Log Horizon 2

Episode 7

We had an unabashed build-up episode on Log Horizon this week, as the Akihabara team prepared for their final confrontation with the murderer. We learned more about the murderer's motivation, Akatsuki and Lenessia both moved forward on their personal journeys, and a plan was put in motion to confront the killer for the last time. A lot of this episode was dedicated to hyping up the next episode, and there were no visual highlights to match the best moments of the last two weeks, but there was still plenty to dig into here.

This episode begins by exploring the consequences of last week's flavor text reveal. Rieze quickly deduced that Crusty's disappearance likely has to do with this shift, and then it was revealed that even Byakumaru, the weapon used by the murderer, has very relevant flavor text. Apparently there's no great conspiracy here - the murderer Nelreth is simply being possessed by the spirit mentioned in his weapon's text. This actually greatly simplifies the political dimension of this issue (since the Person of the Land involved isn't actually working of their own free will), but it was a nice way to tie the various strands this arc is developing together. And the spirit Rugrius referring to the Adventurers specifically as “humans” seems like it might have its own implications.

From there, the episode shifted its focus to exploring Akatsuki's choices in the wake of her resolutions last week. She finally joined up with the raid training group, and began to directly attack her old feelings of insecurity and inferiority. The Teachings she seeks remain a semi-mystical, semi-mechanical mystery, and at this point, it seems as likely as anything else that this'll end with “the Teachings were inside you all along.” Or as the show itself says “the real Teachings is being able to say that Teachings are stupid.” The episode really labored on Akatsuki's turn for a while, but it's an important point, so I can forgive the show its slowness. And Akatsuki's final declaration of “there are things you can only learn by accepting your weakness” is both a great line in its own right and a nice reflection on Lenessia's parallel story.

Lenessia found herself trapped this week, as the Adventurers asked her to shut off the town's defenses in order to shut down Nelreth's teleportation armor. There's no easy choice here - as Lenessia herself points out, as a friend who's invested in this conflict, she wants to help them, but the greater consequences of leaving the town defenseless can't be ignored. She didn't come to an actual conclusion this week, but I very much liked the two strong points she did make. First, she apologized directly to Akatsuki for attempting to use her to avoid consequences again. Akatsuki had plenty of her own reasons for recklessly fighting Nelreth, but it's nice to see Lenessia valuing both her pride and friendship enough to make a point of this. And secondly, Lenessia volunteered to help the cause with the very well-considered thought “if I turn this over to someone else because I'm weak, I'll be admitting that not only am I weak, I'm also inferior.” Like Akatsuki, Lenessia has learned to accept that there are some things she can't do - but weakness itself is never a sign of inferiority. Only your willingness to act and help regardless can determine your worth.

Fortunately for Lenessia, it doesn't seem like she'll have to make the hard choice this time, as the last few minutes of the episode revealed that the shopkeeper's other magic katana has the power to break down armor. That's a pretty nifty power, given these exact circumstances! The stage is set for a big climactic fight next week, and I'm very ready to see powered-up Akatsuki smash some face.

Rating: B

Log Horizon 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.