Log Horizon Season 3 News & Anticipation Thread [Winter 2021]

[Proto]

Does anyone mind expanding on why they thought S2 was horrible? Is that storywise or production wise? I ask because I thought the core of the story itself was fine and I liked it, but I'd like to understand where people are coming from.

[Klashikari]

I've marathoned S1 and S2 quite recently, and S2 flaws are actually more glaring in my books compared to 5 years ago.
Let's see if I can give a proper rundown:

1) Visuals: S2 started with sharper designs for the characters. While it looked like an improvement at first, it didn't last long, and you could see some derpy designs quite often (especially after the first third of S2) and a lack of expressions for a lot of characters, even main ones.
Fights were also pretty underwhelming most of the cases and they used a lot of tricks to simulate movements. Abyssal Shaft Raid had some intense things going on, but the animation wasn't exactly up to par, whereas S1 had better rendition be it on larger scale (Goblin King return raid), or smaller scale (Rookies against the direwolf, goblins and hopgoblins).

2) Pacing : Putting aside Kanami's adventure taking only 1 episode (instead of 2-3), the problem is how they segmented 3 specifics arcs one after another.
S2 started well with Shiroe's initial plan and recruiting William's guild, while we still have scenes from Akiba (the youngsters and Akatsuki). But then, the sequence of events went like that: Royal Guard Lander going rogue (Ep5-8), Abyssal Shaft Raid (Ep9-12), but then that pointless valentine episode (involving that weird love triangle between Shiroe, Akatsuki and Minori), Kanami's, then the kids (ep15-21), The Genius Monsters leading to the Shibuya raid (22-25).
While the first main parts were 4 episodes, with 2 "fillers" of 1 episode, we get 7 episodes about the kids going to fetch some materials for their magical bag. Sure, that arc gives you an idea what's going on in Minami with Plant Hwyaden, the problem is that it felt incredibly irrelevant to what Shiroe was accomplishing recently. There were a lot of downtime to boot and there wasn't really any development for them so to speak. This was following Kanami's episode, which felt incredibly weird because you could easily shorten the kids arcs to flesh out Kanami's interlude, OR more stuff about Abyssal Shaft or Shibuya.

3) Character development: this problem might be because of the source material instead of the anime per se, but S2 had some very wonky stuff, especially regarding Akatsuki. The way how her insecurity and romance were handled wasn't particularly great. While her arc was sort of satisfactory by the end of the Royal Guard/Akiba raid arc, Akatsuki's character went back to the statu quo. It didn't look like she really broke her shell in general aside of the "girl power" jokes a bit shoehorned in there.
Meanwhile, the kids arc wasn't particularly great either except for Touya's outrage regarding the Odyssey's Knights and Nyanta seriously attempting to kill Mizufa.
I personally think S2 did a serviceable job when it comes to Shiroe, be it during Abyssal Shaft raid or Shibuya raid, but aside of that, most characters were pretty much the same as in S1. Sure, not all characters need development whatsoever and a more "organic" storytelling is better anyway, but S2 had also very minimal character interactions to boot. So you had the characters doing "things" because the story dictactes them to do so, instead of being personnaly compelled to do that in comparison to S1.

[magnuskn]

Best news of this year so far. Can't wait to see the crew again. <adjusts glasses>

[LoweGear]

English subtitle of the third season: Destruction of the Round Table.

Well that's ominous

[vietlongplus]

omg, i'm waitng and hope Season 2

[DQueenie13]

https://pf.nhk-ep.co.jp/detail/2269

S3 has been listed for a 12-episode season, which is to be expected from the fact that it's named after volume 12 and may have a sprinkling of volume 11 content for context.

[DarkJak2050]

Given the lack of official printed content, it's not all that surprising.

[DQueenie13]

https://twitter.com/loghorizon_DORT/...85241252429824

Twitter confirmed we'll be getting volume 11 content with the second image, which is a location in the Chinese server.

[DarkJak2050]

Good that we have more additional info for Season 3, but with COVID-19 running rampant in Japan right now, it raises the question; will Log Horizon be pushed back?

Fall 2020 may seem far off right now, but think about the production process taken into making an anime. And the State of Emergency that Japan is under right now.

