(L) Log Horizon (novel)

[DQueenie13]

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

Speaking of Volumes, there's something else I've been wondering for a while now.

Spoiler for Vol. 13 Question(s):

On a rough estimate, how much of Vol. 13 did the Akiba Guild Hall Raid take up?

And were there actual "action sequences" in there, instead of something like a "montage" that we saw with the Abyssal Shaft Raid?

Spoiler for Answers:

Akiba Guild Hall Raid is roughly half the volume. First half wraps up volume 12 stuff, like sending Raynesia + her group off on the boat to China, as well as introducing Lelia and Litka.

Raid is like, an actual raid akin to volumes 6/7. Well, a portion of it is dedicated to everyone running around trying to figure out WTF is happening because they woke up and every door leads to the wrong place, every rank 65+ player is now at level 35 and has to fight for their lives against lv65 monsters, and tele-chat has been disabled so nobody can communicate remotely.

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

Spoiler for Answers:

Akiba Guild Hall Raid is roughly half the volume. First half wraps up volume 12 stuff, like sending Raynesia + her group off on the boat to China, as well as introducing Lelia and Litka.

Raid is like, an actual raid akin to volumes 6/7. Well, a portion of it is dedicated to everyone running around trying to figure out WTF is happening because they woke up and every door leads to the wrong place, every rank 65+ player is now at level 35 and has to fight for their lives against lv65 monsters, and tele-chat has been disabled so nobody can communicate remotely.

Spoiler for Response and more Question(s):

Half of the volume? You'd think that something as big as a raid would take up more. That could be an issue with pacing.

But are there actual action sequences in the Raid itself?

Like fighting through to where the Raid Boss is? (Not like where it was like a "montage" that was done in the Abyssal Shaft Raid)

And of course, a full fight against the Raid Boss itself?

There are reasons why I'm asking these.

[DQueenie13]

Because I wrote the volumes 12-14 summaries a long time ago and they're embarrassingly bad, I'm starting to go through and rewrite my old spoiler posts to fill in details. I'll make a single post that links to all of them once I'm done, so I won't spam the channel and people won't have to dig through this thread's backlog to find them.

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

Spoiler for Response and more Question(s):

Half of the volume? You'd think that something as big as a raid would take up more. That could be an issue with pacing.

But are there actual action sequences in the Raid itself?

Like fighting through to where the Raid Boss is? (Not like where it was like a "montage" that was done in the Abyssal Shaft Raid)

And of course, a full fight against the Raid Boss itself?

There are reasons why I'm asking these.

I'm guessing Syosetu (the web novel) is blocked in your country, because reading it for yourself, even with a terribad Google Translation, would answer your questions a lot faster than a second-hand account. I'm still not sure what you're trying to get out of these questions, so these answers are to the best of my ability. And don't forget that these are only drafts for the final versions, so entire sections can be added or rewritten. Just because these are the answers now, doesn't mean it'll be true for the light novel version or the anime.

Spoiler:

"Are there any action scenes?" is a vague question. Every battle in the series has action scenes, Abyssal Shaft included. You're going to have to specify what kind of action scene you're looking for, because right now, the only answer I can give is "there's as much action as every other battle scene in the series."

Volume 13's battles are written are more like the Return of the Goblin King battles than, say, the Shibuya Raid. We see what several individual groups are doing after they wake up and find Akiba's gone Wacky Wednesday. Action scenes give us tidbits to what clusters of characters are doing as they find each other and fight to stay alive.

"Like fighting through to where the Raid Boss is?" -- Yes, but the party kinda beelines to where the raid boss is, so also no? They defeated enemies in their way, but it's not comparable to Shiroe's kiting strategy in the Shibuya Raid to get rid of the moths before fighting Taliktan. However, it's also not as abrupt as jumping straight from a mid-way battle in Abyssal Shaft to taking on Ruseato.

"And of course, a full fight against the Raid Boss itself?" -- Depends what you consider a "full fight" (like, have we gotten any non-full raid boss fights in LH to compare to?), but in terms of story length, it's about as long as Abyssal Shaft's successful battle against Ruseato + Ibra Habra + Tartauruga.

[tuckersister]

Are there any other characters that support Shiroe and Akatsuki being a couple?

[DQueenie13]

Volume 12 has been relisted on Amazon JP for a September 30 release date, but considering no official channel has made any announcement, it's highly unlikely. (FWIW that seems like a placeholder date, considering that's the same date they gave last year.)

