The Journal, Page 96:
Relinquished Memories of an Old World –
Log Horizon Volume 4 (Light Novel)
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PUBLISHED ON: April 18th 2024
Written By:
Blisscast
Edited By:
EmeraldDM8
| ⚠️ Spoiler Warning & Disclaimer ⚠️ |
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| Unlike what happened in the previous review, to talk about this Volume, I will have to partially spoil the contents of Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 (up until Episode 20 of the Anime’s 1st Season), so please be aware in case you’d prefer not to be spoiled. |
Hello again, and welcome to yet another Light Novel-related Page! As I mentioned last week, I’ve been working on preparing a new Page about Log Horizon, specifically about Volume 4 of the Light Novel and Episodes 16-20 of the first season of the anime; thus, here it is!
Talking about last week, I’ve finally got the chance to continue Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth, and I’m at Chapter 6; I’m finding myself getting quite addicted to the Dondoko Island part, as it’s quite similar to Animal Crossing (Yakuza / Like a Dragon is definitely the best series indeed, as it even lets you play Animal Crossing 🥳). Moving on, I’ve finally managed to finish working on the second GUI Wonderland episode about the marvelous Xerox Star, and it’s finally out! I’m so proud of it, especially considering all the hiccups I encountered in making the Star Emulator work; I bet you’ll enjoy it too, so feel free to have a look at it! Moreover, we’re also working on a blog about a game called Let’s School, but it’s primarily EmeraldDM8‘s blog, and I can’t really tell when it will be ready to be published; guess you’ll just have to wait and see!
Now, with our dazzling announcements out of the way, let’s finally continue our grand adventure into the lands of Theldesia with…
| Log Horizon Volume 4 (Light Novel) |
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This is the fourth release in the Log Horizon Light Novel series, written by Mamare Touno, released back in 2011 in Japan for Kadokawa, and then in 2015 in English for Yen Press; just like the previous three volumes, it originally came out as a web novel on a website called Shōsetsuka ni Narō, then it was rewritten and adapted into a commercial release. This volume is covered in the first season of the anime adaptation, precisely in the episodes 16 through 20; in case you have missed any of them, I’ve already reviewed Volume 1 here, Volume 2 here, and Volume 3 here, so feel free to have a look at them! As always, I read the translation by Yen Press and watched the Japanese dub of the anime alongside EmeraldDM8.
This volume’s plot follows on exactly where the previous one left off; as our young newbies (a group that includes Minori, Touya, Isuzu, and Rundelhaus, among others) was continuing their summer training camp, the group spots a horde of monsters coming from the sea! Thus, the newbies start fighting them, putting their training into practice; what our group doesn’t know is that the creatures they are currently fighting are not the only ones they should be worrying about, as several other goblin armies are preparing to launch an attack on the cities belonging to the League of Free Cities, where the People of the Earth live!
You see, in the previous volume, we found out that there aren’t only Adventurer cities in Theldesia, but also a decent number of both villages and cities that are wholly inhabited by the People of the Earth; unfortunately, these places aren’t exactly well-defended, as the armies that are supposed to protect them aren’t so strong. Thus, you can imagine that such an invasion would cause immense problems for those cities!
In the meantime, whilst the newbies’ group is fighting, everyone at the Ancient Court of Ice receives news that an army of goblins is going to attack some of the cities of the League, and as a result, all the nobles panic; after some meetings, they resolve to not so kindly ask the Adventurers for help, as they are strong, immortal, and as such, they might as well help the People of the Earth for free. There is an issue, however, which goes far beyond their lack of manners; you see, in the final pages of the previous Volume, we found out not only how the Adventurers are related to Theldesia, but also the terrible secret and risk behind death in this world! You see, it was previously believed that, whenever Adventurers died and were revived at the Cathedral, they would just lose a few experience points, and that’s it; thus, the Adventurers didn’t really fear death, as they would just respawn, and due to this belief, the People of the Earth almost saw them as something expendable. Suddenly, though, everything they thought they knew about the risks of this world changed, as Shiroe discovers that, whenever an Adventurer die, they will lose part of their memories of the Old World! 🥺
This unusual and utterly scary phenomenon happens because some of the mind energy that composes the body and existence of an Adventurer ends up being inevitably lost whenever they’re brought to the Cathedral, and as such, part of their memories end up being lost in the process of respawning; according to what they manage to figure out, the memories that they have lost so far aren’t terribly important ones, as it’s mostly just minor, trivial details, which would probably only be a little inconsequential to a person. Whilst we as readers, just like the characters, don’t know how much of a serious danger this threat to their memories truly is, we can at least take some relief in the fact that there are multiple players who have already died at least a dozen times since the Catastrophe, yet they haven’t encountered any real issues with their daily lives, and don’t yet seem to have lost memories vital to themselves as a person.
