaughter Princess Lenessia.
Episode 12 can be split into two parts. In the first part we focus on Shiroe’s group who are still at Sergiatte’s conference where they piece together that the People of the Land are interested in their technology as well as other things and need them just as much as Shiroe and the other’s need them to learn more about their world (I can already see this developing into a. . .interesting relationship in the future). Shiroe decides he needs more information on the nobles so he sends Akatsuki to do a little recon work (time to get all Assassin’s Creed in this bitch). We also see that Crusty (yes, that’s his name, I’m guessing Lusty was too dirty for his parents) a member of the Round Table Conference who’s just as smart as Shiroe but unlike Shiroe who isn’t aware what a devil he is Crusty is totally aware of this and will use it to meet his goals however he lacks Shiroe’s clever thinking. He tries to find out more about this world by going to one of the main sources of this world Princess Lenessia (I hope one of his subclasses is sex). In the second part we go back to the rookie players who are getting a crash course in dungeon training. We focus on Minori and Tohya who form a party with Serara, and new characters Isuzu an enchantress and Rundel Haus Code (nicknamed Rudy) a sorcerer class player who is so full of himself that I don’t know whether it’s confidence or stupidity but whatever it is it almost gives Black Star from Soul Eater a run for his money (alright not a bad line-up, they have a fighter, a battle mage, 2 healers, and a support mage. Only thing I would add is another fighter class to help out Tohya and Rudy). They enter the dungeon and battle skeleton monsters in bad formation where at first they do okay but the bad formation on coordinated attacks, inexperience, and spells begin to set in and their force to retreat from the dungeon at the risk of dying.
For the majority of episode 13 we focus on Crusty and Princess Lenessia. We see that Lenessia is your typical Disney princess, she hates the princess life and wants freedom but doesn’t know how to obtain it (whatever just sing your sappy Disney song so we can move on). Crusty manages to use this to his advantage and begins to bend the princess to his ways not forcefully of course but just doing it in a way where she begins to see his side of the world. He continuously reads her mind and knows what she’s thinking throwing her off her game and make her both scared of him and consider him a bad person and forces her to escort him around the palace and the nightly ball because he won some knight battle. Oh, and while doing all of this he simply acts like a good person doing nothing wrong (see, Crusty’s a devil, the difference between him and Shiroe is that Shiroe doesn’t consider himself a devil and believes he’s not being evil but just being practical. Crusty, he’s knows he’s a devil and he’ll exploit you to no end). Eventually the two work out a deal where they see eye to eye and decide to watch each other’s backs. At the end of the episode while Akatsuki is practicing her dancing (the assassin has committed the taboo of falling in love with her master) Shiroe comes and they begin talking about what she found out about the nobles but the two get approached by the creepy palace mage Regan who wants to speak to Shiroe (God the fact that he looks and sounds evil is obvious enough but to name him Regan. You know the guy is evil).
(Isis): Alright that’s enough, time to stop.
(Nitsuj): Hey what’s going I’m in the middle of a review here?
(Isis): Sorry master, but it’s time to update the system and do maintenance.
(Nitsuj): Oh crap, not this again. Couldn’t you do it some other time like tomorrow?
(Isis): Master, I believe you don’t understand. *A demonic smile appears on Isis as she begins to glow crimson red, pulls out a sword and leans towards Nitsuj* This update is a chance for us to improve are bodies, make sure no bugs are affecting us and to make sure all security points and gates are still functioning well within the system. If someone hadn’t prolong this it would have been done months ago and we wouldn’t be in this situation. Please cooperate with us and allow us to do our job properly master.
(Nitsuj): I. . .think I’ll stop here for now and let you get to it. Call me if you need anything.
(Isis): Will do master.
(Seras): Excellent work Isis, very scary and convincing, but next time don’t lean towards him he was checking out your curves a few times. Other than that good time.
(Isis): Understood.
(Nitsuj): Wait, was that an act?
(Isis): Yep. Seras is teaching me how to be more intimidating. But the updates and maintenance must be done so please stop right here.
*Isis disappears back into the system*
(Seras): Well then master, we’ll get start on those updates right away.
*Seras disappears back into the system*
(Nitsuj): I’m beginning to think Seras is having a bad influence on Isis and the others.
*All images, videos, and music do not belong to me and belong to their respected owners*
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave comment, feedback, or request in the comment section below or sent to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com