Previously on Log Horizon:

Shiroe, Naotsugu, & Akatsuki accept an assignment by Marielle of the Crescent Moon guild to save one of their members, Serara. Riding wyverns, they set off to save the young girl. Spoilers Ahead!

NPCs are afraid of spoilers

Shiroe and the others disembark from their griffons and enter the dungeon known as the Depths of Palm in order to make their way to Suskino. Meanwhile back in Akihabara, Marielle initiates a sitdown between the various guild in the region in order to discuss what to do about their current situation. Shiroe and his group encounter the dungeon boss before they leave and on the outskirts of Susukino, Serara’s pursuers have caught up to her.

Things get explained a bit more in this episode, but all in all it’s hard to keep engaged.

We finally get some more explanation on Shiroe in this episode, and it is welcome for the most part. When he and his group cross over an ancient bridge in the dungeon, it gives way causing Shiroe to fall into the water below. While descending deeper he begins to reminisce on his life in the real world. Like most avid pc gamers he was a bit anti social and didn’t communicate with others. This changed when he started playing Elder Tale. We see a brief scene of when he was in the Debauchery Tea Party, where a mysterious girl and guy are telling him about how beautiful the games sceneray is, and we see Naotsugu was there as well. We also learn that he is an engineering graduate student in the real world and works on digital mapping, which is why he’s so adept at reading maps and drawing them. There is also a humorous scene where Akatsuki comments on her and Shiroe being about the same age and the guys don’t believe her.

One of Shiroe’s old friends

Marielle and her guild make a brief apperance after she makes a call to Shiroe. She is initially surprised that they made it to the dungeon in three days (it usually takes 2 weeks by horse, but Shiroe didn’t tell her they used griffons). The meeting of the guilds is interesting as we don’t really know what its for yet and we meet a mysterious man who seems to know of Shiroe.

We catch up with Serara in Susukino and she seems fine for the most part. She was saved by a cat man named Nyanta (clever) and has been staying with him the entire time. Not much happens in these scenes but they do discuss just what type of people Shiroe and his friends are. Susukino is a less than friendly place as PKing is pretty rampant and the citizens live in fear. On the outskirts of town we meet Demikas and his followers who have been hunting Serara and Nyanta, but their exact reason behind it is unknown.

Nyanta

“The Depths of Palm” is a decent episode, but by no means nothing special. It drags a bit in place, and while learning more about the characters is nice, it does little to hold the attention. The animation is average, but the action scenes play their part well enough. Log Horizon is still trying to establish an identity, but it so far missing the mark. The game continues next week as Shiroe & co. finally reach Susukino.

3/5