Even so, the most important thing about all of this is that, as a result of this discovery, death is once again something to be feared. So, what does this all mean? Well, as Shiroe points out, even if it would have been better not to lose memories, it is also true that, if death has no meaning, then there is also really no point to living either; this is, admittedly, an interesting point, and, if we make the inevitable comparison to Sword Art Online, I also think this is quite a nice way of differentiating, yet still maintaining the threat, of death. Because, you see, the fact of the matter is that, whilst it can be fun to watch something that had no stakes for a time, a lack of stakes can really start to hurt the tension, and subsequently the enjoyment of the reader, in a story, and by choosing to go this route, I think Log Horizon has managed to carve out an interesting question through the look-glass that is death; how important are your memories? Whilst we, obviously, haven’t seen much effect of the loss of memories yet, I’m looking forward to seeing what they potentially do with it in the future; might people begin to lose more crucial memories? Will some characters end up forgetting the Old World completely? Might some characters want to stay as the Old World means nothing to them anymore? And if memories are what truly makes us who we are, then is losing them the same as us dying a slow, drawn-out death? No matter what decision the story makes, I think taking this step was an extremely important milestone, and it means that Theldesia is now an actual world with risks and consequences, rather than just being a simulation of a game they used to enjoy.
Thus, given this new risk, you can probably quite easily imagine that now Adventurers don’t really want to recklessly risk their lives anymore, and they would also like the nobility of the People of the Earth to stop thinking of the Adventurers as expendable deities who can easily solve problems for free. I mean, it can’t be denied that Adventurers are stronger, and their risks when fighting are heavily reduced when compared to how it is for the People of the Earth, but that doesn’t mean that Adventurers shouldn’t be treated with respect. However, despite the Adventurers’ best efforts, reaching an understanding with their neighbors is unfortunately not quite as simple as it initially looks; for example, despite lacking any form of proof, there are several in the League of Free Cities who actually believe that these recent monster outbreaks are the Adventurers’ doing, as a way to try and sway the negotiations in their own favor! … Let’s just ignore the fact that, whilst their viewpoint is very obviously based upon existing prejudice, especially considering how little respect they already have toward the Adventurers, these Nobles are actually almost correct; for you see, there is something our trusty Adventurers have forgotten to do!
First of all, I’m sure you know how games like MMOs and Gacha have time-limited events, right? Every once in a while, some kind of event is added to these titles, and you can play it only for a limited amount of time. In our case, when Elder Tales was a game, there were two recurring events, one of which was called the “Return of the Goblin King”; a new Goblin King would soon be crowned, and it would be up to the Adventurers to prevent it from happening. What was intriguing about this event is that if you managed to weaken the, admittedly already weak, yet also numerous, goblin armies before it became a problem, then, as a result, the main event itself would be a lot easier; since the rewards were decent and the difficulty was approachable, the goblins were almost always stopped in time, and no one ever put too much thought into it. Now, though, our Adventurers may have forgotten about this little event, as they were busy with recreating society, and as such, those unruly goblins have now grown to be a problem. So, what should they do now? I mean, imagine if you get thrown into your favorite game, and forgetting to play a random event means you’re getting invaded by a massive army; it must be extremely scary, don’t you think?
EmeraldDM8: As someone who has only seen the anime, this whole thing admittedly didn’t seem to be as big of an issue as they were claiming it to be. Blisscast has assured me that the situation was dire in the Light Novel, but in the anime, it genuinely felt like the entirely thing could have easily been resolved by just sending a few players of Krusty’s strength and ability, as he seemed like he was quite easily cutting through the goblin hordes like they were made of butter.
