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Review

by Nick Creamer,

Log Horizon

Blu-Ray - Collection 2

Synopsis:
Log Horizon Blu-Ray
New conflicts emerge in Log Horizon, as Shiroe and his Round Table engage with the Eastal nobles and Minori and her friends continue their dungeon training. When a forgotten game quest sparks a massive goblin invasion, both Shiroe's diplomacy and Minori's skills will be tested, and all of Elder Tale will face the consequences of our heroes' choices. Even the lazy princess Lenessia will be forced to take up arms as the Adventurers of Akihabara and all the forces of Elder Tale collide.
Review:

Log Horizon is the safe bet. It doesn't overreach, and it can sometimes drag, but if you give it time your investment will always be rewarded. Almost every strength and weakness that defined this season's first half remains true in the second - the show is still heavy on exposition and held down by slice of life episodes, but it's also still full of engaging worldbuilding and able to use that worldbuilding for creative dramatic effect. Though the ultimate effect is definitely inconsistent, when all the pieces come together, Log Horizon can be a distinctive and even thrilling production. And fortunately, this collection's first arc demonstrates Log Horizon at its absolute best.

This collection drops us straight in the middle of the arc the first collection began, with Shiroe's group handling regional diplomacy and learning more about their world while minori's smaller-scale conflict focuses on the basics of MMO combat and general teamwork. From the first episode, Log Horizon's great thoughtfulness in worldbuilding is readily apparent, as Shiroe learns of the history of Elder Tale from one of the world's own sages. Ideas like HP and MP being reflections of your physical and mental composition, or descriptions of how the arrival of the Adventurers changed the political landscape of Elder Tale, are perfect reflections of one of Log Horizon's greatest strengths - its ability to use the assumed mechanics of game design as a kind of natural worldbuilding, exploring fantasy what-ifs that are all the more engaging because they arise from preexisting ideas that are generally taken for granted.

While Shiroe is learning about both the base underpinnings of this world and its greater political climate, the younger set of characters (minori, Tohya, Serara, Rudy, and Isuzu) explore conflicts on a much more individual level. minori's team starts off by exploring the basics of MMO combat, as well as simply focusing on the fundamentals of friendship and teamwork. If you're at all familiar with RPG combat already, this material can sometimes feel a bit tedious (particularly since some of the friendship-related points seem aimed at a distinctly younger audience than the Shiroe arc), but it's a very Log Horizon move to make sure the audience completely understands the fundamentals of combat before using that for dramatic effect. Though some of the scenes in both of these stories can drag, the way minori's challenges reflect Shiroe's on a smaller scale is a graceful bit of narrative synchronicity, and the collision of these two arcs in this collection's central conflict is Log Horizon's most impressive accomplishment so far.

The main source of drama in this collection comes from the crowning of the goblin king. When Elder Tale was a game, the crowning of the goblin king was a repeatable quest where Adventurers were charged with killing goblins in order to thin out their numbers and avoid a large-scale combat event with the eventual king. However, since no one has really been accepting quests since the Apocalypse, the goblins have built up continuously, and now a massive goblin army threatens all the cities of Eastal. The many conflicts prompted by this calamity demonstrate Log Horizon's strengths in all sorts of ways.

On Shiroe's side, the political complexities of the Adventurers negotiating with the People of the Land offer a variety of interesting clashes and power struggles unique to this world. Though the Adventurers are very powerful and revive upon death, they're still new to the politics of this place, and the way the People of the Land dance around their need for Adventurer support offers a fun echo of the formation of the Round Table from the first collection. This conflict is ultimately resolved by the princess Lenessia, who ends up somewhat accidentally positioning herself as both ambassador of the People of the Land and a kind of propaganda tool used to harness the Adventurers' power. Lenessia's speech to the Adventurers is another example of this show's strengths at their best, as the author's love of deception and politics reflect off classic gamer stereotypes to manipulate the Akihabarans into joining her cause. There's a compelling moral ambiguity to Log Horizon's politics - just as Shiroe's founding of the Round Table relied on blackmail and only ever possessed the appearance of democracy, in this sequence, Lenessia's army is raised largely through purposeful stagecraft and lies of omission. It's nice to see a show that articulates heroes who do bad things for the greater good with greater complexity than simply allowing them to sometimes commit violence. With Shiroe and his friends, deception, power plays, and the importance of false appearances are assumed tools in a larger world-crafting arsenal.

Lenessia is certainly one of the show's most lively characters, and reflective of a general show improvement that's also apparent in minori's narrative - the increased acuity of Log Horizon's character development. On minori's side, the conflict of the goblin king manifests in a much more immediate way - goblin armies are rampaging down the countryside, and only minori and her friends stand between the demi-humans and unprotected local villages. In contrast to earlier conflicts like the rescue of Serara, this conflict feels like it has actual stakes, both because we come to personally understand the values of characters like minori, Tohya, and Rudy and also because there's real lasting danger involved. Aside from minori (who grows through these episodes into an engaging leader with a personality that works as a strong counterpoint to Shiroe's), the easy standout on this side is the new Adventurer Rundel Haus Code, or Rudy. Rudy's silly affectation, secrets, and multiple faces trump almost any other character the show has introduced so far, and his growing relationship with Isuzu feels natural despite being painted across only a few scenes.