[DQueenie13]

Some new developments:

• Log Horizon Side-Story: New Land of Adventure, a light novel originally slated to release alongside volume 12 back in 2019, has been officially announced for a January 13, 2021 release. (Same day that S3 airs, for that matter.)
• Log Horizon: Illustrations by Hara Kazuhiro Art Book + Drama CD has been announced for a February 10, 2021 release. It's exactly what it says it is. The drama CD will contain two tracks: "Behind the Scenes of the Round Table's Collapse" and "Those Mofur Sisters are Always Making a Fuss!"

Volume 12 announcement soon, perhaps? (The artbook was announced yesterday, and New Land of Adventure today.)

[tsunade666]

this is one huge delay.

[DarkJak2050]

So this is a big sign telling one thing;

Mamare & Kadokawa had content ready for release, but they wanted to wait on Season 3 to open the gates for them.

As great news as those are, my main concerns now are if Mamare learned his lesson from his Tax Evasion scandal and if he's going to keep it all together this time. The Tax Evasion scandal probably forced him & Kadokawa to keep "an extremely low profile", which is probably why there were little to no official Light Novel volumes being printed between Late 2015 to now.

If Mamare gets in trouble with something like that again, or with something else that's just as bad (at minimum), it could be the end of Log Horizon.

1st time they may let it go; but the 2nd time, maybe not as much.

Edited 1/11/2021:

Sorry for the late response, DQueenie13.

Spoiler for Response to DQueenie13:

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

"Are there any action scenes?" is a vague question. Every battle in the series has action scenes, Abyssal Shaft included. You're going to have to specify what kind of action scene you're looking for, because right now, the only answer I can give is "there's as much action as every other battle scene in the series."

Volume 13's battles are written are more like the Return of the Goblin King battles than, say, the Shibuya Raid. We see what several individual groups are doing after they wake up and find Akiba's gone Wacky Wednesday. Action scenes give us tidbits to what clusters of characters are doing as they find each other and fight to stay alive.

Yeah, what I meant to actually ask was if there's any action scenes outside of the Guild Hall Raid and how would they had been portrayed. That's what I actually meant to ask.

But for the most part, the question I asked was answered.

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

"Like fighting through to where the Raid Boss is?" -- Yes, but the party kinda beelines to where the raid boss is, so also no? They defeated enemies in their way, but it's not comparable to Shiroe's kiting strategy in the Shibuya Raid to get rid of the moths before fighting Taliktan. However, it's also not as abrupt as jumping straight from a mid-way battle in Abyssal Shaft to taking on Ruseato.

Okay, I was wondering when it gets covered in the anime if it was going to be like a sub 1-minute "montage" similar to the Abyssal Shaft Raid; where it briefly shows them fighting groups of Raid Monsters and then the next second it shows that they're in a different and deeper part of the Raid Zone.

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

"And of course, a full fight against the Raid Boss itself?" -- Depends what you consider a "full fight" (like, have we gotten any non-full raid boss fights in LH to compare to?), but in terms of story length, it's about as long as Abyssal Shaft's successful battle against Ruseato + Ibra Habra + Tartauruga.

What I meant by a "Full Fight", is by showing the fight from beginning to end. And for the kind of fight it is, I expect it's going to be a long, tough fight. A fight that's going to take up at least 1 episode when it gets covered in the anime. Similar to that of the successful fight against Ruseato, Ibra Habra & Tartauruga.

I asked these because I thought that to properly portray these fights when the anime covers them would call for them to have great quality animation.

But then again, with NHK putting Log Horizon's anime on a kids/family tv channel (NHK-Educational), those fights are probably not going to get the great quality animation they deserve.

Great quality animation does make a fight scene great, but at the same time it tends to make it look "too intense" and/or "too violent". And for a kids/family tv channel like NHK-Educational, it can't show anything that are "too intense" and/or "too violent".

So expect to see more of the "power point, slide-show animation" for Log Horizon's fights. All because NHK made the anime a kids/family show and put it on a tv channel to "match" it.

When the series is meant for teens and adults...

[Twi]

Can someone tell me which volume of the current season of the anime starts on? I'm curious about the subplot, so I'll take spoilers if you got them too.

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by Twi

Can someone tell me which volume of the current season of the anime starts on? I'm curious about the subplot, so I'll take spoilers if you got them too.

Season 3 is supposed to cover content from Vol. 11-13 of the source material.

However, Vol. 11 is part of the Side-Plot focused on Kanami's group in the Chinese server. To start season 3 off with Vol. 11's content would've thrown everybody off because at this point, everyone is used to seeing Shiroe & company as the main characters/cast of the series. And it would make people think that season 3 will have a new cast of main characters with a separate story.