Blisscast: You see, in the Light Novel, the main issue was the sheer size of the army, and the risk that posed to the lower-level players, as well as the People of the Earth.
EmeraldDM8: Oh, I’m perfectly aware of that, and I understand that the whole thing was largely based around the political situation that this invasion entailed. That wasn’t my issue in the slightest; in fact, I actually quite liked how the build up of the invasion was handled, as well as how they handled the parts with the lower-leveled players, but what I meant was that, when they were showing off Krusty’s forces fighting the army, it just kind of showed how little danger the army actually posed when you have players of that ability protecting the main city. Still, I think this will likely be used as a set-up for a future plot point, basically using this entire story-arc in order to show that the Adventurers can make for quite an effective army when properly led, and I expect this to become important later when a more serious threat rears it’s head.
Moving on, something that I personally really appreciated about this Volume is how it makes it extremely clear that Elder Tales isn’t just a game anymore; after all, for the very first time, our heroes need to prepare and lead their first mass-scale war, one that they cannot lose, or they’d risk having to give up their memories of the Old World! It’s truly intriguing to see how they manage to turn their game knowledge into real war tactics; the one character that I think excels at this, besides Shiroe, is the young Minori, the healer and support unit who wishes she could be just as amazing as her hero Shiroe. In fact, in order to be just like her hero, she has to train and improve an incredible trick up her sleeve, a skill that she has the chance to put into practice in this war; Minori is capable of “predicting” the series of events that will happen in a battle up to 5 seconds before (unlike Shiroe, who was capable of a whopping 30 seconds, back when Elder Tales was just a game), and can quickly calculate the MP expense of every player in her party with incredible detail. This is quite important, as it allows her to direct the strategy of her companions in an effective and smart manner, and as a result, they’ll almost always have the upper hand in battle. As a huge fan of smart and wise characters (such as Shiroe, or even Kiryu from Like a Dragon / Yakuza, since we mentioned that before), I can perfectly understand why Minori would want to imitate Shiroe; who knows, if I were stranded in Theldesia, maybe I’d become like that too!
Or perhaps, I’d become just like our favorite Person of the Earth, Princess Raynesia; you see, something that was also remarkable was the involvement of this very character, a member of the nobility of the People of the Earth. After having gone out of her way to beg for the Adventurers of Akiba to help protect her hometown , she follows Krusty’s group to the battlefield; even if she can’t exactly fight, she makes sure to look around, and we can read that entire section filtered through her eyes. As a member of royalty in the People of the Earth, she often finds herself comparing what she knows of her own world to that of the lives the Adventurers lead, and this reflection offers us a prime opportunity to not only get a small insight into what sort of lives the People of the Earth have, but it also allows us to actually see what just how incredible the Adventurers seem to them, all without the usual smokescreen that spoken words and etiquette can so often bring with them. I mean, even when she’s not comparing and analyzing things, it’s always incredibly nice to see what Raynesia thinks, as she’s such a relatable character; in fact, she’s completely inexperienced about war-related affairs, and would rather sleep and be alone, however, she still has to try and save her town from the goblins. Sadly, the Anime offers us less insight into her thoughts, which is a pity, so if you particularly enjoy her, I would recommend you to read the Novel instead.
Really, I wish I could tell you more and more about all the exciting events that happened in this Volume, but if I did, I would end up spoiling some major future concepts about Theldesia; thus, if you want to know more, then by all means, please check out either the Novel or Episodes 16 through 20 of the Anime!
As for how I’d rate this arc of the story; I’m admittedly not a huge fan of war tactics, so it wasn’t fully my cup of tea, even so, it was still extremely entertaining and fascinating, and we even got to find out an incredible amount of information about the People of the Earth and about our Adventurers, so all in all, it was definitely worth it (for real, buying this series was one of my best ideas ever); for this reason, I’m looking forward to seeing just what mind-blowing things will happen in the next Volume!
Thank you for reading, and I hope I’ll see you in next Thursday’s Journal Page, or anywhere around the site!
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