Log Horizon Episode 5-6 Rant

Episode 5 Rating: 3.5/5 happy clouds

Hi guys, today we’re looking at the most recent episodes of Log Horizon in the last two weeks. Episode 5 really winds down from the intense action that we’ve been shown. Much of this episode focuses on the People of the Land AKA NPCs. Shiroe has been observing subtle developments in the NPCs who now seem to have much more depth to their personalities than mere in-game dialogue scripts. He points out that the Adventurers, the actual players, may be the abnormal ones, who don’t actually follow the life and death system of the land. He postulates that perhaps the life of NPCs who are directly connected to the land are much more natural and real.

A bit more of Shiroe’s back story is revealed in the humdrum rhythm of quest travelling. He tells of his encounter with Minori and Toya, a Priestess and Samurai pair of twins who are novice Adventurers.

This episode was really a breather because you drift through the story without much of a point but it does give you a look into the slow moving lives of Adventurers who had to journey by foot or horse (or gryphon) at times when modern forms of transportation was not available. As well, more points of the Elder Tale were introduced such as the means to attain food that tastes real, the character appearance in –game versus real age and personality dichotomy and most importantly, Shiroe’s aversion to guilds… which comes to the forefront of episode 6’s plot.

Episode 6 Rating: 4.25/5 curiously excited clouds

Upon returning to Akihabara, Chief Nyanta shares his culinary secrets with the cooks of the Crescent Moon Guild and the entire gang holds of a celebration. Between the Crescent Moon Guild Leader Marielle and Shiroe, we hear about the social-economic and even guild-political strife that is emerging between the major powerful guilds. Since Elder Tale was expanded just before The Apocalypse (the day the game became real), the new level cap has been raised to 100, prompting many level 90 players to game higher. In order to speed up the leveling process and minimize the dangers of battle, shady guilds have been capturing younger players and forcing them to hand over EXP pots that particularly boost attack power and health regeneration and double experience points which were once distributed to all players below level 30 so that they could level quickly and delve deeper into the game. A guild named Hamelin is the at the crux of this problem… a guild that Minori and Toya have been coerced into.

This episode is indeed a turning point for Shiroe. Seeing the state of Akihabara, he finally decides execute a plan in order to fix up their hometown. Nyanta advises Shiroe to do “the most incredible thing that [he] can do.”With his new resolve, he finally creates a guild of his own called Log Horizon – where we get the name for the show… and it all makes sense. It’s a good name, though not entirely what I had in mind when he announced his new guild. He sets forth to save the twins as well as implement his Akihabara plan that involves FIVE MILLION GOLD /O_O\ Shiroe gets scary when he goes into strategizing mode.

Since the world is so confined to certain rules and conditions, I’m wondering what will happen when the Adventurers reach a point where everything seems listless and every place has been explored. If everything is fixed on the make-up of the game, human achievements are reduced to stats and numbers aren’t they? (Or perhaps this goes back to the idea of using versus mastering). I feel like there are a plethora of dichotomies that arise when we look deeper into the world.

And with that, we’re introduced to the next Arc which seems like an overwhelmingly large task to complete with numerous obstacles looming overhead. Shiroe’s turning into a pretty strong character and I can’t wait to see what the story has in store for us next.