Approval Rating 81%. I rated it 8/10. https://myanimelist.net/anime/17265/Log_Horizon "In the blink of an eye, thirty thousand bewildered Japanese gamers are whisked from their everyday lives into the world of the popular MMORPG, Elder Tale, after the game's latest update—unable to log out. Among them is the socially awkward college student Shiroe, whose confusion and shock lasts only a moment as, a veteran of the game, he immediately sets out to explore the limits of his new reality." You know what I liked about Log Horizon? It's clever. Yes, there is action and drama and powers and skills... But mostly, it's about Shiroe who, being "a cautious and thoughtful introvert", prefers to think about a problem rather than just rush in and starting hacking at it with an axe. In fact, he is famous for his ability to come with a strategy: Log Horizon is classic LitRPG and fans of the genre should have no problem enjoying this popular anime. Most importantly, it teaches us the second rule of anime: Never, ever mess with a guy who wears glasses.
The author of this series got himself into quite the snafu with the Japanese Government. He owed back taxes from novel royalties specifically according to the his wiki, and even though he made right with big brother he's still under house arrest for 3 years (from the time of his sentencing) in lieu of jail time. Suggesting that famously he's guilty because the Japanese government says he's guilty, or he's guilty because he didn't just get a slap on the wrist and failed to comply with the laws of his country in regards to reporting income. Still he had a multi-million dollar anime run and a second title that was very popular as well; a Demon Lord vs Hero series where the Demon War was the only thing that made the humans advance as a society and kept them from turning on one another like rabid dogs. Maoyū Maō Yūsha Second series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoyu edit: famous for its plot.
I just started Log Horizon! Really good show. I was looking for something to watch after I finished SAO. The only thing that bugged me was that I felt like they weren't shocked a great deal that they were stuck in a virtual reality world. I feel SAO did a better job of showing the panic and emotions of being stuck in a game. But still, both are really awesome shows IMO.
I purchased the first volume of the Log Horizon light novel in English just to see how they handled the switch from Japanese to English with the picture & novel format, was my first ever Light Novel purchase. On top of having a great layout, it filled in the blanks of the emotional side of things for Shiroe, but it was mostly "slow time" analysis that he went through walking around after the "event" or whatever they called it first happened. The time between him standing staring at the moss covered city for the first time and taking his first stumble due to difference in his IRL gait and his in game gait is about the amount of time it took him to get a handle on the things around him. Its not until he decides to leave the city that his doubts go away. If you look up the actual Rokubon (Light Novel) format you'll find the books are absolutely tiny, they fit just across the palm of your hand if you're an average sized male of any ethnicity. The American light novels are absolutely massive and beefy by comparison, but they still look nice and the printers throw out black ink on those things like no ones f**cking business: solid pages of black on chapter pages and for adverts. As far as other LitRPG series that have an anime adaptation that I could recommend, Only Sense Online is the only series that I would guess will have any staying power; and its more of a slice of life LitRPG with heavy crafting in the novel. I haven't watched the anime yet so I can't say how closely they follow the books. Its also a gender bender. My preference is for the stories with game elements and characters that have a compelling reason to play, so Dark Herbalist and SAO beat out OSO, but only because OSO's writer prefers the game world to be filled with wholesome friendships and fluff between dungeon crawling and fight scenes. OSO's format with more of a focus on crafting and fighting is Toaru Ossan no VRMMO Katsudouki, and honestly I don't like that one too much either. Which is a shame because both are pretty far ahead of the competition in regards to game continuity. Both rolling over any fan critiques of their flaws by saying, "Oh yes, new patch / event went live and fixed the old patch. Those stupid game devs." Ret conning their mistakes by passing them off to their games designers and taking credit for the fixes their fans help them make. An up and coming series without life and death stakes similar to OSO is Tsuyokute New Game, but I haven't been really keeping track of the summer releases so far so there could be some really awesome titles just transitioning from web novels to light novels, and from light novels to manga, and from manga to anime. Japan definitely has their entertainment culture well established and geared towards making money. By comparison it feels like most of us in Russia / USA are reinventing the wheel.
The light novel shows that more clearly. Between episode one and two of the anime, there's a bit of a time compression of several months. Think the anime company decided that showing the panic of everyone in the very beginning touched base on it well enough and then moved onto the next part of the story. That's why at the end of episode one they're "OMG! We killed something!" to "Well, you clowns really screwed up." in relation to the PK crew in episode two.
This and Gate are two of my favorite anime’s that I feel I will never see continued on TV. Shiro was an amazing character and the show had so much mystery and development. If I was under house arrest all I would do would be write and work hard to make sure when I was let off I could support my fans.
