The 25th and final episode of Log Horizon 2, titled “The Pioneers,” is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu for paid subscribers. Free members can watch the same episode seven days from now on April 4th. The final adventure of this series continued from where the last episode has ended, where the communication tower was revealed to be a new “dungeon.”
This new dungeon proves to be more difficult than the first dungeon raid at the beginning of Log Horizon 2, where Shiroe enlisted the help of William Massachusetts and his Silver Arrow guild. The Pioneers does not waste time with the excitement as it starts with intense combat against the never-ending swarm of moths.
They manage to defeat most of the moths in the area, but have to deal with the moon rabbits.
It leads them to the raid boss, Taliktan, one of the Geniuses.
Taliktan is perhaps the hardest boss in Elder Tale because of his unique attacks, which are not in the game. This reminds me of the first few episodes of Sword Art Online, when Kirito’s “beater” knowledge became worthless after being trapped in the titular MMORPG game.
I had a “holy f—k” moment when Taliktan transformed into one of his powered-up forms.
I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a dungeon with Taliktan after getting one good look at him.
This is where everything gets emotional as the raid party show the power of teamwork. I was moved by Akatsuki’s epiphany of not losing memories, but offering them in exchange for the ability to rise up and fight again.
The victory over Talikan gives Shiroe and company the ability to communicate, but it’s not with the moon. I broke into laughter that they ended up communicating with Kanami, which sent chills down the backs of Shiroe and Naotsugu.
Nyanta’s puzzled look made the scene more enjoyable.
I broke into laughter when Tetra openly assumed that Kanami was Shiroe’s ex-girlfriend, she said right in front of Akatsuki and Minori.
Shiroe uses this opportunity to try something new, to collect the real world and the Elder Tale world together. It is apparent that the Log Horizon adventure continues, but I was shocked to see that Crusty was still alive.
Crusty vanished when the flavor text of items became true, which transported him somewhere. I was surprised that it transported him to the China Server, where he hooked up with Kanami and Leonardo.
Intics, Plant Hywaden’s true leader, decides to be a total b-tch even though everybody survived the moth attack.
I was happy to see Roe-2 make a brief appearance in the episode, too.
Log Horizon 2 ends up on a great note, where the Log Horizon guild has achieved the near-impossible. I enjoyed watching the guild members participate in big adventures not for the sake of leveling up or getting rich, but for the sake of every trapped adventurer in Elder Tale. I was surprised that the phenomenon that trapped the players in Elder Tale was not limited to Japan, where one episode revealed that the same event also affected China as well.
The ending scene was the proverbial cherry on top.
I think I enjoyed Log Horizon 2 a bit more than I enjoyed Sword Art Online II, but I still enjoyed the latter very much. I wouldn’t call Log Horizon a ripoff of .hack//SIGN or Sword Art Online because it presented its own original concept.
The original light novel, written by Mamare Touno and illustrated by Kazuhiro Hara, is still ongoing.
That leaves the possibility open for a Log Horizon 3, which I hope happens. Log Horizon 2 ends as the overall story continues getting interesting.
