English Dub Review: Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table “Rayneshia’s Marriage”

Overview 

The Log Horizon guild has all new problems to deal with in this long-awaited continuation. This time, however, the problems might be a little closer to home…

Our Take

It has been almost five years since we last saw the crew of the Log Horizon guild. There are quite a few things anime fans have gotten used to. Long waits for follow-up seasons (looking at you Attack on Titan season two) and the all too familiar Isekai genre. The thing that separates Log Horizon from its contemporaries is its focus less on wish-fulfilling power fantasies, but dealing with more in-depth character focus and more attention paid to actually living and thriving in a strange new world. So, in a season with a stand-out in the genre with the excellent Mushoku Tensei does this third season look promising? Or should it make way for new blood?

For those of you that like continuity in your voice actors, have no fear. Almost, all of the original cast reprise their roles. One of the bigger stand out replacements I noticed was with the character of Sojiro being replaced by the talented Justin Briner who you may know as the voice of Deku in the hit shonen anime My Hero Academia. Hearing the cute but irritable ninja Akatsuki (Jad Saxton), the loveable oaf who never gets to finish his thoughts Naotsugu (Andrew Love), the suave and charming cat person Nyan-ta (Jovan Jackson), or the villain in glasses Shiroe (Mike Yager) all sounding the same as we left them was amazing. The rest of the returning cast just didn’t have as many big moments but they will be revisited as the season goes along I’m sure.

The job of any first episode, especially after such a long hiatus, is to reel us in and make us want to see more week to week. Luckily Log Horizon still has the political maneuvering, and great character interactions still going for it. One of my favorite moments was a conversation between Akatsuki (#bestgirl) and the princess Rayneshia about their love lives or more accurately their lack thereof. We also get a hint that the long-missing Krusty has been located so I can only hope for his triumphant return later in the season. This episode definitely lets us know right away why the subtitle for this season is “Destruction of the Round Table” with the group having to deal with issues not just from the “Will they/ Won’t they” war with the people of the land (the name given to the NPC’s of the world) but also some serious infighting rears its ugly head. When one of the members of the Round Table Conference doesn’t like what one member does and realizes they are outnumbered they leave the group. This casts serious doubts on the future stability of Akihabara, especially with what happens at the end of the episode which has me personally excited for episode two.

One other thing I wanted to touch on real quickly was that after fifty episodes they finally changed the OP from Man with a Mission’s “Database” to Band-Maid’s “Different” which is aptly named. At first, I was disappointed with the change but the new song was catchy and I can see myself not skipping it throughout the season. So after five years is it worth the wait? It’s hard to tell right away but I definitely feel confident in saying this is a triumphant return for one of the Isekai pilgrims.