As I mention in my piece, this episode of Log Horizon was noteworthy mainly in that it managed to make one of Log Horizon’s general weaknesses into a strength – for once, the emotional problems of the younger set were actually handled with some real sensitivity. The unusually frank and extended nature of this episode’s core conversations really helped in returning a sense of humanity and consequence to the feelings of these characters, which I’d say made this actually superior to just another episode that simply avoided the problem of making these characters compelling for their own sake. And also it’s just nice to see Isuzu and Rudy being really cute together.

My full ANN post is available here. Episode notes below!

Yep, Nureha’s left Plant Hwyaden

Her guard Loreil wants to find her

“When the Concert Ends” ominous episode title ho

Dariella is Nureha’s alias name

Slow conversation here

And now they arrive at Safil, planning to play a concert

Wow, this is a really great, completely full conversation between Rudy and Isuzu about her father. Her feelings on her own music relative to him, what he means to her, the path his career took, the difficulty of making it as a musician. This is lovely stuff

“I don’t have the talent to make it as a pro. You’re expected to have natural talent, and even then you have to work really hard just to see the starting line. So I’m happy to do it just because I like it.” Real shit

Rudy’s being really nice here. He’s a good guy

And then suddenly there’s a weird conversation disconnect

The languages of Adventurers and People of the Land is different, and the auto-translator that lets them communicate sometimes can’t handle those differences

Rudy trying to figure it out with Isuzu. “If I say ‘seven colors,’ what do you think of?”

“To us people of the land, ‘music’ only means forty-two songs.” OH MY GOD. What a perfectly creepy piece of worldbuilding

Rudy’s telling her a very dangerous thing here. On the one hand, yes, her presence is basically magic to them – she makes their world tremendously better. On the other hand, it means it doesn’t matter at all how good she is – they’d smile and clap anyway, because she’s still magic.

“It must be nice to have something you’re better at than anyone else.” A perfectly double-edged line to describe this situation – she’s one-of-a-kind, but only because she’s entered a world with no competition

Serara and Minori discussing their future. “Yeah, if we get back to our world. No, even if we don’t, what do you want to be?”

“I want to be like Shiroe. But what does that mean? It isn’t his job, I know that much.” Nice. Actually forcing these characters to think about their futures in a grounded, tangible way

Rudy talking about how many young People of the Land are coming to Akihabara. They can learn skills there that are impossible anywhere else. Sometimes he meets with them to discuss their lives

Rudy’s really getting some great work this episode. He’s always been very likable once you get past the jokes, but this is maybe the longest we’ve seen him in thoughtful mode

Isuzu feels guilty for taking her life so easily when everyone else is working so hard

And Tohya runs into Dariella by the riverbank

Nureha’s pulling her charming tricks, but Tohya somehow isn’t fooled. He knows she’s unhappy

Reports from Nyanta have stopped coming in

So the Knights’ portable temples seem to disrupt telepathy. That’s kinda terrifying

This episode is so ominous in general

A huge cloud of wyverns is approaching!

AND NYANTA APPEARS

Man, great episode