Log Horizon II – Episode 25

And so season two comes to an end. This was about as much of an “ending” as I expected – we got a variety of resolutions, but even more gestures towards future material that may or may not ever exist. The raid boss fight was a lot of fun, Kanami and Shiroe have really great interactions, and it was nice (if a little anticlimactic) to see Crusty’s perfectly okay. Overall, season two felt significantly stronger than the first, and though we definitely cashed in a lot of the show’s existing conflict-chips, I’m sure this author could think of all sorts of ways to continue the story. Here’s to hoping we actually get that season three one day.

My full ANN post is available here. Notes below!

Log Horizon

Raid boss time. Fifteen minutes left, last episode. Let’s do it, Log Horizon!

And yep, the boss mentions empathions immediately

More of all the characters explaining the fight to themselves and each other. Oh Log Horizon

Shiroe’s going to use himself to bait all the moths with mana channeling

We get a bunch of nicely animated attack animations and “now it’s my turn!” shots of side characters

Akatsuki gets a sweet combo attack with Naotsugu, Rudy and Isuzu get a nice one-two, etc

The boss is Taliktan, Genius of Summoning

Holy crap this episode has some nice cuts. Tons of great exchanges with this boss

The boss just keeps saying “all will fall asleep”

And another nice brief Shiroe cut

This is quite a battle

“Sleep, and your safety will be assured.” Oh really?

“Give me your souls, and I promise safety and return.” Hmmm

“Fall asleep and choose, adventurers!” So is he giving them the choice to go home? What about the People of the Land?

This fight’s great. We’re actually getting distinct stages and capturing the sense of fighting a boss in a party while keeping tension high

Stage three!

Shiroe figured out the boss’s super-attack targets the top five aggro creators, and so had them ready for the second wave. Standard stuff, but impressive in the middle of a fight, and probably just generally impressive to someone who doesn’t know much about MMOs

Minori is handed control of parties three and four as the battle reaches a climax

And the woman from Crusty’s party gets to see her Full-Raid Encounter

“We shattered the fragments of the past and turned them into the power to rise!”

“We’re greedy. We want to take everything we can. We have people waiting for us.”

“My eyes are drooling!” Demiiiii

Oh my god, it’s Kanami on the other side. Of course she single-handedly found another communication array

She found a TV station and fiddled with their equipment because it looked interesting. Yep

“My daughter’s three now!” Oh, wow. So is that why she left the game?

“I see. Then you need to go home, right?” “Why? Hey, Shiro. I want to show this world to my daughter! It’s so big and pretty and wonderful!” Kanami is just the right character to bring this point home – thinking of this world as a place to escape is wrong. Even though they do need to reestablish a way home, it’s a wonderful world they’ve been given

“I want to teach her that the world is a wonderful place!” They must protect this place

“Instead of going home or staying here, there’s a third option. Connect the two worlds.” Calling back ‘we’re greedy. We want to take everything we can’

And then she just tosses off that Crusty’s over there hahahaha

Manami’s leaders talking of entering negotiations for peace with the Round Table. Indicus has lost her total power

“Good work, for now.” Always more to do