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Sword Art Online II – Watched Gun Gale Online arc (spoilers)

That’s episodes 1-14 of Sword Art Online II, if I recall correctly. It started a bit slow but picked up dramatically and was a great arc overall. A few niggling flaws here and there, but it managed to recapture much of the tension and drama of the very first Aincrad arc.

Summary: Nearly one year since the Sword Art Online incident, a new VRMMORPG known as Gun Gale Online has taken Japan by storm. One day, a cloaked man calling himself and his weapon “Death Gun” fires a bullet another player’s avatar. A month later, Kirito meets Kikuoka Seijirou of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Virtual Division, who reveals that the player whose avatar was shot was later found dead of heart failure. Kikuoka, believing Death Gun is specifically targeting professional GGO players, asks Kirito to infiltrate Gun Gale Online and investigate what is causing the victims to die.

Of course the whole Kirito as unstoppable overpowered MC trope is taken even further in this arc where he becomes the very best player in the game within two days of starting it, all while using a sword instead of a gun like everyone else in the game (Silly Kirito, taking a sword to a gunfight). Nobody is able to stand up to him so the ultimate conclusion of the arc is never in any question, but there’s still a lot of interest and intrigue and drama to be found in speculating about who exactly Death Gun is, how he kills his victims and what his motive is.

Spoilers: I suspected Shinkawa from the start. I had no choice because although the hero is in a committed relationship, Sword Art Online is still a harem show. That means no heroine is allowed to fall in love with anyone except Kirito. Which means Shinkawa was either the culprit (and he acted plenty suspicious) or he was doomed to be a victim. It’s too bad he became evil because I thought he stood a real chance with Asada Shino. Sure she was attracted to Kirito’s looks and confidence, but I’m sure she would have given up once she found out about Asuna. Plus the look of joy and pure relief on her face when Shinkawa came to her door in episode 14 shows how much she liked and trusted him. Way to blow it, smart guy.

For a brief moment I wondered if Shinkawa might be Pale Rider and thus a victim of Death Gun as well. But since no one except Kirito is allowed to restart a game and be totally awesome, that ruled him out as well. Sucks being a guy in the Sword Art Online world, eh?

Still it wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were some funny moments in Sword Art Online II too: on top of his expanding female harem, Kirito went with a feminine-looking avatar this time so now he has a lot of male fans as well. I laughed aloud at the point where he went “Everyone cheer for me, okay? <3” Oh Kirito-kun, will your Gary Stu-ness never end? :-DDD

Well probably not, Kirito’s gotta Kirito after all, But to his credit the author Reki Kawahara did put a lot of work into humanizing Kirigaya and showing that it’s not all brightness and sunshine under the hood. Kirito is still tormented by the things he had to do (specifically killing others) to survive in the world of Aincrad. Some quality time is invested in the arc helping him come to terms, at least partway, with the consequences of his actions to himself and others.

His own past also helps him to play therapist to Shinon (best girl? but I like Asuna too) and help her cope with her unfortunate gun-related past. Honestly this is something her mother and counselors should have helped her deal with long ago, but it’s not Sword Art Online if Kirito doesn’t get to save the day time and time again so we’ll roll with that.

I thought it was very sweet – if a little cheesy and overwrought – for the woman whose life she saved that day to reappear and thank her personally. And it’s good that they don’t show her magically overcoming everything immediately but rather taking several small but important steps forward. It’s good, believable progress and quite touching to watch.

All that drama and character development almost makes up for the few petty flaws in the arc. Like Asuna and co. being reduced to wallpaper and cheerleaders yet again. And the slow bits of the show like watching Asuna watch TV (zzz) or the episodes Kirito and Shinon spent crying to each other in the cave – important for character development but still a bit boring to watch.

And there were eye-rolling moments like Kirito barging into Shinon’s apartment to confront a murderer – unarmed, without backup, without a plan, nothing. And then being hit with a poison syringe but not dying because of all the spots on his torso the syringe could have hit, it hit the exact spot that was covered with an electrode from the hospital. Riiiight. *rolls eyes* And of course they sit around and cry some more after knocking out Shinkawa instead of immediately hightailing it out of the apartment to safety. What if he got up again and attacked them? What if he was faking being knocked out? What if he had an accomplice close by?

