Forum - View topicWhat Happened to Log Horizon?
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Villain-chan
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S1 was amazing, S2 was a let down becus it took away most of what made S1 awesome, S2 SO FAR has been a return to form and i should mention I saw S1 AND S2 back to back this year (Dubbed) so what I just said isn't nostalgia/goggles talking but a fair assessment. I am watching S3 Dubbed so I've seen 7 out of 12 eps. Hopefully the last 5 eps are just as good as the last 7. Anyway, I won't be back here till the 12th ep has been seen to avoid spoiler (Read some of the words on the preview for the article but not the article itself and since it seemed to indicate its bad and lost its way, I disagree and hence why i made this post)
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Electric Wooloo
Posts: 311 |
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The gist of the article, without spoilers, is kind of what you already said. That S2 resorted to a lot of info dumps and eschewed some of the appeal of season one's game mechanic manipulation, and that season 3 is something of an improvement on 2 but doesn't capture the magic of S1. I especially agree with the sentiment that more focus on Action Animation has detracted from the politicking that I loved in S1, and that there are more loose plot threads than ever that I don't see being resolved which irks me pretty hard. So while S3 was ok, it has also kind of confirmed for me that Log is never going to recapture it's S1 magic. |
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gedata
 Posts: 615 |
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The massive real time gap of six years in between seasons 2 and 3 didn't help much either. Asking viewers to hop back in as if no time has past with such a dense and complicated narrative is a bit of a tall order. I didn't have to deal with this since I only began the series relatively recently, but I do get why people weren't as eager to come back for the 3rd season.
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Thespacemaster
Posts: 1115 |
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The real issues i found with s3 are:
The Massive time gap between s2 to s3 and the lack of even a recap, with such a diverse amount of characthers and plot elements already established, its easy for people to forget these things and/or can't follow everything that is going. The lack of balance of focusing on so many things, as said in this article they put an emphasis on to much on one thing for long periods of time and than just switches again and again without time to follow, s1 had a natural balance that gave u time to absorb things just enough to have a basic understanding and as well as mix everyones involvement in a good balanace like the shift between the adults and kids action during the goblin invasion arc, not like s2 where they spend way to much on the kids as well s3 opening where their was to much focus on the political side. Also the comedy was noticable dry and lacking in this season, some of the characthers that were known for their comedic side like Rudy and Natsougu has little if any involvement or their usual characther perks, and some of it just came at you all at once like the twins that seem to put you off. Finally, the pace, the first and last arcs were done well but the pacing of the kanami side story was extremely rushed, this is the same problem in s2 in that one it was more extreme as they adapted a whole volume in 1 ep in this one it was 2 ep but it still was extremely faced paced compared to everything else that seemed slow, the fact that krusty was involved in it and has been absent is also noticable, not only the characthers in the series are missing him but us the viewers as well, his and rayneshia interactions were also what made s1 so enjoyable as people just loved their chemistry together and they really need to bring him back on the main server. Bottom line: I am still happy we got a s3, personally i think we still have a chance for a s4, the fact that the author in question was involved in a tax scandal and served prison time yet kodakawa bothered to still make more of it is a good sign, also ironicly enough the series is also mainly sponsored by the NHK studio a state funded studio that airs kids programming for their education block and it seems they still think log horizon is worth delving into as despite its flaws it has a lot of educational purposes that provide the audience. It just needs more of the material made in the wn and that kodakwa has got to release the newer volumes in the market. So i am still a log horizon fan despite all of this and will countinue to do so, i just hope if their is a next time, they can actually fix the flaws that came in this one. |
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Eric10301
Posts: 13 |
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I tried watching the first episode of s3 but I had no idea what was going in. The only thing I could remember from season 2 was that I hated watching it. Which means I would have to sit through that again to refresh my memory and I'm not about to do that.
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joe_g7
 Posts: 386 Location: Asia |
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I think it would be quite accurate to just attribute the gradual decline of Log Horizon to the studio itself. There's really not much need to delve deeper to try to find the 'root' of the problem when the amount of good anime Deen has produced in the last decade can be counted on a person's fingers. It's just a bad studio making constant bad decisions that result in terrible anime.
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Tenebrae
Posts: 486 |
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I liked season 1 back in the day quite a lot, so I had hopes for S2, even with DEEN's involvement. Sadly it was a disappointment. One reason being it spent a lot of time on characters I didn't care about, and over the season found not much reason to care about. So, I haven't bothered with S3, and so far what I've read about it has only confirmed it was the right decision.
