7 Replies to “Log Horizon: (A Little) Better than Sword Art Online”
So you made your own season 2 hook, eh? Fairly curious to see what you have to say. I can see a few things you say about Log Horizon. For me, it was pretty low on the priority list until they started “Hacking the system” so to speak. That’s when I was excited to see the show every week. SAO is a different show than LH, but provided that LH continues on its general up trend for season two, I would say that LH is a better TOLD story than SAO. Again, this is assuming that the quality of LH doesn’t dip. It’s what unfortunately happened in SAO, because I really liked the first half of the show. I don’t have a problem with the (main) characters being at or near the Level cap. It helps focus the show from being a grind fest and more about intrigue and strategy against others, which is what the show excels at being. Can’t deny that a show about a band of lvl 8 adventurers afraid of wandering through the tall grass and killing slimes to get items would be an equally enjoyable show. Depends on the mood. Also was part of SAO’s charm during some of the high points.
Since we’re in the middle of the NBA playoffs: SAO is Blake Griffin and LH is Tim Duncan. One is more exciting, the other is more polished. Each is fun to watch for different reasons. If you’re trying to predict long-term success, you gotta go with polish. Excitement by its nature comes with ups and downs. SAO’s first arc was the best, but the second arc dipped enough that I’d give the overall edge to LH.
Log Horizon ended on a really strong note. I’d even say it was the ideal way to end a first season. It established a very clear need for a second season, but it didn’t do it in cliffhanger fashion. You want to see the next season, but you’re comfortable waiting a few months.
The one thing LH could use is a few mid-level players. Most of the cast is either a high level, low level, or an NPC.
Rudy and Isuzu were cool. Serara was ok, but only because of Nyanta. The twins were boring, which is why I had to throw in “at least for the most part”. Still, that’s only two characters in a large cast.
To be honest, I disliked Rundel Hause Kode/Rudy for a while at first. He was definitely one of those “obnoxious shitty brats”. Then he completely manned up and I went GAR for him. Serara got a pass because she was the absolute baby of the group. I felt neutral towards her because when she wasn’t trying to spread puppy love with Nyanta, she was more like an average character. The boy twin (can’t remember his name) was kind of boring, but he became more interesting when he got to play off of Rudy. Girl twin (forger her name also) has potential, but I don’t want her to fall into being a rehash character. If she had some qualities but made the actions her own, then I’d be fine. I also don’t want to see another boring love triangle. Isuzu… I wanted her to have more respect. That was my only complaint about her towards the end.
Yeah I felt the same way about Rudy, he only earned his ticket during the end of his arc. The twins were the least impressive in that they don’t give much of an impression. They had the option of focusing on the fact that the boy twin was handicapped in real life, but they only show him in his wheel chair for about 2 seconds and then it’s over. It is something they could explore with him as long as they don’t make it an excuse to make him horribly emotional. If anything, he’s shown that he’s really just thrilled to be here, in a world where he can walk.
As for the girl twin, whose name I ALSO forgot, I agree with Walker over here. I rewatched the show with my significant other, and she was jumping up and down in excitement to see the girl twin becoming a sort of “mini-Shiroe” and I became queasy internally because she had already had the same reaction when she watched Akane try to be a miniature Kogami in Psycho-Pass which was somewhat unavoidable but also really made it glaringly obvious that she was losing what little personality that was unique to her. So what am I saying? I’m saying that I don’t want any characters trying to impersonate other more interesting characters. I understand that sometimes there aren’t many female characters who could be described as “INT Based heroes” or “Strategists” but if a show already has some of these, it’s tough to make too many more without over-saturation unless they function as antagonists. It’s sort of a strange pattern we see on occasion, where a female character is expected to take up the mantle of a male character and does so by behaving the same as he did. I mean, I can understand that it may be the role that original person played, in Kogami’s case as a Detective and in Shiroe’s case as a Strategist, but you can’t help but look at this new replacement and sigh. If a cast of characters are the pieces of a puzzle, then seeing two pieces that look terribly similar but don’t quite fit into each other’s spot is just rather awkward. I’m all about female characters driving the plot forward in an intelligent way and contributing, but I think this is perhaps the wrong way to go about it. It’s limiting. My primary example of the right way to do this is Balsa from Seirei no Moribito, who wasn’t copying anybody, except perhaps whoever taught her how to use a Spear, and yet she had an integral role in her story. My point is that it can be done.
So given this information, if the next season makes them more interesting characters, I think this will be solved, if not, so be it. Hopefully they will be put to good use. On the topic of the animation, I really think this show deserved a higher budget. It certainly wasn’t terrible but, it had everything else going for it, it’s a shame they didn’t realize the potential boon of high quality animation to go along with intelligent plot.