To prevent this, season 3 starts off with content from Vol. 12; which is also the "moniker" of season 3's name. Starting it off with Vol. 12's content helps everyone to get "reacquainted" with Shiroe & company, while at the same time focusing on the matter at hand since this takes place shortly after where season 2 ended.

I'll abstain from mentioning Vol. 13's content because that'll be the last part of season 3.

The short version to answer your question: it starts off with Vol. 12. Then Vol. 11 is most likely to be after that, with Vol. 13 to wrap up the season.

[Twi]

Thank you.

[DarkJak2050]

Whoa. What is this right here?

https://twitter.com/harapand/status/...280128/photo/1

Spoiler for Possible Illustration for Vol. 12?:

[tuckersister]

Any progress with the WN? I’m looking forward to Shiroe’s confrontation with Indictus.

[DQueenie13]

This is not the web novel update people might come looking for, but some interesting stuff from Hara Kazuhiro's artbook that came out on March 10 (I just got my physical preordered copy today):

Volume 12 is more or less completely finished as far as illustrations go, and most of them were posted in the artbook alongside the volume cover + inside jacket. We're just waiting for Kadokawa to give the go-ahead, as far as I can tell. (Though amusingly, the artbook also got delayed by roughly a month due to "insufficient editing," whatever that meant.)

Volume 13 didn't get a cover or illustration reveal, but there are character sketches for the Akiba Guild Hall Raid Party alongside sketches Hara made for the anime. There's a few colored illustrations that aren't explicitly part of Volume 13, but given the featured characters + composition, it's highly likely to be part of Vol13's illustrations whenever it gets published.

Volumes 15 and 16 got their Re:Fraction story snippets added to the end of the book. Nothing was posted in regards to Volume 14, however -- no illustration teasers, no character sketches, etc. (And, naturally, there's been no web novel update either.)

[Estavali]

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

This is not the web novel update people might come looking for, but some interesting stuff from Hara Kazuhiro's artbook that came out on March 10 (I just got my physical preordered copy today):

Volume 12 is more or less completely finished as far as illustrations go, and most of them were posted in the artbook alongside the volume cover + inside jacket. We're just waiting for Kadokawa to give the go-ahead, as far as I can tell. (Though amusingly, the artbook also got delayed by roughly a month due to "insufficient editing," whatever that meant.)

Volume 13 didn't get a cover or illustration reveal, but there are character sketches for the Akiba Guild Hall Raid Party alongside sketches Hara made for the anime. There's a few colored illustrations that aren't explicitly part of Volume 13, but given the featured characters + composition, it's highly likely to be part of Vol13's illustrations whenever it gets published.

Volumes 15 and 16 got their Re:Fraction story snippets added to the end of the book. Nothing was posted in regards to Volume 14, however -- no illustration teasers, no character sketches, etc. (And, naturally, there's been no web novel update either.)

As always, thank you for the updates

[DarkJak2050]

So all-in-all, it's still a mess when it comes to the Light Novels being released... Especially, Volume 12.

[tuckersister]

Will the main story still continue? It’s already near the end arc. I want to know what is with Roe2 currently.

[tsunade666]

This is licensed right? I haven't heard any news on english book release for years. Any updates on that part?

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

This is licensed right? I haven't heard any news on english book release for years. Any updates on that part?

It's still licensed for English release, but there hasn't been any substantial news/update lately. Especially on a release date for Vol. 12 (both in Japanese and English).

That particular volume always seems to be getting shafted. It's been held back not once, but twice. It was originally slated for Summer 2018, then pushed back to Sept. 2019. Only to get yanked at the last minute with no further notice/update on it, let alone a new release date. And there's still currently nothing on Vol. 12.

The only other news/update in terms of the whole franchise was the Side-Story: New Land of Adventure novel getting official publication. That shared the same release date as the 3rd season of the anime (Jan. 13, 2021).

Originally Posted by tuckersister

Will the main story still continue? It’s already near the end arc. I want to know what is with Roe2 currently.

In terms of the main story, there's still no news/update. And if you watched season 3, then don't expect any "new content" coming out in the Light Novels any time soon. Because season 3 covered Vol. 11-13. And who knows when Vol. 12 & 13 will be published as Light Novels before we see "new content" in Vol. 14 (even that remains incomplete. It's been on halt since 2018).

If you look at it as a big picture (including what's happened "behind the scenes"), this whole series is a mess right now.

[tuckersister]

Is author going to finish the story? It’s already getting close to the final arc.