But still, it was a fun watch so I’m willing to overlook a few things. I’m glad I binge-watched it because it’s way more fun that way. And I’d better not praise the rest of Sword Art Online II too highly too soon, since it might turn out to be like the previous season with a great first arc and a mediocre second one. I’ll have to find to marathon the rest of it and then give my final thoughts.

Thoughts on finishing Log Horizon Season 2

In the end the same “spotty quality” issue that brought Season 1 down plagued Log Horizon Season 2 all the way through as well. Maybe it’s not an issue of “spotty quality” and more a case of “this is the only way the author knows how to write.” He likes to sandwich important revelations and developments between lots of unfunny comedy, boring fights and unnecessary character development. You either like that, or you don’t. Personally, I think I’m done with Log Horizon for now. When the author finally gets round to finishing the light novels I’ll read a summary of the ending or something and call it a day.

Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy Season 2, because I did. Or rather some portions of it. I liked the super-tough raid into the money dungeon. I wished the final battle against the moth genius could have been longer, but it was still a good final battle, all things considered. Also I thought I would hate Kanami when I eventually met her, but she’s fairly amusing. And they set up some good mysteries for the eventual next season: what’s on the moon, how did the scythe warp Crusty to where he ended up, what are all the things Kanami has discovered, what exactly are empathions and why are they being collected, etc etc.

Compared to that, all that fake “heartwarming” stuff involving Isaac and Iselus (like, who?) and pretty much every scene involving Roe 2 and the Whining Whelps was just torture to sit through. Log Horizon has too many characters, that’s one of its problems. Some series cope with that by keeping the focus firmly on the mains and only focusing on others as it pertains to them. Others try to get everyone equal time and end up leaving everyone unhappy. Guess which category Log Horizon falls into.

Anyway, there’s no need to write too much about Log Horizon Season 2 since its highlights and lowlights are pretty much the same as for the first season. They did address the issue I mentioned last time of people being a little too happy to be in the Elder Tale world. We find that there are some people who left family behind and who are dying to get back there, which makes lots of sense. Shiroe & Co. come up with the obvious remedy: send them back home, but the season ends before they even take the first real step towards making that happen. Bummer.

Furthermore I’m still a bit disappointed because all the interesting things I was hoping would happen didn’t really happen. For example I thought the Round Table would finally clash with Plant Hwyaden this time, but they barely acknowledged each other. I thought the show would finally explain Plant Hwyaden’s structure and plans, but instead it just introduced a bunch of new characters, gave them a few speaking lines and a pointless aborted plan and then shuffled them off to the side for the rest of the show.

Plus the implications of the buying/return of all facilities to the Yamato server aren’t really explained. We were told in the previous season that Plant Hwyaden is holding its adventurers hostage by owning the cathedral. Now that the cathedral is free for all, shouldn’t there be a major upheaval in their power dynamic? Or is that not how it works? The whole thing went completely unexplained. The show keeps throwing up new mysteries and characters and factions and clearing them all up very poorly, if at all.

And that’s the reason why I won’t bother with Season 3 or 4 or 5 or whatever until/unless the light novels are complete. It’s just going to be another frustrating 25 episodes of watching unimportant characters do unimportant things while the whole world with all its mysteries is sitting there waiting to be explored – and I don’t mean by Kanami and her ad hoc team. If you’re a huge fan of Log Horizon you’re going to watch Season 2 even without me tell you to. If you’re in the “Eh, it’s okay” camp like me, I won’t tell you not to watch it, just don’t expect too much from it and you’ll be fine.

Log Horizon Season 2 – Thoughts on episodes 1-12

I jumped straight into the next season because, why not? It turns out season 2 of Log Horizon has many of the same issues that stopped season 1 from being a top-tier show. Mainly a tendency to focus on side characters doing things the viewer doesn’t care about and which are only marginally important to the rest of the show as a whole. All the while when something far more interesting is going on with Shiroe and his main party.