[Estavali]

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

Good that we have more additional info for Season 3, but with COVID-19 running rampant in Japan right now, it raises the question; will Log Horizon be pushed back?

Fall 2020 may seem far off right now, but think about the production process taken into making an anime. And the State of Emergency that Japan is under right now.

Personally I prefer folks there to put human lives over getting stuff done on time, even if it means pushing back the release date. The work would take a hit in terms of quality and schedule anyway if they lose experienced animators and others to the pandemic

[DQueenie13]

Some unfortunate news: Keiji Fujiwara, who voiced Li Gan/ReGan, passed away a few days ago. Not sure if that'll impact LH or not, but the official DORT twitter posted an in memoriam tweet to honor him: https://twitter.com/loghorizon_DORT/...70838342602754

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by Estavali

Personally I prefer folks there to put human lives over getting stuff done on time, even if it means pushing back the release date. The work would take a hit in terms of quality and schedule anyway if they lose experienced animators and others to the pandemic

I would actually be okay with that. Human lives do come first. As for the quality, I for sure don't want to see it take another drop in quality (mainly animation) after how Studio Deen handled Season 2. And with them working on Season 3, it doesn't assure me at all. And I also saw the images in the latest tweet. Looks to me that the visuals haven't been improved at all.

However, given that it's the same staff that did Season 2 that are returning for Season 3 and it's been 5-6 years, the only good thing that could happen in that timeframe is if their animation skills improved. Will that actually be the case here?

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

Some unfortunate news: Keiji Fujiwara, who voiced Li Gan/ReGan, passed away a few days ago. Not sure if that'll impact LH or not, but the official DORT twitter posted an in memoriam tweet to honor him: https://twitter.com/loghorizon_DORT/...70838342602754

If Regan does appear in Season 3, then obviously they'll need someone to replace him.

Be at Peace, Fujiwara-san.

[Estavali]

Originally Posted by DQueenie13

Some unfortunate news: Keiji Fujiwara, who voiced Li Gan/ReGan, passed away a few days ago. Not sure if that'll impact LH or not, but the official DORT twitter posted an in memoriam tweet to honor him: https://twitter.com/loghorizon_DORT/...70838342602754

According to wikipedia, Mr Fujiwara passed away due to cancer. Rest in peace, Mr Fujiwara, it's a terrible day for rain.

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

I would actually be okay with that. Human lives do come first. As for the quality, I for sure don't want to see it take another drop in quality (mainly animation) after how Studio Deen handled Season 2. And with them working on Season 3, it doesn't assure me at all. And I also saw the images in the latest tweet. Looks to me that the visuals haven't been improved at all.

However, given that it's the same staff that did Season 2 that are returning for Season 3 and it's been 5-6 years, the only good thing that could happen in that timeframe is if their animation skills improved. Will that actually be the case here?

I think we can only be sure when/if a trailer that shows actual scenes comes up

At the end of the day, it probably boils down to how much Kadokawa and/or NHK is willing to invest in the LogHora anime. It may be easy to put the blame for bad animation on a studio but that's not always true. Take Deen for example, they did LogHora S2 and they also gave us Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū, which is a beautiful piece of work.

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by Estavali

At the end of the day, it probably boils down to how much Kadokawa and/or NHK is willing to invest in the LogHora anime. It may be easy to put the blame for bad animation on a studio but that's not always true. Take Deen for example, they did LogHora S2 and they also gave us Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū, which is a beautiful piece of work.

If you're referring to the Budget, then you can toss that out the window. Every anime has roughly the same budget.

Where it comes down to it are the time management, the animation staff and their skills.

Showa Genrouku Rakugo Shinju is a beautiful piece of work, but was it done by the same staff that did Log Horizon Season 2? No.

Both were done by Studio Deen, but that doesn't mean that both were done by the same staff.

[Johnny Dy]

Log Horizon for me is better than Sword Art Online. I quit SAO middle 3rd season but Log Horizon won't get the same treatment if 3rd season will be released. It's been quite a while since 2nd season was finished, I don't quite understand the delay. Maybe the 2nd season didn't do as well as expected. It's true that it wasn't as good as the 1st, but it wasn't bad by any measure.