The goblin king saga ends up prompting close to half a dozen small conflicts, with Shiroe, Lenessia, Crusty, Henrietta, and all of the younger characters getting some triumphant moments in the sun. This conflict builds to a standout finale in episode nineteen that draws together all the show's conflicts, character work, and worldbuilding… and then it just keeps going. Unfortunately, after the smartly constructed finale of the goblin king arc, Log Horizon doesn't seem to know what to do with itself - it fumbles around in festivals, has a couple episodes dedicated to an undercooked love triangle, and ends with a small arc that only really exists to set up some important players for the next season. But Log Horizon giveth and Log Horizon taketh away, and that the entire first season would decide to conclude by laying out material that's only going to pay off in another twenty episodes is actually kind of appropriate for the show we're dealing with. As I said, Log Horizon in it for the long haul.

Log Horizon's aesthetics remain largely unremarkable in this second half. The show's animation is extremely limited (I distinctly remember that in at least two episodes, the animation was so minimal that a half-second upturned smile was the biggest visual highlight), the color work generally just functional, and the shot framing fairly unambitious. There are a couple specific exceptions to this, with the most notable easily being episode nineteen. It's only fitting that the climax to this show's biggest conflict so far be a visual standout, but the contrast between this episode's execution and the usual fare is even more dramatic than you'd expect. The shot framing is unusually purposeful (some shots using shadow and a divided composition to visually demonstrate the distance between Rudy and Isuzu, others create tension through lighting or actually obscuring the frame), the backgrounds are lovely, and even the sound design is above and beyond the show's standard material, making great use of silence and incidental noise like rain and howling wolves. It's just one great episode, but if they only had the one episode to beautify, they certainly made the right choice.

The music remains unassuming but generally effective, with the tendency towards unobtrusive but repetitive “videogame music” continuing. Unfortunately, the dub track has a few issues. One of these is in translation - in particular, the relationship between Crusty and Lenessia is somewhat weakened in the dub, as Crusty's jokes now come across as more directly at Lenessia's expense than in their original, more self-effacing versions. It's a small thing, but the Crusty-Lenessia relationship was initially one of the better parts of these episodes, and it's frustrating to see the tone weakened through oversimplification. On the pure execution front, there were a number of moments when Shiroe's voice actor failed to hit the right emotion, either through underselling a delivery or through general stiffness. There were both awkward moments and highlights scattered through the rest of the cast (Isuzu sounds kind of stiff at some points but absolutely nails the climax), but Shiroe's delivery in particular makes me prefer the sub to the dub.

Packaging and extras remain minimal in this release, in that there isn't really any packaging or extras - simple bluray case, no bonuses on the blurays. Overall, Log Horizon remains a show that's ambitious in scope and conservative in execution, rich in ideas but sometimes plodding in narrative. The slower moments are the price you pay for the well-constructed highlights, and these episodes have plenty of highlights to go around.

Grade:
Overall (dub) : B-
Overall (sub) : B
Story : A-
Animation : C-
Art : C
Music : B-

+ The goblin king arc offers solid worldbuilding, intrigue, and character development. Episode nineteen is a triumph. Log Horizon remains a compelling look into a well-constructed world.
The last set of episodes drag compared to what came before, and the show's visual execution remains weak. Heavy exposition and slow narrative buildup is part of the price of entry.

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Production Info:
Director: Shinji Ishihira
Series Composition: Toshizo Nemoto
Script:
Shingo Irie
Michiko Itou
Toshizo Nemoto
Shinsuke Ōnishi
Storyboard:
Hiroyuki Fukushima
Shinji Ishihira
Takaaki Ishiyama
Noriaki Saito
Tsuyoshi Tobita
Junichi Wada
Story: Syouji Masuda
Episode Director:
Takashi Andō
Hiroyuki Fukushima
Kazunobu Fuseki
Yoshito Hata
Takaaki Ishiyama
Yasuo Iwamoto
Keiji Kawakubo
Kenichi Maejima
Noriaki Saito
Tsuyoshi Tobita
Junichi Wada
Takanori Yano
Music: Yasuharu Takanashi
Original creator: Mamare Touno
Original Character Design: Kazuhiro Hara
Character Design: Mariko Ito
Art Director: Yuki Nomura
Chief Animation Director:
Mariko Ito
Hisashi Kawashima
Noriko Ogura
Animation Director:
Mari Aizawa
Masayuki Fujita
Toshie Fujiwara
Toyoaki Fukushima
Emi Honda
Masanori Iizuka
Yusuke Kamata
Fumiko Kikuta
Tomohiro Koyama
Satoshi Kubo
Daisuke Kusakari
Hiroko Kuurube
Shuji Maruyama
Masato Numazu
Madoka Ozawa
Jung-Duk Seo
Hideaki Shimada
Keizō Shimizu
Shinichi Suzuki
Yuka Takemori
Daisuke Takemoto
Chihiro Yuki
Sound Director: Shōji Hata
Director of Photography: Yūjirō Yamane
Producer: Kenichiro Naeshiro
Licensed by: Sentai Filmworks

Full encyclopedia details about
Log Horizon (TV)

Release information about
Log Horizon - Collection 2 (Blu-ray)

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