This time the problem was a long arc focusing on Akatsuki’s crisis of confidence and her attempts to deal with a “serial killer” on the loose in Akihabara. This would have been okay if it lasted for only an episode or two, but episode after episode after episode of Akatsuki angsting about her own inabilities and her (forced, unconvincing) feelings for Shiroe grew tiresome very quickly. The resulting “girl power!” showdown that was supposed to give the female eye candy of the show something to do might have been interesting if the guys weren’t also having a far more epic and monumental showdown right around the same time. If you want to give characters a day in the limelight, make sure the spotlight is on them, don’t make them a sideshow distraction from ‘the real thing.’

So anyway, that was pretty boring. The whole first half of season 2 has been pretty boring, actually. The best part was the revelation of how much it cost to maintain all those buildings and the resulting plan to find the source of the gold. I enjoy Log Horizon best when it’s focusing on things like basic economics and less when it’s doing generic MMORPG battles, though the battles against the raid monsters were pretty intense. The shock resolution of the whole gold arc is also interesting and unusual and I look forward to finding out the implications.

First, though, it appears I’m going to have to sit through a Valentine’s Day episode… ugh… I’ve been watching anime for almost 20 years at this point and I have never, I repeat never seen a good Valentine’s Day episode. In fact, I’m very tempted to just skip episode 13 and go straight to 14. Why are they doing lovey-dovey hijinks when Rusty has gone missing, his aide has lost an arm and the West is up to shady shenanigans that need attention pronto? It’s this tendency to wander and insert fanservice and slice of life elements at the most inappropriate times that keeps Log Horizon from being the 5-star show it could have been.

Still I just have to suffer through episode 13 and then I’ll be treated to all the action and intrigue and world-building I could ever ask for, riiiiight? Don’t worry, I’m not holding my breath, but the rest of the show should at least be decent. I’ll get round to finishing it one day.

Log Horizon anime review – Spotty quality but enjoyable overall

I finished Sword Art Online and went around looking for something similar. Not that I enjoyed SAO all that much, but the general idea of an overpowered protagonist stuck in another world is one that I still like so I’m still looking out for shows along those lines. Log Horizon came with good recommendations and less of the positive/negative hysteria that accompanies SAO, so I decided to give it a try.

Blurb: Thirty thousand Japanese gamers suddenly find themselves transported into the virtual game world of an MMORPG called Elder Tale. In the midst of the event, a socially awkward gamer named Shiroe, along with his friends, Naotsugu and Akatsuki, decide to team up so that they may face this world, which unfortunately has now become their reality, along with the challenges and obstacles ahead of them.

The good parts of Log Horizon

The main character Shiroe and most of his friends and companions are all level 90 by the time the show starts. The way the game world is set up also means they’re essentially immortal, so they’re usually never in any real danger. Shiroe is also portrayed (somewhat falsely IMO) as a super-strategic genius but he can also do his share in battle, making him the right combination of brains and brawn to satisfy any viewer looking for a character who is overpowered either physically or mentally.

Log Horizon also puts more focus on economic issues, quality of life issues and power balances/relations than most “trapped in a game” shows tend to do. This makes it pretty good for people who care about world building and immersion, though I imagine the light novels would be better for this than the show.

The show also spends some time exploring the lives and politics of the non-player characters (NPCs), the guys you would normally ignore in town and villages in videogames, who only exist to sell you stuff/give you quests/die miserably when the bad guys attack. Turns out they’re “human” just like everyone else with families and tastes and complex political relationships, etc etc. It’s an interesting world to explore. The show is actually a good commercial for the light novels, ‘cos I’m slightly curious now.

Shiroe as a super-strategist is more of an informed attribute than anything that really stands out in the show, but he has his impressive moments. His strategy for getting Akihabara under control and establishing law and order was really quite clever. His use of his scribe skills to change the fate of a particular character was seriously over the top in both a good and bad way but hey, you asked for an overpowered main character and you got one.

