Not to long ago, on my top ten anime of 2013 post, I mentioned how much I liked Log Horizon but it didn't end up in the top ten -- it was an honorable mention. Saying this, I only really gave a few sentences worth of an explanation, plus I haven't talked about this anime that much on my blog. So if anything, now that the series is a good amount of episodes in -- finished watching episode sixteen before writing this -- it is a nice place to write about my thoughts at this point.
The initial introduction of the game world was a bit slow at first, but pick up quite nicely; and with the anime actually spending the time needed to explain the situation most player characters are in -- plus the game rules and how they changed after everyone got stuck -- it helped me care for this game world that started out pretty simple. Building on top of something simple made it easier to follow when the more complex elements started to creep in, and that is just a sign of good pacing on the part of Log Horizon, despite me personally feeling like the first few episodes where a slow introduction.
In Comes Politics
As the world of Elder Tales quickly became increasingly more complex -- with all the many classes, races, and concept of the game -- it came as a shock to me to see politics enter into a series like this.
The first thing that peeked its ugly head as an issue was the fact that most actions in Elder Tales were done under nearly no risk; this resulted in many players turned to tactic that were very cruel to their fellow players. To counteract this rule free land, the Round Table Alliance was started to create a framework that would treat all players fairly and infixed a set of consequences for players that didn't follow said framework.
The start of this Alliance of guilds, big and small, was lead by Shiroe; later Crusty took the reins since Shiroe is far more a strategist than a leader. So with the Round Table Alliance, there was finally someone -- or rather something -- to represent the individual players; but what about all these non-player characters?
Most players don't think much of the non-playable character -- or in Elder Tales they are called People of the Land. That name itself plays an important role of how most players should be treating them. Because the NPCs are the original inhabitants of the land, the Round Table Alliance took in consideration of their rights as well as the players. Resulting in the base foundation that was required to both inhabit such a land as Elder Tales, and solidify the political discourse between Adventurers and People of the Land -- adding a new layer on top of this once simple anime.
Surprise! Psychological Issues
In my first impressions, I had a complaint that I wished Log Horizon would have focused a bit more on the psychological side of how people would react to being stuck in a game. Little did I know that what I wanted would be explored around the halfway mark of this series. So, in the more recent episodes, we finally see what I've been waiting for for so long, but the political aspects of Log Horizon did suffice for what is making this great anime shine.
Just like how the politics were influence by the two type of people inhabiting the land -- that being Adventurers and People of the Land -- trying to live together, the psychological element is driven by the conflict of this world and the real world.
When someone died in Elder Tales, it was assumed that you only lost experience and spawn back in a nearby chapel. However with some new revelations, we found out that you also lose a fraction of the memory you had in the real world. So for those that have died quite a bit will slowly forget everything about their life outside of Elder Tales and, at least I'm assume, have no reason to try to log out of the game anymore and be fully integrated into this world.
I'm pretty interested in seeing where this gets taken, since as of writing this, I'm only three episodes in from where the memory lost stuff was first introduced to both Shiroe and Akatsuki -- thanks to Ri Gan. I wonder if one completely forgets everything they once knew about their life outside of Elder Tales, would they become one of the legendary People of the Land, like the Knights of Isuzu.
Log Out
I'm sure there will be a few more things that make this series even more enjoyable, but the way things are now, makes for a really easy to follow and fun to watch series. I didn't imagine Log Horizon to be anything more than a simplified version of Sword Art Online, but I was wrong on all fronts. I really do love the way Log Horizon stacks upon simple concepts and slowly, but logically, creates a more complex anime that is both easy to follow and entertaining -- at least of me.
It isn't really that hard to say that this is a better, more in-depth version of what the first arc of Sword Art Online tried to accomplish. I'm really glad I stuck around in the earlier episodes and can't wait to see what there is to come in the next couple of weeks.