English Dub Review: Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table “Despair Genius”

Overview:

We mostly focus on Minori and co. as they battle to take on the raid boss. Minori shows off all the skills she has learned from Shiroe and Touya is a pretty good motivator. The raid boss is a lot tougher than they expected however and truly makes them despair by destroying their memories of essentially their most important person. Akatsuki won’t take it laying down though.

Our Take:

I might have been wrong in my prediction that this battle arc would wrap in two episodes. I suppose it could end really early in the last episode but that remains to be seen. What does not remain to be seen though is how awesome this last arc is shaping up. I love seeing character growth and we get that in spades here.

For those that forgot where Minor and her friends came from we get a flashback. It was a good refresher too and really well-timed. It shows how much they have grown since they joined the Log Horizon guild. Minori especially, I will fully admit she has not been one of my favorite characters. Mainly, cause she is standing in the way of Akatsuki and Shiroe but I really can’t dislike her now.

Seeing her shout commands to everyone by name and showing how well she learned to prepare from Shiroe was excellent. I can’t applaud the writing here enough, they sprinkle in some flashbacks yes but for the most part, we SEE everyone’s growth and I can’t stress enough how important that is. For a really horrible example please see my most recent review of Skate-Leading Stars.

Another thing, if you really like playing MMO’s you are really going to like this episode. They use a lot of terminology and tactics you would find from the best players of the genre. The action is really well done, it’s not something Log Horizon is known for but man is it good when they do it.

The raid boss is called the Despair Genius, and it’s a pretty fitting name. I know when a lot of villains say they are gonna make us despair it usually isn’t all that bad. What this boss does is pretty horrible though, they take away memories of someone important to you. That sounds a lot worse than physical pain to me, just imagine completely forgetting your wife, mother, siblings, etc. I have expected Touya to turn around to Minori and say “Who are you?”. Luckily, that did not happen but it still could the fight isn’t over after all.

The only bad thing I have to say about this episode is it ended and on a cliffhanger no less. I am really interested to see how they wrap up the season. The disappointing thing is the other seasons of Log Horizon have all been around twenty-four to twenty-six episodes long while this one is only twelve. Right, when it’s really hitting its stride it’s ending which is odd. Either way, I can’t wait for next week’s episode.