Log Horizon horizon went over well with a lot of fans and the Sentai Filmworks pickup of the first season is progressing well with a dub coming for it. We learned back in March that there would be a second season in the fall and now the official word has landed via NHK that it will debut on October 4th at 5:30 pm JST. The first series debuted at the same time in October 2013 and was quickly picked up for acquisition by Sentai Filmworks. That season ran for twenty-five episodes and is based on the work of original author Mamare Touno (Maoyu). The show was directed by Shinji Ishihira (Fairy Tail) and featured character designs by Mariko Ito with series composition by Toshizo Nemoto (Inu X Boku SS), sound direction by Shoji Hata (Kids on the Slope) and music by Yasuharu Takanashi (The Severing Crime Edge).
The new season has many returning characters but also a few new ones including Rie Murakawa as Lizé, Yukiyo Fujii as Tetra and Tsubasa Yonaga as Kinjō.
First season concept: Imagine a MMORPG that has become a global phenomenon, immersing millions of players in its online fantasy world over eleven editions. But what happens when something goes terribly wrong with the twelfth expansion pack, and the hit “role playing game” becomes a deadly “real people in jeopardy” situation as 30,000 players suddenly find themselves pulled permanently into the game’s no longer fictional universe? Trapped in a nightmare where the monsters are real, there are no extra lives and each player’s death means a permanent game over, it quickly becomes clear to eight-year MMORPG veteran Shiroe that the tricks and cheats developed sitting at a keyboard won’t translate into the survival skills required to stay alive. The course of action is obvious: band together and pool talents for mutual protection. Although he’s never been a “real” leader, he’ll have to find the courage to take a small band of players, starting with his friend Naotsugu and the beautiful assassin Akatsuki, and form a new kind of guild. Heroes will be born, leaders will rise and a new legend will be forged as sword and sorcery becomes real in LOG HORIZON!
[Source: ANN]
SO Excited!!!!
Chris Beveridge your “First season concept” is fundamentally wrong. You state that “the hit ‘role playing game’ becomes a deadly ‘real people in jeopardy’ situation” because “the monsters are real, there are no extra lives and each player�s death means a permanent game over”.
This is absolutely not true. In the first season of Log Horizon, the scope of the universe is different. Players are not capable of dying. When they are defeated in combat, they are revived in the “Cathedral”, a building in the player town that players re-spawn at when they do fall in battle. The players are effectively immortal. Shiro and the other players are not by any means concerned with survival. The conflict occurs when friction between the players and the NPCs is created because of the player’s immortality and overwhelming power to the point that they threaten the balance of power between the NPC kingdoms.
At the same time, player guilds are fighting each other for power. The world itself begins to fall into chaos because the players are not culling back the monster populations. Which, again, is a direct threat to the NPCs, and not the players.
It’s clear you have not watched this series. I would recommend you do so because it really is excellent. It bucks the common tropes, trends, or assumptions one might have in a trapped-in-the-game story. It certainly looks like you were either badly misinformed or made blatantly erroneous assumptions.
The portion you’re responding to is what Sentai Filmworks, the licensor of the first season, is providing as the synopsis of the series. That’s their official “what this show is about” and what’s what we use when talking about it.
And no, I have not watched the series as I’m waiting on the home video release. But you need to realize that when companies put out their synopsis of a show, they may not put it in the same exact words as fans or try to play it a little more vague.