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Northlander
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Pretty much this. Plus, with so much stuff people might have started on, it also might be hard to set any of it aside for this, especially if one doesn't have that much time to watch stuff. |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 364 |
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DarkJak2050
Posts: 46 |
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Alright, I've been buzzing around this site and the forums of Log Horizon for the past few years, but I think it's about time speak up...
You can thank Mamare's Tax Evasion for that 5-6 year gap. In late 2015, he was charged for Tax Evasion. Then in 2016, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison, but it was given a 3-year suspension. In other words; if Mamare stays on good behavior for 3 years, no prison time & he'll only have to pay a fine (think of this as a "last chance" card given to him). This 3-year suspension is what forced Mamare, Kadakowa & almost everyone involved in Log Horizon to put the series to a near halt. It was mainly to play it safe so Mamare wouldn't get in trouble again during the 3-year suspension. During that time resulted in little to no content being published and of course the anime coming to a complete halt. With no new content being released, people started to either forget or just outright gave up on Log Horizon (I almost gave up on it myself). While at the same time, more anime series that are similar to Log Horizon came out and those drew people away from it. When season 3 was announced, the general reaction to it was just outright shock & surprise; with the majority of that comprised of people saying they forgot about the series, gave up on the series and are now invested in other series that were released between Log Horizon's 2nd & 3rd seasons. In other words, support for Log Horizon has gone down significantly in the past 5-6 years. Sidenote: What also didn't help was Log Horizon's 3rd season being put in a heavily stacked season with big named titles. Which resulted in it being overshadowed, and lost in support/viewership. When I first heard that Mamare got convicted & sentenced for Tax Evasion, I immediately thought to myself: "This could end Log Horizon. And even if it somehow survives this, it can have long-term repercussions. Repercussions that Log Horizon may not recover from." And now we're seeing the results of those repercussions. If Mamare paid his taxes when he was supposed to, Log Horizon wouldn't be in it's current state right now. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1426 |
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The thing is, even after Mamare Touno's sentencing in 2016, he kept releasing new chapters of the web novel somewhat regularly until March 2018. That's what intrigues me: what happened in 2018 that led to this hiatus that has yet to end? Writer's block, maybe? |
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Stampeed Valkyrie
 Posts: 830 Location: PA |
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I wanted to wait to comment on this, until I finished S3. Log Horizon's biggest issue is too many open thread points. Characters pop in, and then are never heard from again or come back much later and all of sudden they are relevant again.
This series has much promise, but instead it chooses to flounder in inconsequential side plots..and political garbage. Almost all of S3 is in the weeds with only snippets of any forward traction. S3 at least wrapped up on a high note, but honestly it felt like a complete filler arc. I agree that this series started great, but has consistently been a disappointment as of late. |
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DarkJak2050
Posts: 46 |
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Which is why I said "near halt" in my last post. He kept on writing the Web Novel until March 2018, but no official Light Novel volumes were being released until Vol. 11. Between 2016 & March 2018, Vol. 11, 12 & 13 were complete in the Web Novel. All 3 of those volumes would've been edited & published officially in the Light Novels during that time frame. But only Vol. 11 got officially published, which was on March 2018. Why did only Vol. 11 get officially published in that 2-3 year gap, instead of all 3 of them? Probably because it has something to do on Kadokawa's end: 1. Just testing the waters again to see if people were still interested in Log Horizon, despite Mamare's Tax Evasion and the 2-3 year gap between Vol. 10 & 11. 2. They were still playing it safe so Mamare wouldn't get into trouble again (Vol. 11 was officially published during his 3-year suspension). 3. It could be both. And while still on the regards of the Light Novels, there's still nothing about the release of Vol. 12. Which has me concern. As for the Web Novel going on Hiatus: 1. Mamare could actually be in a mental rut that's stopping him from writing. 2. He could've just stopped the Web Novel and just write for the official Light Novels. 3. He was told by Kadokawa to stop altogether (so they wouldn't risk him getting into trouble again). But either way, if you ask me; if it wasn't for his Tax Evasion, Log Horizon wouldn't be in it's current state right now. It's just a flat out mess "behind the scenes". |
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Villain-chan
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I have finished Log Horizon S3. As I said b4, I recently got into the series (English Dubbed) so i didn't have to wait that long (Just for the Dub to air a new ep each week) I can say without a doubt the following to everyone who posted here and to those who share similar/same feelings and views:
