Once again, one of Log Horizon’s one-off diversions ends up being one of its best episodes. This one wasn’t an unexpected character study like William’s speech, though – it was just all the stuff Log Horizon normally does, except executed way better than usual with an entirely new cast. Natural worldbuilding, fun characters, a very cute riff on Journey to the West, and some actually solid fight scenes. If this is a sign of things to come, we’re in for a real treat in this Kanami-Nureha-Shiroe conflict.
Here’s my full ANN post. Notes are below!
Jumping over to Nureha’s world, the woman who wanted Shiroe
She apparently gave the People of the Land an iron train
“What does Indicus intend to do with that princess?”
“Kanami’s back in the game?” And now we’re getting back to the old leader of the Debauchery Tea Party
Kanami quit the game and moved in real life, but got back into it
Her companions are a frog ninja, literal shield-maid, and elf dude
It’s nice seeing different parts of this world
Apparently the Novasphere Pioneers expansion was only implemented on the Japanese server, since it went by time zones
Leonardo, an assassin from the American server
Coppelia, the maid, is a cleric. She rides the horse. Filling the Buddhist monk role in this Journey to the East
And the elf-dude is “Erius Hackblade,” one of the “Progenitors” who keep order in the world. He’s level 100
“He’s so famous he’s even on the Elder Tale package”
The progenitors are the parallel of Yamato’s Izumo Knights
And the person telling the story takes the form of a horse, replacing the dragon-horse from the original
People have been turning into wild beasts – they go berserk, and their status is displayed in two layers. “Plague demons”
Kanami takes inspiration from Shiroe, just like he does from her
“Now that I have a physical body, I can do cancels and combos!” Little bits of combat exploration
“My master is like daybreak.” Coppelia’s a bit of a romantic
Dang, they even give Erius the rake and put Kanami on a floating cloud on the midpoint card. Journey to the West indeed
Leonardo doesn’t seem to value the People of the Land, still calling them “NPCs”
A 96 member raid group?
Noles are marching on the village!
“They lost because they did a full-on brawl with no information. We’ll go in, kill the boss, and run.” Kanami makes for a great Monkey. And it really helps in giving a guide to establishing her character, too
KR is the horse
Coppelia is actually a farming bot! Wow! Damn, nice reveal – figured her robotic affectation was just anime being anime
And KR teleports in, replacing his summoned horse to help them
And KR even summons a dragon, making the Journey to the West thing explicit again
Not too much animation in the battles, but the direction is solid
Hinting at Erius knowing who these boss villains are
Wow, so many visual flourishes in this episode! The way they’re articulating this woman swapping in constant monsters to attack or take damage for her is great, and that pan across the battlefield earlier had a great sense of depth
“I know everything about the People of the Land. You are all dolls, only personality software.”