For anyone who has ever player an MMORPG this anime is so familiar, they use all the terms you know from playing, guilds, Pking, PvP, NPC's, raids, quests, dungeons, xp you name it its all thrown in and explained as if you were in a game rather than in an anime world. Of course you are in an anime world and the game elements, though omnipresent, are still only a part of the experience. The story moves along at a brisk pace and you yearn for the next episode and as each episode ends on a glimmer of hope that the future is getting brighter, the end theme kicks in and it is perfect for that hopeful feeling, I am very much enjoying this anime as I seem to know all the game terms they throw out, it makes sense of the world in a way I can relate too. Any player of an MMO should feel right at home here and enjoy watching how the story evolves. (show less)

Here we go, my first review ever (this anime is just that good). As I type this right now, I've only just finished watching episode 8. That's right, I haven't even reached episode 10 yet! I've watched Sword Art Online, and I chose to watch this anime because I enjoyed SAO and I thought they would be quite similar. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel like one anime is copying the other. They have similarities sure, but they're both so different! I would definitely give this anime a try! :) There's a 2nd season airing at the moment as well; I can't wait to watch it! (show less)

Well, I've been an MMORPG fan for quite a long time now, and I'm quite interested in games about it.
This is what I think (I have played a lot of games since I was a kid, so my opinion may differ to you who doesn't play video games)

Story(There might be some spoiler) - As much as I've seen, there seems to be a lot of similar situation as SAO (Sword Art Online). I won't say it's a clone, because there are major differences as well. And it goes well explaining about the Job/Class description for the viewers to understand.The story develops around the main character, Shiroe, a "genius" tactician. But Genius is not what I had in mind. Shiroe is somewhat an "average" RPG player, and his friend, chief Nyanta, an Action-adventure single player gamer, are the only protagonist that seems to know what they're doing, as well as the other characters, they are like newbies/ new players that started playing games. They make Shiroe looks like a genius, when his tactics are actually simple, he just speaks to much, over-explaining such simple and common tactic. And his enemy too seems to be a newbie, and doesn't know anything about the game's classes. Therefore, puts the average-Shiroe to look smart. And this isn't just me, I've asked a lot of people as well, and they say the same thing as well. And I'm sure you can't deny this fact if you're a game addict and have been playing games for long enough.

Dialogue - As I said before, there seems to be too many useless explanation over the series. Over-explaining thinggs so that Shiroe looks smart.

Animation - I can't deny that this Anime has great animation.

Entertaiment - There are some, I mean a lot of laugh-worthy jokes that they do all along the series. It's great and all, and the actions are pretty good as well. (show less)

I know there is a large amount of rage at this series for being a "SAO Clone" but lets look at the facts, one: death isn't permanent. Two: its a large amount of dialogue rather than fighting endlessly. Three: there is a degree of mystery to it, namely how they ended up "Stuck in a game" as they believe, and why. Four: it is focused on CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT rather than the action aspect. These add up to say its not a SAO clone but rather a new take on the beaten dead horse that is the "person stuck in a video game/Virtual world" which btw was created by TRON. Then rehashed by Nintendo's "Captain N: the Game Master" and then by .Hack//Sign so was SAO, which was a Light Novel written LONG after both Captain N and .Hack//Sign, of these a clone of them HELL NO it was its own series, Log Horizon takes the model created long ago and puts yet another new spin on it, let the story and characters speak for themselves. I may be reaching by bringing up something most of you wouldn't know about(or care about due to its age, ie Captain N) but its just to make a point, I will admit there may have been a degree of marketing planning screwing with the timing of Log Horizon's release BUT it riding on the coat tails of SAO doesn't make it a clone, it simply makes it part of said marketing plan. All that being said it is a drama, comedy and potentially it may develop a romance portion of the story(I didn't read the light novels so I DON'T KNOW) (show less)

... well ,maybe.

after seeing some people complain "zomfg it's a SAO clone!!!".
nope, it's not.
oh well, there are some similarities: players trapped in MMORPG... WAIT!
(attention minimal spoiler ahead....)
they THINK they are trapped within some game, but are they? another SAO comparsion: in SAO they KNOW that they're in the game. Log Horizon? they just wake up in some world they know from an MMORPG. thats all. no info if it's a game, if it's a different dimension, if it's just a coma-dream from one of the main chars.
ok, enough from SAO. let's talk about Log Horizon.

the main thing MMOers will love is the view to some "ingame-" interfaces, the pretty complex skill usage/control (compared to other similar shows), the party fights/interaction... the MMOgamer within me: like!

Graphics and sound are quite good, hope they don't tend to lower the quality of that after 100 or so episodes.

storyflow... well, at the first episodes you REALLY think it's some SAO clone. but when SAO stops being some "MMORPG-Show" to become a tragic love story, LogHorizon keeps it's roots. just the pace of the show might be a bit slow for some, even with some fast battles here and there. but you just can't stuff that much information into some fast paced shown and the information flow isn't that small.
thought it's more some likely serious show, it still has some pretty nice gags/running gags or funny moments.

after all: don't waste your time compare Log horizon with SAO. it's a complete different story with different characters. just the setting might show one or two similarities, but i guess it's not the first anime that has acoincidental a similar setting/charbuild/main char's name/job/gender. (it's like comparing Death note with Bleach "zomfg, a shinigami, death note is a bleach clone!!!111eoneone....") (show less)