is a Japanese novel series written by Mamare Touno and illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara. It began serialization online in 2010 on the user-generated novel publishing website

Shōsetsuka ni Narō is a Japanese novel self-publishing website created by . It was launched on April 2, 2004. Users can upload their novels free of charge and the novels are also free to read. As of December 2022, the site hosts close to 1,000,000 novels, has ove ...

, being later on acquired by

Enterbrain , formerly , is a Japanese publisher and division of Kadokawa Future Publishing founded on 30 January 1987 as . Magazines published by Enterbrain are generally focused on video games and computer entertainment as well as video game and strategy ...

and published as a light novel in Japan since 2011. Yen Press began publishing an English translation in 2015. The series follows the strategist, Shiroe, and the other players of the long-lived

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

''Elder Tale'' after they find themselves whisked away into the game world following a game update. The novel has received four

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

adaptations, with one based on the main story and the other three revolving around characters in the series. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation animated by

Satelight is a Japanese animation studio. Aside from several stand-alone projects, the studio is well known for producing the '' Aquarion'' and ''Symphogear'' franchises, as well as later installments of the ''Macross'' franchise. The company's Represen ...

aired on

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, cultural or intellectual nature, periodically also s ...

between October 5, 2013 and March 22, 2014. A second season by

Studio Deen is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub ...

aired between October 4, 2014 and March 28, 2015. A third season by Studio Deen aired between January 13, 2021 and March 31, 2021.

Synopsis

By its eleventh expansion pack, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has become a global success, with a user base of millions of players. However, during the release of its twelfth expansion pack: , thirty thousand Japanese gamers who are logged on at the time of the update suddenly find themselves transported into the virtual game world and donning their in-game avatars. In the midst of the event, a socially awkward gamer named Shiroe, along with his friends Naotsugu and Akatsuki, decide to team up so that they may face this world, which unfortunately has now become their reality, along with the challenges and obstacles ahead of them.

Publication

''Log Horizon'' began as a light novel written by Mamare Touno. It initially appeared in installments on the user-generated content site ''

'' ("So You Want to be a Novelist") starting on April 13, 2010, and subsequently published in book form by

since March 2011.

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

obtained the rights on its light novel imprint to release the novels in English from 2015.

Media

Manga

The novel series has received four

adaptations, all written by Mamare Touno. The first adaptation is illustrated by Motoya Matsu and titled, ''Log Horizon Gaiden: Honey Moon Logs''. It began serialization on January 27, 2012, and is published by

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because o ...

in the ''

Dengeki Daioh is a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) under the ''Dengeki'' brand. Many manga serialized in ''Dengeki Daioh'' were later published in ''tankōbon'' volumes under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Com ...

'' magazine. The second adaptation is illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara and titled ''Log Horizon''. It began serialization on May 18, 2012, and was published by

in the ''Famitsu Comic Clear'' web magazine. Yen Press obtained this manga for an English release. The third adaptation is illustrated by Koyuki and titled, ''Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade''. It began serialization on July 9, 2012, ended on March 9, 2018, and was published by

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at times an imprint of Kadokaw ...

in the ''Age Premium'' magazine. Another manga illustrated by Sōchū and titled, ''Log Horizon Gaiden: Nyanta-honcho Shiawase no Recipe'' began serialization on December 21, 2012, ended on March 31, 2018, and was published by Enterbrain in the ''Comic B's LOG'' magazine and collected in six volumes. A manga ''Log Horizon: Kanami, Go! East!'' illustrated by Kou was serialized in ''Comic B's LOG'' from October 1, 2015, to December 1, 2016, and compiled in two volumes.

Anime

A 25-episode

adaptation produced by

aired on

from October 5, 2013 to March 22, 2014. The series was streamed as a simulcast by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and t ...

in North America and other select parts of the world. A 25-episode second season produced by

aired from October 4, 2014 to March 28, 2015. Both seasons were licensed by

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

in North America for digital and home video release.

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

acquired the streaming rights to the series after Sentai Filmworks lost the rights. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. For both seasons, the opening theme is "database" by

Man with a Mission Man with a Mission, stylized as MAN WITH A MISSION or sometimes as MWAM, is a Japanese rock band which was formed in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, in 2010. The band currently consists of five band members, with stage names of Tokyo Tanaka (vocals, lead ...

featuring Takuma. The ending theme for the first season is "Your song*" and for the second season it is "Wonderful Wonder World*", both performed by Yunchi. A 12-episode third season titled was originally scheduled to premiere in October 2020, but was delayed to Winter 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The third season aired from January 13 to March 31, 2021. The third season is named after the title of Volume 12 of the web novel series and the official acronym is DORT. The staff and cast will reprise their roles from the second season. Funimation licensed the third season and will stream it on its website in North America, the British Isles, Mexico, and Brazil, in Europe through Wakanim, and in Australia and New Zealand through AnimeLab.

Music

Reception

Rebecca Silverman of the

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ...

noted that the series has "its own unique take on what has become a subgenre of fantasy" when compared to the previous ''

Sword Art Online is a Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the then-near future and focuses on protagonists Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and Asuna Yuuki as they play through various vir ...

'' and the earlier ''

.hack ''.hack'' (pronounced "Dot Hack") is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects: Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. They were primarily created and developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. ...

'' series. With respect to the anime adaptation, Silverman noted that one of the major drawbacks was the artistry. She held the designs of the characters with small regard, calling them "somewhat bland and generic in design, which is a bit of an accomplishment given how many character creation options there apparently are". She used the design of Akatsuki as an example, explaining that the character's beauty has to be constantly reminded to the audience despite the fact that "she's one of the less striking female characters on screen". Another issue Silverman pointed out was the apparent overuse of Naotsugu's perverted nature for comedic relief and finding that for some viewers he may be "line-crossingly obnoxious". Despite these drawbacks, Silverman remarked that the "show shouldn't be dismissed as 'just another ripoff' before giving it a chance" since "it has the potential to expand rather than rehash the basic premise of players trapped in a game".

Notes

References

External links

''Log Horizon''
(Initially published edition) at ''Shōsetsuka ni Narō''. *
List of permissioned fan fictions

*
Official support website for table-talk role-playing game ''Log Horizon TRPG''

Mamare Touno's official information website

Mamare Touno's personal website
{{Studio Deen Book series introduced in 2010 2010s fantasy novels 2011 Japanese novels 2021 anime television series debuts Anime and manga based on novels ASCII Media Works manga Enterbrain Enterbrain manga Fujimi Shobo manga Crunchyroll anime Isekai anime and manga Isekai novels and light novels Japanese fantasy novels Light novels Light novels first published online Massively multiplayer online role-playing games in fiction NHK original programming Novels first published in serial form Satelight Sentai Filmworks Science fiction anime and manga Shōnen manga Shōsetsuka ni Narō Studio Deen Yen Press titles