[DarkJak2050]

Originally Posted by Johnny Dy

Log Horizon for me is better than Sword Art Online. I quit SAO middle 3rd season but Log Horizon won't get the same treatment if 3rd season will be released.

So you saying that it doesn't deserve to have better quality?

It's been quite a while since 2nd season was finished, I don't quite understand the delay.

There was a severe lack of Source Material. Particularly Official Prints. Season 2 actually got ahead of the Light Novels by the time it ended. There is a "Web Novel" version that's far ahead of where the Light Novels are now, but that's really considered as a "Draft" version to the series. Meaning that changes are likely to be made before they're officially printed.

Then there's also the issue of Mamare Touno (author of the Light Novels), getting charged with Tax Evasion that started in 2015. Which hurt the series a lot by hampering Kadokawa and Mamare of officially printing the series, thus taking it "off the map". Because of that, between the Tax Evasion and now, there were only 2 volumes of the Light Novels that were officially printed. Not much in a 5-year span. There was supposed to be another Volume set to be released in September 2019, but that suddenly got yanked with no apparent reason and no further notice on a new release date.

Maybe the 2nd season didn't do as well as expected. It's true that it wasn't as good as the 1st, but it wasn't bad by any measure.

It wasn't paced out as well and there was under-par animation; particularly in it's action sequences.

Example: the first fight against Luseat during the Abyssal Shaft Raid.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/iVKx93P-Pm4

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

There were "tricks" or "work arounds" to make some of the parts where the characters were hitting Luseat look animated. But in actuality, they were hardly moving and the overall screenshots were shaking, if not, slowly panning. Not really an ideal way to send the intensity and impact of a fight to the audience.

For a better assessment on why Season 2 wasn't as good, read Klashikari's post.

[Friday]

roll on October......I'll be waiting

[Johnny Dy]

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

So you saying that it doesn't deserve to have better quality?

I... don't quite follow the logic. Why would I say that? And how does one not deserve quality? ._.' Quality is what every anime deserves, less than 50% get it though, like in everything else. What I would say, and I did say it a few years back is that in my opinion Log Horizon is the best world simulated anime/game anime that I've seen. I've heard about hack.0 or some weird name like that supposed to be the best up to LH, but when I've searched for the anime, I've hit a wall. It's like it disappeared from the torrent world.

Originally Posted by Friday

roll on October......I'll be waiting

Yup. Log Horizon > Overlord > SAO.

LE: And certainly better than that anime with God of Games that looked like Rickets from Berserk in his school days ^^', forgot it's name though. 1st season was cool, 2nd was a downer. It's an anime where 2 brothers very well versed in strategy games, boy and girl get trapped in a game world. 1st season got me some chills as talentless humans led by the 2 seem to mount a fierce endeavor against the more powerful/skilled/smarter other races but the 2nd season was a fiasco in my opinion, nothing further from what one would expect after the 1st season. Forgot it's name... damn it. I don't have a list and such, so I rely entirely upon memory.

[Estavali]

Originally Posted by DarkJak2050

If you're referring to the Budget, then you can toss that out the window. Every anime has roughly the same budget.

Where it comes down to it are the time management, the animation staff and their skills.

Showa Genrouku Rakugo Shinju is a beautiful piece of work, but was it done by the same staff that did Log Horizon Season 2? No.

Both were done by Studio Deen, but that doesn't mean that both were done by the same staff.

Yup, that was what I was going for too, that it could be the same studio but with different teams. I didn't notice that you also mentioned about the same team for S3 again, which would have made me reconsider though

Still, as you've said, it's been 5 years. Let's hope for the best here (but keep expectations low just in case :P).

[DQueenie13]

https://twitter.com/loghorizon_DORT/...34406069661698

Latest tweet from the S3 team says that production on the anime has resumed. No statement on whether the anime will be delayed or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is one when October gets closer.

As for the image...

Spoiler for Episode Title, Etc.:

The episode is titled "The Akiba General Election" and it seems to be -- at least based on what I can make of the teeny tiny text -- the 11th episode, out of 12. Which sounds about right based on volume 12's story.