Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade · review
Spoiler warning
This review may discuss plot details.
In short - this one is rather dysfunctional. The guild and the manga. I was hoping it to continue story that original manga did not, but no, it is mostly about a revers harem full of characters that barely work. I mean...they do not really act like people. Not like real people or like the MMO players. And all the positive messages that the author tried to put in feel insincere. Maybe it is a translation's fault, but...likely not. If this was real and I get trapped into the MMO...well, I be shocked first, but since the body will not actually be my own shock willnot last long (ya know, chemistry). After that I will just go explore what the new body can do and the world itself. I know that some people will go PK'ing instantly, not even waiting for someone to die first, cause it still feels like a game and follows the preexisting rules that everybody accepted. Morality will come later when people will really understand that they are stuck in this world. At first there be chaos, all the 4chan regulars will go wild understanding the amount of freedom they suddenly received.
Also...this is not a secret that most of the MMO players are dudes. And probably half of them play female characters. And since it's not SAO, where bodies get corrected, this time there will be tons of people stuck in the wrong bodies. It will mess up brains of people, both observers and the players themselves. And it's not just sex, but age and shape too. All those newbies will not look like children also. So basically majority of people will be confused about who they are or who people around are. Now this will be a global problem, not some "oh no, can't log out, I am depressed" problem.
Also I find it hard to believe that exploited newbies will not just leave the guild that exploited them. Having a possibility to leave the guild at any time is something all the MMOs have. There can be some threat of extreme violence preventing people from leaving...tho not like they really show it here. Also it is kinda weird that someone can just add person to their friend list without any confirmation from the other side. Don't remember it being the case in any MMOs I played.
I decided to drop it when I understood that it will just keep beating around the bush, inventing unrealistic situations and solving them in some BS way. Yes, there was this "hey, how about we stop killing each other, organize and start solving our common problems", but it was not given a proper spot, instead main focus was perverted dunces and their "WTF was that?" interactions, so I just stopped expecting this manga to get somewhere.