Log Horizon 2

Episode 22

This week repeated what is apparently now a Log Horizon tradition - spend the last act of one season durdling around and setting up pieces for the next season. It was full of small conversations featuring tiny character movements, repeated reflections on the rising issues of war and apathy, and a whole ton of worldbuilding exposition. All of this material will likely pay off eventually (as soon as Log Horizon has enough source material to justify a third season, most likely), but it certainly didn't make for the most dynamic episode right here and now.

The episode's first scenes baited the series of revelations that would end the episode, as Shiroe finally opened Roe 2's letter, but before we were allowed to hear that, Log Horizon took a moment to check in with absolutely everybody. We got a few scenes of Isaac either interacting with Lenessia's brother or musing on the conflicts facing Elder Tale, scenes of Serara cooking or being praised by Nyanta (actually one of the episode's better moments, as it smartly contrasted Serara's personal arc against Nyanta's concerns raised by Londark), scenes of Shiroe being badgered by Akatsuki, Minori, and Tetra, etc. One of those episodes, basically - as Nyanta himself said, much of this felt like one of those slow days that just makes you want to take a nap.

The biggest relevant plot beat of this episode's first two-thirds concerned the backlash from that creepy marriage dude last week. Apparently the “Genius of Marriage” wasn't the only creeper skulking around Akihabara - the town has also dealt with a “Genius of Measures,” “Genius of Poison,” and other strange new “monsters.” I like the idea that the world's evolution is resulting in monsters who actually attack the Adventurers laterally, on a societal level as opposed to a physical one, but the episode's ending proved that the answer was actually far more simple than that. So let's turn to the one critical scene, then - Roe 2's letter to her “big brother” Shiroe.

Apparently, Roe 2 actually is Shiroe's alternate character from the moon's test server, so five points to everyone who made either of those predictions. The situation isn't quite that simple, though - instead of simply being an empty character brought to life, Roe 2 is actually a specifically designed programmed intelligence taking over Shiroe's “empty” character shell. Roe 2 is a “Navigator,” someone brought to the world of Elder Tale to assist in the gathering of “empathions” for some distant alien race. While Roe 2 is an Observer, other Navigators take the form of empathion Harvesters, and these are the “Geniuses” both Akihabara and Kanami have been dealing with.

So in the end, it turns out Log Horizon itself is a pretty classic scifi scenario. The arbitrary collision of RPG worldbuilding and real-world mechanics is explained by the fact that Roe 2's caretakers really did just jam two world-ideas together. And the ultimate purpose of the Apocalypse was to harvest “life-energy” of some kind to save a dying race, though upon learning that humans are actually fully self-aware intelligent beings, this plan has been altered. Roe 2 ends her letter by advising Shiroe to seek contact with the moon, as her people apparently possess skills that will help Adventurers return to the real world. And so the next task is set.

Frankly, I wasn't thrilled by this series of revelations. The degree of mystery involved in the mechanics of Elder Tale would have likely been dispelled no matter what eventually, but hearing that “an alien did it” definitely isn't the most interesting solution. What makes most of Log Horizon's worldbuilding compelling is how it tends to work both as a world and as a game - the two sides reflect each other, with game mechanics and worldbuilding adding up to a strange but ultimately fascinating whole. Hearing that the ultimate genesis of all this compelling stuff was just “aliens magicked all of this into being using powers beyond your imagination” is about the most simplistic answer the show could have chosen, and learning their motivation is to gather spirit-energy to save their dying race is also just empty, cliche plot. It feels like a cop-out, essentially: "what brought this strange, mysterious world into being?" "Oh, a wizard did it to harvest wizard particles."

So yeah, this was a pretty messy episode. The first two-thirds were full of slow, repetitive conversations, and the ultimate reveals ended up being far less interesting than I'd hoped. But Log Horizon is nothing if not thoughtful, so I have hope that even these turns will lead to interesting ideas eventually. We're just clearly not there yet.

Rating: C

Log Horizon 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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