So you made your own season 2 hook, eh? Fairly curious to see what you have to say. I can see a few things you say about Log Horizon. For me, it was pretty low on the priority list until they started “Hacking the system” so to speak. That’s when I was excited to see the show every week. SAO is a different show than LH, but provided that LH continues on its general up trend for season two, I would say that LH is a better TOLD story than SAO. Again, this is assuming that the quality of LH doesn’t dip. It’s what unfortunately happened in SAO, because I really liked the first half of the show. I don’t have a problem with the (main) characters being at or near the Level cap. It helps focus the show from being a grind fest and more about intrigue and strategy against others, which is what the show excels at being. Can’t deny that a show about a band of lvl 8 adventurers afraid of wandering through the tall grass and killing slimes to get items would be an equally enjoyable show. Depends on the mood. Also was part of SAO’s charm during some of the high points.
Since we’re in the middle of the NBA playoffs: SAO is Blake Griffin and LH is Tim Duncan. One is more exciting, the other is more polished. Each is fun to watch for different reasons. If you’re trying to predict long-term success, you gotta go with polish. Excitement by its nature comes with ups and downs. SAO’s first arc was the best, but the second arc dipped enough that I’d give the overall edge to LH.
Log Horizon ended on a really strong note. I’d even say it was the ideal way to end a first season. It established a very clear need for a second season, but it didn’t do it in cliffhanger fashion. You want to see the next season, but you’re comfortable waiting a few months.
The one thing LH could use is a few mid-level players. Most of the cast is either a high level, low level, or an NPC.
How can you not wish you’d see less of those obnoxious, shitty brats? They are an even bigger downside to the show than the title.
Rudy and Isuzu were cool. Serara was ok, but only because of Nyanta. The twins were boring, which is why I had to throw in “at least for the most part”. Still, that’s only two characters in a large cast.
To be honest, I disliked Rundel Hause Kode/Rudy for a while at first. He was definitely one of those “obnoxious shitty brats”. Then he completely manned up and I went GAR for him. Serara got a pass because she was the absolute baby of the group. I felt neutral towards her because when she wasn’t trying to spread puppy love with Nyanta, she was more like an average character. The boy twin (can’t remember his name) was kind of boring, but he became more interesting when he got to play off of Rudy. Girl twin (forger her name also) has potential, but I don’t want her to fall into being a rehash character. If she had some qualities but made the actions her own, then I’d be fine. I also don’t want to see another boring love triangle. Isuzu… I wanted her to have more respect. That was my only complaint about her towards the end.
Yeah I felt the same way about Rudy, he only earned his ticket during the end of his arc. The twins were the least impressive in that they don’t give much of an impression. They had the option of focusing on the fact that the boy twin was handicapped in real life, but they only show him in his wheel chair for about 2 seconds and then it’s over. It is something they could explore with him as long as they don’t make it an excuse to make him horribly emotional. If anything, he’s shown that he’s really just thrilled to be here, in a world where he can walk.
As for the girl twin, whose name I ALSO forgot, I agree with Walker over here. I rewatched the show with my significant other, and she was jumping up and down in excitement to see the girl twin becoming a sort of “mini-Shiroe” and I became queasy internally because she had already had the same reaction when she watched Akane try to be a miniature Kogami in Psycho-Pass which was somewhat unavoidable but also really made it glaringly obvious that she was losing what little personality that was unique to her. So what am I saying? I’m saying that I don’t want any characters trying to impersonate other more interesting characters. I understand that sometimes there aren’t many female characters who could be described as “INT Based heroes” or “Strategists” but if a show already has some of these, it’s tough to make too many more without over-saturation unless they function as antagonists. It’s sort of a strange pattern we see on occasion, where a female character is expected to take up the mantle of a male character and does so by behaving the same as he did. I mean, I can understand that it may be the role that original person played, in Kogami’s case as a Detective and in Shiroe’s case as a Strategist, but you can’t help but look at this new replacement and sigh. If a cast of characters are the pieces of a puzzle, then seeing two pieces that look terribly similar but don’t quite fit into each other’s spot is just rather awkward. I’m all about female characters driving the plot forward in an intelligent way and contributing, but I think this is perhaps the wrong way to go about it. It’s limiting. My primary example of the right way to do this is Balsa from Seirei no Moribito, who wasn’t copying anybody, except perhaps whoever taught her how to use a Spear, and yet she had an integral role in her story. My point is that it can be done.
So given this information, if the next season makes them more interesting characters, I think this will be solved, if not, so be it. Hopefully they will be put to good use. On the topic of the animation, I really think this show deserved a higher budget. It certainly wasn’t terrible but, it had everything else going for it, it’s a shame they didn’t realize the potential boon of high quality animation to go along with intelligent plot.
Just came to say, that your puzzle analogy was fucking incredible. I will be borrowing this.