Log Horizon S3 is as good as S1 but for different reasons. 1st off, let me address something, even S1 was political, heavily at times might I add. So the 1st arc of S3 is just more of that. the 2nd arc of S3 thankfully doesn't go too into action like S2 did, that's what HURT Log Horizon and one reason why fans hated S2. The 2nd arc of S3 also brought back Crusty which til now, i felt someone HAD to hate the poor guy given how he ended up in the prev season... S1 had a legit problem that S2 tried to address. The prob? Shiroh was the main focus/problem solver. This wasn't a BAD thing mind u, but if this continued it'd undermine what S3 tried to accomplish and succeeded at. That is, showing everyone's growth as a person and character. Its hard to do that if Shiroh is the only one ever solving the sitch ya know? THIS right here, Shiroh being a badass problem solver but not really strong outside of his mind is one reason why fans loved the 1st season, of this I have no doubt becus it's one reason i love S1 so much. S2 was just bad, it took away a lot of the talking, put in action that had no business being there in the way it was. S3 however got it right again. Talking, some action but it not being the focus. The focus is on the chars and their growth and how they problem solve. S3 I love as much as S1 even though it isn't about Shiroh becus its about everyone's growth. (Minorie in acr 3, The Princess in arc 1 and 2 and others in arc 2 and ofc, the guy who defected out of the round table in arc 1 and Shiroh as well in arc 1) I can assure u, the reason those who had seen log Horizon years ago instead of recently had a problem with S3 or the series itself is becus they didn't rewatch the past 2 seasons (Who can blame em? S2 wasn't as good, it was ok but not as good as S1 and that's 50 eps to rewatch..) where as if there had been no wait time, they prolly would've enjoyed it far more and not be saying a lot that was said here, they'd also see a lot of their criticism for the series and S3 isn't justified. (Unless we're talking S2, that's justified criticism lol) And ofc, there's one more reason why some may be disinterested in Log Horizon now and that is, they have become older, maybe even seen more anime like Log horizon or just realized it wasn't as good as they OG thought. I'm not saying LH isn't good, am saying the individual loved it but later realized for them it wasn't as good as they once thought it was, think being hyped about something then realizing even if something is good, its not as good to u as u OG thoughtAnyway, the point is, much like the characters in LH, we've all grown up, had mroe exp in life and so on, that's GOING to affect how u feel about others and about anything. So, again, S3 is as good as S1, but for different reasons and for S3, its as good as S1 becuase it shows chars growing as a person. Sure Shiroh may not have had as big a role here as in S1, but as a certain Shinobi said "My Lord is not strong, he is weak. He's not some savior or hero. He is my Lord" and the fact is, yeah its nice to see Shiroh be a badass and problem solve, but if thats ALL LH had to offer, it'd be no different from the countless anime that have OP heroes who use their skills, power, wits etc. to save the day every time and as Shiroh said in S3 here "No leader can predict everything that happens or lead a flawless victory" yeah it sure seems like he can especially in S1 but he is human and makes mistakes like any other and seeing Shiroh also grow to realize this and the many other things he's realized along the way, is nice too. To end this, while I didn't and may not read this article, S1 and S3 are both equally good but for their own reasons. Ultimately I feel LH is best when its showing everyone coming together and growing, its good life lessons and I feel if the series continues and gets an ending, this is something we'll see more of and I hope so, long as it's handled at least as well as it was in S3, though, I will admit some more time would've helped, being only 12 eps instead of 25 eps I do feel hurt it, but not (imo) to where it can't be enjoyed as much as S1. If a S4 can fix the flaws S3 has (which it does have some, but am not going to nitpick stuff and it mostly comes down to, less eps so less time and ofc more story would've been better) while keeping what S3 got right while trying to improve upon what S1 did then i feel that'd make the anime better. Anyway, I don't have much else to say besides yeah I'd have liked more explanations of stuff in S3 that were convincingly glossed over leaving me to speculate why something is the case such as the kids now looking like teens when last 2 seasons they were kids and it didn't seem like much time had passed (I assume this is either caused by the in world lore where everyone's bodies r changing and or just the fact a new art style was used) so hopefully if a S4 is made, we get more explanations which sadly S3 glossed over which was another flaw S3 had and the 2nd of 2 that I'd want to see fixed for a S4. Edit: I watched the video which was the article itself with more info. So to this I can say, while S3 is as good as S1, I agree that the panning issue is a problem. I was able to process what was being told without the exposition showing a visual to help process and digest it, but I acknowledge this is a problem for most and for myself, it prolly will make it harder to remember later without the visual aspect (But then again I'm likely to forget details with or without said visual anyway) I also agree with a few other issues that were pointed out in the video, but not all. I still believe LH S3 can be enjoyed as much as S1 can, but its prolly going to depend on the individual as well as if they watched S1 and 2 recently b4 jumping into S3. That was a much better article and video than I initially thought it was, thanks for making it. :) |
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