2024-04-05
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| Date | Name | Type | Amount | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-04-05 |  Log Horizon |
 Anime |
 2 episodes 13-14 |
 0h50m |
Today’s listening practice consists of another 2 episodes of Log Horizon. Actually kind of a hard episode for episode 14, as Regan comes and exposits at us for half the episode. I wonder how William’s gamers speech episode will go in season 2
Log Horizon vs Spice and Wolf, Spoilers for all Log Horizon season 1, and Spice and Wolf up to episode 9
So outside of Japanese practice, I’ve been watching Spice and Wolf with some friends. It’s interesting coinciding timing, as Spice and Wolf was always recommended to “if you want more of the economic worldbuilding of Log Horizon, watch this next” around when Log Horizon was relevant.
But for their main plot, I think Spice and Wolf so far is proving a lot weaker than Log Horizon. There’s not the sense of long term planning in Spice and Wolf so far that Log Horizon has.
To give an example, I’ve just watched episode 9 of Spice and Wolf. Lawrence has just got to a town, with a bunch of weapons he’s bought on credit. Holo is being pointed about how she’s wary of buying on credit, a guard is smirking about it. It’s really not subtle that this is going to be an important plot point, and this episode.
Ultimately both Shiroe and Lawrence are going to resolve the issues they face, neither are the kind of show where that’s really in doubt. But in Lawrence’s case, the stuff he’s solved by now has been explained in retrospect, introducing new parts of the world in the solution, but not letting the viewer piece it together.
In the episode of Log Horizon I just watched, they’ve basically smuggled part of the solution for a future episode here. Regan is giving an explanation of the mechanics of HP/MP. In the context of episode 14, it’s basically an info dump about how the characters got here, and how time works, and who Regan is.
But there’s an apparently throwaway comment, about how the dissipation of MP works with resurrection spells and what it means for resurrecting people of the land/NPCs. This is going to be relevant in about… 10 episodes, where a person of the land character is mortally wounded and that’s part of the solution to bringing them back.
Maybe because of Log Horizon’s MMO theme, I’m thinking of Final Fantasy XIV’s story which also does a good job of laying seeds with stuff that comes to fruition later, and makes you feel like you can theorycraft along with where the plot is going. (Probably fitting too, since my understanding is that the two biggest inspirations on Elder Tale’s setting are Final Fantasy XI and Everquest)