By its eleventh expansion pack, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Elder Tale (エルダー・テイル, Erudā Teiru) has become a global success, with a user base of millions of players.
However, during the release of its twelfth expansion pack: Homesteading the Noosphere (ノウアスフィアの開墾, Nōasufia no Kaikon, sometimes translated as Novasphere Pioneers),[3][4] thirty thousand Japanese gamers who were 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.
It initially appeared in installments on the user-generated content site Shōsetsuka ni Narō ("So You Want to be a Novelist") starting on April 13, 2010, and subsequently published in book form by Enterbrain since March 2011.
[9] It began serialization on July 9, 2012, ended on March 9, 2018, and was published by Fujimi Shobo in the Age Premium magazine.
[21][22] A 12-episode third season titled Log Horizon: Destruction of the Round Table (ログ・ホライズン 円卓崩壊, Rogu Horaizun Entaku Hōkai) was originally scheduled to premiere in October 2020, but was delayed to Winter 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[25] Funimation licensed the third season and streamed 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.
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".