The bad parts of Log Horizon

Shiroe stays out of focus in a lot of episodes, especially in the second half of the show. Instead an inordinate amount of time is spent chronicling the escapades of a bunch of level 25 adventurers, which just pisses me off. There are THOUSANDS of shows out there about complete newbies trying to get stronger. I want to watch people who have gone through the grind and are already strong enough. It’s really, really boring to watch those mewling little brats (especially Minori, she is so annoying) squabbling and scrabbling about. Someone should just put them all in a sack and drown them.

This makes it especially annoying when an entire arc is devoted to watching these kids try to defend an NPC town against a bunch of monsters that the level 90 characters could (and eventually do) take out in a few hits. The level 90 guys are presumably standing by because they’re “out of MP”, even though they could just fly back to Akihabara to buy out their entire stock of potions and return in less than time it takes one weakling to kill a single monster.

Speaking of that arc, it’s also painful to see them ignore perfectly valid strategies that were used earlier in the show in favor of just standing around chatting. You have a huge wave of monsters coming. Why not let Naotsugu (level 90) run into their middle, use Anchor Howl so they can’t target anyone but him, have all the healers just focus their healing spells on him and then pick off all the monsters at leisure with the weaker guys? It’s a strategy that was used twice earlier in the show to devastating effect, yet the one time it would actually make a difference it’s ignored in order to manufacture unnecessary drama with the kids! Sooooo annoying.

Other characters the show spent too much time on: Princess Lenessia and Crusty. Enough already, just get married and get off my show. Naotsugu with his constant perverted remarks was also another big drawback, though he thankfully gets a lot less screentime once the focus of the show shifts away from combat. Thank goodness. The Minori-Shiroe-Akatsuki love triangle wasn’t interesting either. There are lots of other love triangle shows out there if that’s what I wanted.

Lastly I’m a little bothered that the show didn’t give any thought at all to what is going on in the “real world” while the gamers are trapped in Elder Tale. Unlike in SAO it seems they have been bodily transported so there’s no need to worry about starving to death. But at the same time you’re telling me nobody has any family to worry about or work to go to or bedridden old grandpa they’re caring for? They all get stuck in the new world and they’re like COOOOL and that’s that? In a show as thoughtful as Log Horizon it’s a pretty glaring oversight, but it might be addressed in season two so I’ll give them a pass for now.

Overall

As I said in the title, the quality of Log Horizon is a bit spotty. When they let Shiroe do what he’s best at – solving problems, inventing clever solutions and exploring the mysteries of the Elder Tale world – it’s a highly enjoyable and engrossing show. Unfortunately that only takes up about 70% of the show and the rest is devoted to dumb love triangles, boring fights, annoying characters and time-wasting forced drama. I’m interested enough in the world that I’m going to watch Season 2, but honestly it could be a much better show. Still worth a try or a buy, just prepare for a bit of frustration and many filler-like episodes.

Also dropped: Soul Eater, Rokka no Yuusha, Ping Pong

Continuing from the last post, some more things I dropped recently:

Soul Eater: Not my cup of tea. I think I’ve outgrown shounen action shows or something, because the violent action in the first few minutes didn’t thrill me in the least, and then the attempts at… humor? with Maka’s dad or whoever just made me roll my eyes. I turned it off before the halfway mark. I’m not going to bother reading the manga or any summaries either. Tsugi!

Rokka no Yuusha: Meh. Not interested. I made through the whole of episode 1, which is more than I can say for the other two shows in this post, but that’s about it. The fast pace of the first episode was good – demon revives instantly, party starts to come together, all good, but the dense rash main character and the coy (but really strong, honest!) princess didn’t interest me enough to make me want to continue. One episode is enough.

Ping Pong: The main character’s voice and attitude turned me off completely. I know he’s supposed to sound bored and lifeless, and I’m sure hundred of voice actors were auditioned and several takes were made in order to get him to sound like a dead fish, but he just rubs me the wrong way 100%. I’ve heard good things about Ping Pong so I might read the manga where I don’t have to deal with any annoying voices and the super slow pacing. The anime, though, is not for me.