After a six year gap, Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table is the third season in the series. It is only 12 episodes long and is set in a world where players in a MMO are suddenly transported into a world mirroring it. They are known to its population as adventurers. The first two seasons set up how they created their city, Akiba, and the creation of the Round Table Conference as the entity managing the city’s affairs. Based on the subtitle of this season, one can easily guess that it will revolve around this Round Table Conference, and most likely its destruction, or disbandment. Spoiler alert, that is only a small part of the season.
Anyway, knowing that the Round Table Conference is the main plot point, you will also know that it probably doesn’t work as well as the characters would have hoped. There are some failings to it, and it doesn’t take long before the season brings that to the forefront. If you were expecting a lot of action and fighting, then this anime is not for you. The season deals with the political side of things as the protagonist, Shiroe, known as a master tactician, delicately deals with the threats and other players in this saga.
Most of the scenes in the season having the characters speaking with each other, dwelling with their thoughts, or deciding how to proceed. It likes to cut between different concurrent viewpoints. It assumes that the viewer has a good idea of the concepts of the world, its layouts, and the ability to understand the significance of whatever it brings up. Thus, it is difficult for people whose knowledge is weaker, or had forgotten during the time gap between seasons, to fully understand what is happening. It gets to the point of being confusing and there is just so much dialogue that you end up tuning it out.
The storytelling and the structure of the season leaves too many gaps. There is too much expectation on the viewers to be able to follow what is happening despite not fully explaining the events. Shiroe and Akatsuki are both mostly out of focus during the season, so you might miss all his scheming and planning. As a result, the season doesn’t use its characters to their full potential. The events breeze by so fast that there isn’t much time for it to build up before it is resolved.
The season is jam packed with multiple arcs. Considering that this is only a small 12 episode season, this means each arc gets introduced and resolved in only two to four episodes. It’s much too rushed, causing the viewers to be constantly at a loss and soon lose interest entirely. There is a sense that even after the season there is a lack of progress. It would have been much better if the season could have fleshed out its events a lot more, focusing more on the smaller details to that at least the characters have time to shine and there is some worldbuilding happening.
As mentioned, there isn’t much action going on. The last part of the season has a bit more combat, but you can tell that there wasn’t much budget given that the fighting was little more than slideshows plus a lot of shouting and yelling. The supposedly emotional high of the finale falls short of its potential since you don’t care for the characters anymore. The characters are watered down. Where is the humor when Shiroe does his schtick of being such a great planner / schemer? Where is Akatsuki with her undying loyalty to Shiroe and her constantly misunderstandings? Where is the fun of being adventurers, or the stress of trying to skirt around the politics of runnin ga city? These are all severely lacking and what’s left is a shell of what it could have been.
Overall, Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table is a run of the mill season. It ends up being a generic anime. You get to the end of the season and think to yourself, what happened and what was achieved? The answer is “not much”, and this is the most disappointing part of the season. Not that the first two seasons were amazing but at least they were still entertaining and enjoyable, whereas this one was just decidedly average and bland.
